Thomson Scientific to Use Collexis’ Knowledge Dashboard in Custom Solution
Thomson Scientific (www.scientific.thomson.com) and Collexis Holdings, Inc.
(www.collexis.com), a developer of search and knowledge discovery software, announced plans to join together Collexis’ Knowledge Dashboard with Thomson Scientific’s Web of Science to create a custom data mining solution for the research community. Called the Thomson Collexis Dashboard, it is designed to provide enhanced knowledge discovery for the academic and government R&D communities. By merging Thomson Scientific’s Web of Science data with the Collexis Knowledge Dashboard, users will have the ability to identify and search for documents, experts and trends, and to make new discoveries more quickly, accurately, and deeply than via conventional search engines.
The Thomson Collexis Dashboard is a custom software and information solution that enables scientists to analyze large numbers of publications concerning a defined topic swiftly and efficiently and filter the essential information. Additionally, it allows researchers to explore existing knowledge concepts and provides proactive suggestions about the direction of research across a topic or by category. It also includes multiple thesauri that allow different points of view on the same data and subject navigation. A time-saving solution for scientists, the Thomson Collexis Dashboard includes summarized information, which reportedly is not to be found in any system currently available, and it provides identification of experts across categories on multiple subsets of the literature instantly—including their relevant social network.
Source: Thomson Scientific
Any thoughts?
Here is the link:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=41005
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
New Additions to OCLC
OCLC NEWS
NetLibrary announces agreements with 21 international publishers
DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 1 February 2008—NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for eContent and the leading provider of eBooks for the institutional library market, has announced agreements with 21 leading publishers that will add thousands of new eBooks and eAudiobooks to NetLibrary's growing catalog of more than 160,000 titles.
This international agreement will be a great source of free documents for scholars and students. Score one for open source!
I sometimes wonder if Americans cares at all about education. The opening of the market further shows that financial profit need not be the motivation behind publishers when working with libraries. Libraries everywhere need more of this.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to the full story:
NetLibrary announces agreements with 21 international publishers
DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 1 February 2008—NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for eContent and the leading provider of eBooks for the institutional library market, has announced agreements with 21 leading publishers that will add thousands of new eBooks and eAudiobooks to NetLibrary's growing catalog of more than 160,000 titles.
This international agreement will be a great source of free documents for scholars and students. Score one for open source!
I sometimes wonder if Americans cares at all about education. The opening of the market further shows that financial profit need not be the motivation behind publishers when working with libraries. Libraries everywhere need more of this.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to the full story:
Sunday, February 24, 2008
About Time!
Yeah!
This is a very interesting article on the recent movement in libraries to hire and maintain full time software developers to handle the e needs of cataloging collections. Long outsourced the waste and frustration of living with and depending on databases not designed under the direct supervision or by librarians is changing. There is some reason for the complaints which have been so common. While the third party solutions have been a crutch, a movement to resolve these issues in the profession has been slow in development. As Andy Guess points out in this article:
Still, some libraries, fed up with software that doesn’t fully meet their needs, have decided to take matters, figuratively, into their own hands. With a bit of grant money and some eager developers, institutions have begun creating their own open-source solutions that are fully customizable, free for others to use and compatible with existing systems. The result has been a whole crop of projects that, when combined, could serve as a fully integrated, end-to-end open-source solution for academic libraries, covering the interface, search mechanism, database system, citations and even course management.
Meanwhile, the increasing availability of open-source software has nudged some libraries to reconsider the role of their in-house technology gurus, and to wonder whether it would make more long-term financial sense to hire more developers than to continue paying for products over which they have limited control.
The name of the game is open source and saving money. It's all about finding solutions that work and will not lead to crippling investments and subscription and maintenance fees. For example:
Open-source Web catalogs like VuFind tend to look a lot like search engines that people who work online are already used to. VuFind (and, eventually, XC) adds Web 2.0 functionality on top of the traditional interface, allowing users to e-mail search results and save results to their favorites. One feature Nagy said was a high priority for library developers is “faceted navigation,” which allows users to drill down and refine searches by, for example, author, topic or format. The VuFind interface is also completely compatible with the open-source citation management tool Zotero, a plugin for the Firefox browser.
Another piece of the puzzle is federated search: an engine that sifts through numerous different databases for each user query. One tool being developed at Oregon State University, LibraryFind, combines federated search with a simple, Google-like interface that lets users sort by relevance, save items, refine searches and view electronic documents.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to the story:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/19/opensource
This is a very interesting article on the recent movement in libraries to hire and maintain full time software developers to handle the e needs of cataloging collections. Long outsourced the waste and frustration of living with and depending on databases not designed under the direct supervision or by librarians is changing. There is some reason for the complaints which have been so common. While the third party solutions have been a crutch, a movement to resolve these issues in the profession has been slow in development. As Andy Guess points out in this article:
Still, some libraries, fed up with software that doesn’t fully meet their needs, have decided to take matters, figuratively, into their own hands. With a bit of grant money and some eager developers, institutions have begun creating their own open-source solutions that are fully customizable, free for others to use and compatible with existing systems. The result has been a whole crop of projects that, when combined, could serve as a fully integrated, end-to-end open-source solution for academic libraries, covering the interface, search mechanism, database system, citations and even course management.
Meanwhile, the increasing availability of open-source software has nudged some libraries to reconsider the role of their in-house technology gurus, and to wonder whether it would make more long-term financial sense to hire more developers than to continue paying for products over which they have limited control.
The name of the game is open source and saving money. It's all about finding solutions that work and will not lead to crippling investments and subscription and maintenance fees. For example:
Open-source Web catalogs like VuFind tend to look a lot like search engines that people who work online are already used to. VuFind (and, eventually, XC) adds Web 2.0 functionality on top of the traditional interface, allowing users to e-mail search results and save results to their favorites. One feature Nagy said was a high priority for library developers is “faceted navigation,” which allows users to drill down and refine searches by, for example, author, topic or format. The VuFind interface is also completely compatible with the open-source citation management tool Zotero, a plugin for the Firefox browser.
Another piece of the puzzle is federated search: an engine that sifts through numerous different databases for each user query. One tool being developed at Oregon State University, LibraryFind, combines federated search with a simple, Google-like interface that lets users sort by relevance, save items, refine searches and view electronic documents.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to the story:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/19/opensource
Friday, February 22, 2008
Not So Social
Decrease in Traffic at Piczo Social Networking Site
CNET News.com reporter Caroline McCarthy co-wrote this article.
Three former Piczo employees described a company grappling with the meteoric rise of competitors Facebook and Bebo and internal squabbles over the direction of the 3-year-old start-up. The company has also struggled to convince skeptical advertisers of the effectiveness of social networking as an effective ad vehicle--a tough sales pitch for the entire social-networking sector, say insiders. Know for its target audience of teen girls, this social site is now in what management is terming a restructuring as it branches out into a more mature European market. While use of FaceBook is growing this company saw a decline in the past year after a promising start in 2006.
Jeremy Verbo, acting CEO of Piczo, sites the nature of the industry, software development, seasonal changes, and most importantly competition from other big players in the market."We were in the United Kingdom early, and certainly as (Bebo and Facebook) came on, that affected us," Verba said. "Our growth started slowing. But it's a time-spent issue. Our users didn't move on to these other sites. What we're seeing is a lot of overlap. What happened is some of our engagement decreased."
The lay off of employees is like the platuea that occurs in many industries in computer related fields. The saturation of the market leads to a burn out. The ubiquity of these services make them common place.I know that people will often open a Facebook account, Myspace, and play around with other scenes to get a sense of where the flow is. Then the account often sits unattended. Users are simply tired of it, some blog pundits have argued, and they won't stay on any one site too long before moving on to the next big thing. In part the number of visits a site gets is a number factors including last but not least its indexing in a search engine. It should be no wonder that that novility can get you far, but then you better keep getting your name out.In the long run there is no sense of loyalty, but instead an iconographic association occurring in some web places. For example, You Tube is often copied but still remains the largest in an ever growing sea of video playing platforms where for nothing people can get their 15 minutes. People think of it like they do Craig’s List. Its like Googling. You turn your computer on and just do it.
The lesson may be that there is a limit to the market size and smart web developers are coming up not with the latest template but riding the next social software wave.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9877437-7.html?tag=nefd.lede
Thursday, February 21, 2008
What Do You Mean It Won't Work?!
