New Wise Guide: H for Hero, Sanborn Maps, Science of Addiction
The latest issue of the Wise Guide to the Library of Congress Web site features fascinating facts on Jewish American servicemen, the Geography and Map Division, Asian Pacific American heritage and addiction.
Source: LC
Tracing the Hayward Fault: Online and On the Ground
Ever wonder exactly where the Hayward Fault is? Three new educational publications will show you just where to look. A field trip guidebook, online virtual tour, and fact sheet aimed at increasing awareness of the area’s most hazardous and urbanized fault, are available online, courtesy of the scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.
The 140th anniversary of the 1868 Hayward earthquake this October 21st marks an important milestone: the past 5 large earthquakes on the Hayward Fault have been on average about 140-years apart, so a repeat of this powerful earthquake could happen at any moment. A recent report indicates that the Hayward Fault is the most likely fault to produce a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake in the greater Bay Area in the next 30-years.
“Few Bay Area residents know about the significant impact of the 1868 Hayward earthquake and these new publications will make it easier for all of us to understand and to be better prepared for its repeat,” said Tom Brocher, author of the fact sheet and a senior seismologist at the USGS. “These products would be useful for Bay Area educators seeking information on local earthquakes to add to their curriculum.”
+ The Hayward Fault-Is it due for a repeat of the powerful 1868 earthquake?
+ Where’s the Hayward Fault? A Green Guide to the Hayward Fault
+ Virtual Tour of the Hayward Fault
+ Related materials
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
James K. Polk: A Resource Guide
The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with James K. Polk. This resource guide compiles links to digital materials related to Polk such as manuscripts, letters, broadsides, government documents, and images that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site.
Compiled by: Angela McMillian, Digital Reference Specialist
Source: Digital Reference Team, Library of Congress
Facts for Features 2008 Hurricane Season Begins
The north Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and lasts through November. The U.S. Census Bureau produces timely local data that are critical to emergency planning, preparedness and recovery efforts. This edition of Facts for Features spotlights the number of people living in areas that could be most affected by these acts of nature.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
The Library of Congress published The Polish Poster: from Young Poland through the Second World War in 1993 to commemorate the centennial of the Polish art poster movement. This book recently has been digitized and made available through the two links above, for viewing via “page-turner” display or searchable .pdf.
Source: Library of Congress
The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Cengage Learning Inc. (Cengage) to divest assets related to textbooks and educational materials used in 14 college level courses in order to proceed with Cengage’s proposed $750 million acquisition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company’s College Division (HM College). The divestiture assets include all tangible and non-tangible assets related to the textbooks and materials including, among other things, finished textbooks, publishing and licensing rights, author contracts and original artwork. The Department said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would have eliminated competition between Cengage and HM College and would have likely resulted in lower quality of textbooks and related educational materials or higher textbook prices.
The Department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to block the proposed transaction. At the same time, the Department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the lawsuit and the Department’s competitive concerns.
…
The divestitures of textbooks and related materials used to teach 14 college level courses are required to assure continued competition in markets where the transaction would otherwise result in a significant loss of competition. According to the complaint, Cengage and HM College compete head-to-head in the development and sale of textbooks and related print and electronic, including Internet-based, educational materials in these courses. The 14 courses are in the fields of business, foreign languages, history and interdisciplinary studies. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, the textbooks must be divested to publishers approved by the Department’s Antitrust Division.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
The Condition of Education 2008
The Condition of Education 2008 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 43 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2008 print edition includes 43 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Posted 28 May 2008 on DocuTicker:
+ Travelling to China for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (British Journal of Sports Medicine)
+ Annual Report on Anti-LGBT Hate Violence Released (National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs)
+ Finding Families for African American Children: The Role of Race & Law in Adoption From Foster Care (Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute)
Financial bind may sever library’s mutual ties
For 12 years, public libraries around Tampa Bay have proudly served borrowers from neighboring counties for free. Now the cooperation may be breaking down.
The Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library Board has recommended that Hillsborough County withdraw from the arrangement because its north Hillsborough libraries are devoting so much staff time to serving Pasco County residents.
Those residents account for one-fourth of the materials borrowed from the Lutz Branch Library, one-tenth from Odessa’s Austin Davis Library and more than one-sixth from the New Tampa Regional Library, the second busiest Hillsborough library.
