Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Small Business–Canada–Lists & Rankings
Source: PROFIT Magazine
1) Canada’s Hottest Startups 2002
2) Profit 100 2002 (Canada’s Fastest Growing Small Companies)
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Information Technology–Lists & Rankings
Source: Red Herring
Top Ten Innovators 2002
“…the average number of patents per individual is seven and the average number of startups is three.”
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Tourism–Webliography
Source: PAIS (Public Affairs International Service)
Hot Topic Compilation from PAIS: International Tourism
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Education–United States–Statistics
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Full-Text, Reporter’s Back to School Guide to National Education Data
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Health Insurance–United States–Statistics
Source: National Center for Health Statistics
Fact Sheet:
Trends in Health Insurance Coverage by Race/Ethnicity Among Persons Under 65 Years of Age: United States, 1997-2001

Web Tools–RSS Newsreaders
Source: The Guardian
“Working the web: Newsreaders”
A brief overview of newsreaders and the RSS format.

News Briefs
Hoover’s Introduces Small Business Finder, Available For Subscribers
“…ability to search approximately 2.5 million U.S. companies that have more than five employees.”

Web Search–Vivisimo
Source: Tech Watch
“Vivisimo�Searching Through Document Clustering”
A short but informative article about “document clustering” software and a publicly available search tool that we have mentioned many times on the VAS&ND. If you like using a search tool that presents results from several engines at the same time, this is the one to use.
See Also: Direct to Vivisimo (Advanced Interface)
See Also: Direct to Vivisimo (Additional Clustering Engine Demos)

Patents–United States
Source: Government Computer News
“Suit Calls PTO Systems Flawed”
From the article, “Charging that the Patent and Trademark Office�s databases are riddled with errors, the National Intellectual Property Researchers Association yesterday filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the phasing out of paper patent and trademark records.”
See Also: Direct to the National Intellectual Property Researchers Association Site
See Also: Additional Details via this NIPRA News Release

Libraries
Source: The Ingenta Institute
Consortia Site Licensing in a State of Flux
From the announcement, Ingenta Institute, the independent research organisation of the scholarly communications industry, today announced preliminary findings from its comprehensive international study into the impact of site licensing and consortia developments on the scholarly communication process. “Early results indicate that consortia site licensing is in a state of flux,” says David Brown, Co-ordinator of the Ingenta Institute, “and that its future is dependent upon a number of factors.”

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Elections
Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia
Full-Text, Issue Brief, “Interpreting Election Results in Western Democracies”
This report includes a useful chart, “The Classification of Political Parties”.
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Major Legal Cases–United States (Moussaoui and Walker Lindh)
E-Mail Notification Service, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
has an e-mail service that will inform you when documents are filed in the Moussaoui and Walker Lindh cases.
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College Students–United States
Scholastic Assessment Test
Source: The College Board
SAT Scores For College Bound Seniors, 2002, Facts and Statistics
Summary & Links To Additional Reports ||| Direct to Full-Text Report
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Grandparents–United States–Fast Facts
Source: U.S. Census
New, Fast Facts, Grandparents Day 2002
Grandparents Day is September 8th. The U.S. Census as prepared this fact sheet with plenty of “stats” about this important group.

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
E-Journals
Source: Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship
1) “The Use of Electronic-Only Journals in Scientific Research”
by Richard D. Llewellyn, Lorraine J. Pellack, and Diana D. Shonrock, Iowa State University
2) “Perceived Successes and Failures of Science & Technology E-Journal Access: A Comparative Study”
by Subject & Bibliographic Access to Science Materials Committee, Science & Technology Section, Association of College & Research Libraries
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E-Print Archives
EPrintBlog: A New Weblog About E-Print Archives
From Guy Aron of RMIT University in Australia. Thanks to Charles W. Bailey, Jr. for the tip.

Public Libraries–Washington
Source: AP
“Seattle Libraries Begin First of Two One-Week Shutdowns”
From the article, “Closing the libraries for two weeks — the second shutdown is scheduled for the week of Dec. 17 — will preserve the jobs of about 30 library employees. The closures will save about $850,000 because the system’s 640 workers will not be paid for those two weeks. “I am disgusted. The libraries are the only thing in the budget you shouldn’t touch. Cut the mayor’s salary a little. Keep the libraries open for us,” said Samad Chakour, who said he uses the main downtown library almost every day.”
See Also: Read the Note on the SPL’s Web Site

News Briefs
Web Browsers: Mozilla 1.1 is Now Available

Online Industry
Source: EContent
An EContent Interview: Four Chief Executives and an Analyst
Michelle Manafy, Editor of EContent, chats with Charles W. Terry, president & CEO of COMTEX News Network, Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, chairman and CEO of divine, inc, Randall Marcinko, president and COO of Nstein Technologies, Inc, and Daniel Schimmel, president and CEO of OneSource Information Services, Inc.