I Hate My Computer!
Everyone who has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous compatibility issues will tell you their story about how all their buddies were playing World of War Craft and then they logged on to find the version they purchased is not compatible with their system or the computer they inherited from their second cousin twice removed after he married (sorry about the example-this happened to someone I know) isn't powerful enough to handle e-mails. So it isn't surprising that in a world where gaming is typically the province of gaming systems there are compatibility issues.
Lets face it, until someone makes the universal grail of a consumers information and entertainment needs, I mean a tool that is a computer, home entertainment system, office system, and will play any game you plug into it, there will be a kind of raw distrust that manufactures of PC's will be forced to suffer through. But now the PC Gaming Alliance is moving to do something about it.
The nonprofit PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) aims to unite hardware and software creators, game developers, publishers and others committed to the PC gaming market with the common purpose of advancing the PC as a gaming platform. The group's founding members include Acer/Gateway, Activision Publishing, AMD, Dell/Alienware, Epic, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia and Razer USA. Together, member companies plan to cooperate on accelerating innovation, improving the gaming experience for consumers and serving as a collective source of market information and expertise on PC gaming, the group said.
It should be no surprise that in an age where gaming platforms like Playstation, Wii, and Xbox are as powerful as some low end PC's, that such a standardization of PC's would help manufacturers keep their consumers happy.
The PCGA has a long haul ahead of them. Among the many challenges ahead is to produce a set of minimum expectations as to what game developers should be targeting in terms of minimum system requirements for their games.
Uniformity of system standards would be a great boon to game designers who would like to see everyone playing their games. I know that the first time I saw the price of the Playstation 3 when it was released last year was to gulp and assign myself to not being one of the cool kids on the block. It was too expensive. As for my friend with the junk from his cousin’s yard sale I can only offer him my sympathy. Hang in there man, he may be upgrading to Vista soon.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to this story:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Can-the-PC-Survive-as-a-Gaming-Platform-61760.htmlWednesday, February 20, 2008
Lexis Nexis Becomes Exclusive Distributor of Praeger Security Online
Lexis on Crime
LexisNexis Now Exclusive Academic Distributor for Praeger Security Online
LexisNexis (www.lexisnexis.com) and Greenwood Publishing Group (www.greenwood.com) announced a partnership in which Greenwood’s electronic product, Praeger Security International Online (PSIO), will be sold exclusively to 2- and 4-year college and university libraries by the LexisNexis Academic Sales Group. Designed to serve the needs of professors, researchers, and students who need quick and efficient access to reliable information on the world’s most important political, military, and foreign policy issues, PSIO combines expert commentary with the complete text of hundreds of print titles—and the easy access and comprehensiveness of a sophisticated online database.
Updated weekly with commentary by advisory board members, expert authors, and researchers from Oxford Analytica (an international consulting firm drawing on senior faculty at Oxford and other major research institutions), PSIO provides in-depth analysis of security issues that threaten to destabilize our world. Expertly indexed and cross-searchable and featuring the complete text of more than 600 books, original content on important and regional events written by today’s leading scholars and experts, more than 1,000 primary documents, a worldwide chronology of terrorism events, and a carefully prepared annotated bibliography, PSIO is constantly evolving. It is intended for both distance learning and residency programs in homeland security, foreign policy, criminal justice, and business security.
Source: LexisNexis
This should provide an excellent resource for scholars, students, journalists, and professionals working in government and law enforcement.
Here is the link to this story:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40971
LexisNexis Now Exclusive Academic Distributor for Praeger Security Online
LexisNexis (www.lexisnexis.com) and Greenwood Publishing Group (www.greenwood.com) announced a partnership in which Greenwood’s electronic product, Praeger Security International Online (PSIO), will be sold exclusively to 2- and 4-year college and university libraries by the LexisNexis Academic Sales Group. Designed to serve the needs of professors, researchers, and students who need quick and efficient access to reliable information on the world’s most important political, military, and foreign policy issues, PSIO combines expert commentary with the complete text of hundreds of print titles—and the easy access and comprehensiveness of a sophisticated online database.
Updated weekly with commentary by advisory board members, expert authors, and researchers from Oxford Analytica (an international consulting firm drawing on senior faculty at Oxford and other major research institutions), PSIO provides in-depth analysis of security issues that threaten to destabilize our world. Expertly indexed and cross-searchable and featuring the complete text of more than 600 books, original content on important and regional events written by today’s leading scholars and experts, more than 1,000 primary documents, a worldwide chronology of terrorism events, and a carefully prepared annotated bibliography, PSIO is constantly evolving. It is intended for both distance learning and residency programs in homeland security, foreign policy, criminal justice, and business security.
Source: LexisNexis
This should provide an excellent resource for scholars, students, journalists, and professionals working in government and law enforcement.
Here is the link to this story:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40971
Monday, February 18, 2008
Awh Man!
Keeping Up with the Tech Blues
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Sony's Blu-ray technology is emerging as the likely winner in the format battle for the next generation of DVD players after Toshiba appeared ready to ditch its HD DVD business.
People watch a demonstration of HD DVD at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Such a move would help consumers know which system to invest in and would likely boost sales in Blu-ray gadgets, analysts say. But it will disappoint the 1 million people around the world estimated by Toshiba who have already bought HD DVD players.
Toshiba said Monday no decision has been made but acknowledged it had started a review of its HD DVD strategy. The comments follow a flurry of weekend Japanese media reports that the company was close to pulling the plug on the business.
I sometimes joke with my father who still argues with sales clerks in department stores and goes on extended polemics standing on line at the small video store which still rents VHS. "Why don't they just make up their minds?" he drones. He has a VHS player and refuses to budge.
Who can blame him? I don't make a lot of money. The thought of having to chuck out all my gear and movie collection (as I had to do with my VCR and VHS tapes) sends a jolt of cosmic outrage up my spine. I can't keep up. I have friends who have made the jump to HDVD and Plasma this and High definition that and I still have the TV set I got as a freshman in college. And now with the 2009 cross-over looming, a large section of techy updaters are going to be shouting: "Awh man! Give me a break here!"
But now after roughly 6 years of building up a DVD collection I am hearing that Blue Ray will be the format of choice. It kind of hurts to hear it.
Storage methods have come a long way from film and magnetic tape formats. There are no doubts that in the next ten years grandpa will get teased for his funky Blue Ray collection.
So what do you do in the mean time? Have a lot of cash on hand I guess. Keeping up on the latest tech is pricey, and dicey. Ask any librarian who has a basement full of Microfiche. Its a hard life, that tech life.
Any thoughts?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/02/18/toshiba.hddvd.ap/index.html
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Sony's Blu-ray technology is emerging as the likely winner in the format battle for the next generation of DVD players after Toshiba appeared ready to ditch its HD DVD business.
People watch a demonstration of HD DVD at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Such a move would help consumers know which system to invest in and would likely boost sales in Blu-ray gadgets, analysts say. But it will disappoint the 1 million people around the world estimated by Toshiba who have already bought HD DVD players.
Toshiba said Monday no decision has been made but acknowledged it had started a review of its HD DVD strategy. The comments follow a flurry of weekend Japanese media reports that the company was close to pulling the plug on the business.
I sometimes joke with my father who still argues with sales clerks in department stores and goes on extended polemics standing on line at the small video store which still rents VHS. "Why don't they just make up their minds?" he drones. He has a VHS player and refuses to budge.
Who can blame him? I don't make a lot of money. The thought of having to chuck out all my gear and movie collection (as I had to do with my VCR and VHS tapes) sends a jolt of cosmic outrage up my spine. I can't keep up. I have friends who have made the jump to HDVD and Plasma this and High definition that and I still have the TV set I got as a freshman in college. And now with the 2009 cross-over looming, a large section of techy updaters are going to be shouting: "Awh man! Give me a break here!"
But now after roughly 6 years of building up a DVD collection I am hearing that Blue Ray will be the format of choice. It kind of hurts to hear it.
Storage methods have come a long way from film and magnetic tape formats. There are no doubts that in the next ten years grandpa will get teased for his funky Blue Ray collection.
