Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Economics–Africa–Statistics
Source: OECD
Just Released, Country Reports from the African Economic Outlook 2004/2005
Full text of report is fee-based but country reports offer facts and stats for 29 African nations.
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Government Contracts–United States–Law
Source: FindLaw.com
Federal Government Contract Overview
“Although Congress has streamlined the contracting process to reduce the burdens on contractors offering commercial products and services, any entity considering entering into a government contract must tread carefully. This overview is intended to provide you a general insight into the federal government’s contracting process.”
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Strokes–United States–Statistics
Source: CDC/MMWR
New Report, Disparities in Deaths from Stroke Among Persons Aged Less than 75
“May is National Stroke Awareness Month. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States.” More stats in this news brief.
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Wireless Internet Access
Privacy
Source: Consumer Reports
New Report, Wi-Fi Woes

Search Briefs (via SEW Blog)
+ Blogdigger Goes Local
Search blog posts by geo location.
+ Google Launches Personalized Home Page
+ Accoona Now Offering Some D&B Data
+ Yahoo’s New Guide to RSS for Publishers

Briefly
Marquis Who’s Who Unveils Digitized Historical Biographies

Resource of the Week
by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor

We often review sites here that have a broad range of content. This week’s choice is a niche site that runs deep. If you travel a lot, if you’re interested in aviation safety or security, if you sometimes have a need for aviation/accident statistics…you will want to bookmark this well-stocked fishing hole, maintained by a noted airline safety analyst and author.

Air Travel Safety–Hub
Source: Dr. Todd Curtis
AirSafety.com
While you can likely find everything that’s here at some other location on the Internet, it would require a time-consuming scavenger hunt. We love “one-stop shopping” sites, and this one aggregates aviation safety news, statistics, fact sheets, links to databases and many other key resources. Click on the Recent Fatal Events to get a chronology of recent fatal airline accidents, with brief description and links to other relevant material on the site. To the right of that link, in the center of the page, you’ll find links to the site’s Most Requested Information,” including Fatal Events by Airline, Fatal Events by Aircraft Model, and Fear of Flying Information Resources.

Under the Most Requested Information Links is a collection of pointers to information and statistics dealing with Airport and Arline Security, such as information related to The Hijackings of 11 September 2001, a chronology of Fatal U.S. Hijacking Events Since 1970, and Airlines With No Fatal Events Since 1970.

Dr. Curtis has aggregated a lot of links to federal government data, such as:
+ Fleet Information for Selected U.S. Carriers — “Each link produces the airlines FAA certificate and fleet information from the FAA’s National Vitals Information System.”
+ Key Aviation Accident and Incident Databases — “The following links are to databases that are maintained by national aviation or aviation safety authorities. The database entries contain a variety of information on accidents and incidents involving civil aircraft. The most extensive databases are from the NTSB and FAA in the U.S. and may be searched by specific criteria.”
+ U.S. Government Airline Safety Information — “Included here are links to incident data, accident data, safety and security policy, and safety-related sanctions against airlines and other aviation related organizations.”

You’ll find a lot of extremely specialized information here, too, such as:
+ Air Rage Information Resources — “Reasons for such behavior include excessive alcohol consumption, smoking bans, crowding, and long flights, psychological feelings of a loss of control, or problems with authority figures.”
+ Celebrity Crash Cases — “…information on aircraft crashes involving celebrities. These crashes, both fatal and non-fatal, involve personal aircraft or commercial aircraft.”
+ Fatal Events with a Sole Survivor — “…from 1970 to the present involving either jet airliners or large turboprop driven airliners where there was only a single survivor.”
+ Major Airline Accidents by Country — “The following links provide background information on fatal or significant airline accidents by country. The region links will take you to a listing of key airlines in the region, and their estimated fatal event rates.”
+ Post Accident Information Checklist, which appears to be aimed at journalists covering airline crashes.

Got an airline-related gripe? Use the online complaint form here, and “AirSafe.com will forward the e-mail to the Office of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Transportation.” If airline safety is of particular interest to you, sign up to receive AirSafe.com News, a free weekly e-mail newsletter that “provides a concise roundup of the latest changes in airline safety and security, including information about recent airline fatal events, accident investigations, and aviation security issues.”

