Professional Reading Shelf
Academic Librarians
Source: ACRL
ACRL seeks applicants for Institute for Information Literacy Intentional Teacher Program
“The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Institute for Information Literacy (IIL) seeks applicants for the newest addition to its Immersion program–The Intentional Teacher: Renewal through Informed Reflection. Acceptance to the program is competitive; participation is limited to 36 individuals per program. The deadline for application is May 5, 2006.”
–
Law Librarians
Librarian Recruitment
Source: AALL (via AALL’s President Web Site)
Law Librarians Listed
From the post, “For the first time, law librarians are listed in Occupational Outlook, in the Grab Bag, a career information magazine aimed at high school and college students and counselors. (Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Spring 2006, Vol. 50, Number 1). This is a great new opportunity to spread the message about law librarianship as a career possibility to students at an early stage in their career preparation.”
See Also: Full Text of Article Also Available in PDF.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Iraq
Source: Congressional Research Service (via FAS)
Updated: Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq: Effects and Countermeasures
–
Cultural Awareness–Bibliography
Source: Air University Library
Cultural Awareness and the Military
Includes Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals.
–
Information Technology–Ranking
Source: World Economic Forum
Global Information Technology Report
“Since it was first launched in 2001, the Global Information Technology Report has become a valuable and unique benchmarking tool to determine national ICT strengths and weaknesses, and to evaluate progress. It also highlights the continuing importance of ICT application and development for economic growth. The Report uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), covering a total of 115 economies in 2005-2006, to measure the degree of preparation of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments.” The NRI is composed of three component indexes which assess: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community; the readiness of the community’s key stakeholders – individuals, business and governments; and the usage of ICT among these stakeholders.” Full report available for purchase.
+ Contents (PDF; 1pg; 29k)
+ Preface (PDF; 2pgs; 46k)
+ Summary (PDF; 5pgs; 66k)
+ Full Rankings (PDF; 24 KB)
+ Map of “Digital Inclusion”
–
Military–United States–History
Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
New, Army JAG Corps Historical Monographs
“Official history of the Army JAG Corps and other studies of judge advocates.”

Search Briefs
AOL
Podcasts from AOL’s Mountain View Office
Note: This is an XML page. Use your RSS aggregator to view it. Search and tech geeks here’s a podcast that might be of interest. AOL’s Mountain View facility (their HQ is in Dulles, VA, near the airport) is now podasting. Podcast #17 was released this week. Programs so far include an interview with IA guru Peter Morville, presentations from the SDForum Search SIG: The Search for Attention, and a discussion from SXSW about mobile technology and design. This show (#1) offers some background about the podcast.
–
+ YouTube and Its Future (via News.com)
–
+ Google Adds Continuous Playback to Google Video (via News.com)

Search Patent Update
Microsoft Has Several Search and Ad Patent Applications Published, Also New App from Yahoo
Three MS apps were published yesterday, March 30th.
+ Content evaluation
Filed: September 30, 2004
Keeping spam out of search engines

+ System for partial automation of content review of network advertisements
Filed: September 29, 2004
“Upon receiving a proposed network advertisement from an advertiser, a publisher determines whether to automatically approve the proposed advertisement for publishing, automatically reject the proposed advertisement from being published, or manually verify the content of the proposed advertisement prior to publishing based on a distribution channel of the proposed advertisement, a trust rating of the advertiser, a business rule, or expected traffic of a location at which the proposed advertisement is to appear.”

+ System and method for generating an orchestrated advertising campaign
Filed: September 28, 2004
From the abstract, “A system and related techniques host and serve selective, orchestrated advertising campaigns and other content to users depending on contributing advertisers’ campaign strategies as well as use interests, prior history or experiences. According to embodiments, users may navigate to a Web or other network site which contains or invokes ads or other media or content.”

Patent App from Yahoo, Published March 16th.
+ Optimal storage and retrieval of XML data
Filed: November 16, 2004
From the abstract, “Processing requirements are reduced, because parsing is not a required step when processing queries. Instead of parsing, the query is processed by unpacking the compressed version of the document identified in the query, node by node until enough information has been decoded to satisfy the query. Processing speed is improved in two ways. First, unpacking as carried out according to the invention is a much faster process than parsing. Second, the entire document need not be unpacked.”