Hillsborough’s decision would seal off its books, CDs and DVDs to all non-Hillsborough residents. They could use HillsÂborough libraries but could borrow materials only by ordering them through their home-county libraries or by paying Hillsborough an annual $100 nonresident fee.
…
In the fiscal year that ended in September, Hillsborough residents borrowed 2,180 items from Pasco libraries while Pasco residents borrowed 260,286 items from Hillsborough libraries.Librarians have expressed pride in the widespread system of sharing among bay area counties.
“I was one of the librarians that helped start it,” said Joe Stines, director of the Tampa-Hillsborough system. “But when it gets so unbalanced, I can’t defend it.”
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Primary Research Group has published Research Library International Benchmarks. The 200-page study is based on data from 45 major research libraries from the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, Spain, Argentina, and other countries. The report presents a broad range of data on current and planned materials, salary, info technology and capital spending, hiring plans, spending trends for e-books, journals, books and more. Provides data on trends in personnel deployment, discount margins from vendors, relations with consortiums, information literacy efforts, workstation, laptop and learning space development, use of scanners and digital cameras, use of RFID technology, federated search and many other pressing issues for major research libraries, university and otherwise.
Just a few of the reports many findings, presented in more than 500 tables, are:
The average discount from list prices that the libraries in the sample received from their book distributors for reference books was 11.9% with a range of “0†to 30%. U.S. libraries received nearly 3 times the discount of non-U.S. libraries, a mean of 15% to only 5.67% for non-U.S. libraries.
For 27.45% of the libraries in the sample, spending on salaries and benefits had declined in real terms over the past two years (from staff reductions, pay reductions in real terms or a combination of these factors).
Now Available Online: Preserving State Government Digital Information
Robert Horton’s presentation at the Library of Congress on April 24, 2008. The presentation runs 50 minutes.
Robert Horton, director of Library, Publication and Collections at the Minnesota Historical Society, discussed “A Model Technological and Social Architecture for the Preservation of State Government Digital Information.”
This NDIIPP-supported project is working with legislatures in several states to explore enhanced access to a variety of legislative digital records. Technology does not really make any of this easy, but it does make it possible, as appropriate within the disparate legal, administrative and financial contexts of the collaborating states. The project will identify the differences and emphasize the commonalities, so that other states can determine how to adapt the model for their own use.
Source: Library of Congress
Voices and images from the civil-rights movement are now on the Web at the Civil Rights Digital Library, created by the University of Georgia.
The library features 30 hours of historical news footage showing such events as the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., and Martin Luther King Jr. accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.
The International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC) has established a new mailing list for web curators and other practitioners interested in sharing information and experiences about web harvesting issues and associated quality review and archival issues.
Source: LISNews
The latest new and modified LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) direct from LC.
Abbreviations used on the list:
UF= Use For
BT= Broader Term
RT= Related Term
May Subd Geog = May by Subdivided by Geographic Location (Baseball–Chicago, IL) is an example.
Note: Lists from earlier in 2008, along with 2007 and 2006 lists can be found via the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Source: The Library of Congress
OCLC has adopted a new governance structure designed to extend participation in the cooperative to an increasing number of libraries and cultural heritage institutions around the world.
On May 20, the OCLC Members Council approved changes to the Articles of Incorporation and Code of Regulations that had been recommended by the Board of Trustees. The changes will transform the current Members Council into a Global Council that connects with Regional Councils around the world.
Members Council also elected two delegates to six-year terms on the OCLC Board of Trustees: Tony Ferguson, University Librarian, University of Hong Kong Libraries; and Sandy Yee, Dean of Libraries, Wayne State University, and outgoing OCLC Members Council President.
Source: OCLC
The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters today announced that 700 new regional journals have been added to Web of Science. The newly identified collection contains journals that typically target a regional rather than international audience by approaching subjects from a local perspective or focusing on particular topics of regional interest.
Source: Thomson Reuters
New from the British Library:
The British Library has responded to customers’ growing needs for instant digital access to research material by making 1,500 journals available for immediate download at http://direct.bl.uk. A huge variety of titles will be added on 1st June, ranging from science, medicine and technology through to politics, history, anthropology and literature. Cutting the document delivery time from days to minutes will make a real difference to researchers worldwide.
Interactive Map: Global map of food security (as of May 2008)
Source: ReliefWeb (via MapleCroft)
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