Web Resources of the Week
1) Search Tools
Harness the Power of Any Search Engine Onto a Cool Toolbar
This week, it’s time for a free web search tool that I recently discovered called NeedleSearch. It allows you to capture the basic search functionality from any web engine, site search tool, or specialized database and make it readily accessible at any time via an easy-to-use toolbar.
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For some of you, the only issue in trying NeedleSearch is the fact that it only works with the wonderful open-source web browser, Mozilla. If you’ve never tried Mozilla, by all means do so. Like NeedleSearch, it’s completely free and offers all sorts of features including a pop-up blocker. Mozilla also allows you to open and view multiple pages in the same browser application using tabbed windows. Very useful! Mozilla is available for several platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and more.
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Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on to NeedleSearch. This piece of freeware is the work of a Dutch software developer. In a nutshell, NeedleSearch operates like other toolbars BUT this one allows YOU to easily (and I do mean easily) and at any time harness the search functionality of any search engine directly into the NeedleSearch application. No need to wait for a developer, you can do it yourself!
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You’re then able to run basic searches without first having to go directly to the database or web site you need to search. Allow me to share a couple of examples. But before getting started, I can report that NeedleSearch installs quickly and easily.
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Once installed you’ll see that a few search engines have been “pre-programmed” for you. You can edit them, remove them, etc., the choice is yours. Editing or removing these choices is easily accomplished by selecting the “edit” button (second to last button on the toolbar). Ok, now let’s add a rapidly expanding general web engine, Gigablast, to NeedleSearch.

+ Go to the Gigablast home page and turn on the NeedleSearch auto-adder (button with the “plus” sign on it).
+ In the Gigablast search box type: NeedleSearch. You should see a message that Gigablast has been added to NeedleSearch. That’s it, you’re done!
+ Now, the next time you want to run a basic search with Gigablast, simply enter your search terms into toolbar, pull-down to Gigablast, and click the search button.
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Now for my favorite reason for using NeedleSearch. Not only can you use it to search general web engines, but you can also use it with specialized databases.

Here’s an example.

I’m always searching Peter Scott’s wonderful Libdex database of library web sites and OPACS. With NeedleSearch I can search the database without having to first go to the Libdex site. This will not only work with Libdex but with just about any site or specialized web engine with search functionality. Here are the steps I followed to add Libdex to the NeedleSearch toolbar.
+ Go to Libdex.Com and find the search box.
+ Turn on the NeedleSearch auto-adder (button with the “plus” sign on it).
+ In the Libdex search box type: NeedleSearch
+ An alert box notifying you you’ve added Libdex should appear
+ You’re done.
Now, no matter where you are on the web, you can search Libdex without first having to and find the Libdex site.
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Of course, many other features are included. For example, you can open results in a new window or Mozilla tab, highlight search terms, and more. A button is also available to find your search term(s) on the results page or the underlying web page.
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Those of you with experience “tweaking” urls can set up more sophisticated queries by editing the url string with NeedleSearch. Like most web tools, the best way to learn about NeedleSearch is to download a copy, have the documentation nearby, and experiment. I think you’ll find this free tool easy to use and very useful. Once again, NeedleSearch is free to download and use.
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One final note for the Googleaholics out there. I think some of you will question the fact that your original download of NeedleSearch includes Dutch language versions of Google. Changing it to the www.google.com version can be accomplished by either removing this version via the edit/remove buttons and adding a new entry direct from Google.Com OR by simply editing out the from the url.
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2) Television–History
Reference Tools
Source: The Museum of Broadcast Communications, Chicago
Full Text Book: The Encyclopedia of Television
From the site, The Encyclopedia of Television includes more than 1,000 original essays from more than 250 contributors and examines specific programs and people, historic moments and trends, major policy disputes and such topics as violence, tabloid television and the quiz show scandal. It also includes histories of major television networks as well as broadcasting systems around the world and is complemented by resource materials, photos and bibliographical information. The book is not searchable but does contain hyperlinked cross-references.

