Archive for January, 2009

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Elsevier Launches CiteAlert

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

From the News Release:

Elsevier is pleased to announce the launch of CiteAlert. CiteAlert is a new, free, unique and automated service to notify authors when their articles are cited in an Elsevier journal.

CiteAlert was piloted one year ago and after carrying out extensive research and user testing, this new user-friendly service is now in use. CiteAlert automatically notifies authors by e-mail soon after their work is referenced in a newly published article in an Elsevier journal. Authors are eligible to receive CiteAlert notifications if their article has been indexed by Scopus, the largest citation database of research literature.

Direct to CiteAlert

Source: Elsevier

Posted in Citation Reports, Information Industry, Scholarly Publishing | No Comments »

UK Launches ‘Google for Films’

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

From the Article:

Fancy checking out the classic 1960s Japanese horror flick Onibaba, or indulging in a bit of old-fashioned British comedy with The Lavender Hill Mob?

The UK Film Council is launching a search engine that will help British movie goers track down their favourite films, from the mainstream to the obscure.

The website, www.FindAnyFilm.com is free to use and contains records of more than 30 000 films, or roughly seven years’ worth of viewing, and they come in 20 genres and over 60 languages.

Direct to FindAnyFilm.com

Source: News24

Posted in Search Tools | No Comments »

A New Webcast from MIT: A Few Things Learned from Craigslist

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

CraigsList founder Craig Newmark’s lecture took place at MIT on November 18, 2008. It’s now available for online viewing here. It runs 72 minutes. The title of the lecture:

A Few Things Learned from Craigslist.

In his unassuming way, Craig Newmark believes his eponymous website might just help nudge people toward greater civic engagement. While Craigslist.org “is a simple platform where people help each other out,” focusing on everyday needs like getting a job or an apartment, it is also a profoundly collaborative venture, with political potential. Newmark outlines the Craigslist success story, which began as a hobby for him in the early 1990s. Newmark quickly detected the Internet’s social networking possibilities, and built an email list for friends “to get the word out on cool events, arts and technology.” He developed an instant fan base, with people suggesting new items to add to the list like “stuff to sell,” and he soon felt encouraged to expand.

Direct to Lecture

Source: MIT World

Posted in Social Media, Webcasts and Podcasts | No Comments »

Times Publishing Co. Announces Plans to Sell Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Times Publishing Co. Announces Plans to Sell Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

The Times Publishing Co. of St. Petersburg, Fla., announced today it is exploring the sale of Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

Based in Washington, D.C., Congressional Quarterly is the nation’s leading publisher of news and information on politics, public policy and legislative activity at the federal, state and local levels. With nearly 170 reporters, editors and researchers covering governmental activity, CQ is recognized as a leader in the development of Web-based information products.

Paul Tash, chairman of Times Publishing, said the move represents the company’s decision to direct investment resources toward properties in Florida, including its award-winning newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times.

Source: PR Newswire

(Note: Senior Editor Shirl Kennedy works for the St. Petersburg Times.)

Posted in Information Industry, Search News | No Comments »

Briefly: Search for Panoramic Views with 360 Cities and Other News

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

+ Search for Panoramic Views with 360 Cities (via AltSeachEngines)

+ OCLC Defends Records Policy, Faces Questions, Suggestions, and Criticisms (via Library Journal)
Hat Tip: S.C.

+ Ixquick.com completely stops recording IP addresses

Posted in Cataloging and Metadata, Search Tools | No Comments »

New Web Guide from LC: Georgia (U.S. State)

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

From the Web Guide:

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Georgia, including manuscripts, broadsides, government documents, books, and maps. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to Georgia that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on Georgia and a bibliography containing selected works for both general and younger readers.

Source: LC

Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Resources, Source File | No Comments »

New Web Site for Students and Teachers Aims to Demystify Science

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

From the Article:

Science doesn’t have to be the boring stuff of textbooks, University of California, Berkeley, professors are telling children and their teachers.

A new Web site, Understanding Science, dispels myths about science and scientists, explaining that everything from the automobile to the family cat can be better understood through science. Built by two UC Berkeley biology professors and a team of advisers, the site debuted recently.

Direct to: Understanding Science

Source: Contra Costa Times

Posted in New Websites and Resources, Resources for Educators, Science | No Comments »

The Library of Congress Now Has an Official Twitter Feed

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

You can find the official LC feed here:
http://www.twitter.com/librarycongress

Source: LC

Note: Don’t forget to also add the ResourceShelf Twitter feed at: http://www.twitter.com/resourceshelf
It combines posts from ResourceShelf and DocuTicker.

