ResourceShelf Newsletter 249

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ResourceShelf Newsletter
<http://www.resourceshelf.com>
Number 249
February 23, 2006

                 ++  Thursday, February 23, 2006  ++


Resource of the Week
By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor
-------------------------------

We're devoting some space to a few resources that will help you track
the real estate situation where you live, where you might want to live
and generally, across the country.

Real Estate--United States

+ HousingTracker: Median Home Prices & Housing Inventory Data: "Real
  Estate market statistics (including median asking prices and home
  inventory numbers) for cities/metros across the United States....
  "The numbers provided here are asking prices derived from MLS
  listings." Compiled weekly. Click on city name for detailed info,
  including archive, which shows trends.
http://www.benengebreth.org/housingtracker/

+ Existing Home Sales -- Monthly Data for the U.S. and Regions: From
  the National Association of Realtors (NAR). You can get separate
  date for condos and single family homes. Some of the data here can
  downloaded in Excel spreadsheet format. Also from NAR:
http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/Pages/EHSdata

-- Current NAR Forecast (PDF) also includes economic data.
http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/files/currentforecast.pdf/$FILE/currentforecast.pdf

-- Field Guide to Real Estate Research Centers is a small jewel of a
   page that provides links to "(v)arious academic institutions and
   independent organizations around the U.S. have established research
   centers to study real estate-related issues and trends." Check for
   institutions in your neck of the woods, which may offer regional
   data.
http://www.realtor.org/libweb.nsf/pages/fg005?OpenDocument

+ Freddie Mac --
http://www.freddiemac.com/news/finance/outlooks/Feb_06_frecom_outlook.html
Economic and Housing Outlook is "a monthly
  perspective from the office of the chief economist." In case you
  were wondering, "Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation
  chartered by Congress to increase the supply of funds that mortgage
  lenders, such as commercial banks, mortgage bankers, savings
  institutions and credit unions, can make available to homebuyers and
  multifamily investors." Find an FAQ here. Freddie Mac also offers a
  Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey,
http://www.freddiemac.com/dlink/html/PMMS/display/PMMSOutputYr.jsp?year=2006
which provides average ratesfor 30-yr, 15-yr, 5/1-yr ARM
and 1-yr ARM, as well as points/fees.


+ The Joint Center for Housing Studies
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/media/articles_opeds.htm
(Harvard Design Center, Kennedy
  School of Government, Harvard University) offers a continually
  updated selection of links to articles and op-eds about the housing
  market. Find more of the same at the University of Florida, George
  A. Smathers Libraries, Business Library: The Housing Bubble
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/business/cases/housing_bubble.htm

+ The National Association of Home Builders offers a variety of
  economic and housing data, including:
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/media/articles_opeds.htm

-- Housing Market Index (HMI): "...a weighted, seasonally adjusted
   statistic derived from ratings for present single-family sales,
   single-family sales in the next six months and buyers traffic."
http://www.nahb.org/reference_list.aspx?sectionID=134

-- Housing Opportunity Index (HOI): "...a measure of the percentage of
   homes sold in a given area that are affordable to families earning
   that area's median income during a specific quarter."
http://www.nahb.org/reference_list.aspx?sectionID=135

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gker>


Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

National Libraries--Canada
  Source: Library and Archives Canada
  Three New Resources from Library and Archives Canada

+ Web Archive of Election 2006 Web Sites

+ SOS! Canadian Disasters at Library and Archives Canada

+ Shipwreck Investigations at Library and Archives Canada

Libraries--UK
  Source: LISU
  Digest of Statistics for Museums, Libraries and Archives
  The main purpose of these statistics is to give a broad overall
  perspective of the museums, libraries and archives scene in England.
  The Digest of Statistics is produced with the support of MLA and is
  available to download free online in PDF format.

Medline
  Source: NLM
  MEDLINE Citation Counts by Year of Publication

Digitisation Projects
  Source: JISC, NLM, Wellcome Trust
  Completion: 100 years of biosciences research captured in digital
  archive

  "The archive represents the entire back archive of the journal of
  the Biochemical Society which celebrates its centenary this year.
  Speaking at the event, Sir Philip thanked JISC and the Wellcome
  Trust for their funding which has not only paid for digitisation of
  the journal but will also ensure that the archive, hosted by
  PubMedCentral, will be openly available to all in perpetuity.
  Digitisation of the journal is part of a major collaborative
  programme of digitisation called the 'Medical journals backfiles
  digitisation project', a partnership between JISC, the Wellcome
  Trust and the US National Library of Medicine which will see the
  digitisation of nearly 1.7 million pages of complete backfiles from
  important and historically significant British and American medical
  journals."

