NTIS (National Technical Information Service)
NTIS Updates Web Site, New Search and Retrieval Options Available
What’s New?
*Free Access to NTIS Catalog Back To 1990
*Ability to Download new Documents Directly from Web
*Up to 20 pages may be downloaded free; downloading more than 21 pages will cost $8.95 per report.
*Link to the full text of documents on the web for free
See Also: Direct to Advanced Search Interface
Many Thanks to S.C. for the news tip.
Archive for September, 2002
NTIS Updates Web Site, New Search Capabilities
Monday, September 30th, 2002Google Enhances Enterprise Search “Box”
Monday, September 30th, 2002Enterprise Search–Google
Google Enhances Enterprise Search “Box”
“New secure search capabilities.”
See Also: “Google Upgrades Appliance Tool” (via Info Today NewsBreaks)
See Also: More On the Google Search Box (via SearchTools.Com)
Additional Enterprise Search News
Swish-E (Free, Open Source Search Engine) Receives Upgrade (via SearchTools.Com)
Inxight SmartDiscovery 3.0 Now Available
�Measuring Search Effectiveness: Turning Customer Queries into Gold” (New White Paper from Inquira)
New Webliography: Plagiarism
Monday, September 30th, 2002Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Plagiarism–Webliography
Comprehensive Webliography About Plagiarism Available Online
This impressive compilation was prepared by Sharon Stoerger for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Along with links to many web-accessible articles, sections for instructors and students are also included. You’ll also find case studies, material on plagiarism detection tools, and examples of term paper sites. Thanks to B.S. for alerting me to this resource.
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Weather–Database
New, Searchable Knowledgebase of Questions and Answers from NOAA
Answers@NOAA.Gov is a new searchable knowledgebase with questions and answers about meteorology/weather (Find historical weather information for any city, Find global warming information, etc) and other topics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Health Insurance–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Full-Text Report, Health Insurance Coverage: 2001
Summary ||| Full-Text Report
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Higher Education–United States–Statistics
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Full-Text Report,
What Students Pay for College: Changes in Net Price of College Attendance Between 1992-93 and 1999-2000
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Population–United Kingdom–Statistics
Source: National Statistics
New Report, “Census 2001, The Big Number”
The U.K. population is now 58,789,194.
See Also: New Population Statistics for London
National Library of Canada: Excellence in Innovation
Monday, September 30th, 2002National Libraries (2 Items)
National Library of Canada
Full-Text Brief, National Library of Canada: Excellence in Innovation
“Brief on the Government of Canada’s Innovation Strategy”.
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National Library of New Zealand
Full-Text, Briefing for the Incoming Minister: National Library of New Zealand
37 pages .pdf
Online Serials Heat Up
Monday, September 30th, 2002Professional Reading Shelf
Serials
Source: Library Journal
“Online Serials Heat Up”
Dr. Carol Tenopir’s latest for LJ. She writes, “Serials librarianship is hot. It wasn’t too long ago that library schools were eliminating serials management courses while libraries were merging serials departments into acquisitions and cataloging. Now, in the era of electronic journals and magazines, serials is the hottest topic in the library.”
A Look Back as Google Celebrates Birthday
Sunday, September 29th, 2002Web Search–Google
Happy Birthday Google
Google is marking its fourth birthday. You can see the birthday cake at the top of the Google home page.
Actually, Google was around prior to October, 1998 as a research project at Stanford known as Backrub. The Google.Com address was first registered on 9/15/1997. For those search fanatics out there, here’s a look at a few early Google web pages.
* Larry Page Asks a Technical Question About a Java Web Robot on 1/7/1996
* The Backrub Home Page Captured in 1997
“BackRub is a “web crawler” which is designed to traverse the web. Currently we are developing techniques to improve web search engines.” “BackRub is written in Java and Python and runs on several Sun Ultras and Intel Pentiums running Linux. The primary database is kept on an Sun Ultra II with 28GB of disk.”
* The BackRub FAQ in 1997
“If your question is not answered here, please email…or if you prefer call…and ask for Larry.”
“* The Google Home Page Captured on 12/10/1997
URL: http://Backrub.Google.Com, 24 million urls “fetched”
* The Google Home Page Captured on 5/10/1998
URL: http://google.stanford.edu.
*The Google Pre-Beta Home Page in 1998
URL: http://google.stanford.edu.
* A Message from Larry via the Google Friends Mailing List on 7/8/1998
“We plan to have a much bigger index than our current 24 million pages soon.”
