Archive for September, 2008
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
And the Best Executive M.B.A. Programs Are…
Working with Management Research Group and Critical Insights, we asked thousands of students and hundreds of companies to rank executive M.B.A. programs in a host of categories, with a focus on how well they develop management and leadership skills. The result is a ranking of 25 schools world-wide that takes into account the rigor needed to build tomorrow’s corporate leaders and C-suite executives.
Topping the list: Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, which ranked No. 1, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, which came in No. 2. The two schools have among the largest E.M.B.A. programs, with 406 students currently enrolled in Wharton’s two programs and 843 candidates in the seven Kellogg programs, including four international partnerships and a satellite campus in Miami.
What set Kellogg and Wharton apart? The schools got high marks from companies — nearly double those of their nearest competitors — which gave them a clear lead overall. And those stellar grades far outpaced their lower marks from students.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Posted in Business and Economics, Education, Lists and Rankings, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Posted in Search News | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Logging On for a Second (or Third) Opinion
…paging Dr. Google can lead patients to miss a rich lode of online resources that may not yield to a simple search. Sometimes just adding a word makes all the difference. Searching for the name of a certain cancer will bring up the Wikipedia entry and several information sites from major hospitals, drug companies and other providers. Add the word “community” to that search, Ms. Fox said, and “it’s like falling into an alternate universe,” filled with sites that connect patients.
As a result, said Dr. Ted Eytan, medical director for delivery systems operations improvement at the Permanente Federation, “patients aren’t learning from Web sites — they’re learning from each other.” The shift is nothing less than “the democratization of health care,” he went on, adding, “Now you can become a national expert in your bedroom.”
Source: New York Times
Posted in Information Literacy, Information Seeking, Search News, Web Search | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
A Tale of Two Library Plans
For months, Escambia County commissioners and the Pensacola City Council have avoided talking about the elephant in the room — the library system.
The county has agreed in the past to take over funding of library operations, but that’s stalled for now partly by recent property tax reform measures that led to budget cuts.
In the meantime, the city has $6 million in local option sales tax money it plans to spend by 2011 on a new 25,000-square-foot downtown library, to replace the current one. The city already is looking to hire an architect to design it.
That move forward by the city without a discussion with the county bugs commissioners and has them confused about the city’s intent. That’s because the county has about $18.7 million set aside to build a new 60,000-square-foot central library in the Nine Mile Road area in 2012.
Source: Pensacola News-Journal
Posted in Libraries and Librarianship, Search News | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Send Your Name Around The Earth On NASA’s Glory Mission
Members of the public can send their names around Earth on NASA’s Glory satellite, the first mission dedicated to understanding the effects of particles in the atmosphere and the sun’s variability on our climate.
The “Send Your Name Around the Earth” Web site enables everyone to take part in the science mission and place their names in orbit for years to come. The Web site, where participants can submit their information, is located at:
http://polls.nasa.gov/utilities/sendtospace/jsp/sendName.jsp
Participants will receive a printable certificate from NASA and have their name recorded on a microchip that will become part of the spacecraft. The deadline for submitting names is Nov. 1, 2008.
The Glory satellite will allow scientists to measure airborne particles more accurately from space than ever before. The particles, known as “aerosols,” are tiny bits of material found in Earth’s atmosphere, like dust and smog.
Source: NASA
Posted in Science, Search News, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
‘Doing What Works’ Website Adds New Guidance on Effective Teaching
What is “spacing” learning and how does it benefit teachers and students? Do students learn more when solved problems are alternated with problems to be solved? And how do “higher order” questions enhance student learning and help students articulate their answers?
Visitors to the U.S. Department of Education’s “Doing What Works” Web site can find out the answers to these questions and much more. Just click on http://dww.ed.gov, and enjoy an engaging and interactive experience with Psychology of Learning: How to Organize Your Teaching, the latest addition to the site, which will empower educators and administrators with research-based strategies to help instructors organize their teaching and improve student learning.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
Posted in Resources for Educators, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Absentee and Early Voting Laws
Early and absentee voting laws vary widely, and are decided on a state level. The grid lays out the basic pattern of laws across states, with some quick facts at the end. The table below has a more detailed outline of each state’s laws, as well as links to the relevant Codes and Statutes.
Source: Early Voting Information Center
Posted in Government Documents and Political Information, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Posted in Best of DocuTicker, Source File | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Organically Produced Foods: Nutritive Content
This bibliography contains 283 citations for articles, conference papers, reports and book chapters published 2000 through July 2008. Cited works focus specifically on the nutrient content of organically produced foods: vitamin and mineral content, phytonutrients (phytochemicals), fatty acids and related chemical constituents. Each cited item relates directly to food produced from organic agricultural and/or handling practices.