Posted in Libraries and Librarianship, Social Media, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Another OCLC Site Optimized for Mobile Web Browsers

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Last week we pointed out the two new Worldcat sites optimized for mobile browsers. Today, it’s worth pointing out that OCLC also has a mobile site for news and announcements. It can be accessed here.

The url for the site is:
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/handheld/default.htm

Posted in Libraries and Librarianship, Wireless Web and Search | No Comments »

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual Posted on Wikipedia

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual Posted on Wikipedia

The Missing Manuals series, published by O’Reilly Media, today announced the migration of its book about Wikipedia to Wikipedia. As of today, the entire contents of Wikipedia: The Missing Manual (O’Reilly, $29.99) by John Broughton is available for free online for editing and updating just like any other Wikipedia entry.

“What makes this project different than any of the other zillion books online today is the format we’ve chosen–a wiki,” explains Peter Meyers, Missing Manuals’ managing editor. “Book viewers will be able to do all the same things they do on any other wiki: view the document, edit it, add to it–in short, whatever they want. The book is going to reside in the site’s Help area, naturally, since the book is all about helping people edit and navigate their way around Wikipedia.”

Adds Meyers: “Once it’s live, our hope is that the Wikipedia community will flock to the book and ‘curate’ it by adding tips, tricks, and by updating the material to reflect changes to Wikipedia since we’ve published the original edition. Down the road, when it comes time for us to consider publishing a second edition of the print book, we’ll think about whether to incorporate some of the community’s changes into the new edition.”

Source: O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Posted in Access to Information, Information Literacy, Search News, Source File, Technology and Internet, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Springer Debuts AuthorMapper.com Science Research Site

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From LJ Story:

Springer Science+Business Media January 26 at the ALA Midwinter Meeting announced the creation of AuthorMapper.com, which the company describes as “a free analytical online tool for discerning trends, patterns, and subject experts within scientific research.” The site searches more than three million articles, generating an assortment of analyses including “an interactive Google map of the results, keyword tag clouds, and ‘Top 5’ bar charts for various important metrics.” An advanced search feature lets users apply complex queries using keyword, discipline, institution, journal, and author.

Direct to AuthorMapper.com

Direct to AuthorMapper.com Blog

Source: Library Journal

Posted in Science, Search News | No Comments »

A New Issue of Elsevier’s Library Connect Newsletter is Now Online

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Direct to Issue 7.1 (2009)
16 pages; PDF

This issue focuses on planning and performance.

Source: Elsevier

Posted in Information Industry, Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »

Holocaust Recordings Put Online by British Library

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From the Article:

More than 440 hours of testimonies – representing the library’s entire audio collection – is being made available over the internet as part of a publicly funded project to digitise important cultural archives.

The recordings explore the lives of 66 Jewish people before, during and after the Second World War.

Direct to Sound Recordings (via BL)

Source: The Telegraph

Posted in History, Source File | No Comments »

New Feature: Free Article Indicators on PubMed Summary Display

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From the Announcement:

The PubMed Summary display format has changed to include information about the availability of free articles from publishers. In addition to the existing link on citations showing what is free in PubMed Central (PMC), a new link indicates if the article is freely available at the journal’s Web site. Some citations have a link indicating the article is free from both PMC and the journal. The links all go to the AbstractPlus display where icon links to PMC and journal sites display.

Source: NLM Technical Bulletin
Hat Tip: P.W.

Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides | No Comments »

Announcing ‡biblios.net, the world’s largest database of freely-licensed library records

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From the News Release:

LibLime [has] announced the launch of ‡biblios.net–a free browser-based cataloging service with a data store containing over thirty-million records. Records are licensed under the Open Data Commons, making the service the world’s largest repository of freely-licensed library records.

‡biblios.net (pronounced ‘biblios dot net’) features an intuitive metadata editor complete with templates, macros, authority auto-completion and embedded context-sensitive help. The central record repository contains 25-million bibliographic records and just under eight-million authority records. The data is maintained by ‡biblios.net users similar to the model used by Wikipedia. Catalogers can use and contribute to the database without restrictions because records in ‡biblios.net are freely-licensed under the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (https://biblios.net/open-data-commons-license).

‡biblios.net also includes a built-in federated search system allowing catalogers to find records from any Z39.50 target. A central Search Target Registry, seeded with over 2,000 Z39.50 servers, makes it easy for catalogers to find, create and share Z39.50 targets.

In addition to offering a cutting-edge cataloging interface, ‡biblios.net offers a unique social cataloging environment. Built-in forums and private messaging make finding help and communicating with other users a cinch. Real-time chat is slated for an upcoming release.