So what do you do in the mean time? Have a lot of cash on hand I guess. Keeping up on the latest tech is pricey, and dicey. Ask any librarian who has a basement full of Microfiche. Its a hard life, that tech life.
Any thoughts?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/02/18/toshiba.hddvd.ap/index.html
E Art
You-Art
DeviantArt gets 1.5 billion page views a month, making it one of the most popular Web sites that many people have never even heard of.
Despite the name, only a fraction of the art on the site is what might be labeled deviant. In reality, the site boasts millions of user-uploaded works of art, everything from photography to 3D digital conceptual art to old-fashioned canvas-and-paint portraits.
Think of it as a YouTube for artists trying to show their own work. Pieces can be viewed, commented on, even added to a user's own gallery of favorites. The range of work defies characterization, but there is a heavy dose of cartooning and fantasy art as well as some adult content, which is blocked for unregistered users.
In some cases, artists have posted their digital leftovers in a "stock" pile that other artists can use as the genesis for their own work.
The site's goal, in a nutshell, is to democratize and inspire art.
After checking out this site I thought of the Impressionists of the 1860's. Up until these artists the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the French endorsed institution that defined, set, and held up what was supposed to be great art. Without the support of the Academe, an artist could not show his work in the Salon and would be treated like a rank shlock. The importance of the meeting of the Impressionism was giving artists like Cezanne and Monet a venue and to help establish a public exchange.
And this site is an exchange, it has chat and forum sections where those who contributed can discuss issues.
I am not sure that I am a good judge of the content so I am pulling away from offering opinions. What interested me is to see how Web content is so powered by ungoverned class systems. The open source rubric of the Internet is at the heart of most Virtual spaces. While there has been a move to public censure or control Web content, the model of the Web World continues to defy categories and move faster than words can describe it. It is a dream land. What is the web, other than a tool which morphs as it is used? As technology breaks down walls the possibilities change how we express and think. It defines us as people and how we behave. It's only limit is that of the user itself. The story is the story teller, not the fiction itself.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to the full story:
http://browse.deviantart.com/?offset=24
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9873228-56.html?tag=nefd.top
DeviantArt gets 1.5 billion page views a month, making it one of the most popular Web sites that many people have never even heard of.
Despite the name, only a fraction of the art on the site is what might be labeled deviant. In reality, the site boasts millions of user-uploaded works of art, everything from photography to 3D digital conceptual art to old-fashioned canvas-and-paint portraits.
Think of it as a YouTube for artists trying to show their own work. Pieces can be viewed, commented on, even added to a user's own gallery of favorites. The range of work defies characterization, but there is a heavy dose of cartooning and fantasy art as well as some adult content, which is blocked for unregistered users.
In some cases, artists have posted their digital leftovers in a "stock" pile that other artists can use as the genesis for their own work.
The site's goal, in a nutshell, is to democratize and inspire art.
After checking out this site I thought of the Impressionists of the 1860's. Up until these artists the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the French endorsed institution that defined, set, and held up what was supposed to be great art. Without the support of the Academe, an artist could not show his work in the Salon and would be treated like a rank shlock. The importance of the meeting of the Impressionism was giving artists like Cezanne and Monet a venue and to help establish a public exchange.
And this site is an exchange, it has chat and forum sections where those who contributed can discuss issues.
I am not sure that I am a good judge of the content so I am pulling away from offering opinions. What interested me is to see how Web content is so powered by ungoverned class systems. The open source rubric of the Internet is at the heart of most Virtual spaces. While there has been a move to public censure or control Web content, the model of the Web World continues to defy categories and move faster than words can describe it. It is a dream land. What is the web, other than a tool which morphs as it is used? As technology breaks down walls the possibilities change how we express and think. It defines us as people and how we behave. It's only limit is that of the user itself. The story is the story teller, not the fiction itself.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link to the full story:
http://browse.deviantart.com/?offset=24
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9873228-56.html?tag=nefd.top
New SIIA Survey
Web 2.0 is Good Business
SIIA Releases Survey Results on Business Use of Web 2.0 Technologies
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has released the results of a survey on business use of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, social networking, and user-generated content, which indicated that businesses are increasingly embracing these new technologies. Conducted to coincide with SIIA’s Information Industry Summit, the survey explored the ways in which business-oriented content companies are using the various forms of Web 2.0 capabilities to enhance their connections to their users.
Nearly 42% of respondents are currently using social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, while another 35% plan to do so in the near future. Only a third place user-generated content on their sites, while more than half carry at least one blog. The survey found that B2B users expected social networking to enable them to reach new markets and increase user engagement and loyalty. While slightly more than 80% of respondents expected to achieve these goals, about 40% feel they have already reached new markets, and a third believe they have increased customer engagement.
Those surveyed about the utility of blogging had a mixed reaction. While more than half of survey respondents indicated that they do publish blogs, almost two-thirds believe that their influence on the industry has been mixed. Only 15% view blogs as "critically important" to the industry’s market environment.
To view the full results of the SIIA survey, visit: www.siia.net/content under Recent Publications.
Source: SIIA
SIIA Releases Survey Results on Business Use of Web 2.0 Technologies
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has released the results of a survey on business use of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, social networking, and user-generated content, which indicated that businesses are increasingly embracing these new technologies. Conducted to coincide with SIIA’s Information Industry Summit, the survey explored the ways in which business-oriented content companies are using the various forms of Web 2.0 capabilities to enhance their connections to their users.
Nearly 42% of respondents are currently using social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, while another 35% plan to do so in the near future. Only a third place user-generated content on their sites, while more than half carry at least one blog. The survey found that B2B users expected social networking to enable them to reach new markets and increase user engagement and loyalty. While slightly more than 80% of respondents expected to achieve these goals, about 40% feel they have already reached new markets, and a third believe they have increased customer engagement.
Those surveyed about the utility of blogging had a mixed reaction. While more than half of survey respondents indicated that they do publish blogs, almost two-thirds believe that their influence on the industry has been mixed. Only 15% view blogs as "critically important" to the industry’s market environment.
To view the full results of the SIIA survey, visit: www.siia.net/content under Recent Publications.
Source: SIIA
More evidence of how user created content is changing the exchange.
Any thoughts?
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40925
New Wilson Web Release
New Wilson Web Update
InfoTech: H.W. Wilson Announces WilsonWeb CX Edition
Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 2/15/2008 5:55:00 AM
Formerly known as WilsonWeb 3.0
Tool includes a frameless search screen to speed up result retrieval Can translate documents into foreign languages
H.W. Wilson has announced its revamped WilsonWeb CX Edition interface, named to commemorate 110 years since the independent publisher’s founding. Formerly known as WilsonWeb 3.0 in its October 2007 beta testing release, the new software’s goal is to let users and subscribers access “Wilson data with unprecedented ease and versatility,” said product manager Bernie Seiler.
The new design for the company’s online tool includes a frameless search screen to speed up result retrieval, new graphics for buttons and tabs, and a new translation feature allowing the user to “translate Full Text HTML documents from English into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and/or Korean.”
The new language translation feature will be a great help to students.
Any thoughts?
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6532721.html
InfoTech: H.W. Wilson Announces WilsonWeb CX Edition
Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 2/15/2008 5:55:00 AM
Formerly known as WilsonWeb 3.0
Tool includes a frameless search screen to speed up result retrieval Can translate documents into foreign languages
H.W. Wilson has announced its revamped WilsonWeb CX Edition interface, named to commemorate 110 years since the independent publisher’s founding. Formerly known as WilsonWeb 3.0 in its October 2007 beta testing release, the new software’s goal is to let users and subscribers access “Wilson data with unprecedented ease and versatility,” said product manager Bernie Seiler.
The new design for the company’s online tool includes a frameless search screen to speed up result retrieval, new graphics for buttons and tabs, and a new translation feature allowing the user to “translate Full Text HTML documents from English into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and/or Korean.”
The new language translation feature will be a great help to students.
Any thoughts?
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6532721.html
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Goose!
Something to Look at Other Than a Lover
15TH Century Man Seeking Woman:
Young Duke of Orleans
stuck in dead end career
after battling English dogs
seeks a bright and professionally
bound Lady of noble manners.
Address all drawings/stats to:
Frenchman
Tower of London
London
England
(Strumpets need not apply).