National Libraries–Australia
Source: Agence France Press
Australia National Library Mulls Cyberspace Erotica Collection
From the article, “The National Library of Australia is considering expanding into cyberspace to add erotic Internet sites to its more traditional collections, according to its latest newsletter. Librarian Edgar Crook said the addition of adult Web sites to the library’s National Collection of Electronic Publications would give “a representative picture of Australian erotica on the Internet”.
See Also: Interested in Reading Edgar Crook’s Complete Article? It’s Available Here.

Professional Reading Shelf
E-Books
Source: Ball St. University
Full-Text, The Usability of eBook Technology: Practical Issues of an Application of Electronic Textbooks In a Learning Environment
See Also: The report is discussed in a COHE article.

Public Libraries
Source: NY Times
A Tip O’ The ResourceShelf Cap To David King of Brookline, MA
In today’s NYT Letters to the Editor section, Mr. King shares a few comments about last week’s Times article on the possible closing of a public library system in Washington. Included in his letter is the following statement, “The Internet may have a magnetic fascination for us, but it is so consumer-oriented it is beginning to look increasingly like work TV. A public library has much more to offer, but the public seems not to be making the distinction.” Well said David! This is the same public who think Google is the solution to all of the world’s information needs. The best researcher’s are aware of a good size tool chest of resources (including the telephone) and search techniques. Then, they make an informed decision as to which one(s) to use to satisfy the information need. No one info resource is perfect.

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
Knowledge Economy–Australia
Source: Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia
New, Research Report: Australia’s Growth Industries in the Age of the Knowledge Economy
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Investment Scams–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA)
New List, Top 10 Investment Scams (Listed by State Securities Regulators)
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Sustainable Development
Source: United Nations
Official Web Site, World Summit of Sustainable Development
Taking place this week in Johannesburg, South Africa

Health Information–ClinicalTrials.Gov
Source: NLM Technical Bulletin
Expanded Search Capabilities Available for ClinicalTrials.gov Users
This article provides a complete overview with examples of the expanded search functionality that ClinicalTrials.Gov that became available in May, 2002.
See Also: Direct to ClinicalTrials.Gov
See Also: “Searching ClinicalTrials.gov” (from NLM Technical Bulletin, May-June 2000)

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Two New Full-Text Titles From the National Academies Press
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Discouraging Terrorism: Some Implications of 9/11
Prepublication version.
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Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science (Second Edition)

Librarian–Profiles
Source: The Washington Post
Meet Ralph Whittington: Former LC Librarian Who’s Now the Curator at NYC’s Museum of Sex
We had a quote from Whittington in yesterday’s postings. Today, The Post has a complete profile of the former curator of the LC Main Reading Room. From the article, For 36 years — until his retirement in 2000 — Whittington worked at the Library of Congress. He started out fetching books and ended up as curator of the Main Reading Room. Along the way, he was given the responsibility of overseeing the library’s collection of phone books….Whittington started collecting smut just for his own, um, edification. But then, in the early ’70s, he had an epiphany: The Library of Congress was collecting nearly every variety of printed matter — even phone books, for crying out loud! — but not porn. Apparently, it was up to him to preserve the X-rated aspects of America’s glorious heritage. “All I did was use the same techniques that archivists use for other subjects on this subject,” he says. “I hope you’ll convey to your readers that I’m serious about this…”

Public Libraries
Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Library Patrons Research at Home”
It’s WONDERFUL to see an article in the mainstream press promoting the remotely accessible resources that many libraries now offer.

Central Intelligence Agency–Information Technology
Source: Wired. News
“It Pays to Play With the CIA”
Another discussion of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. From the article, “As an information-based agency, the CIA must be at the cutting edge of information technology in order to maintain its competitive edge and provide its customers with intelligence that is both timely and relevant,” In-Q-Tel’s first director of business operations, Rick Yannuzzi, said in an early position paper.” The lead of the article also notes three web browsers that are mentioning here. We featured news and background about Browse 3D on the VAS&ND back in March. Opera and Netcaptor also deserve your attention. I frequently use both of these products. Netcaptor is great for presentations.