Search Briefs
+ Court Documents & Summary Of United States Versus Google Over Search Data
+ Bush Administration Demands Search Data; Google Says No, Yahoo & MSN Said Yes
Note: MSN Search has posted some official comments on their blog.

Resource of the Week
By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor

Your tax dollars at work again this week. Something interesting from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Maybe you’re thinking…agriculture? Has nothing to do with me. Oh, but you are wrong…

Agriculture–United States–Economics
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (ERS)
Amber Waves
The subtitle of this site is: “The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America.” It’s actually an online magazine, published five time a year (February, April, June, September, and November) by the ERS. You can subscribe to the dead tree version (through NTIS) for $49.95 per year, or read it on the Internet for free. The Internet version “offers additional articles and data between scheduled issues,” and you can sign up for e-mail alerts. The full Internet version is available for download in PDF format. An archive is available, and the site is searchable.

Now, don’t go thinking the content here is largely cattle-and-soybean oriented. The November 2005 issue, which is the most current one online right now, features such general interest articles as:
+ Where You Shop Matters: Store Formats Drive Variation in Retail Food Prices (”Just 20 years ago, traditional grocery stores claimed nearly 90 percent of Americans’ at-home food purchases. Today, their share has dropped to 69 percent.”)
+ U.S. Food Consumption Up 16 Percent Since 1970 (”…Americans are eating more food every year.”)
+ Education as a Rural Development Strategy (”Researchers at Clemson University found that counties in the rural South with a 5-percentage- point higher share of adults attending college in 1980 reported, on average, 3.5 percent faster growth per year in per capita income over the next 20 years and 5.5 percent faster growth in employment.”)

You’ll also find a “data feature” that answers the question: How Much Time Do Americans Spend Preparing and Eating Food? (No surprises here; women spend more time than men in grocery shopping and food preparation.) And there are a variety of shorter articles under several topic headings: Markets and Trade, Diet and Health, Resouces and Environment. Some information is of specialized interest — e.g., Financial Assistance to Farmers is Evolving.

Oh, and the magazine offers a service that translates the content into Spanish, French, German, Italian or Portugese.

Professional Reading Shelf
Factiva
Source: Information Today NewsBreaks
Factiva’s Search 2.0 Beta is Now Live
Paula Hane takes an in-depth look at the new beta that was released on Tuesday. From the article, “On Tuesday, Jan. 17, Factiva will officially take the wraps off the beta of its new Search 2.0 interface. Existing Factiva.com users can opt to click on the beta preview link and a new browser window will open, offering them the latest in Factiva’s ‘Discovery Technologies.’ The new search interface, which features results visualization and interactive graphical navigation, is targeted at end users who desire a search experience that is similar to popular Web search engines, though it may also appeal to seasoned researchers. The most obvious difference is a new graphical pane on the right side of the screen that visually surfaces metadata from the search results. Factiva claims that the new graphical filtering and navigation capabilities will transform business research because users will be able to easily see connections, relationships, and ideas within search results.”
See Also: Factiva News Release
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Dublin Core
Metatags
Source: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Dublin Core Releases New Mission Statement
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RLG
Source: RLG
New Issue of RLG’s TopShelf Is Online
+ James Michalko: Next Steps for the Open Content Alliance
+ ArchiveGrid Moving Steadily to March 2006 Launch
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ERIC
Controlled Vocabularies
Source: Education Resources Information Center
ERIC Launches Quarterly Thesaurus Updates
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Cataloging
Anglo American Cataloging Rules
Source: OCLC Systems & Services (via E-LIS)
The Future of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
This paper was published in 2005 and was written by Norm Medeiros. Abstract: “This article discusses the impending update to the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR) and its potential impact on libraries and other metadata communities.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Country Studies
Source: Federal Research Division/Library of Congress
+ Updated Report: Turkey (PDF)
+ New Report: United Arab Emirates (PDF)
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International Polar Year–Portal
Source: National Science Foundation (NSF)
NSF Launches New Web Portal for International Polar Year
“The National Science Foundation (NSF) today launched a portal Web site to provide the general public and members of the news media with easy access to news releases, classroom resources, listings of museum and gallery exhibits, and catalogs of video and still images and other materials produced or supported by the federal government as part of the U.S. contribution to the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008.”
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Change
Source: Smithsonian Institution
Forces of Change Portal
“Nearly every scientific and social issue confronting us today involves change: climate change, ecological change, cultural change. What forces drive these changes? How do we – and all life on this planet — adapt to change? Come and explore these ideas, experience our El Nino interactive, meet our scientists, and download our free educational lesson plans at the new Forces of Change Portal.”
See Also: NOAA Predicts Weak La Nina
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Phishing
Source: Anti-Phishing Working Group
New Report, Phishing Activity Trends Report November, 2005
11 pages; PDF. From a News.com article: “Phishing attacks reached a new high at the end of 2005 after growing steadily all year, according to a study published Wednesday. The number of unique e-mail-based fraud attacks detected in November 2005 was 16,882, almost double the 8,975 attacks launched in November 2004, said the report, published by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry consortium that provides information on phishing trends.”
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Internet Advertising–Lists and Rankings
Source: NS Media Intelligence (via Clicz)
Top 50 Internet Advertisers by Media Value in November, 2005