Resource of the Week
By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor

Sometimes, poking around Federal Reserve Bank websites turns up some interesting and useful things. Like this week’s resource, “an economics information portal” for librarians and students,” via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Economics–United States–Portal
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Liber8
Here is a website by librarians for librarians. “Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis librarians designed this site with university and government document librarians, students, and the general public in mind. Economic information can, at times, be difficult for the non-economist to find and understand. We hope this site will provide a single point of access to the economic information that the Federal Reserve System, other government agencies, and data providers have to offer. We specifically selected non-technical sources that would be simpler to use and easier to understand.”

The clean, deceptively simple design of this site belies the wealth of content you can find here. Some items are local; other links will take you to information on external websites. On the home page, you’ll see three major geographic sub-headings — International, National and Regional. Under each heading, you’ll see a couple of current reports (PDFs), with a “more” link to get to additional documents. In the middle of the page are links to the latest economic statistics, again under the three geographic headings, with “more” links to additional data. Scroll further down and find a collection of “useful links” — to international, national and regional information, with “more” links to…more links.

There is a true jewel nestled within this website — the International Economic Statistics (IES) Database: “The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Research Library’s IES Database simplifies the search for world-wide economic indicators. Individual indicators (such as GDP and CPI) are linked, and each link has a description of the data. Included in each record is the title, corporate author, publisher, years covered in the data series, type of publication (text, table, chart), frequency with which the data is published, country of origin, a URL, available languages, subject headings, format (.pdf, .xls, etc.), a summary (where available), and any notes needed to clarify the data. The database is title, country, subject and keyword searchable. The links will be checked regularly to maintain accuracy. Indicators are continually being added.” The search form allows you to input keywords and/or choose countries, corporate authors and specific subjects using dropdown menus.

Other “don’t miss” links:
+ AmosWEB GLOSS*arama: “…a searchable database of 2000 economic terms and concepts.”
+ The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s Center for Latin American Economics: “…focuses its research efforts on issues of particular concern in Latin America–not only in the core central bank areas of monetary, macroeconomic, foreign exchange, banking, and fiscal issues but also across a spectrum of applied and theoretical concerns.” Many publications are available here, and the entire site is available en espa�ol.
+ Inflation Central, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland: “Track inflation in the United States and across the world and put it all in perspective with our analysis and commentary.”
+ FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research: “On this web site you will find links to scanned images (in Adobe� Acrobat� PDF format) of historical economic statistical publications, releases, and documents.”
+ FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data): “a database of over 3000 U.S. economic time series. With FRED you can download data in Microsoft Excel and text formats and view charts of data series.”
+ A page on the Bank for International Settlements (who knew?) website that provides links to central bank websites in countries from Albania to Zimbabwe.
+ An integrated multilingual dictionary of trade terms from the Foreign Trade Information System of the Organization of American States.
+ Fed in Print, from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: “…a comprehensive index to Federal Reserve economic research.”

Oh, in case you’re wondering how this site got its name: Liber8 is provided by the Research “Lib”rary of the “8″th Federal Reserve District. Bravo!