How Lovers Love the World Over on Feburary 14
ASIA
In China, on February 14, officials can confiscate flowers according to BBC reporting. The holiday is popular amongst most of the population. China also celebrates Valentine's Day on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On this day, lovers go to the Matchmaker Temple to ask for prosperity in love.
In Korea and Japan, girls and women give candies and chocolates to their boyfriends. In Korea and Japan on March 14, "White Day" is celebrated where boys and men give gifts to their girlfriends. The Japanese bake the chocolates at home for their true loves. The store bought chocolates are for co-workers or friends.
SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14. In some places, the girls pin the name of the boy they love on their sleeve. These traditions follow the old festival of "Lupercalia," the Roman festival celebrated on February 15.
*Historical Notes: Lupercalia was celebrated by the Romans on February 15. The festival took place on Palatine Hill, in a cave called Lupercal. This is the supposed place where Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome) were nursed by a wolf.
SOUTH AMERICA
In Brazil, Dia dos Namorados, or "Day of the Enamored" is celebrated on June 12. This is the day before Saint Anthony's Day. He was a marriage saint.
In Colombia and Venezuela, the "Love and Friendship Day" is celebrated on the third Friday and Saturday in September.
THE WORLD
These countries celebrate St. Valentine's Day similar to the United States:
Australian Countries
Bangladesh Canadian Countries
European Countries Mexico
Russia
Thailand
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
According to the Greeting Card Association, St. Valentine's Day is the second largest card sending holiday of the year. Christmas, of course, comes in first. Even though celebrations vary in different countries across the globe, love is in the air on St. Valentine's Day. Spend the day celebrating with your loved ones and feel the love!
Alone on Valentine's Day?
Check this out:
http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/valentines-day-history.htm
You will discover some darker moments on this day in history that will make your crappy day seem, as the wise Forest Gump chimes: like a Box of Chocolates.
A poem?
Roses are red
and Violets are blue.
Nobody loves you!
http://www.mykawartha.com/news/article/26446
Queen Mab Speach:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Washington Square Press. New York: 1959.
15TH Century Man Seeking Woman:
Young Duke of Orleans
stuck in dead end career
after battling English dogs
seeks a bright and professionally
bound Lady of noble manners.
Address all drawings/stats to:
Frenchman
Tower of London
London
England
(Strumpets need not apply).
How Lovers Love the World Over on Feburary 14
ASIA
In China, on February 14, officials can confiscate flowers according to BBC reporting. The holiday is popular amongst most of the population. China also celebrates Valentine's Day on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. On this day, lovers go to the Matchmaker Temple to ask for prosperity in love.
In Korea and Japan, girls and women give candies and chocolates to their boyfriends. In Korea and Japan on March 14, "White Day" is celebrated where boys and men give gifts to their girlfriends. The Japanese bake the chocolates at home for their true loves. The store bought chocolates are for co-workers or friends.
SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14. In some places, the girls pin the name of the boy they love on their sleeve. These traditions follow the old festival of "Lupercalia," the Roman festival celebrated on February 15.
*Historical Notes: Lupercalia was celebrated by the Romans on February 15. The festival took place on Palatine Hill, in a cave called Lupercal. This is the supposed place where Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome) were nursed by a wolf.
SOUTH AMERICA
In Brazil, Dia dos Namorados, or "Day of the Enamored" is celebrated on June 12. This is the day before Saint Anthony's Day. He was a marriage saint.
In Colombia and Venezuela, the "Love and Friendship Day" is celebrated on the third Friday and Saturday in September.
THE WORLD
These countries celebrate St. Valentine's Day similar to the United States:
Australian Countries
Bangladesh Canadian Countries
European Countries Mexico
Russia
Thailand
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
According to the Greeting Card Association, St. Valentine's Day is the second largest card sending holiday of the year. Christmas, of course, comes in first. Even though celebrations vary in different countries across the globe, love is in the air on St. Valentine's Day. Spend the day celebrating with your loved ones and feel the love!
Alone on Valentine's Day?
Check this out:
http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/valentines-day-history.htm
You will discover some darker moments on this day in history that will make your crappy day seem, as the wise Forest Gump chimes: like a Box of Chocolates.
A poem?
Roses are red
and Violets are blue.
Nobody loves you!
If after all this you crave the affections of another this means you are not a realist but a romantic. This is a psychiatric condition marked by long periods of delusion marked by a strong inability not to coo and awe at even the most pedestrian of things. This may mean long nights alone, and if you are unfortunate enough to gain admitance to the private chambers of that special one, reassuring your intended that they are not too fat and that you think everything they say is interesting.
Romantic love, the nuts and bolts of this holiday, are a tradition going back to the 12Th Century. Trent professor Roy Haden (an authority on the history of romantic love) says:
The troubadours were renowned medieval composers and performers who thrived from 1100 to 1300 AD, first in southern France, then later expanding to neighbouring countries such as Italy and Spain. They wrote more than 2,500 song lyrics in what is called the Old Occitan language. Sifting through a database with thousands of songs written by the troubadours during a 200 year period, Prof. Hagan analyzed every instance they used the word 'amors.'“I found some startling patterns,” he says. “They were treating love as some sort of attacking force. In their songs they were turning love into an entity with power that controlled people's lives. That hadn't been done before.” He says the ancients had a concept of love, but love wasn't about the romantic relationship between men and women, it was about family and friends.
So this whole history of this holiday could only have happened with this shift from more community based social structures to the more intimate and personal form of affection that is recorded in thousands of songs since the 12TH century. It is an entirely different concept of early Greek and Roman concepts of state and family. Before this exsisted the culture of Rome where the family was the social model adopted and supported by the state. Love was an act of loyalty to what seems more like friendship and the honor of a family as Hogan notes:
He also discovered the troubadours use of the word amors, and the development of a new aggressive and all powerful love concept coincided with the Crusades during the middle of the 12th century. “It is perhaps no coincidence that the new 'love God' of the troubadours should be a warrior God, whose central focus was to conquer and control its subjects,” he speculates.
It's no wonder that the common lament of young star crossed lovers is "I'm crazy for you", and that this goes as far as Shakespeare could in Romeo & Juliet.
Hopefully you will not have to suffer as much, nor dramatically as the following scene:
Mercutio: O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep; Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs, The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, The traces of the smallest spider's web, The collars of the moonshine's watery beams, Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film, Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat, Not so big as a round little worm Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid; Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers . And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight, O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, O'fer ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream, Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are: Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep, Then dreams, he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two And sleeps again. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage This is she--
This is the gentle advise of not only love, but of its dangers. So if today hits you hard at the bank or in the heart consider this:
Its only love.
Still in love?
Here are some links:
http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/valentines-day-history.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Valentines-Day-is-Celebrated-Worldwide&id=975213http://www.mykawartha.com/news/article/26446
Queen Mab Speach:
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Washington Square Press. New York: 1959.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
No, I Had To Work Yesterday
Just Another Holiday?
Just Another Holiday?Like most people yesterday I went to work. Then I got a call from a friend who had the day off. I asked if he was sick. He then reminded me that it was Lincoln's Birthday. It had slipped my mind because I always work it. However, some people have this day off. This makes me snicker. Perhaps I am cynical at heart, and my feelings of patriotism and pride in my country do not run deep enough. Or, it could be that I suffer from a mix of envy and purposelessness on this day, a celebration of America's most popular leader? The image of this sober minded man, a face that looks as if it were cut from stone almost leaves me mystified at times. He is as iconic and mythological as he is recorded in the pages of U.S. history. He is associated with stove pipe hats and honesty. He is the man who freed the slaves and led our country through the worst moment in its history. But who is Lincoln?
Lincoln Who?
I began to wonder about the holiday. How do you even celebrate Lincoln's Birthday? There are no songs, no special church services or meals, or traditions other than a friend or two bitching because they can't have the day off. All I could recall was a small arts and crafts project from the 4th grade. My class was asigned to cut out out silhouettes on black construction paper. I think my best friend Ralph cut a bullet hole into his and was sent to the principles office. That was it though. Nothing else came to mind. The big deal was President's Day. That was were the action was at. I got to play Thomas Jefferson in a school play. I had a special costume and I was taken to McDonalds afterward for my performance. It was a great day.
So I began to look for info on today's holiday. There is a traditional wreath laying cerimony in his birthplace of Hodgenville, and in Washington. Other than that it is like crikets. This passed over me when I first learned this like water.