“The philosophy behind an Open Data movement scarcely needs an explanation to a library audience,” explains LibLime CEO, Joshua Ferraro. “The mission of libraries–to provide open, free access to ideas and information–surely applies to the metadata created BY librarians,” Ferraro says.

“To date, libraries haven’t had a freely-licensed repository of library records to date and that makes ‡biblios.net an especially exciting development, one that I’m proud to have been a part of,” says Ferraro. “It’s our hope that ‡biblios.net, as well as other open data movements, will usher in a new era of library openness, where libraries can collaboratively create and share metadata with the whole community,” Ferraro says.

You can sign up for a free ‡biblios.net account by visiting http://biblios.net.

See Also: Listen to a Podcast with the Founder/Creator of ‡biblios.net, Josh Ferraro (He’s also the CEO of LibLime)

Source: ‡biblios.net

Posted in Cataloging and Metadata | No Comments »

Citation Briefs

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

+ Science in Scotland, 2003-07

+ U.K. Institutions: Highest Impact in Computer Science, 2003-07

+ Hot Paper in Medicine

Source: Thomson Reuters

Posted in Citation Reports, Information Science, Scholarly Publishing | No Comments »

Research reveals economic case for open access publishing

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From the News Release:

Sharing research information via a more open access publishing model would bring millions of pounds worth of savings to the higher education sector as well as benefiting UK plc. This is one of the key findings from a new research project3 commissioned by JISC.

Professor John Houghton from the Centre of Strategic Economic Studies at Melbourne’s Victoria University and Professor Charles Oppenheim at Loughborough University were asked to lead research that would throw light on the economic and social implications of new models for scholarly publishing.

The research centred on three models which include:

* Subscription or toll access publishing which involves reader charges and use restrictions;
* Open access publishing where access is free and publication is funded from the authors’ side; and
* Open access self-archiving where academic authors post their work in online repositories, making it freely available to all Internet users.

In their report, Houghton et al. looked beyond the actual costs and savings of different models and examined the additional cost-benefits that might arise from enhanced access to research findings.

Direct to Summary Page

Direct to Complete Report (288 pages; PDF)

Source: JISC

Posted in Information Industry, Scholarly Publishing | No Comments »

U.S. Department of Labor announces digital ‘snapshot’ project to archive content of all departmental Web sites

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

From the Announcement:

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced that it will launch an online digital library to archive its Web sites under a contract with the San Francisco-based Internet Archive.

Through an on-demand system, the Web Snapshot Initiative was designed to capture the content of all departmental Web sites for historical purposes — thus documenting the department’s missions, goals and programs on the site as of mid-January 2009.

The project, which commenced during the first week of January 2009, will archive complete working copies of approximately five million Labor Department Web site documents that will be made available to the public through the department’s main Web site at www.dol.gov/Archive and through the Wirtz Labor Library collection at www.library.dol.gov. Copies of the documents will be stored to help meet the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) records management requirements.

“The new online archive will give the public and government easy and secure access to the historical records of the Labor Department,” said Paul Craven, the department’s director of enterprise communications. “The system will provide greater transparency of government documents available through the department’s Web sites.”

Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Hat Tip: S.B.

Posted in Digital Preservation, Info Management and Retrieval | No Comments »

Google and the Great Wikipedia Feedback Loop and Other Briefs

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

+ Google and the Great Wikipedia Feedback Loop (via The Register)

+ TurnItIn not catching on at UC Davis (via The Aggie)

+ Amazon’s Kindle 2 Will Debut Feb. 9 (via NY Times)

+ Social Bookmarking Service Qitera Now Integrates With Google and Yahoo Search (via RWW)

Posted in Information Literacy, Information Seeking, Web Search | No Comments »

HathiTrust and OCLC to work together to enhance discovery of digital collections

Monday, January 26th, 2009

From the News Release:

HathiTrust, a group of some of the largest research libraries in the United States collaborating to create a repository of their vast digital collections, and OCLC will work together to increase visibility of and access to items in the HathiTrust’s shared digital repository.

Launched jointly by the 12-university consortium known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the 11 university libraries of the University of California system, HathiTrust leverages the time-honored commitment to preservation and access to information that university libraries have valued for centuries. The group’s digital collections, including millions of books, will be archived and preserved in a single repository hosted by HathiTrust. Materials in the public domain and those where rightsholders have given permission will be available for reading online.

See Also: Learn More About the HathiTrust

HathiTrust Stats

Currently Digitized
+ 2,567,106 volumes
+ 898,487,100 pages
+ 95 terabytes
+ 30 miles
+ 2,086 tons
379,014 volumes (~15% of total) in the public domain

Source: OCLC / HathiTrust

Posted in Digital Repositories, Digitization Projects, Information Industry | No Comments »

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