Web Research
Internet References Are Frequently Lost, Says Study By University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
From the story, Anyone who has ever typed an Internet address into a Web browser and received a message that the page was not available knows how frustrating it can be to look for information on the Internet. In a study appearing in this week’s issue of Science titled “Going, Going, Gone: Lost Internet References,” researchers found that very important scientific information is sometimes hard to find on the Internet… Internet references accounted for 2.6 percent of all references in a sample of more than 1000 articles published between 2000 and 2003 in three journals: The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and Science. In articles up to only 27 months old, 13 percent of Internet references were inactive, making substantial amounts of information unavailable.
UPDATE: The complete article is available (no charge) by visiting the lead author’s web site and clicking on the full text link next to the title, “Going, going, gone: lost Internet references”. It’s the first article listed under “selected publications.”

Infoglut
Source: School of Information Management and Systems, University of California at Berkeley
How Much Information 2003
“Print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media produced about 5 exabytes of new information in 2002. Ninety-two percent of the new information was stored on magnetic media, mostly in hard disks.” To put this into perspective, the study authors note that “five exabytes of information is equivalent in size to the information contained in half a million new libraries the size of the Library of Congress print collections.” Thanks to Shirl Kennedy for the link.
Executive Summary
Summary of Findings
Full Report (PDF: 100 pages)

Web Search–Google
Source: The New York Times
“Microsoft and Google: Partners or rivals?”
With all of the talk lately that:
1) Google will have an IPO early in 2004
2) Microsoft is going to develop its own search product this article will sure to kick the speculation of “what will happen” meter into overdrive. According to this NYT article talk about a possible purchase or partnership of Google by Mr. Gates continues.
From the article:
* Microsoft approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover.
* Though seemingly spurned, Microsoft may still be interested in pursuing Google at a later date, according to an executive briefed on the discussions.
* The auction route is said to appeal to Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who are known for their fascination in pursing technical solutions to many different kinds of problems. But it appears that Google is more likely to take the traditional path of using Wall Street to sell its initial offering. It is still toying with the idea, executives said, of using an online auction for a possible secondary offering as a way to allow its millions of users to have a better opportunity to buy its shares.
* Microsoft as a search competitor could change the market’s assessment of Google’s value.
One of the MANY things that Google has going for it is how the company is perceived and though of by its loyal user base. No one doubts that some of Google’s success, to this point, has been carefully developing and building its public image.
A formal relationship with Microsoft (of all companies) would be likely viewed as the ultimate sell-out and strongly weaken how the company is viewed and used by its most loyal users. However, the role that this would play on the masses who just want to use a search engine is most likely small. However, if word-of-mouth/viral marketing can make “to Google” a verb in just a few years, can it work the other way? A gut feeling on my part, the end of talk between MS and Google (GoogleSoft?) is not over.
See Also: Friendster Says No To Google Buyout (via SJ Mercury News)

Government Documents–United Kingdom
Source: British Library
Today, New Depository Rules Become Law in UK
From the annoucement, A Private Members Bill, introduced by Chris Mole MP in December 2002 has passed all its Parliamentary hurdles and became law today when it received Royal Assent. The Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 extends previous legal deposit legislation passed nearly 100 years ago in 1911. The Act enshrines the principle that electronic or e-publications and other non-print materials will be deposited in the future under secondary legislation. It ensures that these publications can be saved as part of the published archive - and become an important resource for future generations of researchers and scholars.
See Also: “British Library archives websites” via BBC News

Briefly
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals Now Available on EBSCOhost Platform
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Dialog Adds Exclusive Health, Disease Statistics to Medical Information Collection

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Electrcity–United States–Statistics
Source: EIA
Just Released: State Electricity Profiles 2001
“This Internet only report presents a summary of the key State statistics for 2001 contrasted with 1996 and 1992. The tables present summary statistics; ten largest plants by generating capacity; top five utilites ranked by retail sales; electric power industry generating capacity by primary energy source…”
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Earth Sciences–Imagery Database
Source: NASA
Visible Earth
“The purpose of NASA’s Visible Earth is to provide a consistently updated, central point of access to the superset of NASA’s Earth science-related images, animations, and data visualizations. These images are considered to be public.” Keyword search with standard Boolean operators; advanced search additionally allows you to specify a sensor, a location, a subject heading and/or date range. As of 10/31/03, “There are currently 5888 records in the database (44.7 GB).”