Search Briefs
+ On Yahoo Recommender Systems and a Movie Recommendation Tool from the University of Minnesota
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+ Streaming Audio on Your Phone or Device
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+ Google Testing Paid Ads in Google Earth

Briefly
+ American FactFinder Database From US Census Updated With New Features
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+ The New York Public Library’s New $50 Million Bronx Library Center Opens to the Public
NYPL’s first “green” facility!

Professional Reading Shelf
Public Libraries–Canada
Public Libraries–United States
Source: Counting Opinions Ltd.
Libraries411.com: Maps “Mashup” Combines Public Library Location Info And More with Maps from Yahoo and Google
Yes, it’s a mashup/public library locator from Counting Opinions (SQUIRE) Ltd. This service combines location info (and more) about more than 20,000 public libraries in the US and Canada and then merges the data on to maps from either Google or Yahoo. Search by name, Zip Code or Postal Code. Maps contain location markers. Click on the marker to get precise location info, web url and in some cases hours and library size. Narrow results to central libraries, branch libraries, and/or bookmobiles. Results pages contain no advertising. To switch between Google Maps and Yahoo Maps look for the link near the bottom of the right column. Libraries411.com went live in December.
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Digital Libraries
Source: D-Lib
The January 2006 Issue of D-Lib Magazine is Now Available Online
Articles include:
+ Folksonomies: Tidying Up Tags?
+ UKWAC: Building the UK’s First Public Web Archive
+ Automated Capture of Thumbnails and Thumbshots for Use by Metadata Aggregation Services
+ The Digital Library for Earth System Education Provides Individualized Reports for Teachers on the Effectiveness of Educational Resources in Their Own Classrooms
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E-books
Source: Guardian Unlimited
E-read all about it
“The word, written and spoken, remains at the heart of our civilisation. There is every reason to want to see the printed word enhanced by something more in tune with current information technology, but until the geeky entrepreneurs of MIT, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and the rest can come up with something that looks like a book, feels like a book and behaves like a book, those who handle such items every day, and marvel over the magical integration of print, paper and binding, will probably continue to read and enjoy books much as Caxton and Gutenberg did.”
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Academic Libraries
Source: California Digital Library
New Report: Shared Print: The Patron Perspective
“Findings from a round of focus groups conducted at UCSD in November 2005 to identify any potential barriers to adoption of a shared print collection by faculty and graduate students.” PDF.
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eGovernment–Wikis
Semantic Web
Source: Electronic Government (Wagner, Cheung, Rachael, Bottcher)
Building Semantic Webs for e-government with Wiki technology (PDF; 963 KB)
“E-government webs are among the largest webs in existence, based on the size, number of users and number of information providers. Thus, creating a Semantic Web infrastructure to meaningfully organise e-government webs is highly desirable. At the same time, the complexity of the existing e-government implementations also challenges the feasibility of Semantic Web creation. We therefore propose the design of a two-layer semantic Wiki web, which consists of a content Wiki, largely identical to the traditional web and a semantic layer, also maintained within the Wiki, that describes semantic relationships. This architectural design promises several advantages that enable incremental growth, collaborative development by a large community of non-technical users and the ability to continually grow the content layer without the immediate overhead of parallel maintenance of the semantic layer. This paper explains current challenges to the development of a Semantic Web, identifies Wiki advantages, illustrates a potential solution and summarises major directions for further research.”
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Newspapers–Australia–Databases
Source: National Library of Australia
More of The Argus Online
An online index to The Argus newspaper for the decade 1870-1879 has been published on the Library website. The Argus, the major Australian metropolitan daily of its time, was published in Melbourne from 1846 to 1957. It is the primary resource for data on 19th century Australia, widely recognised as the general Australian newspaper of record for the era. The 1870-1879 index is part of La Trobe University’s Argus Index Project and the first available in this form. However, others will go online as they are completed. The entire Ned Kelly story is contained in this index.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Money Laundering–United States
Source: US Dept. of Treasury
New Report, U.S. Money Laundering Threat Assessment
“The United States Government [has] released the inter-agency U.S. Money Laundering Threat Assessment (MLTA), the first government-wide analysis of its kind, which investigates money laundering vulnerabilities across a spectrum of techniques used by criminals.”
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text (PDF)
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Earthquakes–Statistics
Source: USGS
Fewer Deaths than 2004, but Earthquakes Still Kill Nearly 90,000 in 2005
See Also: Significant Worldwide Earthquakes in 2005
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Nuclear Strategy–Syria
Source: SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)
New Country Profile: Countries of Nuclear Strategic Concern: Syria
See Also: Additional Country Profiles Are Available
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Antarctica–Web Resources
Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
Antarctica
A collection of selected web resources. Part of the LC Portals to the World Project.
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Maps and Charts–Marine
NOAA Offers Free Navigational Charts on Web
“Mariners can now get free electronic downloads of NOAA Raster Navigational Charts or RNCs. A raster chart is a digitally scanned image of a paper nautical chart used by mariners for navigation.” Direct to database.

