Enterprise Search
Source: News.Com
“Corporations seek better search results”
A look at the enterprise search market.

Professional Events
OpenURL
May 13, 2003 is OpenURL Day in New York City
From the site, “This one-day meeting is organized by Center for Scholarly Communication at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science of Long Island University and NISO. Its aim is to introduce the library and publishing communities to the path-breaking concepts at the heart of the OpenURL and show you the tools that are facilitating a host of new library services and will undoubtedly lead to new business opportunities.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
Patents–United States–Statistics
Source: Technology Review
New, The 2002 TR Patent Scorecard
The scorecard is an .xls file. Those of you who work with patents should find this a very useful resource.

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries and Librarians
The May, 2003 Issue of Walt Crawford’s Cites and Insights Newsletter is Now Available

Internet
Source: MIT Technology Review
“Net Scan Finds Like-Minded Users”
From the article, “When you search for information on the Web, chances are you aren’t alone, there are like-minded groups of users across the Web searching for the same sorts of things. Researchers from the University of Chicago have shown that is possible to identify these groups by analyzing browsing patterns, even in networks as far-flung as the Web.”
See Also: An Interview with the VP of R&D at Teoma. He explains how Teoma identifies ‘communities’ of similar web pages.

Web Search–Daypop
A Comparison of Daypop and Google News
A new posting on Daypop founder Dan Chan’s blog is are a few interesting comments that Simon Waldman posted about how Daypop and Google handle listing (not searching) news stories. The comments come from a post on the Words of Waldman weblog a couple of months ago. “But the contrast between it [Google News] and Daypop couldn’t be sharper. Google News homoegenises news. It removes the local and the quirky (the very thing that many media outlets are most proud of) and promotes the uniform and standard. Daypop tends to do exactly the opposite: it elevates the quirky (today’s top story: Japanese Scientists develop invisible cloak), the contrary, the geeky, sexy and shocking.”
See Also: Daypop Top News Stories
See Also: Daypop Top News Bursts

Library Portals
Source: LITA
New Web Portals Interest Group Opens
“A website http://litaipig.ucr.edu/ has been created by the LITA Internet Portals Interest Group (LITA IPIG) to reflect its interests on the subject of library related portals of all types. Major sections of the site include: Mission Statement and Philosophy; Discussion; Calendar; Themes and Threads; Minutes; Governance and Procedural Matters; Officers and Members. Please check out our site and feel free to join the dialogue.”
See: Direct to LITA Internet Portals Interest Group

Libraries
Source: Denver Post
African-American Research Library Opens Today in Denver
From the article, “Daddy Bruce Randolph, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are just some of the faces visitors will see when they walk into Denver’s new African-American library on Saturday.”
See Also: Direct to the African American Research Library Web Site

Internet Public Library
Source: Detroit News
Funding Problems for the Internet Public Library
Some not so good news about one of the most well-known and respected library built directories, the Internet Public Library. In an article about funding problems at universities in Michigan you’ll learn about serious funding problems that could cause the closure of the IPL. From the article, [The IPL] was funded with $150,000 in grants for the initial five years, but that money has run out, says Maurita Holland, director of academic outreach at the School of Information. The library gets 12 million hits a month and 1,000 e-mail reference questions a month, half of them from school children, she said. Since the grant money ran out, the library has been funded with general fund money, a source they will not be able to continue tapping. Other funding alternatives have fallen through. The library can’t tax users or solicit revenue through advertising. “We have to be careful because we’re an academic unit,” Holland said. “We can’t use Nike swooshes on our Web site. We have to be impartial.” “We want to remain operational, but if we can’t find the funding, our lights will go out.”
See Also: Direct to the Internet Public Library

Government Printing Office
GPO Names Director of the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services (EIDS)
From the announcement, “Public Printer of the United States Bruce R. James has announced that Richard G. (Ric) Davis, an 11-year veteran of the Government Printing Office (GPO) has been named director of the Office of Electronic Information Dissemination Services (EIDS) at GPO. As the director of EIDS, Davis is responsible for GPO Access.”

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Libraries
Source: CLIR
Full-Text Report, Library Buildings and the Building of a Collaborative Research Collection at the Tri-College Library Consortium
Abstract ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Scholarly Publishing
Conference Program, Society for Scholarly Publishing 25th Annual Meeting
The meeting is scheduled for the end of May in Baltimore.

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
African-Americans
Source: U.S. Census
Full-Text Report, The Black Population in the United States: March 2002
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Older Americans
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts, New, A New Fact and Stat Sheet About Older Americans
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Oceanography
Source: NOAA
New Web Site, NOAA’s National Ocean Service

The Library of Congress
Happy Birthday to The Library of Congress
“On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved the appropriation of $5,000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of congress.”
See Also: The State of the Library (2003)” (Recent Testimony By the Librarian of Congress Before Congress)
See Also: Frequently Asked Questions About The Library of Congress
See Also: Jefferson’s Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress
See Also: A Selection of Images

Web Resources of the Week
Three choices this week.
1) National Geographic Society Publications Database
This is a bibliographic database. It contains indexing (title, author, subject, date) for major National Geographic Society publications including National Geographic magazine back to 1888.
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2) Ready for Printing, Country and Region Maps From National Geographic
Black and white maps are delivered in either gif or pdf formats. You can select the level of details. The price is right, free! One more thing. NG also provides a page where you’re able to download (free) updates to the National Geographic Atlas of the World (seventh edition).
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and now for something completely different…
3) Using the Internet Movie Database for DVD Information
Not only has the IMDB become a respected source for movie and tv info but it’s also a great resource for DVD info. Of course you could first search for the movie and then find the link for DVD info. However, a “DVD only” interface is available for searching and browsing. Browse categories include, picture formats, subtitles, disc formats. Keyword searching and limiting (several options) is also available. Each entry contains complete technical info along with listing any additional features that the DVD offers. Of course, you can also use the IMDB’s wonderful “Power Search” interface to find DVD’s and all other material in the database.

