Briefly
Mobile Information
+ Cool! Location-Based Maps and Local Info Direct to Your Cell Phone
+ Gigablast Adds Releated Pages Feature

Resource of the Week
by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor
OECD–Factbooks
Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OECD Factbook 2005: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics
We apprised you of this compendium about a week ago here on ResourceShelf. Now we’re going to take a more detailed look at it.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, headquartered in Paris, identifies itself as “a unique forum where the governments of 30 market democracies work together to address the economic, social, environmental and governance challenges of the globalising world economy, as well as to exploit its opportunities.” Its 30 members together produce some 60% of the world’s goods and services. Basically, it facilitates information sharing among the membership, and it generates its own data, analyses and forecasts. It came into existence as “an economic counterpart to NATO,” set up after World War II “to co-ordinate the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe.” If you’re interested, a detailed overview of the organization is available.

The OECD Factbook 2005 is the first edition of a new annual publication that “will draw on the OECD’s data bank of statistics to present a unique overview of economic, social and environmental trends in the OECD’s 30 member countries.” It is structured around “100 indicators” grouped into 11 topic areas:
+ Population and migration, covering demographic trends and international migration
+ Economic globalisation, covering international trade and foreign direct investment
+ Labor market, covering employment and unemployment
+ Environment, covering air, water and land, and energy use
+ Public policies, covering government deficits and debt, public expenditures and aid, and taxes
+ Macroeconomic trends, covering gross domestic product, economic growth, productivity, and commodities (production and supply)
+ Prices, covering consumer and producer prices, and purchasing power and competitiveness
+ Science and technology, covering research and development, and information and communications technology
+ Education, covering expenditures on education and outcomes
+ Quality of life, covering health, work and leisure, crime, and transportation

A special Focus on Energy topic contains a wealth of statistical data on such things as the world energy supply, oil prices, energy production and consumption, and world electricity generation.

When you click on one of the many, many specific data links, you get a page offering a general discussion of that topic and links to related graphs, charts and tables, additional commentary and related resources from the OECD. Under each chart and graph, a statlink takes you to a direct download of the relevant data in Excel spreadsheet format.

If you prefer, the last link on the righthand side of these pages allows you to download all the information in the main topic heading as a PDF file, such as this one for Quality of Life. These are attractively formatted for printing…or you can just go ahead and order a dead.tree version of the factbook, which costs $63 (in U.S. dollars). OECD says the factbook will be available in French in early April, and it can also be accessed via SourceOECD (PDF), a portal which aggregates online OECD books, periodicals and statistical databases.

The OECD Factbook is not searchable itself, but the OECD website is; enter a keyword in the text box at the top righthand side of the page and choose the resource you want to search from the dropdown menu: all publications, books, periodicals, databases, other site content.

Professional Reading Shelf
Digitization Projects–Australia
Source: Computerworld Australia
Race against time to digitize decaying images
“If the thought of backing up e-mail evokes feelings of dread, spare a thought for Australia’s librarians who are racing against the clock to digitize millions of decaying photographic images before nature has its cruel way. While IT managers may worry about whether their document management solutions are legally up to scratch, photographic curators – charged with the safekeeping of Australia’s pictorial history – have to deal with a pervading smell of vinegar as their cellulose assets shrivel and die. NSW chief librarian Dagmar Schmidmaier, who runs the state’s largest collection of images and documents at the Mitchell Library (NSW State Library), said the first priority is to make sure all key historical areas are covered and no eras get lost.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Searchable Databases–Fast Facts and Statistics
New Searchable Databases Added to Melissa Data Lookup Index
You can now search and retrieve Home Sales by ZIP Code and
Labor Statistics by ZIP. If you’ve never seen all (25+) of the useful searchable tools Melissa Data offers (free), they’re more than worth a look. Here’s an overview that was written in 2003.
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Social Security
Medicare
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Just Released, 2005 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Hospital Insurance and Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds
“The Trustees Report is a detailed, lengthy document, containing a substantial amount of information on the past and estimated future financial operations of the Hospital Insurance and Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds. We recommend that readers begin with the ‘Overview’ section of the report. This section is fairly short, is written in ‘plain English,’ and summarizes all the key information concerning the expected financial outlook for Medicare. Substantial additional material is available in the later sections for those wishing to delve more deeply into the actuarial projections.”
2005 Report (PDF; 1.2 MB)
Previous years’ reports also available from this page.
See Also: The 2005 OASDI Trustees Report
“The 2005 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds, was issued on March 23, 2005. The report presents the current and projected future financial status of the trust funds.”

