Archive for March, 2009

« Older Entries

Begin Viewing a YouTube Video at Any Point You Specify Using Deep Links Feature

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

It’s easy to start watching YouTube videos at any point that you specify. To do so, just add to the end of the web address (URL) the minute and second where you want the video to begin playing. The format you must use looks like this: #t=2m27s. Here’s an example: Ordinarily, YouTube starts at the beginning of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM. However, this URL begins at “2 minutes 27 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM#t=2m27sYou can of course, you can change the minute/second values as needed.

Hat Tip: Pete W.

Posted in Multimedia Search | No Comments »

Report: How People Read Books Online: Mining and Visualizing Web Logs for Use Information

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the Abstract:

This paper explores how people read books online. Instead of observing individuals, we analyze usage of an online digital library of children’s books (the International Children’s Digital Library). We go beyond typical webpage-centric analysis to focus on book reading in an attempt to understand how people read books from websites. We propose a definition of reading a book (in comparison to others who visit the website), and report a number of observations about the use of the library in question.


Direct to Full Text (8 pages; PDF)

Source: Human-Computer Interaction Lab, U. of Maryland

Posted in Info Management and Retrieval, Information Seeking, Search News | No Comments »

Article: The Hottest Research of 2007-08

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the Article:

It’s time again for Science Watch from Thomson Reuters to take its annual look back at the hottest of recent research. The first table below lists the researchers who, during 2008, accounted for the the highest numbers of Hot Papers published over the preceding two years. The second table features the papers published during 2008 (aside from reviews) that were most cited by year’s end.

Source: Thomson Reuters

Posted in Scholarly Publishing | No Comments »

Presentation: Old Stuff, New Tricks: How Archivists Are Making Special Collections Even More Special Using Web 2.0 Technologies

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the Presentation:

A panel of trained archivists will discuss the use the spectrum of Web 2.0 tools and innovation as how it creates mechanisms to promote the access and use of archival and rare materials. They will discuss their own innovations in their own repositories, and some of the successful projects and tools being used today, as well as discussing the potential for creative collaboration between historians and archivists in academe using Web 2.0 tools and resources


Direct to PowerPoint Slides

Source: dList

Posted in Museums & Online Exhibits, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Project Gutenberg March 2009 Newsletter Now Online

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the newsletter:

In this months newsletter, Michael Hart announces some major projects from Project Gutenberg for this year.

Source: Project Gutenberg

Posted in E-books | No Comments »

Update: TOXMAP Now Includes TRI 2007

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the Announcement:

TOXMAP now includes the 2007 EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data. Additionally, TOXMAP now offers the ability to save search results, the ability to zoom to US Indian reservations, and county and Congressional district boundaries that can be toggled on/off.

Direct to TOXMAP

Source: NLM

Posted in Government Documents and Political Information, Resources, Science, Source File | No Comments »

Citation Briefs: Institution Rankings in Agricultural Sciences, 1998-2008 & Other Rankings

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

+ Institution Rankings in Agricultural Sciences, 1998-2008

+ Journals Ranked by Impact: Political Science

+ U.K. Institutions: Highest Impact in Chemical Engineering, 2003-07

+ Hot Paper in Biology

Source: Thomson Science

Posted in Citation Reports, Scholarly Publishing | No Comments »

New Briefing Paper: The myths and fallacies of digital photographs and their preservation

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

New from Digital Preservation Europe. From the Summary:

Digital photographs offer fasciniating new possibilities and seem to be easier to store and preserve for the future than their analog counterpart, promising incredibly valuable, massive photo archives available at your fingertips. However, securely storing massive amounts of data, as well as ensuring that the file formats produced by professional cameras can be read in the near and longterm future, is a significant endeavour. This briefing paper reviews some of the core challenges in preserving digital photographs to make sure that the value of a digital photo archive remains and grows for the benefit of the photographer.


Direct to Briefing Paper (2 pages; PDF)

Source: DE

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

Florida’s Archival Photos Spur Web Discussion

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Florida’s Archival Photos Spur Web Discussion

Palm trees stand sentinel along the Homosassa River beneath a dreamy swirl of clouds setting the stage for one of Florida’s iconic images and for viewers worldwide.

“Is this infrared?” asks bglasgow in a comment posted beneath the lurid black-and-white photograph taken in January 1952, one of 600 pictures of Florida now part of a new online collection at www.flickr.com/commons/

“Looks infrared to me,” another viewer replies.

Then a representative from the State Library and Archives of Florida, which posted the images, weighs in: Yes, it’s infrared.

The institution in February became one of the first state archives in the country to participate in this pilot project launched a year ago by the U.S. Library of Congress and the photo-sharing Web site Flickr. Today there are 23 international museums and libraries from the Smithsonian to the Bibliothèque de Toulouse involved.

Source: TBO.com

Posted in Archives and Special Collections, History, Search News, Source File | No Comments »

Wikia Search is No More

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the News.com Post:

Wikia is announcing on Tuesday that it is closing the Wikia Search product. The service was intended to be a user-generated search engine, through which users could influence the rankings of results for all other users.