Public Libraries--Outsourcing
  Source: Jackson (TN) Sun
  Library checks out going private

  "The local public library is considering going private with its
  management. What such a proposed move would mean to current
  employees and library patrons is unclear. The Jackson-Madison County
  Library Board will offer bids this week for businesses to manage the
  daily operations. This is an effort to minimize the costs of running
  the library and hopefully offer additional services and hours,
  library board officers said."

Grey Literature--Journals
  Open Access
  Source: The Grey Journal
  Upcoming Publication, Table-of-Contents: The Grey Journal
  'Grey Matters for OAI'
  Spring 2006 will focus on "Grey Matters for OAI."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkes>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
---------------------------------------------------------

Personal Wealth--China--Lists & Rankings
  Source: Forbes
  New, Greater China's 40 Richest
  Direct to rankings.

Terrorism
  Source: Council on Foreign Relations
  New, Profile: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
  A new Background Q&A from the CFR. "A profile of the terrorist Abu
  Musab al-Zarqawi, the man responsible for coordinating suicide
  bombings in Amman and Madrid, multiple attacks on Iraqi Shiites and
  Shiite mosques, and the highly-publicized beheading of American
  Nicholas Berg." More Profiles Here.

Medicine
  Source: World Health Organization
  New Report: Combating Counterfeit Drugs: A Concept Paper for
  Effective International Cooperation


Disasters--United States--Lists & Rankings
  Source: FEMA
  Major Disaster Decleration State Totals
  Clicking takes you to a detailed breakdown by state.

International Business
  Source: GlobalEDGE, Michigan State University
  New Section, Faculty Development
  The Academy section invites a new sub-section, Faculty Development,
  to the site. This venue provides information regarding upcoming
  business conferences, meetings, and speakers from a variety of
  universities across the United States. Offered from the many Centers
  for International Business Education and Research (CIBERs) across
  the country, the listed events are intended to enhance the
  professional and educational competence of today's business
  practitioners. Topics range from global interdependence to
  international study programs, which are designed to immerse the
  traveler in the business culture of world markets."

  See Also: The Thousands of Other Resources and Links GlobalEDGE
  Offers

  Special Note to the Country Insights Section

United States--Oral Histories
  Source: Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina
  Southern Oral History Project
  "Founded in 1973, the Southern Oral History Program seeks to foster
  a critical yet democratic understanding of the South -- its history,
  culture, problems, and prospects. We have recorded more than 2,900
  interviews with men and women from all walks of life...The site
  includes information about the project and its activities, and
  recordings of interviews collected by the project."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gket>


Search Briefs
-------------

+ Australia: CSIRO Spins Out Search Engine (via Sydney Morning Herald)
  "Search engine technology developed by the CSIRO has spawned a new
  spin-off company called Funnelback to help drive the expansion of
  its Panoptic system further into international territories." More
  about Panoptic here.

+ Indeed.com (A Metasearch Engine for Jobs) Now Available via New York
  Times and About.com

  "After searching the site's own job listings at jobs.nytimes.com,
  users can click 'Job Market Web Results' to return more jobs from
  thousands of websites, powered by Indeed." Clusty also offers access
  to Indeed.com (very useful). SimplyHired.com is another metasearch
  engine the scours numerous job databases and company sites for job
  listings. Both services offer excellent alerting tools.

+ A Profile of the Founder of Blog/RSS Search Engine Technorati, Dave
  Sifry (via The Guardian)

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkex>


Briefly
-------

+ More New Content Added to Answers.com Database
  This week Answers's adds a Cancer Dictionary and Cancer Encyclopedia

+ Canada: SAGE Publications and CSA sign agreement with Canadian
  Research Knowledge Network

+ Fast tracks legal taxonomy (via IWR)
  "Enterprise search vendor looks to legal information specialist for
  improved searching terms."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkey>


Shareware Folder
----------------

RSS Tools
  RSS Captor (Beta)

  We haven't tried this program out yet we plan too. Sounds very
  interesting! Description via BetaNews, "RSS Captor is an easy-to-use
  RSS client that allows you to receive and manage news feeds in a
  searchable database. The program keeps all messages of subscribed
  feeds in a database, so you can perform detailed searches for all
  current and past news items, and locate articles of interest. It can
  check your feeds automatically and notify you via sound when new
  items arrive." Shareware, free trial, PC only.

