Archive for November, 2002

85730005

Saturday, November 30th, 2002

Knowledge Organization
Source: Information Today
“Opencola Launches Personal Knowledge Manager”
From the article, “The company says it is the first personal knowledge manager that allows users to improve knowledge by automating the collection of relevant information from a variety of sources, including news sites, multiple search engines, blogs, and other peers� publicly shared documents. The desktop application is targeted to individual knowledge workers. In addition, the company plans to introduce Opencola ENTERPRISE next year. Opencola has selected seven search engines that can be searched with a single query: Google, AltaVista, Yahoo!, AllTheWeb, NorthernLight, Teoma, and Dmoz. Users can add their own news sources or blog sites to include in the search and can also choose to search more than 3,000 news sources provided by Moreover. A folder is automatically created for each search.” A 30-day free trial is available.
See Also: Direct to the Opencola Web Site

85728991

Friday, November 29th, 2002

National Library of Medicine
NLM Set to Demo Uses of Internet2
The demos will take place in Chicago but you can read about them here:
“National Digital Mammography Archive”
“Anatomical and Surgery Simulation Over the Internet”
“Advanced Biomedical Tele-Collaboration”
“Internet2 Performance for Medical Imaging Applications”

85729035

Friday, November 29th, 2002

Textarc.Org
Source: BBC
Learn About: Textarc.org
From the article, “Textarc.org is an interactive program that reproduces the text of more than 2,000 books as works of art. The software converts the text into an interactive map that allows viewers to quickly see relationships between words and characters at a glance, even without having read the book.”
See Also: Direct to the Textarc.org Web Site

385724032

Thursday, November 28th, 2002

Web Resources of the Week
1) Archives and Repositories–Directory
Repositories of Primary Sources
Compiled at the University of Idaho Library this resource is home to a directory of over 5000 “websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar.” The directory contains resources from around the globe and is browsable by geography. Useful, interesting, and addictive.

Popular Music–United Kingdom
2) The Official UK Charts Company Web Site and Database
For some of you this might be a useful pop culture and music trivia resource. For others (including me), it’s a pop culture resource and hours of fun as you search, browse, listen and read about every number one record in the U.K. for the past 50 years, 942 songs as of this week.
A Quick Overview
* At the Top of the Page You’ll Notice a Search Box. You Can Keyword Search (Title, Artist) the Complete List. Results are Returned in a Pop-Up Window.
Via the Orange Bar at the Top of the Page:
* Select, “Stats and Facts” and Get a List of One Hit Wonders, A List of Number Ones by Country of Origin, and More.
* Select, “All the Number Ones” and Click the “Full List” Link. You’ll Get a Pop-Up Window With A List (Title, Artist, Date) of Every Number One U.K. Pop Song For the Past 50 Years.
* The “List of Number Ones” Also Offers an Opportunity to Select A Song Title, and Get a Pop-Up Box With Artist and Song Info. Finally, Selecting the “Click to Hear the Track” Offers the Opportunity to Listen to a 30 Second Snippet of the Song on your Computer.
* For this Site To Work to It’s Potential You’ll Need to Have Javascript Enabled, Flash, and a Windows Media Player.

85725312

Thursday, November 28th, 2002

Digital Maps
Source: USA Today
“High-Tech Cartographers Record the Tiniest Details”
Learn about the 400 field analysts for NavTech who drive “millions of miles” throughout country adding to “data gleaned from mapping satellites”.
See Also: “Online mapmakers: Popular, Prolific, Not Perfect”
See Also: Yahoo Maps and MSN Maps are a Couple of the Mapping Databases that Use NavTech Data

85726250

Thursday, November 28th, 2002

Health Information on the Web
Source: Reuters
“EU eyes common quality standards for health e-sites”
From the article, “On the Net, questions abound. A recent study by global watchdog group Consumer International found several healthcare sites provided incomplete or inaccurate information. The EU executive will recommend member states adopt the standards in a document to be unveiled on December 2. Earlier this month, Consumers International took healthcare Web sites to task saying at least 50 percent of the sites investigated failed to disclose the credentials of sources that offer advice. Another common criticism is that the sites fail to clearly specify which information is editorial and which is based on sponsors.”

85723091

Wednesday, November 27th, 2002

Librarians
Source: Los Angeles Times
“Librarians Emerging From Book Stacks, Increasing Activism” (free registration required)
From the article, “They were supposed to quietly fade away with the advent of the Internet, but libraries — and librarians — are enjoying a higher profile than ever before. They’ve mobilized in Washington, beefing up their lobbying presence and inserting themselves into far more controversial subjects than their usual bread-and-butter issues, such as literacy.”

