Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Library Technology
Beginning Today (2/23): Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Library Hi Tech
Free access is made available via Emerald’s Journal of the Week program. Vol. 15 No.1-2 (1997) through Vol. 21. No.4 (2003) will be available.
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Open Access
Source: ARL Bimonthly Report
Open Access Builds Momentum
A new article by Peter Suber. From the article, “Momentum for open access (OA) built tremendously in 2003. Keeping up with it has left me little time to take stock and gain perspective, but even this early in the new year I can offer the following observations. 2003 was the year that research funders realized that if research is important enough to fund, then it’s important enough to share. Open access isn’t just an abstract public good; it’s a concrete way to make literature more useful and thereby to increase the return on investment that funders make in research.”

Web Search
Source: Searchblog,
A Couple of Comments on Search Variables
A post on J.B.’s site says “bravo” to this post on the Scobelizer blog asking for the big engines to give the public access to the “guts” of their search technologies so end users can better tune their results. Scoble also mentions that small engines (Gigablast, Feedster, Technorati and many others) will be the “real innovators.” Tim Bray correctly reminds us that most users don’t even take the time to use advanced syntax when developing a search strategy.

A couple of comments
+ I don’t see that the “big guys” are going to be sharing the guts of their technology with us very soon. Heck, I can’t even get Google to explain how their stemming technology works. Does Coca-Cola give out the exact formulas of how products are made? McDonalds still calls it “secret sauce.” (-:
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+ Many people believe that a single search tool can be all things to all people? I tend to disagree. Is there just a single reference book on your bookshelf? For the librarians out there, you know that many LexisNexis libraries and Dialog files exist.
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+ Scoble mentions that innovations will come from smaller databases. I agree. I would also toss into the mix “focused” and targeted tools like SmealSearch and ResearchIndex. Just last week, NEC was awarded a patent for focused crawler technology.
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+ Why shouldn’t these — along with thousands of other smaller, focused, and specialized databases — be “federated” at search time, which would help create a “better” search tool? Instead of incorporating many search tools, each with a different interface, a common interface could be designed to run “on top” of selected resources. All databases would and should remain completely independent.
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For example — searching for news? Bring together results from Technorati, Feedster, Yahoo News, Rocket News, and perhaps a fee-based service like Factiva (if you have access to it or if the publisher offered a pay-per-view option). At the enterprise level, results from the web, fee-based databases, and local search tools can be combined. Dialog offers something similar to what I’m describing called OneSearch.

+ Technology (similar to what Dialog has offered for years) could, if needed, help the user select the most pertinent databases to incorporate into a search (either based on the specific query or a searcher could simply tell the tool to make the decisions).
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+ Large databases like Google and Yahoo could also be exploited (if needed) by using them with advanced search strategies that have been “pre-built” for the user. For example, instead of a searcher having to go to the “advanced” page or know specific syntax to limit the query to government info, the federated tool would automatically append the query with the appropriate syntax, enabling a more precise search.
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+ Personalization would also be part of the system. Results could be post-processed with dupes removed, results clustered, and then sorted and re-sorted according to the search need. Initial result sets could be based on a user’s profile and/or past usage, but could be easily tweaked at the time of the search. As I mentioned yesterday, I think Yahoo is doing good things with their SmartSort technology. It’s easy to understand and use. Other views of the information, including visualization of results, could also be made available if the user found it helpful.
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+ A common interface (designed for the needs of a specific user group) will make it easier for people to take full advantage of these disparate tools.
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+ Let’s not forget that people often don’t want links. They want an answer. So, in addition to simultaneously searching disparate sources, technology should also be able to summarize and, if possible (depending on the query), present a possible answer(s) to fact-based queries.
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+ We’re already starting to see this with FAST’s new ESP technology, WebFountain, and other federated search technology* providers.
* Full disclosure: A company offering federated technology is a sponsor of ResourceShelf.
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+ Yes, this sounds like meta searching and to a certain degree it is. However, what we’ve come to think of as meta searching is just the tip of the iceberg. With additional search technologies, access to a wide variety of databases (web, fee-based, local), and post-processing technology, we could create a robust resource that would offer full-power (for those who want it), but also be simple enough for the average user. Btw, NISO is also doing work in the federated search/meta search arena.
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+ It’s very easy to envision how information professionals could be valuable in the creation and maintenance of tools like these.

Translation
Source: MIT Technology Review
Translation in the Age of Terror
Companies mentioned in the article:
+ BBN (a Verizon subsidiary)
+ Basis Technology
+ Trados

Web Search–Ask.co.uk
Source: Netimperitive
Ask Jeeves UK Adds “Smart Answer” Technology
This is the same technology that’s been available since early 2003 on Ask.com. ResourceShelf published a complete list of keywords in July and ran a few searches demonstrating Smart Answers yesterday.

