Happy International Special Librarians Day!
This special day was established by the Special Librarians Association in 1991. “ISLD recognizes the unique contributions made by information professionals around the world and the critical role they play in the changing global information community.”

Resources of the Week
2 items.
Atlas–Canada
Source: Natural Resources Canada
Redesigned Version Online, The Atlas of Canada
This comprehensive resource has been given a new look, which includes improved navigation and enhanced accessibility for users of assistive technologies. The core of the site comprises more than 1,400 thematic, reference and archive maps. A Maps A-Z page allows you to browse these alphabetically. Alternately, you can use the advanced search page to search for the location of a place on a map or search for maps/text using keywords. For focused exploration, maps have been grouped into a number of topics: Environment, People & Society, Economy, History, Climate Change, Freshwater, Health, Reference Maps and Map Archives. You can mouse over this list of topics in the navigation panel on the left side of the home page and choose from a list of more specific subtopics under each. A collection of Learning Resources, aimed at students and teachers, includes curriculum guides, lesson plans, quizzes, printer-friendly maps, and an interactive glossary. A Gazetteer Map Service “generates a URL linking directly to a map showing the location of any of…47 000 place names and geographical features….” A Web Map Service allows developers to access “current and accurate base data for rendering customized maps.” Note that the site is bilingual English/French.
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Real Estate–Online Resources
PlainVanillaShell.com
Portal for the retail real estate industry offers:
+ Industry news
+ Feature articles on legal issues
+ Market reports for the top 50 DMAs (PDFs)
+ Retail Tenant Directory database of over 5,400 retail companies — Search by square footage, the areas they operate or plan to expand into, types of locations (enclosed mall, strip center, etc.) they prefer, and by any of more than 70 retail categories.
+ National Research Bureau database of shopping centers, featuring profiles of more than 40,000 shopping centers, from neighborhood strip centers to regional super-malls.
Free registration required to access most content. This site is maintained by Trade Dimensions, a division of Spectra Marketing Systems and part of the ACNielsen business group in VNU Marketing Information Group.
Editors Note: Both of the ROTW this time around were selected and compiled by ResourceShelf contributing editor, Shirl Kenndy.

Health Information
Source: National Library of Medicine
Internists to Write Patients Prescriptions for Information
A new and innovative project from NLM. Great marketing, too! This is a win/win for all parties — most importantly, patients. From the announcement, “ACP’s [American College of Physicians] 115,000 internist members will be encouraged to ‘prescribe’ information for their patients from MedlinePlus using a special ‘prescription pad’ during office visits. ‘Physicians have always known that an informed patient who takes an active role is a ‘better’ patient,’ noted NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, MD. ‘We believe that both patients and their doctors will welcome this additional medical tool — good medical information — in their continuing efforts to provide good health care.’ Traditionally, physicians have supplemented discussion of a diagnosis or condition in the office with brochures that are rarely tailored to each patient’s special needs. Today, the majority of U.S. adults online — 80 percent — use the Internet to find health information, and most say it helps them get better health care, according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Dr. Addington pointed out that health content on the Net ranges from clinical research to pharmaceutical product sales promotions, to endorsements of herbal and mineral supplements and everything in between. ‘It’s not easy to determine the credibility or validity of online health information,’ he said.”
See Also: Learn About the Weekly MEDLINEPlus E-Mail Announcement List

