Web Search–Google
Google Makes Another Acquisition: Applied Semantics
They acquired the company for its software in delivering advertising based on a web sites “aboutness”. Interesting stuff. In their words: “Applied Semantics’ products are based on its patented CIRCA technology, which understands, organizes, and extracts knowledge from websites and information repositories in a way that mimics human thought and enables more effective information retrieval. A key application of the CIRCA technology is Applied Semantics’ AdSense product that enables web publishers to understand the key themes on web pages to deliver highly relevant and targeted advertisements.” Some of you might remember the Oingo search engine. Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics about two years ago.
See Also: Learn More About Applied’s AdSense Product
See Also: Read an Interview with Jason Liebman, an Applied Semantics VP
See Also: “Meaning-based information organization and retrieval” (Applied Semantics Patent, U.S. 6,453,315)

Controlled Vocabularies–MeSH
Fast Fact: SARS and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Added As Descriptors in MeSH
You can check out the scope notes and learn more about MeSH (Medical subject headings) and the MeSH browser. What is MeSH? “MeSH is the National Library of Medicine’s controlled vocabulary thesaurus. It consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity.” MeSH has over 29,000 descriptors.

Library Crisis
Time for another selection of library budget crisis stories.
Massachusetts…“Historic library could be shut down” (via Cape Cod Times)
” One of the nation’s oldest public libraries faces shutting its doors more than two centuries after it opened with a gift of 116 books from Benjamin Franklin.”
See Also: “Oldest Public Library In Country Faces Closure” (via WCVB)
UPDATED 4/29 Good News! The Franklin Library Will Remain Open
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Quebec…“Quebec Library Funding in Doubt” (via School Library Journal)
“A new government in Quebec may threaten $90.4 million in school library funds promised by Education Minister Sylvain Simard”…”School libraries here are a disaster,” says Regine Horinstein, director of the Professional Librarian Association of Quebec. “Most schools don’t have school libraries and they rarely have professional staff. They mostly rely on volunteers and parents.”
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Pennsylvania…“Bookworms burning over library funding” (via The Philadelphia Inquirer)
“After several years of steadily increasing appropriations, the proposed cuts in [Gov.] Rendell’s budget would knock the state’s library funding back to the mid-1990s. At that time, Pennsylvania dwelled in the national cellar for funding libraries.”…”It’s ironic that the librarians are the loudest voice in the entire debate,” Glenn Miller, director of the Pennsylvania Library Association.” I don’t see what’s ironic about it. You mean librarians (like any other group) can’t be heard and heard at a loud volume? The important and valuable work Mr. Miller is doing shouldn’t help reinforce stereotypes.
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Pennsylvania…“Local libraries caught in state financial pinch” (via The Evening Times)
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Texas (Houston)…“City gets budget cut proposals” (via Houston Chronicle)
“Barbara Gubbin, the city’s library director, said she also may have to close facilities to meet her target budget. She said the department could either close up to eight of the city’s 36 branch libraries or would have to scale all branch libraries back by six hours to 40 hours a week, buy fewer books, CDs and videos and
eliminate management positions.”
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Ohio…“Libraries turn to taxpayers for help” (via The Plain Dealer)
“Five library districts, the largest of them Cleveland Public, say they need more money to meet rising costs and growing demands of their information-hungry patrons.”
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Ohio…“Hamilton County Library Now Considering Endowment” (via WCPO.Com)
“The Tri-state’s biggest public library is considering the same concept that colleges use to give them steady funding over time. They are considering creating endowments and foundations to provide funding.”
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California…“Facing Tough Times, A Rural Public Library Looks To Online Commerce” (Auction Bytes)
“We have a clear choice in this economy – cut back or fight back,” says library director Marie Bryan. “We’re fighting. We got a grant to cover the costs of setting up Shop for the Library, and now all proceeds we raise will go to support services to the public.”
See Also: It’s Not Just a Rural Issue In California (via LJ)

Quote of the Day
Mary Ellen Davis, Executive Director of ACRL, said at the ACRL Annual Conference:
“Our communities do not always see us [information professionals] as educated professionals who play an active role in the academic community,” she said. “We must be proactive in telling users about this value.” (Source: Library Journal). This comment is also on target for all information professionals. However, the challenge is much more difficult than simply telling people what we can do. We need to demonstrate our skills and the resources we have access to and explain how they can be valuable to the end user.

Resources, Reports, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Watergate
Full-Text Report, Who Was Deep Throat?
The research included in the final report made a bit of news last year while the investigation was underway at the University of Illinois. Today, the final report and the naming of the person who the journalism students and professor believe to be Deep Throat was released. The complete investigation took four years. Plenty of background material.
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Space Program
Source: Congressional Research Service
Full-Text, Just Updated, U.S. Space Programs: Civilian, Military, and Commercial
18 pages .pdf
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Highways–United States
Source: NHTSA
1) New, Full-Text Report: Pedestrian Roadway Fatalities
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
Summary also includes a few rankings of results by state and city.
2) New, Preliminary Estimates Of 2002 Highway Fatalities
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text

Industry News Briefs
Bowker…Launch of Web-Based Spanish Books in Print
“Locate Spanish language materials published in the U.S., Spain and Mexico that are carried by U.S.-based suppliers.”