According to information on the site, it has been up and running since July 3, 1996 — “just two weeks before the crash of TWA Flight 800.” Dr. Curtis, who holds degrees from Princeton and MIT, is the author of Understanding Aviation Safety Data: Using the Internet and other Sources to Analyze Air Travel Risk. He served in the United States Air Force and worked for the Boeing Corporation as an airline safety analyst. A private pilot and registered professional engineer, he is an expert in “aviation risk assessment and bird strike hazards to aircraft.” He also maintains a website for the Bird Strike Committee USA, which focuses on “(u)nderstanding and reducing bird and other wildlife hazards to aircraft”.

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries–Measuring Value
Source: Sirsi OneSource
The Value of Libraries: Impact, Normative Data, & Influencing Funders
A new column by Stephen Abram. “These are challenging times for libraries. We need to communicate our value strongly and in many ways. The studies and opportunities outlined above are fabulous initiatives. We must take our basic statistics and turn them into measurements, and then we must share our measurements. Raw statistics are just representations of effort — something bureaucrats view with cost-cutting eyes. Well-chosen measurements can demonstrate the amazing value and impact of libraries to their communities, host organizations, and funders.”
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Web Sites
Source: U.S. Census
Fake U.S. Census Web Site Gets Shutdown
“The U.S. Census Bureau today stopped an e-mail scam that lured individuals with a $5 instant cash reward to participate in a bogus online “Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005 Survey.” The survey, however, was not a legitimate Census Bureau survey. The e-mail scam, which began at 7:49 a.m. EDT today, provided individuals with a link that took them to a “spoof” Web page that appeared to be the official Census Bureau Internet site.”
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Copyright–United States
Source: DigitalPreservation.gov
Group Convenes to Study Exceptions to Copyright Law for Libraries and Archives
“The Section 108 Study Group held its inaugural meeting at the Library of Congress on April 14-15. The goal of the group, named after the section of the U.S. Copyright Act that provides limited exceptions for libraries and archives, is to prepare findings and make recommendations to the Librarian of Congress by mid-2006 for possible alterations to the law that reflect current technologies. The U.S. Copyright Office will then hold public hearings before submitting recommendations to the U.S. Congress. This effort will seek to strike the appropriate balance between copyright holders and libraries and archives in a manner that best serves the public interest.”
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Health Information–Internet
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
Health Information Online
“Eight in ten internet users have looked online for information on at least one of 16 health topics, with increased interest since 2002 in diet, fitness, drugs, health insurance, experimental treatments, and particular doctors and hospitals.”
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Librarians–PATRIOT Act
Source: USA Today
Librarian’s brush with FBI shapes her view of the USA Patriot Act
It was a moment that librarians had been dreading.

RSS
Weekly RSS Round-Up
by Steven Cohen, Contributing Editor

A few interesting new RSS Feeds to report this week:
+ School Library Journal introduced a blog this week, titled, The SLJ Virtual Summit, which has a feed.
+ David King and Teri Vogel both posted information on their respective blogs about a few new library RSS releases. They are:
- Hennepin County Library – Customized Events Feeds.
- Kelvin Smith Library new books and media.
- RIT feeds for new book acquisitions.
- University of Oklahoma Libraries has a new databases feed and a new books feed, which is broken down by subject classificatrion and is searchable.
+ The Wall Street Journal now has a “free features” page with an attached feed.
+ Last, the Librarian in Black reported that the California Library Association blog will remain open to the public, rather than “members only.” So, grab the feed and enjoy.

Scholarly Publishing–Citation Report
Source: ISI
Science in Australia, 2000-04

Search Briefs
+ Search and Cluster with Vivisimo Technology at BioIT-World.com and Discovery.com
+ FAST Search and Transfer Signs Deal with Financial Times