*Google’s Original Corportation Record (9/8/1998) in the State of California
Note: The Original Record Was Just Updated (About A Week Ago) with New Info
* Sergey and Larry Speak to the Bay Area Linux Users Group 9/18/98
“Google, the search engine of the future…”
* Google Inc., “An Early Stage Startup” is Looking For An Office Manager From 10/12/98
Craig Silverstein posts a message advertising this “killer opportunity”.
* The Google.Com Home Page on 11/11/1998
No content, only 2 links.
* The Google “Beta” Home Page Captured on 12/2/1998
URL: http://www.google.com
* The “Why Use Google” Page From 1999
URL: http://www.google.com
* The Google Stickers Page From 1999
URL: http://www.google.com
* Google Press Release #1, 6/7/1999
“Google Receives $25 Million in Equity Funding”
* The Google FAQ From September, 1999
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Key Papers
“The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web”
By Lawrence Page, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani, and Terry Winograd
“The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine”
By Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page
Patents
“Method for Node Ranking in a Linked Database”
U.S. Patent No. 6,285,999
Inventor: Lawrence Page
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See Also: Other Early Search Engine Announcements
(Once of the Page, Scroll to the 12/15 Postings)
Webliography: What Should I Read Next?
Sunday, September 29th, 2002Professional Reading Shelf
Readers Advisory–Book Recommendation Tools–Webliogaphy
Source: Library Journal
“Personalized Recommended Reading”
A webliography of web based readers advisory resources prepared by Neal Wyatt, Senior Librarian, Collection Development, at the Chesterfield County Public Library in Virginia.
One Route to Riches: Maps in Public Arena
Sunday, September 29th, 2002Maps–Online
Source: AP/Rocky Mountain News
“One Route to Riches: Maps in Public Arena”
From the article, “You can see, even download a 1902 map of Pittsburgh for free from the Library of Congress. But some Internet entrepreneurs are banking on the prospect that you’d pay for its delivery to your home or office as a poster. And that’s just fine, say many curators, who figure those commercial Internet sites, while making money, also help expose historical images to thousands of people who otherwise might never be aware of them.”
See Also: Online Maps from The Library of Congress
See Also: Library of Congress Geography and Maps: An Illustrated Guide
85504881
Sunday, September 29th, 2002Business Libraries
Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Learn About: The James J. Hill Reference Library
From the article, “Founded by railroad tycoon James J. Hill, it boasts one of the nation’s most extensive collections of business reference materials, and features 12 information specialists trained to assist a wide range of visitors � from students to entrepreneurs. On average, library staff members respond to 120 information requests a day.”
See Also: Direct to the James J. Hill Reference Library Home Page
New Online Collections from The Library of Congress
Sunday, September 29th, 2002Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents
New Online Collections from The Library of Congress
This announcement offers info on three new collections.
1) “Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music 1820-1860″
“…offers more than 15,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the pre-Civil War years…sheet music items are searchable by title, composer or subject.” Material from 1870-1885 is also available.
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2) “Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869″
“…incorporates 49 diaries of pioneers trekking westward across America to Utah, Montana and the Pacific between 1847 and the meeting of the rails in 1869.”
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3) “Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida’s Natural History, 1884-1934″
“The materials in this online presentation are drawn from the collections of the University of Miami, International University and the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. These collections are normally available only by appointment. “Reclaiming the Everglades” now makes these valuable materials freely accessible to users worldwide.”
The 2002 HAPLR Rankings (Public Libraries) Are Now Online
Saturday, September 28th, 2002Public Libraries–United States
Source: American Libraries
Full-Text, “Great American Public Libraries: The 2002 HAPLR Rankings”
Available as a 5 page .pdf file.
Several Enhancements to Factiva.Com
Friday, September 27th, 2002Info Industry News Briefs (2 Items)
Proquest Adds Full-Text Content From 11 Palgrave Macmillan Titles
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Several Enhancements to Factiva.Com
Updated 9/30–“Factiva.com Gets Updated” (via Info Today NewsBreaks)
3 Recently Released Reports from the Congressional Research Service
Friday, September 27th, 2002Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
3 Recently Released Reports from the Congressional Research Service
* U.S. Use of Preemptive Military Force (RS 21311)
* Critical Infrastructures: What Makes an Infrastructure Critical? (RL 31556)
* Terrorist Nuclear Attacks on Seaports: Threat and Response (RS 21293)
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Recreation–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
New, Full-Text Report, 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation
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Public Schools–United States
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Database Update, Search for Public School Districts
“Recently added information includes high school completion information, fiscal data, and census data. The data comes from the Common Core of Data (CCD) for the 2000-01 school year, Census data from 2000, fiscal data from 1998-1999, and High School completers data from 1999-2000.”
