Archive for the ‘Source File’ Category

ARL — E-Science Survey Preliminary Results and Resources Released

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

E-Science Survey Preliminary Results and Resources Released

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) E-Science Working Group surveyed ARL member libraries in the fall of 2009 to gather data on the state of engagement with e-science issues. An overview of initial survey findings was presented by E-Science Working Group Chair Wendy Lougee, University Librarian, McKnight Presidential Professor, University of Minnesota Libraries, at the October ARL Membership Meeting. Lougee’s briefing explored contrasting approaches among research institutions, particularly in regard to data management. The briefing also summarized survey findings on topics such as library services, organizational structures, staffing patterns and staff development, and involvement in research grants, along with perspectives on pressure points for service development. To better explicate the findings, Lougee reviewed specific cases of activities at six research institutions.

Audio of the briefing along with slides and a handout are available as part of the Proceedings of the 155th ARL Membership Meeting (see http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/mmproceedings/155mm-proceedings/index.shtml#esci).

ARL has also compiled a set of resources provided by survey respondents. Examples of a range of campus and library documents, tools advancing e-science support, needs assessments, and position descriptions, among other items, are listed on ARL’s Web site at http://www.arl.org/rtl/eresearch/escien/esciensurvey/index.shtml.

Source: Association of Research Libraries

Data Visualization: Interactively Track the Avian Flu Around the World Using Google Earth

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

From the Announcement:

New methods of studying avian influenza strains and visually mapping their movement around the world will help scientists more quickly learn the behavior of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus, Ohio State University researchers say.

The researchers linked many powerful computer systems together to analyze enormous amounts of genetic data collected from all publicly available isolated strains of the H5N1 virus – the cause of avian flu. They then developed a new Web-based application that will allow health officials and the public visualize how the virus moved across the globe using Google Earth.

The resulting visualizations, based on results of the data analysis, represent the most comprehensive map to date of how avian flu has been transmitted among sites in Asia, Africa and Europe.

[Snip]

“We are taking into account more data but at the same time, we’re making simpler visualizations, allowing users to choose what they want to see,” said Daniel Janies, associate professor of biomedical informatics at Ohio State and senior author of the study.

The visualizations and application are available online at “We are taking into account more data but at the same time, we’re making simpler visualizations, allowing users to choose what they want to see,” said Daniel Janies, associate professor of biomedical informatics at Ohio State and senior author of the study.

“We’ve created an environment where people can avail themselves of flu information specific to their region of the world or their area of interest. We waded through all of the complexities so people in the public health realm who want to determine how a flu virus got from point A to point B can find that out, and we’ll have better public health outcomes as a result.”

The visualizations and application are available online at http://routemap.osu.edu.

Source: Ohio State University

New Current Awareness Resource: Keyword Search Metadata and Abstracts From More than 4500 Tech Journals

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Here are three current awareness services out of the UK. They are all free. One debuted yesterday while the others have been online for some time. These are the types of services that libraries and individuals used to have to pay for. No more.

The new service that debuted yesterday from techXtra Here’s the lowdown.

Name: TechJournalContents

Keyword search more than 4500 scholarly technology journals to find new/recent content. You can also save your searches as RSS feeds and use an aggregator, place the feeds on web pages, etc. to monitor for new articles on your search terms.

About 400 of the journals are open access and the content is available for free. Most articles offer direct links to full text but you’ll need a personal or institutional subscriptions to access the material.

From the Announcement:

TechJournalContents ingests Tables of Contents RSS feeds provided by numerous journal publishers such as Springer, Emerald, Inderscience, Wiley Interscience, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, Sage, AIP, IMechE, etc,

See Also: JournalTOCs

Search the latest Table of Contents (TOCs) of 12,535 journals collected from 422 publishers. More journals are added continuously.You can start by searching for TOCs by journal title or by keywords (searching 336,025 TOC articles). You also can browse TOCs by publisher or by subject. Then, if you click on a journal title, the latest Table of Contents will be displayed. Free

Developers might also be interested to learn that an API is available.