Histronics and History
I began to think of him saving America as we know it. I also thought about how he ruled the country, that is suspending habeas corpus and and seizing the telegraph offices in Maryland and shutting down trains. Also consider that he overstepped his boundries by blocking Southern ports and esentially declairing war. Basically Lincoln is known most for his Emancipation Proxlamation and Gettysburg Address. He is thought of as the great healer of a nation and the man who freed black America. Those shining moments are part of a background of very conservative man, however. In reviewing sources I found a wonderful article from the Partisan Review. It sums up much of what I learned in school and more. Lincoln was in truth a cautious man who never spoke exstemperainously in public, prefering to write all speaches with great care, often doing many rewrites. He never jumped into ventures that he had not thought out carefully. So accomplishments of of these two examples of presidential leadership have a rather hypnotic effect on the mind of most admirers and confuses them to learn that he came to fame calling not for the end of slavery but for its restriction from territorial lands... The modern mind gets clumsy when distinguishing prudence from hypocrisy.
Missing the Mark and Resolution
Lincoln is mysterious, even though he is the most talked about President of the 19th century, and perhaps of all time. For everthing written about him he seems frozen in the ice of his war time accomplishments. He is the man, who loved theatre, and poetry. He is the man who married the daughter of a slave owner, and who later during the early part of the war ordered the arrests of thousands of citizens who spoke out publicly against him. He is the man who cut himself off from his cabinet and functioned almost without regard for the advise of his most close and personal friends. He is without an equal, but much of that may be the result more of the times than the man. Granted, he was a great politician. But that is not why people remember him. But like great leaders so much happens that some it changes everything in a very defining way. It is a history of theatrics and not the hellish grind of every other drop of blood spilt in the Civil War that is remembered. On the other hand there were hundereds of bad calls that no one talks about. People remain unschooled in these. On the large side they included hiring bad generals and quarreling with cabinet members. On the small side they were perhaps as mundane as office work. Thus his signature is both large and small, yet always history. He made many mistakes that ended costing the lives of hundereds of thousands of Americans. He was terribly complex. Nothing about him was like the black and white images handed down to us. He could show great compassion for a fallen friend and then on hearing of war crimes show no emotion at all. In one famous example (late in the war mind you) he was informed of how the federal army had pillaged, plundered, burned, and raped its way through the defenseless Shenandoah Valley in 1864, Lincoln only conveyed "the thanks of a nation" to General Philip Sheridan, the chief plunderer, and added his personal gratitude.
Its just hard to understand this man. The more that is discovered the deeper the mystery becomes. He seems lost in smoke of time and bad school room books. It's a strange feeling because here we have this day set aside and it seems poorly concieved. I feel bad for old Abe too. After all of that he get this minor spot on the calendar. Its like Valentines Day, or the inocuous Labor day I at least get that one off.
Any thoughts?
Here are the links to the text I borrowed.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo26.html
http://www.bu.edu/partisanreview/archive/2003/1/whitaker.html
Monday, February 11, 2008
Move Over I Phone
How Do You Like Them Apples?
Sony Ericsson is partnering with windows to market its first mobile phone. The device will be known as the Xperia X1, featuring a 3-inch VGA display with an "arc slider" to slide out the keyboard. The device will support HSDPA and HSUPA networks, as well as Wi-Fi.
If anything this follows with the trend that Microsoft has been developing in the last decade. This is a great boost for Microsoft. Ericsson offers some great devices I can't wait to hear more.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link:
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9867633-56.html
Sony Ericsson is partnering with windows to market its first mobile phone. The device will be known as the Xperia X1, featuring a 3-inch VGA display with an "arc slider" to slide out the keyboard. The device will support HSDPA and HSUPA networks, as well as Wi-Fi.
If anything this follows with the trend that Microsoft has been developing in the last decade. This is a great boost for Microsoft. Ericsson offers some great devices I can't wait to hear more.
Any thoughts?
Here is the link:
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9867633-56.html
EBSCO New Database
National Criminal Justice Database Now Available From EBSCO
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (NCJRSA) database is now available from EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com). NCJRSA is sponsored by the Department of Justice and the Executive Office of the President. The service is federally funded and supports research, policy, and program development around the world.
NCJRSA contains summaries of more than 190,000 criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources covering corrections, courts, crime statistics, domestic preparedness, drugs, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and victims. The collection features U.S. and international publications, including citations for federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations, and unpublished research.
The content in the database dates from 1970 to the present. The database will complement other sociology databases available on the EBSCOhost platform, such as SocINDEX with Full Text and Social Work Abstracts.
Source: EBSCO Publishing
Here is the link to this press release:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40879
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (NCJRSA) database is now available from EBSCO Publishing (www.ebscohost.com). NCJRSA is sponsored by the Department of Justice and the Executive Office of the President. The service is federally funded and supports research, policy, and program development around the world.
NCJRSA contains summaries of more than 190,000 criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources covering corrections, courts, crime statistics, domestic preparedness, drugs, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and victims. The collection features U.S. and international publications, including citations for federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations, and unpublished research.
The content in the database dates from 1970 to the present. The database will complement other sociology databases available on the EBSCOhost platform, such as SocINDEX with Full Text and Social Work Abstracts.
Source: EBSCO Publishing
Here is the link to this press release:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40879
New Metatagging Service
Which Came First?
Reuters is now offering a new open source API content-tagging system called Calais Web Service. With this new service comes the flexibility of automatic metatagging content and developing semantic applications.
Calais works through natural language to locate content for metatagging. This generation comes from the acquisition of the vendor Clear Forest. The opening of this new tool is in the spirit of extending and increasing the number of tools out their by getting more developers in using the semantic applications are not used very much.
To promote this Rueters is offering a prize, a kind of carrot on a stick to get the ball rolling:
Bounties will be awarded for the development of specific capabilities that Reuters would like to provide to Calais users. The first announced bounty of $5,000 will be awarded to the developer who creates a configurable plug-in for WordPress that will enrich blogs with tag auto-suggestion, a semantic cloud, and a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). The second program, details of which will be announced later in February, will be a series of contests. "The bounties and contests are there to drive interest," [says Tom Tegue, Reuters’ chief evangelist for the Calais project.] "The challenge is to take a technical tool and make it relevant for real people. Developers are one in a thousand. In order to make the technology relevant, smart people have to translate it into applications."
Part of what spurs this program is the irony of semantic technology. While there is very little demand for development the talented designers stay away. It leaves it floating in a kind of stasis.
Gerry Campbell, who has spent time working for AOL Search and AltaVista, joined Reuters in 2006 as president of the search and content technologies group and headed up the initiative that led to the creation of the Calais Web service. "The world is still suffering from information overload," says Campbell.
Of course it remains to be seen how much this will generate interest. Campbell hopes that encouraging development will solve what he calls the "chicken and egg" dilemma of the semantic web. The conundrum plays out as follows: Publishers don’t use semantic tagging because of the dearth of tools available, and developers don’t create tools because semantic technology isn’t widely used.
Any Thoughts?
Here is a link to the story:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=40881
Reuters is now offering a new open source API content-tagging system called Calais Web Service. With this new service comes the flexibility of automatic metatagging content and developing semantic applications.
Calais works through natural language to locate content for metatagging. This generation comes from the acquisition of the vendor Clear Forest. The opening of this new tool is in the spirit of extending and increasing the number of tools out their by getting more developers in using the semantic applications are not used very much.
To promote this Rueters is offering a prize, a kind of carrot on a stick to get the ball rolling:
Bounties will be awarded for the development of specific capabilities that Reuters would like to provide to Calais users. The first announced bounty of $5,000 will be awarded to the developer who creates a configurable plug-in for WordPress that will enrich blogs with tag auto-suggestion, a semantic cloud, and a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). The second program, details of which will be announced later in February, will be a series of contests. "The bounties and contests are there to drive interest," [says Tom Tegue, Reuters’ chief evangelist for the Calais project.] "The challenge is to take a technical tool and make it relevant for real people. Developers are one in a thousand. In order to make the technology relevant, smart people have to translate it into applications."
Part of what spurs this program is the irony of semantic technology. While there is very little demand for development the talented designers stay away. It leaves it floating in a kind of stasis.
