Web Search
Source: SearchDay
Jeeves Rolls Out New Features, Teoma Upgrade Announced
I’ve written an 800-word overview for SearchDay about some REALLY exciting stuff that Ask Jeeves announced today. Most important (and I think useful) is the launch of their “personal web” initiative aka My Jeeves.

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries
Source: AP
Open, comfortable spaces coming to a library near you
We’re really happy to read the following quote: “‘Peter Persic, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Public Library, says, libraries ‘are beginning to realize we provide a service and are in competition like any other business.’” Absolutely!
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Research Libraries–Statistics
Source: ARL
ARLStatistics 2002-03: Research Library Trends
From the article: “ARL Statistics 2002-03 is the latest in a series of annual publications that describe collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities for the 123 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Of these, 113 are university libraries; the remaining 10 are public, governmental, and nonprofit research libraries. ARL member libraries are the largest research libraries in North America, representing 16 Canadian and 107 U.S. research institutions. The academic libraries, which comprise about 92% of the membership, include 14 Canadian and 99 U.S. libraries.”
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Reference–Bibliographies
Just Updated, Sloan’s Digital Reference Services Bibliography
Bernie Sloan writes, “700 items listed in this bibliography, related to the topic of online or virtual or digital reference services, i.e., the provision of reference services, involving collaboration between library user and librarian, in a computer-based medium. These services can utilize various media, including e-mail, Web forms, chat, video, Web customer call center software, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), etc.”
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Libraries–United States–Funding
Two from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
+ Native American Communities Receive $1.7 Million for Library Enhancements
+ $13.8 Million Awarded to Advance Innovation and Public Service at Nation’s Museums and Libraries (view the list of grants

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Native Americans–Online Exhibitions
Two new online exhibitions from the National Museum of the American Indian:
+ Great Masters of American Folk Art
+ Who Stole the Teepee?
Note: The National Museum of the American Indian (a part of the Smithsonian) opens today in Washington, DC.
See Also: New, Fast Facts and Stats About the American Indian and Alaska native populations (via U.S. Census)
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Employment–Life Sciences
Source: BioMedCentral
New Resource, Adsumo
From the announcement, “Adsumo, a new website focused on careers and recruiting in the life sciences…Adsumo has partnered with the Mackenzie Group to provide services like resume writing, career coaching and outsourcing assistance. The website will also feature original articles on job hunting in the life sciences as well as relocation guides, salary surveys and regional profiles that catalog life science activity in areas around the globe.”
See Also: Direct to Adsumo Job Database
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Oceans
Source: U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
Just Released, Final Report: An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century
Exec Summary 212 Recommendations Full Text
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Education–Finance–Conference Proceedings
Source: National Center for Educational Statistics
Developments in School Finance: 2003
“This report contains papers presented at the 2003 annual NCES Summer Data Conference. The scholars’ papers address teacher turnover; financing urban schools; the costs of improving student performance; distinguishing good schools from bad in principle and practice; an evaluation of the efficacy of state adequacy and equity indicators; school finance reform in Vermont; and school accountability.”
Full report (PDF; 690 KB)
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Hurricane Ivan–Satellite Images
Source: Space Imaging
Just Released, Before-and-After Satellite Images of Pensacola, Florida, Show Damage from Hurricane Ivan
“Space Imaging is releasing before-and-after satellite images of Pensacola, Florida’s Historic Village along Pensacola Bay and the Chico Bayou area just to the west. Damage from last week’s hurricane can be easily discerned when comparing the ‘before’ one-meter resolution image collected Jan. 4, 2003, to the ‘after’ image collected Saturday, Sept. 18, 2004. There is considerable amount of debris strewn across the ground in both ‘after’ images…All images were taken from 423 miles in space as the IKONOS satellite moved from north to south at 17,000 mph over the eastern part of the U.S.
+ Pensacola Historic Village, Florida, Side-by-Side Comparison Images
+ Chico Bayou, Pensacola, Florida, Side-by-Side Comparison Images
See Also: NOAA Has Also Made More than 1300 Aerial Images of Hurricane Ivan’s Destruction
Overview Direct to Images
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Venture Capital–Compensation Surveys
Source: VentureOne
Highlights Only: VentureOne Compensation Survey
“The salaries for chief executive officers at venture-backed companies are $25,000 higher than they were a year ago, according to the results of the most recent executive compensation survey conducted by VentureOne, a unit of Dow Jones Newswires.”

