Web Search–Lycos
Source: PC World
Now Online: A Few New Things from Lycos Along With a Bit of Confusion
Lycos has purchased it’s database of web data from FAST Search and Transfer, the AllTheWeb people for some time. Lycos 6.0 will add the .pdf content that was added to ATW a few weeks ago. It will also integrate the News Search database that’s been available at ATW since November of 2001. A few other changes (tabs, shopping resources) are also on the way. Thanks to the new FaganFinder Blog for the news tip.
One More Thing: I just took a very quick look at Lycos, specifically the news search. It’s a bit confusing since it appears that Lycos has 2 news search tools. Tool number one is accessed via the News button on the left side of Lycos.Com page. A search of this news database for the phrase “Chicago Cubs” retrieves one set of results. Another set of news results is accessed by doing a Lycos search and then clicking on the News tab. This database appears to be the FAST Search and Transfer product. Final Point: A quick look at the Advanced Interface shows no option to limit to only .pdf content.

Libraries
Source: The Miami Herald
“Dream of Library of Black Culture Nearly a Reality”
From the article, “A circular driveway leads to a red brick walkway, beckoning visitors into the two-story white building. Inside, a reception desk, carved wooden columns, and carpeted walls frame rows of books in the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center. The library’s grand opening on Oct. 26 will celebrate the seven-year vision — now a reality — of Samuel F. Morrison, director of the Broward County library system.”
See Also: Learn More via this Web Page

Professional Reading Shelf
Source: SearchTools.Com
“Things you might not know about how real people search”
Avi Rappaport via her always useful and informative SearchTools.Com site is providing access to this interesting article by Marc L. Resnick and Rebeca Lergier of Florida International University.

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
USA Patriot Act
Source: Congressional Research Service via FAS
2 Full-Text Reports from CRS About the Patriot Act:
The USA PATRIOT Act: A Sketch (RS21203)
The USA PATRIOT Act: A Legal Analysis (RL31377)

Search Engines–Advertising
Source: AP
“FTC: Disclose Paid Search Listings”
From the article, “Internet search engines that take money from Web sites in exchange for prominent placement should make that practice clearer to Web users, federal regulators said Friday. Many search engine Web sites, including AltaVista, LookSmart and AOL Search, give preferred placement to paid advertisers. The Federal Trade Commission said that prime space can confuse Web users who are looking for the best response to their search, rather than ads for sites that paid up front. The commission’s decision came in response to a complaint from consumer advocacy group Commercial Alert, which is backed by activist Ralph Nader” The complaint itself was orginally filed with the FTC about a year ago. You can read more about it in this 7/17/2001 article by Danny Sullivan. In my opinion, all web search instruction should include at least a brief mention of advertising on the engines and how to identify it.
See Also: Read the Full-Text of the FTC Response to the Commerical Alert Complaint

Academic Libraries
Libraries–Journal Costs
Source: Guelph Mercury
General Public Finds Out About the High Cost of Library Journals (:
It’s good to see this perpetual issue getting some attention in the mainstream press. The article focuses on the journal price issue at the University of Guelph in Ontaria, Canada. From the article, “At the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, executive director Tim Mark also stressed the need for academics to seek new options for sharing articles. “Almost all commercial publishing of scholarly research is in the hands of a small number of publishers. The key is that the libraries and librarians know this is a major problem, but they need to take this to researchers and university administrations, and have this discussion.” Michael Ridley, chief librarian at the University of Guelph, said the problem is apparent at his institution. He tries to show professors how the budget is being sucked dry by journals that cost thousands of dollars. Some, he said, do not realize how much the materials cost. “Scholars historically were in charge of their own material, and in the 20th century that has moved over to the publishers,” he said. “The producers of the material do not understand the economics of the publishing.” The University of Guelph is a member of ARL.
See Also: “Revenge of the Librarians: Journal Prices Under Siege” (via E-Content May, 2002)

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
Philanthropy–United States–Statistics
Fast Facts
Source: Foundation Center
Highlights from the Foundation Center’s Foundation Yearbook
This is a fact filled four page pdf with several charts and bullet points.