85723115

Wednesday, November 27th, 2002

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Segregation–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Full-Text Report, “Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000″
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text

Transportation–Energy–Fast Facts
Source: EIA
World Oil Transit Chokepoints
“…information on major world oil transit centers. Over 35 million barrels per day (bbl/d) pass through the relatively narrow shipping lanes and pipelines discussed below.”

85718301

Tuesday, November 26th, 2002

National Agriculture Library
“National Agricultural Library launches DigiTop�the Digital Desktop Library for USDA”
From an announcement, “The National Agricultural Library announces DigiTop�the Digital Desktop Library for USDA, available at www.nal.usda.gov/digitop/ for a pilot year. “DigiTop gives USDA people access to electronic information about agriculture and a lot of other subjects, 24 hours a day,” said National Agricultural Library Director Peter Young. “It offers new and more efficient solutions consistent with E-government goals, showing the good things that can happen when USDA agencies collaborate.” The National Agricultural Library has combined funding from USDA agencies to acquire USDA-wide licenses to more than 7,000 electronic journals, newspapers, key databases, statistics, and other important digital information resources and to present them in a 1-year pilot of DigiTop.” Thanks to NFAIS for the news tip.
See Also: Direct to the DigiTop Digital Library

385718823

Tuesday, November 26th, 2002

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents
Disasters–United States
Source: FEMA
New Web Portal, DisasterHelp.Gov
From the site, “DisasterHelp.gov is designed to assist victims of disasters in locating the resources they need. The goal of the site is to combine the resources of all the federal agencies in our partnership in one central location.”
See Also: Learn More About DisasterHelp.Gov in this FCW.Com article.

85718357

Tuesday, November 26th, 2002

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Libraries–Canada–Statistics
Source: National Library of Canada
New, Full-Text Report, National Core Library Statistics Program: Statistical Report 1999
Note: Large Download, 166 pages, .pdf.
See Also: You Can Find Summary Info in this News Release, “Books More Popular than Donuts: 1999 Library Statistics”
From the news release, “At the start of the new century, there are more libraries in Canada than Tim Hortons and McDonald�s restaurants combined � 22 000 compared to 2 049 �Tim�s� and more than 1 200 McDonald�s. And for every three donuts sold by Tim Hortons in 1999, one book or other item was accessed by someone in a library somewhere in the country.”


The October Issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association is Now Available Online (Full-Text)
Articles Include:
“In search of evidence: family practitioners’ use of the Internet for clinical information”
“Distance education or classroom instruction for continuing education: who retains more knowledge?”

Jeeves Launches a Concierge Service in the U.K.

Tuesday, November 26th, 2002

Web Search Industry–Ask Jeeves
Source: The Guardian
Jeeves Launches a Concierge Service in the U.K.
From the article, “The venture, which aims to make use of Ask Jeeves’ existing links with travel agents, ticket agencies and other businesses, is aimed at busy executives. For �299 [approx $467/USD] a year, customers will have access to a team of telephone advisers, who will provide 24-hour services such as travel and restaurant booking, personal shopping, motoring and DIY.” Another attempt to make a few dollars with offline services.
See Also: Direct to Ask Jeeves Concierge

85708709

Monday, November 25th, 2002

News Search–Google
Hooray, You Can Now Limit Your Google News Search To a Specific Source!
For those of you Google News junkies out there, the folks at the Googleplex have turned on advanced limiting option that has previously only been available with the Google web database. You’re now able to limit your search to a specific site for stories available via Google News. In other words, the site: syntax now works.
For example, to see all stories in Google News from the San Jose Mercury News containing the term Microsoft.
Use the following syntax:
site: (domain of news site) keyword(s)
Example:
site:bayarea.com Microsoft
To get a rough estimate of how many pages Google News has in its database from a specific news organization, try the following:
site:cnn.com inurl:*.*
or
site:cnn.com intext:*.*

You can also use this syntax and then sorting by date to create a virtual ticker of stories as Google News crawls and adds them to the database.
Example:
View all Google News accessible stories from The San Francisco Chronicle, Sorted by Date (Last in, First Out)

Since Google News went live, you’ve been able to limit your search to terms in the headline of a story by using the intitle: syntax.
Example:
Searching only the BBC site for the term Blair in the headline of the story.