Professional Reading Shelf
Metadata
Source: PerX
New Publication: The Power of Good Metadata Discussed in ‘Marketing’ with Metadata — How Metadata Can Increase Exposure and Visibility of Online Content
From a synopsis, “‘Marketing’ with Metadata – How Metadata Can Increase Exposure and Visibility of Online Content is aimed at content providers of various kinds — for example, journal publishers, professional societies and database providers and owners — who may have such data, or metadata, available for the content they produce.”
See Also: Metadata (via Digital Curation Centre)
A chapter from the DCC Curation Manual.
Excellent intro to metadata.
See Also: Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information (via Getty Research Institute)
A full text book on the topic.
–
Internet2–Statistics
Source: Internet2
New Survey Shows Access and Usage of Internet2 in Schools, Public Libraries, and Elsewhere
From the summary:
K12 Schools
+ 35971 out of 98335 or 37% of the K12 Schools in the United States are
connected to Internet2 via the SEGP Program.
+ 4350 out of 35971, or 12%, of K12 Schools connect to the Internet2
backbone network at >= 10 Mbps.
+ 17% of state education networks report between 50 – 100% of the K12
Schools they connect are multi-cast enabled.
+ State education networks report, on average, that 44% of the K12 Schools
they connnect have H.323, DVTS, MPEG, or other video conferencing codecs
available.
Public Libraries
+ 3325 out of 16991 or 20% of the Public Libraries in the United States are
connected to Internet2 via the SEGP Program.
+ 229 out of 3325, or 7%, of Public Libraries connect to the Internet2
backbone network at >= 10 Mbps.
Totals
“More than 46,000 K-12 schools, community colleges, libraries, and museums in 35 U.S. states are now connected to the Internet2 backbone network.”
Summary Direct to Full Text of Study
See Also: Learn More About Internet2
“Internet2 is a consortium being led by 207 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet.”
–
Weblogs
Wikis
Source: Intelligent Enterprise
One Person’s Opinion: Wikis, Blogs, and Other Points of Failure
A column by Joshua Greenbaum. From the column, “I hate to be the one to throw cold water on the latest cool thing, but wikis and blogs — and all the other unwashed, untethered, so-called “new information” sources proliferating across the enterprise — are, all too often, just a lot of bunk masquerading as information…The integrity of all information — corporate or private — rests on the ability of users to judge the validity of the source. So heaven help us if no one calls the bloggers and wikites on the carpet when they mislead and misinform; degrading information on the Internet will globalize ignorance to an incredible degree. And the last thing anyone needs these days is more global stupidity. We have enough politicians contributing to that problem already.”
–
Vocabularies–Medical
Source: NLM
New Fact Sheets Provide Info About Unified Medical Language System
+ Unified Medical Language System
“The purpose of NLM’s Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) is to facilitate the development of computer systems that behave as if they “understand” the meaning of the language of biomedicine and health.”
+ UMLS Metathesaurus
“The Metathesaurus is a very large, multi-purpose, and multi-lingual vocabulary database that contains information about biomedical and health-related concepts, their various names, and the relationships among them.”
+ UMLS Semantic Network
“The Semantic Network consists of (1) a set of broad subject categories, or Semantic Types, that provide a consistent categorization of all concepts represented in the UMLS Metathesaurus and (2) a set of useful and important relationships, or Semantic Relations, that exist between Semantic Types.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Newspaper Archives
Digitization Projects
United States History
Source: NewspaperARCHIVE.com
Two New Archives of Historic Material (Free) from NewspaperARCHIVE.com
Since January we’ve been chronicling a steady stream of FREE, full text, full image, searchable/browsable newspaper archives focused on a specific topic from NewspaperARCHIVE.com. The company is part of Heritage Microfilm based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This week the company has released two new archives each containing tens of thousands of newspaper articles from various newspapers. Each article is delivered as a pdf file ready for printing or saving. Kudos to Heritage for offering these databases and underlying content at no charge. Also a great way to see local newspaper coverage.
What’s New this Week?
+ FBI Newspaper Archive
More than 50,000 full text articles about the FBI, criminals, etc. Love the timeline.
–
+ September 11th Archive
More than 15,000 articles. Advanced interfaces are available for both databases.
–
See Also: Links to More Archives from NewspaperARCHIVES.com Including:
+ MartinLutherKingJrArchive
+ Pro Baseball Archive
+ College Basketball Archive
+ Abraham Lincoln Archive
+ AsbestosArchive.com (Asbestos and Asbestos Related Lawsuits)
+ HMS Titanic Archive
+ Winter Games Archive
–
Reference Shelf–Statistics
Source: OECD
Just Released, OECD Factbook 2006: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics
“How does France compare with other EU countries in terms of growth in labour productivity? Where does Japan rank versus the other major developed countries in public spending on health? People and politicians want to know how their countries and regions are performing. The OECD’s Factbook is designed to help them.” Numbers in charts and graphs available in Excel format. Data, reorganised by country, also available.
–
Digital Libraries–Science
Resources for Educators
Source: Exploratorium, San Francisco
New, Exploratorium Digital Library
Expect a closer look from ResourceShelf soon. From the site, “The different collections in the library include digital media and digitized museum materials related to interactive exhibits and scientific phenomena, including images, educational activities in PDF and html formats, QuickTime movies, streaming media, and audio files. You may search, select and download digital files for individual, noncommercial educational use.”

