Briefly
+ FAST To Power ECommerce Search for AutoTrader.com
FAST has also just announced a deal with the U.S. Army.
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+ Dialog Expands Dialog Choice Pricing Plan

Professional Reading Shelf
Information Industry–SpringerScience+Business Media
Source: Information Today
Interview: Put Up or Shut Up
“Created from the recent merger of BertelsmannSpringer and Kluwer Academic Publishers, SpringerScience+BusinessMedia is currently owned by private equity firms Candover and Cinven. Derk Haank, Springer’s new CEO (and former chairman of Elsevier Science), discusses his plans for the company, STM journal pricing, the Big Deal, and open access. Springer’s new Open Choice, says Haank, is a direct challenge to open-access advocates to ‘put their money where their mouth is.’”

Search Briefs
Old Inktomi Search Syntax Work at Yahoo (via Search Engine Showdown)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Internet Usage–United States
Source: Center for the Digital Future/USC
Just Released Report, Center for the Digital Future Identifies the 10 Major Trends Emerging in the Internet’s First Decade of Public Use
Summary Direct to Full Text
From the summary:
+ Internet access has risen to its highest level ever. About three-quarters of Americans now go online.
+ The number of hours spent online continues to increase, rising to an average of 12.5 hours per week–the highest level in the study thus far.
+ Although the Internet has become the most important source of current information for users, the initially high level of credibility of information on the Internet began to drop in the third year of the study, and declined even further in Year Four.
+ The number of users who believe that only about half of the information on the Internet is accurate and reliable is growing and has now passed 40 percent of users for the first time.
+ The study showed that most users trust information on the websites they visit regularly, and on pages created by established media and the government.
+ Information pages posted by individuals have the lowest credibility: only 9.5 percent of users say information on those sites is reliable and accurate.
+ Television viewing continues to decline among Internet users, raising the question, “What will happen as a nation that once spent an extremely large portion of time in a passive activity (watching television) transfers increasingly large portions of that time to an interactive activity (the Internet)?” The Digital Future Project compares findings from all four years of the study, looking at five major areas: who is online and who is not, media use and trust, consumer behavior, communication patterns, and social and psychological effects.
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Heart Disease
Source: World Health Organization
Just Released, The atlas of heart disease and stroke
“The atlas of heart disease and stroke, graphically detailing a global epidemic that is the leading single cause of death worldwide.”
Summary Direct to Full Text

Search Briefs
New Beta, A Cow That Watches Amazon Prices
This “virtual” bovine is constantly monitoring the Amazon.com database for changes in the price of any item. Info is delivered via a syndicated ATOM feed. Thanks to R.S. for the tip.

Professional Reading Shelf
Electronic Records–United States
Source: GAO
New Report, Information Management: Planning for the Electronic Records Archives Has Improved
Highlights-PDF ||| Full Text
See Also: GAO: Electronic Records Archive needs acquisition help (via GCN)
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Public Libraries–Censorship
Source: Durham Herald-Sun
Library asked to pull ‘Birth of a Nation’
“A local activist has asked the Granville County Library system to remove the 1915 silent film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ from its collection because he fears the film could serve as a recruitment tool for hate groups.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Software–Lists & Rankings
Source: Software Magazine
New, The Software 500 2004
Registration required, free to access full list.
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Currents, Tides and Water Levels–United States
Source: NOAA
Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS)
“The Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) collects, analyzes and distributes historical and real-time observations and predictions of water levels, coastal currents and other meteorological and oceanographic data. This is part of an integrated National Ocean Service program supporting safe maritime navigation, more productive water-borne commerce, and the needs of the National Weather Service, coastal zone management, engineering and surveying communities. Available here:
+ Tides Online (”near real-time tidal and storm surge water level observation data and plots”)
+ Great Lakes Online (”immediate graphical and tabular water level and meteorological data from NOS water level stations located along the projected path of severe storms such as hurricanes”)
+ About Water Levels, Tides and Currents
+ Publications (PDFs)
+ Station Locator (”designed for the user who wishes to access all available data for any ‘active’ water level station”)
+ Sea Levels Online (”mean sea level rise or fall…for 117 long term water level stations”)

