Archive for June 1st, 2007
Friday, June 1st, 2007
New Real Estate Info Database: Trulia Hindsight
Very cool and very useful.
Trulia Hindsight, a new site that we’ve developed with design firm Stamen, provides an animated map of residential properties in the US. With Trulia Hindsight, you can search for specific cities, neighborhoods, or even streets and then watch as properties appear on the map in the year they were built. A slider control allows you to see when the majority of development occurred, pause on a specific time frame or focus on only homes built before or after specific years. Truly a unique and fun way to visualize the development of cities, towns or blocks . . . be careful you may spend hours cruising around the country.
+++ Quick Notes
+ Uses Microsoft Virtual Earth
+ Enter a City Name or Zip Code, using a state abbreviation helps
+ Each dot represents residential built in a specific year. You can pause the image as it’s being compiled. You can also go directly to a specific year or range of years.
+ Zoom in and out of a map (like your used to). Note the green dots on the zoom tool. Green dots equal information available at that level.
Direct to Map and Database
Source: Trulia Blog
Posted in Business and Economics, Databases, Directories, and Guides, New Websites and Resources, Search News, Search Tools | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
The AOL Local Search beta offers features that incorporate the best of AOL CityGuide, Mapquest and AOL Search, including the ability to discover businesses and their locations on a map. The Beta 2 release is now available and includes new features and functionality.
+ Additional info here.
+ Direct to AOL Local Search Beta here.
Posted in Search News, Web Search | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
As instant messenging continues to become a primary communication tool for many people, it’s important to learn about and even “vision” about info tools that can be used with instant messenging services.
Yesterday, we posted about receiving real-time weather info and forecasts (USA only) using one of several IM tools and technology from WeatherBug.
Today, a brief intro to TCKRBuddy for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). This service provides (free) real-time stock quotes for several exchanges.
To use the service, create an AIM buddy named TCKRBuddy. Then enter a ticker symbol and click send Need help? Enter “help” and click send. For the full menu of services, enter “menu” and click send.
If you register (free), you can save and then access “buckets” of symbols.
Posted in Real-Time Information, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
ALA presents preliminary results from Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study
Starting in June, the American Library Association (ALA) will begin sharing results from the 2007 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study…
Among the 2007 findings:
* More than half (54.2 percent) of U.S. public libraries now offer free wireless access
* Library staff in more than half of public libraries provide assistance to patrons applying for or accessing e-government
* Sixty-eight percent of libraries offer online homework resources – serving the educational needs of more than 36 million school-age children
The Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study will assess public access to computers, the Internet and Internet-related services in U.S. public libraries, as well as the impact of library funding changes on connectivity, technology deployment and sustainability in FY2007-2009.
The final 2007 report will be available online and as a print-on-demand book in September 2007.
Source: ALA
Posted in Information Industry, Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
CONSER has agreed that CONSER standard record implementation will begin June 1, 2007, with the understanding that not all institutions will be able to implement it locally on exactly that date. Members have agreed to monitor use of the standard throughout the coming year and make changes and adjustments as needed.
The new CONSER documentation is also available here.
Source: Library of Congress
Posted in Cataloging and Metadata, Search News | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Get onboard with ERA – Electronic Resources Australia - a great national initiative. Australian libraries are asked to consider the subscription offers put by participating vendors for the panel of nine electronic resources by 31 July 2007.
Source: ALIA
See Also:A new era dawns for electronic resources in Australia (via NLA)
Posted in Info Management and Retrieval, Libraries and Librarianship, Search News | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Health Care Report Card Compendium
This Compendium is a searchable directory of health care “report cards” which provide comparative information on the quality of health plans, hospitals, medical groups, individual physicians, nursing homes, and other providers of care.
Designed to be a resource for those interested in creating health care report cards for their organizations, the Compendium includes over 200 examples that demonstrate a wide range of approaches to reporting data. Report card developers can use these examples to explore the scope and types of information they might want to cover as well as various approaches to presenting comparative data.