The Wikia Search project is set to be shut down Tuesday.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikia and driving force behind Wikia Search, fully expected the development of Wikia Search to be a “long-term project.” The current economy, however, has forced him to “reassess everything,” and “do what we need to do to get to profitabililty.”

See Also: More from Jimmy Wales

Source: News.com (via SEL)

On a Related Note: Microsoft Encarta Dies After Long Battle With Wikipedia (via New York Times)

Posted in Search News, Web Search | No Comments »

Guides: Online Resources for Chinese Studies in North American Libraries

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

+ Online Resources for Chinese Studies in North American Libraries

Source: Asian Reading Room, Library of Congress

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

Life Magazine Is Reincarnated Online

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

From the Wall Street Journal Article:

Life.com, a joint venture of Life publisher Time Inc., a unit of Time Warner, and Getty Images, is opening its doors today to let Web users scan 7 million images from the magazine, many of which have never appeared in print. The site also boasts thousands of new daily news photos from Getty, the photo service whose work appears in many newspapers and Web sites.

In addition to photos of breaking news events, the Life.com editors have created thousands of photo groupings — a slideshow of Hawaiian beaches through the decades, or baseball players with odd names, or memorable war photos — that will change at least once a day.

Photos are arranged around five channels: news, celebrity, animals, travel and sports, based on search patterns and on advertiser-friendly categories. The celebrity tier of photos is expected to appeal more to advertisers looking for female consumers, for example.

Source: Wall Street Journal
Hat Tip: LS

See Also: Don’t Forget the Google Images offers millions of photos from Life’s historical archive. To access them in a rapid manner simply enter source:life and your keywords into the Google Images search box. Here’s an example.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Briefly

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

+ Serials Solutions Implements the AquaBrowser Unified Discovery Interface at George Washington University

+ Alacra Adds Morningstar to its Premium Partners

+ Dialog and QUOSA Team Up to Make Search Results Easier to Manage

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

Presentation: Friending Libraries: Why libraries can become nodes in people’s social networks

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project spoke at Computers in Libraries today. Here’ a link to his presentation slides.

From the Summary:

Lee discussed Pew Internet’s latest findings and why they suggest that libraries can play a role in people’s social networks in the future. He described the reasons that people rely more and more on their social networks as they share ideas, learn, solve problems, and seek social support. And he explored how libraries can act as “nodes” in people’s networks.


Direct to Slides

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

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

Podcast: What is the library of the future? with Chris Batt

Monday, March 30th, 2009

From the Summary:

Michelle Pauli talks to Chris Batt, of Chris Batt Consulting, about the Libraries of the Future debate being held at Oxford University at the beginning of April 2009.

The podcast runs about 8 minutes.

Source: JISC

Posted in Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »

The April of the Internet Resources Newsletter is Now Online

Monday, March 30th, 2009

More great content from Roddy MacLeod and crew from the Heriot-Watt University Library.

Direct to Newsletter (Issue 171)

Posted in New Websites and Resources, Search News | No Comments »

YouTube Launches Education Site

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

From the Article:

YouTube has launched an education portal that compiles all the video from official university and college partners. Creatively named YouTube EDU, it’s not the spot to find drunken frat-party antics, but even PR-sterilized content can still be interesting.


Direct to YouTube EDU

Source: U.S. News & World Report

Hat Tip: P.W.

Posted in Multimedia Search, Search News | No Comments »

19th-Century Pamphlets Online project

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

From the Announcement:

Delivered by JSTOR, managed by RLUK and digitised by the University of Southampton, the collection is bringing together many of the which played a vital part in the intellectual, economic and social landscape of the nineteenth-century Britain. The digital collection draws on the holding of seven research libraries in the UK; three of which are currently online, with another four going online shortly.

Direct to 19th-Century Pamphlets Online

Source: JISC

Posted in Digitization Projects, Information Industry, Search News | No Comments »

Orb’s Live Events Revolutionizes Live Content on iPhone

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

From the Announcement:

Orb Networks today announced the availability of Orb Live Events, a customizable iPhone application that enables any content owner to broadcast their live content on these popular handsets. Live Events provides content owners with a proven iPhone player, already approved and available in Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. In contrast to using other solutions, which can cost millions and take months to implement, a content provider or broadcaster can get up and running in as little 24 hours with the Orb solution.

Learn More About Orb Live Events

Source: Orb

Posted in Real-Time Information, Social Media, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Microsoft, NASA put universe back on the Web

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

From the Article:

If you think the new Google Earth update that shows even more about Mars’ surface is cool, Microsoft thinks what’s it’s about to offer is even cooler.

The company, together with NASA, announced on Tuesday plans to make planetary images and data available via the Internet. The two organizations will jointly develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to make NASA content–including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon–explorable on Microsoft’s online virtual telescope for exploring the universe, called WorldWide Telescope.

Direct to WorldWide Telescope

See Also: Look through Microsoft’s Telescope on the Web

Source: News.com

Posted in Information Industry, Resources, Resources for Educators, Science, Source File | No Comments »

« Older Entries