Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Patents–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: USPTO
USPTO Releases List of Top 10 Universities Receiving Most Patents in 2004
[The] United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the top 10 U.S. universities receiving the most patents during calendar year 2004. Listed below are the 10 universities receiving the most patents for inventions in 2004, along with their 2003 ranking. The University of California tops the list for the 11th consecutive year.”
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Civil Rights–History–Documents
Source: Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law
Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
“In conjunction with the Thurgood Marshall Law Library’s strategic plan to enhance its civil rights collection in support of the School of Law’s teaching and research mission, the Library has worked since 2001 to create a complete electronic record of United States Commission on Civil Rights publications held in the Library’s collection and available on the USCCR Web site. The publications are made available over the Internet as page image presentations in PDF format. Each item is linked to the appropriate bibliographic record in the Catalog. Publications are also searchable by keyword and accessible by date and title.”

Web Search Briefs
+ Searching for Digital Books
Several searchable directories are listed.

Professional Reading Shelf
Mobile Access to Info
Japan Cell-Phone Users Turn to Literature
We keep saying mobile access and mobile search are going to be huge. Will downloading books to your mobile phone or mobile device (Blackberry/Treo) be another new service libraries offer? From the article, “Several mobile Web sites offer hundreds of novels — classics, best sellers and some works written especially for the medium. It takes some getting used to. Only a few lines pop up at a time because the phone screen is about half the size of a business card. But improvements in the quality of liquid-crystal displays and features such as automatic page-flipping, or scrolling, make the endeavor far more enjoyable than you’d imagine.”
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Libraries–Awards
Source: National Endowment for the Humanities
NEH Announces We the People Bookshelf Awards to 500 Libraries; 15 Classic Books on “Freedom” Will Support Community Programs
“The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that it has awarded free copies of 15 classic books from the We the People Bookshelf, with four also offered in Spanish, to 500 school and local libraries throughout the country. The theme of this year’s bookshelf is “freedom.” As part of the award, libraries will hold programs or events to raise awareness of these classic books and engage young readers.”
Full list of award winners (PDF; 44 KB)
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Public Libraries
Bookstores
Source: Library and Information Research
Change in store? An investigation into the impact of the book superstore environment on use, perceptions and expectations of the public library as a space, place and experience
“The book superstore is promoted not just as a place to buy books but also as a community resource in which to read, learn and socialise: traits that have in combination traditionally been the preserve of the public library. This study investigates the impact of the bookstore environment on public library space. The attitudes and behaviours of library and bookstore users were examined through focus group interviews and a self-completed questionnaire. Clear areas of overlap in the functions of the two sites were found, as was evidence of age and income-related splits in use and perception of bookstores and libraries. Results suggest attention should be paid to the beliefs and behaviours of young people and middle-income earners (the groups most noticeably increasing their use of the bookstore) and to the desired balance of education and recreation in the image and nature of the public library.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
U.S. Department of Defense
Source: DOD
Three New U.S. Department of Defense Publications
+ The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America (PDF; 1.61 MB)
+ The National Military Strategy of the United States of America (PDF; 456 KB)
+ Two Years in Iraq — The Mission Continues: A New Iraq Emerges (special report)

