From a BBC Summary of the Interview:

Speaking on the BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme, Mr Wales outlined the next step for the online encyclopaedia.

[Snip]

He says his challenge is to encourage thousands more to contribute in their own languages.

“In the languages of India, we’re seeing 10% monthly growth, which is really exciting but they’re still quite small.

“In Africa, we have very few languages that have any substantial size at all – Swahili is around 10,000 entries now. But that’s quite tiny compared to what we think of as a really successful project with 200,000 entries.”

[Snip]

“We’re not hearing from everybody. We hear very unevenly from places around the world. I think that’s going to start to even out, and we’re going to start getting cultural influences from places we know almost nothing about today.

[Snip]

Meanwhile, in the developed world, Wikipedia has other hurdles to jump. The site has been heavily censored in China – at times being completely unavailable. Recently, however, the Chinese authorities have loosened controls.

“We were completely banned in China for three years,” recalled Mr Wales.

“Now we are available in China, with the exception of a few pages – certain sensitive topics in China. Certain questions about the status of Taiwan are quite delicate – those things tend to be filtered.

Source: BBC World Service

His presentation is now available online and is titled, “It Is About Time: Getting Our Values Around Copyright Right.” It begins about 26 minutes into the video stream after EDUCAUSE presents several awards.

In this talk, Lawrence Lessig will review the progress of the “open access” movement in education. He will make a call for educators to finally resolve this issue in a way that enables the potential of technology for education.

You can watch the presentation and see Lessig’s slides here.

Source: EDUCAUSE

From the Blog Post

In 2010 Alexander Street’s entire music portfolio will be accessible on iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices. Subscribers will be able to stream music and video, access scores, search and navigate full-text reference content, and even access and edit personal playlists.

Alexander Street’s iPhone and iPod Touch application will be completely free. Updating your playlists or listening to an assigned recording will literally be just a touch away. And thanks to newly developed streaming technology, you’ll do it all without buffering.

Alexander Street Offers Several Music Databases including:

+ Music Online
Music Online provides a cross-database search of all Alexander St. Press music databases including those listed below. From the Music Online documentation we learn that Alexander Street Press offers more than 200,000 audio tracks that will soon be iPhone/iTouch ready.

+ Contemporary World Music

…listen to 50,000 tracks of reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres.

+ Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries

40,000 individual tracks of music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds.

+ Jazz Music Library

+ Classical Music Library

+ American Song

Source: Word on the Street (Alexander Street. Weblog)
Hat Tips: Peter Scott and Gerry M.

Web content changes all the time. If we don’t save that content before it disappears, a major part of our cultural history will be lost.

The Library of Congress is working to provide permanent access to web content of historical importance. It selects websites for collection, requests permissions from the website owners, addresses the technology of collecting websites and preserves the websites and makes them available.

This video examines those four challenges.

Access the Video (embedded here)

A text transcript is also available (PDF)

Source: National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program

All 22 Color Guides can be Accessed Here as PDF Files

The Subjects

+ Advertising Industry Guide [pdf 144KB]

+ Alcoholic Drinks Industry Guide [pdf 95KB]

+ Book Industry Guide [pdf 74KB]

+ Childrenswear Industry Guide [pdf 218KB]

+ Confectionery Industry Guide [pdf 165KB]

+ Construction Industry Guide [pdf 161KB]

+ Fashion Industry Guide [99.4KB]

+ Fast Food & Snacks Industry Guide [pdf 251KB]

+ Frozen, Chilled & Ready Made Foods Industry Guide [pdf 171KB]

+ Furniture Industry Guide [pdf 211KB]

+ Giftware Industry Guide [pdf 76KB]

+ Green and Ethical Business Opportunities [pdf 97KB]

+ Insurance Industry Guide [pdf 245KB]

+ Jewellery Industry Guide [pdf 109KB]

+ Organic Food Industry Guide [pdf 125KB]

+ Packaging Industry Guide [94.88KB]

