Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Digital Libraries
Source: Human-Computer Interaction Lab / University of Maryland
Full-Text, “What Children Can Teach Us: Developing Digital Libraries for Children with Children”
This paper by Allison Druin has been submitted to The Library Quarterly.
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DVDs
Source: NIST/CLIR
Full-Text Report, Care and Handling CDs and DVDs : a Guide for Librarians and Archivists
We first mentioned this report in September. Today, the guide also became available on the CLIR web site. From the abstract, This report describes in nontechnical language the various types of CDs and DVDs now in use, how they are made, and how they work. It then distills current industry knowledge about disc longevity, conditions that affect life expectancy, and how to care for optical media. The guide is amply illustrated and includes a glossary and bibliography…The guide was written for use by librarians and archivists; however, it will be equally useful to any business or individual wishing to safeguard CD or DVD collections.

Government Documents–United States
Source: OMB Watcher
“Ideas Wanted for 10 Most Wanted Government Docs”
From the article,
We are looking for a few good documents–the Ten Most Wanted government documents for 2004, to be precise. And we’re hoping you, as an expert in this area, can help.
As part of an effort to fight increased government secrecy, we would like your help in identifying:
(1) the ten or twenty government documents — or categories of documents — you would most like to see the government make available to the public
(2) problems you have faced finding government information
Send your ideas to info@openthegovernment.org.
The complete article has more information.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
United States Congress–Directories
Source: GPO
New, Congressional Directory, 108th Congress
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Legal Industry–Lists and Rankings
Source: Law.Com
Who Represents America’s Biggest Companies, 2003
See Also: Chart: Who Represents America’s Biggest Companies?
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Property Information–United Kingdom
Pilot Project: Land Register Online
From the site, Details of individual properties in England and Wales can be obtained from our database of over 18 million registered records. These represent the majority of English and Welsh properties. Individual records cost �2.
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Missile Proliferation
Source: Congressional Research Service via FPC
Full-Text Report, Missile Proliferation and the Strategic Balance in South Asia
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Spam
Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project
New Report: “Spam: Hurting email and degrading the Internet environment”
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text

Trade Statistics–United States
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce/Federal Computer Week
New Web Site: Commerce rolls out trade info site
From the announcement, A new, state-of-the-art Web tool for accessing U.S. merchandise trade statistics at both the national and state levels. The TradeStats Express (TSE) features a user-friendly interface that enables visitors to retrieve, visualize, analyze, print and download trade data with ease. Graphics, data tables, and thematic maps can be custom-tailored to user needs and generated on-the-fly. Data on major geographic regions (e.g., Middle East) and trade preference regions (e.g., NAFTA) are pre-aggregated, permitting quick retrieval. Visitors also can tabulate national trade statistics using any of three major product classification systems (HS, NAICs, or SITC).
See Also: Direct to TradeStat Express
See Also: “DataWeb: The Bottom Line for Trade Data”
A new “Research Notebook”from the Baker Library Staff/Harvard Business School.

Online Information
Source: Managing Information
An Overview of “Microsoft Office 2003 Information Enhancements”
Managing Information offers an overview of Factiva, OneSource, and Outlook enhancements to Office 2003. LexisNexis has also announced that they’ll be included.
See Also: More About Factiva’s Integration
See Also: More About OneSource Integration

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries and Librarians
Source: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
Selected Articles from the November Issue of CILIP’s Library + Information Update Are Now Online
Articles available online include:
+ “A museum library in transition” by Victoria Stott
+ “Getting down to business” by Catherine Prosser
+ “Developing accessible library services” by Karen Hannah
+ Phil Bradley’s Internet Q&A

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Robots–Statistics
Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/International Federation of Robotics
Highlights: World Robotics 2003
Three key findings detailed in this 15-page press release:
+ Robot orders in first half of 2003 were up by 26% to the highest level ever recorded. Growth rates reached 35% in North America, 25% in Europe and 18% in Asia.
+ Worldwide growth in the period 2003-2006 will reach an average annual rate of 7.4%. These annual rates will fall in a broad range: 4.5% in Japan, 5.3% in Europe, 9.9% in North America.
+ Household robots are starting to take off.
Report says there are 770,000 robots now at work, including 350,000 in Japan, 233,000 in the EU and roughly 104,000 in North America. Thanks to Shirl Kennedy for the link and annotation.
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Fraud
Source: Community Oriented Policing Services/USDOJ
Full-Text, Check and Card Fraud
Although the audience for this guide is law enforcement it might also be of interest to others. The guide covers fraud involving all types of checks and plastic cards, including debit, charge, credit, and “smart” cards.
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Small Business–Legal Issues–United States
Updated, BusinessLaw.Gov Adds State and Local Government Content
Quickly connect to the growing number of online transactions and business wizards offered by your state and local government, as well as sources of in-person business and legal assistance that exist in your community.
Resources available in many states include:
Online licensing and registration
Legal guides for employers
Online tax filing
Sources of export assistance
Lawyer referral services
Government contracting opportunities
Online building permit applications
Contractor licensing checks
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American Indians
Alaskan Natives
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts About the American Indian and Alaskan Native Populations
Another list of “fast facts” in honor of American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month that will take place in November.

