Professional Reading Shelf
Federal Government–U.S.–Databases
Source: FCW
THOMAS refreshed
“We hope, by year’s end, to deliver several enhancements to the current features to provide for quicker searches with more relevant results,” said Kevin Novak, director of education outreach and Web services at the library’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. ‘The release of THOMAS set for early September is a refreshment of the site with a new, more pleasing look and feel.’”
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Federal Government–U.S.–Privacy-
Source: InformationWeek
Federal Data Miners Urged To Better Address Citizen Privacy
“Federal investigators say the government isn’t doing all it should to notify citizens that information about them is being collected by systems employing data-mining techniques.”
See GAO Report:
Data Mining: Agencies Have Taken Key Steps to Protect Privacy in Selected Efforts, but Significant Compliance Issues Remain
Highlights ||| Full Report
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Scholarly Publishing–Biomed Central–Alerts
Source: BioMed Central
Article Alerts from BioMed Central
via the BioMed Central site, “Article alerts are now available for all journals published by BioMed Central. Visit the homepage of your journal of interest to sign up.”
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RFID–Institutes
Source: NISO
RFID Institute
“NISO and the Univ. of North Texas Center are bringing you a 2-day Institute on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). We have tapped an array of experts to examine the use of RFID in business and the library and book world; this event will inform you about the benefits and opportunities this technology offers and the standards needed to maximize performance. RFID goes way beyond replacing a barcode – this is about transforming the business!”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Hurricane Katrina–Imagery
Three Sources for Hurricane Katrina Imagery
+ FEMA Photo Library
FEMA has started to add images from their work in the Hurricane Katrina zone to their photo library. Direct links to download images are provided.
+ Satellite Images from NASA
Direct links to download are provided. ||| More Images from NASA
+ Collection of Images from NOAA #1 ||| #2
UPDATE 8/31: Aerial Images of Katrina’s Devastation Are Now Being Released by NOAA
See Also: Interactive Mapping Tool (via Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality)
Includes aerial and satellite imagery.
See Also: MARIS (Mississippi Automated Resource Information System)
This site is not reachable at the moment.
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Journalism–History
Source: Professor Chris Roush, Univ. of North Carolina
New Web Resource, History of Business Journalism
“Business journalism is one of the most fascinating aspects of media in recent years as it has documented such well-known corporate scandals as Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia Communications, HealthSouth and Tyco. Browse through this timeline of important events in business journalist history and learn more about the significance of the field.”
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Elections–Australia
Source: Parlimantary Library
New Research Brief, Timetable for the next Australian elections
PDF.
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Charities–Missouri–Databases
Source: Government Technology
Missouri Launches Online “Check a Charity” to Better Inform Charitable Givers
“Missourians who give to charity have a new resource to be better-informed donors. Attorney General Jay Nixon recently launched “Check a Charity,” an online database where consumers can look up financial information about hundreds of charitable organizations that solicit donations in Missouri.”
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College Entrance Exams–United States
Source: College Board
New, College Entrance Test Scores, 2005
“The College Board announced SAT scores today for students in the class of 2005, the last to take the former version of the SAT featuring math and verbal sections. The College Board also previewed results from the first three administrations of the new SAT. The new SAT features higher-level math, additional reading passages, and a new writing section with an essay.”

Citation Reports
Source: ISI
+ Science in Belgium, 2000-04
+ Top 20 Scientists in Clinical Medicine
+ Food Science/Nutrition: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 2000-04
+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Applied Mathematics
+ Geosciences: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 2000-04

Briefly
+ Credit.net Site Now Offers Business URLs and Company News
+ LexisNexis, Biz360 Expand Alliance to Deliver Co-Branded Solution for Global Reputation and Brand Management

