Archive for December, 2007

Librarian of Congress Announces National Film Registry Selections for 2007

Friday, December 28th, 2007

Librarian of Congress Announces National Film Registry Selections for 2007
From the announcement:

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 motion pictures— classics from every era of American filmmaking—to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, including “Bullitt,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” Grand Hotel,” “Oklahoma!” and “12 Angry Men.”

The selections were made as part of a program aimed at preserving the nation’s movie heritage. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act of 1992, each year the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Film Preservation Board, names 25 films to the National Film Registry to be preserved for all time. The films are chosen because they are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. This year’s selections bring to 475 the number of motion pictures in the registry.

Films Selected for the 2007 National Film Registry

* Back to the Future (1985)
* Bullitt (1968)
* Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
* Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
* Dances With Wolves (1990)
* Days of Heaven (1978)
* Glimpse of the Garden (1957)
* Grand Hotel (1932)
* The House I Live In (1945)
* In a Lonely Place (1950)
* The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
* Mighty Like a Moose (1926)
* The Naked City (1948)
* Now, Voyager (1942)
* Oklahoma! (1955)
* Our Day (1938)
* Peege (1972)
* The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928)
* The Strong Man (1926)
* Three Little Pigs (1933)
* Tol’able David (1921)
* Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71)
* 12 Angry Men (1957)
* The Women (1939)
* Wuthering Heights (1939)

Source: LC

Three Mobile Web Services to Know About (WeatherBug Mobile, 411 Sync, & Task Management via RemembertheMilk.com)

Friday, December 28th, 2007

1) Hyper-Local Weather (Primarily U.S.) from WeatherBug Mobile
Go to http://wap.weatherbug.com
Locate numerous weather stations with temps, forecasts wind speed and much more (including live cameras) by Zip Code or city name. Often, these stations can be found at schools and other public locations. WeatherBug Mobile contains no advertisements.
See Also: iPhone Version of WeatherBug
See Also: WeatherBug Labs (We use the Firefox Add-on (no ads))

2) Portal: 411 Sync
One-stop shop for everything from Driving Directions, Prescription Drug Info, Real Estate Info and Much More.

3) RememberTheMilk (Beta) (Mobile Version)
Task management, reminders, sync with Google Calendar, and more. Primary web site here.

Lists & Rankings: Family Foundations (Wall Street Family Values), Top 50 Charitable Foundations

Friday, December 28th, 2007

Wall Street Family Values

Family foundations are on the rise. Who’s giving—and who’s missing?

++ Wall Street Family Values

++ The Generosity Index

A list of the most generous philanthropists.

Top 50 Charitable Foundations.

++ Interactive: Wall Street Family Values

A look at deep pocket states, a sampling of small donations and how some foundations have grown.

See Also: The 2008 Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards

++ Wall Street Family Values–Interactive

++ The Goldman List
185 family foundations backed by current and former Goldman Sachs executives.

++ Interactive: Follow the Money
A look at the 50 most generous family foundations on Wall Street, broken down by industry.

Source: Portfolio

Lists & Rankings: Franchise 500, 2008 from Entrepreneur Magazine

Friday, December 28th, 2007

Lists & Rankings: Franchise 500, 2008 from Entrepreneur Magazine

++ Top 10 (Slide Show)

++ Complete 2008 Rankings

++ Other Lists include:
* Fastest-Growing Franchises
* Top New Franchises
* Best of the Best
* Top 10 Lists

* Franchise 500®
* Top Home Based Franchises
* Top Low Cost Franchises
* Top Global Franchises

Source: Entrepreneur

Statistics: 303.1 Million, U.S. Population Projection Announced; Nevada Once Again Fastest-Growing State; Louisiana Rebounds

Friday, December 28th, 2007

++ Census Bureau Projects Population of 303.1 Million

As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2008, population will be 303,146,284 — up 2,842,103 or 0.9 percent from New Year’s Day 2007.

In January, the United States is expected to register one birth every eight seconds and one death every 11 seconds

.
++ Nevada Once Again Fastest-Growing State; Louisiana Rebounds
From the report:

Nevada returned to the top as the nation’s fastest-growing state, with a population increase of 2.9 percent between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Arizona, fastest-growing between 2005 and 2006, slipped to second place.

