What the librarian saw
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008Yesterday’s Welt Online has a chilling story about the efforts of Berlin’s Central and Regional library headquarters to return books stolen by Nazis.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Yesterday’s Welt Online has a chilling story about the efforts of Berlin’s Central and Regional library headquarters to return books stolen by Nazis.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
A 74-year-old man convicted of stealing thousands of rare books and documents from libraries across the West was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison.
Source: AP
The Internet Movie Database, a popular online guide of film and TV minutiae, is adding free movies and television episodes to its offerings in the United States.
U.S. visitors to site can now watch complete episodes of new (30 Rock, Heroes and 24) and defunct shows (I Dream of Jeannie, Charlie’s Angels and Star Trek) on the site at no charge.
Featured movies will range from classic (Some Like It Hot, Fiddler on the Roof) to contemporary (Fever Pitch, Master and Commander).
Because of licensing issues, however, the service is only available in the U.S. According to site operators, more than 57 million people from around the world visit the IMDb.com each month
Source: CBC
In his latest review for Gale.com, Dr. Jacso reviews the new web engine Cuil. From the review:
“Much ado about nothing” is the best way to describe the pathetic debut of the new search engine that claims to be three times as large as Google and implies it is much smarter than any other search engine because it ranks pages based on their content and relevance, rather than on “superficial popularity metrics”. Even more than a week after the launch, its results are puny compared to Google (and Yahoo) and widely irreproducible. Cuil’s software capabilities and the results produced could make good jokes for the Late Night Show. Much more modesty, much less Silicon Valley bubble talk and substantial testing prior to the launch could have spared this fiasco for the company, and the wasted time for the millions who tried the service.
Source: Cuil
Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D., Director of The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced today that 15 Native American tribal communities and Alaska Native villages will receive $1,894,281 in Native American Library Services Enhancement grants, and that Alu Like, Inc. is the recipient of the Native Hawaiian Library Services grant totaling $510,500. Click here to see a full list of Enhancement grant recipients.
Source: IMLS
Tributes.com, a new Web site, hopes to bring the social networking and archival features
of sites like classmates.com to obituaries.
Source: NY Times
From the article:
Congress is considering a bill that would bar children who use computers in public libraries from accessing Facebook and other social networking Web sites without parental permission.
Source: Gannett News Service
It’s been one year since the Papers Past website relaunched with new content and better search options. Response to the site has been fantastic, and now we’re announcing further content to be added in the next 12 months
Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1920 and includes publications from all regions of New Zealand.
Source: National Library of New Zealand
Version 5.0 searches 200 million pages - the amount of authoritative information quadruples!
Science.gov 5.0 provides more science for your query through increased content and new features.
Science.gov 5.0 introduces:
* Seven additional deep web databases
* Clustering – your results are grouped by subtopics or dates to help you find just the science information you need
* Updated Alerts serviceScience.gov 5.0 enables you to:
* Email selected results to friends and colleagues
* Download result records into personal research files or citation software
* Get the latest Wikipedia info on your search terms
* Read the latest Eureka News related to your search terms
A celebration of the end of the Libraries for All initiative marked the beginning of the library passport, a book that allows patrons to get a unique stamp from each of Seattle’s 27 libraries.
Source: Seattle Times
As previously announced, new resources are being added to the PubMed search results page (Summary display). Drug Sensor was the first (see Drug Sensor Added to PubMed® Results Page) and more will be coming. These resources are being introduced on an experimental basis. They may be made available to a small percentage of users so as to gauge their effectiveness, and may even be presented in different ways in order to see if one format is better than another. Based on what we learn we will decide how soon to enable a feature for all users, whether to try a different format, or even to go back to the drawing board.
The following features, based on the search query, may be encountered in PubMed in the upcoming weeks:
* Also Try - Searches done by other users on the same topic for you to try.
* More PubMed Articles - Other articles that, based on your search terms, may be of interest.
* Recent Activity - A display of your recent PubMed searches and AbstractPlus views, PubMed Central® searches and Full Text views, Gene database searches and Full Report views.
From the article:
Public library users in the United Kingdom now have access to reference librarians 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Enquire, an online reference service for 86 public libraries, recently became a member of the OCLC 24/7 Reference Cooperative, joining 1,400 other libraries around the world that work together to deliver reference assistance to researchers anytime, anywhere.
Source: OCLC Abstracts
The July issue (4.2) of the NLS (National Library Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped) Flash is online.