Professional Reading Shelf
Censorship
Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
Book-banning controversy tears at souls of librarians
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Government Records
Source: NARA
False Rumor Regarding Destruction of Veterans’ Records Hinders National Personnel Records Center’s Ability to Answer Veterans’ Reference Requests
“There is a false rumor circulating on the Internet, in e-mails, and among veteran service organizations that Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) at the National Personnel Records Center, operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, will be digitized and then destroyed. This rumor is NOT TRUE.”
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Health Sciences
Source: BioMed Central
New Open Access Journal, Biomedical Digital Libraries
Thanks to P.S. for the news tip.
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Open Access Publishing
Source: Chemical & Engineering News
Socialized Science
“National Institutes of Health director Elias A. Zerhouni seems hell-bent on imposing an “open access” model of publishing on researchers receiving NIH grants. His action will inflict long-term damage on the communication of scientific results and on maintenance of the archive of scientific knowledge.” Editorial by Rudy M. Baum, C&EN’s editor-in-chief.
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Presidential Libraries–Abraham Lincoln
Source: State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)
Inside the safe
“At first glance, it’s just a big, white room: slightly cool inside, but dry – 65 degrees with a relative humidity of 43 percent, always. A security camera and an inert-gas fire-suppression system protect what’s on the shelves that line the walls, such as the Gettysburg Address, written by its author in iron gall ink on rag paper. The Civil War battlefield speech is in excellent condition, state historians say, and they intend to keep it that way. The 135-square-foot safe is inside the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, tucked securely in a corner of the basement stacks, where the shelves – about 5 miles worth – already are stocked with part of the state’s 12 million historical items.”
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Knowledge Management
Source: CIO Magazine
When You Say ‘KM,’ What Do You Mean?
“The rubric of knowledge management is as vague and hyped today as business process re-engineering was during the 1990s…. Instead of continuing to hold onto the term, firms should step back and examine their requirements with a set of questions that will help them focus on specific business processes and problems, forge actionable strategies, and create projects that have clear objectives and fixed scope.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Wealth–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Forbes
Just Released, The 400 Richest Americans
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Web Search–Airfares
Source: Consumer WebWatch/Pew Charitable Trusts
Just Released, No Clear Winner in Online Battle For Cheapest International Airfares
“Despite intense competition, none of the major independent or airline Web sites has emerged as the best destination for the cheapest international airfares. In its first-ever report on booking overseas flights, Consumer WebWatch found the category’s leader hampered by technology problems.”
Download complete report: Global Concerns: An In-Depth Examination of Travel Web Sites Selling International Airline Tickets (PDF; 307 KB)
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Adoption–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts: Adoption in the U.S.
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War–Bibliography
Source: Air University Library
Causes of War
New bibliography includes Internet resources, books, documents,
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U.S. Department of Defense–Real Property
Source: Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Installations and Environment)
Recently Released, Department of Defense Base Structure Report (PDF; 747 KB)
“This report contains a comprehensive listing of installations and sites owned and used by the Department. It summarizes the current facilities inventory and provides other basic information, such as information concerning the site locations, names of the nearest city, and, where available, includes personnel authorizations.”
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Handguns–United States–Statistics
Source: BJS
New Report, Background Checks for Firearm Transfers, 2003: Trends for the Permanent Brady Period, 1999-2003

Briefly
+ Find.com Adds More Premium Sources
+ ProQuest Introduces Cuban Exile Collection on Microfilm

Professional Reading Shelf
Censorship
Source: ALA
Heads Up: Banned Books Week Begins Saturday
See Also: The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000
See Also: The Most Frequently Challenged Authors of 2003
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Academic Libraries
Source: The Daily Nebraskan
Librarians sign on to Internet help sessions
Several times a week we seem to come across articles about libraries and librarians that do nothing but reinforce stereotypes. That’s why it was so refreshing to read this one.
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Audiobooks
Source: Link-Up Digital
Downloading Audiobooks
Review of subscription service Audible.com, including information on file formats and compatible players.
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Digitization Projects
Source: Washington Square News (NYU)
NYU, tech corp. to create database of Afghan books
“The NYU Division of Libraries is working with the Middle Eastern studies department, the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Center on International Cooperation to create the Afghanistan Digital Library. The program began after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 as an effort to contribute to the rebuilding of Afghanistan, said Robert McChesney, temporary project editor and a Middle Eastern studies professor.”
See Also: NYU to make archive software (via Washington Square News)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Nursing Homes–United States
Source: Consumers Union
How Good are Your State’s Nursing Homes?
From the Press Release: “Quality of care issues continue to plague the U.S. nursing home industry, with many nursing homes being cited repeatedly for violations that may put residents at serious risk, according to a consumer update released today by the Center for Consumer Health Choices at Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. The update, “How Good are Your State’s Nursing Homes,” is the 2004 edition of the Nursing Home Watch List, which is based on a comprehensive national analysis of state inspection surveys of nursing home facilities and enforcement actions. Research for the Watch List was supported by The Commonwealth Fund.”
+ View the Updated Nursing Home Watch List by State
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M.B.A. Programs–Lists & Rankings
Source: Wall Street Journal
Just Released, Top M.B.A. Programs
“Fourth annual Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of corporate recruiters has produced not one but three No. 1-ranked M.B.A. programs.”
+ Summary Article
+ 19 “National” schools in North America
+ 44 “Regional” schools in North America
+ 21 “International” schools
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Environment–United States
Source: EPA
Just Released, 2003 Emissions Report and 2003 Acid Rain Report
News release 2003 Emissions Report Acid Rain Report
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Employment–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Working Mother
Now Available, 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers 2004
This is the 19th annual list.
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Political Cartoons–Australia
Source: PictureAustralia
A New PictureTrail, Political Cartoons Trail
“Although often humourous and satirical, political cartoons are valuable resources in providing commentary on social and political issues…Re-discover past political events, personalities…”
See Also: More Picture Trails