Gerry Campbell, who has spent time working for AOL Search and AltaVista, joined Reuters in 2006 as president of the search and content technologies group and headed up the initiative that led to the creation of the Calais Web service. "The world is still suffering from information overload," says Campbell.
Of course it remains to be seen how much this will generate interest. Campbell hopes that encouraging development will solve what he calls the "chicken and egg" dilemma of the semantic web. The conundrum plays out as follows: Publishers don’t use semantic tagging because of the dearth of tools available, and developers don’t create tools because semantic technology isn’t widely used.
Any Thoughts?
Here is a link to the story:
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=40881
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Flash Yahoo Says No
Strike One
I recently read about the Microsoft bidding to buy out Yahoo. This deal would have been a great for Yahoo. The company like many other search engines has been left in the dust by Googles dominance on the scene.
But yesterday the board of Yahoo turned down the offer made to them. The 31 dollars a share offered was just not enough to tempt fate. The current report is that Yahoo will not budge until they get an offer of at least 40 dollars a share.
Even with the overhaul in the top of the food chain, Yahoo still lags behind Google. Google now holds commanding 75% of paid search. The notion is that it is an investment in opening the market a bit.
It makes me nervous to think of Microsoft to own a piece of the Internet pie. I cringe to think of it. They can't even debug their own software. How much better is Yahoo going to get?
Any thoughts?
I recently read about the Microsoft bidding to buy out Yahoo. This deal would have been a great for Yahoo. The company like many other search engines has been left in the dust by Googles dominance on the scene.
But yesterday the board of Yahoo turned down the offer made to them. The 31 dollars a share offered was just not enough to tempt fate. The current report is that Yahoo will not budge until they get an offer of at least 40 dollars a share.
Even with the overhaul in the top of the food chain, Yahoo still lags behind Google. Google now holds commanding 75% of paid search. The notion is that it is an investment in opening the market a bit.
It makes me nervous to think of Microsoft to own a piece of the Internet pie. I cringe to think of it. They can't even debug their own software. How much better is Yahoo going to get?
Any thoughts?
Dear Mr. Wales: Shame on You
Well, What do You Have to Say For Yourself?
Wikipedia Islam Entry Is CriticizedPosted February 8th, 2008 by BibliofutureInternet
An article about the Prophet Muhammad in the English-language Wikipedia has become the subject of an online protest in the last few weeks because of its representations of Muhammad, taken from medieval manuscripts.In addition to numerous e-mail messages sent to Wikipedia.org, an online petition cites a prohibition in Islam on images of people.The petition has more than 80,000 “signatures,” though many who submitted them to ThePetitionSite.com, remained anonymous.
“We have been noticing a lot more similar sounding, similar looking e-mails beginning mid-January,” said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco, which administers the various online encyclopedias in more than 250 languages.
I have a sense that this could be another example of Western concepts of free speach clashing with religious law. It would be easy for me to write this away as extremism on the part of those signing petitions.
Yet part of me, the part that has a deep respect for all faiths wishes to step in and be peace maker. The power of symbols and religous teachings is something that is sadly eclipsed by a society glutted on a swell of technology and information. The irony is that we have gotten to be less tollerant of foreign beliefs and traditions. It is a further irony that Americans since 9/11 have left most of their trust in the hands of politicians and journalists. We seem to lack an essential sense of knowing what is fear, and what is ignorance. We equate an abundance of information with quality. We assume today's editorialism is responisble, credible, and ethically motivated journalism because it can always flash the iconic imagery of 9/1. It is the oppression of freedom on our TV screens as a reminder.
It may seem I am off the beaten track. Yet if the story above was about a cartoon of Mary Magdalene kissing Christ or was an attack on the Pope I am certain that there would be an uproar in the press. I also think that it would be treated differently. There is a demonization currently occuring in the Western press of Musilm people. Most Americans are taught wrongly to fear Musilm people. What American's should fear is the loss of their constitutional rights. We should be more afraid of what is happening in Washington.
I am pretty sure that most people would like to stop being afraid. People would like to go on with matters other than the war in Iraq. Small matters like the economy, the national debt, and the upcoming presidential election. So why should we care about a wikipedia entry? Well, good question.
In of itself it has no direct impact on my life. But as an example of a lack of peer reviewed sources, it can be seen as more evidence of the trend of the Internet. With all new technologies there are responsibilities. Most hard core enthusiast in the virtual world equate the Internet with unlimited and open sourced structures in its matrix. Very little thought seems to enter into the dialog about the long term effects of its rubric on culture by enlarge. Educators and librarians (yes I think of them in separate terms-different can of worms, sorry) do seem to be interested in the impact of the Internet on culture, but it remains to be seen what the Internet has to say about its heritage. It seems to busy being the Internet to talk about itself.
Wiki has grown into a kind of corporate poster child of feckless scholarship. Its founder and guru Jimmy Wales defends it as having a charitable responsibility towards have nots of the world. There is a long history of that defense too. This defense offends a lot of professors and librarians, too. It offends publishers of encyclopedias and textbooks. It offends English teachers with red pens flaring away. It is the bounty and bane of the information scene. During my two years in library school I heard at least ten polemics for every sigh of relief from an undergrad when wiki was brought up in conversation.
The point is that it is here to stay. Learning to love it like an underachiever or juvenile class may not be the best choice. It may come a time when we must understand the cost and quality of free things at the cost of everything else that is cherished. Who will? Certainly not Mr. Wales. He seems to enjoy pissing off people. It’s a talent of his.
Is it not strange that by the time I post this the Internet has grown by nearly incalculable leaps, that it has changed the nature of information and exchange for billions? It has created an image of our culture, and others. But who is minding the images. And is anyone stopping to see it done right?
Any thoughts?
Here is a link to the story:
Come on People!
What is the Real Issue Here?
There is a story at Library Journal about the rape of a 6-year-old boy in the New Bedford Free Public Library, MA. Officials now want to restrict children to visiting the library and only under the supervision of their parents or adult guardian. In addition all visitors would be required to sign in with ID and there would be an increase of security and cameras.
I agree with all of these measures. They seem perfectly sensible to me and the response of authorities attempting to restore safety and order to a public sphere. So what's the duff? According to state authorities their is heavy price tag of $50,000 to supply these safety measures and the article goes on to state: The American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts cautioned that laws aimed at limiting where sex offenders can go will deter them from registering with local communities, as required, according to South Coast Today. The newspaper editorialized that “I.D. cards have questionable preventative value,” and “Barring any group from using a public library is virtually without precedent.”
There seems to be a sense of unreality to library politics at times. No one questions the absolute paramount importance of making our libraries, schools, and other public venues a haven for children. However, I have noted that some people seem to feel a strange kind of liberal guilt in the face of enforcing order on their environments. I consider myself a liberal. However, I am a sensible one. I understand that we live in a world of dangers. I also know that there is such a thing as evil. If I were a resident of that state I would have no problem with these security measures. I would insist on them. I am almost certain that most honest or like minded people like myself would agree that if that is what it takes it is far better than risking one more child.
Librarians and other civil servants are defensive when they should sometimes trust that the public would understand.I think it is absurd nonsense of the paper to suggest that there is no precedent. The horrible attack on this boy IS THE REASON FOR SUCH MEASURES. I am an uncle, to several nieces and nephew and feel a natural obligation as a librarian to support the cause of parents in making public ways safe. Everyone is familiar with the old saying: It takes a village to raise a child. Does that not mean that a community as a whole takes responsibility in making their public ways safe? If the Civil Liberty Union is so hungry for work may I suggest they go after the real criminals for a change? Why not start in Washington, for instance.
Any thoughts?
Here is a link to the story:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6528982.html
There is a story at Library Journal about the rape of a 6-year-old boy in the New Bedford Free Public Library, MA. Officials now want to restrict children to visiting the library and only under the supervision of their parents or adult guardian. In addition all visitors would be required to sign in with ID and there would be an increase of security and cameras.
I agree with all of these measures. They seem perfectly sensible to me and the response of authorities attempting to restore safety and order to a public sphere. So what's the duff? According to state authorities their is heavy price tag of $50,000 to supply these safety measures and the article goes on to state: The American Civil Liberties Union in Massachusetts cautioned that laws aimed at limiting where sex offenders can go will deter them from registering with local communities, as required, according to South Coast Today. The newspaper editorialized that “I.D. cards have questionable preventative value,” and “Barring any group from using a public library is virtually without precedent.”