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents
Africa–Internet Resources
Source: Stanford University Libraries
Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources
“Researchers can find information by topic or country…The directory has an extensive section on African history including a section for primary sources. There are also extensive sections for Education, South Africa, Journals (for African studies), libraries with African collections. All entries are annotated. If possible, the location of the domain owner is indicated.” This resource is compiled and annotated by Karen Fung, Curator of the African Collection at the Stanford University Libraries. Another example of the great work being done by librarians to assist in organizing the Internet!
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Business Research–Internet Resources
New/Updated Research Guides from the Baker Library, Harvard Business School
+ Advertising and Branding
+ Broadcasting
+ Demographics and Consumer Behavior
+ Economics
+ Marketing Strategies and Channels
All Guides A-Z
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Baseball
Source: American Memory Project/Library of Congress
Just Added to American Memory, Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939
“Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939 comprises a historic selection of Spalding�s Official Base Ball Guide and the Official Indoor Base Ball Guide. The collection reproduces 35 of the guides, which were published by the Spalding Athletic Company in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spalding�s Official Base Ball Guide was perhaps the premier publication of its day for the game of baseball. It featured editorials from baseball writers on the state of the game, statistics, photographs, and analysis of the previous season for all the Major League teams and for many of the so-called minor leagues across the nation.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries
Libraries Wired and Reborn
Source: The New York Times
From the article, “This bayou parish [Terrebonne, LA] is a showcase, an example of how a major institution like the American public library has been transformed by an Internet connection. (The impact on corporations, schools and government has been significant, too; for each of those institutions, the Internet has been a tool to further its main purpose – making money, educating people and delivering services.) For the library, supplying patrons with access to the Internet and the Web has become central to its mission, an updating of its long tradition of providing information free to the public.” Thanks to B.Q. for the news tip.
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Book Reviews
Searching Booklist Reviews
Last week, we linked to a preprint of an article by Peter Jacso titled, “AW, Look What They’ve Done to the Booklist Reviews, Ma” where he writes about problems searching for Booklist reviews on the ALA web site. Since I posted the article, Dr. Jacso has created a tool to make it easier to find this material. Thanks, Peter! Btw, he has also informed me about a new PolySearch module that will focus on finding book reviews on the web. It should be available this summer. What’s a PolySearch? Learn more here.

Web Search–Yahoo
New, More Yahoo Search Shortcuts
Shortcuts continue to proliferate in the web search world. I just discovered this page that lists all of Yahoo’s shortcuts and noticed a few new ones (at least they are new to me). Using the proper “shortcut” term (in some cases you don’t even need to add any extra terms to your query) will place a potential answer and/or links to find more info at the top of the results page. It would be wonderful if the search companies would query busy reference librarians to help create new shortcuts.
What’s New
+ Encyclopedia Lookup
Use the suffix “facts” (search terms). For example: Tasmania facts. Content comes from the Columbia Encyclopedia.
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+ Synonym Finder
Use the prefix synonym (search terms). For example: Synonym tired. Content from the Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus.
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+ Hotel Info
Use the term Hotels after a location. For example: Seattle hotels
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Traffic Reports
Use the term Traffic after a location. For example: Baltimore traffic
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After reviewing the shortcuts page you’ll note that Yahoo now offers many of the same shortcuts that Google makes available. These include airport info, aircraft number registration info, package tracking, patent search, UPC Codes, and VIN (vehicle identification number) info. Yahoo also recognizes ISBN’s and will produce a link allowing you to compare prices for the book via Yahoo Shopping database. Finally, for the search historians out there, search shortcuts were first introduced by AltaVista (now part of Yahoo) in February 2002.

See Also: Ask Jeeves Launches Famous People Search

Web Search
Search Engine Radar Update
Here are a few new general web search tools to keep an eye on. These projects are NOT ready for prime time but still are worth a spot on your search engine radar. Each of these tools is building its own databases and not repackaging data from other sources. At the moment each index is very small.
+ FyberSearch
This engine allows the user to tweak the keyword density portion of its relevancy algorithm. I haven’t seen this option from a general web engine. I like it! You often find this functionality from databases like LexisNexis and Factiva where the searcher can specify how many times a word or phrase must be mentioned in a document to be considered relevant. Often, the syntax atleast(x) is used. An advanced interface and image searching are available. You’ll also notice a link (on search results pages) to immediately reindex each page. Finally, options to limit your search to terms in the title, meta tags, and url by simply pointing and clicking. The default search finds your terms in page titles only. You’ll need to select “content keywords” to search terms on the page.
+ Mozdex
A beta built by Byron Miller using the Nutch open source search platfom. A bit more info from Search Engine Journal.
+ Sootle
In alpha mode. Being built by a group of people located throughout the world. Comments from Tara and Battelle.

Digitization Projects–Australia
Source: National Library of Australia
One Million Images: PictureAustralia Database Reaches Milestone
From the announcement, “The millionth PictureAustralia image, which comes from the Australian War Memorial’s collection, is that of heroic Australian army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, the sole survivor of the Banka (Sumatra) massacre of World War II. PictureAustralia, a collaborative Internet-based service hosted by the National Library, allows users to search the online pictorial collections of many cultural agencies from the one website. The service commenced in 1998 with five participating organisations and 470,000 images; it has grown to 34 organisations and one million images.”
See Also: Use the PictureAustralia Database