Briefly
+ Verity Announces Integrated Enterprise-Class Extraction Software
+ Fast Introduces Full-Featured OEM Enterprise Search Solution

Professional Reading Shelf
Preservation
Saving the Artistic Orphans
Brewster Kahle, his lawsuit, and IA in the news again! “Valuable resources are being lost to students, researchers and historians because of sweeping changes in copyright law, according to digital archivists who are suing the government. These resources — older books, films and music — are often out of print and considered no longer commercially viable, but are still locked up under copyright. Locating copyright owners is a formidable challenge because Congress no longer requires that owners register or renew their copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office. Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and Rick Prelinger, a film collector, want permission to digitize these so-called orphan works to create online libraries for free public access. In a suit filed in March, the plaintiffs in Kahle v. Ashcroft argue that multiple changes to copyright law have essentially made it impossible for works to return to the public domain. They want to have these changes declared unconstitutional.”
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Chemistry–Journals
Source: Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus
Free Full-Text Journals in Chemistry
+ Part A: Permanently available chemical journals
+ Part B: Trials and temporarily available chemical journals
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Libraries and Librarians
Source: ALA
Two New Resources from the American Library Association
+ A Communications Handbook for Libraries
“‘A Communications Handbook for Libraries’ will help libraries preserve and promote their programs-while dealing with the challenges of the USA PATRIOT Act and seemingly endless budget cuts. The handbook will be useful to the entire library community, including public library professionals and staff, school librarians, library researchers, curators of special collections, trustees, systems librarians and Friends of libraries. Much of the ‘Communications Handbook for Libraries’ deals with what should happen before you pick up the phone or send an e-mail.”
++ Continuing Education (CE) Clearinghouse
“The CE Clearinghouse is a searchable database of continuing education opportunities offered by ALA, its divisions and other units. The result of input from numerous ALA members and working groups, it includes face-to-face workshops and conferences, online learning, as well as workshops that can be licensed by local institutions.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Publishing–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Advertising Age
Just Released, Magazine 300 (free registration required)
Top 300 grossing magazines. The complete report is available here (5 pages; pdf)
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E-Government
Source: Inside Politics
Just Released, State and Federal E-Government in the United States, 2004
From the Press Release: “A study of digital government in the 50 states and major federal agencies also finds that FirstGov (the U.S. portal) and the Social Security Administration are the top-rated federal sites.”
+ Read the Report [PDF] | [HTML]
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Technology–Lists & Rankings
Source: Technology Review
Technology Review: The 2004 TR100
“100 remarkable innovators under 35 who are transforming technology — and the world.”
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Defence–United Kingdom
Source: House of Commons Library, UK
+ The Defence White Paper
+ The Defence White Paper: Future Capabilities
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Computer Security
Source: Symantec
Just Released, Full Text, Symantec Internet Security Threat Report Vol. 6
Registration required, free. “The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report is an analysis and discussion of Internet security activity over the past six months. It covers Internet attacks, vulnerabilities, malicious code, and future trends. Over the first six months of 2004, Slammer and Gaobot were the most common attacks. E-commerce was the most highly targeted industry. The average time between the public disclosure of a vulnerability and the release of an associated exploit was 5.8 days. The number of distinct variants of bots rose by 600%.”
See Also: This news release contains key findings.

Search Briefs
+ Google And Reed Elsevier Discuss Revenue Sharing (via The Observer)

Briefly
+ Ovid Releases The International Science Database

Reference Books and Databases
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Will Be Published This Week
A MAJOR reference work, 12 years in the making, will be published this week. According to the publisher Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the largest reference project ever undertaken in the humanities.
+ 60 Volumes (280 lbs. of books)
+ 50,000 biographies, “…lives of the men and women who shaped all aspects of British history, from the explorer Pytheas of the fourth century BC to modern figures who died before 31 December 2000.”
+ 10,000 portrait images
+ 10,000 contributors
+ Searchable online version
+ Free “Life of the Day” Biography Email!
+ Read about the making of this reference tool. It has taken 12 years.
+ The price? The print version (60 volumes) retails for $13,000. As an email from Oxford University Press points out, “knowledge isn’t cheap.” The online version is available for subscriptions by institutions and individuals.