Briefly
Over 270 Microsoft Press Titles Will Be Available on netLibrary

Web Search–Google
Source: Computerworld
All About Google’s “Cheap and Fast” Hardware
Highlights from a recent speech by, Craig Nevill-Manning, a senior research scientist at Google. A few noteworthy points follow.
* “Cheap hardware allows more computation per query”
* “Google resonates through the more than 10,000 servers”
* “One full day of Google use on a server is the equivalent of 40 machine years”
* “Because the system is built this way, if a machine goes down, it doesn’t have to be repaired right away,” he said. “We can save money by doing this in a lazy fashion.”
* “Nevill-Manning said that keeping the index server updated — where there are over 390 million images stored — is probably the most time-intensive task…”
* “The amount of time a query spends in Google is small,” he said. “Search in five years will be even more accurate and more user-centered.”

Web Search–Microsoft
Source: Puget Sound Business Journal
“Microsoft to develop its own search engine”
From the article, Karen Redetzki, an MSN product manager, said the development of search technology is one of Redmond-based Microsoft’s biggest priorities. MSN is an Internet portal Microsoft launched in 1997 and has one of the highest traffic rates on the Web. “We need to be in this bigger and better,” she said. “We have been aggressively hiring and continue to do so to build a team that can support this very large effort.”
See Also: ResourceShelf’s Compilation of Microsoft Search Patents and Technical Writing
See Also: “MSN sticks with Overture” (via News.Com)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
Department of Homeland Security–United States
Source: Carroll Publishing
Daily Update of DHS News/Personnel Changes
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Museums–United States
Source: The American Association of Museums
New Web Site, Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal
The mission of the resource is, “…to provide a searchable registry of objects in U.S. museum collections that changed hands in Continental Europe during the Nazi era. Over 8500 objects are currently included in the database. An email alert service is available. Additional information can be accessed in an International Herald Tribune article and an AAM news release.
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Agriculture–Country Profiles
Source: Food And Agriculture Organization Of The United Nations
Updated, Country Profiles and Mapping Information System
From the announcement, The FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System which presents the Organization’s vast archive of knowledge on agriculture and food security within a single Web-based portal with groupings by country, has a new look, content and features.
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Marriage–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
New, Marital Status: 2000, a Census 2000 Brief
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
From the summary, A new analysis of Census 2000 data released today shows that of the more than 221 million people age 15 and over, there were 86 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women.
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Magazines–Lists & Rankings
Source: Ad Age
Magazine A-List: Top Ten U.S. Magazines of the Year
“Advertising Age’s annual Magazine A-List report spotlights the best magazine work of the year. The A-List report is an outgrowth and an expansion of Ad Age’s Best Magazine honors, and now includes honors for Editor of the Year, Launch of the Year and Publishing Executive of the Year. The Magazine of the Year honor goes to the No. 1-ranked title on the A-List. Magazines are selected for the A-List based on circulation and ad page prowess as well as overall achievement.” This year’s Magazine of the Year? Lucky. Editor of the Year? Cullen Murphy of The Atlantic Monthly.
See Also: Synopsis of top ten A-List winners
See Also: Full 10-page .pdf A-List and Magazine of the Year report

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Public Libraries–United States
Source: IMLS
Three Public Libraries Receive National Award for Library Service
Congrats and kudos to the Bozeman Public Library, Free Library of Philadelphia, and Pocahontas County Free Libraries. Each organization has been awarded the National Award for Library Service by the The Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Carnegie Science Center, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, and USS Constitution Museum were chosen in the museum category. From the announcement, The awards were created to underscore the vital role of museums and libraries as leaders in our democratic society. The winners are as diverse as the cultural landscape of our county: small and large, urban and rural. They have one thing in common: they have each found innovative ways to make serving the community central to their mission. They use their collections and programs to address real community needs.
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Association of Research Libraries
Full-Text, ARL Bimonthly Report 230/231
Julia C. Blixrud takes stock of new measures in research libraries in a special issue of the ARL Bimonthly Report.

