Archive for the ‘Reference Tools’ Category
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Eldercare and aging: Online information for librarians and caregivers
News of the growing elderly population can actually be viewed as good news for the academic library’s reference desk. In addition to positioning ourselves as a resource for eldercare with our teaching faculty and campus administration peers, we are also in the best position to facilitate a smooth transition of older adult students onto our campuses. The American Council on Education’s 2007 report “Framing New Terrain: Older Adults and Higher Education” suggests that older adults’ interest in “encore careers” (careers pursued and developed after retirement) will lead many of them back into higher education. Our responsibility is to ensure that we are prepared to understand and address the unique concerns of older adults that may or may not be course related.
However, the cost of lost work-related productivity due to eldercare can become economically devastating for employers. U.S. businesses lose an estimated $17.1 billion to $33.6 billion per year in lost productivity from employees with caregiving responsibilities. A large portion of this lost productivity is linked to individuals seeking eldercare information and resources during their working hours.
Some of us understand from first-hand experience how eldercare impacts our ability to perform at work. As a part of the “sandwich generation,” we share with colleagues our struggle in balancing job performance, marriages/partnerships, childcare, requirements on the tenure track, and active participation in professional associations with caring for elderly family members. On top of that, many of us are our families and friends “personal librarian” and have (or will in the future) field questions about eldercare resources. In that respect, creating this list was deeply personal.
This compilation was written and edited by Alexia Hudson, a reference and instruction librarian at the Pennsylvania State University Abington College,
Source: Association of College & Research Libraries (College & Research Library News)
Hat tip: Sloan Network
Posted in Bibliographies, Webliographies, Reference Tools, Source File | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
NOTE: The Book of Odds site is now live. Registration is free. You can access the Book of Odds database here.
From the NY Times Article:
What’s more dangerous: a playground jungle gym or your office chair? As it happens, one in every 3,759 fatal accidental falls starts from a piece of playground equipment. You’re 85 times more likely, meanwhile, to fall to your death from a chair. That’s one of the many odd pairings waiting to be discovered in The Book of Odds, an online statistical encyclopedia launching Wednesday.
[Snip]
The Book of Odds is a searchable online database of “odds statements,” the probabilities of everyday life. You can search it by keyword or by the odds themselves — for instance, how many things stand a 1 in 142 chance of happening to to you.
[Snip]
The site’s founder, Amram Shapiro, says he wants to create a reference tool for better understanding the endless stream of odds that confront us…
Much More in the Complete Article
Direct to Book of Odds Database
Source: New York Times
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, New Websites and Resources, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
From the Web Site:
Scientists are exploring the health implications of cell phone radiation. Meanwhile, buy smart. Use Environmental Working Group’s new interactive database to find wireless devices with the lowest emissions. Learn how to limit your family’s exposures
On this page, in the lower right corner, you can search for phones by name and limit by provider and/or manufacturer.
Source: Environmental Working Group
Posted in Consumer Issues, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Reference Tools, Resources, Science | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
From the Blog Post:
OpenMoko (Om), a company that previously created an open source smartphone, has just launched The WikiReader, a dedicated reader device with an offline copy of the entire English Wikipedia (without images) stored on a small chip. With two AAA batteries, the WikiReader will run for several months, as it’s been optimized for low power consumption. The device has a simple LCD touchscreen and three buttons for searching, viewing random pages, and looking up previously viewed pages.
More in the Complete Blog Post
See Also: Take a Look at the OpenMoko “Wiki Reader”
It costs $99/U.S. and you’ll also need to pay $29 for two updates per year.
Source: Wikimedia Blog
Posted in Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
CNN/Money.com is online with three new lists that might be of interest to you and potentially business researchers you work with.
1) 50 Best Places to Launch a Business 2009
+ Direct to Complete List
Click on city name to access a profile of that location.
++ Users can Narrow the list to Top Large Places, Top Midsize Places, Top Small Places, Top Metro Areas
+ Clicking the “Near You” Option Lets You Sort the List by State or Cities
+ Selecting “Find Loans” Allows You to See Where SBA 7(a) Loans are Being Made
View Lending Hot Spots ||| Cities
+ Clicking Business Climate Provides Five Options
Fastest Small Business Growth ||| Educated Workers ||| Low Crime ||| High Income ||| Growing Economy
+ Clicking Areas that Have the Highest Wages Provides
Low Wages ||| Best Tax Climate ||| Affordable Rents ||| Fewest Foreclosures
Finally, note that 2008 data is also available. Look for the drop down menu on the top right of any page.
2) Best Jobs in America 2009
Again, several lists are available along with 2008 rankings. Data is provided by PayScale.