Professional Reading Shelf
Special Libraries Association–Conference Papers
Source: Sci-Tech Division, SLA
Sci-Tech Contributed Papers for the 2004 SLA Conference
Several papers in PDF format.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Television–United States–Awards
Source: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Advanced Primetime Awards Search
Search for all nominees and award winners back to 1949. Search criteria include:
+ Program Title
+ Name
+ Year(s)
+ Network
+ Category
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Digital Collections
Source: Library of Congress
Library of Congress Veterans History Project Highlights More Stories of Sacrifice
From the Press Release: “A new collection of 20 fully digitized collections of materials submitted by war veterans is now available on the Library of Congress Web site at www.loc.gov/warstories. This is the fourth set of individual stories – comprising interviews, letters, photographs and written memoirs – to be featured on the site, which is titled Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project. This new release marks National POW/MIA Recognition Day on Sept. 14 and brings the total of stories available on the online searchable database to 630.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Digital Libraries
Source: DLF
Two Recently Released Reports from the Digital Library Federation
+ Digital Library Content and Course Management Systems: Issues of Interoperation
+ Electronic Resource Management
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Government Records–United States
National Archives and Records Administration
Source: GCN
NARA issues proposed rule, Web content guidance
“The National Archives and Records Administration today issued a proposed rule that would make it easier for agencies to transfer records to NARA’s storage facilities…
NARA also today released a guidance for the transfer of Web records. The guidance is effective today.”
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Information Overload
Source: Proceedings The Good, the Bad and the Irrelevant (via E-LIS)
Information overload, retrieval strategies and Internet user empowerment
By Christopher N. Carlson, 2003. From the abstract, “Initial user benefits from search engine technology have been critically degraded over time by the rapid increase of Internet pages. Traditional retrieval strategies therefore yield increasingly poor results due to a dramatic increase in ballast in the results. Search engine users thus increasingly experience information overload. Technical approaches to dealing with this problem have caused an initial euphoria, yet have proven ineffective in solving the problem.”
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Clinton Library–Public Documents
Source: AP
Clinton library documents’ openness rests with Bush
From the article: “Former President Clinton will have to ask President Bush for permission to release thousands of domestic-policy records from his two terms in the White House, officials at Clinton’s presidential library said Friday. Clinton has said he wants to make 100,000 documents available to scholars and researchers Nov. 18, the day his presidential library opens and nearly a year sooner than required.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Justice–United States–Statistics
Source: BJS
Just Released, Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 2002
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United States Postal Service
Fast Facts: Postal Service Sets Overseas Holiday Mail Dates
Thanks to P.W. for the link.

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries and Librarians
Source: Sacramento Bee
Law librarian’s achievements speak volumes
A wonderful article about Sacramento County Public Law Library and its director, Shirley Hart David, who is retiring. From the article, “Under David’s leadership, Sacramento County’s library has become a model for other law libraries and has been nationally recognized for its contribution to library science. ‘She has ridden on the cusp of this evolution and made our library into an example that other counties are emulating,’ said Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael T. Garcia, who chairs the California Law Libraries Task Force. The task force is evaluating law libraries and their future for a report to the state Legislature….Even in retirement, David said, she will continue to advance the cause of library science. ‘I will be editing publications for the American Association of Law Libraries and updating a source book for our local trustees – projects that everyone wished they could do but never had the time to do it,’ David said.”
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E-Journals
Source: Micromedia
Micromedia ProQuest and Swets Information Services host The Economics of e-Journals: Cost Effectiveness & Institutional Collaboration
From the Press Release: “Micromedia ProQuest and Swets Information Services recently teamed up together to host this one-day hands-on symposium focusing on the challenges, opportunities and integration challenges of electronic resources. Real world experiences of electronic package negotiations and their pitfalls will illustrate how institutions can successfully collaborate to achieve better overall outcomes.”
+ Read Warren Holder’s Presentation [PDF]
+ Read Micromedia’s Presentation [PDF]
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Library Education
Source: The Library of Congress
Panel Discussion, View Onine: Library and Information Science Education in North America: Bridging the Gulf Between Education and Practice
Oops, we missed this one back in the spring. The discussion took place on March 16th and runs about two hours. David Lankes from Syracuse University is the moderator. You’ll need your RealPlayer.
Participating in the Panel from the Library of Congress:
+ Dr. Nicholas J. Belkin, Professor, Head, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS), Rutgers University, NJ
+ Dr. Roberta I. Shaffer, Visiting Professor, College of Information Studies (CLIS), University of Maryland, MD
+ Dr. Elaine Yontz, Associate Professor, Department of Information Studies, Valdosta State University, GA
Participating in the Panel from the San Jose State University, San Jose, CA:
+ Dr. Michael Buckland, Professor, School of Information Management & Systems (SIMS), University of California, Berkeley, CA
+ Dr. Ken Haycock, Professor, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), University of British Columbia, Canada
+ Dr. Linda Main, Professor, School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), San Jose State University, CA
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National Archives–United Kingdom
Source: The National Archives
Just Released, Accessions to repositories for 2003 is now online
“In its annual ‘Accessions to Repositories’ survey, The National Archives collects information from over two hundred record repositories throughout the British Isles about manuscript accessions received in the previous twelve months. This information is added to the indexes to the National Register of Archives, and it is also edited and used to produce thirty-three thematic digests which are made available through this web site and distributed for publication in a number of learned journals and newsletters.”