+ Pharmacy Industry Guide [pdf 119KB]

+ Sports Industry Guide [pdf 203KB]

+ Toiletries and Cosmetics Industry Guide [98.16KB]

+ Toy and Game Industry Guide [pdf 133KB]

+ Travel & Tourism Industry Guide [pdf 83KB]

+ TV and Film Industry Guide [123.76KB]

Access Business and IP Centre Research Guides

Source: Business and IP Centre, British Library

…we’ve noticed that many of you are often wondering when new episodes will be available. After a lot of work with our content providers, our product and design team, and our content team, we decided to create a page that contains a schedule of what’s to come for the week ahead.

Access the “Coming Soon” Page

Along with the schedule, there are a few new features that will help you manage your Hulu viewing. If you’re a registered user, you can request an email notification to alert you when a particular video has been added to Hulu.com. We’ll also alert you on the rare occasion when that video is late in getting up on Hulu.com. For bloggers and editors, you can also grab the code to pre-embed the video to your blog. (An example is pasted below.) We will swap in the video as soon as it’s available on our site, so you’re free to post your article on your own schedule.

Source: Hulu Blog

Elsevier [has] announced it is partnering with several universities from around the globe to launch Scholarly Perspectives 2009, a webinar series for librarians and researchers. Senior researchers and librarians from the University of Aberdeen, Princeton University and HKU (The University of Hong Kong) will discuss best practices and share case studies on a range of topics including the strategies and tools needed to support multidisciplinary research as well as the role of Ebooks, among others.

Each live, 65-minute webcast in the Scholarly Perspectives 2009 series will focus on a key issue impacting today’s academic libraries and feature both a senior librarian and researcher from the hosting university as well as an Elsevier representative. A brief question and answer session will close each event.

Webinar #1: Research Without Borders: Interdisciplinary Research” – Hosted by the University of Aberdeen, took place today. We will try to find out if an archive is available.

Webinar #2: “A Life Science Lens: Connecting to Relevant Sources” – Hosted by Princeton University November 20th, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EST.

Topics scheduled:

+ Researcher case study: Framing the information retrieval challenge for the life scientist

+ “How can library services and expertise help address the Life scientist’s information retrieval challenge?”

+ “Using smart technology to accelerate life science research”

Webinar #3: “Enriching Research and Teaching Through Ebook Content” – Hosted by Hong Kong University, November 30th, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. GMT

Topics scheduled:

+ Understanding the role of Ebooks in the research workflow”

+ Hong Kong University: Lessons learned from building the world’s largest Ebook collection”

+ “Course case study: A primer on building Ebooks into a course reading list”

Registration

If you are interested in registering for any one of webinars in the Scholarly Perspectives 2009 series or for more information, please contact Jessica Disch at jdisch@psbpr.com or +1-212-752-8338.

Source: Elsevier

Access the Video via Ustream

Source: Info Today (via Ustream)

WatchKnow – which launched Monday…is an Internet search engine that links teachers, students and parents to thousands of free educational videos and slide shows.

The idea of developing an educational video online search engine or “video encyclopedia” started in 2007 with a Lakeland philanthropist, who wishes to remain anonymous, and members of the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, along with its president, Tom Pittman. Foundation leaders later enlisted the help of Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger.

An early version of the site was launched in 2008. This year, with the help of area teachers and librarians, more than 10,000 videos [officially 11,189 videos as we write this post} were posted to the newly redesigned Web site.

[Snip]

The videos, Sanger said, can be an invaluable teaching tool.

“We have videos that can spark the interest of a child when a book cannot,” Sanger said. “Children who would never read about a topic might, at least, watch a video about it.”

[Snip]

Sanger added the goal is to have more than 100,000 posted videos in the next few years. If WatchKnow is successful, Sanger said he may help develop a similar site aimed at college-age students.

Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Access WatchKnow

See Also: Learn More About WatchKnow.org
This page contains info about:
+ Project History
+ Advisory Committee
+ Media Review Panel
+ Partners
+ Sources

Searching WatchKnow is fairly robust once you get the hang of it. First, select the age range (3-18) using the age filter. Then, enter search term(s). Click search. Next, review results by category. The number of videos in the top-level categories are shown and change depending on the age range selected.

Now, click the + (plus sign in green) which reveals the first level of subcategories (the number of videos listed are also dynamic based on the search) and make your selections. Again, click the + (plus sign) to move down one more level. Keep doing this until you get to the desired sub-category.

Btw, it’s also possible to browse the entire database by selecting an age range (3-18 for everything), by leaving the search box blank and then clicking search.

For example, here are 10 videos about Pearl Harbor.

We found them by working our way through the following categories (we left the search box empty):
+ History
+ World War II
+ World War II Pacific Theatre
+ Pearl Harbor

WatchKnow requires very little “keyword” searching and more browsing through the different facets/categories. Yet another example of the power of faceted searching!

There is also a WatchKnow email discussion list and a change log that shows videos being deleted, title changes, having the description changed/modified, etc. We wish more sites offered this feature. Finally, some of you might want to consider joining the site. It’s free. Three types of accounts are available: simple, confirmed, and contest. More about these accounts here.

See Also: Larry Sanger is also the Founder of Citizendium.The FAQ does a good job how Citizendium and Wikipedia differ. More on the topic here.

Here’s an 11 minutes webcast where Doctorow chats with Jaap van de Geer about several topics including:

Copyright in the age of the Internet

What publishers are scared of

The future of publishers and libraries

A few quotes from Cory:

+ “Libraries need to get better embracing the wild and woolly nature of the Internet.”
+ “Explain to patrons how to be media literate about Wikipedia.”
+ “Wikipedia has lots of value if you know how to extract that value.”

eBooks

More Quotes from Cory:

+ “eBooks right now are very good for is they are very complementary to print books because they are searchable, because they’re portable, because they are good for reference where a print book is better for a long for reading experience.”
+ “Libraries need to watch out for a means of delivering DRM into their collections.”
+ “One thing I would love to see more libraries doing is having local copies of public domain works and Creative Commons works in their collections that can be freely lent and having that be the core of their eBook collection and having that be the standard by which all commercial eBook offerings are judged.”
+ “Inter-library loan is a wonderful thing.”

The ownership of a book (vs, records and movies)

Author recognition of copyright issues

Librarians

Final Quote from Cory

+ “The reason librarians want to make works available is because they are bonded to the holy goal of universal access to all human knowledge not because they have some little self interest. This is approximately true of most the people who work in publishing too.

Source: CrapHound.com

See Also: Congratulations to Cory for being named by the UTNE Reader as one of “50 Visionaries Who are Changing Our World.”

A figurehead for “copyfighters” everywhere, he’s on a crusade against a corporate monopoly on patent law. Doctorow thinks replication feeds a culture of creativity and might even be programmed into our DNA; it should be encouraged, not criminalized.

The entry is loaded with links to help you get to know (if you don’t already) Cory and and his work.

+ Tracy Mitrano
Director of IT Policy
Cornell University

and

Heather Joseph
Executive Director
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Commission

You can read their complete bios here. The webcast is free but you’ll need to register. You can do that on this page.

After the webcast concludes, it should be available in the EDUCAUSE Live! archive.

Source: EDUCAUSE

See Also: One Open Webcast Deserves Another
Coming October 20th: Q&A Webinar With 5 Very Different OA Publishers

From the Report:

The Nielsen Company today reported overall online video usage and top online brands ranked by video streams for September 2009. Year-over-year, unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer were up, led by 25 percent growths in total streams and time per viewer.

The post contains two charts:

1) Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.) for September, 2009; Year-Over-Year; Month-Over-Month

2) Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams for September 2009 (U.S.)
The Top 10 are listed. Stats include total streams and unique viewers.

Top 5
1) YouTube
2) Hulu
3) Yahoo
4) MSN/WindowsLive/Bing
5) Fox Interactive Media
and at number 10 is Facebook.