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfa>


One for the Road
----------------

New, The Internet Archive Unveils Social Bookmarking Tool
  Brewster Kahle introduces a new IA feature that "allows people to
  explore the music movie and book collections on the Internet Archive
  using other patron's bookmarks."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfb>



                 ++  Wednesday, February 22, 2006  ++

Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

Access to Information--United States
  Source: Secrecy News
  Reclassification Program At National Archives Exposed
  "U.S. military and intelligence agencies have assigned personnel to
  review and reclassify declassified historical records at the
  National Archives where they have withdrawn thousands of records
  from public access."

  See Also: Declassification in Reverse: The Pentagon and the U.S.
  Intelligence Community's Secret Historical Document Reclassification
  Program (via National Security Archive)

  See Also: NARA finalizes rule on short-term e-records (via GCN)

Library Databases--United Kingdom
  Source: Kable's Government News
  England's Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has launched
  a new service for access to reference material

  "Named Reference Online, it provides a channel to 26 electronic
  subscription based products, including directories, dictionaries,
  encyclopaedias, newspapers and business information. MLA said on 20
  February 2006 that it had brokered deals with 14 separate suppliers
  for the service. Traditionally, public library managers have
  researched the details and negotiated the costs of online resources
  either individually or as small regional consortia."

Digital Preservation--United Kingdon
  Source: DPC
  New Report, Mind the Gap: Assessing digital preservation needs in
  the UK (PDF)

  From the summary, "A 'state of the nation' report today reveals that
  less than 20% of UK organisations surveyed have a strategy in place
  to deal with the risk of loss or degradation to their digital
  resources - despite a very high level of awareness of the risks and
  potential economic penalties...The survey reveals that the loss of
  digital data is commonplace - it is seen as an inevitable hazard by
  some - with more than 70% of respondents saying data had been lost
  in their organisation. Awareness of the potential economic and
  cultural risks is high, with 87% recognising that corporate memory
  or key cultural material could be lost and some 60% saying that
  their organisation could lose out financially. In 52% of the
  organisations surveyed there was management commitment to digital
  preservation - but only 18% had a strategy in place."

Digital Libraries
  Source: Corporation for National Research Initiatives
  The February Issue of D-Lib is Now Online
  Articles include:

+ A Research Library Based on the Historical Collections of the
  Internet Archive

+ Copyright Issues in Open Access Research Journals: The Authors
  Perspective

+ Observed Web Robot Behavior on Decaying Web Subsites

+ OSTI's E-print Network experiences rapid growth

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfc>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
-----------------------------------------------

Employment--Surveys
  Source: Manpower
  New Report, Manpower Inc. Talent Shortage Survey Reveals 40% of
  Employers Worldwide Are Struggling to Find Qualified Job Candidates

  "The survey results, released today, revealed that 40 percent of
  employers worldwide are having difficulty filling positions due to
  the lack of suitable talent available in their markets. Employers
  having the most difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs are
  those in Mexico (78% reporting shortages), Canada (66%) and Japan
  (58%). The talent shortage appears to be least problematic in India,
  where only 13 percent of employers reported having difficulty
  filling positions. Direct to Full Text Report: Talent Shortage
  Survey (PDF).

Genealogy
  Source: FamilySearch.org
  Guides Explain pre-1858 English Probate Jurisdictions
  "A complete collection of guides depicting pre-1858 English Probate
  Jurisdictions will be available online through FamilySearch. The
  probate records of England are among the best genealogical sources
  for direct evidence of relationships. They are also among the most
  neglected sources because of the many variations in jurisdictions
  which governed the probating of wills prior to 1858. The EJP guides
  provide a wealth of useful information."