Web Search
Source: WebReference Update
“AlltheWeb versus Google”
Richard Wiggins shares a few comments. The article also includes several comments from Jami Axelrod, Senior Product Marketing Manager for FAST. Thanks to SearchDay for the news tip.

Web Resources of the Week
News Compilations
1) AsiaToday
Every weekday, this service (free) from the Asia Society compiles and organizes news stories about and relating to Asia and places direct links to the content on this page. Sources include the BBC, Asia Times, The Economist, and Sydney Morning Herald. Categories include East Asia, South Asia, AustralAsia, Business & Economics, and Magazine Articles. A complete archive of each days links are available and can be browsed by date or searched by keyword. AsiaToday was launched in September of 1999. AsiaToday is also made available via e-mail (note registration box, upper-left side of page). The compilation is usually delivered by 11 a.m. Eastern time.
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Road Construction–United States and Canada–Searchable Database
2) Rand McNally’s Road Construction Database (U.S. and Canada)
This database allows you to find information about road construction projects in all 50 states, D.C., and all Canadian provinces. The database can be searched by state, type of roadway, highway number, and date.

Distributed Computing–Google
Source: ExtremeTech
Now Available: Distributed Computing Feature via Google Toolbar
This service has been available to a selected group for several months. Today, it has become available for those toolbar users who choose to activate the feature. From the article, “Users with the Google toolbar enabled can add the Google Compute functionality, which allows an idle PC to evaluate proteins used by Stanford University as part of the Folding@home project for distributed-computing cancer research. By turning on this feature, you allow your computer to work on complex scientific problems when it would otherwise be idle. Google Compute runs only while you are away from your computer and stops as soon as you begin using your machine again,” the introduction to the toolbar states. “The work it does is automatically sent via the Internet to researchers who combine it with information sent by thousands of other users.”
See Also: To Add this Feature to the Google Toolbar, Click Here
See Also: Google’s FAQ About this Feature

Web-Based Archival Projects
Business–Internet Start-Ups
Source: S.F. Chronicle
“Archivist Seeks Dot-com Plans, Cycle May Prove Instructive”
From the article, Kirsch is collecting the business plans of dot-coms — the living and the deceased — hoping to glean lessons from the industry’s collapse. The Web site he will unveil today is an online archive for the material, asking survivors of the bust to contribute whatever documents they can.”
See Also: Direct to www.businessplanarchive.org

Libraries
Source: The New York Times
“In Remote Library Stacks, an All-Seeing, Scanning Robot”
Learn about the Comprehensive Access to Printed Materials project at Johns Hopkins. From the article, “Unfortunately, the bulk of resources in most libraries is still available only in conventional printed form: bound, numbered and arranged on shelves. You can try doing all your research electronically but at some point, you will have to hunt down a book on one of those shelves, sit down and thumb through its pages. As the first step toward building such a system, the researchers have designed a robot that can move about inside a library and locate a book requested by a user, take it off the shelf and carry it to a nearby scanning station. In the system’s envisaged final version, a second robot at the scanning station would scan specific pages of the book that the user was interested in. The user would then be able to leaf through the book over the Internet from any location.”
See Also: Learn More via the Comprehensive Access to Printed Materials Web Site

Professional Reading Shelf
Digital Projects–PictureAustralia
“PictureAustralia - A Collaborative Digital Project”
Apaper presented by Danielle Freeman, Manager, PictureAustralia, National Library of Australia at the National Digital Forum, Wellington, New Zealand, 15-16 May 2002, hosted by the National Library of New Zealand.

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (1 Item)
Political Action Committees–United States–Statistics
Source: Federal Election Commission
Financial Activity of Political Action Committees (1/1/2001-3/31/2002)
Several Top 10 and Top 50 lists are available. Some lists can be downloaded in Excel fomat.

News Briefs (2 Items)
Tools to Help Stop Pop-Up Ads (via The NY Times)
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Tools To Help Stop Spam (via The NY Times)