Update: News, New Resources and More from ResourceShelf

Fri Sep 3 10:46:16 EDT 2004

Hello from DC!

It has been a  VERY long time since I posted a ResourceShelf reminder
to the list. I know many of you stop by regularly but if you’ve
forgotten about us or have never visited an invite to do so.
http://www.resourceshelf.com
XML feed: http://www.resourceshelf.com/resourceshelf.xml

We also offer a free email reminder.

 ResourceShelf is updated daily with industry info, search news, new
resources ripe for cataloging, and more. Since my last post to this
list ResourceShelf now has three contributing editors (Shirl
Kennedy, Dan Giancaterino, and Steven Cohen) assisting with the
site.

We’re also beta testing a new site where the four of us post “just
released” full text reports from government organizations, ngo’s,
think tanks, etc. It’s called DocuTicker.
http://www.resourceshef.com/docuticker/

OK, now a few (just the tip of the iceberg) recent posts with direct
links to them. I hope you find them useful. Please visit the site to
see all of the content. THIS HAS BEEN A VERY BUSY WEEK.

Cheers,
Gary

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Reference Reviews
Peter Jacso's Digital Reference Shelf, September 2004 is Now Online
It looks as if Reed Elsevier might have a hit with their new Scopus
product. This month Dr. Jacso takes a look. We also include an
assessment by NFAIS’s Jill O’Neill.
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/review-of-elseviers-new-scopus.html

Focused Search Tools
Prototype: Creative Commons RDF-enhanced search
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/prototype-creative-commons-rdf.html

Digital Libraries--Glossaries
Source: California Digital Library (CDL)
Digital Library Building Blocks: Glossary
NOTE: THIS NEW TOOL WAS BUILT BY ROY TENNANT.  Kudos ROY!!!
So, you're reading an article or listening to a speaker. The topic is
digital libraries. And your eyes are s-l-o-w-l-y glazing over from
all the jargon. You feel like you should know more about this stuff,
but where do you even start if you can't talk the talk?

The glossary here -- actually an integrated collection of glossaries
-- is part of CDL's Digital Library Building Blocks resource
collection. It covers terms connected with:
+ Crawling and Harvesting
+ Digital Objects
+ Interface Customization Tools
+ Library and Technology
+ Linking Services
+ Metasearching
+ Preservation
+ XML
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/digital-library-building-blocks.html

The British Library
Source: NewMediaZero
Public denied online access to British Library's archive
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/free-australian-and-new-zealand.html

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Instant Messaging
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
Just Released Report, How Americans Use Instant Messaging
>From the Press Release: "2004 Pew Internet & American Life surveys
reveal that more than four in ten online Americans instant message
(IM). That reflects about 53 million American adults who use instant
messaging programs. About 11 million of them IM at work and they are
becoming fond of its capacity to encourage productivity and
interoffice cooperation."
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/new-report-how-americans-use-instant.html

ERIC
Education--Databases
The New ERIC Web Site and Search Interface Makes Debut
The new site went live this morning with more to come in October
(intro of more than 105,000 free full-text, non-journal ERIC
resources) and December (new records added to the database). In
addition to a new look to the web site, today's release includes the
launch of new search interface to the database (1966-2004) along with
personalization features via MyERIC.
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/new-eric-web-site-debuts-on-web.html

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Art--Web Resources
Image Databases
Source: Searcher
Looking for Good Art: Web Resources and Image Databases, Part 1
David Mattison offers up an EXCELLENT annotated compilation of
resources to find this type of material. This is a keeper! Kudos
David! I'm looking forward to Part 2.
See Also: In 2002 David wrote, "Images of History on the Web" for
Searcher
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/looking-for-good-art-web-resources-and.html
Information Retrieval
Information Visualization
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Structured Data: Another Search Startup From Stanford Gets Some Cash
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/09/another-search-related-startup-from.html

Web Search--Weblogs
What's the Buzz? For Your Radar Screen: Blabble.com
A new start-up joining the ranks of weblog tools, Blabble is aimed at
the corporate market. According to an Internet Retailer article, the
service will be fee-based when it officially launches in October. A
beta is currently available free online. The article reads like
Blabble will be something similar to what IBM is developing with
WebFountain. Blabble defines what they're doing as "thought
parsing."
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/08/radar-screen-blabblecom-and-something.html

Desktop Search
Source: SearchDay
Copernic Launches an Impressive and Free Desktop Search Tool
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/08/copernic-launches-impressive-and-free.html

Professional Reading Shelf
OCLC
OCLC Research Launches Searchable Repository
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/08/oclc-research-launches-searchable.html

Web Search Briefs
New, Search Engines 2
We're often asked if a directory of every general type search tool
exists. The answer is no. However, Michael Wong has just released an
impressive directory of over 12,500 search tools.
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/08/directory-of-over-12500-search-tools.html

Web Search
Source: NY Times
Letter to the Editor in The Times: A Non-Profit Web Engine?
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/08/letter-to-editor-in-times-non.html

Answer Engines
NOTE: Links at the bottom of this post to a couple of articles about
Kozoru which was recently mentioned on the list.

Source: The Economist
Answer Engine Research at Microsoft
We've mentioned and linked to articles about "answer engines"
numerous times on ResourceShelf. Some new stuff today. Here's an
article about the "Ask MSR" research at Microsoft from the current
issue of The Economist. From the article, "What is the next stage in
the evolution of internet search engines? AltaVista demonstrated that
indexing the entire world wide web was feasible. Google's success
stems from its uncanny ability to sort useful web pages from dross.
But the real prize will surely go to whomever can use the web to
deliver a straight answer to a straight question. And Eric Brill, a
researcher at Microsoft, intends that his firm will be the first to
do that...Ask MSR is still a prototype, although Microsoft is trying
to improve it and it may be launched commercially under the name
AnswerBot." If you would like to read more, take a look at these
papers from MS that have been linked on RS during the past year:
+ Automatic Question Answering: Beyond the Factoid
A 2004 paper by Eric Brill and Radu Soricut. This paper is mentioned
in the article.
--
+ "Web Question Answering: Is More Always Better?"
A 2002 paper by Microsoft researchers.
--
+ "An Analysis of the AskMSR Question-Answering System"
Another 2002 paper by Microsoft researchers.

We should also mention that Ask Jeeves is doing some interesting and
USEFUL work in this area with their Smart Search program. For
example, a search for academy awards best actress 1962 provides an
ANSWER (mined from the IMDB) not only provides links to answers BUT
an actual answer (with a link to the source) at the top of the
results list. Here's another example.
--
See Also: A Recent RS post about Kozoru
A Kansas City startup also doing work in this area.
See Also: A May 2004 RS Post about LearnitAll
Answer engine/knowledge extraction research at the University of
Washington.
--
See Also: ResourceShelfPLUS has a compilation of selected MS Search
Technical Reports and Patents
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/08/answer-engine-research-at-microsoft.html

--
Gary D. Price, MLIS
Librarian
Gary Price Library Research and Internet Consulting