NISO (National Information Standards Organization)
Blue Ribbon Panel to strategize NISO’s future
From the announcement, “The Blue Ribbon Panel will play a central role in a year-long strategic planning activity NISO’s Board of Directors launched last May. The Panel’s formal report will be open for public review and comment later this year. Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), will chair the Panel, which has funding support from the Mellon Foundation. A complete list of panel members is available here.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Broadband Access–Lists & Rankings
Source: GovTech.net
Top Wired Cities
“San Diego, Phoenix, Detroit, New York and Sacramento represent the top five wired local markets connected via broadband access with penetration rates of 65 percent or higher, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, which tracked 35 local markets in the U.S.” Lists available:
+ Top Local Markets Connected via Broadband
+ Top Local Markets Most Connected via Narrowband
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Digital Divide–United States
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy
From the site: “This issue brief, ‘Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy,’ includes new research findings and reviews the latest information on wiring the nation’s schools and libraries, including points of access, the speed of connection, and what children are doing online. The report also examines current Federal policies and policy ideas that could address the new digital divide. This is the tenth in a series of reports and fact sheets on topics related to children, media and health that pull together the most relevant research on such issues as TV violence, teens online, media ratings, and children and video games.”
Read the Issue Brief [PDF]
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Health Care–United States
Election 2004
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
Just Released, Health Care Issues and the 2004 Elections
Issue Briefs, Side-by-Side Comparisons, Fact Sheets. “The Kaiser Family Foundation is issuing informational materials on some of the health policy issues that are of concern to the American public during the 2004 election season.”
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Iraq
Source: House of Commons, UK
Just Released Online, Operation TELIC – United Kingdom military operations in Iraq
HTML (Browsable) ||| PDF
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United Kingdom
Source: House of Commons Library, UK
New Research Paper, Income, Wealth & Inequality
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Prescription Drugs–Databases
Source: New York Times
Price Comparison for Drugs Is Put on Federal Web Site
From the article: “Over objections from some drug companies, the Bush administration unveiled a new feature of a federal Web site on Wednesday comparing prices for similar brand-name drugs that can be used to treat conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis and allergies.”
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United States Federal Government–Web Sites
Source: GCN
New Web Site, FirstGov launching site to help federal webmasters
From the article: “The Firstgov.gov team at the General Services Administration on Sept. 29 will launch a portal with information to help federal webmasters improve their sites. The Web Content Managers Online toolkit, at www.webcontent.gov, will feature laws and regulations, best practices, online discussion areas, frequently asked questions, and a calendar of events and deadlines, all related to the building and maintenance of federal sites. ‘This will help agencies replicate the most successful sites. We want federal Web sites to be the most accessible and user-friendly in the world,’ said Beverly Godwin, director of FirstGov, the federal government’s main portal.”
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NASA–Databases
Source: NASA
NASA documents in PDF format made available
More than thirty thousand full-text NASA documents in PDF format have been made available on the National Technical Reports Server (NTRS).