Professional Reading Shelf
RSS
Source: EI Update
RSS: Moving Into the Mainstream
“By now, many are using RSS feeds to keep track of weblogs, journal tables-of-contents, press releases, newspaper content, and more. In addition to following dozens of weblogs of interest, I use RSS to keep track of movie reviews from the New York Times, search engine alerts, and library-related weblogs and resources. The application of RSS feeds has moved into the library world, riding the wave of hundreds of library-related weblogs and other services.” Column by Randy Reichardt, Cameron Science and Technology Library, University of Alberta.
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Legal Documents–Korea
Source: Korea Times (via APMN)
Korea: Legal Documents Will Go Online
“People will no longer have to visit police stations, prosecutors’ offices, courthouses and penitentiaries to get legal documents on criminal cases as an online database will be set up in 2007.”
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Scholarly Publishing
Source: First Monday
Economics of scientific and biomedical journals: Where do scholars stand in the debate of online journal pricing and site license ownership between libraries and publishers?
“The emergence of e-journals brought a great change in scholarly communication and in the behavior of scholars. However, the importance of scholars’ behavior in the pricing of scientific journals has been largely ignored in the recent debate between libraries and publishers over site license practices and pricing schemes. Stanford’s survey results indicate that sharply increasing costs are the main reason for individual subscription cancellation, driving users to rely on library or other institutional subscriptions. Libraries continue to be a vital information provider in the electronic era and their bargaining power in the market and the importance of roles in scholarly communication will be increased by branding and a strong relationship with users.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Country Studies–Taiwan
Source: Federal Research Division/Library of Congress
Just Released, Country Profile for Taiwan
29 pages; PDF
See Also: More Country Profiles from FRD
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Freedom of Information Act
Source: EPIC
New Newsletter, EPIC FOIA Notes
See Also: EPIC’s New 2005 FOIA Gallery
“…contains highlights and scanned images of some of EPIC’s FOIA disclosures from the past year.”
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Education–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Education Revenues Top $440 Billion; D.C. Spent the Most Per Student, Utah the Least
“Public elementary and secondary education revenues from federal, state and local sources reached $440.3 billion in the United States in 2003, up 4.9 percent from the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Again, the District of Columbia spent the most money per student on this level of education ($13,328) of any state or state equivalent. These findings from the 2003 Annual Survey of Local Government Finances – School Systems show that following the District of Columbia in per-student expenditures were New Jersey ($12,202), New York ($12,140), Connecticut ($10,372) and Vermont ($10,322). Utah spent the lowest amount ($4,860) of any state or state equivalent. Next to Utah, the lowest averages per pupil were in Arizona ($5,672), Mississippi ($5,816), Idaho ($6,034) and Nevada ($6,084). The national average was $8,019.”
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text (Select 2003)
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Weather–United States–Outlooks
Source: NOAA/NCDC
Just Released, NOAA Issues 2005 Spring Outlook

Briefly
+ DHS to use MetaCarta (via FCW)
See Also: Just What is MetaCarta (Geographical Text Searching)?
+ Index to Jewish Periodicals now Available on EBSCOhost

Search Briefs (via the SEW Blog)
+ France, Digitization Projects and Google
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+ Engine Manipulation, Verticals, and the Library

Resource of the Week
by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor
Educational Resources–Hub
Source: U.S. Department of Education
Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
This week’s resources is a “gem” in every sense of the word. “A U.S. Department of Education initiative, The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) expands educators’ capability to access Internet-based lesson plans, instructional units and other educational materials in all forms and formats. GEM’s goal is to improve the organization and accessibility of the substantial collections of materials that are already available on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.” As of March 8, 2005, the GEM collection included 42,450 resources, each one “carefully indexed using characteristics that educators find useful such as subject, grade level, pedagogy, and “audience” for the resource.”

On the home page, you’ll find a GEM Spotlight feature, with pointers to relevant materials in the database. For March, it’s Women’s History, since this is Women’s History Month. Previous Spotlight features are available on an archives page.

If you want to browse the collection, there are many different options: resource subject, type, level, keywords, mediator (who should use the resource — e.g., teacher, librarian, administrator, etc.), beneficiary (specific student population — e.g., disabled, bilingual, etc.), and priceCode (basically “fee status” — e.g., “Free”, “Partially free”, “Not free”). You can find detailed information about browsing the collection.

The search engine here looks deceptively simple — a small text box and a dropdown menu at the upper right corner of the home page — but some very sophisticated technology is powering this thing. Called “faceted searching,” it “combines the processes of searching for specific words and phrases somewhat as one does in Yahoo! and Google with browsing descriptions of resources based on what are called facets.” A “facet” is a metadata element or property. (Note the availability of a detailed glossary of terms used on the site, part of an extensive help section.) The search engine uses the Seamark Navigation Server from Siderean Software.

Each record contains a brief description of the resource; click on the “show full view” box at the lower righthand corner to get additional information, such as subject area, mediator, provider, price code, record creation date, etc. Subject, mediator and price code are live links that you can click to explore other resources with those tags, as is the resource type (e.g., lesson plan, activity, etc.) indentified in the description. You can also explore via the navigation bar that appears on the lefthand side of the results page, which allows you to refine your search by clicking on live links to refine your search by subject, resource type, grade level, keyword, mediator, beneficiary or price code.