Professional Reading Shelf
Law Librarians–Ireland
Law Librarians–United Kingdom
Source: MangagingInformation.com
New Award Scheme For Legal Information Professionals
“The British & Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) and LexisNexis Butterworths have joined forces to launch a new award scheme that honours the dedicated work of legal information professionals, and recognises the best use of technology in a library project.”
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Patent and Trademark Searching–United States
Source: USPTO
New Search Option Added to USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
“TESS now features a new Trademark Official Gazette (TMOG) ’search line.’ By entering the publication date of a particular TMOG into the new search line, users can generate a list of all marks published for opposition in that TMOG, or a list of all new registrations published in that TMOG.”
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Geology–United States–Maps
Source: USGS
New USGS map reveals geology in and around Las Vegas
Download info here.
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Aerial Imagery–United States–Maps
New Imagery Added to National Map
Source: USGS
“USGS Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles with 1-meter ground resolution are now available for most of the United States and its territories. These images, which are available for viewing in The National Map Viewer, are black and white, natural color, or color infrared. Additionally, the images may be downloaded in both native and GeoTIFF formats from the National Center for Earth Resources Observation (EROS).” Direct to National Map viewer.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Hurricanes–United States–Insurance–Statistics
Source: Insurance Information Institute
Hurricane Insurance Info Center (Facts and Stats)
“…information about the costliest, and deadliest, hurricanes.”
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Population–United Kingdom
Source: National Statistics Office
New Estimate, Population of England passes 50 million and UK approaches 60 million
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Social Security–United States
Source: Congressional Research Service (via FPC)
New, Social Security: The Trust Fund
17 pages; PDF.
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Workplace–United States–Statistics
Source: BLS
New, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2004
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Breakfast Cereal
Source: American Cereal Council
Fun Facts About Cereal
“The word cereal comes from Cerealia, the name of ancient Roman ceremonies that honored Ceres, the goddess of grain.” Who knew?

Search Briefs
+ Will Google’s Keyword Searching Eliminate the Need for LC Cataloging and Classification?
A new article by Thomas Mann, Librarian at LC, author, and a ResourceShelf friend.
+ Google Print Goes International
+ Enhancements Made to Yahoo Mail Search

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries–United States–Law Enforcement Activities
Source: American Library Association
Impact and Analysis of Law Enforcement Activity in Academic and Public Libraries (PDF; 224 KB)
From press release: “The American Library Association (ALA)…released complete findings from its survey measuring law enforcement activity in America’s libraries. Preliminary findings, released in June, revealed that at least 137 legally executed requests by federal and state/local law enforcement in both academic and public libraries have taken place since October, 2001 – 63 legally executed requests for records in public libraries and 74 such requests in academic libraries. The full report of survey findings includes contextual data including responses to interviews and an appendix containing the survey instrument.”
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Digital Repositories
Source: JISC
Digital Repositories: Helping universities and colleges
Two new papers.
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Internet
Source: FCW
NSF announces program to create a new Internet
“NSF officials said they envision the creation of new network architectures that will be more secure, easier to use and more beneficial to society. GENI [Global Environment for Networking Investigations] will ‘enable the vision of pervasive computing and bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds by including mobile, wireless and sensor networks,’ according to an NSF fact sheet.”
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Information Industry–LexisNexis
Source: Information Today
New LexisNexis ContentGuard Verifies Content Originality
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Web Archives
Source: Centre for Internet Research, University of Aarhus (via SEPW Blog)
Archiving Websites. General Considerations and Strategies

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Small Business–United States–Statistics
Flooding–Glossary
Source: Flood Control District of Maricopa County
Glossary of Flooding Terms
In alphabetical order, from Aggradation to Zone D.
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Government Contracts–United States
Small Businesses Garnered a Record $69 Billion In Federal Contracts in FY 2004 (PDF)
“U.S. small businesses reaped a record $69.23 billion in federal prime contracts last year, surpassing the previous high by almost 6 percent…The report from the Federal Procurement Data Center (FPDC) shows federal prime contracting in FY 2004 amounted to $299.9 billion on 9.97 million contracting actions. Small businesses garnered $69.23 billion on 4.36 million actions.” Direct to Full Text Report (PDF) and Supplementary Data (PDF).
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Insurance–United States–Lists & Rankings
Real Estate–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Forbes
+ The Most Expensive States To Insure Your Home 2005
Direct to list.
+ Most Expensive Homes In America 2005: West

Search Briefs
+ Two Roundups of New Search Technology and Services Published Today
+ PubSub Kicks Off Football Season With New Service
+ Google, the Naked Emperor (via Library Journal)