Briefly
+ Convera and Factiva enter indexing deal (via IWR)
+ H.W. Wilson Introduces New Web Technical Support Center

Search Briefs
+ Ask.Com’s New Look Scores Big Points Against Search Rivals (via Wall St. Journal)
Walt Mossberg weighs in on what’s up at Ask.com!
See Also: Gary’s New Job and A Look at What Ask.com Offers
See Also: Gary’s Interview about his New Role at Ask.com (via LJ)
–
+ Google Files With SEC To Offer More Shares of GOOG
5.3 million shares of Google Class A shares to be precise. That’s about $2.1 billion based on tonight’s closing price. What for? “This offering will partially meet the anticipated needs of index funds to purchase Google Class A common stock when Google is added to the S&P 500 Index at the close of trading on March 31, 2006. Proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and possible acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets…We have no current agreements or commitments with respect to any material acquisitions. Pending such uses, we plan to invest the net proceeds in highly liquid, investment grade securities.”
–
+ Happy Birthday to Yahoo 360
The blogging/social networking/community platform celebrates its first birthday.
–
+ Microsoft to bring Hotmail onto the desktop (via News.com)
Learn more via the Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta Blog
–
+ MSN Live Search Adds “Search Macros” (via SEW Blog)
See Also: Rollyo
Quickly and painlessly create your own site specific search engine. Uses Yahoo database.

Professional Reading Shelf
Librarianship–Quotations
Source: IFLA
Quotations about Libraries and Librarians: Subject List
An author index is also available.
–
Health Information–United States
Source: U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science
NCLIS Announces Finalists for 2006 Health Information Awards (PDF)
“The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) today announced the ten finalists for the 2006 NCLIS Health Information Awards for Libraries. The awards are designed to encourage library programs that address one or more of the following: dietary choices; exercise; smoking cessation; alcohol and/or drug abuse prevention or cessation; immunizations and health screenings; and improved health literacy, that is, the ability to understand and make use of health information.”
See Also: NCLIS Announces 2006 Health Awards State Winners
–
Inforation Technology
Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project
Teens and technology (PDF)
A presentation given by PI&ALP Director, Lee Rainie, at the Public Library Association Conference last week. “This is a discussion of the eight realities of technology and social experience that are shaping the world of today’s teens and twenty-somethings. It looks at the growing role of technology in teens’ lives, the way they use their gadgets, their expectations about how to find and use information, and the social consequences of their use of technology.”

Scholarly Publishing–Citation Reports
Source: ISI
+ Science in Japan, 2001-05
+ The 20 most-cited countries in Chemistry for 1995-August 31, 2005
+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Business, Finance
+ Chemical Engineering: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 2000-04
+ Canadian Universities: Highest Impact in Organic Chemistry/Polymer Science, 2000-04

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Information Technology–Forecasts
Source: Computer Industry Almanac
Smartphones to Outsell PDAs by 5:1 in 2006
“What a difference two years can make. In 2003 worldwide PDA sales surpassed Smartphone sales by over 70%. In 2005 Smartphones outsold PDAs by a factor of 3.4 to 1, which is forecasted to reach 5:1 in 2006. Smartphone sales will continue to grow and will surpass PDA sales by an 11:1 margin in 2011.”
–
Counties–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: TNS Financial Services
TNS Study Names Top Ten Wealthiest U.S. Counties (PDF; 120 KB)
“TNS Financial Services today released its list of the top ten wealthiest counties in the United States. The Affluent Market Research Program (AMRP), TNS annual survey of wealthy U.S. households, identifies the ten counties across America with the highest number of millionaire residents.”
–
Bankruptcies–United States–Statistics
Source: US Courts
Bankruptcy Filings Surge in Calendar Year 2005
Tables in xls are available.
–
National Security–United States–Database
Source: White House (via askSam)
askSam Makes Searchable/Browsable Version of Recently Released National Security Strategy Available
“Search and analyze the full text of The 2006 National Security Strategy of the United States. On March 16, 2006, the White House released President Bush’s second term National Security Strategy (NSS), which reflects the president’s most solemn obligation: to protect the security of the American people. The NSS explains how the United States government is working to protect the American people, advance American interests, enhance global security, and expand global liberty and prosperity. You can browse this databases online or download it to your PC.”
See Also: More Searchable/Browsable e-Books Databases from askSam
–
Documents in the News
Radioactive Materials
Source: GAO
Two New Reports from the GAO (via DocuTicker.com)
+ Border Security: Investigators Transported Radioactive Sources Across Our Nation’s Borders at Two Locations
+ Border Security: Investigators Successfully Transported Radioactive Sources Across Our Nation’s Borders at Selected Location
–
Population–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Two New Reports
The Black Alone or in Combination in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003 and The Asian
Alone or in Combination in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003 — National-level
tabulations from the Current Population Survey for non-Hispanic Blacks and
Asians by age and sex. Internet addresses:
+ The Black Alone or in Combination Population in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003
+ The Asian Alone or in Combination Population in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003