Professional Reading Shelf (2 Items)
Library Organizations–ALA
The 2002-2003 ALA Annual Report is Now Available Online
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text
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Library Organizations–JISC
Source: The Guardian
“The hidden potential of the web”
From the article, “…the ambitions of Common Information Environment (CIE), a new attempt to open up the growing treasure house of data held on publicly funded websites. The idea is to reveal the ‘hidden web’ – archives held by organisations available only via their own home pages – to non-specialist researchers.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (5 Items)
E-Mail
Source: InfoWorld
Can E-Mail Be Saved?
“Battered by junk and reeling under makeshift fixes, e-mail is ripe for reinvention. Here’s how six of the industry’s most provocative thinkers envision a brighter day…. Our six experts gave us six different answers. But all of them agreed that positive identification, rather than rejiggered economics, is the key to clearing the clutter from the e-mail channel in the enterprise.” Ideas from Eric Allman (author of Sendmail); Bill Warner (developer of the Wildfire voice system); Eric Hahn (former Netscape CTO; now CEO of own startup, Proofpoint); Ray Ozzie (creator of Lotus Notes; founder/CEO of Groove Networks); Dave Winer (chairman/founder of Userland and uberblogger); Brewster Kahle (creator of WAIS, Alexa; now head of The Internet Archive).
Download entire special report as PDF (5.92 MB)
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Documents in the News
Environment
Source: U.S. Commission on Oceans
Full Text, Just Released, Preliminary Report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
Background in this Washington Post article.
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Research Funding–United States
Source: RAND Corporation
New, Vital Assets: Federal Investment in Research and Development at the Nation’s Universities and Colleges
“The federal government’s investment in research and development (R&D) at the nation’s universities — which is pivotal to the U.S. innovation system — has grown considerably. This report assesses that investment and presents a detailed analysis of the federal funds received for the conduct of R&D by state and by individual universities and colleges.” Among other findings, the study reports, “Medical schools received 45 percent of all federal research and development funds provided to U.S. colleges and universities in the 2002 fiscal year.”
Full document, including appendix of state-by-state information – (PDF; 2.2 MB)
Summary only (PDF; 0.1 MB)
State-by-state appendix only (PDF; 0.9 MB)
Press release
See Also: New, Federal Funds for Research and Development: Fiscal Years 2001, 2002, and 2003 (via NSF)
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International Relations
Source: House of Commons Library
New Research Paper: Kashmir
“This Paper discusses the disagreements between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the situation in Indian administered Kashmir and the current discussions between India and Pakistan, and between India and some Kashmiri separatists. It includes relevant UN resolutions and international agreements in Annexes, and a map.”
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Construction–Glossary
Source: National Contractor Referrals and License Bureau
NCRS Glossary of Contractor Terms
“The construction term glossary has over 12,000 entries…. The best way to search for a term is to use either single words or short phrases. Alternatively, you may choose to browse the glossary by using the alphabetical index located under the search term box.”

Awards
2004 Webby Award Nominees Announced
I’m happy to read that a research tool we regularly mention on ResourceShelf, RocketNews, received a nomination in the news category.
See Also: Rocket News Adds Advanced Search Options

Web Search–Google
The #1 Result for the Word “Jew” on Google is No Longer Anti-Semitic Site
The effort (it sure didn’t take long) to create a Google Bomb and change the first result for the search “Jew” from an anti-Semitic site to the Wikipedia entry for the term appears to have been successful. I started noticing the Wikipedia entry in the first spot yesterday. Background in this NY Times article from Thursday. Searchblog’s John Battelle also provides commentary.

Image Search–Yahoo
Yahoo “Officially” Relaunches Image Search
A couple of weeks ago, we linked to Search Engine Showdown’s post containing the news that Yahoo Image Search was no longer using the Google image database. Today, Yahoo made an official announcement about the relaunch of Image Search. What is Yahoo touting?
+ The database contains MORE than 630 million images. How many more? When I asked the company for the new total, they informed me that they were not (at least for now) publicly disclosing this info.
+ Image database now includes content from Yahoo News and Yahoo Movies.
+ Advanced search options include options to limit by size, color, and image type.
+ Option to limit by domain is available.