  See Also: West Virginia records now online

Travel Industry--United States--Cruise
  Source:
  North American Cruise Passengers Statistics

+ New, Summary Tables 2003 - 2005 (Excel)

+ New, Detail 2003 - 2005 (Excel)

Congressional Research Service
  Source: OpenCRS and FPC
  A Selection of New/Updated CRS Reports

+ European Views and Policies Toward the Middle East

+ Post-War Iraq: A Table and Chronology of Foreign Contributions

+ U.S.-EU Cooperation Against Terrorism

+ Palestinian Elections

+ Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons

+ India: Chronology of Recent Events

+ Pakistan: Chronology of Recent Events

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfd>


Search Briefs
-------------

+ Image Search and Copyright: Google and A9 May Stop Showing Perfect
  10s (via InternetNews.com)

"A federal judge has ruled that portions of Google's popular image
search feature, which displays small thumbnail versions of images
found on other Web sites, likely violate U.S. copyright law." The full
text of the court ruling by Judge A. Howard Matz can be found here.
(48pages; PDF). What this will mean for others who offer large
algorithmically generated databases of images (regardless of type of
material) culled the open web is TBD. Other players with large image
databases include:

+ Yahoo

+ Ask Jeeves

+ PicSearch

+ MSN (uses PicSearch)

+ Ditto (uses PicSearch)

+ A9 Image Search (uses Google)

+ MSN executive to take leave
  Person in charge of MSN taking one year leave of absence.
  See Also: MSN Search Home Page Has a New Cleaner Look and Larger
  Search Box

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts  <http://digbig.com/4gkfe>


Briefly
-------

+ New Issue of Thomson Scientific e-newsletter Now Online
  Includes blurb about the launch of Web Citation Index.

+ GIDEON & EBSCO Publishing Partner to Offer Wider Access to the
  Global Infectious Disease & Epidemiology Network Decision Support
  System

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkff>


                  ++  Tuesday, February 21, 2006  ++


Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

National Science Digital Library
  Source: EurekaAlert
  Researchers to develop technology to extend benefits of National
  Science Digital Library

  "Virginia Tech and Villanova University researchers have received a
  $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to extend the
  benefits of its free, online library by developing technology that
  will allow college students and professors to conduct flexible and
  customized information searches directly from course Web sites." If
  you've never visted and used the National Science Digital Library,
  you should. A great example of a specialty search tool.

  Make sure to keep current with the "What's New" page and RSS feeds.
  The NSDL is a must for educators!

Academic Libraries
  Source: ACRL
  Registration Now Open for ACRL's First Completely Online Conference

  April 20-April 21. "Register now for 'Innovate and Motivate: Next
  Generation Libraries,' the first-ever Virtual Conference offered
  jointly by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL),
  the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and EDUCAUSE. The
  Joint Virtual Conference will be held completely online and will
  offer a forum for an energizing exchange of ideas focusing on
  technology and academic librarianship."

Conferences--Canada
  Information Highways 2006, March 26-28, 2006, Toronto

  "Delivered over three days, with the first day devoted to industry
  hosted workshops, the 17th annual Information Highways Conference
  program is organized around 4 key areas (Information
  Centers/Libraries, Government Departments, HR/Training & eLearning
  Departments and the Enterprise) where successful content solutions
  can have the greatest impact on productivity and profitability."
  Btw, one session at IH 2006 will focus on the use of wikis as a
  knowledge sharing tool.

Conferences--Europe
  9 - 11 April 2006, EUSIDIC Annual Conference 2006, Innsbruck

  "Integration versus granularity of information resources:
  Interoperability and interconnectivity of services, systems and
  media manifestations...The information industry needs to support its
  customers. That?s because customers are under pressure to do their
  jobs more efficiently and effectively. They would no longer pay for
  services and products which do not serve their purpose. The
  information industry has to build value through partnerships and
  customers are partners. Understanding customer needs is a key factor
  for success and means customer involvement from the beginning with
  the customers' fingerprints all over the product."

Information Industry--Nexidia
  Source: News Release
  Nexidia and ActiveGroup partner to bring immediate, searchable audio
  results to qualitative research

  Nexidia is a company and technology we've been following since they
  were known as Fast-Talk. Their technology for creating searchable
  audio is different than what others offers. Cool stuff and a company
  to watch. What makes Nexidia different? Their technology breaks a
  spoken word down into phonetics (to be more precise, phonemes (the
  smallest unit of human speech) for faster and more precise indexing.
  Nexidia is well-known in the call center and enterprise search world
  and is now slowly but surely making a play into other areas of audio
  search.

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfg>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
---------------------------------------------------------

Women--United States--Statistics
  Source: U.S. Census
  Fast Facts About Women in the United States
  Women's History Month begins on March 1st.