There seems to be a sense of unreality to library politics at times. No one questions the absolute paramount importance of making our libraries, schools, and other public venues a haven for children. However, I have noted that some people seem to feel a strange kind of liberal guilt in the face of enforcing order on their environments. I consider myself a liberal. However, I am a sensible one. I understand that we live in a world of dangers. I also know that there is such a thing as evil. If I were a resident of that state I would have no problem with these security measures. I would insist on them. I am almost certain that most honest or like minded people like myself would agree that if that is what it takes it is far better than risking one more child.
Librarians and other civil servants are defensive when they should sometimes trust that the public would understand.I think it is absurd nonsense of the paper to suggest that there is no precedent. The horrible attack on this boy IS THE REASON FOR SUCH MEASURES. I am an uncle, to several nieces and nephew and feel a natural obligation as a librarian to support the cause of parents in making public ways safe. Everyone is familiar with the old saying: It takes a village to raise a child. Does that not mean that a community as a whole takes responsibility in making their public ways safe? If the Civil Liberty Union is so hungry for work may I suggest they go after the real criminals for a change? Why not start in Washington, for instance.
Any thoughts?
Here is a link to the story:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6528982.html
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Needed Funding
LSTA Budget Shot in the Arm
For the third straight year, President George W. Bush has proposed that the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) include $171.5 million for state grants, which would be sufficient to implement a 2003 law aimed at more equitably distributing the grants. For FY07, Congress appropriated $163.7 million for the states and, for FY08, it appropriated $160.9 million.The American Library Association (ALA) applauded Bush’s funding request, which for LSTA grant components replicated his funding proposals for FY08, all of which were reduced by Congress. He proposed $12.7 million for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries, an increase of $556,000 over FY08.He proposed $26.5 million for the Recruitment of Librarians for the 21st Century, an increase of $3.2 million over FY08. He proposed $3.7 million for Native Americans Library Services, an increase of $143,000 over FY08. He also proposed $3.5 million for library policy, research, and statistics (included in the administration total), an increase of $1.54 million over FY 2008.
I am happy to see any increase on the state level to funding. I find it suspicious, however. The cynic in me raises an eyebrow in scrutiny. The Bush family has made as many cuts as it has contributions. Consider the EPA funding cut (2.0 million from the library system's $2.5 million budget for Fiscal 2007), and Jeb Bush's attacks on the Florida State Library come to mind (Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slashed a total of $5.8 million in grants to public libraries). Bush may wish to leave behind a legacy of endowing future libraries, but unlike the Orwellian nightmare that I remember the first 8 years of this millennium, he will be hard press to cover the horrible facts of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina (remember he cut funding on that score-In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suffered a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding) and his human rights violations such as phone tapping and torturing prisoners of war. To me this seems like a bone tossed in the name of public approval ratings which have been low for a long time now.
The picture of the ALA clapping their hands in gratitude to this hand out makes me laugh. It does little to leave a warm squishy feeling in me concerning anyone with the last name of Bush. In fact from now on any object, person, or otherwise that uses the title "bush" shall not be mentioned by polite and conscious tempered individuals. From now on (for example) Moses in the Bible didn't consult a burning bush, but a burning green leafy thing. The eyebrows on Moses are not bushy, they are eye-staches. After wandering the desert old Moses was heard to say he was very tired, in other words, NOT bushed, but damn tired. So let us review. Not Bush, but something (anything but "---") anything else, just not the "---". Perhaps we can learn from J.K. Rowling who created a character who was so wicked and bad that no one dared say its name, except for one, the boy who lived. However, I am not that boy.
The reason for my post is to remind everyone to remember every time a library is closed, or a professional librarian loses their job to a part time employee. Remember when as a librarian you must make cuts in staffing or services. Never forget the past. By forgetting the past we are doomed to be entombed in it.
Any thoughts?
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6529533.html
For the third straight year, President George W. Bush has proposed that the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) include $171.5 million for state grants, which would be sufficient to implement a 2003 law aimed at more equitably distributing the grants. For FY07, Congress appropriated $163.7 million for the states and, for FY08, it appropriated $160.9 million.The American Library Association (ALA) applauded Bush’s funding request, which for LSTA grant components replicated his funding proposals for FY08, all of which were reduced by Congress. He proposed $12.7 million for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries, an increase of $556,000 over FY08.He proposed $26.5 million for the Recruitment of Librarians for the 21st Century, an increase of $3.2 million over FY08. He proposed $3.7 million for Native Americans Library Services, an increase of $143,000 over FY08. He also proposed $3.5 million for library policy, research, and statistics (included in the administration total), an increase of $1.54 million over FY 2008.
I am happy to see any increase on the state level to funding. I find it suspicious, however. The cynic in me raises an eyebrow in scrutiny. The Bush family has made as many cuts as it has contributions. Consider the EPA funding cut (2.0 million from the library system's $2.5 million budget for Fiscal 2007), and Jeb Bush's attacks on the Florida State Library come to mind (Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slashed a total of $5.8 million in grants to public libraries). Bush may wish to leave behind a legacy of endowing future libraries, but unlike the Orwellian nightmare that I remember the first 8 years of this millennium, he will be hard press to cover the horrible facts of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina (remember he cut funding on that score-In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suffered a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding) and his human rights violations such as phone tapping and torturing prisoners of war. To me this seems like a bone tossed in the name of public approval ratings which have been low for a long time now.
The picture of the ALA clapping their hands in gratitude to this hand out makes me laugh. It does little to leave a warm squishy feeling in me concerning anyone with the last name of Bush. In fact from now on any object, person, or otherwise that uses the title "bush" shall not be mentioned by polite and conscious tempered individuals. From now on (for example) Moses in the Bible didn't consult a burning bush, but a burning green leafy thing. The eyebrows on Moses are not bushy, they are eye-staches. After wandering the desert old Moses was heard to say he was very tired, in other words, NOT bushed, but damn tired. So let us review. Not Bush, but something (anything but "---") anything else, just not the "---". Perhaps we can learn from J.K. Rowling who created a character who was so wicked and bad that no one dared say its name, except for one, the boy who lived. However, I am not that boy.
The reason for my post is to remind everyone to remember every time a library is closed, or a professional librarian loses their job to a part time employee. Remember when as a librarian you must make cuts in staffing or services. Never forget the past. By forgetting the past we are doomed to be entombed in it.
Any thoughts?
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6529533.html
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Surving a Change of Command
New Boss Blues
Recently I was speaking by email to a friend who works in a nearby public library. She was telling me about how staff changes, along with most significantly a change in the directorship has left her feeling frustrated. Several of her long time co-workers (who were good friends) had been downsized and even her hours had been cut.
I began thinking of all the bad bosses I have had. Then I remembered the advice I have received over the years. Some of it has been good, some it worthless. But the following is good. Its not easy, but it does work. I brushed up on my points of reference so pay head to the link below. It is written by experts in managing employee relations.
Over all:
You must demonstrate a kind of proactive approach to circumstances in which face you. If you are not on the chopping block straight away there are lots of things you can do to make a difference.
The following is a synthesis from:
http://www.iaap-hq.org/ResearchTrends/same_job_new_boss.htm
1. This new person is not your old boss. Don't think of or treat this new leader like your old one.
2. Learn as much as you can about this new person. Don't bury yourself and hope that you will be left alone. Go to every meet you can and learn how your new boss works. Try and contact her previous employer and staff discretely and get the skinny from them about her.
3. Give her space. The first couple of weeks can be jarring for her as well as you. Don't expect to find her rather busy settling in. Don't be a buzzard. Be approachable, however.
4. Set goals with expected deadlines. As soon as you can, sit with her and discuss what her vision is of the library and what she expects from you. She will be glad to take the time to lay out expectations if she is a good director.
5. Continue to meet. This may be informal chats on the floor but that could be your directors way of communicating important instructions. Study her working habits. Is she out on the floor a lot or is she in her office on the phone all the time or avoiding you. That could be a very important sign. Some manager like to keep it informal. Others like to only discuss performance issues quietly.
