National Library of Medicine–Databases
Source: NLM Technical Bulletin
Coming Soon: Suggestion Feature For NLM’s Entrez Journal Database
From the article, “A new feature will be added to the Entrez Journals database that may make it easier to find journal records. In addition to displaying the journals retrieved by your search, this database also will suggest journals based on your search terms. These suggestions are produced using an algorithm that compares letter combinations in phrases.”
See Also: Direct to NLM Entrez Journal Database

State Libraries–Florida
Source: Tallahassee Democrat
Is the State Library of Florida About to Go on the Chopping Block?
From the article, “Barratt Wilkins spent 26 years as the Florida State librarian before retiring earlier this month. He held a title that stretches back to 1925, and he supervised a library that was founded in 1845 when Florida became a state. So forgive him if he’s less than thrilled that Gov. Jeb Bush proposes to eliminate the Florida State Library as part of the new state budget. “It’s kind of a repudiation of everything I worked for and everything the previous state librarians had worked for,” Wilkins said. “I’m baffled, upset and concerned. I think we had a credible product, agency and program. And I just don’t see those things continuing.” Bush and other state officials don’t share Wilkins’ alarm. But the governor’s budget proposal for 2003-2004 clearly calls for changes in the Division of Library and Information Services.
UPDATED 1/28 “Bush: Drop state library’s funds” (via The Miami Herald)
See Also: Direct to the State Library of Florida
See Also: Brief Article in LJ

Topics in the News–U.N. Weapons Inspections
Full-Text, An Update on Inspection
Presented by Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix
Full-Text, IAEA–Update Report For The Security Council Pursuant To Resolution 1441 (2002)
Dated 1/27/2003
Full-Text, Statement by IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei
Full-Text, Statement by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., John D. Negroponte
See Also: Direct to Video of Security Council Meeting

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items on the Site)
R&D–United States–Lists
Source: NSF
New List, Master Government List of 36 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers FY 2003
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Pop Culture–United States
Advertising
Source: IFILM
2003 Super Bowl Television Ads
View all of the ads that aired the Super Bowl. Ads can be viewed online using RealVideo or Microsoft Media Player. No charge for this service.

Professional Reading Shelf (4 Items)
Scholarly Publishing
Source: ARL/SPARC
Conference Presentations:
And Then There Was One: Industry Consolidation in Journal Publishing and What It Means for Libraries
Presentations given at the ALA Midwinter Conference.
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Copyright
Source: ARL
Conference Presentation: The Practical Realities of the New Copyright Laws: A Librarian’s Perspective
Presented by Duane Webster, ARL Executive Director at the Modern Language Association Conference, New York City (12/02)
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Research Libraries
Source: ARL/SPARC/CNI
“Collections & Access for the 21st-Century Scholar: Changing Roles of Research Libraries”
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Book Awards
Source: American Library Association
Award Announcements:
Caldecott & Newberry Medals
Notable Books for Adults
BCALA Literary Awards
Stonewall Award Winners

Information Industry–divine
Information Industry–EBSCO
Orginally Posted to ResourceShelf Saturday Afternoon
“EBSCO to Acquire Operations of RoweCom WORLDWIDE”
From the announcement, “The proposed transaction was also endorsed by the steering committee of the ad-hoc group of publishers and library customers of RoweCom. The committee, including the publisher members the American Institute of Physics, the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers, Elsevier, Oxford University Press and Wiley, will endeavor to expand the group of publishers supporting this transaction as they believe the contemplated agreement is a significant step forward for customers and publishers”. Also from the news release:
What does this mean for RoweCom customers and publishers if the transaction is completed?
For customers of RoweCom’s European operations, all orders placed with RoweCom will be fulfilled. The parties intend to execute definitive purchase documents within 10 days subject to French regulatory filings as required by French law. divine has agreed to provide working capital funding for RoweCom’s European operations in the interim. Once the transaction receives French regulatory approval and the transaction closes, EBSCO will remit payment to publishers in full. Until that time, EBSCO is asking publishers to continue to fulfill subscriptions. EBSCO has already secured participation from the majority of the publishers and is optimistic the remaining publishers will agree, now that the situation appears to be clarified.
For customers of RoweCom operations outside Europe (i.e., U.S., Canada, Australia, etc.), there are basically three situations:
* For a customer who has paid RoweCom and RoweCom has forwarded this payment on to the publishers, the customer will receive journals from the publishers. For a customer who has not paid RoweCom, the customer will receive their journals once orders are confirmed to EBSCO. Upon confirmation, EBSCO will make the appropriate payment to publishers.
* For a customer who has paid RoweCom and RoweCom has not forwarded this payment to the publishers, the customer will receive journals from publishers who participate in this transaction.
See Also: MUCH MORE Via Paula Hane’s Info Today News Break Article
See Also: Open Letter From Rowecom Creditor Group (via ManagingInformation.Com)
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See Also: “Swets Blackwell Withdraws its Bid for divine�s RoweCom Business”
See Also: “Extent and ramifications of Rowecom financial problems” (via Managing Information)
See Also: The 12/20/02 Announcement the EBSCO
See Also: Additional Resourceshelf Coverage of the divine Story