Computer Wonder Women Rock!!
The Mother of the Internet and the First Women Programmers
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/cwomen.html

About Computers in the Classroom Changing Girls' Attitudes About Computers
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/womenspecialedition.html

Larry Summers Pres. of Harvard Resigns
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/education/22harvard.html

Gender and Salary Negotiation Study
from Harvard Business School's
Working Knowledge newsletter:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5207&t=strategy&iss=y


Facts include:

+ 149.1 million
  The number of females in the United States as of July 1, 2004. That
  exceeds the number of males (144.5 million). Males outnumbered
  females in every five-year-age group through the 35- to 39-age
  group.

+ 31%
  Percent of women ages 25 to 29 years who had attained a bachelor?s
  degree or higher in 2004, which exceeded that of men in this age
  range (26 percent). Eighty-eight percent of women and 85 percent of
  men in this same age range had completed high school.

+ $950.6 billion
  Receipts for women-owned businesses in 2002, up 16 percent from
  1997.

Science--Information Dissemination
  Source: GCN
  New, Cutting Edge: NOAA builds AJAX-based data viewer
  "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific
  Marine Environmental Laboratory has released a browser-based
  application called the Dapper Data Viewer for viewing oceanographic
  and atmospheric data.

Human Trafficking--Databases
  Source: National MultiCultural Institute
  Human Trafficking Search

  "Human Trafficking Search is a web portal provided by the National
  MultiCultural Institute "as a service to those individuals and
  organizations working to eliminate human trafficking." The site
  provides access to thousands of documents on the web produced by
  various entities and categorizes them into four topics: Human
  Trafficking, Child Labor, Bonded Labor, and Sex Slavery. Within each
  category, users have basic and advanced search options. The search
  features support Boolean searching, as well as phrase searches,
  truncation and wildcards. Users may also limit by date, author, and
  document field. Synonyms may also be added, although many of these
  are automatically searched. Significant guidance is provided on the
  site as to how to use the search function. For human rights
  researchers, the portal provides convenient access to a vast array
  of web-published material. Thanks to Stuart B. and the Cornell Law
  School Library for the tip.

Real Estate--United States--Databases
  Source: HousingTracker
  HousingTracker

  "HousingTracker is an attempt to gain a more realtime understanding
  of the national housing market. For the most part, all we have to
  rely on the quarterly Realtor reports to get a sense of how the last
  quarter played out. HousingTracker data is compiled weekly from MLS
  listings which contains asking prices as opposed to the Realtor
  reported sale prices. HousingTracker gives you the 25th percentile,
  50th percentile, and 75th percentile asking price for the metro
  areas covered. Additionally, the number of homes for sale
  (Inventory) for the metro area is reported."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfj>


Search Briefs
-------------

+ Truveo Video Technology Coming to AOL Video Search Later This Week,
  New Content On the Way (via SEW Blog)

  See Also: USA Today Article ||| Gary's Original Review (Very
  Positive) of AOL Video Search

  See Also: The SEW Blog Post Also Mentions That Video Will Be
  Delivered via AOL's Hi-Q Video Download Service. More About that
  Service Here.

+ MSN Search Home Page Has a New Cleaner Look and Larger Search Box
  Gone is the blue box and a larger search entry box. Much Cleaner.
  Here's a cached copy of what the page looked link on 2/14 (via MSN).
  We've also noticed that other MSN Search sites like MSN Search UK
  and MSN France have undergone received the makeover. More from the
  MSN Search Blog.

+ Google Opens Office in Israel (via SEW Blog)

+ Google Admits Desktop Security Risk

+ Original Content at Yahoo: Can Braun lift Yahoo's media group? (via
  News.com)

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfh>



                  ++  Monday, February 20, 2006  ++

Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

Public Libraries--Video Downloads
  Source: Rocky Mountain News
  Library will be first in nation to offer downloadable films, concert
  videos

  "Next month, the Denver Public Library system will become the first
  in the nation to allow people to download movies and concert videos
  from home with a click of their computer mouse. And it'll be free to
  anyone with a Denver library card and a speedy Internet
  connection.... In mid-March, members will be able to start
  downloading documentaries and IMAX movies, travel and concert films,
  do-it-yourself remodeling flicks and exercise videos."

  See Also: We First Blogged About Downloadable Video Coming to
  Libraries Last Summer

  Note from Gary: Folks, on-demand video is (if it's not already) the
  "next big thing." It's great to see libraries taking part. Now WE
  HAVE TO PROMOTE it. If there has ever been a time to promote the
  fact that the library of the 21st Century extends beyond the four
  walls of the building, this might be it.