Briefly
+ Bloomberg Chooses Verity
+ Thomson Custom Solutions Introduces First Database for Tailored Literature Anthologies

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Scientists–Employment–Lists & Rankings
Source: The Scientist
Best Places To Work In Industry, 2005
“For the third year in a row, The Scientist has asked industry scientists to tell us what makes their company a great – or not so great – place to work. We took the factors scientists rated as the most important in terms of job satisfaction, and combined them with the scientists’ ratings of their own workplaces. The result? The Best Places to Work in Industry, 2005.”
Top Ten Large Companies (5,000+ employees)
Top Ten Small Companies (less than 5,000 employees)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Hurricane Katrina–Web Resources
Up-to-the-Minute Coverage of Hurricane Katrina
NewsNow aggregates content from more than 21,000 sources. Page auto-refreshes every five minutes.
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Audio and Video
+ Live TV Coverage from WDSU-TV, New Orleans, LA
+ Watch Live TV Coverage from WWL-TV, New Orleans, LA
+ Listen to Radio Station, WJBO, Baton Rouge, LA
+ Listen to Mississippi Public Radio
+ Watch Live TV Coverage from WAPT-TV, Jackson, MS
+ Watch Live TV Coverage from WPMI, Mobile, AL
+ Police Scanner, Mobile, AL Police Department
+ Various Webcams In and Around New Orleans
+ NWS Weather Radio, New Orleans, LA
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+ Louisiana Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
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+ Maps and Satellite Imagery via Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (Geographic Information Systems)
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+ Real-Time Streamflow Data (via USGS)
++ via LSU Hurricane Center
+ Current Observations
+ Satellite Imagery
++ via NOAA
+ National Weather Service Forecast Office, New Orleans/Baton Rouge, LA
+ Satellite Imagery ||| Animated Satellite Image
National Hurricane Center All Current U.S. Weather Warnings
The Most Intense Hurricanes in the United States 1851-2004
Costliest U.S. Hurricanes 1900-2004 (unadjusted)
The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1996
The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones From 1851 to 2004
U.S. Mainland Hurricane Strikes by State, 1851-2004
+ Hurricane Insurance Info Center (Facts and Stats)
“…information about the costliest, and deadliest, hurricanes.”

Search Briefs
+ More Publishing Trade Groups Weigh In On Changes to Google’s Library Scanning Project
+ Research from Microsoft: Personalized Search, Determining a Query’s Dominant Location, and Much More

Professional Reading Shelf
Specialty Databases–Answers.com
Source: Answers.com
Answers.com Makes Educators Toolkit Available
Great idea! Will other search tools do the same thing? They should.
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PATRIOT Act
Source: AP
Library sues over controversial Patriot Act
” A controversial Patriot Act clause allowing the U.S. government to demand information about library patrons’ borrowing habits is being challenged in federal court for the first time by a library. The lawsuit was filed against U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut by an unnamed library and the American Civil Liberties Union.”
See Also: More in this ACLU News Release
See Also: Redacted Version of ACLU Complaint Filed With Court
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Access to Information–Satellite Imagery
Source: GovTech
Agency drafts guidelines on satellite imagery

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Medicaid
Source: KFF
Improved, 50 State Medicaid Benefits Database Includes 2004 Data
“A newly enhanced interactive database based on 50-state survey data provides easy access to information on health services provided by each state’s Medicaid program. You can search the database by state or Medicaid benefit and compare benefit packages from 2003 and 2004.”
–
United Nations
Source: UN
New Report, The 2005 Report on the World Social Situation: The Inequality Predicament
News Release ||| Tables and Graphs
“Over the years, the Report has served as a background document for discussion and policy analysis of socio-economic matters at the intergovernmental level, and has aimed at contributing to the identification of emerging social trends of international concern and to the analysis of relationships among major development issues which have both international and national dimensions.”