Briefly
FAST Search and Transfer Lands Nordstroms
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Biological & Agricultural Index and Essay and General Literature Index From H.W. Wilson Now Available via EBSCOhost

Web Search–Google
Glossary Comes to English Language Versions of Google
Today Google made its glossary “feature” available with all English language versions of the search engine. Google Glossary has been available on the Google Labs site since May of 2002. A direct link to a specialized interface remains available. So exactly what’s new? Starting today, you can use the syntax define and (it works with or without the colon) to see if a “glossary” definition taken from open web content is available. If one is, you’ll find it at the top of the results list. In addition to beginning a glossary search with the word define, as in define skyscraper, starting a search with “definition”, “what is”, and “what are” will also invoke a glossary lookup. If more than one definition is available, a link labeled “more definitions” will appear. Click the link to see all definitions. This is important because only one definition is listed on a results page. Like I said last December, critical information skills are a must when using Google Glossary. One of the definitions for CNN notes that it’s owned by Ted Turner. It’s not. CNN has been part of Time Warner since 1996. The entry for NBA (National Basketball Association) mentions that two Canadian teams will enter the league in 1995. Yes, that’s correct but only one Canadian team remains. The database is also far from comprehensive, especially with abbreviations. The building next door to the White House is often referred to as the OEOB (Old Executive Office Building). A Google Glossary search turns up nothing. As do searches for CPO (chief petty officer), MLIS (Masters of Library and Information Science, ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), NHL (National Hockey League). I was also unable to find an entry for the term weblog. Finally, many definitions come from the WordNet database at Princeton University.

American Factfinder
Source: U.S. Census
A Redesigned American FactFinder Database Is Now Available
An overview of what’s new/changed is available here.

Librarians
Source: Contra Costa Times
“Wishing for a dynamic librarian action figure”
This piece, a response to the library action figure, was written by Julie Winkelstein. Ms. Winkelstein is a librarian at the Albany, CA Public Library. From the column, So, my disappointment isn’t with whom they picked as the model, but the way she is presented. She is dressed in what could be described as predictable librarian clothes — a conservative suit, probably extremely comfortable shoes and glasses. I’m sure it is the shallow part of me that makes me want this, but I wish she could look snazzier — you know, shiny or elegant or glittery — so maybe some girl somewhere might see her and say to themselves: Wow, I want one of these, she’s cool; or something like that. And she would then want to be a librarian because her action figure looks not only intelligent and capable, but also exciting and brave and modern.
See Also: The New York Times Publishes Letter From Librarian Regarding Action Figure

Library Schools
Source: American Libraries
Clark Another Library School Set to Close
From the article, Clark Atlanta University will close its School of Library and Information Studies�the only accredited library-education program in Georgia�at the end of the 2004�2005 academic year. The CAU board of trustees voted October 17 to end its library-school curriculum despite efforts by library leaders from across the country asking them to spare a program that earned its initial American Library Association accreditation in 1942.

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Libraries
Full-Text, Speech, “Cultural Policies in Knowledge Societies: the United States of America”
This speech was given by Dr. Robert S. Martin, Director, Institute of Museum and Library Services, at a UNESCO Meeting on October 10, 2003.
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Archives
Source: SAA
Full-Text, Speech “Archives or Assets?”
A speech by Peter B. Hirtle, President, Society of American Archivists, given at the SAA Annual Meeting on August 21, 2003.

Search Engines
Source: New Scientist
“Air aces show fame is not fair”
From the article, Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury from the University of California, Los Angeles, analysed the fame of “ace” pilots who fought for Germany during the World War I by comparing the number of web pages that now mention each pilot with the number of planes that the pilot shot down…They now plan to test the fame of modern celebrities such as tennis players and musicians, to see whether the same relationship still holds between achievement and fame. An interesting idea from two academics who have written on similar topics. I wonder how the study deals with the fact that page estimate totals at every engine, even Google, are just estimates and can vary from search to search.

Health Information
Source: Univ. of Michigan/Journal of Medical Internet Research
“Teens struggle to find accurate, useful health information online”
From the announcement, “In a study of how teen-agers search the Internet for answers to health questions, University of Michigan researchers found that misspelled words, ambiguous search terms and an imprecise approach to scanning a Web site often prevented students from finding the information they sought. The study, published today in the online Journal of Medical Internet Research, suggests the importance of teaching teens better search strategies as well as encouraging Web site designers to target teens.” The full-text of the article from the article is available online. Thanks to P.W. for the news tip.