Meanwhile, Louisiana began to rebound from its post-Hurricane Katrina population loss, gaining nearly 50,000 people from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2007, for a total population of 4.3 million. The state lost 250,000 residents during the previous one-year period. Texas gained more people
than any other state: Its 2006-2007 increase of almost 500,000 was ahead of runner-up California, which added slightly more than 300,000.

California remains the most populous state with about 37 million people.

The Census Bureau also released a population estimate for Puerto Rico, which was 3.9 million on July 1, 2007.

See Also: Population Estimate Tables

Source: U.S. Census

New Resource Compilation: Health Literacy

Friday, December 28th, 2007

New Resource Compilation: Health Literacy
Includes a section on Health Literacy for children.

Source: MedlinePlus

Two Resources for the iPod User: Playlist Magazine and Unused Radio-Locator Frequency Database

Friday, December 28th, 2007

If you got your first iPod device for the holidays or are have had many of them of the years, here are two resources that might be of interest.

1) Playlist Magazine Online
From MacWorld. This is the online version of Playlist which publishes in print a couple times a year.

2) OK, so you scored big. You have no only an iPod but also a device that allows you to “broadcast” it’s content to a nearby radio. However, in large metro areas, finding an open frequency can be a challenge. This data tool from Radio-Locator can help find vacant frequencies for your iPod.

See Also: It’s Not Only Audio And Video
Example: The Washington DC Metro Map and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Map and Timetable for Your iPod

Webcasts: NPR Series: The Evolution of the Blog

Friday, December 28th, 2007

The Evolution of the Blog

The term “Web log,” which was then shortened to “blog,” was born 10 years ago. Blogs have made their mark on American culture, especially on politics. In this series, NPR looks at the blogosphere’s evolution, as well as who blogs, the language and culture of blogs and how blogs are changing our lives.

+ Blogs Become Serious Business
+ The Big Book of Blogs
+ ‘Web Log’ Celebrates 10th Anniversary
+ Learning to Embrace My Inner Blogger
+ Timeline: The Life of the Blog

Source: National Public Radio

Reference and News Materials: Benazir Bhutto Assassination

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

In addition to the “traditional” international news sources, these sites and specific resources might be of interest.

++ DiplomacyMonitor
Primary Documents from Governments Around the World. Updated Continuously.
Pakistan Section.
From St. Thomas School of Law.

++ NewsNow
Aggregates nearly 31,000 News Sources (Global)
Key Specific Categories: Benazir Bhutto ||| Current Affairs ||| Pakistan
Pages Autorefresh every 5 minutes.

Timelines and Obits
++ Timeline: Key Events in the Life Benazir Bhutto (The Guardian)

++ Timeline: Pakistan’s Political Rivals (BBC)

++ Timeline: Recent Events in Pakistan (Reuters)

++ Factbox: Life of Benazir Bhutto (Reuters)

++ Obituary: Benazir Bhutto (The Telegraph)

++ Obituary: Benazir Bhutto (BBC)

++ New York Times Obituary

Pakistan Press
+ via Kidon Media Link
++++ Live Audio Stream via Dawn/Pakistan TV

Country
++ BBC Country Profile

++ CIA World Factbook

++ State Department (U.S.) Background Notes on Pakistan

++ Consular Info Sheet (U.S.; Includes Links to Embassy and Consulates

++ Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK): Pakistan File ||| FCO Travel Advice

Government
+ Pakistan Government
+ Pakistan Peoples Party
+ Embassy of Pakistan, Washington DC

Other
+ Text Transcript: Remarks made by Benazir Bhutto to Voice of America Shortly Before Her Death

+ Text Transcript: President Musharraf’s brief address to nation on Mohtarma Benazir’s assassination

+ Remarks by UK PM Gordon Brown on Assassination

+ Remarks by U.S. President Bush on Assassination

+ A Conversation With Benazir Bhutto
Recorded on August 15, 2007, Council on Foreign Relations, NY, NY
Transcript along with audio and video are available.

+ Fmr. Pakistan P.M. Bhutto Speech on the Situation in Pakistan (via C-SPAN, uses RealPlayer)
Recoded on 9/25/2007 at Middle East Institute, Washington DC, 58 minutes.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1993-1996) spoke about events in Pakistan, the status of a power sharing agreement between opposition party members and President Musharaff, upcoming elections, and President Musharaff’s promise to step down as head of the Pakistani military prior to the elections. She also talked about recent disputes between the president and the courts and counter-terrorism policy.

+ Frederick Barton, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Senior Adviser (via C-SPAN, uses RealPlayer)
Recorded on October 19, 2007.