Briefly
Research Tools: Onfolio Announces General Availability of Onfolio Academic and Scientific Edition

Professional Reading Shelf
Science/Technology/Mathematics–Publishing
Source: Scope e-Knowledge Center
Knowledgespeak
“Knowledgespeak is the world’s first online news service to report all the relevant developments within the STM publishing industry, on a daily basis. This is a free service that also offers additional resources including a blog area, calendar of events, articles, white papers and a directory of STM publishers.” You can subscribe (free) to a daily e-mail newsletter.
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Audiobooks
Source: AP
Libraries offering audiobook downloads
Always great to see public library services receiving the attention they deserve!

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Contracts–Database
Source: Contracting and Organizations Research Institute (CORI), University of Missouria, Columbia
CORI Contracts Library
“CORI’s digital contracts library contains over 40,000 contracts and is growing weekly. Most of the contracts in the collection are executed agreements made available in public disclosure filings or filed with a regulatory agency. Currently, the collection is primarily drawn from filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) EDGAR Database. The required disclosure filings made by publicly traded companies frequently contain contracts that are of material interest to investors. CORI is downloading, extracting, and categorizing these contract filings to make them more directly available.” Free registration required. Also here:
+ Research Papers
+ Reading List
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Employee Benefits–United States–Statistics
Source: BLS
National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States
–
Country Studies
Source: Federal Research Division/Library of Congress
Just Updated, Just Released, Country Profile of Russia
PDF.
See Also: More Country Profiles from the FRD

Resource of the Week
—————————–
By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor

Just because you are an adult doesn’t mean you can’t have fun while learning something. And just because you are an information professional doesn’t mean you know all there is to know about information literacy. Enlighten yourself, challenge yourself and entertain yourself by taking a cruise through this week’s selected site.

Information Literacy
Source: Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
21st Century Information Fluency Project (21CIF)
“Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically. DIF involves knowing how digital information is different from print information; having the skills to use specialized tools for finding digital information; and developing the dispositions needed in the digital information environment. As teachers and librarians develop these skills and teach them to students, students will become better equipped to achieve their information needs.” You’ll get no arguments from us here. As information professionals, we know that locating “answers” is the easy part. Locating the correct answers — and the best answers — is much more challenging in today’s online information overload environment. And the folks who designed this website have come up with some clever tools, tutorials and games designed to hone your information literacy skills.

Just for the heck of it, start by clicking on the “Search Challenge” icon to jump right into the activities here. A Flash-powered activity challenges you with a question — “What is the URL of a page that list all the shows that have opened on Broadway since 1984, year by year?” Click the Google button to crank up the search engine and a timer starts running. See if you can answer the question in less than 10 minutes.

Or if you prefer, start with a set of Keyword Challenge Exercises that show you how to select the best keywords for your online search.

If you’re a classroom teacher, a school media specialist or a librarian who teaches online research, you’ll really like the extensive set of instructional “MicroModules”, covering such topics as Accessibility Awareness: Section 508 & ADA, Bias, Copyright, Evidence, Invisible Web, Plagiarism, Search Box Strategy, Sitemaps, and Vanishing Web. Each of the more than 40 modules is a self-contained, multimedia instructional unit that starts with a pretest and finishes with a posttest. And there are links to the Illinois state and National Educational Technology Standards addressed by each module. And if you’re in need of handouts, each module is downloadable in PDF format. Suggested course sequences are also offered.

Check out the collection of “Wizard Tools”, which are designed “to help you become an effective power searcher.” You’ll learn to:
+ Build an effective search query
+ Perform a comprehensive evaluation of Web resources
+ Format a proper citation (in APA, Chicago, Council of Biology Editors, ISO or MLA format)
There’s also a handy thesaurus and a spelling tool.

But that’s not all ! (I’m beginning to feel like an infomercial here.) You’ll find a load of additional goodies on the Resources page:
+ Search, evaluation and ethical use tips
+ Lesson Plans and Action Research Repository
+ A “core competencies” document
+ Events materials — e.g., syllabi, handouts, etc.
+ A Digital Investigator Training online course
+ Links to related resources

The 21CIF Project is backed by a U.S. Department of Education grant; according to Dennis O’Connor, the project’s Online Curriculum Development Specialist, they’ve been working in Illinois for awhile and are looking to take the project national. We think they’ve got something special here, and you owe it to yourself to have a look.