OCLC
Source: LibraryStuff.net
OCLC Open Worldcat Bookmarklet
LibraryStuff has a post about a new bookmarklet that allows the searcher to quickly find OpenWorldCat records from Google. This tool comes from our friends Jessamyn and Andrea with programming help from ResourceShelf favorite (and friend) Michael Fagan. I’ve been critical about OpenWorldCat since it was announced about a year ago. However, I’ve realized that many people like the idea so I’m beginning to reshape and reform my ideas about the program. It’s a challenge, but please believe me when I say I’m trying to get onboard. Here are a few random thoughts about the program that I had this morning after learning about this new “cool” tool.
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First, it would be great to see something similar to search OpenWorldCat for Yahoo. Yahoo has shown a strong interest in adding OCLC material. They added all of the records in less than a week while Google took many months (and we still don’t know if they’re adding everything). More on the Yahoo story in this Info Today story.

Second, the idea of OpenWorldcat is to remind non-library users that libraries are still around and ready to provide access. I wondering what might happen to WorldCat if more librarians get access to records via OpenWorldCat. Will they lose subscribers? Why pay when you can get what you need for free? Will libraries who offer the public free access to the entire database say it’s not worth it? What would this mean for WorldCat, “the business,” in the long run?
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Third, the new bookmarklet (which I think was built with librarians in mind) and others that will come along could be tools that appeal to the type of user OCLC is targeting with OpenWorldCat. However, what happens if/when searchers are unable to find what they are looking for via OpenWorldCat but the public library two blocks away or their university library has just what they need and more? Are they aware of OpenWorldcat’s limitations? Would this type of experience reinforce ideas about why they’ve neglected libraries in the past? What happens when they do find an OCLC record but their local library isn’t listed? At the same time, what happens when they find a record and receive a list of local libraries that don’t offer public access? Is it possible to create a Google/Yahoo/Open WorldCat bookmarklet (anything with the word “Google” in it spreads quickly) that also reminds users that bookmarklets for their local library might be available and could really save them time. Heck, just a box that promoted libraries would be useful. This is a way to use Google’s buzz to help promote libraries.
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Shirl comments… Does the average library user…or Google/Yahoo searcher even know what a bookmarklet is? Or understand what WorldCat is? I forsee a need for more user-friendly terminology here.

Resources of the Week
Two entries this week.
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Economics–United States–Databases
Source: Federal Reserve, St. Louis
Say Hello to Fraser
First there was ERIC. Then EDGAR came along. And FRED. Now there’s FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research, which provides access to scanned image PDFs of historical economic statistical publications, releases, and documents.

The site currently features material from seven publications:
+ All Bank Statistics 1896-1955 (published 1959)
+ Annual Statistical Digest (issues from 1970-2000)
+ Banking and Monetary Statistics 1914-1941 (published 1943)
+ Banking and Monetary Statistics 1941-1970 (published 1976)
+ Business Statistics Supplement to the Survey of Current
Business (issues from 1932-1965)
+ Concordance of Statistics (issues from 1978-2000)
+ Economic Indicators (issues from 1948-present, some missing)
Plus statistical releases for Productivity and Costs from 1985-2003. Browse access is straightforward.

Search works pretty well, though there isn’t an advanced page. It would be helpful if a date limit was added; compare this search for tables of gold reserves with this one, with the year 1930.

Our only real problem with the site is that some of the PDFs are quite large, >5Mb, so non-broadband users will probably experience frustrating load times.

This ROTW annotation was written by ResourceShelf Contributing Editor, Dan Giancaterino.
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2) Telephone Directories
Tel Dir
A directory of international telephone directories, first started in 1995 and has grown exponentially ever since with information from over 180 countries. The main section is broken down into 6 geographic regions (North America, South & Central America, Africa, Europe, Asia & Middle East, and Australia & Pacific. The countries are then listed within each region. There may be numerous Business and White Pages listings for each country, with the most popular resources on the top of the page (ie. the page for Argentina lists 5 directories).