To initiate a search, type your query into the text box and click “go”. The default option is full-text search of all GEM records. If you prefer to search by “facet” instead, choose title, description or keywords from the dropdown menu, and your search will be restricted to that particular record field.” Search help is available, as is a guide for first-time users.

GEM is actually a “consortium effort” comprised of members who make their resource collections available here and members who use and promote the resources. You can apply for membership in the consortium, but you do not have to be a member or register in any way to search and use what’s here. When you browse the member directory, click on the member’s name for a brief description and a link to its home page and rights/permissions information.

Professional Reading Shelf
Public Libraries–United Kingdom
Source: BBC
Libraries ‘in scandalous state’
“The deterioration in the quality of public library buildings is scandalous, a committee of MPs says.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
OECD–Factbooks
Source: OECD
Just Released, OECD launches new Factbook of economic, environmental and social indicators
“Labour market data, broken down by age, gender, part-time working or self-employment provide just some of the 100 major indicators to be found in this annual digest of economic, environmental and social statistics covering the organisations 30 member nations. The data – available in book form and online is accompanied by explanatory analysis and easy-to-read charts to enable clear cross-country comparisons of long-term trends in the following areas:
* Population and migration
* Macroeconomic trends
* Economic globalisation
* Prices
* Labour market
* Science and technology
* Energy
* Environment
* Education
* Public policies
* Quality of life
Most of the indicators present the latest available, internationally-comparable figures together with historical data going back at least 10 years. The Factbook also provides some projections of future trends in areas such as population ageing, economics and the environment. The online version, freely available at http://new.SourceOECD.org/factbook. Thanks to S.B. for the news tip.
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Personal Computers–Statistics
Source: Computer Industry Almanac
PCs In-Use Surpassed 820M in 2004; PCs In-Use Will Top 1B in 2005
“The worldwide number of PCs in-use surpassed 820 million in 2004 and is projected to top 1 billion in 2007. PCs in-use growth is slowing as the industrialized world is approaching the top of the S-curve. Strong PC growth will continue in the developing countries for another decade. The U.S. has a large lead with over 220M PCs in-use–over 3X the number in Japan. The U.S. accounts for over 27% of all PCs in-use compared to 4.6% of worldwide population. PC usage is growing rapidly in China, which is expected to surpass Japan in 2007. PC usage is also growing strongly in many populous countries such as Brazil, India and Russia.”

Search Briefs
+ RSS Search Engine Feedster Improves On Already Robust Search Syntax (via SEW Blog)
Want a proximity operator? Feedster has one.

Wireless Web News
Health Information
The Merck Manual and Other Medical Resources Now Available for Mobile Web Users
The Merck Manual, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, Reuters Medical News, and MEDLINE Journal Abstracts are now available for the mobile web. Registration required, free. You can either download the material to your PDA or access with your wireless web browser.
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RSS
RSS Headlines Delivered via SMS (Text Messaging) With FeedBeep
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Legal Research
Source: Law Office Computing
Conduct legal research on your BlackBerry
A new article by ResourceShelf friend, Genie Tyburski.