Syndication
Source: Forbes.com
The Coming RSS Revolution
An introduction to RSS from a mainstream business publication. Feedster and NetNewsWire are mentioned. No mention of other syndication standards. Information professionals wanting to learn more about RSS and other syndication tools should check out this “classic” article by Steven Cohen and his Library Stuff site. Jenny Levine’s site is also a good place to learn more. Both Steven and Jenny continue to be the leaders in teaching the library community about RSS and syndication. Finally, the article doesn’t mention that many web-based solutions exist that allow you to organize and read RSS and other feeds without having to purchase and download any software. Bloglines.com (free) and MyFeedster (free) are two examples.
See Also: Librarians’ Index to the Internet Now Offers a Feed of Its Wonderful “What’s New This Week” List

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (6 Items)
Terrorism
Source: Congressional Research Service
New Report, Foreign Terrorist Organizations
PDF; 111 pages
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Iraq
Source: U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs
Security Companies Doing Business in Iraq
Alphabetical listing of security companies currently working in Iraq. Information for each includes headquarters address, website, e-mail address, local contact in Iraq, brief description of services.
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Freedom of Information Act–United States
Source: GAO
New Report, Update on Freedom of Information Act Implementation Status
PDF; 86 pages
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Privacy–Canada
Source: Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Three New Fact Sheets
1) Privacy in the Workplace
2) The Application of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act to Charitable and Non-Profit Organizations
3) Application of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act to Employee Records
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Standards
Source: IEEE
ThinkStandards.net
“At thinkstandards.net, we’ll take you through a brief history of standards and help you understand the relationship between standards, technology and business strategies.” Includes “a list of the relevant sites dedicated to the standards discipline.”
See also: Standards Engineering Society Links Page
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Election 2004
Factiva Posts Media Visibility Index for Democratic Presidential Hopefuls (Week Ending 2/22/04)

Industry Briefs (2 Items)
Thomas Register Launches ThomasNet.com
“ThomasNet.com offers the Web’s largest industrial resource, with over 650,000 distributors, manufacturers and service companies within more than 67,000 searchable categories.” The new database combines material from Thomas Register and Thomas Regional. FAST Search and Transfer technology is used to search the database.

and speaking of Business-to-Business Databases…

Kellysearch (from Reed Business) Enters U.S. Market
According to the news release they’ve added more than 600,000 U.S.-based companies to its current 2,000,000 company listings. The KellySearch.Com interface doesn’t seem to working but you can access the database at kellysearch.co.uk.
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West
West Launches Document Delivery Service

Web Search–Yahoo
Source: The New York Times
The Search Engine That Isn’t a Verb, Yet
What would a Sunday be like without a search article in a major paper? This week, Saul Hansell looks at Yahoo, the company.
Here are a few passages from the article:
+ “Google has become not only a verb but also a profitable company with a reported $1 billion in sales. It is expected to be the hottest initial public offering this year. And now Google is preparing to offer a free e-mail service, people close to the company said, in a bid for Yahoo’s most important source of loyal customers.”
+ “The playing field is much more level now, and both companies will go full-tilt boogie to retain the crown in search innovation,” said John Battelle, who is writing a book on Web search and was a publisher of The Industry Standard, the magazine that was once the voice of the dot-com boom.
+ “But for Mr. Semel to get real value from his $2 billion investment in search companies, he will have to make Yahoo’s search product so good that people stop associating search with one word: Google.”
+ “Personalization will ultimately change the way search is delivered,” Mr. [Jeff] Weiner [Head of Yahoo Search] said. In particular, he hopes that by watching users over time, the search engine can guess what sort of information they are looking for – or, as he put it, ‘If you type in flowers, do you want to buy flowers, plant flowers or see pictures of flowers?’”
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Notes
+ I’ve said many times that a “personalized” search service Yahoo is already offering (with its shopping site), SmartSort, is not only useful but also easy to use. It’s not difficult to think about how this sort of thing could be utilized in many types of searching. You’ll notice that in some cases, the order of the results does not change but the text in the blurbs does.
+ SmartSort for library research? Sure, why not? For example:
++ How important are full text articles? Peer reviewed?
++ Books? Would you be willing to wait a few days to get these materials (ILL)?
++ Are certain sources more useful than others?
++ Reading level?
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Btw, Ask.Com offers (launched in July) SmartAnswers. Direct links to specialized databases or an answer to a ready reference type of question directly on the results page along with a direct link to the source of the answer.
Examples:
+ Pictures of San Francisco
You’re taken directly into the Ask.Com image database.
+ When is Veterans Day?
The date for the holiday is listed on the results page.
+ What Does NBA stand for?
Direct link to AcronymFinder.Com
+ Academy Award Best Film 1961
The answer is listed at the top of the results page.

