Archive for May, 2009
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Twitterlogical: The Misunderstandings of Ownership
Tweets range from boring and useless facts (e.g., “wow, it’s cold in Toledo,” “my plane is late again,” “I’m going to poison the neighbor’s dog”) to purportedly-funny, yet useless facts (e.g., “I woke up and farted,” “she must workout,”), to interesting facts (e.g., “Americans consume 1.7 billion pounds of lard every year,” “the average burp contains 1.6 liters of gas”), to references to other facts (e.g., “check out this article in New York Post: tinyurld.com/183*&%,” “Michael Jackson auction canceled: whocares.com”), and everything in between. For this reason, to truly analyze the question of whether Tweets are copyrightable, you must differentiate between types of tweets. There may be a lurking Tweet that is protected by copyright law, but once you finish reading, I think you’ll see the probability of that scenario as being close to or at zero.
Source: Brock Shinen, Esq. (Shinen Law Corporation)
Posted in Intellectual Property, Social Media, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Monster mashup: mapping every plane in the air
FlightAware slurps up more than 1GB a day in federal radar data in order to map, almost in realtime, every commercial flight in the US. Open source tools provide much of the site’s power, but its users provide the ingenuity.
Source: Ars Technica
Hat tip: BO
Posted in Access to Information, Geographic, Open Source Intelligence, Search News, Technology and Internet, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Arts Brochure
Over the past several years, RAND has been building a research capability in the arts to provide useful data and analysis to policymakers, arts practitioners, and the academic community. This downloadable brochure features several of these titles, with links to each of the publications on the RAND web site.
+ Full Document (PDF: 700 KB)
Source: RAND Corporation
Posted in Arts and Humanities, Papers and Presentations | No Comments »
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired
Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
“You don’t need a TV. You don’t need a radio. You don’t even need a newspaper,” says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. “But you need the Internet.”
Mr. Pitts’s experience shows how deeply computers and the Internet have permeated society. A few years ago, some people were worrying that a “digital divide” would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Posted in Access to Information, Information Seeking, Search News, Social Media, Technology and Internet, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
From the NLM Technical Bulletin:
+ Share Your Collection or Bibliography
My NCBI collections and bibliographies are now set as either “Private” (the default) or “Public.” A collection set to Public can be shared with others.
+ Create Your Own Filters
Many searchers use My NCBI Filters to group retrieval with desirable characteristics. It is now possible to customize your own filters for any of the Entrez databases.
Source: NLM
Hat Tip: P.W.
See Also: Get Ready for a New PubMed Interface, Redesign is On Its Way
Posted in Bibliographies, Webliographies, Databases, Directories, and Guides | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From the ArchivesNext Post:
The enhanced Online Career Center that will provide job seekers with free and confidential resume posting, improved job search capabilities, “job agents” that allow you to sign up for automatic email notification of new jobs that match your criteria, easy job application functionality, and the ability to save job announcements to a personal folder in your online account. Visit http://www.archivists.org/careers to view current career opportunities or to post your resume after May 29!
These services are available to everyone, not just SAA members.
Direct to Career Center
Source: ArchivesNext (via @ArchivesOpen)
Posted in Archives and Special Collections, Information Industry | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From the Web Site:
In an effort to expand access to online resources and services, and in response to technology trends in the community, the U.Va. Library has released a version of the website that is optimized for handheld, web-enabled mobile phones and devices.
The initial release targets Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, which together represent the largest traffic segment based on measurements from around the University (>50%). These visitors are automatically redirected to m.lib.virginia.edu.
A later release, slated for May 2009, will be targeted toward the broadest range of devices available from regional carriers. Examples include handsets from RIM Blackberry, Motorola, Palm, and Samsung.
U.Va. Mobile Features:
+ Automatic Device & Capability Detection
+ Full Virgo Catalog Search w/ Improved Relevancy
+ Hours & Schedule of Operation
+ Searchable Staff Directory and Department List
+ Aggregated News, Events, Exhibits, and Blogs
+ Text a Librarian Directly from your Phone
Source: Univ. of Virgina Libraries
Hat Tip: Mobile Libraries Blog
Posted in Libraries and Librarianship, Wireless Web and Search | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From a Message by Bob Tapella, Public Printer of the United States:
The U.S. Government Printing Office recorded another strong year of performance in 2008, that stands as a testament to the hardworking men and women of GPO who have worked hard to support the information and production service requirements of Congress, federal agencies, the library community and the American people.