Science–Rare Books
CHF’s Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library Includes 400 Titles Unique Among 45,000 Libraries Around the World; More Than 4,500 Titles Are Now Bibliographically Searchable Online
From the announcement, “In April the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) acquired the largest collection of rare scientific works still in private hands. Since then, the foundation has added more than 4,500 titles from the Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library to its online catalog, making the bibliographic records for over 75 percent of the collection available to the public. More than 400 of these works are unique among the 45,000 libraries around the world connected to the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC).”

Briefly
+ netLibrary Signs Agreement to Distribute Titles from Penguin Group (USA)
+ infoUSA Introduces SecureUSA Investigative Database for Law Enforcement Agencies
+ Fast Search & Transfer Signs Contract With Infodata
+ More Content and Features Added to Thomson Gale Databases

Resources of the Week
Two entries this week.
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1) Digital Libraries–New Zealand
A New Digital Library from New Zealand
Matapihi (Maori for “window”) is a new bi-lingual digital library of around 60,000 photographs, drawings, paintings, sculpture and a small number of sound files about New Zealand, made in New Zealand, created by New Zealanders, or held in New Zealand collections.
Contributors are:
+ Alexander Turnbull Library
+ Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki
+ Auckland City Libraries
+ Christchurch City Libraries
+ Otago Museum

Search features include exact phrase and standard Boolean AND, OR, NOT connectors. An advanced page is available.

The “Lucky Dip” serves up a random record each time you click on it.

Records contain descriptors; unfortunately, these are not hyperlinked to subject categories. Dublin Core metadata is also available for records.

This site has a lot of promise! It’s elegant and simple to use.
However, it is not quite ready for prime time: it is slow (we visited Matapihi the day after it launched from the U.S.) and often returns broken links requiring page refreshes. A subject directory would also help.
See Also: Matapihi — opening the window onto NZ’s heritage (via National Library of New Zealand)
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2) File Conversions
Patent Searching
Patents, PDF’s, and File Conversions
Do you search the U.S. Patent & Trademark Web site, but hate dealing with documents in TIFF format? Check out pat2pdf, which converts all the individual pages of a patent document into one PDF file. Searching is by patent number only. The site is subscription-based; prices range from $5 for a single patent to $125/month for unlimited use.

Speaking of PDFs, don’t forget that the National Library of Medicine’s *free* DocMorph service will convert a file created in any of 50 formats into a PDF (also TIFF, text, or synthesized speech.) All you need is the file and a registration. DocMorph also boasts a handy table of file extensions and descriptions (in the off chance you don’t remember what .SVG stands for.)

One last comment on file types. Data Conversion Online offers a wealth of free online file converters, such as sort file, search and replace, UNIX to DOS, and more.

Thanks to ResourceShelf’s Dan Giancaterino for the ROTW annotations.

Professional Reading Shelf
Academic Libraries
Source: CLIR
Just Released, Full Text, Survey of the State of Audio Collections in Academic Libraries
From the abstract, “This report contains a survey undertaken in 2003 by CLIR to study the state of audio recordings in academic libraries. One purpose of the survey was to inform decision makers in those libraries, as well as in funding agencies, about the scale and extent of barriers to preservation and access. Another purpose was to elicit information that would help the participating libraries assess their own readiness to preserve and provide access to their recorded-sound collections.”
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Digital Information
Three New Articles from the Journal of Digital Information
+ Experiences of Educators Using a Portal of Aggregated Metadata
+ The Power of Partnering: The Cooperative Creation of Digital Collections
+ Case study: MERLOT: A Model of User Involvement in Digital Library Design and Implementation
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Computers
Source: New Scientist
Nose-steered mouse could save aching arms
Forget your mouse, it’s time for a “nouse”. “Tired of using a mouse to control your PC? Perhaps there is another option for when your arm starts to ache: your nose. A novel PC control system lets users nudge a cursor around the screen with gentle movements of their nose. Blinking the left or right eye twice takes the place of left or right mouse clicks.”
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Free Trials
Sage (A Publisher of Many Academic Journals) is Offering Free Full Text Access to their Online Database
You can check out the product and access the full text of all articles through October 31st. The site/database is produced in conjunction with Highwire.
Additional Details ||| Access Database
Thanks to N.R. for letting us know about the trial.