See Also ticTOCs (Tables of Content Service)

+ Find 12,715 scholarly journal Table of Contents (TOCs) from 448 publishers.
+ View the latest TOC for each journal.
+ Link to the full text of 410,197 articles (where institutional or personal subscription allows).
+ Export TOC feeds to popular feedreaders.

Sources:

1) TechXtra (Institute for Computer Based Learning, Heriot-Watt University, Roddy MacLeaod

2) Institute for Computer Based Learning, Heriot-Watt University

3) ticTOCs Consortium consists of: the University of Liverpool Library (lead), Heriot-Watt University, CrossRef, ProQuest, Emerald, RefWorks, MIMAS, Cranfield University, Institute of Physics, SAGE Publishers, Inderscience Publishers, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Open J-Gate, and Intute.

Government 2.0: New Book Details Challenges of Web 2.0 Usage Across the Globe

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

An Audio Report is Also Available at the Top of the Web Page.

From the Article

Starting Wednesday in Sweden, the European Union is holding a conference of ministers of technology from across Europe that will be looking at lessons learned throughout the EU.

In conjunction with that, a new book is out: State of the eUnion: Government 2.0 and Onwards. It’s available online for free, and will eventually come to a store near you.

It pulls from some of the Web 2.0 thought leaders, many of whom you have heard here on Federal News Radio, including Tim O’Reilly, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, and Mark Drapeau from George Washington University.

Source: Federal News Radio
Hat Tip: Pete W.

Access the Full Text Book: State of the eUnion: Government 2.0 and Onwards (321 pages; PDF)

Paper — Deep Secrecy (Government Secrecy)

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Deep Secrecy

This Article offers a new way of thinking and talking about government secrecy. In the vast literature on the topic, little attention has been paid to the structure of government secrets, as distinct from their substance or function. Yet these secrets differ systematically depending on how many people know of their existence, what sorts of people know, how much they know, and how soon they know. When a small group of similarly situated officials conceals from outsiders the fact that it is concealing something, the result is a deep secret. When members of the general public understand they are being denied particular items of information, the result is a shallow secret. Every act of state secrecy can be located on a continuum ranging between these two poles.

Attending to the depth of state secrets, the Article shows, can make a variety of conceptual and practical contributions to the debate on their usage. The deep/shallow distinction provides a vocabulary and an analytic framework with which to describe, assess, and compare secrets, without having to judge what they conceal. It sheds light on how secrecy is employed and experienced, which types are likely to do the most damage, and where to focus reform efforts. And it gives more rigorous content to criticisms of Bush administration practices. Elaborating these claims, the Article also mines new constitutional territory – providing an original account of the role of state secrecy generally, as well as deep secrecy specifically, in our constitutional order.

Several options available for retrieval of full text.

Source: Stanford Law Review, Forthcoming (David Pozen)

Hat tip: Secrecy News

FDA and Everyday Health Collaborate to Expand Reach of Consumer Health Information

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

FDA and Everyday Health Collaborate to Expand Reach of Consumer Health Information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Everyday Health today announced a collaboration that will expand the delivery of the agency’s vital consumer health information to the 30 million unique users who visit Everyday Health each month. This joint effort reflects FDA’s emphasis on using innovative, technology-based strategies to carry out its mission of protecting and promoting the public health.

The partnership will initially include:

  • A new online resource at www.EverydayHealth.com/FDA: The new co-branded Web site will feature a variety of health content from FDA. The latest information on food and medical product safety as well as prevention and wellness topics will be featured. In the event of breaking public health information, Everyday Health will also feature special “FDA Alert” modules in select locations throughout the site and network, and in e-mail newsletters.
  • A new FDA/Everyday Health co-branded weekly newsletter: The latest FDA consumer health information will be sent to subscribers in a weekly Everyday Health newsletter (www.EverydayHealth.com/FDA). The FDA/Everyday Health newsletter will contain “FDA Alerts” as well as up-to-date information on drug safety, cosmetics and skin care products and children’s health products, to name a few.

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Find Similar Images with GazoPa (Beta)

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Here’s a beta image search engine named GazoPa.