Information Industry--CrossRef
  New Free Service for CrossRef Member Publishers

  "CrossRef is very pleased to announce a new trial service for its
  member publishers. In partnership with Inera, CrossRef has deployed
  a custom version of Inera's eXtyles refXpress that parses
  unstructured, free-text references into granular and valid XML and
  returns any matching DOIs for those references. The Free-Text Query
  form is now available to members on a trial basis at
  http://www.crossref.org/freeTextQuery. The simple cut-and-paste form
  accepts references formatted in common bibliographic styles and
  returns the DOI for the article if one is found in CrossRef. One or
  more references may be pasted into the form on this page; each
  reference must begin on a new line."

Federal Government Libraries--United States
  Source: FLICC (Federal Library and Information Center Committee)
  FLICC Names Libraries and Librarian of the Year
  Congrats to All Winners!

+ 2005 Federal Librarian of the Year: Leslie Campbell, Law Library
  program administrator at the National Judiciary Library Program for
  the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

+ Large Library/Information Center Category (with a staff of 11 or
  more federal and/or contract employees): The Scientific and
  Technical Information Center (STIC) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark
  Office

+ Small Library/Information Center Category (with a staff of 10 or
  fewer federal and/or contract employees): U.S. Army Military
  Intelligence Library in Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Post <http://digbig.com/4gkfj>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
-----------------------------------------------

Congressional Research Service--History
  Source: The Memory Hole
  Minutes of the Legislative Reference Service, 1947-1953

  "The Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of
  Congress, has for decades produced thousands of fact-rich, unbiased,
  nontechnical reports to members of Congress regarding a variety of
  issues. The CRS itself does not distribute these reports to the
  public in any way. You can't order paper copies from the CRS, read
  them in the Library of Congress, or officially get them online
  (although copies of some reports are posted without CRS approval).
  Nor can you get an index of reports that they have produced in the
  past. CRS publishes a website only for members of Congress that
  contains some, but not all, of its recent reports and briefings....
  Last year, researcher Michael Ravnitzky reviewed and obtained copies
  of selected minutes from staff meetings of the CRS's predecessor,
  the Legislative Reference Service, from 1947 to 1953. Interestingly,
  these meeting notes show the organization wrestling with the same
  problems over 50 years ago - distribution of the reports; avoidance
  of controversy; whether the reports should contain analysis and
  recommendations or simply state facts; whether reports should arrive
  at conclusions; etc." (via DocuTicker)

Manufacturing Productivity--Statistics
  Source: BLS
  International Comparisons Of Manufacturing Productivity And Unit
  Labor Cost Trends, Revised Data For 2004

  "Manufacturing labor productivity increased in 13 of 15 economies in
  2004, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor
  Statistics. The U.S. increase of 5.2 percent was the sixth highest.
  Korea and Sweden had the largest productivity increases (12.1 and
  9.8 percent respectively). The U.S. productivity increase is a
  revision from the preliminary estimate of 4.7 percent released in
  October 2005. Australia and Italy were the only two economies
  showing declines in manufacturing productivity in 2004."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfm>


Search Briefs
-------------

Yahoo "Embeds" Cached Pages into Yahoo Korea Search Results Pages

  One of my favorite features that both Vivisimo and Clusty (look for
  the magnifying glass icon next to each result) have offered for
  years is an option allowing users to embed LIVE pages directly into
  a list of search results. Vivisimo/Clusty calls it page "preview."
  In other words, the user can click a link from the search results
  list and open a live version of the page embedded in a box. Then,
  when finished, close the box and move on to the next result. Wisenut
  also offers this feature (they call it sneek-a-peek). This feature
  has the potential to be not only a time saver but also help
  unsophisticated users from getting lost with too many windows or
  tabs opened. If my memory is correct, a Lycos site in Europe also
  offers this option.

Yahoo Korea

  You don't have to have Korean fonts on your system to see this Yahoo
  Korea feature in action. Here's a search on Yahoo Korea for "Bill
  Murray." Next to each result note the arrow (pointing to the right)
  on the same line where the url is located. Click the link and a
  window with the CACHED version of the page will open in the results
  list. Btw, also note that Yahoo Korea web search results pages also
  include inline images, movie info, news links, and answers from a
  community question answering service, on a results page.