Professional Reading Shelf
The Winter 2003 Issue of Library Journals “netconnect” is Online
Articles include:
“Is It Time To Get Blogging?”
Btw, Blake Carver’s article includes a mention of The ResourceShelf (Thanks Blake!)
* “What Do Faculty Want?”
* “Managing the Virtual Workplace”

Libraries and Librarians–United States
Source: The White House
“President Bush’s 2004 Budget Recommends Record-Level Funding for Nation’s Libraries and Museums”
From the news release, “Laura Bush announced today that the President’s Bush’s 2004 budget will include a proposal for increased funding for the nation’s libraries and museums. The President’s 2004 proposed budget will be sent to Congress on February 3, 2003…Over the next 16 years, America’s libraries are projected to lose 58 percent of their professional librarians. The President’s budget proposal addresses this loss with a special focus on recruiting and training the next generation of librarians. Last year, the President’s budget included $10 million for this initiative. This year, the budget requests $20 million for this initiative.”
See Also: Cut Budgets Mean Fewer Books (via AP)

News Briefs
Information Industry–ProQuest
Additional Details on the ProQuest Acquisition of bigchalk
A new Info Today News Break by Barbara Quint. This acquisition was formally announced on 12/9/02.
See Also: “ProQuest Expands OpenURL Linking Capabilities for Full-Text Access”

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Metadata
The Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (Dec/Jan ‘03) is Now Online
“Mining the Metadata Quarries”
“New Metadata Standards for Digital Resources”
“Metadata Generation: Processes, People and Tools”
“Data Collection for Controlled Vocabulary Interoperability – Dublin Core Audience Element”
“A Knowledge Network Constructed by Integrating Classification, Thesaurus, and Metadata in a Digital Library”
“Spying and Secret Courts in America: New Rules and New Insights”
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Digital Archives
Source: EDUCAUSE
“Digital Archiving: What Is Involved”

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Intellectual Freedom–Lists & Rankings
Source: American Library Association, Office of Intellectual Freedom
“The Most Challenged Books of 2002″
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Department of Homeland Security
New Web Site, Online Today, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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Defense Industry–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Just Released, Top Defense Contractors 2002
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Higher Education–United States–Databases
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Updated Data, IPEDS Postsecondary Institution Peer Analysis System
“The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Peer Analysis System is a tool designed to enable a user to easily compare data from a postsecondary institution of the user�s choice to a group of peer institutions, also selected by the user.”
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Energy Industry
Source: EIA
New, Full-Text, Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers 2001

Information Industry–LexisNexis
LexisNexis Names New Senior V.P. of Library and Enterprise Unit
“…Wendy Beecham will join the company as Senior Vice President, Enterprise & Library. Prior to joining LN, Beecham worked for The Thomson Corporation in London, UK.

Web Resource of the Week
Maps
MSN Maps
I’m pointing out MSN Maps this week because of how clear, clean, and crisp MSN Maps look on a monitor and when printed on paper. Overview maps are available for the entire World. Street level maps (accessed by entering as little as a city name) are available for Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, U.K. and U.S. Make sure to take a look at the largest maps available. To access them simply click the third box at the top of the map labeled “Map Size”. Here are a few examples.
Remember, you’re able to zoom in and out for more or less detail. don’t forget to expand the maps to the large size. Looking good!
A Street Level Map (”Address In”) Map for Portland Place in London, U.K.
A “Place Name” Search and Map for the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands
A “Place Name” Search and Map for Dakar, Senegal
Note: Place Names Can Be Cities, Museums, Airports, Train Stations, Rivers, etc. See the Help page for more details.

Web Research
Subbing @ Search Day
For the past week I’ve been the Guest Editor of Search Day while my friend, colleague, and co-author Chris Sherman is away. I know many of you read Search Day on a daily basis (a good thing to do) but for those of you who don’t here are links to a few of my
articles:
– No Charge: Public Libraries Provide Full-Text Access to Databases!
– The Value of Non-Commercial Web Directories
– Searching for Happenings Around the Globe
– The Gateway To Associations

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
U.S. Government–Rules & Regulations
Source: GPO
Web Portal Debut: Regulations.Gov
“On this site, you can find, review, and submit comments on Federal documents that are open for comment and published in the Federal Register, the Government�s legal newspaper.”
Background in this article from The Washington Post and this post from the ResourceShelf on 12/11/02.
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Business–Europe–Directory
Source: Cordis
New, Business Incubators in Europe
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Presidential Libraries–John F. Kennedy
“Kennedy Library Opens 15 More Hours of JFK Recordings”
Details and RealAudio excerpts are available.