It allows the user to upload an image, enter an image URL, draw a picture (cool!), or keyword search a database of the GazoPa database and then find SIMILAR images based on the image that was upload or keyword search. You can also combine an image (what they call a “key image”) with keyword(s). A Firefox addon, a bookmarklet, and an iPhone app are also available. GazoPa is not exactly new (their blog goes back to September, 2008) but it’s new to us. So, why not share. Their colorful logo might remind some of other search engines with colorful logos. (-:

The home page also claims the database is large, more that 60 million images. We need to confirm this but the way we read the final page of the FAQ is that the 60 million images were crawled by GazoPa. They also have a page for webmasters about their crawler, GazoPabot. In other words, they’re not buying their image collection by stringing together other image databases they’ve been given access to for free or a fee.

Results pages offer four types of results:

+ Images
+ Videos (it appears that most of the results come from YouTube)
+ News Images (it appears to be a GazoPa crawl)
+ Flickr (Is the Flickr database included in the 60 million images total?)

Worth mentioning, GozaPa is a venture project of the Hitachi Corporation (note the copyright info at the bottom of the home page).

So, go forward and demo. We’ll do the same and report back in a week or so.

See Also: GazoPa Blog

See Also: GazoPa Twitter Feed

See Also: A little over a week ago we posted about a reverse image search named Tin Eye. tool has users upload an image and then the Tin Eye technology goes out on the web to see if others are using your content.

NASA — New Education Robotics Site

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

NASA Education Robotics Web Site

Innovation, creativity, problem solving — the world of robotics at NASA is all of these things. Spend some time on this site to see if robotics might be in your future.

Things you can do on this site:
–Answer the question: What Is Robotics?
–Practice your programming skills with the interactive robotic activity.
–Watch and download video and multimedia features about robotics.
–Follow a timeline tracing the history of robotics.
–Check out lesson plans for your classroom.
–Stay up-to-date with information about NASA-supported robotics competitions.
–Visit the Robotics Image Gallery.
–Explore other worlds with NASA through robotic spacecraft discoveries.
–Read about scientists and engineers who design and test robots.
–Browse NASA Web sites for information about robotics.

Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Australia: Historic Newspaper Digitisation: Early Editions of Sydney Morning Herald Now Available Online; What is Trove?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

From an e-Mail:

The National Library’s Australian Newspapers service has recently made available https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=1rjv366gqucji&shva=1#inbox/1250a7f37fa96144early editions of The Sydney Morning Herald.

The digitisation of The Sydney Morning Herald was made possible by a $1 million contribution from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation. Eventually, all out-of-copyright editions of the Herald will be available, from its inception in 1831 to 1954.

It is now just over a year since Australian Newspapers was released to the public and there are 8.5 million articles available from 33 newspaper titles. A community of volunteer ‘text correctors’ has now corrected 7 million lines of the electronically translated text in 318 000 articles, enabling more accurate search results.

Access the Collection (via Trove)

Btw, what is Trove?

“one search…a wealth of information”

Trove is our new free online service that gathers information about Australia and Australians in a single search.

Discover:
+ Digitised Australian newspapers, 1803 – 1954
+ Books, magazines and articles
+ Pictures and photographs
+ Music, oral histories and videos
+ Maps
+ Archived websites
+ Biographical information

Source: National Library of Australia

Consumer Electronics: Five Technology Trends to Watch – 2010

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

5 Technology Trends to Watch – 2010 (PDF; 2.1 MB)

Welcome to the latest edition of Five Technology Trends to Watch. This annual Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) publication looks at the new technologies that will shape our future. I remain optimistic despite the challenges to the economy. The consumer technology industry continues to show promise with sales expected to reach $172 billion for 2009.

This year we look at the evolution of content, connected devices in the home, TV beyond HD, connected cars and the smart grid. The publication also takes a peek at the future of CE. For example, IBM is working to develop artificial DNA nanostructures as a framework to build the tiny microchips used in electronics devices. Although still many years out, this work could one day impact how we build, operate and interact with electronics. Learn also about advances in a holographic storage material capable of storing 500GB of data on a DVD-sized optical disc – ten times the amount that can be stored on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc. It’s not here yet but discs of this size could one day store 3D video.

Source: Consumer Electronics Association

Hat tip: AT

UK: Ordanance Survey Map Data Will Be Available Online (Free) in 2010

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

From the Story:

Ordnance Survey map data will be freely available online to everybody from 2010, the Government has announced.