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Earthquakes–California–Maps
Source: USGS
New, Map of Daily Probability of Earthquake Shaking in California
“The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced today the release of new public web pages that show the probability of earthquake shaking in the next 24 hours in California. These maps graphically illustrate the change in earthquake probability during aftershock and possible foreshock sequences. The maps are not intended to be used to predict an upcoming earthquake; however, based on previous earthquake sequences, an increase in probability will be seen before about half of California’s larger earthquakes. The maps are updated at least once an hour and are available to the public at http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/step/.
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Elections–United Kingdom
Source: UK House of Commons Library
New Report, General Election 2005
135 pages; PDF. Results and other summary info.
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China
Source: University of Pittsbugh
Modern China Studies Web
The Digital Research Library released the Modern China Studies Web site, the result of a collaborative project with the East Asian Library and Preservation department within the ULS. The digital pilot project was part of a greater effort to preserve acidic Chinese monographs through grant funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
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Social Security Reform–United States
Source: GAO (via DocuTicker.com)
New from the GAO, Social Security Reform: Answers to Key Questions
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Information Technology–North America–Lists & Rankings
Source: Red Herring
The Red Herring 100: Hottest Private Companies of North America
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Supermarkets–Chronology
Source: Food Marketing Institute
Celebrating 75 Years of Supermarkets 1930-2005: 75 Facts for 75 Years
Timeline of supermarket-related events. Interesting.
See also: History of the Shopping Cart

Professional Reading Shelf
Information Retrieval
Source: Webology
Similarities and differences between web search procedure and searching in the pre-web information retrieval systems
“This paper presents an introductory discussion about the commonalities and dissimilarities between Web searching procedure and the searching process in the previous online information retrieval systems including classic information retrieval systems and database. The paper attempts to explain which factors make these two groups different, why investigating about the search process on the Web environment is important, how much we know about this procedure and what are the main lines of research in front of the researchers in this area of study and practice. After presenting the major involved factor the paper concludes that although information seeking process on the Web is fairly similar to the pre-web systems in some ways, there are notable differences between them as well. These differences may provide Web searcher and Web researchers with some opportunities and challenges.” Paper by Yazdan Mansourian, Ph.D. Student of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK.
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Internet2
Source: Internet2.edu/Library of Congress
Library of Congress Joins Internet2
From the announcement, “Internet2, the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium led by the research and higher education community, today announced that the Library of Congress has become a member of Internet2 and will connect to its high-performance Abilene Network. The Library plans to collaborate with the Internet2 community and leverage its advanced network infrastructure to facilitate wide-scale digital preservation projects, to enhance the development of an Internet-based database of U.S. newspapers, and to assist with its educational outreach programs.”
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Government Information–United Kingdom
Source: Kable’s Government Computing
Whitehall gets information unit
A new Cabinet Office body has taken responsibility for a database listing official information and an online service for crown copyright licences. The UK government has created a new body responsible for coordinating standards on the use of public sector information, it announced on 16 May 2005. The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) has taken on past functions of HM Stationery Office (HMSO), becoming responsible for Whitehall’s Information Asset Register, a database listing the government’s information resources. It has also taken charge of an online licence service for crown copyright material.
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Public Libraries–United States
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
Budget for library falls on hard times
“San Diego city libraries would be closed more often and have fewer new books, computers and other materials under a $37.2 million budget tentatively Approved by the City Council yesterday.”

Search Briefs
+ New Beta Release of A9 Now Available
+ Clusty Now Offering Links to Cached Copies of Pages

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Executive Education–Lists & Rankings
Source: Financial Times
Just Released, Rankings: International Non-Degree Executive Education Programmes
Rankings for Top 50 custom programme providers and Top 45 open enrolment programme providers are available.
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Maps
Source: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Two Maps of the Caucasus Region
These cover Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
+ Caucasus region: Base map (GIF; 512 KB)
+ Caucasus region: Population density (GIF; 417 KB)
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House of Commons–Canada
Source: Library of Parliament
New List, Members of the House of Commons 1867 to Date: Military Service
A list of senators is available here.
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Philanthropy–United States–Statistics
Source: Foundation Center
New Report, Foundation Funding for Children’s Health
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National Park Service–Historians–Directory
Source: National Park Service
Directory of National Park Service Historians 2004
“Welcome to the ninth annual Directory of National Park Service Historians. Most of the nearly 300 historians listed here represent the Service’s 388 parks; the rest are spread among its Washington headquarters, regional and support offices, and program centers. Although most of these historians focus on the history presented to the public in the national park system, many work with the National Register of Historic Places, the National Historic Landmarks Survey, the Historic American Buildings Survey, the Historic American Engineering Record, and other NPS programs extending beyond the parks.” Information includes: name, highest academic degree, granting school, year granted, up to three areas of professional specialty, position title, park or office, mailing address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address.