+ Full List
Narrow by Top 50 ||| All 100 ||| Top Sectors
+ High Paying (Click on a job for a complete profile)
Sort by Median Salary ||| Top Pay
+ Job Growth
+ Quality of Life
Sort by Low Stress ||| Security ||| Flexibility ||| Future growth ||| Satisfaction ||| Benefit to Society
+ Sectors
Source: CNN/Money
Posted in Business and Economics, Lists and Rankings, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Jimmy Wales recently visited Yale University. While he was in New Haven, CT he sat down with the Yale Daily News for a Q&A interview. Here are two exchanges.
Q At the recent annual Wikimania conference, you expressed concern that Wikipedia contributors were mainly a homogenized group of “male computer geeks.”
A A majority, yes.
Q What is Wikipedia doing to try to get a more diverse group of contributors?
A We’re very global; there are people all over the world editing Wikipedia, mostly in their own home language. But there’s a certain geek culture that transcends national cultures; there’s a homogeneity in that. The main thing we’re doing is the useability project. We have a $950,000 grant from the Stanton Foundation that’s specifically targeted at finding the points in the software that are off-putting to people that aren’t computer geeks. There are lots of people that are geeks, but not computer geeks. I always give the example of a stay-at-home mom with a master’s degree. So, this is a very educated person, someone who is already on the Internet and sharing information, but probably not participating in Wikipedia, because she’s not a computer geek.***
The interview continues on to discuss the “flagged revision” policy, favorite Wikipedia pages, celebrities he’s met (and those he wants to meet), what he thinks of students spending three hours a day working on Wikipedia, and criticisms of his own page.
Much Much More In the Complete Interview
Source: Yale Daily News
*** In July, Wikipedians visited the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD to promote the project to NIH employees.
See: National Institutes of Health Refers to Wikipedians for Help
ResourceShelf, July 28, 2009
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Reference Tools, Resources, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
From the Announcement:
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation announced today that EmmyTVLegends.org, the new web portal offering free, public access to the Archive of American Television video collection, has begun integrating the text of the definitive Encyclopedia of Television authored by Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC).
[Snip]
The MBC Encyclopedia of Television includes over 1,000 original essays from more than 250 contributors and examines specific programs and people, historic moments, trends and major policy disputes related to television. The full Encyclopedia is available at Museum.tv, and relevant articles can be found on EmmyTVLegends.org alongside interview videos from the Archive of American Television.
Here’s our ResourceShelf overview post about EmmyTVLegends.org (September 17, 2009)
Access the Full Text (Free) of the Encyclopedia of TV, 1st Ed.
A second edition is also available for purchase.
Access EmmyTVLegends.org
Source: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, Museum of Broadcast Communications
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Media, New Websites and Resources, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Energy Explained
From e-mail:
Energy Explained , a new web portal launched today by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), celebrates Energy Awareness Month with the most comprehensive energy education resource available from the U.S. Government.
The site explains where gasoline comes from, what determines the price of electricity, how much renewable energy the United States uses, and hundreds of other energy topics.
“Energy touches us in many ways every day, from the electricity that lights our homes to the fuel we use in our cars,” said EIA Administrator Richard Newell. “Energy Explained uses plain language and clear graphics to help explain a sometimes complex, but vital subject.”
Energy Explained allows easy navigation between major energy topics:
- What Is Energy?
- Use of Energy
- Energy and the Environment
- Nonrenewable Energy Sources
- Renewable Energy Sources
- Secondary Energy Sources
Source: Energy Information Administration
Posted in Government Documents and Political Information, New Websites and Resources, Portals, Reference Tools, Resources for Educators, Science, Source File | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Access FoodEssentials.com
There motto is, “what are you really eating?” For an in-depth overview, visit this page.
FoodEssentials has the most comprehensive food comparison criteria available. No matter what you’re specific requirements are FoodEssentials.com has the potential to be able to help you find foods that suit those requirements. One can compare foods by specific ingredient, allergens, additives or nutrients making the FoodEssentials database the most comprehensive in existence.
Simply enter a food type, product name, company name, etc.. compare lists, and then view complete nutrients, allergens, and additives. Here’s a search for ice cream. Btw, directly below the search box you’ll find links to popular product categories.
You’ll see that the results page provides a list of ice cream categories and links to specific products. Click a product name, and your provided with a list and drop down menu with many data points to find out the nutritional make-up of the product. Here’s an example.
Access Info About:
+ Cholesterol
+ Calories
+ Fat Calories
+ Fiber
+ Protein Saturated Fat
+ Sodium
+ Sugars
+ Total Fat
Other Data Points
+ Additives by Presence
+ Allergens by Presence
+ Ingredients by Presence
Users can also build comparison lists. Instructions can be found by clicking, “My Lists.”