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United States History–Lewis and Clark–Geographic Information
Digitization Projects
Source: University of Missouri
New Site, Lewis and Clark Across Missouri
From the site, “This website serves geographical information and maps that are products of the Lewis and Clark Historic Landscape Project…With the primary goals to geo-reference, digitize, and map all of the retrievable information from the Lewis and Clark journals and the 18th and 19th-century land survey notes along the Big River Corridors of the state of Missouri…Specific campsite maps, photo-realistic images of important river landmarks, animated virtual Missouri River travel, and an interactive map server offering various layers of geographical data on the Expedition’s outward and homeward journeys joined with the natural and cultural history of the Missouri River corridor are all currently offered…”
“Print and Electronic Information: Shedding New Light on Campus Use”
Friday, September 27th, 2002Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items)
Information Usage–Higher Education
Source: EDUCAUSE Review
Full-Text, “Print and Electronic Information: Shedding New Light on Campus Use”
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Digital Libraries–Usage
Source: Information Research
Full-Text, “Studying Digital Library Users Over Time: A Follow-up Survey of Early Canadiana Online”
Thanks Jill O’Neil for the url.
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Archives
Encoded Archival Description
Source: RLG
Full-Text, RLG Best Practice Guidelines for Encoded Archival Description
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Web Links
The Chronicle of Higher Education
“University Orders Student Group to Remove Online Link to a Rebel Group’s Web Site”
From the article, “The University of California at San Diego has ordered a leftist student group to remove from its Web site a link to the site of a Colombian rebel organization. The university contends that the link defies the USA Patriot Act. The student group has not complied with the university’s demand.”
A New Journal Locator Database For Pubmed Material
Friday, September 27th, 2002Health Research (2 Items)
Source: NCBI
1) New Journal Locator Database
New Database: Journals
From the site, “NCBI has created a new Entrez database, Journals. Journals replaces the Journal Browser and provides additional search and display features. The Journals database is available from the Search pull-down menu and from the PubMed sidebar.” It’s also available at this url. “Journals provides additional search and display features, and includes all the journals in the Entrez databases such as PubMed, Nucleotide, and Protein.”
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National Library of Medicine
2) Survey Results: Results of a National Library of Medicine Web Site User Survey
No More RSS From Yahoo
Friday, September 27th, 2002News Briefs
TheEndofFree reports that Yahoo’s RSS feed of financial information is no longer available.
Price’s List of Lists Returns
Thursday, September 26th, 2002Web Resource of the Week
Lists & Rankings
No Kidding, Price’s List of Lists Has a New Home
Some exciting news to share. The compilation of business/industry lists and other useful rankings is back and being updated. Because of a massive amount of help and assistance from Trip Wyckoff, a librarian and owner of Special Issues, the List of Lists is back and still available at no charge. Special Issues, Trip’s company and online database is a fee-based resource. Please change your links from the old url to the new one. Note: We’re in the very early stages of the rebuilding process but Trip and I wanted to share the new site with you asap. Thanks for your interest and the many e-mails about the LOL over the past few years.
Google’s News Pages Auto Refresh
Thursday, September 26th, 2002Web Search–Google
Google News “Missing” Some Content
(UPDATE 4:20 PM EDST) As of 4:20 PM EDST the Message About Missing Data From Google News has been REMOVED
Overnight, I was unable to access Google News. Now, the site is online with the following message, “Google News search is currently missing some data. Please try again later for complete results.”
…and since we’re on the subject of Google News here’s another feature:
The Google News Top Stories page and the lead page of each section (U.S., Business, Sports, etc.) will automatically refresh with new/updated content every 15 minutes if they are left on your screen.
The October Issue of Learned Publishing is Now Online
Thursday, September 26th, 2002Professional Reading Shelf
Scholarly Publishing
Electronic Journals
The October Issue of Learned Publishing is Now Online
All material is full-text, no charge.
Here are the titles of a few of the articles:
“Reading Behaviour and Electronic Journals” by Carol Tenopir and Donald King
“The Pergamon phenomenon 1951-1991: Robert Maxwell and scientific publishing”
“Linking to Full Text: The Secondary Publisher’s Perspective”
“Promoting literacy in a digital age: approaches to training for information literacy”
“Medical journal publishing: one culture or several?”
About 3500 New Entries Added to the Oxford English Dictionary
Thursday, September 26th, 2002Dictionaries–Oxford English Dictionary
About 3500 New Entries Added to Oxford English Dictionary
From the article, “The first new edition in nearly a decade of the short version of the classic word bible will appear on Thursday, with 3,500 new entries, from “ass-backwards” to “warp drive.” “Generally, a word has to be used five times in five different places over five years, although something like ‘text messaging’ got in quicker because it became so widely used so quickly,” said spokeswoman Claire Turner.
See Also, Fast Facts About the OED