Professional Reading Shelf
Conferences
Live “Blog” Coverage From the 20th Annual Computers in Libraries Conference
ResourceShelf’s own Steven “When do you Sleep” Cohen is one of the contributors. You’ll also find postings from Nancy Garman, Paula Hane, and Aaron Schmidt.
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Public Libraries–Referenda
Source: Library Journal
The Good Fight–Library Referenda 2004
“The year brought tougher times at the polls for America’s libraries, with approval rates dropping. The 69% approval rate for referenda for public library buildings was at a low level not seen since the difficult year of 2002, when it was only 60%, slipping from the passage rate of 76% in 2003. The last time it dipped into the 60s was 1988. Operating referenda fared slightly better, with a 70% pass rate, similar to those seen in 2003 and 2002, but still significantly lower than the 83% passage rate in 1998. The last time we saw a pass rate in the 70s was in 1995. So what’s happening? Are libraries still sure bets with communities at the polls? The answer lies in a complex set of variables, including geography, competition, and timing.”
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Digital Libraries
The March 2005 Issue of D-Lib Magazine is Now Available
Articles include:
+ The NSF National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program
+ OCLC Research Publications Repository
+ Connotea: A Free Online Reference Management Service for Scientists
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Libraries–India
Talking Books
Source: BBC
‘Talking library’ records success
“It started when her brother-in-law bought her a tape recorder and encouraged her to do something for the blind. Now 46-year-old Madhu Singhal, herself visually impaired, runs an audio library of 16,000 works in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Media–Lists & Rankings
Source: Media Post
The Media 100
A list of 100 hundred “people to know” in the media world. Thanks to J.D. for the news tip.
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Media–United States
The State of the American News Media, 2005
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research institute affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts (via DocuTicker.com)
From the press release: “Traditional journalism, with its focus on substantiating facts, now competes with other models of news, such as Blogs. These faster, cheaper and less accurate alternatives have distinct advantages in the marketplace, according to a new report on the state of journalism in America.”
Executive Summary ||| Full Report
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Telemarketing Fraud
Source: National Consumers League
Telemarketing Fraud Toolbox
“The Toolbox is intended to help government agencies, unions, social service agencies, schools, and nonprofit organizations educate their colleagues, constituents, clients, and members about telemarketing fraud and to promote public awareness about the assistance that they provide in that regard. The Toolbox cannot be used to promote commercial products or services.”

Web Search Briefs (via SEW Blog)
+ New Cool Service from Amazon’s A9
OpenSearch provides access to specialized databases directly onto the A9 interface. Also, it looks as if A9 is now in the weblog search business.

Scholarly Publishing–Citation Reports
Source: ISI
+ Science in Singapore, 1999-2003
+ Economics: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003
+ Social Work & Social Policy: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2002
+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Astronomy & Astrophysics
+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Applied Linguistics

Professional Reading Shelf
Federal Depository Libraries and Others Test Virtual Reference Service
Source: GPO
From the web site, “Government Information Online (GIO) is a national pilot project sponsored by the Illinois State Library, OCLC, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. GPO is participating in the pilot along with more than 30 federal depository libraries from across the United States. Users of the service can interact online with government information librarians during a weekly chat schedule, or users can submit questions at any time using an email interface. To use the service, visit the project’s website at http://govtinfo.org. The pilot is scheduled to run through November 14, 2005.”
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Information Visualization
Source: Library Journal
Visualize This
A look at several products including Vivisimo, Groxis, and AquaBrowser.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Bankruptcies–United States–Statistics
Source: Administrative Offices of the U.S. Courts
New, 2004 Bankruptcy Statistics
“Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts dropped nearly 4 percent in calendar year 2004, according to data released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Total bankruptcies filed in the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2004, totaled 1,597,462, down 3.8 percent from the 1,660,245 petitions filed in the 12-month period ending December 31, 2003.”
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Films–UK–Statistics
Source: UK Film Council
Box office and TV ratings boost for British Films in 2004
“Well-loved characters Harry Potter and Bridget Jones and historical epic Troy were the best performing British films at the UK box office in 2004, there was a 45% increase in the takings of the top 20 British films compared to 2003, and attendances increased to more than 170 million over the year with July the most popular movie-going month, according to the latest Statistical Bulletin from the UK Film Council.”
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Irish Americans
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts About the Irish American Population
Just in time for St. Partick’s Day!
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Military Science–Bibliographies
Source: Air University Library
New/updated bibliographies; Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals
+ Followership: “Followership is just as important to Air Force officers as leadership and management.”
+ Foreign Arms Sales” Does foreign arms sales support U.S. foreign policy?”
+ Law of Armed Conflict
+ Life Skills (Mental Health)
+ Women in Combat

Web Search Briefs
Web Search–Clusty
Clusty Now Offering Government Search and Cluster Resource
Great idea and something that might be useful to many of you. Gary has posted an overview on the Search Engine Watch Blog.
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Web Search
New Items from Greg Notess at Search Engine Showdown
Web search guru and librarian, Greg Notess has a few new items on SES that will be of interest.
+ Greg has a Posted A Preliminary Review of Exalead
One feature Greg doesn’t mention is the ability to personalize the look of the Exalead home page.
+ A Look at How Web Engines Handle Long Words
+ Changes In How Yahoo! Handles Stop Words in a Phrases