Frederick Barton, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Senior Adviser talks about the situation in Pakistan surrounding Former Prime Minister Bhutto’s return and the status of the government under President Musharraf.

+ CSIS Resources on Pakistan (includes experts)

+ Center for National Policy Discussion on the Crisis in Pakistan (via C-SPAN, uses RealPlayer)
Recorded on November 27, 2007.

Husain Haqqani, former advisor to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and Ambassador Teresita Schaffer take part in a discussion titled “Who Rules Pakistan: the Islamic Republic in Crisis.” The event takes place at the Center for National Policy.

+ Benazir Bhutto: The Exile’s Return (recent profile in MORE magazine)

+ Pakistan’s Political Crisis and State of Emergency (CRS Report dated 11/6/07; PDF; 108 KB)

+ DocuTicker papers and reports on Pakistan

Web Archives: Archive-It Adds Advanced Search Interface

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Archive-It Adds Advanced Search Option
We regularly post about new permanent web archives being added to the Archive-It collection.

Archive-It is a service from the Internet Archive that works with various groups (”partners”) to archive their web site and other important pages, often coming from news events. At the moment, Archive-It has 469 collections, encompassing over 255 million URL’s. Those totals grow almost daily.

Unlike another IA project, The Wayback Machine, Archive-It pages can be keyword searched. The service uses Nutch open source search software.

Now, we can report that Archive-It has recently added an Advanced Search Interface using a common design.

+ Search with all terms (AND), any one of the search terms (OR), none of the terms (NOT)
+ Limit by Host URL
+ Limit by Total Documents per host
+ Limit by file format (9 file formats including MS Word Docs, PDF files, and QuickTime Files)
+ Limit to a Specific Partner and then (if available) a specific collection
Queries can also be turned into RSS feeds with a single click.

See Also: Selected Recent Collections Added to Archive-It
1 ||| 2 ||| 3 ||| 4

UK: Databases: The Medical Register (Registered Medical Practitioners)

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

UK: Databases: The Medical Register

Two databases:

+ List of Registered Medical Practitioners

You can use the List of Registered Medical Practitioners to check details of all the doctors on the GMC’s register.

It gives details of:

* the doctor’s reference number, name, any former name, gender
* year and place of primary medical degree
* registration status
* date of registration
* entry in GP/Specialist Register
* any publicly available fitness to practise history since 20 October 2005

+ List of Registered Medical Practitioners

Personalization with MyGMC

Source: General Medical Council

OCLC & Council on Library and Information Resources 2006-2007 Annual Reports Now Online

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

+ Council on Library and Information Resources 2006-2007 Annual Report Now Online
34 pages; PDF.

Source: CLIR

+ OCLC 2006-2007 Annual Report
60 pages; PDF.
Source: OCLC

NISO, IMLS Announce Version 3 of Framework for Good Digital Collections

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

NISO, IMLS Announce Version 3 of Framework for Good Digital Collections

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the release of version 3 of the Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. The third version, the development of which was generously supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), is now available on the NISO website. In addition, a community version of this document is being developed to allow for ongoing contributions from the community of librarians, archivists, curators, and other information professionals. The Framework establishes principles for creating, managing, and preserving digital collections, digital objects, metadata, and projects. It also provides links to relevant standards that support the principles and additional resources.

The Working Group for this revision includes Priscilla Caplan, Florida College for Library Automation (chair); Grace Agnew, Rutgers; Murtha Baca, Getty Research Institute; Tony Gill, Center for Jewish History; Carl Fleischhauer, Library of Congress; Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America; Jill Koelling, Northern Arizona University; and Christie Stephenson, American Museum. In addition, outside reviewers contributed their expertise to this updated Framework.

Direct to Full Text Report
100 pages; PDF.

Source: NISO, IMLS

Faceted Searching DSpace Sites with DWell

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Faceted Searching DSpace with DWell

DWell allows DSpace instances to make use of a Longwell configuration, a faceted browser interface that sits on top of current DSpace metadata. This browser allows users a unique, more visual perspective of DSpace content. “We were quite pleased with the aesthetics, as well as its ability to show a clear relationship between image and work. And the ability to search within results is a very positive step forward.” says Liz Phipps of the Rotch Visual Collections at MIT. Click here for a demo and instructions on how to harvest DSpace and produce RDF metadata.