Tel Dir also has other direct specific searches (People Finder, B2B Finder, Classifieds) available from the site from many of the countries listed. Last, the International Dialing Code resource can be very useful when trying to call someone located in a different country.

Tel Dir is one of those forgotten resources that we should be reminded of every so often. It is a very useful research tool!

This oldie but goodie ROTW entry was written by ResourceShelf Contributing Editor, Steven Cohen.

Citation Analysis
Source: ISI
+ Science in the United Kingdom, 1999-2003
+ Psychology: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003
+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Agriculture – Dairy & Animal Science
+ Pharmacology: Most Prolific U.S. Universities, 1999-2003

Briefly
Elsevier…University of Toronto Will Be First to License Scopus
See Also: Peter Jacso’s Review of Scopus

Search Briefs
+ Looksmart Acquires Furl.net
Note: Furl.net is a great service that allows you to save any web page to a remote server. It’s free. Spurl.net and the new My Jeeves offer similar services.

Professional Reading Shelf
Library Portals
Source: Library + Information Update (CILIP, UK)
Pick up a portal
“Lorcan Dempsey looks at what is happening with portals — including a growing awareness that the library portal is only one step towards creating an effective network presence.” Mr. Dempsey is Vice-president Research and Chief Strategist at OCLC.
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Academic Libraries
Source: LJ
At Indiana University, Success of First Information Commons Leads to a Second
From the article, “The information commons at Indiana University, Bloomington, opened in 2003 in the Main Library, has proven so popular, university officials have decided to build another. Last week university trustees officially approved the project; construction should start in mid-October. If all goes according to plan, IU’s second information commons will open in early 2005. It will be located in the Main Library, occupying about 9,700 square feet on the second floor’s west tower, directly above the current Information Commons, which covers 27,000 square feet”
See Also: Learn More About the Information Commons at IU
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Libraries–Germany
Source: AP
German Library Fire Destroyed 50,000 Books
“A fire that hit a historic German library earlier this month destroyed twice as many books as previously thought, with some 50,000 works suffering irreparable fire damage, officials said Tuesday.”
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Preservation
Source: The Crimson
Harvard Libraries Awarded $2.1 Million Grant from Mellon Foundation
“The sassy old saying ‘Take a picture, it’ll last longer’ never rang truer than it does today, as a $2.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation breathes new life into Harvard University Library’s (HUL) efforts to preserve its massive collection of photographs. According to a Monday press release published by HUL, the Mellon grant will allow the library’s Weissman Preservation Center to hire a senior photograph conservator and a slew of specialized restoration technicians–all positions that did not exist before the grant was awarded.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Clinical Trials–Canada
Health Research–Canada
Source: Ontario Cancer Research Network(OCRN)
A New Database for Clinical Trials in Ontario is Now Online
The site includes a database (powered by Endeca technology), glossary, and an email alert service.
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England–City Guides
Source: The 24 Hour Museum
City Heritage Guides
From a post on ManagingInformation.com, “The 24 Hour Museum, the national online guide to museums, galleries and heritage, have launched a new series of websites about English cities and their heritage. The ten cities selected are: Birmingham, Brighton & Hove, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle & Gateshead and Norwich.”
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War–Ethics–Bibliography
Source: Air University Library
Just War Theory
New bibliography includes Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals.
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Chemistry–Dictionaries
Source: NLM
Updated, ChemIDplus — New look, new search features, more data
“ChemIDplus, the National Library of Medicine’s dictionary of more than 360,000 chemicals, has a new look and new search features Every day more than 3,000 toxicologists, scientists, researchers and pharmacologists use ChemIDplus to investigate chemicals that affect biological functions in humans and animals. ChemIDplus gives detailed information on every chemical discussed in MEDLINE/PubMed medical journals.”
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Educational Resources–Energy
Source: EIA
New Edition, Energy Education Resources: Kindergarten Through 12th Grade
“This is the 16th Annual Edition of this publication. It lists public and private organizations that offer free or inexpensive materials dealing with energy matters.”
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Global Warming–Glossary
Source: Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Global Warming Basics: Glossary
“This glossary is by no means all-inclusive — it is intended to provide a basic understanding of some of the more commonly used climate change terms.”
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Make Sure to Visit DocuTicker For More New Reports and Resourcs

Search Briefs
+ Google Local-Canada Launches
+ Yahoo Showing Only 10 Results
Note: By using the Yahoo preferences option it’s possible to show up to 100 results per page.
+ Kozoru Seeks Answers