The move will allow people to interpret public statistics about crime, health and education by postcode, local authority or electoral boundary.

[Snip]

Opening it up is key to the success of government plans to free its data via data.gov.uk, say the site’s creators.

“Making all that data available doesn’t make much sense without the geography to tie it all together,” Professor Nigel Shadbolt, one of two Information Advisers to the government, told BBC News.

The other adviser is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web. He and Prof Shadbolt have been tasked with guiding the Making Public Data Public project.

Source: BBC

Reading E-Books on Your Smartphone

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

From the Article:

Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets — bringing a whole new meaning to “phone book.” And they like that they can save the $250 to $350 that they would otherwise spend on yet another gadget.

[Snip]

All of that activity raises a question: Does the future of book reading lie in dedicated devices like the Kindle, or in more versatile gadgets like mobile phones? So far, e-book software for phones does not appear to have cut into demand for single-function e-readers. According to the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, about 1.7 million people now own one, and that number could rise to four million by the end of the holiday season.

Source: New York Times

Note from Gary: I have a Kindle (first generation) but do most of my eBook reading using the Kindle for iPhone app. Yes, the screen is smaller but I want to be able to read in low light (before bedtime) and the Kindle doesn’t cut it. Attaching a booklight cover to the Kindle cover is possible. I’ve tried it and Amazon suggests it. But, IMHO it doesn’t solve the problem. For me, the light causes a glare that makes reading not very enjoyable. The Kindle for iPhone app lets you move around the eBook very quickly, offers the same note and highlighting features as the Kindle device does, turning pages is a breeze, and allows you to change the background color and the color of the text.

Collection of FDR Papers Soon to Become Public

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

From the Article:

The last great archives of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency may soon be available to researchers and the public – 14 boxes of handwritten notes, gifts and correspondence, including a letter from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini congratulating him on his 1933 inauguration.

The House on Monday approved a bill to clear the way for the memorabilia to be donated to Roosevelt’s presidential library and museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

While the House bill is identical to legislation the Senate passed in October, it will still have to return to the Senate for one more vote before it goes to the president

Read and Track the Legislation
House Bill ||| Senate Bill
Source: GovTrack.us

Source: Washington Post

Nobel Prize-winning scientists urge Congress to act to ensure free online access to federally funded research results

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Nobel Prize-winning scientists urge Congress to act to ensure free online access to federally funded research results

“For America to obtain an optimal return on our investment in science, publicly funded research must be shared as broadly as possible,” is the message that forty one Nobel Prize-winning scientists in medicine, physics, and chemistry gave to Congress in an open letter delivered yesterday. The letter marks the fourth time in five years that leading scientists have called on Congress to ensure free, timely access to the results of federally funded research – this time asking leaders to support the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 (S.1373).

The bi-partisan Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), introduced by Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Cornyn (R-TX), would deliver online public access to the published results of research funded through eleven U.S. agencies and departments, requiring that peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from publicly funded research be made available in an online repository no later than six months after publication.

+ An Open Letter to the U.S. Congress Signed by 41 Nobel Prize Winners (November 2009)

Source: Alliance for Taxpayer Access

National Archives Joins Interagency Group for Online Reservations

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

National Archives Joins Interagency Group for Online Reservations

The National Archives has joined the National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS), a Federal interagency reservation service, provided under contract by the U.S. Forest Service. Participating in the NRRS online reservation service, www.Recreation.gov, will make it easier for individuals, families, and large groups alike to visit the National Archives. By simply going online, visitors can now reserve their choice of dates and times in a matter of minutes. While reservations are not required to visit the National Archives, this new service will offer another option for those who wish to plan ahead and beat the crowds.

Source: NARA

Two New Lists: 100 Free Audio Books and 100 Useful eBook Resources

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

+ 100 Useful Links for eBook Lovers

+ Free Audio Books You Should Have Read By Now

Source: OnlineCourses.org; OnlineDegrees.org

Secretary Napolitano Unveils New Veterans Website Designed to Highlight Veteran Employment and Contracting Opportunities

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Secretary Napolitano Unveils New Veterans Website Designed to Highlight Veteran Employment and Contracting Opportunities

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today unveiled a new website designed to provide a one-stop location for veterans and veterans organizations to learn about DHS’ many veteran outreach initiatives and hiring and contracting opportunities.

