Web Search–AltaVista
AV Increases Size of Multimedia Index
Accoding to the news release the index of multimedia (images, audio, video) material is over 70% larger than previous versions. AV also announced that, “it has linked the multimedia index to its collection of breaking news images, ensuring that more than 800 news photos, maps, charts and diagrams from top newswires and authoritative editorial sites are included every day.” AltaVista’s news content is powered by a feed from Moreover. In other news, AV has recently increased the dictionary and improved the functionality of it’s spell-check database. An AV search with the typo for “Geoge W. Bush” will return a corrected version and link asking, Did you mean: “george w bush”.
U.S. Government Databases
GPO (Government Printing Office)
Source: The Washington Post
“Government Printing Office May Lose Its Exclusivity”
From the article, “A Civil War-era agency would lose its government printing monopoly under a Bush administration requirement for competitive bids on some $500 million in yearly contracts.”
Update (5/7/02): Read the Full-Text of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) Memo mentioned in the Article
U.S. Government–Web Accessible Information
Major Changes On Tap for the Government Information Sharing Project
One of the original and most useful sources of U.S. Government material on the web, the Government Information Sharing Project at Oregon State University, is set to undergo some major changes. A message on the GISP site says, “In 2002, government information is much more widely available on the Internet than it was in 1995. Federal agencies have developed their own web sites and online databases for distributing information. Much of the data we originally put online is now available elsewhere. In addition, the server that houses the Govinfo site is aging, and has indeed already surpassed its life expectancy.”
Databases That Will Continue To Be Maintained
USA Counties
1997 Census of Agriculture
U.S. Imports/Exports History
1992 Economic Census
Note: A Redesigned GISP Site Will Be Available in Early July
Databases That Will Be Discontinued (Links To Other Sources Will Be Provided)
1990 Census of Population and Housing
Regional Economic Information System
Consolidated Federal Fund Reports
Direct to the Government Info Sharing Project
Web Search–Google
Source: The Guardian
“How Google Got it So Right”
From the article, “The success of Google, the internet search engine, has come about through the old fashioned form of viral marketing: word of mouth.”
Online Industry–Thomson
Thomson Launches New Product Aimed At Investment Banking Industry
From the news release, “Through a single web portal, Thomson Analytics provides access to a complete spectrum of financial data from the world’s most trusted sources, with functionality to execute powerful screening, compare peers and industries, and integrate data directly within Microsoft(R) Excel.” ” With this initial release, Thomson Analytics includes access to key content sets from Thomson Financial including Datastream’s daily international equity and index pricing for more than 63,000 equities and 12,000 indices representing over 50 established and emerging markets, and delayed price quotes from 130 exchanges worldwide via ILX Systems.”
Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
Business–S.F. Bay Area–Lists & Rankings
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Updated, The Chronicle 200, 2002
Numerous lists. Searchable.
–
Information Technology–U.S. Federal Government–Lists & Rankings
9th Annual Washington Technology Top 100
“Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors in IT.” Included in the package is the Top 100 list, profiles of the top 20 companies, and a link to the 2001 list.
–
Advertising–Lists & Rankings
Source: BtoB
BtoB Power Media50, 2002
From the article, “a comprehensive look at the top advertising venues as ranked by media buyers, industry analysts, and BtoB editors and reporters.” “The Power Media 50 list contains detailed information on the top properties across seven major media categories: newspapers, business publications, Internet sites, out-of-office properties, IT magazines, vertical industry titles, and TV and radio programs.”
–
Digital Collections–United States
Source: American Memory Project @ The Library of Congress
Two New Collections From the American Memory Project
1) Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting
“Approximately 500 interview excerpts and approximately 3800 photographs. The four-month study of occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey, was conducted in 1994. Paterson is considered to be the cradle of the Industrial Revolution in America.
2) Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry
From an LC list posting, “The collection is a selection of more than 400 items from the Emile Berliner Papers and 108 Berliner sound recordings from the Library of Congress’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Berliner (1851-1929), an immigrant and a largely self-educated man, was responsible for the development of the microphone, the flat recording disc and the gramophone player.”
–
Digital Collections–Canada
Source: National Library of Canada
New Online Exhibit, Guardians of the North: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art
Move over Spiderman! Say hello to Johnny Canuck, Northern Lights and Fleur de Lys. From the site, “Created by comics scholar and archivist John Bell, in cooperation with the National Library�s Digital Library Task Force, the Guardians of the North Web site is based on an exhibition, originally mounted in 1992, that presented a history of Canada�s superheroes. The Web site offers a revised version of the original exhibition narrative and features digital images of the items that were displayed. The site includes a digitized version of John Bell�s book Protectors of the North, to which new material has been added, including detailed profiles of Canada�s main national superheroes and brief biographies of their creators.”
Wow! We would like to thank Dr. Jacs� for the many positive comments he makes about this publication. 