Don’t feel like searching? You can also browse by category. Look for the category listing located on the right side of product info pages.
FoodEssentials comes from a company based in Chicago. More about the company here. You can also learn about there fee-based products. FoodEssentials.com is a free service.
Finally, you can learn a bit more about the company and the web site by taking a look at this news release (worth reviewing).
Access FoodEssentials.com
Posted in Business and Economics, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Reference Tools, Resources, Science | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
From the Text Article:
Note: In addition to the text, this article includes a 6.5 minutes audio interview with Carl Malamund. You can listen online or download the mp3 file.
The Federal Register is now available in XML, which many analysts say will make it much easier to use.
Carl Malamund is a technologist, author, and an advocate of making public data publicly available. He runs a non-profit foundation called
On Tuesday’s Daily Debrief, he talked more about the fact that the new XML format saves the federal government money and improves the public’s access to government data.
“by making the data available in bulk, it means we’re going to get a lot of grad students and small businesses and others working with the Federal Register and all our other legal materials and making them easier to use.”
This, he added, is good for government, because it will lead to more efficiency and will get the information out to a wider audience.
Source: Federal News Radio
Hat Tip: P.W.
See Also: Federal Register User? Check Out GovPulse.us, An Award Winning App
For much of its existence the Federal Register has had no easily accessible form. govpulse seeks to change this and enable you to respond to your government. We give you a way to browse the Register (from 1994 on) and use filters to decide what is important to you. And then act on it.
See Also: For More About Carl Malamund and Some of the Resources Public.Resource.org Provides See This Post From September 29th
Posted in Access to Information, Government Documents and Political Information, Reference Tools, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Access SAGE Journals Online
The complete database and all of its content is free for the month of October.
You’ll first need to register. This link should get you started. You’ll be asked for an email address, name, and a few other data points. You will also be asked if SAGE can contact you. Select yes or no.
SAGE Journals Online contains more than 260,000 articles from more than 500 SAGE journals* with content available from 1999-current.
Quick Search and Advanced Search interfaces are available. You can also browse by journal title.
* Some of the many disciplines include:
+ Communication & Media Studies
+ Engineering & Computing
+ Geography
+ Information Science
+ Management & Organization Studies
+ Pharmacology & Toxicology
+ Politics & International Relations
+ Research Methods & Evaluation
+ Sociology
A complete list of disciplines that Sage Journals Online covers is located on the opening registration page.
Access SAGE Journals Online
Source: SAGE
Posted in Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Geographic, Information Industry, Reference Tools, Resources, Science | No Comments »
Monday, October 5th, 2009
From the Article:
NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) hopes to bring some order to the sometimes inconsistent and often confusing world of IT (information technology) acronyms and abbreviations by publishing a glossary of commonly used terms.
NIST Interagency Report (“NISTIR”) 7581 , “System and Network Security Acronyms and Abbreviations,” runs the alphabetical gamut from A (address resource record type) to ZSK (zone signing key).
“The capitalization, spelling and definitions of acronyms and abbreviations frequently vary among publications,” the report states. Some abbreviations, such as WWW, have a universally recognized meaning, while others have multiple definitions. For instance, MAC can stand for mandatory access control, Media Access Control, Medium Access Control or message authentication code. Others might contain an internal logic but can be confusing at first glance. For instance, Triple DES (Data Encryption Standard) is often abbreviated as 3DES.
Access the Full Text of the IT Glossary (32 pages; PDF)
Source: GCN
Posted in Glossaries, New Websites and Resources, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
Muckety is one cool information visualization resource that’s potentially very useful for several types of research including business and current events.
In Muckey terms they, “map relationships between people and organizations.” By the way, the maps are interactive. Look to the right of a map for an explanation.
Here are two examples of a Muckety maps. First a map for White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. And for something completely different, a Muckety map for American Idol.
We first posted about Muckety in August. The post provides a brief overview about some of what the site has to offer users.
Again, congrats to the Muckety team.
Spend some time and get to know precisely what the site provides. Becoming a “power” Muckety user is useful, interesting and dare we say, fun.
Posted in Business and Economics, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Information Industry, Reference Tools, Resources, Search News, Technology and Internet | No Comments »
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
From the Introduction:
The MLA [Modern Language Association] Language Map is intended for use by students, teachers, and anyone interested in learning about the linguistic and cultural composition of the United States. The MLA Language Map uses data from the 2000 United States census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and three groups of less commonly spoken languages in the United States. The census data are based on responses to the question, “Does this person speak a language other than English at home?” The Language Map illustrates the concentration of language speakers in zip codes and counties. The Language Map Data Center provides data from Census 2000 about over three hundred languages spoken in the United States, including actual numbers and percentages of speakers. Data from the 2005 American Community Survey about the thirty languages most commonly spoken in the United States provide a snapshot of recent changes in American language communities.