“This new website reflects the shared commitment across the Department to hiring American veterans,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Veterans play a vital role in the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to protect the nation, and this website will help us build our veteran workforce to more than 50,000 Department-wide by 2012.”

The new website, available at www.dhs.gov/veterans, features information for veterans about how to find employment opportunities at DHS, ways to get involved in community-based efforts like Citizen Corps, and special veteran programs such as Operation Warfighter and Wounded Warrior, which provide employment opportunities for severely wounded or recovering service members to assist their transition back to the military or civilian workforce.

New Features and a New Look for Google Translate

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Access Google Translate

From the Blog Post:

+ Google Translate offers 51 languages, representing over 98% of Internet users today.

+ Can Translate 2550 Language Pairs

+ New Layout

+ Google Translate now translates your text right as you type. (Cool!)

Want to say “Today is a good day” in Chinese, but can’t read Han characters? Click “Show romanization” to read the text written phonetically in English. Right now, this works for all non-Roman languages except for Hebrew, Arabic and Persian.

+ New input transliteration feature for Arabic, Persian or Hindi.

+ Text -to-Speech: When translating into English, you can now also hear translations in spoken form by clicking the Speaker Icon. (Something that those in the ESL world might find useful.

+ Here’s an Overview Video

Access Google Translate

Source: Google Blog
Hat Tip: Library Stuff

Another Database of Asked and Answered Questions from the Library of Congress

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Yesterday we mentioned to searchable databases, one from the U.S. Census and the other from USA.gov with thousands of asked an answered questions about the federal government and the U.S. Census. Excellent ready reference tools to know about.

Today, another database of asked and answered questions This time it’s a Library of Congress resource.

The site is both browsable and searchable.

It’s name: Everyday Mysteries: Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress.

The home page allows you to browse all of the questions or search with keywords.

+ Agriculture
+ Astronomy
+ Biology & Human Anatomy
+ Botany
+ Chemistry
+ Geography, Anthropology, Recreation
+ Home Economics
+ Meteorology, Climatology
+ Motor Vehicles, Aeronautics, Astronautics
+ Physics
+ Technology, General
+ Zoology

Both answers and the service itself come from Science Reference Services at LC.

Here’s a quick sample of five asked and answered questions from the collection. A link on the home page allows users to submit questions.

1) Does your heart stop when you sneeze?
2) How did the grapefruit get its name? It doesn’t look like a grape.
3) What is “freezer burn?”
4) Is it true that no two snow crystals are alike?
5) Who invented the TV dinner?

This is a great resource for the reference desk as well as for school media specialists and teachers.

Three Quarters of Adults are Reading Newspapers, in Print or Online

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Three Quarters of Adults are Reading Newspapers, in Print or Online (PDF; 144 KB)

Three-quarters (74%) of U.S. adults, or nearly 171 million people, read a newspaper — in print or online — during the past week. This is according to the latest Integrated Newspaper Audience (INA)* finding from Scarborough Research, the audience ratings measurement service for the newspaper industry. The company examined newspaper readership in its recently released Scarborough USA+ Study, which captures media patterns and other consumer behaviors of adults across the country. The data analysis indicates that newspapers are still read in print or online by a critical mass of adults in the U.S. on a daily and weekly basis.

The analysis of Scarborough audience data not only indicated that newspapers are being read by a majority of adults in print and online, but also that these Integrated Newspaper Audiences continue to attract educated, affluent readers. In an average week:

  • 79% of adults employed in white collar positions read a newspaper in print or online
  • 82% of adults with household incomes of $100,000 or more read a printed newspaper in print or online
  • 84% of adults who are college graduates or who have advanced degrees read a printed newspaper in print or online

Source: Scarborough Research (via Nielsen)

See also: News for Sale: Charges for Online News Are Set to Become the Norm as Most Consumers Say They Are Willing to Pay, According to The Boston Consulting Group