Information Industry–H.W. Wilson
“Libraries Get Free Open-URL Linking with the New WilsonWeb”
From the announcement, “Easy-to-use and free with a subscription to the new WilsonWeb database service, WilsonLink provides extensive linking features with other online database vendors. Powered by Ex Libris�s SFX technology, WilsonLink allows researchers to click from citations on WilsonWeb databases to the full text of articles and related material from a multitude of sources, where the library subscribes to both WilsonWeb and the linked resource.”

Public Libaries
Source: The Seattle Times
“Investing in libraries connects us to the future”
In a guest column Bill Gates writes, “I am excited about what’s happening in my hometown and in libraries across the country. But I worry about whether our society will support public libraries so they can sustain this critical community service. In my view, investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation’s future. Library professionals recognized early on that they could help bridge the divide between those who have access to computers and those who do not. However, they could not do it without additional resources and the support of others, particularly in low-income communities.” Some important comments from an influential person. However, not only do public libraries need to have the technology but they also need to have trained professionals with the skills to use it along with “traditional” library tools. Don’t misunderstand me, having a place for ALL people to go and access the web and other services is essential BUT libraries must be more than places where the public goes to search Google or any other web only engine. Traditional collections are still a must. Simultaneously, libraries should learn to MAXIMIZE the usage of the quality free content that’s available. In othe words, the time to take web collection development seriously is now.
See Also: “It’s the battle between Google and the library — and Google just might be winning.” (via LISNEWS.Com)

Information Retrieval
Source: News.Com
U.S military taps data-sleuthing tools
From the article, “The U.S. government’s drive to search computer networks and databases for clues about terrorist threats has boosted the business prospects of a software start-up spun out of Xerox Parc. Inxight Software, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has inked numerous contracts with the Department of Defense and its contractors as well as with Lawrence Livermore National Lab over the past year, said David Spenhoff, vice president of marketing at Inxight.”
Btw, Inxight Software is one of many companies doing this type of work. If you’re interested in taking a look at one of Inxight’s products stop by a set of demos for Inxight Star Trees, an information visualization tool. Useful too! You can browse Recipes.Com and the history of Space Flight from NASA Also, any individual, educational instituion, or non-commercial organzation can download software to create their own simple Star Trees.

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Business–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Fortune
Now Available, America’s Most Admired Companies, 2003
Also available, a list of the Top 10 companies from 1983-2002.
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Space Shuttle
Source: NASA
STS-107 Investigation Reference Page

Libraries
Source: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
“Use library databases for reliable information”
We always like to post mainstream press articles that promote the use of libraries. From the article, “The Internet is much more than Google, Yahoo or any other search engine/directory. The Internet also allows you to access information from databases that are closed off from search engines.Many libraries, both public and university, offer many of their databases to their patrons or students via the Internet. With a library card or student ID number and a password, you can get into many of the databases that you once had to go to the library to research. These databases include reputable reference sources and would be a much better alternative to the questionable results that you might get from a search engine.”

Web Search–Google
Source: BBC
“Is Google too powerful?”
We’re starting to see a steady stream of negative press re:Google. Yesterday, I posted a an article along with a few others over the past month. Google isn’t too powerful. The problem (I think it’s a marketing issue) is that it seems the masses and some info professionals (not good) have forgotten or more likely don’t realize that other quality web search engines exist. In fact, the best searchers will utilize more than one engine for many types of searches.

Academic Libraries–United States–Privacy
The Arbiter (Boise State University)
“Patriot Act prompts library to draft privacy policy”
From the article, “Boise State librarian Timothy A. Brown said Albertsons Library is still drafting a policy on how to comply with potential requests for student information.” Thanks to G.T. for the news tip.

Professional Reading Shelf
Web Resources
Source: RLG DigiNews
“Risk Management for Web Resources: A Case Study on Southeast Asian Web Sites”
From the article, “In recent years libraries and other cultural institutions have become increasingly concerned about the tendency for Web sites to lose content over time, especially those that are managed informally and without strong institutional backing. Cornell’s Project Prism has been exploring ways to detect risks to Web resources as the first step toward developing a toolset for managing risks without necessarily requiring libraries to capture and archive the Web resources themselves. Thus, over the past year we have been monitoring Web sites and documenting changes in their status that may indicate short- and long-term risks to content.”