Web Search
Source: The Register
“A Quantum Theory of Internet Value”
The always controversial Andrew Orlowski writes about how “Google sucks.” Some of you might think that I would agree with him, but I don’t. Google works fine for some types of searches, but so does AlltheWeb, Gigablast, Teoma. Each tool has its strengths and weaknesses. For certain types of seaching, specialized databases like Citeseer and SmealSearch are essential. Maybe a tool like Vivisimo or Grokker could help the searcher find what they need. It all depends on the information need. Luckily, information professionals have the skills not only to help the searcher decide what they need (reference interview) but to also suggest a wide variety of resources that might help satisfy the need. We can also help teach the searcher to do this on their own. What I think Mr. Orlowski is saying is that Google or any web engine is not the be-all to end-all and relying on only one tool is not a good idea. This is something I absolutely agree with. The problem for some people is that they have no idea about what else is available. This is why the library world must do a better job of marketing. Change starts with each one of us. If nothing else this article might wake up a few people to the fact that librarians, libraries, books, and electronic resources other than Google are still vital. Included in the article are several positive comments about the libraries and librarians. Orlowski writes, “Taxonomies also have been proved to have value: archivists can justify a smirk as manual directory projects dmoz [Open Directory] floundered – true archivists have a far better sense of meta-data than any computerized system can conjure. If you’re in doubt, befriend a librarian, and from the resulting dialog, you’ll learn to start asking good questions. Your results, we strongly suspect, will be much more fruitful than any iterative Google searches.”

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Online Behavior
Source: AScribe Newswire
Keeping Found Things Found: Web Tools Don’t Always Mesh With How People Work
“People have devised many tricks – such as sending e-mails to themselves or jotting on sticky notes – for keeping track of Web pages, but William Jones and Harry Bruce at the University of Washington’s Information School and Susan Dumais of Microsoft Research have found that often people don’t use any of them when it comes time to revisit a Web page. Instead, they rely on their ability to find the Web page all over again.” The researchers have been examining how Web users “keep found things found” when seeking information online and — by understanding how and why people do what they do — hope they can develop more useful information management tools. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation. Thanks to SDK for the link and blurb.
See Also: Keeping Found Things Found (Research project of the Information School at the University of Washington)
See Also: Keeping Found Things Found Survey of Web Keeping Methods (MS Word; 104KB)
See Also: KFTF Publications and Presentations
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Librarians
Source: LIScareer.com
Librarians in the Information Age: Alternative Uses of MLS Degrees
Darwin McGuire, a student in the Library and Information Science Program at Wayne State University, researched alternative careers for librarians, which he then broke down into six categories: libraries (outside the traditional functions), corporate, freelance, technology, government, and �way-out-there.” Lots of interesting ideas about what you can do with an MLS degree.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Population–United States–Statistics
Source: US Census
Just Released, Official U.S. Population
This announcement includes fast facts and several Excel tables.
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Software Industry–Lists & Rankings
Source: Software Magazine
The Software 500
Background Article ||| List and Database (Registration Required, Free)
“Top 500 Software and Service companies.”
See Also: The 2002 Software 500
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Health Information–United States–Calendars
Source: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion /U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Health Observances, 2004
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African–Americans–Directory
A Roadmap to African-American Resources
A massive directory of over 2000 resources. It was compiled by Sherry Sherrod Dupree, Santa Fe Community College. Ms. Dupree is a researcher, consultant, and historian whose primary focus is African-American resources.

Web Search–Vivisimo
Vivisimo Gets into the Toolbar Game
Ok, NeedleSearch (this week’s Resource of the Week) doesn’t work for you. Not a problem! ResourceShelf, web searching, and online/print research are all about options and choices. So, it’s time for a brief post to announce that Vivisimo, the very useful clustering search tool, has now entered into the toolbar game with a beta release. The new toolbar (for IE only) offers direct access to the engine, a pop-up blocker, word find, keyword highlighting, a cookie eraser, and several other features. One of these features is called “Auto-Query Catching.” What is it?
From the site, If you complete a search on sites such as Yahoo!, Google, MSN, WiseNut, Teoma, AltaVista, and others, the Vivi�simo toolbar will automatically detect your query and insert the same terms into the toolbar search box.
Vivisimo has also released a smaller app that they’re calling a MiniBar. It offers some but not all of the features available with the toolbar.