Librarians
Source: Quality Planning Corporation
More Drivers Are on the Roads; Who Are You Most Likely To Run Into? A Student? A Politician? A Librarian?
Students, as you might expect, are most likely to get into an accident among 40 professions surveyed by Quality Planning Corporation (QPC), an insurance industry consulting firm that helps rate driver risk. Farmers are least likely to get into an accident. Says QPC: “Students are 3.5 times more likely to be involved in an accident than farmers.” Students also top the list of 40 professions most likely to get speeding tickets. Homemakers are at the bottom of the list. Next to last, at number 39? Librarians. Maybe we all need to take a copy of this survey to our insurance agents and ask for a rate reduction. Thanks to SDK for the link.
See: Also Worst drivers: Teens, doctors, lawyers (CNN/Money)

Specialized Search–Books
Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” Discussed on NPR
As ResourceShelf mentioned last Thursday and you’ve probably read about elsewhere, Amazon’s Search Inside the Book” service is getting plenty of press attention. Yesterday, the service was discussed on National Public Radio’s “Day to Day” program. From the NPR site, Amazon.com is now allowing potential book buyers to sample large parts of any given volume through a new service called “Search Inside the Book.” Is it a service, or a scam? NPR’s Karen Grigsby Bates talks with an Amazon representative and a critic of the new service. The segment runs about 4.5 minutes.

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries and Librarians
The October, 2003 Issue (#37) of Ariadne is Now Available
Articles include:
+ Trends in Self-Posting of Research Material Online by Academic Staff
+ Delivering OAI Records as RSS: An IMesh Toolkit module for facilitating resource sharing
+ Ebooks in UK Libraries: Where are we now?
+ Towards a Typology for Portals
+ DAEDALUS: Initial experiences with EPrints and DSpace at the University of Glasgow
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PubMed
Source: National Library of Medicine
A New Version of the PubMed Tutorial Is Now Online
This new version incorporates changes to PubMed through June 2003. Some of the changes include:
+ Page selection
+ �Send to� pull-down menu options
+ Journals database
+ MeSH database
+ Abstract/full-text icons
+ Display of more comments/corrections
+ New search capabilities for corporate author, place of publication, and grant number

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Afghanistan–U.S. Contractors
Iraq–U.S. Contractors
Source: Center for Public Integrity
New report, Windfalls of War: U.S. Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
This new report discusses the companies chosen to help rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. Included in the report is a list of contractors for both Iraq and Afghanistan and a ranking of contractors by contract size (lists and rankings in left column).
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Knowledge Economy–Worldwide–Statistics
New, Web Edition, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2003
The Science, Technology and Industry (STI) Scoreboard 2003 brings together the latest internationally comparable data on trends in the knowledge-based economy. It is the sixth edition of a series spanning a decade and brings together over 200 indicators, many of them new to this edition. The Web book edition, Web Scoreboard 2003, which includes a data appendix and links to the underlying data for all graphs and figures is available here. Thanks to S.B. for the news tip.
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Migration–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Full-Text, Just Released, Migration by Race and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2000
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Knowledge Workers–Canada
Source: Statstitics Canada
Two New, Full-Text Reports
1) Dimensions of occupational changes in Canada’s knowledge economy, 1971-1996
2) Knowledge workers in Canada’s economy, 1971-2001
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Energy–United States–Statistics
Source: EIA
New Edition, Just Released, Annual Energy Review 2002
U.S. energy history from 1949-2002 recorded in data tables and figures.

Briefly
ProQuest, Project MUSE Agree to Offer Full-Text Linking
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FAST Search & Transfer Continues To Line-Up New Clients, Add Charles Schwab to Roster

Web Search–MSN
Source: Reuters
“Microsoft Realigns MSN Into Two Divisions”
From the article, MSN executives also said that they had hired Paul Ryan, former Chief Technology Officer of online search advertising company Overture Services Inc., to head up MSN’s nascent search efforts.
See Also: Paul Ryan Bio (via Overture)

E-Learning
Source: OCLC/E-Learning Task Force
Full-Text White Paper, “Libraries and the Enhancement of E-learning”
From the site, The E-learning Task Force is composed of 13 representatives from OCLC member libraries in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. The white paper introduces the current state of electronic and online enhancement to college-level coursework, and it outlines the importance of library collaboration with campus staff as these technologies evolve.
Summary/Intro ||| Direct to Full-Text

Librarians–United States–Recruitment
Source: IMLS
Nearly $10 Million Awarded to Recruit and Educate New Generation of Librarians
From the announcement, Today [Tuesday] the Institute of Museum and Library Services awards $9,898,338 in 27 inaugural grants for this initiative under a new program, Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the 21st Century…Anticipating the loss of as many as 58% of the current cohort of professional librarians by 2019, this program is designed to help recruit a new generation of librarians. You can access a complete list of grant projects (27) and descriptions here.