Briefly
+ Now Live on the Web, Oxford Digital Reference Shelf from the Oxford University Press
Fee-based, “…fully-searchable e-book versions of major multi-volume reference works.” Direct to web site.

Search Briefs
+ Yahoo Releases Creative Commons Search Tool

Professional Reading Shelf
Information Policy–United States
Open Access
Source: Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC)
LIVE WEBCAST Tomorrow (3/24/05): 2005 FLICC Forum on Federal Information Policies
The forum is titled, “Evolving Information Policy: Open Access and New Constraints.”
Details and speaker list here. The webcast begins at 9am EST. The session will be archived here. Past FLICC events can also be viewed online.
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Virtual Reference
Source: Knowledge Quest on the Web (Journal of the American Association of School Librarians)
Answers at Your Fingertips: Live Internet Reference for Teachers, Students, Parents, and Library Media Specialists
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Metadata
Dublin Core
Source: UKOLN
Updated, DC-assist (Dublin Core Assist)
“UKOLN’s help utility for metadata applications, has been updated to include details and examples for all the metadata terms currently in DCMI maintained namespaces (67 terms). The software includes 130 examples of how to use the terms and these are displayed using the DCMI recommended XHTML syntax.”
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Library Associations–Australia
Source: Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
New Issue of aliaNews Now Online
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Dissertations–Lists & Rankings
Source: ProQuest
Top 10 Best-Selling Doctoral Dissertations of 2003
The Top 3 Master’s Theses are also listed.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Social Trends–United Kingdom–Statistics
Source: National Statistics
Just Released, Social Trends in the UK
“The United Kingdom population is ageing and within 10 years there will be more people aged 65 and over than children under 16, according to Social Trends published today by the Office for National Statistics. This is the 35th year of Social Trends and the publication looks back over these years of social change in a special review by
National Statistician Len Cook and Research Director Jean Martin.”
Summary ||| Full Text
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Humanities–United States
Source: Congressional Research Service
Updated, Arts and Humanities: Background and Funding
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Highways–History–United States
Transportation–Digitized Collections
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation Library
Just Released, Online Digital Special Collection, Turner and Fairbank Papers
You’ll also find links to other digitized collections.

Search Briefs
+ Scirus Adds More than 13 Million Patents to Database

Briefly
+ H.W. Wilson Will Release Art Museum Image Gallery in July
“H.W. Wilson will launch the Art Museum Image Gallery in July 2005 to replace The AMICO Library, which will be discontinued with the dissolution of the AMICO consortium.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Copyright–United States
Source: ALA Washington Office
ALA Washington Office Provides Update on Library Community Filing on Orphan Works
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Academic Libraries
Source: AP
‘Sexy’ library worker pursues discrimination case against Harvard
“Jury selection is expected to begin today in a discrimination lawsuit brought by a Harvard University assistant librarian. Desiree Goodwin says she has been turned down for 16 promotions during her eleven years working at Harvard.”
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Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries–Finances
Source: Emerald
This Week Only: Free Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances
Articles include:
+ Simplifying serials sourcing: A case study in decision support for managing electronic journals access (Vol. 18 No. 1)
+ The Canadian National Site Licensing Project and the logic model (Vol. 18 No. 1)
+ Thoughts on endowment fundraising for libraries (Vol. 18 No. 1)
+ Executive compensation in libraries: an oxymoron? (Vol. 17 No. 4)
+ Measure by measure: assessing the viability of the physical library (Vol. 17 No. 4)
+ Using the world of blogs for project and financial management (Vol. 17 No. 3)
+ What you don’t know about banking could hurt your library (Vol. 17 No. 3)
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Preservation
Source: DCC
Call For Papers: Ensuring Long-term Preservation and Adding Value to Scientific and Technical Data