Briefly
Elsevier launches new health science eJournal and eClinics collections

Professional Reading Shelf
Dictionaries
Source: OUP
New Edition of The New Oxford American Dictionary Released, More than 2000 Words Added
The folks over at Oxford University Press were kind enough to share with ResourceShelf this list containing all of the new entries and definitions.
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Information Literacy
Source: ALA/ACRL/STS Task Force on Information Literacy for Science and Technology (via C&RL News)
Information Literacy Standards for Science and Technology (DRAFT)
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Libraries
Source: FirstGov.gov
New Section on FirstGov: Libraries
From the FirstGov newsletter, “The FirstGov.gov Reference Center has a new section on libraries. Check out this page to find information on:
+ National, federal and local libraries
+ Online library databases
+ Grants and benefits for libraries
+ and much more!”
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Digital Libraries
Source: D-Lib
The May Issue of Digital Libraries is Now Available
Articles include:
+ Influencing User Behavior through Digital Library Design: An Example from the Geosciences
+ What Readers Want: A Study of E-Fiction Usability
+ Briefly: ReDReSS ? Resource Discovery for Researchers in e-Social Science

Mobile Access to Information
+ CAS gives chemists mobile access (via IWR)
+ Mobile Access to The Wall Street Journal
Services for mobile phones, Blackberry’s, MP3 players, and other mobile devices are available.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Internet Usage–Europe–Statistics
Source: EU
New Report, Internet usage by individuals and enterprises 2004
8 pages; PDF.
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Images–Databases
Source: Natural Resources Canada
Updated, Natural Resources Canada: The Canadian Landscapes Photo Collection Web Site Has a New Location and a New Look
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Weblogs
Journalism
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project (via DocuTicker)
New Report, Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004
“Experimental research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and BuzzMetrics suggests that political bloggers can make an impact on politics, but they often follow the lead of politicians and journalists. A report released today, entitled ‘Buzz, Blogs and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004,’ employed new word-of-mouth tracking and cross-media correspondence techniques to examine the impact of online buzz on the national agenda during the last two months of the 2004 presidential election.” Direct to Full Text (PDF)
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Hurricanes–Outlook
Source: NOAA
Just Released, NOAA: 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook
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Hurricanes–Insurance
Source: Insurance Information Institute
Hurricane and Windstorm Deductibles
Includes recent developments, state-by-state hurricane deductibles, explanation of terms and charts with hurricane statistics, including the ten most costly hurricanes in U.S. history.

Search Briefs
Gigablast Passes Two Billion Page Mark

Briefly
Enterprise Search: Positive Review of Vivisimo’s New Enterprise Search Technology (via TechWeb)

Professional Reading Shelf
Web Resources
Source: C&RL News
Women’s resources: Sites of interest
New compilation of web resources by George Mason University librarians, Sharon Hybki Kerr and George D. Oberle III.
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Professional Organizations–United Kingdom
CILIP Launches RSS News Feed
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Web–Privacy
Source: EDUCAUSE Review
New Article, Web Site Privacy Policies
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Public Libraries–Singapore
Source: CNETAsia
S’pore beefs up library borrowing system
“The National Library Board (NLB), which manages Singapore’s 40 public libraries, has beefed up its IT infrastructure with new Web-enabled terminals to provide enhanced security features and easy management.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
U.S. Congress–Maps
Source: National Atlas of the U.S.
Printable Maps: Congressional Districts for the 109th Congress
+ Congressional districts for the 109th Congress
+ State and county boundaries
+ Interstate and US highways
+ Selected rivers and waterbodies
+ Major cities
“Each map is available in GIF and PDF file formats that allow you to view and print the maps.”
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World Trade–Databases
Source: The Stanford Daily
Stanford, WTO partnership places trade documents online
“For scholars interested in international commerce over the past 50 years, April 19 was a big day. On that day, the GATT Digital Library — a collection of 30,000 public documents and 200 reports related to the workings of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT — was uploaded online at http://gatt.stanford.edu. The library is the culmination of a six-year project to digitize and archive the GATT archives.”
See Also: ResourceShelf First Posted About this New Resource A Few Weeks Ago
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Country Studies
Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
Two Recently Updated Country Profiles (PDF)
+ North Korea
+ South Korea
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Research Reports
Two Recently Released Reports from the UK House of Commons Library (PDF)
+ The Caspian Basin, energy reserves and potential conflicts
+ The Middle East Peace Process: prospects after the Palestinian Presidential Elections