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Legislation–United States
Source: American Library Association
ALA Issues “Action Alert” For “Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act”
Much more info about the legislation in these ResourceShelf Posts #1 ||| #2
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Public Libraries–United States
Source: The Milford (MA) Daily News
Library directors may plead for cash
In an article about library funding concerns in Massachusetts, the following passage:
“‘The 21st century belief is that public libraries are not needed any more with Google, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, said John Arnold of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. ‘A great search engine and a great bookstore are not a public library,’ he said. The library isn’t the place where you find an answer, it’s where you find the right answer.” I wish people would also mention that many library resources (databases, books, the skills of a good librarian) are often accessible to patrons without having to physically visit the library building.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Images–Databases
Source: Time Warner
Time Life Pictures
“Time Life Pictures is an unparalleled collection of striking imagery, documenting past and present events in politics, culture, celebrities and the arts. The collection includes some of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Andreas Feininger, John Dominis, Nina Leen and Gjon Mili, whose photographs have adorned the pages of Time, Life and other Time Inc. publications.” Collection contains more than 425,000 digital files. You may license and download images immediately. A glossary of terms pertaining to photographic images is also available. Thanks to Shirl Kennedy for the link.
See Also: Searchable Database of Every Time Magazine Cover (1923- )
See Also: HP to Create Digital Archive of All Time Magazines (via Reuters)
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Federal Communications Commission–Databases
Source: FCC
FCC Search Tools
One-stop shopping for FCC databases.
From this page you can access:
+ FCC Search – “(T)he new full-text search tool that collects information from web pages and many types of documents including Word, WordPerfect, Acrobat, Excel, and ASCII Text, throughout the FCC’s web site and the Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS), but does not collect information from the FCC’s other databases.”
+ Topical Index – “(A) list and fast search of subject-oriented links to FCC-selected web pages that offer the best information available on the most common topics of interest to the public.”
+ FCC Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) – “(A) database of Daily Digest entries for FCC documents posted to the FCC website since March 1996.”
+ Document Indexes – “(L)isting of Public Notices, Orders, News Releases, etc., arranged by Bureau/Office for all documents that have been entered into EDOCS since January 2000.”
+ FCC General Menu Reports (GenMen) – “(U)nites most of the Commission’s licensing systems under a single search engine.” Includes Universal Licensing System, Experimental, Cable Operations, Mass Media and International Bureau.
+ Electronic Filing & Public Access Systems – “(I)nternet-based systems that allow the public to submit and/or review and search for different types of filings related to FCC proceedings, rulemakings, tariffs, and official forms.”
+ Search for Filed Comments – ECFS [ main | alternate ] – “(A)llows you to research any document in the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) including non-electronic documents that have been scanned into the system. ECFS includes data and images from 1992 onward.”
+ FCC ID Number Search – “(E)quipment authorization database contains records for equipment which was either Certified, Type Accepted, and/or Verified by the FCC.”
+ Part 68 Registrations – “Search over 30,000 modem, fax, and telephone registrations for manufacturer, registrant and and contact using 5 digits from FCC registration numbers.”
+ Links to the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, FCC Rules: CFR Title 47, Office of Engineering & Technology Rules, FCC’s Regulations Implementing the FOIA.

Privacy
Intelligence
Source: AP
U.S. Pressing for High-Tech Spy Tools
Key passages:
+ ” Despite an outcry over privacy implications, the government is pressing ahead with research to create powerful tools to mine millions of public and private records for information about terrorists.”
+ The whole congressional action looks like a shell game,” said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks work by U.S. intelligence agencies. “There may be enough of a difference for them to claim TIA was terminated while for all practical purposes the identical work is continuing.”
+ The [TIA] research created a political uproar because such reviews of millions of transactions could put innocent Americans under suspicion. One of Poindexter’s own researchers, David D. Jensen at the University of Massachusetts, acknowledged that “high numbers of false positives can result.”
+ Ted Senator, who managed that research for Poindexter, told government contractors that mining data to identify terrorists “is much harder than simply finding needles in a haystack.” “Our task is akin to finding dangerous groups of needles hidden in stacks of needle pieces,” he said. “We must track all the needle pieces all of the time.”
+ “Among Senator’s 18 projects, the work by researcher Jensen shows how flexible such powerful software can be. Jensen used two online databases, the Physics Preprint Archive and the Internet Movie Database, to develop tools that would identify authoritative physics authors and would predict whether a movie would gross more than $2 million its opening weekend.”
+ “At the University of Southern California, professor Craig Knoblauch [sic] said he developed software that automatically extracted information from travel Web sites and telephone books and tracked changes over time.”
+ ARDA, the research and development office, sponsors corporate and university research on information technology for U.S. intelligence agencies. It is developing computer software that can extract information from databases as well as text, voices, other audio, video, graphs, images, maps, equations and chemical formulas. It calls its effort “Novel Intelligence from Massive Data.”
+ Cycorp is also mentioned in the article.

