Information Industry–Factiva
Source: IWR
Factiva Will Not Use IBM’s WebFountain Technology
The Factiva and IBM partnership to use Big Blue’s WebFountain technology, big news in late 2003, is no more. According to the article, “‘The specific reason IBM was dropped is the timeliness of their content,’ said a Factiva spokesperson. “The rate of re-fresh was not even daily. With reputation management you need it to be timely, they had a lag.” Ryan Warren, manager of the office of the CEO, told IWR: “They weren’t developing at the speed we wanted.’ According to Factiva, IBM and Factiva have agreed that there are “more appropriate technologies” for reputation management.” Thanks to C.A. for the news tip.
See Also: More About IBM’s WebFountain Here and Here

Professional Reading Shelf
Web Search Results
Source: Proc. Third Annual Workshop on HCI Research in MIS, December 2004, Washington, DC / University of Maryland HCI Lab
New, Categorized Graphical Overviews for Web Search Results: An Exploratory Study Using U.S. Government Agencies as a Meaningful and Stable Structure
“Search engines are very effective at generating long lists of results that are highly relevant to user-provided query terms . But the lack of effective overviews presents challenges to users who seek to understand these results, especially for a complex task such as learning about a topic area, which requires gaining overviews of and exploring large sets of search results, identifying unusual documents, and understanding their context. Categorizing the results into comprehensible visual displays using meaningful and stable classifications can support user exploration and understanding of large sets of search results. This extended abstract presents a set of principles that we are developing for search result visualization. It also describes an exploratory study that investigated categorized overviews of search results for complex search tasks within the domain of U. S. government web sites, using a hierarchy based on the federal government organization.”
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Libraries and Librarians
Source: Ariadne
A New Issue (No.42) of Ariadne is Now Online
Articles include:
+ The National Centre for Text Mining: Aims and Objectives
+ Making the Case for a Wiki
+ A Librarian’s Experience of e-Government
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Medical Libraries and Librarianship
Source: MLA
The January 2005 Issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association is Now Online
Articles include:
+ The Virtual Naval Hospital: the digital library as knowledge management tool for nomadic patrons
+ Trends in academic health sciences libraries and their emergence as the “knowledge nexus” for their academic health centers
+ State of the art of expert searching: results of a Medical Library Association survey
+ An evolution of experts: MEDLINE in the library school

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Consumer Brands–Surveys
Source: BrandChannel
Just Released, Brand Rankings by Impact 2004 and Other Surveys
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Internet–United States–Surveys
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
A decade of adoption: How the internet has woven itself into American life
“A decade after browsers came into popular use, the Internet has reached into–and, in some cases, reshaped–just about every important realm of modern life. It has changed the way we inform ourselves, amuse ourselves, care for ourselves, educate ourselves, work, shop, bank, pray and stay in touch.”
Summary ||| Direct to Full Text

Briefly
+ Dialog to Sponsor New SLA Chapter Award for Australian & New Zealand Information Professionals

Briefly
+ Dialog to Sponsor New SLA Chapter Award for Australian & New Zealand Information Professionals

Web Search Briefs
+ Tsunami Ads For Gift Cards? Google, Where’s the Review?
+ Yahoo Plans to License Financial Data
+ Now Available: A New Service from Yahoo! Local

Professional Reading Shelf
Open Worldcat
Source: Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog
Find other editions in Open WorldCat
OCLC has added more publicly accessible info to their Open Worldcat records.
See Also: Subject Headings Now Hyperlinked in Open Worldcat
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Children’s Books
Source: NPR
Children’s Book Tells Tale of Iraq Librarian
“It’s not every day that an illustrated children’s book about war is published. But author Jeanette Winter has created a book about a librarian who saved 70 percent of an Iraqi town’s books during the U.S. invasion. The book is called The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq.”
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Public Libraries
Source: Denver Post
Library says DVDs, CDs reflect public taste
“The Denver Public Library spent nearly 22 percent of its materials budget last year on music CDs and movies, a ratio higher than its neighboring library districts and many of its national peers.”

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Postsecondary Institutions–Enrollment–United States
Source: National Center for Educational Statistics
Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2002 and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2002
“This report presents findings from the Spring 2003 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Web-based data collection. Data were requested from over 6,600 postsecondary institutions participating in Title IV federal student financial aid programs. The tables in this publication present enrollment data for fall 2002, financial statistics for fiscal year 2002, and student financial aid data for academic year 2001-2002. Also included are graduation rate data for the 1996 and 1999 student cohorts.”
Full Report (PDF; 649 KB)

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries
Source: OCLC
OCLC Research Sponsors Software Development Contest
Are you a library software developer? Know someone who is? OCLC has just launched a contest, “to encourage innovation and development of Web-based services for libraries and library users. Contestants will be challenged to think differently about their environments by working with deconstructed functional components of library services.”
Complete details here. The prize is $2,500.00 US.
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Library Literacy Programs
Source: MDRC
“One Day I Will Make It”: A Study of Adult Student Persistence in Library Literacy Programs
“The Wallace Foundation launched the Literacy in Libraries Across America (LILAA) initiative in 1996 to help library-based literacy programs nationwide increase the persistence of their adult learners, and it contracted with MDRC and the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) at Harvard University in 1999 to study the initiative. The participating libraries were granted resources to develop and implement persistence strategies that included improved instruction, more varied and more extensive social supports, and technology upgrades. This is the fourth and final report from the persistence study, which examined the implementation and effects of these strategies in nine library literacy programs over four years and whether student participation changed over time.”
Executive Summary
Full Report (PDF; 729 KB)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Birds–Climatic Changes–United States
Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station
Atlas of climate change effects in 150 bird species of the Eastern United States (PDF; 1.94 MB)
“This atlas documents the current and potential future distribution of 150 common bird species in the Eastern United States in relation to climate and vegetation distributions…. The model for each bird species is described. These models were then projected onto two scenarios of global climate change for which future distributions of the climate variables and tree species had previously been calculated…. Depending on the global climate model used, as many as 78 bird species are projected to decrease by at least 25 percent, while as many as 33 species are projected to increase in abundance by at least 25 percent.”
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Environmental Health
Source: National Library of Medicine, Specialized Information Services
New environmental health and toxicology Internet guides
+ Indoor Air Pollution
+ Outdoor Air Pollution
+ Toxicogenomics
+ Education and Career Links