6. Evaluating meetings. You may find at some point things change. Go with it. Smile. I have had circumstances as a supervisor myself where I had to enforce policy but did not have the option of explaining why, or even the change of a policy. Do not assume you know all the facts. Work to open communication on your part. Employees must have an open door policy if they want to succeed with their manager.
7. Be realistic. If after all of this you find there is a problem, and that you have remained open and flexible, that you haven't taken this new person for granted and given them a chance to do your job, then you can approach them to discuss your issues. If that doesn't work then your HR department can be approached.
I keep a journal of my work experiences and sometime I will record incidents so that I will have a clearer picture of what occurred. However, do not share your opinions too openly.
Be positive. My mother once told me after I came home from a job in a hardware store. (I had a new supervisor, the nephew of the owner of the store). She said I needed to sit still and stop complaining. She had just gotten home from work and was tired. She needed to cook dinner for us. The sink in the kitchen was full of dishes from breakfast and from that afternoon.She turned to me and said, David, watch closely. Slowly she pulled each dirty dish from the sink. She stacked them up neatly. She divided the spoons from the forks and dirty plates and bowls. She set the skillet to the side and then filled the sink with hot water and dish soap. She began cleaning them one at a time and setting them in the dish drainer. Eventually she finished. She dried the dishes and then put them away. Then she pulled down a glass from the cupboard and poured me a coke.
"You see? Now isn't that better?"
Any thoughts?
Here are some links about dealing with bad bosses. Good Luck!
http://www.techdarkside.com/?p=141
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Goodwin77.html
http://positivesharing.com/2007/01/how-to-deal-with-a-bad-boss/
Recently I was speaking by email to a friend who works in a nearby public library. She was telling me about how staff changes, along with most significantly a change in the directorship has left her feeling frustrated. Several of her long time co-workers (who were good friends) had been downsized and even her hours had been cut.
I began thinking of all the bad bosses I have had. Then I remembered the advice I have received over the years. Some of it has been good, some it worthless. But the following is good. Its not easy, but it does work. I brushed up on my points of reference so pay head to the link below. It is written by experts in managing employee relations.
Over all:
You must demonstrate a kind of proactive approach to circumstances in which face you. If you are not on the chopping block straight away there are lots of things you can do to make a difference.
The following is a synthesis from:
http://www.iaap-hq.org/ResearchTrends/same_job_new_boss.htm
1. This new person is not your old boss. Don't think of or treat this new leader like your old one.
2. Learn as much as you can about this new person. Don't bury yourself and hope that you will be left alone. Go to every meet you can and learn how your new boss works. Try and contact her previous employer and staff discretely and get the skinny from them about her.
3. Give her space. The first couple of weeks can be jarring for her as well as you. Don't expect to find her rather busy settling in. Don't be a buzzard. Be approachable, however.
4. Set goals with expected deadlines. As soon as you can, sit with her and discuss what her vision is of the library and what she expects from you. She will be glad to take the time to lay out expectations if she is a good director.
5. Continue to meet. This may be informal chats on the floor but that could be your directors way of communicating important instructions. Study her working habits. Is she out on the floor a lot or is she in her office on the phone all the time or avoiding you. That could be a very important sign. Some manager like to keep it informal. Others like to only discuss performance issues quietly.
6. Evaluating meetings. You may find at some point things change. Go with it. Smile. I have had circumstances as a supervisor myself where I had to enforce policy but did not have the option of explaining why, or even the change of a policy. Do not assume you know all the facts. Work to open communication on your part. Employees must have an open door policy if they want to succeed with their manager.
7. Be realistic. If after all of this you find there is a problem, and that you have remained open and flexible, that you haven't taken this new person for granted and given them a chance to do your job, then you can approach them to discuss your issues. If that doesn't work then your HR department can be approached.
I keep a journal of my work experiences and sometime I will record incidents so that I will have a clearer picture of what occurred. However, do not share your opinions too openly.
Be positive. My mother once told me after I came home from a job in a hardware store. (I had a new supervisor, the nephew of the owner of the store). She said I needed to sit still and stop complaining. She had just gotten home from work and was tired. She needed to cook dinner for us. The sink in the kitchen was full of dishes from breakfast and from that afternoon.She turned to me and said, David, watch closely. Slowly she pulled each dirty dish from the sink. She stacked them up neatly. She divided the spoons from the forks and dirty plates and bowls. She set the skillet to the side and then filled the sink with hot water and dish soap. She began cleaning them one at a time and setting them in the dish drainer. Eventually she finished. She dried the dishes and then put them away. Then she pulled down a glass from the cupboard and poured me a coke.
"You see? Now isn't that better?"
Any thoughts?
Here are some links about dealing with bad bosses. Good Luck!
http://www.techdarkside.com/?p=141
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Goodwin77.html
http://positivesharing.com/2007/01/how-to-deal-with-a-bad-boss/
Friday, February 1, 2008
The Dangers in Hiring Paraprofessionals
Why did I Even Get my MLIS if They are Going to Hire Clowns Like This?
New EBook Intergration Software
New Options For E Book Users In Libraries
TDNet Launches New eBook Manager
TDNet, Inc. (www.tdnet.com), a provider of e-resource access and management solutions, announced the launch of its new eBook Manager, which is designed to provide libraries with a tool for accessing, resolving, and managing ebooks. It can be used as a stand-alone service or integrated with TDNet’s Journal Manager.
The newest addition to TDNet’s suite of services, eBook Manager currently contains content from leading publishers: Elsevier, Oxford University Press, Springer, Electric eBook Publishing, and Blackwell Publishing; and from aggregators, including ebrary, ScienceDirect, NetLibrary, Knovel Library, IngentaConnect, Oxford Reference Online, MyiLibrary, and many other ebook suppliers. Free ebooks are also represented in the eBook Manager knowledgebase. TDNet’s eBook Manager is a module of TDNet One L2.0 suite of products.
As a stand-alone service, eBook Manager features a customizable A to Z interface that allows users to search and access ebook holdings, or when integrated with TDNet’s Journal Manager, users can perform simultaneous searches of both journals and ebooks. Additionally, users can resolve book citations and link to content at the book level using TDNet’s OpenURL link resolver service.
EBook Manager supports a wide variety of searching options: search for books only, combined book and journal search, or search via an independent book search screen. Users also can perform rapid searches for specific ebook content using book title, ISBN, volume, issue, edition, year, book author, editor, publisher, or vendor.
Source: TDNet, Inc.
I haven't had a chance to look at this yet in action, but it sounds cool. Having more flexibilty in searching is always a plus. The flexibilty of breaking down search into things as wide in options as ISBN, year, and publisher or vendor will also benefit library staff.
Any thoughts?
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40760
TDNet Launches New eBook Manager
TDNet, Inc. (www.tdnet.com), a provider of e-resource access and management solutions, announced the launch of its new eBook Manager, which is designed to provide libraries with a tool for accessing, resolving, and managing ebooks. It can be used as a stand-alone service or integrated with TDNet’s Journal Manager.
The newest addition to TDNet’s suite of services, eBook Manager currently contains content from leading publishers: Elsevier, Oxford University Press, Springer, Electric eBook Publishing, and Blackwell Publishing; and from aggregators, including ebrary, ScienceDirect, NetLibrary, Knovel Library, IngentaConnect, Oxford Reference Online, MyiLibrary, and many other ebook suppliers. Free ebooks are also represented in the eBook Manager knowledgebase. TDNet’s eBook Manager is a module of TDNet One L2.0 suite of products.
As a stand-alone service, eBook Manager features a customizable A to Z interface that allows users to search and access ebook holdings, or when integrated with TDNet’s Journal Manager, users can perform simultaneous searches of both journals and ebooks. Additionally, users can resolve book citations and link to content at the book level using TDNet’s OpenURL link resolver service.
EBook Manager supports a wide variety of searching options: search for books only, combined book and journal search, or search via an independent book search screen. Users also can perform rapid searches for specific ebook content using book title, ISBN, volume, issue, edition, year, book author, editor, publisher, or vendor.
Source: TDNet, Inc.
I haven't had a chance to look at this yet in action, but it sounds cool. Having more flexibilty in searching is always a plus. The flexibilty of breaking down search into things as wide in options as ISBN, year, and publisher or vendor will also benefit library staff.
Any thoughts?
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=40760
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