The British Library
‘Turn’ the pages of world cultures, science, history – landmark step as Turning the Pages hits the web
Make sure to check this out! From the announcement, Some of the country’s most spectacular treasures are now accessible as never before. The British Library has made available ten items from its unique interactive display system Turning the Pages on the web. Now anyone – worldwide – with access to the internet will be able to ‘turn’ the pages of electronic images from these major items in the Library’s collection and experience Turning the Pages by use of a computer mouse [you will also need to have Macromedia Flash running and in a few cases must use IE] in a similar way as visitors to the Library’s Exhibition Galleries in London can run their fingers over the computer screen and ‘turn’ images from these works. Turning the Pages brings together on the web treasures of several of the world cultures that are represented in Britain today: the Diamond Sutra (Buddhism), Sultan Baybars’ Qur’an (Islam), the Golden Haggadah (Judaism), plus the Lindisfarne Gospels, Sherborne Missal, Luttrell Psalter and Sforza Hours (Christianity), along with scientific works (Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook, Elizabeth Blackwell’s Herbal and Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica, a rare sixteenth century treatise on anatomy).”
See Also: Direct to the Turning the Pages Site
See Also: Learn More About the TTP Technology

eBooks
Cleveland Public Library is First to Lend eBooks for Smartphones and all PDAs
From the news release, “When Cleveland Public Librarian Cynthia Orr checks her new Motorola cell phone, in addition to making calls, it’s to read new eBook titles available from the CLEVNET Digital Library Connection. Cleveland Public Library was first among a national network of public libraries to add Mobipocket eBooks to their download libraries. With the free Mobipocket Reader software, patrons can download and read titles on Motorola, Samsung, and Nokia Smartphones, virtually all PDAs, and on personal and notebook computers.”

Web Search–Microsoft
Updated: A ResourceShelfPLUS Compilation of Microsoft Search-Related Writing and Patents
Microsoft’s work in search is a very popular topic these days. On ResourceShelfPLUS I’ve updated a compilation of selected Microsoft search-related technical writing and search-related patents. Interesting material and reading for the search geek.

Professional Reading Shelf (5 Items)
E-Mail
RSS
LawLibTech Explains How to Use The Bloglines RSS Reader to Retrieve and Read Your Email Discussion Lists
Cindy Chick continues her tutorial about using RSS. The first part of her Bloglines tutorial starts here. Even more about RSS here. Kudos Cindy!
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Information Industry–Questia
Source: Times Online
Online Librarian Driven by Global Mission
They’re still around! A profile of Troy Williams, founder of Questia. “Williams will not say how many subscribers Questia has, but says they come from 181 countries including Mongolia, Chad and Surinam. About 80 per cent are from the US and 5 per cent from the UK.” Thanks to SDK for the link and annotation.
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Public Records
Source: Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Driver’s License Efforts Clash
“Florida legislators are working to pass a new law to protect personal information on driver’s licenses, while another arm of state government is quietly moving to expand sales of information such as drivers’ names and addresses.”
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Government Documents–United States
Source: GPO
Full Text, Decision Framework for Federal Document Repositories
“This draft Decision Framework for Federal Document Repositories was prepared by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) for the U.S. Government Printing Office. The decision framework is intended for use in creating the specifications for a system of regional repositories for tangible federal government documents. The decision framework will enable the Superintendent of Documents to evaluate the qualities, resources, and capabilities of potential repository facilities and their governing organizations, and to identify the configuration of light and dark repositories most appropriate to ensure the persistent archiving and public availability of tangible federal documents.”
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Classification
Source: NLM
NLM Classification Updated

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
Election 2004
Source: Factiva
Factiva Media Visibility Index (SM) Tracks the Hot-Button Issues for 2004 Presidential Election During the Week Ending April 18,2004
“From April 2004 to November 2004, the Factiva Media Visibility Index will be tracking the number of times current, hot-button issues are mentioned in the media by candidates competing in the 2004 Presidential election. The Index will track these issues on a weekly basis.”
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Mothers–United States–Fast Facts
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, Facts for Features: Mother’s Day
A myriad of facts about moms in the United States.
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Asian Americans–Fast Facts
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released: Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: May 2004
Facts about the Asian American population.
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Older Americans–Fast Facts
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released: Older Americans Month Celebrated in May.
A compilation of facts about older Americans.

Industry Briefs (2 Items)
Unstructured Information…Inxight Unveils TimeWall; Interactive Visual Information Discovery Solution Allows Users to See Event Patterns Over Time
You can take a look at what a display looks like here. Inxight also announced today that they will continue to work with In-Q-Tel, a private not-for-profit venture group funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
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Online Maps
Navteq, Supplier of Map Content to AOL/Yahoo/Others, Has Filed for an IPO

Happy National Library Week!
To celebrate NLW a few companies are making FREE demos of fee-based databases available.