Web Resources of the Week
1) Middle East–Maps
Source: National Imagery and Mapping Agency
Just Released, Unclassified Maps of Baghdad, Iraq, and the Middle East
NIMA, a part of the U.S. military, is providing these “special reference graphics” available on the web (you’ll need to download a free viewer and download the files). Beginning next week printed versions (fee) will be available via the USGS.
See Also: Direct to the Download Page
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2) Geography–Databases
The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
Useful, educational for all. Even fun, if you’re a geography geek. From the site, “The TGN is a structured vocabulary containing more than one million names and other information about places. The TGN includes all continents and nations of the modern political world, as well as historical places. It includes physical features and administrative entities, such as cities and nations. The emphasis in TGN is on places that are important for art and architecture.” Note: This database will be valuable to many of you not only those of you who are researching art and architecture topics. This database can be value in many types of reference situations. I could go on about this database for a long time but the best way to learn about it is to use it. A review of the documentation and examples is also very useful. A few facts about the database:
* Search by Name, Place Type, or Nation
* The Hierarchy of Names is Also Browsable
* Example Search: A One Word Simple Search For the Word Alice Alice
++136 Results Ranging from the Alice Arm (an Inhabited Place in British Columbia) to Alice Island (a Sand Bar in Alaska) to Alice Springs (an Inhabited Place) in Australia.
+++ The Full Entry For Alice Springs Includes Coordinates, Historical Notes (e.g. settled in 1860 under the name Stuart) and it’s Place in the Hierarchy (World, Oceania, Australia, Northern Territory…)
++++Each Entry Contains Specific Source Information

Web Search–Google
Source: San Mateo County Times
“Google falling victim to success”
From the article, “In a quick, unscientific survey, several entrepreneurs in the Bay Area responded “Google” when asked which search engines they used. “I just got used to it,” was the usual explanation. Analysts think newer products and some vulnerability in Google’s organization might make room for other entrants.” The article focuses on Teoma, a search tools we’ve liked for a long time.

Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items)
Libraries
Source: Resource (U.K.)
Full-Text, Collaborating Between Libraries and Education: Supporting the Learner
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Collection Management
Source: Resource (U.K.)
Full-Text, Overview of Collections Information and Advice in the Museums, Archives and Library Domains
Museums ||| Archives ||| Libraries
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USA Patriot Act
Source: ALA
Compilation, USA Patriot Act Resolutions of State Library Associations

Updated 2.20.02
A quick update. Yesterday, Carole Leita (reference guru and founder of the LII) and I spent a portion of the day at AltaVista HQ. The visit was planned several weeks ago and after the news of Overture acquiring the company we were both expecting to here that the visit was cancelled. It wasn�t. Once we arrived at the company we were expecting to be welcomed have an �expedited tour� and meet a few sad/confused/upset employees along the way. Wrong again. In fact, quite the opposite was true. In fact, several AV execs sat Carole and I down for three hours, on what was a very busy day, and wanted our opinions and ideas about how to work more closely with the library world. With the caveat that things change quickly in the web search business, I don�t think we should count AV out as a very powereful web search engine (more below) out yet.
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Web Search–AltaVista
Source: News.Com
Overture Buys AltaVista
Further consolidation in the web search world. It wasn’t that long ago (in years, a very long time in web years) when AltaVista was THE engine. Then, a failed push to do it all by becoming a portal and a loss of focus on what AV did well, search web pages. AV’s buyer Overture is a provider of pay-per-click results to many sites and search engines. What this means for the AltaVista.Com site is to be determined. Let’s hope they continue to improve their database of crawled web pages. We’ve seen some major improvements in recent months. In the last few weeks I’ve also noticed a big improvement to AltaVista News and their image database. In terms of raw search power, the features that power searcher’s love, AltaVista’s technology remains the most powerful of all general web search engines. Examples?
1) Allows Truncation of Terms (Google No, AllTheWeb No)
2) Proximity Operator (Near and Within, Not Available With Google)
3) Nesting of Strategies (AllTheWeb Also Offers, Google Does Not Offer)
4) Ranking of Search Terms (Allows You to Tweak Relevancy Ranking, AlltheWeb Now Offers, Google Does Not Offer)
From the News.Com article, “Overture plans to license the technology to its customers, which include Yahoo, MSN and AOL Europe. Overture also will use AltaVista.com to test new search services and marketing products for its advertisers. “We, as many observers know, have been looking at whether and how to add algorithmic search to our arsenal over the last year,” said Ted Meisel, Overture president and CEO. “Algorithmic search is a highly engineered product…this was the right time and right product.” “It was time to bring the technology in-house so we could provide a complete solution to partners,” he said.
See Also: Analysis from Search Day
See Also: More from The New York Times
See Also: Official Overture/AV News Release
See Also: Compare Functionality of Engine Using Search Engine Showdown’s Feature Chart