Online Information
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
On Academic Libraries, Google, Full-Text Databases and More
Steven Bell, Director of the Paul J. Gutman Library at Philadelphia University and a reader of The ResourceShelf, answers a few questions about these and other topics in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education. A couple of additional comments that I would like to toss into the mix. Several of them have been mentioned here before:
* Librarians and vendors need to do a much better job in marketing our skills and services. Vendors should use their marketing skills to assist libraries. The public needs to understand why the information and skills we offer can easily provide a better answer than just tossing a word or two into Google. At the same time, we can help them make better use of tools like AlltheWeb and Teoma. Bottom line? It’s not all “on the web”.
* In terms of the academic world (at all levels), teachers, professors, and administators might also be unaware of what’s available and how these resources differ compared to what they find with Google or any other web engine. No doubt about it, Google has marketed itself VERY well.
* Computers and the Internet has made much more information available but getting to it still takes work and skill. The “which database do I choose” issue is a big stumbling block for even the most seasoned searcher. Web search engines are very important but they’ve convinced the masses that they’re home to EVERY answer. We know they’re not.
* As I mentioned in yesterday’s posting about xrefer, we need to think about the right source from the right tool at the right time. In other words, knowledge of a variety of sources and tools is essential. Information professionals have always done this by “learning” their collection. The education process is much more of a challenge because resources are dynamic and not always directly in front of us.

Web Search–AllTheWeb
AlltheWeb Offers A Powerful Reverse Link Search
Running a link search (finding out who’s linking to a specific page) is a useful service many web engines provide. It’s a great way to find relationships between companies/organizations, discover new ideas, or additional sites. A problem with Google’s reverse link search is that you’re unable to use any additional terms in the query. For example, if you’re trying to limit a search to identify pages only in the .edu domain that link to a specific page, the search will not work. However, extra terms and limits WILL work with AllTheWeb. The syntax for running a reverse link search with ATW is link:
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More Examples:
–Pages on Servers Registered in the U.K. that Link to Libdex.Com AND ALSO Link to the National Library of Canada
–Pages that Link to the Canadian Library Associations Home Page. These pages can only be on servers registered in Australia or New Zealand and cannot have the word “conference” in the title.
–Pages Linking to the ALA Home Page from the .Org domain. These pages must also have the term information in the title but cannot have the term library in the title.

Bottom Line: Makes an already powerful tool even more useful, especially with heavily linked pages. Also works at AltaVista.

Document Delivery
Infotrieve Acquires Ariel from RLG
They’re busy at Infotrieve, two acquisitions in two days. Today, news that Infotrieve has acquired the Ariel document delivery software from RLG (Research Libraries Group). The price of the acquisition was not announced. “We are pleased to see Ariel move into the hands of Infotrieve,” said James Michalko, RLG’s president and CEO. “We are proud to have created the software and, working closely with our members around the world, to have developed it to this point. Now the product needs the added resources that a commercial vendor can provide. Infotrieve, with its focus on article delivery, is the ideal company to move Ariel forward.”
See Also: MUCH MORE via Marydee Ojala’s Info Today News Break

Information Industry–xrefer
xrefer, One of the Most Useful Ready Reference Tools on the Web Has a New “Showcase” Page
For a couple of years, xrefer has provided content from over 40 high-quality reference titles at no charge. Don’t worry, xrefer is still offering this full-text content from top-notch sources but the search page has moved. The page is now located in the “showcase section” of the site. If you haven’t visited xrefer, it’s well worth the trip. The company also offers xreferplus, a critically acclaimed fee-based service for libraries and other organizations. I’ve also spent some time using xreferplus and found it very usefu. I will continue to demo and report back. xreferplus offers content from over 100 sources. What do xrefer and xreferplus also offer? They’re excellent examples of the value that specialized search resources offer. In a nutshell, these types of tools can get you to an answer in an expedited manner. This is instead of always starting a search at a general web engine or directory. Sure you might stumble onto a xrefer pave with Yahoo, Looksmart, or Teoma but how long would it take? Users and information professionals should have an awareness and a basic knowledge of these types of tools (what they offer) and the ability to get to them quickly. It’s just like knowing what book(s) on your bookshelf contain a potential answer. However, with xrefer you get 40 books and xreferplus 100 titles. The right tool at the right time.
See Also: The Full-Text of P�ter Jacs�’s 2001 Review of xrefer
Note: Some of the content has changed since P�ter wrote this review.

Web Search–Daypop
Daypop Upgrade and Fast Facts
Daypop, a specialized search tool focusing on news and weblog content, reports that they are now crawling over 10,500 weblogs.
Here are A Few “Fast Facts” About Daypop Via an E-Mail with Dan Chan (Daypop’s Founder and Sole Proprietor):
1) “Weblogs are initially set to be crawled every 12 hours. Depending on how often a weblog is updated, it may get crawled less often, or more often if it pings weblogs.com.”
2) “There are 1000 news sources. The big sites get recrawled every three hours. The majority of the sites are crawled every 24 hours.”
3) Odds and Ends
– “Appending &o=rss in a search URL? It outputs RSS so you can monitor with a news aggregator.”
–There’s a Daypop Top 40 archive at http://www.daypop.com/top/archive/ . Similarly, the Daypop Top News archive is at http://www.daypop.com/news/archive/
–”Appending &sum=desc to a search URL brings up a description of the page, usually the first paragraph of a news article.”