Citation Analysis
Scholarly Publishing
Source: ISI
+ Science in Mexico, 1998-2002
+ Psychiatry: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1998-2002
+ U.S. Universities with Highest Concentrations in Agriculture/Agronomy, 1998-2002

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Digital Information–Preservation
Source: OECD Observer
“The great digital information disappearing act”
This article was written by Deborah Woodyard, Digital Preservation Coordinator, The British Library. From the article, Simply saving all the bits and bytes is a good start, but it will not necessarily be enough to be able to use the information again in the future. Managing large amounts of data is a considerable challenge also. You need to understand the technical profile of your entire collection, as well as be able to efficiently find a single piece of information within a huge storage system � a needle in a virtual haystack…Preservation needs to be addressed throughout the life cycle of digital material in order to be effective. Appropriate steps must be introduced to acquisition and cataloguing, for example, to ensure the capture and management of technical details and preservation information, and guarantee the digital files are not altered in any way. Ignoring preservation and not performing these tasks at this stage would be like putting a book on the wrong shelf and never being able to find it again, or as bad, storing the book under a water drip. The information may still be between the pages, or in a digital file, but you cannot see or use it anymore.
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RLG
The December, 2003 Issue of RLG DigiNews is Online
Feature articles:
+ PDF/A: Developing a File Format for Long-Term Preservation, by William G. LeFurgy
+ Research Agendas Set Course for Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation, by Margaret Hedstrom

Web Search–Google
Another Day and More Google News
It looks like Google has launched a beta of its book search program to compete with Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book.” Early word of Google’s venture “leaked” out just a few hours after Amazon launched SITB in October.
From the FAQ, “Google’s mission is to provide access to all the world’s information and make it universally useful and accessible. It turns out that not all the world’s information is already on the Internet, so Google has been experimenting with a number of publishers to test their content online. During this trial, publishers’ content is hosted by Google and is ranked in our search results according to the same technology we use to evaluate websites.”
The FAQ also solicits the participation of publishers to provide content and explains that Google Print pages are surrounded with context sensitive advertising via Google’s AdSense program. You can learn more by going to the Google Print FAQ page.
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You can browse a bunch of Google Print titles by running this search. You’ll notice that unlike Amazon’s SITB where you actually see an image of the page, here you only get ASCII text. Presently, you can print the excerpts but it will be interesting to see if they disable printing if/when the excerpts become longer so the company can avoid problems with the writing community. The length of excerpts varies from just a short blurb to a portion of a chapter.
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This means that at least for the time being, the primary Google database grows larger and larger. Without the proper techniques to create more advanced queries or limit a search (skills most searchers don’t have but we can teach them), competition for those first 10 spots on a results page becomes even more intense. In other words, we’re getting increased recall and lowered precision. We know that an average searcher only looks at the first few results and submits queries containing around 3 terms. As the database grows, determining relevance and sharing it in the first few results becomes an even greater challenge, even for Google. All of this new cotent once again illustrates that the information professional should have solid understanding of Google’s advanced features as well as those from other web engines. Thanks to S.C. for the news tip.
See Also: Search Day Offers Commentary
Chris Sherman with info about where Google Print results fall on a results page.
See Also: “Google Experiment Provides Internet With Book Excerpts” (via NY Times)
From the article, “Google executives have also discussed with university librarians the possibility of converting library collections into a digital format but they have declined to comment on any plans.”
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PublishersLunch is a free subscription newsletter aimed at members of the publishing industry. Today, the newsletter ran a lengthy story about Google Print. ResourceShelf has been granted permission to reprint the full text of the article. You can find it here. I’ve also prepared a summary.
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* What we now see at Google Prints is a “shadow” of what’s being “sold” to the publishing industry.

* A Google spokesperson told PublishersLunch that the program is open to self-publishers. “They want to be as comprehensive as possible.”

* Google has been holding “formal” conversations with publishers for months.

* Adam Smith, “a key player” at Random House in electronic publishing, has left the company and taken a position at Google.

* The article also reports that this is part of a larger plan by Google. “The goal seems to be to truly “Google” book content, or as much as they can get their hands on. Launching in the first q of 2004 the program would allow registered users to access up to 10% of the full text of an available within a month.
* They are offering publishers a revenue arrangement.

* Finally, the article cites a recent post on PaidContent.Org that Google is considering taking on Factiva, LN, etc. by providing access to fee-based content in an arrangement that appears similar to what Google is doing with IEEE.

Again, the full text of the article is available courtesy of PublishersLunch.
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and while we’re on the Google beat…
“Google Here, There, and Everywhere” (via Business Week)
This article spends time discussing Google’s new direct links to a few numerical databases. However, the author makes no mention of the fact that this idea is not new and AltaVista, Ask, and Yahoo offer similar “shortcuts.” In the case of AV, they’ve been online for almost two years. Examples of all of these resources in this post.