Search Briefs
+ More Instant Answers Now Available on MSN Search
From search engines to answer engines.
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+ Hot: Real Estate Industry Uses of Satellite/Aerial Imagery
Lots of cool resources for everyone!!!
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+ TV Transcripts and Still Images No Longer Part of Google Video
Where else can you find them?
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+ Results from MSN Search Added to Jux2 Tool Metasearch and Results Comparison Tool

Scholarly Publishing–Citation Reports
Source: ISI
+ Law: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 2000-04
+ Science in Scotland, 2000-04
+ The 20 most-cited countries in Economics & Business
+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Geology
+ Canadian Universities: Highest Impact in Materials Science, 2000-04
+ Hot Paper in Biology
+ Hot Paper in Chemistry
See Also: Thomson Scientific Names Doctors Of The Decade, 1995-2005
“Researchers from Harvard University lead the pack in clinical medicine research by earning the highest number of citations over the past decade, according to a study published in the January/February issue of Science Watch-the bi monthly newsletter published by Thomson Scientific, a business of The Thomson Corporation. Using data from Essential Science Indicators SM , the Science Watch study evaluated institutions based on papers published and cited in clinical-medicine journals indexed by Thomson Scientific (including multidisciplinary journals such as Science and Nature).”

Briefly
+ Call For Applicants: Dialog’s 2006 North American Roger K. Summit Scholarship
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+ ACRL announces Student Paper Awards for Baltimore conference
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+ Hispanic Publications More Than Doubled From 1996-2006 According To The Standard Periodical Directory

Professional Reading Shelf
Web Research–Training
Source: Resource Discovery Network
English as a Second Language Virtual Training Suite Tutorial Launched
The RDN has added to the range of Virtual Training Suite Tutorial (VTS) [web and Internet research] tutorials that it provides by launching one specificaly designed for Learners of English as a Second Language (ESOL).
See Also: MANY More Internet Research Tutorials are Available from the VTS
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Reading Clubs–Canada
Source: Library and Archives Canada
Report, TD Summer Reading Club 2005 Survey
“Are you interested in the results of the TD Summer Reading Club 2005 survey? Library and Archives Canada invites you to read the key findings of the research conducted with the participating public libraries in 11 out of the 13 provinces and territories.” A PDF version of the report is also available.
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Internet Filtering–Australia
Public Libraries–Australia
Source: ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association)
ALIA urges the Tasmanian government to reverse its decision to introduce filtering software
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American Library Association
Source: ALA
New Publication: ALA launches “AL Direct” weekly email news service
Available free to members.

