Welcome to ResourceShelf, where dedicated librarians and researchers share the results of their directed (and occasionally quirky) web searches for resources and information.
November 30, 2002 at 12:12 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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
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November 29, 2002 at 10:14 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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”
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November 29, 2002 at 8:34 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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
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November 28, 2002 at 2:59 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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.
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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.
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November 28, 2002 at 12:07 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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
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November 28, 2002 at 12:06 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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.”
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November 27, 2002 at 9:56 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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.”
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November 27, 2002 at 12:12 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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
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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.”
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November 26, 2002 at 9:44 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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
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November 26, 2002 at 4:39 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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.
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November 26, 2002 at 12:12 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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.”
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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?”
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November 26, 2002 at 12:03 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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
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November 25, 2002 at 3:12 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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:*.*
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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)
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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.
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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.
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November 25, 2002 at 12:12 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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.”
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November 25, 2002 at 12:11 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
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)
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