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Automobile Travel–Fuel Costs
Source: AAA
AAA Fuel Cost Calculator
“Calculate the estimated fuel cost of your trip” based on current gasoline prices. Choose your starting point, destination, make/model/year of vehicle from dropdown menus and click “Calculate.” Map on page shows current day’s average fuel costs in different regions of the country.
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Health Information
New Topic Page/Compilation from MEDLINEPlus
Source: NLM
+ Heart Surgery
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Medicinal Plants
Source: Science Reference Service, Library of Congress
Medicinal Plants
“This Tracer Bullet has been compiled to assist researchers in navigating the databases, electronic resources and print materials related to medicinal plants and to locate relevant materials in the Library’s collections. Lists of other agencies, institutions, and organizations are provided as starting points for further study. Not intended to be a comprehensive bibliography, this guide is designed–as the name of the series implies–to put the reader ‘on target.’”
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Undergraduate Education–Statistics
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Trends in Undergraduate Career Education
“This Issue Brief examines trends in undergraduate credentials (certificates, associate’s degrees, and bachelor’s degrees) in career-related areas of study. These trends are examined at both the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels, from 1984-85 to 2000-01. The number of undergraduate credential awards increased over this period, in both academic and career areas, and at both the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels.”
Full Report (PDF; 79 KB)
Supplementary Graphs (PDF; 29 KB)
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Topics in the News
Source: Findlaw
Terri Schiavo Case: Legal Issues Involving Healthcare Directives, Death, and Dying
Various document including legal filings.

Search Briefs
+ Scirus Adds More than 13 Million Patents to Database
+ Wikipedia Users Should Check Out WikiWax
If you’re a Wikipedia user this new dynamic query suggestion tool might be a welcome addition to your research arsenal.
+ Eliyon.com Becomes ZoomInfo
It’s still free to use. Potentially useful for researching people but MANY caveats still apply. Information Today has more.
+ 1871 UK Census Now Available in Full Online for the First Time

Briefly
+ Factiva Tests RSS (via LibraryStuff)
+ 1,000 Cambridge University Press Titles Now Included in Questia (via BookTech Magazine)
+ ProQuest to Distribute ACM Journals

Professional Reading Shelf
Preservation
Source: IFLA
First, do no harm – A Register of Standards, Codes of Practice, Guidelines Recommendations and Similar Works relating to Preservation and Conservation in Libraries and Archives
Compiled by: John McIlwaine
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Digitization Projects–UK
Source: ALA
British Library to Digitize World’s Oldest Bible
“Experts from the four institutions that own parts of what scholars consider the oldest extant version of both the Old and New Testaments in one volume launched a project March 11 to create a complete copy of the Codex Sinaiticus online.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Information Technology–United States–Higher Education
Source: EDUCAUSE
The Pocket Guide to U.S. Higher Education 2005
” The EDUCAUSE Pocket Guide to U.S. Higher Education 2005 provides a series of markers that outline the shape and complexity of higher education. This guide identifies relevant resources and organizations, providing timely and useful information about the college and university market–institutions, students, faculty, college stores, meetings, publications, technology issues, organizational behavior, and more. The guide is compiled annually in partnership with The Campus Computing Project.” 69 pages; PDF.
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National Endowment for the Arts–Guide
Source: National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts 2005 Guide (PDF; 2.67 MB)
“This guide presents an overview of all the areas in which the NEA makes a difference: grantmaking and national initiatives, partnerships and research, accessibility and arts learning.”

Search Briefs
+ WSJ: IAC/InterActiveCorp Close to Acquiring Ask Jeeves
+ Yahoo Acquires Flickr

Briefly
+ Wiley Sues 10 Illegal Online Resellers
Cracking down on pirating.

Archives–Media
Grassroots Media
Source: Ourmedia
New Resource, Official Launch: Ourmedia
“The Global Home for grassroots media.” It’s a new resource (free to use).
+ Host/Publish/Archive your media (videos, audio files, photos, text or software)
+ Host/Publish your own blog
From the FAQ, “Members of the creative community, technologists, educators, librarians and others interested in spreading digital culture are behind Ourmedia. Leading the effort are J.D. Lasica, a writer, editor with the Online Journalism Review, and evangelist for participatory media, and Marc Canter, a well-known technologist and open standards advocate who co-founded the company that became software giant Macromedia. This is purely an open-source, all-volunteer effort.” The Internet Archive, Wikipedia, and other organizations are involved. Congrats to J.D. Lasica (he’s been supporter of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker since the very beginning) and the Ourmedia team.
See Also: Ourmedia’s Plans for the Future
Note, they’re looking for help developing a taxonomy. This is one area (of many) that the info profession can get involved.

Professional Reading Shelf
News Publications–Academia
Source: Chicago Tribune
Academic weekly gets Web-based rival
“In the academic world, the Chronicle of Higher Education is the newspaper of record. From stories of embattled administrators to the latest faculty appointments, its 140-plus pages have provided readers with industry news, job listings and similar information each week for nearly 40 years. Last January, three ex-employees challenged the Chronicle’s grip on academic news by going online with a free, Web-based rival, insidehighered.com.”
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Travel Research
Mobile Access to Information
Source: Contra Costa Times
Popular travel tools get to-go versions