Web Search–Google
Source: Financial Times
Full-Text article: “Why Google’s technology may have reached its peak” (subscription only)
A bit more cautious writing about Google’s future by FT writer, John Gapper. Those of you who read ResourceShelf on a regular basis are more than aware of the fact that I’ve never bought into the “nothing will ever be better mindset.” Google was in the right place at the right time and was able to market itself in many unique ways. In my opinion, the most interesting history of Google’s early years will not be about their technology but will be how they marketed the product. Here are a few quotes and comments from the FT article.
+ “Already the bulletin board of Slashdot, provider of “news for nerds”, is full of gripes that Sergey Brin and Larry Page are taking the stock market shilling.”
I sometimes think that to be a reader of Slashdot you need to have a complaint about everything. What the Slashdot community is realizing is that Google is a company that has more goals than satisfying the personal search needs and wants of every single user. One tool Google has used to get it to where it is today by managing how it uses the media. Google has never been seen as a big company because in many cases big companies advertise and then advertise some more. They spend, spend, spend trying to “sell” people on their product. Google hasn’t needed to do this because they get plenty of positive advertising (and that’s putting it mildly) for free via hundreds of newspaper/magazine articles, radio segments, and television features. Then, toss into the mix all of the “Google is great” pub they receive on various web sites and you’ve created a massive marketing powerhouse using non-traditional tools. It not only promotes but enhances Google’s “just some people building a search engine” image. Google is a case study in how to market a company.
+ The loudest complaint against Google is that it has lost some of its original arm’s-length attitude to commerce.
The article does not mention that all of the major search players have done a good job of labeling results and that all search results are manipulated in one way or another by search engine optimizers.
+ The more pertinent question is whether its business model will retain the lead. To start with, it can no longer rely on others failing to grasp the importance of search. Algorithmic search engines are tough to design and maintain but others such as Teoma, owned by Ask Jeeves, and Yahoo’s Inktomi are catching up.
I agree 100%. Again, those of you who have been a regular on this site know that I’m a big fan and supporter of what Jeeves and Teoma are up to. No need to repeat myself. Let’s not forget that Yahoo is now the owner of powerful technology from AllTheWeb and AltaVista.
+ Yahoo is augmenting internet search with its own information. Its Yahoo Shopping service not only allows users to search for the cheapest outlet for different models of digital cameras but also combines the results with its own guide to buying cameras, and with user reviews.
Again, Mr. Gapper is correct. After preparing for a recent seminar on web consumerism and looking at the various shopping search tools, Yahoo Shopping is my current fave. Yahoo’s just announced “SmartSort” personalized results tools show plenty of promise.
Of course Google’s founders have shown before that only a fool underestimates them, and its technology remains hard to match; there is still plenty of scope for further growth. Still, if I were on the board, I might well think that it was time to sell a few shares.
+ Gapper is right again. However, I think he would have made an already interesting article better by also mentioning the fact that the need for smaller, niche-based engines is still very strong and important. In other words, one search tool cannot be the end all, be all for all types of searches and types of searchers. I sometimes think that some information professionals have forgotten this point. Google has done MANY good things for the search community but it has created a belief in the general public that it’s perfect technology and home to all of the answers (if it’s not in Google it doesn’t exist).
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AND SPEAKING OF BAD SEARCH HABITS….
Barbara Quint reports about how OCLC is allowing Google to add records (on a trial basis) from WorldCat. Quint corrrectly points out that many issues come into play here including the likelihood of an end user doing a basic Google search and a link for the book (via OCLC) appearing in the first few results (where most people look). The article also mentions that IEEE material is being added into Google. We’ve reported on this several times. From several test searches I’ve noticed estimates of less than 150,000 citations being available as of today. The full IEEE xPlore Database is closing in on 1 million records.
Some questions to consider
1) I’ve found even with the technical nature of IEEE material, you must run an exact item search to access the abstract. Running a basic keyword search does not often produce IEEE material.
2) Searching on an author’s name or initials will often not produce IEEE abstracts.
3) Here’s a known item search for the article, “Scene detection in hollywood movies and TV shows”
The first result is the full text of the paper from the author’s web site. Who needs IEEE? Also, a database like CiteSeer not only offers a link to the full text (if available) but it also acts as a citation index.
4) An author search for Zeeshan Rasheed or Z Rasheed does not retrieve the IEEE abstract, for the paper mentioned above, anywhere in the first 100 results.
5) In the case of the soon to come OCLC/Google database, will links to the library record appear near bookstores trying to sell the book? How will this be determined.
6) Why are libraries spending so much time and effort in cataloging material for it to be thrown into a free-text database where the power of a cataloged record can be exploited?