Digitization Projects–Canada
Canada’s Digital Collections Adds Several New Resources
You can find blurbs and links about each new collection on this page.
+ Vancouver’s Golden Years: 1900-1910, Photographs by Philip Timms
+ The Waldren Studios: Images of Nova Scotia, 1870-1940
+ Centuries of the Image
+ Fire + Earth
+ Louis-Auguste Guillemette, ma�tre d’orgue
+ Performing Our Musical Heritage

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (7 Items)
Population–United States–Statistics
Just Released, The Foreign-Born Population: 2000
Summary/Fast Facts/Tables ||| Full-Text
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Births–United States–Statistics
Source: CDC
Just Released, Births: Final Data for 2002
Summary/Fast Facts ||| Full Text (7.8 MB; pdf)
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Volunteerism–United States–Statistics
Source: BLS
Full Text, Volunteering in the United States
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Climate–United States–Year in Review
Source: National Climatic Data Center
New Report, Climate of 2003: 2003 in Historical Perspective ||| Chart
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Economy–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
Full Text Report, Digital Economy 2003
“Digital Economy 2003 (DE2003) is the Department�s fifth annual report on conditions in U.S. information technology (IT) industries and the effects of IT on national economic performance.” In a nutshell, the technology industry is recovering slowly, but hiring and salaries are lagging somewhat.
See Also: Direct to Full Report (PDF; 2.26MB)
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Homeland Security
Source: The White House (via FAS)
White House Publishes Two New Homeland Security Presidential Directives
1) Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection
2) National Preparedness
Thanks to S.A. for the resource tip.
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Cable Television–United States–Statistics
Source: National Cable & Telecommunications Association
Cable Television Industry Overview
“NCTA is the principal trade association of the cable industry in the United States, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation’s cable television households. It also represents more than 200 cable program services as well as equipment suppliers and service providers to the industry.” The Statistics and Resources section contains state data (% of households that are cable subscribers), the top 25 cable systems, and the top 20 cable networks.
See Also: Mid-Year 2003 Cable & Telecommunications Industry Overview (PDF; 903KB)
See Also: Cable & Telecommunications Glossary
See Also: Cable & Telecommunications Organizations

Congressional Research Service
Source: Copley News Service
“Ney draws line at public access to research”
More on the fate of public access to CRS reports. From the article, Ohio Rep. Bob Ney, R-St. Clairsville, has played a decisive role in the argument by potentially expanding access to some degree while leaving the basic restrictive policy unchanged. As chairman of the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the CRS, Ney launched a new service that allows lawmakers to make reports of their choosing available via a link in their congressional Web sites. �It used to be nothing went up online� for the public to see, Ney said. �Now we�re telling members if you want to do a work product and put it online, that�s fine.� At the same time, Ney called a halt to efforts to provide greater public access to the research. He ended a two-year pilot project, which allowed the public to search through the otherwise inaccessible CRS database via links on the Web sites of participating congressmen. Some lawmakers believe the public is entitled to all or most of the reports. �It seems to me that (CRS) work ought to be available to whoever might find it to be helpful or useful,� said Ohio Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, who favors complete disclosure. �This work is being done at taxpayers� expense. What we�re talking about is just research.� Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Jay Inslee, D-Wash., have introduced legislation that would make most of the reports available on congressional Web sites, while excluding research requested by individual lawmakers. Btw, access to CRS material on the House.Gov via Congressman Chris Shay’s and other members of Congress remains unavailable. A note explaining the situation has been posted.
See Also: More in this November 2003 ResourceShelf E-Mail Reminder Post
See Also: A List of CRS Sources Still Offering Some Content is at the Bottom of this October 2003 Post

National Library of Medicine
Source: GCN
Congratulations to MedlinePLUS from the National Library of Medicine
From the article, A health library and the online application for federal college aid topped the latest quarterly survey of e-government customer satisfaction…The survey, released today, looked at 35 federal sites that use the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) developed by the University of Michigan. The main site of MedlinePlus, a medical information portal run by the National Library of Medicine at medlineplus.gov scored 86 out of 100 points on ASCI. The Spanish-language counterpart to MedlinePlus, at medlineplus.gov/esp, scored an 82.
See Also: ACSI Scores