Demo

Source: MIT

See Also: Endeca (used at NC State Library OPAC) and Siderean (used by the LII) are other examples of faceted searching. We’re big admirers of the concept here at ResourceShelf.

New: Real Time Information: New York and New Jersey Bridge & Tunnel Alerts Page (E-Mail, SMS)

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Real Time Information: New York and New Jersey Bridge & Tunnel Alerts Page (E-Mail, SMS)

The Port Authority is launching the first phase of a motorist alert service for our bridge and tunnel customers. We are seeking subscriber information to further refine the system. We value your input! Please send us your comments by using the feedback button on the left hand side of the page.

Port Authority Bridge & Tunnel Alerts is a free subscription service that notifies customers of incidents or events that may delay their trip across Port Authority bridges. When you register, you will:

* Receive free alerts directly to your cellular phone, PDA, pager, or e-mail account
* Be able to select the facilities as well as the time ranges you wish to monitor

See Also: Many More Real or Near Real-Time Tools

Source: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Briefs: Fast Facts About the Amazon.com Holiday Season; Pownce Goes Mobile; Google Renames Home Page Link

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

+ NTT Docomo To Link Up With Google – Reports (via SeekingAlpha)

+ Google Tops Nov US Searches With 58% Market Share

+ Fast Facts About the Amazon.com Holiday Season
From the report:

Amazon Worldwide 2007 Holiday Facts (Includes www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.jp, and www.amazon.ca)

— Amazon shipped more than 99 percent of orders in time to meet holiday deadlines worldwide.

— On the peak day this season, Amazon’s worldwide fulfillment network shipped over 3.9 million units.

— Amazon shipped to over 200 countries.

— One of our most remote shipments was “Full Metal Panic Fumoffu
– Full Metal Pandemonium” (Vol. 1) DVD and “Full Metal Panic Fumoffu – Full Metal Fracas” (Vol. 2) DVD delivered to
Barrow, Alaska.

— Amazon shipped over 160,000 shipments to APO/FPO addresses.

+ Google Renames Home Page Link
In the past week or so Google has renamed the Product search link on the home page to Shopping.

+ Social Networking: Pownce’s New Mobile Site

+ U.S. appeals court hands Google patent case setback (Reuters)

Citation Reports: Science in Brazil, 2002-06; Journals Ranked by Impact: Veterinary Sciences; Electrical & Electronic Engineering: Most Prolific U.S. Institutions, 2002-06

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

+ Electrical & Electronic Engineering: Most Prolific U.S. Institutions, 2002-06

+ Science in Brazil, 2002-06

+ U.K. Universities: Highest Impact in Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics, 2002-06

+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Veterinary Sciences

+ Hot Paper in Physics

+ Hot Paper in Medicine

Source: ISINET

Briefs: Internet Archive Partners with Zotero; Successful Test for First Phase of National Archives Electronic Records Archives System

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

+ Successful Test for First Phase of National Archives Electronic Records Archives System

+ Internet Archive Partners with Zotero

+ Portico Archive Exceeds 3.6 Million Articles Archived

Men’s Health Magazine Ranks America’s Drunkest Cities

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Ranking America’s Drunkest Cities
From How We Ranked Them:

1. First we looked at the number of alcohol-related liver disease deaths in each city. Your liver metabolizes alcohol, and the more you drink, the more damage you do. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided these stats.

2. There’s nothing wrong with getting blitzed occasionally, as long as you don’t do anything stupid. But binge drinking too often is a path to alcoholism. For men, having five or more drinks in one sitting classifies you as a binge drinker, according to the CDC. We checked their stats on the number of binge drinkers in each city.

3. Next we compared the FBI’s numbers on DUI arrest rates in each city. Not to sound like a public-service announcement, but you should know better than to drink and drive.

4. If you’re not lucky enough to get pulled over for DUI, you run the risk of crashing and killing yourself or others. We obtained information on the number of fatal car accidents involving intoxicated drivers from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

5. Finally, we looked at some positive data. Mothers Against Drunk Driving grades cities based on their efforts to cut down on excessive drinking. States with better MADD report cards also received high marks from us.

Source: Men’s Health

Calendars: Books: On Sale Calendar: 2008

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

From Publisher’s Weekly: On Sale Calendar Thru 2008.
Available thru April, 2008. Additions to come in the future to this list.

Source: Publisher’s Weekly.

See Also: ResourceShelf’s Two Large Planning Calendar Collections
1 ||| 2

See Also: More Calendars