Direct LINK to This ResourceShelf Post <http://digbig.com/4gkfn>


                  ++  Sunday, February 19, 2006  ++

Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

Public Libraries--Internet Privacy
  Source: WTOP (Washington, D.C.)
  County Officials Apologize After Library Porn Incident

  "Montgomery County officials are apologizing Friday, after two local
  Homeland Security Department employees tried to prevent people from
  searching for pornography on the Internet in a public library last
  week. Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan tells WTOP the
  officers clearly broke county policy when they told one Little Falls
  Library visitor his choice of Internet site violated sexual
  harrassment laws. 'These security officers clearly overstepped their
  bounds,' Duncan says. 'They are not there to look at what people are
  doing in our libraries and other facilities. They are there to
  protect those facilities.'"

  See also: Policing Porn Is Not Part of Job Description (Washington
  Post)

E-books
  Source: CNN
  E-textbook demand slow despite comfort with technology
  "Brown University junior Stuart Thompson jumped at the chance to
  save $30 and become a digital pioneer when his school bookstore
  offered a discounted, electronic version of an American history
  textbook. But after making the purchase, he noticed a few things
  amiss: He couldn't run a highlight marker over key points or jot
  notes in the margins, nor could he curl up with the tome without
  printing out the pages. He won't rule out another e-book, but he's
  not completely sold, either."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfp>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
---------------------------------------------------------

Pop Culture--Multimedia
  InterviewsRus.com

  Was one of your favorite celebs recently interviewed on U.S.
  television? This site (searchable) lets you download and view high-
  quality copies of many of those interviews from a variety of
  programs. The database is updated regularly. You'll need to register
  to download content but it's free and easy. At the moment, access to
  over 430 interviews are available.

Abraham Lincoln--Historical Cartoons
  Source: HarpWeek (Harper's Weekly)
  Abraham Lincoln Cartoons

  "This collection of more than 400 Lincoln-related cartoons is
  derived from HarpWeeks Lincoln and the Civil War.com database of 49
  Civil War era periodicals. The cartoons have been scanned at high
  resolution and come from 21 illustrated journals that varied in type
  and allegiance. They include the three prominent American weeklies
  of the period-Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Harper's Weekly,
  and New York Illustrated News; campaign newspapers such as The Rail
  Splitter, Campaign Plain Dealer, and Strong?s Campaign Pictorial;
  satirical publications such as The Comic Monthly, The Phunny
  Phellow, and Vanity Fair; and pro-Confederate journals published in
  the American South-Southern Illustrated News and Southern Punch?and
  in Britain-Fn and Punch. The vast majority of the cartoons include
  images of Lincoln, but a few only reference him textually. In all,
  Abraham Lincoln Cartoons.com spans the period from his presidential
  campaign in 1860 through the major events of the Civil War to his
  assassination in 1865."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfq>


Search Briefs
-------------

+ New Site Allows Users to Say Goodbye to Mr. Jeeves

  Read a note from the butler about the upcoming site and service,
  help select a place for Mr. Jeeves to retire, send him a good luck
  note, and more. More here.

See Also: Chris Sherman on the new AJ Image/Picture Database (1/26/06)

See Also: More About AJ Image/Picture Search

See Also: Ask Jeeves Opens European R&D Center; Several Interesting
Live Demos and Papers by AJ R&D Center Leader Also Available

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfr>


                 ++  Saturday, February 18, 2006  ++


Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

Academic Libraries--Canada--Gay Culture
  Source: London Free Press
  Pride of place

  "The sign on the front desk reads 'Queeries.' The office has a giant
  window in the shape of a Q. Green walls and purple carpets greet
  students. The Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario has
  come out of the closet, with 200 people celebrating its opening
  yesterday on the main floor of Weldon Library after 10 years of
  being shuffled from place to place."

EPA Libraries--Budget
  Source: American Library Association
  EPA Library Funds Cut 80% under Bush Budget

  "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's network of libraries
  stands to lose $2 million of its $2.5 million in funding under
  President Bush's proposed 2007 budget, which threatens to close the
  headquarters library and many regional facilities as well as shut
  down the libraries' electronic catalog."