Digital Object Identifiers
National Libraries
“National Libraries Join International DOI Foundation”
From the article, “The International DOI Foundation (IDF) announces that an informal consortium of three major national libraries — The British Library (UK), Die Deutsche Bibliothek (Germany) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The Netherlands) — has joined the International DOI Foundation.” Thanks to Noteworthy for the news tip.

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Two items from OCLC.
Internet2
Internet2 and the Library Community
An OCLC Distinguished Seminar by Jane Ryland. From the abstract, “Jane Ryland is a member of the OCLC Board of Trustees and Membership Consultant for the Internet2 consortium. Her presentation will discuss the power and potential of Internet2, focusing on new activities currently underway. Jane will address the aspects of Internet2 of greatest interest to both OCLC and the library community. The Internet2 consortium is comprised of more than 200 universities.
Direct to Audio ||| Powerpoint Slides
See Also: Learn More About Internet2
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Digitization Projects
New Directory, Digitization & Preservation Online Resource Center
Materials includes a copyright guide, digitization pathfinders, an excel spreadsheet with a list of 200 potential sources of funding, and more.

Online Dictionaries
More Online Dictionary News
Thanks to R.A. for sharing some info about the AllTheWeb and Google dictionary feature. Although both engines offer similar tools results may vary.
As many of you know most search terms at Google and now at AllTheWeb are hyperlinked to a dictionary definition (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed.) via Dictionary.Com. For those of you who haven’t used this feature take a look at your search terms at the top of the page, in the blue bar. Here are examples from AllTheWeb and Google.
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R.A. points out that some of the words added to the 4th ed. of the AHD are not hyperlinked via Google. Two examples. The word “shoah” and the word “e-tailer”.
Compare to AllTheWeb (shoah, e-tailer). A Google spokesperson told us that they’re aware of the problem and working to update the database. An issue for search geeks. Sure. But it’s also an example of how access to what appears to be the same database could yield different results.
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Finally, the new Yahoo and Ask Jeeves also have dictionary features. Your search should be structured define . Yahoo example. Ask Jeeves example. Yahoo taps the American Heritage Dictionary while Jeeves uses Merriam-Webster and others.
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See Also: A Recent Post About Using Online Dictionaries to Listening to Word Pronunciations

Web Search–AllTheWeb
It’s Official, AllTheWeb is Now Part of Overture
The deal closed today. I remain both positive about ATW and optimistic about Overture’s acquisition of the engine as a good thing for the web searcher. As of today, ATW is a top-level web search resource. We can only hope that the refinements and improvements continue. In the next few week’s I plan on posting an interview with Overture’s VP of Technology, Gary Flake. Stay tuned. One more thing. FAST Search and Transfer remains as a major player in the enterprise search world. You’ll continue to see coverage of FS&T on ResourceShelf. Today, they launched a new home page.
See Also: AllTheWeb Adds New Features (3/16/03)
See Also: AllTheWeb Online With New Look and Layout (3/3/03)
See Also: The ResourceShelf from 2/25/03 Announcing the Acquisition

Professional Organizations–SCIP (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals)
A Redesigned SCIP Web Site is Now Online
If you don’t belong to this group but have an interest in CI (competitive intelligence), you might want to learn more about SCIP. A great deal of material on the site is restricted to member access. However, some content is accessible to non-members. For example, you can read sample articles from SCIP’s fortnightly newsletter, and read the abstracts of popular articles from Competitive Intelligence magazine. You can also acccess a 14 page overview article, CI statistics, a searchable database of CI services and products, and more.

Enterprise Search
Source: Computerworld
“Enterprises Widen the Search Net”
A look at what a few companies are doing for enterprise search. Several of the major players are mentioned.

Industry News Briefs
Dynix…Groxis Info Visualization Tool Being Made Available with Horizon Information Portal
(This 10/2002 ResourceShelf Post has more info about Groxis.)
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ProQuest…New Senior Management Appointed

ERIC
Source: Information Today
“ERIC Continues But Without Clearinghouses”
Barbara Quint has written an article about the possible elimination/reduction? in funding for ERIC’s non-database services. These services include ERIC Clearinghouses and ERIC Digests. From the article, “Specifications for the new contract omit requirements to support most of the customer services conducted by the clearinghouses, including the production of the popular digests, toll-free phone assistance, and the 6-million-hits-a-week AskERIC service. The clearinghouses and their supporters have started a campaign to revise the draft SOW, but the date set for receiving public comments ends on May 9. (Comments go to Jeff Halsted, 202/708-8283, 202/708-9817 fax, Jeff.C.Halsted@ed.gov.)”
See Also: ResourceShelf’s 4/14/03 Post