The Compendium includes a variety of printed and Web-based reports produced since the mid-1990s by a wide range of sponsors. In every case, a primary purpose of the information is to help consumers and patients better understand and choose among their health plan or provider options.
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Source File | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Most of these domains (registered on Wednesday and Thursday AM) relate to the “Google Gears” announcement made at the Google Developer Day yesterday and Google Maps news made at the Where 2.0 conference earlier this week.
Btw, the new Google Mashup Editor has its own blog at http://googlemashupeditor.blogspot.com/
Domains
+ googlemashups.org
Note: GoogleMashups.com was registered August 29, 2005. However, it wasn’t until yesterday that the domain showed Google Inc. ownership. Previous registrants included a company in Utah and a person in Carlsbad, CA.
+ geargoogle.org
.Com domain registered to someone in Florida.
+ gears-google.com, .org
+ gearsgoogle.org
.Com registered to someone in Ohio
+ google-gears.org
.Com registered to someone in the UK
(more…)
Posted in Information Industry, Search News, Software and Web-Based Applications, Web Search | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Scirus Adds Several New Features, OpenURL Now Available
What To Look For on Scirus:
+ OpenURL is now integrated into Scirus
+ Greater flexibility in the ways in which search results are displayed
+ Tighter integration between basic and advanced search.
+ Intuitive Query Recall is now available in Scirus
This means that when a user inputs a query into the basic search box, these keywords are automatically transferred into the Advanced Search box if the user subsequently decides to conduct an Advanced Search query in the same session.
+ For those of you who like total page counts, Scirus now claims more than 415 million “science-specific” web pages. That’s up from 300+ million pages.
Source: Scirus
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Resources for Educators, Science, Search News, Search Tools | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Free IEEE Tutorial on Broadband Wireless Access: The Next Wireless Revolution
Each month, IEEE Communications provides a selection of FREE tutorials, IEEE Communications Society’s Enhanced Conference Tutorial Program presents a collection of recent tutorials given at Communications Society-sponsored conferences. Each tutorial reviews current communications topics in network management and computer & wireless communications. This month’s featured tutorial is “Broadband Wireless Access: The Next Wireless Revolution…Available tutorials, which are 2.5 to 5 hours in length contains the original visuals and voice-over by the presenter.
See Also: Tutorial Home Page
Note: Tutorials are sponsored by various companies.
Source: IEEE
Posted in Online Education, Resources for Educators, Source File, Technology and Internet, Wireless Web and Search | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Sweden Inaugurates Virtual Embassy
Sweden’s embassy in the virtual world of Second Life — has opened its doors to the public. Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt this morning cut the ribbon at an inauguration ceremony broadcast simultaneously to press conferences in Stockholm and in Budapest.
Second House of Sweden is inspired by the real-life House of Sweden in Washington, D.C., which houses the Embassy of Sweden to the United States. The setting for the virtual embassy is the picturesque Stockholm Archipelago.
Inside and around the Second House of Sweden there is a wealth of exhibits and information. Some examples:
* A recreation of Raoul Wallenberg’s office in Budapest, with a re-enactment of his last day of freedom on January 16, 1945. (In cooperation with the OSA Archivum in Budapest)
* An art exhibit, curated by National Museum in Stockholm
* Royalty-free images of Sweden, fact sheets about politics, industry, design, art as well as virtual Swedish food, with real recipes attached
* Throughout the region, listen to Radio Sweden’s daily news podcasts in English
* Furniture by Swedish wood manufacturers and IKEA — some of which visitors can use to furnish their virtual homes in Second Life.
Source: GovTech.net
Posted in Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Posted in Source File, Statistics | No Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2007
The Role of the UN General Assembly
Author: Rebecca Bloom
The UN General Assembly, the world’s deliberative body, faces questions about its role and relevancy even as it continues to grow.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
Posted in Fast Facts, New Websites and Resources, Resources for Educators, Source File | No Comments »