This web tool allows users to map and illustrate what languages are spoken in the United States.
Begin by selecting a language and then selecting a state. A national map is also available.
Then, select one of three data points to view on the map:
+ Percentage by County
+ Number by County
+ Number by Zip Code
Users can zoom in/out and add extra data layers (e.g. county names) to the map.
At the bottom of the map there is a numerical or alphabetical listing of all languages spoken in area you’ve selected.
The Modern Language Association also provides the MLA Language Map Data Center
Here, users will find specific numbers of language speakers by:
+ US, State, Region, or Division (Pie Chart)
+ Languages by State (Ranking)
+ Languages by County (Ranking)
Researchers can also enter a city name, Zip Code or county subdivision and get back rankings.
Finally, MLA provides a map comparison tool where users can view two maps side by side.
Like the primary mapping tool, it’s possible to choose one of three data points to view on the map:
+ Percentage by County
+ Number by County
+ Number by Zip Code
Source: Modern Language Association
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Geographic, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
This LA Times article takes a look at three people and some of the resources they have helped make available online to make the U.S. Government more transparent. We’re happy to report that most of these resources have been mentioned on ResourceShelf in the past. Here’s a quick overview with links to resources from the three “crusaders” interviewed in the article.
Who’s Profiled?
1) Carl Malamud
Resources include:
+ FedFlix (Digitized Government Video)
+ “Bulk” Access to Government Codes ||| Via Internet Archive Interface
+ EDGAR
Malamud, a pioneering insurgent, won a grant in 1993 to place the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database of corporate filings online, breaking the near-monopoly then held by the commercial Lexis/Nexis service. A few years later, he abruptly announced he was shutting down his website and invited its devoted clientele to direct their complaints to the SEC. Bowing to the inevitable, the agency made EDGAR available free of charge via www.sec.gov.
RECAP
This cuts into the courts’ PACER revenue of $10 million a year, which may be why PACER has responded with a rather prickly warning about RECAP on its site. Malamud contends, quite rightly, that “the whole point is that the courts should be available to the public. When they don’t do that to make money, they’re subverting their own purpose.”
+ Open Jurist
Our collection includes approximately 647,000 opinions from the United States Supreme Court published in the United States Reports, and from the lower federal courts, particularly the United States Courts of Appeals, as published in the First, Second and Third series of Federal Reporters.
These cases are in the public domain because of the work of Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.Org who works tirelessly to make public information truly public.
+ MANY More Resources from Carl Malamud via Public.Resource.Org
2) Ellen Miller (Co-founder and Executive Director of the Washington-Based Sunlight Foundation)
Miller maintains, perhaps wishfully, that “the genie is out of the bottle.” “There’s a cultural change taking place,” she told me. “It will be very difficult to stop putting information on the Web. Transparency online for government is an idea whose time has come, and it will not go away lightly. It’s hard to make an argument against it.”
Resources Include:
+ Apps for America 2 Winners List (including DataMasher)
+ Apps for America 2 Finalists List
+ Apps for America 1 Winners List
Much More After the Jump
(more…)
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Government Documents and Political Information, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
Access the Full Text Document (1 page; PDF)
The document includes statistics (text and charts) about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. They include:
+ According to comScore, Wikipedia is the fourth most popular web property, world-wide. In June, it served 327 million unique visitors.
+ Wikipedia is available in 266 languages.
+ It is continually expanded by approximately 100,000 active volunteer editors world-wide.
+ The English version alone contains more than 2.9 million articles.
+ Much More
Source: Wikimedia Foundation
Posted in Reference Tools, Social Media, Statistics | No Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
From the Web Site:
Leadership Political Action Committees are the second-largest source of political money for sitting members of Congress. But there are few rules on how the money can be spent, effectively allowing lobbyists and other donors a back door to fund a politician’s personal expenditures, including resort and travel bills. Our analysis shows that in the 2008 campaign cycle, less than half of the $112 million leadership PAC money was spent on its intended purpose of funding campaigns. More Here.
Access the Complete Database
[The] database includes every expenditure made by the 400+ leadership PACS and shows who received the money. See our methodology here.
+ Browse the Database by All ||| Democratic |||| Republican
+ Browse the Database by Payees: By Total ||| By Name
+ Search by LPAC or Politician’s Name
Source: Pro Publica
See Also: Top 20 Leadership PACs, by Entertainment, Events, and Travel Spending (via Pro Publica)
Posted in Databases, Directories, and Guides, Government Documents and Political Information, Reference Tools, Resources | No Comments »