Libraries–Florida
Source: Orlando Sentinel
“Breakup of State Library May Be Near”
From the article, “Despite mounting public opposition, including more than 7,000 petition signatures protesting a proposed breakup of the 150-year-old State Library, a deal is quietly being negotiated that could move much of the library’s massive collection from the state capital to a private university in South Florida. Judith Ring, head of the State Library, has e-mailed her staff that she is “almost certain” a big chunk of the library’s collections will be moving. And the president of Nova Southeastern University said Monday he is in the final review of an arrangement with state officials, who he said are moving with “some urgency.”

Information Industry–divine
Source: The Register
divine, Bankruptcy? Maybe?
So say’s The Register after divine sends out this press release. No big shocker.

Enterprise Search–FAST Search and Transfer
FAST Search Technology Now Being Utilized on Dell.Com Site
The implementation is now online after the initial announcement last June. As many of you know FAST’s search technology powers the AllTheWeb site. In fact, the ATW is powered by Dell servers.

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
Emergency Preparedness–United States
Source: Department of Homeland Security
New Web Site, Ready.Gov

Serials and Newspapers–United Kingdom–Online Catalogs
Source: Endinburgh Evening News
Union Catalog of Serial and Newspaper Holdings in British Research Institutions Established
From the article, “The first internet catalogue of all journals and newspapers held in British research institutions is being established by Edinburgh University. A four-year project is under way to provide an easier way for academics to find information held in libraries all over the UK…By bringing together databases from more than 200 libraries, the catalogue – to be called SUNCAT – will establish the largest resource of its kind in the UK.”
See Also: Learn More About SUNCAT

Libraries–Canada
Get Sm@rt Library Portal Set for Ottawa Area Libraries
From the announcement, “The Sm@rt Library Portal will provide teachers, students, researchers and other users with fast and seamless access to the rich resources of Ottawa’s diverse library systems from one easy-to-use Web site. The portal is one of 13 projects under the SmartCapital initiative, which is managed by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation…This online service will allow the public to search the collections of all of Ottawa’s public libraries and the National Library of Canada, as well as the libraries of the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and the National Research Council.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Intellectual Property–Lists and Rankings
Source: WIPO
Lists, International Patent Applications, 2002
You’ll find lists of the Top 10 Countries and Top 10 Companies
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Philanthropy–Lists & Rankings
Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy
List: America’s Biggest Donors
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Women–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts: Women’s History Month
A selection of facts about women in the U.S. March is Women’s History Month here in the U.S. A bit of what you’ll find:
* $29,215-The median annual earnings of women age 15 and older who worked full time, year-round.
* 84, The percentage of women age 25 and over with at least a high school diploma, slightly higher than the percentage for men
* 61, Percentage of women, age 18 and over and citizens, who cast a ballot in the last presidential election.
* 145.0 million, The number of females as of July 1, 2001. That exceeds the number of males, who numbered 139.8 million.
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Government–Canada
Source:
Full-Text, Budget 2003

Professional Reading Shelf
Digital Reference
Special Issue Devoted to Virtual Reference: February Issue of D-Lib Now Online
Articles include:
* “Digital Reference: An Overview”
by Joanne Silverstein, Syracuse University
* “Current State of Digital Reference in Primary and Secondary Education”
by R. David Lankes, Syracuse University
* “The Technological Challenges of Digital Reference: An Overview”
by Jeffrey Penka, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
* “Question Negotiation and the Technological Environment”
by Joseph Janes, University of Washington and Joanne Silverstein, Syracuse University
* “Evaluation of Chat Reference Service Quality: Pilot Study”
by Marilyn Domas White, Eileen Abels, and Neal Kaske, University of Maryland
* “Visual Resource Reference: Collaboration Between Digital Museums and Digital Libraries”
by Abby A. Goodrum, Syracuse University
* A Positive Review of Anne Grodzins Lipow’s The Virtual Reference Librarian’s Handbook is Also Included