Freebies
Web 2.0
Source: PC World
Just Released: 101 Fabulous Freebies
All sorts of goodies in more than 10 categories. Also new on the web is the SEOmoz Web 2.0 Awards. Over 300 sites, tools and services listed. Kudos to Rand Fishkin for putting it all together.

Briefly
+ Alacra Store Unveils New Keyword Search
One-stop shop search and purchase reports from over 35 business info publishers. Basic company snapshots are free. Advanced search interface also available.
–
+ New Edition Posted: Scirus News Update
+ Scirus index surpasses 250 million mark
+ New: Daily indexing to Repository Search partners
+ Grouping of results per source
–
+ CIPO improves searching capability of Canadian patent documents

Professional Reading Shelf
ERIC
Education–Databases
Source: ERIC
New, ERIC Structured Abstract Initiative
“ERIC is developing a structured abstract format for ERIC database records. Structured abstracts, pioneered by the scientific community, provide a template for the presentation of common research study elements such as background, purpose, research design, and conclusions. They provide readable, informative, and accurate summaries that enable users to quickly identify and evaluate research literature.” Learn more about the SAI here.
–
Council for Networked Information
Source: CNI
Project Briefings: A Preliminary List
A look at the many projects that CNI is backing. Most listings have direct links to the actual project. Presentations about these projects will be made next week at the CNI spring 2006 Task Force Meetings. Lots of interesting material here.
–
Copyright–United States–Fair Use–Congressional Testimony
Source: Library Copyright Alliance
The Role of Fair Use in Libraries and Education–Testimony from the Library Copyright Alliance
–
Finding vs. Discovering
Source: St. Petersburg Times
The endangered joy of serendipity
“Serendipity is defined as the ability to make fortunate discoveries accidentally…. Think about the library. Do people browse anymore? We have become such a directed people. We can target what we want, thanks to the Internet. Put a couple of key words into a search engine and you find — with an irritating hit or miss here and there – exactly what you’re looking for. It’s efficient, but dull. You miss the time-consuming but enriching act of looking through shelves, of pulling down a book because the title or the binding interests you. Inside, the book might be a loser, a waste of the effort and calories it took to remove it from its place and then return. Or it might be a dark chest of wonders, a life-changing first step into another world, something to lead your life down a path you didn’t know was there.”
–
Libraries–Databases
Web Search
Source: NY Times
Searching for Dummies
Unfortunately, the libary world has heard much of this before. Yet another look at the poor info retrieval skills. The question is what are we doing to change things? In 2002, this article from the Columbia Journalism Review (by an instructor at Harvard) said the same type of thing.

A few comments:
+ From the article, “Google led in ranking sites by how often they are linked to other highly ranked sites.”
True but not entirely accurate. Google and all of the leading “general purpose” web engines look at more than just link analysis. Ask any search engine optimizer and they’ll tell you that everything from term frequency, proximity, and many more metrics factor in to determine relevancy at Google and at other engines. Chris Sherman’s book Google Power reports that Google (and other engines) look at more than 100 metrics/factors in determining relevancy. Linking is just one of them.

+ This article only talks Google. Why? What about other large general web engines including MSN, Yahoo, Exalead, and Ask? What ever happened to using the right tool at the right time? What services and features does one engine offer that the others don’t? Often a library will have more than one reference book or database that covers the same content but offers features that the others don’t. Also, even if the content was the exact same at each engine, each has a different formula (secret sauce if you prefer) to determine relevancy. Another reason why looking at results from more than one engine is important.