Direct to Full Text Report (68 pages; PDF)
Direct to Summary Video (8 minutes 50 seconds)
Source: GPO
Posted in Government Documents and Political Information | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From the Web Page:
The British Library is a grateful beneficiary of the National Library of China’s ‘Window to China’ Project. Founded in 2006, the Project presents China imprint books (both Chinese language and European language texts) to national libraries and other institutions around the world.
Source: BL
Posted in Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Direct to Table of Contents
Articles Include:
+ Public Relations: What’s Your Bacon Number
+ Where Do Listservs Fit in a Social Media World?
+ Battling the Economic Bully
+ From the Ground Up: Building a Chinese vernacular legal collection to support academic research at Yale, and beyond
+ Perspective: The USA PATRIOT Act Revisited
Source: American Association of Law Libraries
Posted in Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From the Announcement:
Librarians, developers, information managers and other Web professionals who gathered Wednesday and Thursday, 13-14 May 2009 for the second ever WorldCat Mashathon have already shown off nine new applications created during the event for library users.
Held at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the WorldCat Mashathon attracted more than 40 participants from Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States who represented all types of libraries and cultural institutions. The goal of the event was twofold: one was to raise awareness of the WorldCat Search API and related Web Services freely available from OCLC and other library-related organizations. The equally important second goal was to help developers connect with fellow developers and other technology-minded thinkers to work on shared solutions to similar situations or challenges within their respective settings.
Outcomes from the two days typically included a range of mash-ups, apps and new creative ideas to implement in developers home library catalogues. Examples of successful projects included:
(more…)
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From a Summary:
Sunlight Lab’s Director Clay Johnson was a guest on the nationally-syndicated The Kojo Nnamdi Show, a program produced by National Public Radio-affiliated WAMU FM, where he joined a panel discussion on how non-profits and cities like Washington, D.C., are enlisting help from civic-minded developers to help make government data more open and usable.
Direct to Audio
Source: NPR / WAMU (via Sunlight Foundation
Posted in Government Documents and Political Information | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From the Article:
In an unprecedented effort to crack down on self-serving edits, the Wikipedia supreme court has banned contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates.
Closing out the longest-running court case in Wikiland history, the site’s Arbitration Committee voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favor of the move, which takes effect immediately.
Source: The Register
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Two new files have been added to the new Data.gov warehouse.
+ Patent Grant Bibliographic Data (2009)
Contains the bibliographic text (i.e., front page) of each patent grant issued weekly (Tuesdays) organized by Calendar Year (January through December). Excludes images/drawings.
+ DefenseLINK – Official Web Site of the U.S. Department of Defense
Direct to Defense Dept. Widgets
Source: Data.gov
Posted in Data.gov, Databases, Directories, and Guides | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
From the Article:
End users are spending less time on gathering the information they need – but their search failure rate is going up. Competitor information is their top unmet specific requirement – and certain categories of information figure so strongly in their wish list that information managers could invoke the 80/20 rule, satisfying large swathes of need by concentrating on just a few categories.
Source: VIP LiveWire
Posted in Info Management and Retrieval, Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Direct to IFLA Journal (115 pages; PDF)
Articles Include:
+ Libraries in Italy: a brief overview
+ Stimulating IFLA’s Ethical Conscience: FAIFE 2003–2009
+ Global Library Statistics
+ The School Library Development Programme in Pallisa District, Uganda: an impact study
+ Information Literacy in Students Entering Higher Education in the French Speaking Community of Belgium: lessons learned from an evaluation
+ Effective Mentoring
+ IFLA and Language Diversity
+ More
Source: International Federation of Library Associations
Posted in Libraries and Librarianship | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Direct to Research Information (June/July 2009)
Articles Include:
+ Listening to researchers is crucial to information planning
+ Open-source search tool helps clippings database
+ Study reveals e-textbook successes
+ Licences are valuable tools
+ Partners in open access
+ Publishers relax author rights agreements
+ More
Source: Research Information
Posted in Information Industry | No Comments »