Briefly
Newspaper Digitization: Cold North Wind And The Toronto Star Expand ‘Pages of the Past’

Professional Reading Shelf
Copyright–United States–Orphan Works
Source: U.S. Copyright Office/Federal Register
Orphan Works
“The Copyright Office seeks to examine the issues raised by ‘orphan works,’ i.e., copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even impossible to locate. Concerns have been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating such works in new creative efforts or making such works available to the public. This notice requests written comments from all interested parties. Specifically, the Office is seeking comments on whether there are compelling concerns raised by orphan works that merit a legislative, regulatory or other solution, and what type of solution could effectively address these concerns without conflicting with the legitimate interests of authors and right holders.”
See Also: Internet Archive Files “Orphan Works” Lawsuit Appeal (Kahle v. Ashcroft)
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Libraries–Architecture
Source: Architecture Week
Library Building Beyond the Books
“With the advent of the information age and the radical change in library materials, media, and means of access to information, the nature of certain types of building systems have changed accordingly.” Thanks to TG for the news tip.
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Librarians–Academic
Source: ALA
Sharma named ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year
“- Dr. Ravindra Nath (R.N.) Sharma, director of the University Library at West Virginia State University in Institute, W.Va., is the 2005 Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. The award, sponsored by YBP Library Services, recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic/research librarianship and library development.”
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Open Access
Source: SPARC
Presentations from ALA Midwinter 2005: SPARC/ACRL Forum: In the Public Interest: Open Access and Public Policy

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Congressional Research Service
Source: CRS (via FAS, FPC, and IPMall)
New/Updated Reports from the Congressional Research Service
+ Access to Government Information in the United States
+ Spyware: Background and Policy Issues for Congress
+ Data Mining: An Overview
+ Secret Sessions of Congress: A Brief Historical Overview
+ U.S.-EU Cooperation Against Terrorism
+ Border Security: Fences Along the U.S. International Border
+ North Korea: A Chronology of Events, October 2002-December 2004
+ Campaign Finance: Constitutional and Legal Issues of Soft Money
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Population–United States–Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, We the People: Women and Men in the United States
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Digitization Pojects
Source: New York Botanical Garden
LuEsther T. Mertz Library Rare Book Digitization Project
“The LuEsther T. Mertz Library has initiated a pilot project to digitize and make accessible via the Internet rare 19th century works on American trees by French botanists Andr� and Fran�ois-Andr� Michaux. This collection represents important illustrated botanical books that reflect the early investigation of the flora of North America by botanists who were seeking new plants for commerce and horticulture.”
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U.S. Military–Casualty Information
Source: U.S. DoD Directorate for Information Operatons and Reports
Military Casualty Information
We’ve mentioned this site before on ResourceShelf. But it’s worth mentioning again, as it is an authoritative, comprehensive resource for military casualty information in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Find lists of those killed or wounded in Iraq by branch of service and either age, race, gender, or rank. Reserve status also indicated. Two comprehensive lists:
+ Operation Iraqi Freedom - Names, Casualty Date Order (As of January 22, 2005)
+ Operation Iraqi Freedom - Names, Alphabetical Order (As of January 22, 2005)

RSS
A Chat with the Creator of Feedmarker
by Steven Cohen, Contributing Editor

I’ve been playing with a new web-based aggregator called Feedmarker. Feedmarker is a combination aggregator/tagging system. Not only can users read RSS Feeds, but they can also tag feeds according to their own classification systems (it’s a hot topic these days - see del.ico.us and Flickr for more on open tagging systems). I recently had the opportunity to interview Bruno Bornsztein via e-mail about his unique product.

SC: Can you provide me with a quick bio?

BB: I’m 22. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I majored in Journalism and studied at the University of Minnesota and the University of California — Berkeley. I really don’t know the first thing about programming, but I’m learning. I’m enjoying developing Feedmarker, because it’s nice to be able to make the program do whatever you want. You want a feature, you figure out how to build it, it’s done.

SC: Why did you start Feedmarker?

BB: Basically, because I couldn’t think of a good reason not to. I had been thinking about some features that were missing from popular (NewsGator, Bloglines) aggregators I used for a while. I wanted to be able to tag feeds (instead of just putting them in a folder), because I kept finding that my feeds really belonged in more than one folder. I also wanted to be able to store bookmarks, and easily bookmark items that I found in my feed reading.

Then one day I thought of the name, so I figured, why not just try to do it myself. Kind of silly, but true. As far as I know, there is nothing else out there exactly like it, so that was reason enough to do it.

Click here to read Part Two of Steven’s interview.

Briefly
R. R. Bowker To Launch New Publisher Database For UK