+ What about specialty search tools (for example ResearchIndex, SmealSearch (offline today), Topix.net, RedLightGreen, Scirus), The Wayback Machine?

+ What about the databases students/public have access to remotely for free?

+ What about the value of non-commercial directories like RDN, LII, IPL, and Infomine? Quality over quantity is the rule with these resources.

+ What about virtual reference services?

+ What about reference books? (yes, I said books, please be kind)

+ What I have learned over the past few years is that one reason many people/students/faculty don’t use other tools is that no one has:

+ TOLD POTENTIAL USERS ABOUT THEM!!!

+ Shared their value proposition(s) (one of them time savings and another quality of info).

+ Share how they MIGHT produce more relevant, timely, and authoritative results. Of course, the entire info literacy issue transcends all of this.

+ We not only have a role as marketers (in the fee-based database world the vendors need to help) but also as trainers. This is why staying current on all tools (and how they work, what they do different) is so important. The right tool/source at the right time.

+ Easier said then done, absolutely! One good piece of news is that so many wonderful free or very inexpensive (have you see Newsplayer.com?) resources exist.

NOTE: For those search “historians” out there, the original use of link analysis on the web was done by Jon Kleinberg and colleagues at IBM for CLEVER, an engine that was never publicly released. Much of what Clever did in terms of algorithm is now part of Teoma technology which powers Ask.com.
See Also: Kleinberg’s Home Page
See Also: Clever Home Page
See Also: Hypersearching the Web (Kleinberg Explains Clever vs. Others, 1999)
See Also: How Teoma Works (Several Articles at the Bottom of this Post)
NOTE 2: While it’s 100% true that link analysis owes a lot to citation analysis and the work of Dr. Eugene Garfield, one major difference exists. Link analysis (on the open web) is much easier to game and manipulate. It’s a constant challenge (a cat-and-mouse game) for both the search engines and those who want to move their pages to the top of the organic results. Traditional citation analysis is done by monitoring an “approved” list of sources. While self-citation is always an issue it is not nearly the issue that outside influences play on link analysis.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Country Profiles
Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
Just Updated: United Arab Emirates
25 pages; PDF.
–
Sleep
Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
New Guide: Your Guide to Healthy Sleep
60 pages; PDF. Summary and more resources here.
–
Small Business–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts: Small Business Week 2006
SBW begins on April 9th. This new compilation offers a wide range of statistics. Stats include:
+ $830 billion
Receipts for nonemployer businesses (those without paid employees) in 2003, up from $586 billion in 1997. These nonemployers, often “mom and pop” corner stores or home-based businesses, comprised more than 70 percent of all businesses.
+ 5.3 million
Number of business establishments with fewer than 10 employees in 2003. Among these businesses, 3.9 million employed fewer than 5 people.
+ 1 million
Number of nonemployer businesses added to the nation’s total between 2002 and 2003.
–
Business Research–Guides
Source: Science, Technology and Business Division, Library of Congress
Both print, electronic, and web-based resources are listed.
+ United States Money
+ The Sports Industry
+ Peter Drucker: A Tribute. Resources by and about Peter Drucker (1909 – 2005)
+ Financing Your Future: Selected Guides to Personal Financial Planning
–
Higher Education–United States–Statistics
Source: BLS
College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2005 High School Graduates
–
Internal Revenue Service–Audits–Statistics
Source: TRAC (Syracuse University)
Only 30 out of more than 180,000 Millionaires Faced Traditional IRS Audits Last Year
“New data from the IRS reports that only 30 of the nation’s 180,000 plus millionaires were subject to face-to-face audits in FY 2005. Analysis by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) also shows that when only traditional face-to-face audits are considered, those reporting less than $25,000 in total positive income were six times more likely to be audited than all those reporting $200,000 or more in income. IRS continues to withhold from TRAC statistical data it has made public in the past that might explain the aberration.” (via DocuTicker.com)
–
Phishing–Statistics
Source: Anti-Phishing Working Group
New, January Phishing Trends Report Available
“No Relief from Phishing Onslaught of ‘05 Holidays, Password-Stealing Crimeware Hits New Record”