Information Industry–netLibrary/OCLC
Online Books
New Version of netLibrary to Launch on January 14th, 2004
A new look and new features (non-English language options, better access for users with disabilities). An online preview is available.
See Also: and speaking of online books, some info about the new Ingenta/Oxford University Press Project, OxfordScholarship.Com
“The complete text of over 700 carefully-selected Oxford books.”
See Also: More Libraries Sign-Up for Overdrive’s eBooks Service

Professional Reading Shelf
Metadata
Institutional Repositories
Source: RLG
Presentations, To Have and to Hold: Metadata and Institutional Repositories
This RLG Members’ Forum took place on December 9th and 12th, 2003. Powerpoint presentations include:
* Description and discovery (EAD, MARC21, XML, MODS, OAI)
* Selecting and implementing an open source software digital repository
* Mixing and matching�part 2: combining open source options and customized management systems (D-Space and customized digital repositories)

Books
Source: AP
“MIT scientist forms world’s largest book”
From the article, 133-pound tome about the Asian country of Bhutan that uses enough paper to cover a football field and a gallon of ink has been declared the world’s largest published book. Author Michael Hawley, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it’s not a book to curl up with at bedtime – “unless you plan to sleep on it…Each copy of “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Kingdom,” is 5-by-7 feet, 112 pages and costs about $2,000 to produce. Hawley is charging $10,000, to be donated to a charity he founded, Friendly Planet, which has built schools in Cambodia and Bhutan.
See Also: Here’s the Amazon Entry for the Book

Motion Pictures
The Library of Congress
LC Announces 2003 Additions to National Film Registry
See Also: Complete List of Films 1989-2002

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items)
Privacy–Canada
Source: Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Resources: “Canada’s New Private Sector Privacy Law”
Canadians’ personal information will be protected by a new law � the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents (PIPED) Act. The new law goes into effect on 1/1/04.
See Also: An Introduction To Protecting Personal Information Collected By Charities (via the Association of Fundraising Professionals)
Provides a general overview of the Canadian federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents (PIPED) Act, including the principles behind the privacy legislation, how the bill will work, what constitutes personal information, the complaints process and resources for further information.
See Also: Privacy 101 – A Guide To Privacy Legislation For Fundraising Professionals In Canada (via AFP)
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Internet–United Kingdom
Source: e-Envoy
Just Released, Full Text, Annual Report: UK Online 2003
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Homeland Security–United States
Documents in the News
Source: Gilmore Commission/Rand Corporation
Full Text, 5th Annual Report, Forging America�s New Normalcy: Securing Our Homeland, Protecting Our Liberty
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Crime–United States–Statistics
Source: FBI
Just Released, FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text
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Health Care Industry–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, 2002 Service Annual Survey: Health Care and Social Assistance Services
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text
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Economics–United States–Statistics
Source: National League of Cities
Full Text, Cities’ Fiscal Challenges Continue to Worsen in 2003 (PDF; 424KB)
“In the National League of Cities� latest annual survey of city finances, more than four in five respondents (81%) said their cities were less able to meet financial needs during 2003 than in the previous year. It was the highest negative response to the question since the annual fiscal conditions survey first started asking it in 1990.”
See Also: Press Release

Industry Briefs
West/Thomson Awarded $25 Million Contract by IRS
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World Tourism Organization Launches E-Library Powered by Ingenta ||| Direct to WTOeLibrary
Note: This new service offers the option for non-subscribers to purchase basic tourism stats at $5/U.S. per country. Other reports can also be purchased by credit card.

Web Search–Google
Source: Chilling Effects
Selected Compilation of Recent DMCA/Cease and Desist Requests Sent to Google
+ Microsoft Requests Blogspot [Google] Removal of Product Keys
+ Google Asked to Remove Links to Story “Seduction” (#12)
+ Merry Prankster Photos to Geocities (#2)
+ Christian Polygamy Site Claims Unauthorized Copying

Information Visualization
Personal Searching
Source: San Jose Mercury News
New Version of Grokker Available Today
Grokker2, a visual search tool, was released today and allows you to not only search web content but also all of the material on your computer. This new version also offers dynamic categorization. You can download a 30 day fully functional version of Grokker2 here. A version for the Mac will be available in Q1 of ‘04. Much more in this article from eWeek and the “official” release announcement. I’ve downloaded a trial version and will report back asap. The original Grokker release has been mentioned on ResourceShelf several times including this July 2003 in The Economist and this October 2002 (when Grokker launched) article in The New York Times.