Government Information–Ohio
Source: The Plain-Dealer
“Bill would limit information on state Web sites”
I wonder if this is the start of a new trend? From the article, Looking for a state park to take the kids camping? Need information about an Ohio corporation? Want to know the sales tax rate applied in the state next door? Under a provision added to the House version of the state budget bill, such information would no longer exist on state Web sites – unless a legislative committee gives the go-ahead. Supporters see it as a way to keep government from unfairly competing with private businesses that profit by selling the same information. Opponents view it as the latest effort to curb access to government records.” Note: “[The] proposal exempts the Ohio Supreme Court and the legislature. Court administrators said the provision could have prevented them from posting opinions on the court Web pages because the information is also available for a fee through services such as Lexis and WestLaw.” Point of Information: Two large database vendors, LexisNexis and CAS, are based in Ohio.
See Also: Full-Text of the Legislation
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See Also: AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) Has Sent An E-Mail Message About This Legislation
I’ve Posted the Full-Text To ResourceShelfPLUS
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See Also: The Cleveland Plain-Dealer Weighs In With an Editorial
The editorial is titled, “Don’t take public data private”. It asks the question, “What anti-public measure is next? Going after libraries for lending books that currently sell in bookstores?”

Public Libraries
Source: Tallahassee Democrat
House OKs library filter bill
Nancy Cook Laurer writes, “Libraries in Leon and other counties that don’t have pornography filters would be required to install them under a bill that passed the House on Wednesday”…”I think we’re in the right place. We’ve taken care of the constitutional issues,” [Bill sponsor Bill] Baxley said. “And meanwhile, the technology to do this has only improved. It’s gotten better and cheaper.”…”The Department of State estimates it will cost $250,000 to install the filters. But Baxley says some vendors will work out deals with individual libraries where the first three years would be free.”
AND in OTHER NEWS…CANADA… “Library board told to reconsider Internet filtering”
Ottawa’s City Council doesn’t like last week’s decision.

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
Consumer Web Resources–Travel
Source: Consumer WebWatch (Consumers Union)
Full-Text Report, Booking Hotels Online: An In-Depth Examination of Leading Hotel Web Sites
Summary ||| Full-Text Report
A pdf version is also available.
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Health Information
Source: European Union
Full-Text Report, Europeans and the sources of information about health
A report based on a recent EU survey.
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Horticulture–Webliography
Source: ACRL News
Full-Text, Horticulture: Sources for gardeners
This webliography appears in the May, 2003 issue of ACRL News. It was written by Kathy Fescemyer, a life sciences librarian at Pennsylvania State University.

Library Catalogs
Debut: New Melvyl Catalog from the California Digital Library Now Available
From the announcement, “The catalog is based on the union catalog module of the ALEPH500 library automation system developed by Ex Libris and holds over 23 million records from 10 campuses of the UC system.”
Among the important new features in Melvyl-T:
+ More flexible search options, including phrase and proximity searching.
+ Browsing by major indexes including author, title, subject, and call number.
+ Expanded limiting and sorting of search results.
+ Display of foreign language materials using their native language characters, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, and Arabic.
+ Ability to return to previous searches and combine, review, or save them into a personal workspace
See Also: Direct to the Melvyl-T Catalog

Web Directories and Search–FirstGov
Source: FCN
FirstGov to Begin Pilot Project With Local Government Info
From the article, “Officials soon will start a pilot test to include local governments in the FirstGov portal.”…”Earlier this year, GSA sent a call out to all local governments, working through GSA’s Intergovernmental Solutions Office, outlining the possibilities and benefits of becoming part of FirstGov. The pilot will include about 50 local governments that volunteered for the test…”

Web Search–Yahoo
Yahoo, the Exclamation Point, and Shortcuts
What am I talking about? I didn’t mention this a few weeks ago when I wrote The ResourceShelf overview of the Yahoo relaunch. The exclamation point (!) can help make navigating around Yahoo’s complex of resources much faster (and easier). As many of you know, Yahoo numerous specialty sites and services (e.g. mail) are accessible at many different urls. Also, several localized versions of Yahoo exist. Here’s a complete list. Let’s say you’re using Yahoo and you want to move directly to one of these specialty sites. Simply type in the name, add an ! at the end, click search, and you’ll be taken directly to the site. No results page to navigate, no extra clicking, nothing. So you want to quickly move from Yahoo.Com to the U.K. Yahoo? Enter Yahoo UK! into any Yahoo search box and away you go. Need to jump to the Yahoo map site. Simply enter maps! into any Yahoo search box. For those of you who have Yahoo E-Mail accounts, try mail!. One caveat. It appears that these using the ! to jump around the Yahoo site will only work at Yahoo.Com.
See Also: A List of Yahoo Products and Services
You Can Append Any Of These Sites With the !