All items cited in this bibliography were published in English; however, important work pertaining to this topic is being conducted internationally and reported on in many languages. This bibliography updates but does not duplicate AFSIC’s 2000 Special Reference Brief 2000-03, Organically Produced Foods: Nutritive Content (216 citations, 1945-2000) available online at http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/srb0003.shtml.
Source: Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, National Agricultural Library (USDA)
See also: Organically Produced Foods: Food Safety Issues
Posted in Bibliographies, Webliographies, Source File | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
The Feminization of Librarianship
Since the proliferation of American public libraries began in the late nineteenth century, library work has been associated with women. As in other female dominated fields the salaries and benefits are less than those fields that associated with traditionally male skills and personality traits. When women initially entered the field in high numbers their economic options for professional and intellectual expression were limited and thus the role of the librarian was adopted as a female identity that fit conveniently into prevailing societal norms of a women as service-oriented nurturers.
The discussion about women in librarianship has often failed to address the root causes of divisions in gender that are wrongly assumed to be inherent. Librarians must address the roots of why femininity is debased in the workplace and also seek to illuminate the vast contributions women have made in the field.
Source: LibGig
Posted in Libraries and Librarianship, Search News | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Posted in Search News | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Networked Workers: Most workers use the internet or email at their jobs, but they say these technologies are a mixed blessing for them
The majority of employed adults (62%) use the internet or email at their job, and many have cell phones and Blackberries that keep them connected even when they are not at work.
Working Americans express mixed views about the impact of technology on their work lives. On the one hand, they cite the benefits of increased connectivity and flexibility that the internet and all of their various gadgets afford them at work. On the other hand, many workers say these tools have added stress and new demands to their lives.
One of the major impacts of the internet and cell phones is that they have enabled more people to do work at least occasionally from home. Some 45% of employed Americans report doing at least some work from home and 18% of working Americans say they do job-related tasks at home almost daily.
+ Full Report (PDF; 336 KB)
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
Posted in Search News, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Problem: Boys Don’t Like to Read. Solution: Books That Are Really Gross
Publishers are hawking more gory and gross books to appeal to an elusive market: boys — many of whom would rather go to the dentist than crack open “Little House on the Prairie.” Booksellers are also catering to teachers and parents desperate to make young males more literate.
“There has been a real revolution” in books that “have more kid appeal,” especially when it comes to boys, says Ellie Berger, who oversees Scholastic’s trade division. “It’s a shift away from the drier books we all grew up with.”
Last year, U.S. publishers released 261 new works of juvenile fiction aimed at boys, more than twice the number put out in 2003, according to Bowker’s Books in Print database. There were 20 nonfiction entries for boys, compared with just four in 2003.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Posted in Print Publications, Search News | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
How Do We Measure Use of Scientific Journals? A Note on Research Methodologies
Scientific journals represent a significant and growing part of the libraries and many researchers have attempted to measure their use by various methodological approaches till date. In this paper, the author reviews the methodologies employed by researchers working on scientific journals usage. It aims to present an overall picture of the research methods used in the area, in a way that will be of value to anyone seeking to study scientific journals. The author reviews four main research methodologies which are being used for profiling scientific journals usage including questionnaire, interview, citation analysis and transaction log analysis.
+ Full Paper (PDF; 78 KB)
Source: Scientometrics (via E-LIS)
Posted in Citation Reports, Papers and Presentations, Scholarly Publishing, Source File | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
Resource of the Week: Lists & Rankings
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
Everyone seems to love lists and rankings. There is perennial interest in biggest, richest, highest rated, most popular, etc., etc. Of course, some of these compilations are highly subjective, e.g. The Top 18 New Money Management Sites. But many of these do have reference or research value, such as U.S. Census Bureau lists, e.g., Fastest Growing Large Cities in the United States.
Here on ResourceShelf, we’ve kept track of Lists & Rankings for as long as we’ve been in existence. (seven-plus years, if you’re counting). This has its own category here, if you haven’t already noticed. Half a dozen recent postings:
+ The 50 Richest Members of Congress
+ Largest US Bankruptcies
+ America’s Top Wired Colleges, 2008 Edition
+ 2008-2009 U.S. Television Market Rankings (PDF)
+ America’s Hardest Drinking Cities
+ UK Top Consumer Brands
Special issues of magazines often contain valuable list/ranking information that would otherwise be difficult to find — i.e., for specific industries, professions, etc. Gary’s original List of Lists, now maintained by Special Issues, is a good place to start looking. We also like the James J. Hill Reference Library’s Special Issues Database. Once you find what you need, you can search for it online or in your local library, or order it from Hill’s document delivery service. (We featured Hill Library’s BizToolKit as a Resource of the Week last August.)