Source: nilesenwire

From a Hulu Blog Post:

Designed for bloggers, site editors and webmasters, Hulu Publisher Tools makes it easy to browse and discover premium videos — from Hulu and other sites — to embed in articles and blog posts. In addition to content featured by the Hulu team, our publishing tool features a comprehensive directory that offers the opportunity to preview videos and copy embed codes from a single page. Editors can also create custom playlists for Video Panels that can embed multiple Hulu videos in a single unit.

A search bar [the one with the magnifying glass] lets you type in any keyword — “obama,” for instance — and we’ll call up all the relevant videos pulled by our web crawler. You can select a few clips that look good to you, preview them if you like, and copy the embed codes. And if all the content is from Hulu, you can put together a Video Panel in seconds and embed it on your blog…

Access Hulu Publisher Tools

Source: Hulu Blog

Web content changes all the time. If we don’t save that content before it disappears, a major part of our cultural history will be lost.

This is the message of the second video in the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program’s video series. The just-released video, “Web Archiving,” discusses the Library’s approach to collecting and preserving content found on the World Wide Web.

The three-minute video is targeted to librarians, archivists, and others interested in working with digital content.

[Snip]

The “Web Archiving” production is the second in the series, following the Bagit video that was released in July 2009. The Bagit video describes a specification for securely transferring digital content.

View the Web Archiving Video

Video Presentations Homepage

Source: National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, Library of Congress

Access the Forum Network Online Library

From the Web Site:

The Forum Network online library features thousands of lectures by some of the world’s foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders, available to citizens of the world for free.

The Forum Network collaborates with hundreds of community partners in cities across the US, including libraries, museums, academic institutes, public lecture forums, public policy think tanks, cultural councils, and various other community organizations.

[Snip]

We offer weekly podcasts, which users can subscribe to through iTunes or the NPR Podcast Directory. We also offer a subset of downloadable videos through our iTunesU and YouTube channels. Search on “Forum Network” in any of these publishing sites.

The database can be searched by keyword*. Users can also browse by topic (click the lectures link), series (then narrow by topic or and/or collection), speakers (an alphabetical list), and Forum Network Online partners.
* Note, Users are searching lecture descriptions not a transcript of the actual presentation.

Finally, users can keep current with what’s going on with the Forum Network with Twitter and/or Facebook, Two feature we would like to see is a simple list of new lectures and presentations (maybe an RSS feed?) as they enter the database and the option to limit a keyword search by year.

Access the Forum Network Online Library

See Also: ResearchChannel
Another large (over 3500) and constantly growing compilation of academic lectures/presentations from numerous organizations.

See Also: iTunesU

See Also: YouTube EDU

See Also: YouTube EDU Goes International
(ResourceShelf, 10/5/2009)

Access Tutorial: Finding Census Data for Business Research

According to this page, expect more web tutorials from the Business Reference Section, LC:

Lbrarians in the Business Reference Section, in cooperation with the Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division of the Library of Congress, are creating a series of interactive online instructional modules

Source: Business Reference Services–Science, Technology & Business Division–Library of Congress

The Cataloging Section of the National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the availability of an e-learning course called Fundamentals of the NLM Classification. It is available as a link from the Cataloging Section homepage, as well as the Distance Education page. The course is a free set of modules and interactive exercises that students may take at their own pace without an instructor.

This course covers the principles and applications of the NLM Classification in the cataloging environment. The course is divided into nine modules:

1. Overview of the NLM Classification
2. Using the Online NLM Classification
3. Components of NLM Call Numbers
4. General Principles
5. Table G (Geographic Notations)
6. Form Numbers
7. Bibliographies and Related Materials
8. Classification of 19th Century Works and Early Printed Books
9. Continuing Resources

See Also: Using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Cataloging
Another e-leaning course organized into eight modules.

See Also: Make sure to visit the Distance Education page.
Numerous training videos for a variety of NLM products and services are available at no charge. From searching the Redesigned PubMed by Author to LinkOut for Libraries Tips and Tricks.