Information Visualization–Multimedia Presentations
Source: University of Maryland
Live Webcast This Wednesday: The Thrill of Discovery — Accelerating Information Exploration
Registration required: free.
Speaker: Ben Shneiderman, Dept of Computer Science, Univ of Maryland
Date: Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Time: 11:00 am, Eastern Standard Time
6:00 pm, Europe Daylight Time
8:00 am, Pacific Standard Time
“Exceptional tools for information visualization are becoming more widely used to gain competitive advantages, but the best is yet to come. The next generation of interactive tools will enable communities of users to make successful business decisions even more rapidly. Advances to look for include:
1) systematic strategies for discovery that incorporate the increasingly powerful statistical tools and data mining methods, while accommodating missing and uncertain data.
2) increasingly diverse data types such as time series, patient histories, maps, and social networks, so users can handle a wider array of problems.
3) tighter integration into organizational workflows that amplify individual creativity with the catalytic benefits of social creativity.”
See Also: More Presentations About Info Visualization by Dr. Shneiderman. Wow!

Search Briefs
+ Wikipedia Blocks School’s Editing Privileges Due to Vandalism (Andy Carvin’s Blog)
–
+ Scopus Integrated Directly into Editors’ and Reviewers’ Workflow
–
+ Google experiments with map ads (via News.com)
Note: This is not a new experiment. It was first reported in January 2006.)
–
+ Google’s market lead widens (via News.com)
“Company’s U.S. search market share rises at the expense of Yahoo and Microsoft, while Ask.com inches up.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Archives
Source: The International Council on Archives (ICA)
The ICA Section for Archival Education and Training: Training the Trainer Resource Pack Now Online
“The Training the Trainer resource pack is intended for anyone who wants some guidance or direction in planning, organising and delivering effective training for both professionals and support staff whatever their working or learning environment. The bulk of the pack addresses the various techniques for delivering training but it also covers the practical administrative tasks that are essential for successful training courses and which underpin the training content.” The complete pack can be downloaded (Zip File).
–
Privacy–United Kingdom
Data Security–United Kingdom
Source: ManagingInformation.com
Two Thirds Of Businesses Fail On Data Protection And Privacy
“A new survey among the UK’s leading businesses — all of the FTSE100 organisations ‘reveals that around two thirds of them are failing to handle incoming telephone enquiries related to data protection and privacy,’ despite their IT systems. The Marketing Improvement survey, entitled ‘How FTSE100 Companies Handle Data Protection and Privacy Enquiries’, suggests that while many of these organisations may have addressed the technical challenges presented by the requirements of data protection and freedom of information laws, they have failed the people and processes issues.” The study is available here but does require registration.
–
Access to Information
Ordnance Survey–UK
Source: The Guardian
Ordnance Survey challenged to open up
From the article, “The inventor of the world wide web has called for more open access to Ordnance Survey (OS) mapping data — and may get his wish later this year. Sir Tim Berners-Lee told an Oxford University audience last week getting “basic, raw data from Ordnance Survey” online would help build the “semantic web,” which he defines as a web of data using standard formats so that relevant data can be found and processed by computers. ‘There’s a moral argument that says, for a well-run country, we should know where we are, where things are, and that data should be available,’ he said.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
Iraq–Documents
Source: NY Times
Iraqi documents are put on Web, and search is on
“American intelligence agencies and presidential commissions long ago concluded that Saddam Hussein had no unconventional weapons and no substantive ties to al-Qaida before the 2003 invasion. But now, an unusual experiment in public access is giving anyone with a computer a chance to play intelligence analyst and second-guess the government. Under pressure from Congressional Republicans, the director of national intelligence has begun a yearlong process of posting on the Web 48,000 boxes of Arabic-language Iraqi documents captured by American troops.” Direct to Documents via Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center
See Also: Recently Posted Documents
See Also: Overview via Director of National Intelligence (DNI.gov)
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Health
Source: MedlinePLUS
New Topical Resource Compilations
+ Minerals
+ Arm Injuries and Disorders
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Higher Education–United States–Statistics
Source: NSF
Time to Degree of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients
“This InfoBrief looks at the relationship between doctorate field and average time-to-degree differences. Broad field of study differences in time to degree are first examined over a 25-year span, then differences across more detailed fields are described in terms of standard Carnegie classifications of doctorate-granting institutions for the 2002?03 academic year, hereafter referred to as 2003.”