Direct LINK to This ResourceShelf Post <http://digbig.com/4gkfs>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
---------------------------------------------------------
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
  Airlines--United States--Statistics
  Source: BTS
  New, Flight Delays, Mishandled Bags, Consumer Complaints Up in 2005
  Over Previous Year

  Summary Full Text (PDF)

  "U.S. airlines experienced a higher rate of flight delays, more
  reports of mishandled baggage and a higher number of complaints
  about airline service in 2005 than in 2004, according to the U.S.
  Department of Transportation's (DOT) Air Travel Consumer
  Report...the 20 airlines reporting on-time performance with DOT
  recorded an on-time arrival rate of 77.4 percent in 2005, down from
  the 78.1 percent mark of 2004. These carriers also recorded a rate
  of 6.04 reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers last
  year, up from 2004's rate of 4.91. The Department received 8,735
  complaints from consumers about airline service last year, up 17.2
  percent from 2004's total of 7,452 complaints."

Winter Olympics--2006--Television Coverage--Statistics
  Internet Coverage--Web Streaming
  Source: IOC
  Global television and new media figures set records in Europe and
  around the globe

  "Coverage of the first five days of the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter
  Games dominated television ratings in Europe, especially in the host
  country Italy, with impressive audiences recorded in other key
  markets around the world...Internet streaming in European markets
  have already exceeded that of the Athens Games with 4.3 million live
  or on-demand streams served so far."
http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/media_centre/full_story_uk.asp?release=1691

Gretchen Bleiler Silver Medal Winner for Snowboard Compitition
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/culdesac/Stars/GretchenBleiler.html

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkft>



Search Briefs
-------------

Recently Filed Documents in Motion to Compel Google to Supply Search
Information

The following documents (full text court filings) were made on
2/17/06. All documents are PDF files.

+ Google's Response to U.S. Government Filing, 25 pages
  Full text of U.S. government filings linked here.

+ Declaration of Marty Lev, 3 pages.
  Google's Director of Safety and Security at Google.

+ Declaration of Google's Matt Cutts, 15 pages.
  How search works.

++ Exhibit A
  All about a Greasemonkey Script

+++ Exhibit B
  A Copy of a Post from John Battelle's Searchblog

+ Declaration of Ashok Ramani, Formerly the Commercial Litigation
  Counsel to Google, 3 pages

++ Exhibit A, 16 pages
  Dr. Stark's CV.

+++ Exhibit B
  Copy of a Steven Levy article from Newsweek.

++++ Exhibit C
  Google's Privacy Policy.

+ Memorandum in Opposition of Motion to Compel Google to Turn over
  Search Info, 16 pages. Filed by ACLU.

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfx>


                 ++  Friday, February 17, 2006  ++


Professional Reading Shelf
--------------------------

Library of Congress
  Source: LC
  Library Of Congress To Offer Special Junior Fellows Summer
  Internships

  "The Library of Congress, home of the U.S. Copyright Office, is
  offering special 10-week summer internships to college students who
  will work full-time, starting on June 5 and ending on Aug. 11, to
  help locate and itemize uncataloged materials submitted to the
  office as part of the copyright registration process. The previous
  summer interns identified hundreds of literary, artistic, film and
  musical gems among the Library's copyright deposits. The application
  deadline is Monday, March 13. Applications will be accepted only
  online and should be sent to the 2006 Summer Intern Program
  Coordinating Committee at interns06@xxxxxxxx For details on how to
  apply, visit http://www.loc.gov/hr/jrfellows.";

Electronic Journals
  Source: ACRL
  ACRL endorses call for urgent action to preserve scholarly
  electronic journals

  "ACRL recognizes that the electronic environment poses significant
  challenges for long-term preservation of, and access to,
  information. Since most libraries do not actually own and store the
  content of the journals they license in electronic form, new models
  for preservation must be developed. Scholars may face serious loss
  of access to published research if libraries do not adopt effective
  electronic journal preservation strategies. ACRL encourages all
  academic libraries to take action to preserve their electronic
  journal collections."

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkfy>


Search Briefs
-------------

+ Search National Weather Service Web Site With Vivisimo and MSN
  Yes, cluster weather info and much more. (-: Think of it as a "slice
  of the complete FirstgovSearch database. This new option comes to
  the NWS site via the new and much improved search capabilities on
  FirstGovSerch.gov.

Direct LINK to This ResourceShelf Post <http://digbig.com/4gkga>


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text
-----------------------------------------------

Documents in the News
  Human Rights
  Source: United Nations
  Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay
  Summary/Chronology ||| Direct to Full Text (54 pages; PDF)

E-Commerce--United States--Statistics
  Source: U.S. Census
  New, Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales 4th Quarter 2005

Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts <http://digbig.com/4gkgb>


(c) Willco Limited 2006 <http://www.Willco.com>.

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