Source: National Library of Medicine Technical Bulletin
Hat Tip: P.W.

YouTube EDU, the Web site for video channels from universities, has recently added content from institutions in Europe and Israel.

Forty-five colleges and universities from those areas, including the University of Cambridge and distance-learning institutions like the Open University of Catalonia, now have channels on the site.

Access YouTube EDU

Source: Wired Campus

Another one of our serendipitous finds, this collection comes to you from Online Classes.org, which regularly features nice topical collections of lectures, tips, hacks, etc., via its blog.

The economy has taken central stage in world news for the past few years due to rapidly failing markets the world over. Even with so much attention focused on economic issues if you’re not familiar with the field, or simply want a more in-depth look at things, it can be hard to follow just what’s going on. These lectures, given by scholars from some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the United States and around the world can help give you that foundation of knowledge and help you better understand the financial crisis that’s been building over the past few years.

If you follow business and economic news, you will recognize the names of some professors here. The lectures, which also include panel discussions, are grouped by category:

+ General Economics — examples:

• Beyond Freakonomics: New Musings on the Economics of Everyday Life: University of Chicago professor and economist Steven Levitt further explains his theory on everyday economics in this lecture. [Princeton]
• Financial Markets: This lecture series from professor Robert Shiller will teach you about the basics of the economic system and how each part fits together. [Yale]

+ Understanding the Economic Crisis — examples:

• Understanding the Crisis in the Markets: A Panel of Harvard Experts: Get an explanation of the financial crisis from some of the best and the brightest by watching this panel discussion at Harvard. [Harvard]
• Jeremy Siegel: Snapshots of the U.S. and Other Markets: Get a handle on what events precipitated the market fall with this lecture that addresses the sub-prime market, the stock market and foreign markets. [UPenn]

+ Proposed Solutions to the Economic Crisis — examples:

• Preventing the Next Financial Crisis: Pay close attention to this lecture series that brings together numerous scholars, researchers and experts to discuss how future financial disasters can be averted. [Columbia]
• Will the Stimulus Actually Work?: Billions of dollars were pumped into failing U.S. businesses, but will it make any difference at all in the long run? This lecture from professor Steven Kyle discusses the issue. [Cornell]

+ Future of the Economy — examples:

• Once the Market Has Fallen 50% Your Future Returns are Even Better: Here you can learn why now may be a good time to invest. [UPenn]
• One War We Shouldn’t Avoid: A New Approach to Reducing the Cost of Future Catastrophes: In 2005, three major hurricanes battered the southern United States, costing billions in repairs and with thousands of lives lost. This lecture addresses how we can be better prepared both for the weather and the financial ramifications of it. [UPenn]

+ International — examples:

• The Outlook for the Global Economy and the Challenges That Must Be Met: Former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin gives you some insight into how the global economy is changing and the many challenges within it that still must by met. [Princeton]
• Feeling the Pain: How the Financial Crisis Is Affecting Brazil, Russia, India and China: This lecture from late last year will give you some insights into the real toll the economic crisis is having abroad as well, with input from business leaders in these four countries. [UPenn]

+ Business Focused — examples:

• Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making: David Rothkopf discusses his book by the same name in this lecture and how a few powerful people are pulling the strings in worldwide business and economics–usually to their advantage. [Columbia]
• Business, Knowledge and Global Growth: Learn how the MBA degree has changed the way business is done in the United States and the world over and the impact it has had on the economy as a result. [Columbia]

Depending on the individual lecture, the links will take you either to the university websites or iTunes U. A few open up as direct links to media (e.g., QuickTime).

+ An Introduction to Podcasts

Sections of the document include:

+ What is Podcasting?

+ What Can Podcasting Be Used For?

+ Possible Problems

+ Listening To Podcasts

+ Creating Podcasts

Here’s a link to review all of the briefing documents UKOLN offers for free.

Source: UKOLN