Librarians
Source: XML.Com
Computer Geeks Can Learn from Librarians
Here’s something you don’t see everyday, kind words about librarians, in an article written by a computer geek. From the first article in a new series about organizing your personal media collection, XML.Com author Kendall Grant Clark writes, “In other words, we’re geeks; we’re not library or information scientists. But these — computer and library science — are kissing cousin fields, parasitic and dependent on one another in important, deep ways. Geeks can learn information and library science easily enough, but especially if they have a real, hackable motivation for doing so. I’m suggesting in this column what I intend to prove in future columns, namely, that the dijalog lifestyle, which is the one most of us are actually living, is uniquely suited to the confluence of geek hackery and certains parts of library science.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
Weather–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: NCDC
Just Updated, Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters
“NCDC has updated its online report describing billion dollar weather disasters of 1980-2003.”
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Employment–United States
Source: Business 2.0
The Top 20 Boom Towns (Hottest Job Markets)
A list of sources “crunched” to create this list are available at the bottom of the page.
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Information Technology–News
Source: International Data Group, Inc.
IDG Advanced Contents Search
Search the contents of any or all nine IDG tech pubs from one page. Titles include: PCWorld, InfoWorld, ComputerWorld, NetworkWorld, CIO, ITWorld, MacWorld, Darwin, BioIT World. The advanced search form has drop-down menus that enable field searching and Boolean options. A browseable subject index is located below the search form.

Digital Libraries
Source:
New on the IMLS Web Site: “Digital Corner”
This new section of the web site contains links to information about IMLS-funded “digital” projects.

Academic Libraries
Library Organizations
Source: The Daily Crimson
Harvard Will Stay in ARL
From the article, “Despite one of its peer institution’s [Stanford University] decisions to withdraw from the country’s most prominent association of librarians, Harvard College Library (HCL) administrators have decided to continue their membership in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).”
See Also: More on Stanford’s Withdrawl from the Association of Research Libraries

Libraries–Australia
Source: The Age
State Library celebrates its 150th birthday
From the article, “What does a library do to celebrate a milestone? Put out a book, of course. However, it has been a job easier said than done for the folks at the State Library of Victoria, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in July. With a collection that has grown from only 3800 books in 1856 to more than 2 million items today, deciding what should make the cut has been an unenviable task…The collection of the State Library, Australia’s first public library, also includes manuscripts, maps, comics and computer games.”

Information Industry–Factiva
Source: Upgrade
Full Text, A Recently Published Article by the CEO of Factiva, Clare Hart
The article is titled, “Capitalizing on Information.” Hart writes, “People believe they are fully information literate
and have all of the necessary information to make informed decisions. But not all relevant or trustworthy information is available on the Web, nor can employees be certain they have full access to information stored within their own organizations. In fact, access to internal information can be far more complicated than access to external information, and it is estimated that 80 percent of the information people need to do their jobs is located within internal data stores.”

Information Retrieval
Source: ResearchInformation
Design Science to enhance search technology
From the article, “Design Science has announced that it will lead a project aimed at enhancing search technology for science, technical and medical (STM) documents. Funded in part by the US National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library programme, it will begin with a workshop in April, bringing together researchers and managers of STM document collections from academia and industry.”
See Also: Design Science Awarded NSF Grant for Enhancing Searching for Mathematics
See Also: Learn More About the April 2004 Workshop

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
Labor–United States
Minimum Wage Laws in the States
Source: U.S. Department of Labor (Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division)
“Click on any state or jurisdiction to find out about applicable minimum wage laws.”
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Literature
Today in Literature
“Today in Literature features a new original biographical story each calendar day about the great writers, books, and events in literary history.” Thanks to ResourceShelf’s SDK for the contribution.
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Cybersecurity–United States
Source: United States House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce
Full Text, Hearing: Cybersecurity and Consumer Data: What’s at Risk for the Consumer?

Industry Briefs
Several Information Today Titles To Be Made Available via netLibrary