Milestones
Directory of Open Access Journals Passes 2000 Journal Mark

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Congressional Research Service
Source: CRS (via FPC and Open CRS)
Selected New or Recently Updated CRS Reports
+ USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R.3199): A Side-by-Side Comparison of Existing Law, H.R. 3199 (Conference), and H.R. 3199 (Senate Passed)
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+ Federal Spending by Agency and Budget Function, FY2001-FY2005
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+ U.S. and International Responses to the Global Spread of Avian Flu: Issues for Congress
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+ Status of a Member of the House Who Has Been Indicted for or Convicted of a Felony
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+ Authorization For Use of Military Force in Response to the 9/11 Attacks (P.L. 107-40): Legislative History
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+ U.S. Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients, 1997-2004
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+ Venue: A Legal Analysis of Where a Federal Crime May Be Tried
All reports are PDF files.
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IPO’s–Statistics
Source: Hoover’s
Hoover’s IPO Scorecard Reveals Loss Of Momentum In 2005, IPOs Decreased By 16% For The Year
From the news release, “196 companies went public on the major U.S. stock exchanges in 2005, a 16% decrease in the number of IPOs over 2004, according to Hoover’s IPO Scorecard (www.hoovers.com/ipo/scorecard).”
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Labor–Benefits–Statistics
Source: TowersPerrin
New Report, Managing Global Pay and Benefits: Worldwide Total Remuneration
7 pages; PDF. “Leading global companies continue to seek some broad measure of consistency in their approach to HR programs while making adjustments to account for local market practices and conditions. Compelling strategies have to address these challenges as they seek to link pay to performance, customize long-term incentives and re-examine benefits. Selected charts from this comprehensive report on remuneration practices in 26 key locations are now available.”
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Environment–United States
Source: OECD
New, OECD issues environmental report card for the US
“A new OECD review of environmental policy in the U.S. recommends more efficient use of energy and water as a way to safeguard economic prosperity while protecting the environment and human health. Despite progress in some areas over the past decade, more effort is needed in others. The OECD recommends that the U.S. play a more proactive role in dealing with global environmental concerns.” Full text of the report is fee-based. However, conclusions and recommendations are available (free) here (PDF).

Briefly
+ Executive Daily Brief (EDB) Now Available from EBSCO Publishing
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+ Factiva Adds Content from The Press Association

Professional Reading Shelf
Wikipedia
Source: Knowledge@Wharton
Can Wikipedia Survive Its Own Success?
“According to Eric Clemons, professor of operations and information management, it is foolish to take Wikipedia’s definitions as gospel, but the site is still worth reading from time to time. Marketing professor Peter Fader notes that Wikipedia shows there is wisdom in crowds, but a better user rating system would filter out those who post bogus information. Joel Waldfogel, professor of business and public policy, agrees that much of the concern about Wikipedia is just a new spin on whether old media (printed encyclopedias, in this case) stand a chance against the new breed of instantly updatable online media.” We were sad that the author didn’t include any thoughts or views from the many excellent information professionals at Wharton or at the Univ. of Pennsylvania in the article. It would have made sense.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Higher Education–United States–Lists & Ranking
Source: Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
Best Values in Public Colleges
“Our fifth ranking of 100 schools that offer academic excellence at an affordable price finds a familiar name at the top of the list. See if your state school is a contender.”
+ Tool for sorting colleges by overall rank, cost, quality measures or financial aid measures.
+ Methodology
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Mobile Web–Weather
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center
PDA Animated Weather (PAW)
“PAW is a PDA-friendly weather web site that contains real-time images, graphics and text formated for display on PDA devices equipped with high-resolution color displays. Content, including composite weather radar and satellite images with graphical overlay of observed and predicted data, can be viewed and controlled using web micro-browsers standard on these units. Users select from predefined geographical regions and control data type, animation, zoom, and roam. National Weather Service Zone Forecast Products and Model Output Statistics are available for selected cities.”

Search Briefs
+ Copyright Issues and Video Search
+ Tools that Optimize Web Content for Mobile Web: Google Joins Skweezer and IYHY
+ Loomia Offers Podcast/Vidcast Search, Personalized Recommendation Service Now Available for Site Developers

Professional Reading Shelf
Optical Media–Lifespan
Source: IDG News Service (via Yahoo! News)
Do Burned CDs Have a Short Life Span?
“Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime…. ‘Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years,’ Gerecke says. ‘Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years.’”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.–Databases
Source: NewspaperARCHIVE.com
New, MartinLutherKingJrArchive.com
“In honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and upcoming Black History month, a free newspaper archive of 50,000 newspaper pages about Dr. King has been released on MartinLutherKingJrArchive.com…The website is a free service of NewspaperARCHIVE.com and contains original stories about the Montgomery bus boycott, the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, details about King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, along with thousands of other headlines detailing Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work.”
See Also: New, from the The National Archives (UK)
“UK Government files relating to the American civil rights leader have been made available on a new educational website (http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/heroesvillains/) set up by The National Archives in Kew.”