Posted in Lists and Rankings, Resource of the Week, Source File | No Comments »
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Guide to Russian Business Information Resources
This guide provides an extensive collection of annotated print and online information resources on Russia’s business and economy, though it by no means claims to be comprehensive. The cited print sources include only publications from the collection of the Library of Congress. Most, though not all, of the subscription databases described in this guide are available for on-site users at The Library of Congress.
Free Internet resources listed in this guide include Web sites of Russian and U.S. government agencies, international financial organizations, commercial establishments, trade associations and business news outlets.
Source: Library of Congress, Business Reference Services
Posted in Business and Economics, Source File | No Comments »
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Robert Penn Warren: Online Resources
On February 26, 1986, Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin announced the appointment of Robert Penn Warren as the first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.
…
This guide compiles links to resources on Robert Penn Warren throughout the Library of Congress Web site, as well as links to external Web sites that include features on his life or selections of his work.
Source: Library of Congress
Posted in Arts and Humanities, Resources | No Comments »
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
The Time Value of Reading Privacy Policies (PDF; 377 KB)
Companies collect personally identifiable information that website visitors are not always comfortable sharing. One proposed remedy is using economics rather than legislation to address privacy risks by creating a market place for privacy where website visitors would choose to accept or reject offers for small payments in exchange for loss of privacy. The notion of micropayments for privacy has not been realized in practice, perhaps because as Simson Garfinkel points out, advertisers might be willing to pay a penny per name and address yet few people would sell their contact information for only a penny (Garfinkel, 2001). In this paper we contend that the time to read privacy policies is, in and of itself, a form of payment. However, instead of receiving payments to reveal information, website visitors must pay with their time to research policies in order to retain their privacy. We pose the question: if website users were to read the privacy policy for each site they visit just once a year, what would the loss of their time be worth?
Studies show privacy policies are hard to read, read infrequently, and do not support rational decision making. We calculated the average time to read privacy policies in two ways. First, we used a list of the 75 most popular websites and assumed an average reading rate of 250 words per minute to find an average reading time of 10 minutes per policy. Second, we conducted an online study of 93 participants to measure time to skim online privacy policies and respond to simple comprehension questions with an average time of 6 minutes per policy. We then used data from Nielsen/Net Ratings to estimate the number of unique websites the average Internet user visits annually with a lower bound of 119 sites. We estimated the total number of Americans online based on Pew Internet & American Life data and Census data. Finally, we estimated the value of time as 25% of average hourly salary for leisure and twice wages for time at work. We present a range of values, and found the nationwide cost for just the time to read policies is on the order of $136 billion. Additional time for comparing policies between multiple sites in order to make informed decisions about privacy brings the social cost well above the market for online advertising. Given that web users also have some value for their privacy on top of the time it takes to read policies, this suggests that under the current self-regulation framework, targeted online advertising may have negative social utility.
See: Lost in the Fine Print: It Would Take a Week to Read All Your Privacy Policies (Washington Post)
Posted in Papers and Presentations, Privacy, Source File | No Comments »
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Posted in Search News | No Comments »
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
Reading the Future of Web Search
Believe it or not, Google turns 10 this month. Though other search engines predated it — remember AltaVista and Infoseek? — Google has become synonymous with Web searching. Over the course of the past decade, we’ve become accustomed to typing a couple of words, clicking the search button, and browsing the results page with the 10 blue links Google spits back at us.
This worked well as long as Google’s index of the Web was relatively small. But now it contains at least 15 billion pages, plus images, audio clips, videos, books and all sorts of other information. That’s a lot of stuff to sift through.
Google is aware of this. Last year they introduced Universal Search, which blends content from their other indexes into the results page. Thus, a search for John McCain will return the usual 10 blue links (at least one of which is a YouTube video), plus 3 links under each of the following additional headings: News, Video, Blog and Books results. There’s even a related searches heading containing suggestions such as “John McCain quotes,” “Ron Paul” and “2008 presidential candidates.”
This is helpful, but is it the future of Web search? Some people think not, and they’ve launched search engines that organize information differently than Google does. These next-generation search tools utilize concepts such as clustering, visualization and human editors.
Source: The Legal Intelligencer (by Dan Giancaterino, ResourceShelf contributing editor)
Posted in Search News, Web Search | No Comments »