Quote of the Day
�Finding something on the Web right now is a skill, kind of an art form. I’d like the computer equivalent of reference librarians.�
–Eric Bina, An Originial Programmer of Mosaic. (Source: News-Gazette, Champaign, IL, 4/20/03)

First Posted 12:00am 4/20/03
Web Search–Ask Jeeves
A New Look, Features at Ask Jeeves
+ A new, sleeker look to the home page. No more tabs, one search box.
+ A NEW image database. Note: The Image Database is Provided by Picsearch.
+ A Seach using the Expression “Pictures Of” will Automatically Return A Few Results from the Image Database
+ Browse by Subject, no longer available
+ News database remains, no improvement )-:
+ Product Search, still available
+ A direct link to the most popular searches page (JeevesIQ)
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Results Pages
+ Bolding of Search Terms
+ Some results have “useful direct links” at the top of the page. For example, a search for “Chicago Cubs” provides direct links to team resources (stats, schedules, etc.). A search for science projects provides several options at the top of the page labeled as “science fair resources”.
+ Some queries still offer the “traditional” Jeeves preformatted questions. For example, a search for airlines asks, “Where can I find an airline’s 800 number?” Ask.Com calls this “Clarification Tools”.
+ Smart Answers: For example, type in Zip 02134 and Receive a Direct Link to a Zip Code Database. Driving Directions , Movie Times,
+ Result pages continue to provide “related searches”. These terms can be selected an run as a new search. This is unlike Teoma’s refine feature that appends terms to the previous search. The “Related Pages” feature uses DirectHit technology.
+ Spell Check (When Needed)
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Remember
The Ask.Com database of web page results uses the same database as Teoma.
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It’s nice to see Jeeves continuing to improve. Nevertheless, I still prefer the layout and the very useful and improving “refine” and “resources” sections at Teoma. However, for simple searches and novice searchers, the improvements at Jeeves are more than welcomed.
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See Also: You’ll find a few comments from Ask Jeeves execs in the Washington Post.
See Also: Official Overview from Jeeves

Web Search–OpenFind
“Reconstruction” at OpenFind
This engine from Taiwan that received a bit of attention about 8 months ago remains online but searches can no longer be run on it. A message on the home page reads, “Under Reconstruction”. We will continue to monitor. Here’s Greg Notess’s review of what OpenFind offered when it was first released.

Public Libraries
Source: USA Today
“Public libraries need the public’s support”
A freelance writer shares her thoughts in this op-ed piece. No arguments here on her conclusions. However, in this day and age librarians, independent of type, and library supporters need to work together and not only tell people that public libraries are important, useful, and necessary but demonstrate WHAT the library and librarian can do for them in terms of resources, opportunities, and education not only at the physical building but also remotely. Perhaps the most important thing we should be identifying and illustrating are the skills and talents that the info professional can offer the patron, student, businessperson, anyone. These days, a billboard or poster saying, “visit your library” doesn’t mean a great deal to most people especially those who haven’t visited or thought about a library in many years. Can’t all information be accessed by entering 2.1 words into ones favorite web engine? The type of and marketing ALL libraries need is “word of mouth”. Yes, it’s the most difficult type to get but the most rewarding type to achieve. This can only come about by getting “in the faces” (politely of course) of both current patrons and the masses of people who have NO CLUE of what’s available to them. We then need to demonstrate our knowledge, skills, abilities, and tools in a way that’s meaningful and useful to them.

Professional Reading Shelf
Information Retrieval
Full-Text Papers: Best Practices and Future Visions for Search UIs: A Workshop
These papers were presented about 2 weeks ago at a workshop during the Conference on Human Factors in Computing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Titles:
Search Log Analysis as a Usability Engineering Tool
Finding the Right Stuff
Interface Techniques for Making Searching for Information More Effective
Using Categories to Improve Search
A Search User Interface in a Digital Library Application
Utilizing a users context to improve search results
Best Practices and Future Visions for Search User Interfaces
Changing the Pace of Search: Supporting “Background” Information Seeking
“I’m Feeling Lucky”: the Role of Emotions in Seeking Information on the Web
Search Histories for User Support In User Interfaces
Search Without Keywords
Search in the Web Shopping Environment
Search Query Spellchecking
Reconciling Information-Seeking Behavior with Search User Interfaces for the Web
Dynamic taxonomies and guided searches
Evidence-Based Practice in Search Interface Design
Predicting Where a Web User Wants to Go
Thanks to C.L. for letting us know about these interesting papers.

Web Search–Daypop
New Search Limits Coming to Daypop
Dan Chan informs the world, via his weblog, about some new limits that will soon be available via the Daypop search engine. You’ll soon be able to limit your search direct from the search box to:
* News & Weblogs
* News
* Weblogs
* RSS News & Weblogs
* RSS News
* RSS Weblogs