Unfortunately, Google News and most of the other news search providers DO NOT provide a complete list of all sites crawled. AlltheWeb News has offered the ability to limit to a specific site for about one year. Thanks to Krishna and the rest of the Google team for activating this useful feature.

85714249

Monday, November 25th, 2002

Government Printing Office–United States
Source: Library Journal
“OMB Requests That Three Agencies Bypass GPO”
From the article, “The Office of Management and Budget is requesting that the U.S. Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration be relieved of the requirement to use the Government Printing Office (GPO) for printing.”

85715073

Monday, November 25th, 2002

Electronic Information
Data Mining

Source: Computerworld
“Global Surveillance: The Government’s Plan”
From the article, “The U.S. Department of Defense has established a research group to develop technology for information gathering and analysis on a huge scale. Its goal is to mine data sources all over the world — including government and commercial stores of personal information — to look for terrorists and terrorist threats.”
See Also: Learn More About the Total Information Awareness Systems Page (via DARPA.Mil)
See Also: TIA News Release and Backgrounder (3/21/02)
See Also: Comments by John Poindexter, Director of Information Awareness Office (8/2/2002)
See Also: Additional Intelligence Resources via (Federation of American Scientists)

85714265

Monday, November 25th, 2002

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries and Librarians
The December Issue of Walt Crawford’s Cites and Insights is Now Online

85714297

Monday, November 25th, 2002

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Iraq
Source: House of Commons (U.K.) Library
Full-Text Research Paper, Iraq and the UN Security Council Resolution 1441

Hate Crimes–United States–Statistics
Source: FBI
Full-Text Report, Hate Crime Statistics 2001

About Publishing Reference Books

Sunday, November 24th, 2002

Professional Reading Shelf
Reference Publishing
Source: Library Journal
“A Different Sort of Publishing”
From the article, “The publishers and their editors will tell you that it takes a singular talent, or at least special training, to take on the meticulous work of bringing out reference books for that special group of consumers. That is what the editors at LJ heard as we spoke with a few intrepid souls in this industry in the hopes of finding out the unique problems behind their favorite upcoming works. As we have been hearing for years, the growth of electronic publishing has put a new spin on nearly every project. Some pressures are similar to those at mainstream publishing houses. Foremost among these is the need for speed.” LJ speaks with Sage Reference’s Rolf A. Janke, Firefly Books’ Michael Worek, McGraw-Hill’s Mark Licker, and Greenwood Press’s Gary Kuris.

85711277

Sunday, November 24th, 2002

Resources, Tools and Full-Text Documents
Highways–United States–Statistics
Source: Federal Highway Administration
Now Available, Full-Text Report, Highway Statistics 2001

The Internet
Source: National Academies Press
Full-Text of a Forthcoming Title, The Internet Under Crisis Conditions: Learning from September 11

Environmental Health
Source: National Library of Medicine
New Web Site, Tox Town
From a NLM Technical Bulletin Article, “The National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) launched a new Web site, Tox Town…Tox Town is a pilot project that explores how best to provide environmental health information to a general audience. Tox Town looks at an ordinary town and points out environmental hazards that may be in that town. Users can click on a town location, like the school, and see a cutaway view of that building. Toxic chemicals that might be found in the school are listed, along with links to selected Internet resources about school environments.Information on chemical and environmental concerns is assembled from the TOXNET� and MEDLINEplus� resources of the NLM, as well as other authoritative sources. The chemical descriptions (”What is arsenic?”) were written for Tox Town using TOXNET and other resources and were reviewed by NLM toxicology staff. ”
See Also: Direct to ToxTown

85711333

Sunday, November 24th, 2002

Internet Domains
Source: Computerworld
“New .Info Domain Name Proves Popular”
From the article, “Fourteen months after .info top-level domain (TLD) names became available on the Internet, the millionth .info Web site was signed up last week, making it now the sixth largest domain online. About 265,000, or 27%, of the 1 million registered .info sites are now online and available to Web visitors, he said, compared to about 35% of .com names in active use, according to Afilias. The new .info names trail only .com, .net, .org, .de (German country code) and .uk (British country code) domains in the number of registered Web sites, he said. .Info was one of seven new TLDs announced in May 2001 by ICANN to relieve congestion in the TLD space historically dominated by .com.”
See Also: Browse Through Some .Info Listings via AlltheWeb (Around. 4.2 million entries)
See Also: Browse Through Some .Info Listings via Google (Around 1.36 million listings)