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Welcome to ResourceShelf, where dedicated librarians and researchers share the results of their directed (and occasionally quirky) web searches for resources and information.
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and another OCLC acquisition…
From the announcement:
EZproxy, the leading software solution for serving library patrons remotely, has been acquired by OCLC from Useful Utilities of Peoria, Arizona. Useful Utilities founder Chris Zagar will join OCLC as a full-time consultant. Mr. Zagar will help ensure a smooth transition of EZproxy operations to OCLC…and assist OCLC in developing state-of-the-art authentication services for the cooperative.
Mr. Zagar, a librarian at the Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona, developed EZproxy to provide libraries a better solution for authenticating remote user access to licensed databases. EZproxy software allows libraries to manage access and authentication configurations through a proxy server so that library users do not have to make any configuration changes to their personal Web browsers.
Additionally, OCLC is planning to connect local instances of EZproxy to WorldCat.org, creating new value for licensees and their users. By surfacing EZproxy in WorldCat.org, end users outside of the library will have better access to library collections and services through WorldCat.
Read the Complete News Release
See Also: The Unofficial EZproxy Self-Support Wiki
UK: IPO looks at copyright change
The IPO has launched a consultation on how the laws should apply in the digital age. This follows the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, which recommended reforms to the law.
Among the priorities is that schools and universities should be able to make the most of digital technologies and facilitate distance learning, and libraries and universities should use technology to preserve valuable material before it deteriorates or the format in which it is stored becomes obsolete.
Other recommendations include expanding the exceptions from copyright to reflect the increased use of interactive whiteboards in education, and enabling extracts from books, plays and copies of broadcasts to be distributed digitally. Changes for libraries would allow the copying of sound recordings, films and broadcasts for preservation purposes and to change the format of works stored on obsolete or unstable media.
Source: Kable’s
The concept of “subject” in Information Science
by Hjørland, Birger (1992)
This article presents a theoretical investigation of the concept of ’subject’ or ’subject matter’ in library and information science. Most conceptions of ’subject’ in the literature are not explicit but implicit. Various indexing and classification theories. including automatic indexing and citation indexing, have their own more or less implicit concepts of subject. This fact puts the emphasis on making the implicit theories of ’subject matter’ explicit as the lirst step. A very close connection exists between what subjects are. and how we are to know them. Those researchers who place the subjects in the minds of the users have a conception of ’subject’ different to that possessed by those who regard the subject as a fixed property of the documents. The key to the definition of the concept of ’subject’ lies in the epistemological investigation of how we are going to know what we need to know about documents in order to describe them in a way which facilitates information retrieval. The second step therefore is an analysis ol the implicit epistemological conceptions in the major existing conceptions of ’subject’. The different conceptions of ’subject’ can therefore be classified into epistemological positions. e.g. ’subjective idealism’ (or the empiric/positivistic viewpoint), “objective idealism’(the rationalistic viewpoint),’pragmatism’ and ‘materialism/realism’. The third and final step is to propose a new theory of subject matter based on an explicit theory of knowledge. In this article this is done from the point of view or a realistic/materialistic epistemology’. From this standpoint the subject of a document is defined as the epistemological potentials of that document.
Source: Journal of Documentation 48(2):pp. 172-200. (via DLIST)
+ Facebook tops one list of ’slow and inaccessible’ social networks (via News.com)
++ Isabel Aguilera, CEO of Google Spain & Portugal, Leaving (via SEL)
++ Commentary: The Gap in Google’s Defense (via Forbes)
One person says it’s vertical search and uses Kayak travel search as an example. Surprised? Not at all! We’ve been talking about the power of vertical or specialty search since we first started blogging on ResourceShelf about seven years ago.
++ To embrace or flee Facebook? (via Inc.)
A Software Company’s Whimsical Widgets Were an Instant Hit. But Its Core Product was Getting Overshadowed. (Source: Inc.)
Greg Linden, founder and developer of the now gone, Findory, personalized news and blog service will be joining MS Live Labs as reported by Matt Hurst. Congrats to our friend Greg on his new job. Not only is Greg a really great guy but few have taught us and made us think more about personalization/customization/etc. than he has. Score one for Gary Flake and the MSFT Live Labs team. Congrats Greg!!! Please keep ResourceShelf up-to-date on Live Labs news and happenings.
UPDATE: More from Greg here.
More Free Content From Hoover’s!
This page provides an overview of the new free content and new page design that Hoover’s is offering at no charge. New features include job openings, new navigation, and more. The material is found on pages Hoover’s calls “factsheets.”
Example: MSFT
Source: Hoover’s
Fast Facts: Country Religious Demographic Profiles for 10 Nations
Stats and Facts for:
Brazil
Chile
Guatemala
India
Kenya
Nigeria
Philippines
South Africa
South Korea
United States
Source: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
The International Regional Magazines Association offers this massive directory of travel destination publications. From Arizona Highways to British Columbia Magazine to Vermont Life. All directly linked to actual publication.
Source: IRMA
New Health Topic Resources from MedlinePlus: Diabetes Complications
Source: MedlinePlus
Comparative civilian labor force statistics, 10 countries: a visual essay
32 pages; PDF.
Source: Monthly Labor Review
Posted 11 January 2008 on DocuTicker:
+ Insta-Americans: The Empowered (and Imperiled) Health Care Consumer in the Age of Internet Medicine (Center for Medicine in the Public Interest)
+ Insurers Maintain Record Profits in 2007 by Overpricing Policies and Underpaying Claims (Consumer Federation of America)
+ Information Security Breach at TSA: The Traveler Redress Website (U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform)
Web Tool of the Day: Mint Email: Create Temporary Email Adddresses
Quickly and easily create temporary email addresses that last for a certain amount of time. From 4 hours to 3 months. It’s a free service. From the site:
Do you need a temporary email address longer than four hours? If so, then you can create a mintemail.com email address for a certain duration. Whenever an email is sent to this new address, it will be instantly forwarded to your real email address. As a result, your real email address will always remain hidden.
Source; Mint Email
See Also: Coming Back Online Soon: numbr (Temporary, throw away, telephone numbers)
Other Tools that Might Be of interest (via KillerStartups.com)
+ Chat for Facebook, ChatIM
+ Swamii.com - The Search That Never Ends
+ ReadBurner.com - Tracking Google Reader Memes
+ Alatest.com - Product Tests And Reviews
This study examines the factors that influence instructors’ adoption and use of an Internet-based course management system and tests the applicability of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), introduced by Davis (1986), in the context of e-learning practices in higher education. Using data from an online survey of a university’s instructors (N=191), a path analysis revealed that perceived ease of use of the system had a significant impact on perceived usefulness as the TAM suggested. In addition, a direct effect of perceived usefulness on behavioral intention to use and an indirect effect of the variable on actual system use, both of which were proposed in the TAM, were also found. Further, motivation to use the system played a significant role in affecting perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, evaluation of functions, current system use, and behavioral intention to keep using the system. This study suggests that integration of the TAM and the uses and gratification approach can be fruitful for future research on the diffusion of Internet-based technological systems.
Source: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Here’s a selected list of several search-related patent applications that were published on January 10, 2007. To access go to USPTO site and search by patent number. We list the assignee when available and also posted the abstract for a few that we find the most interesting.
Title: System & Method of Delivering Content Based Advertising
Assignee: NA
#: 20080010270
Title: User-sensitive pagerank
Assignee: Yahoo
#: 20080010281
Title: Bookmarks And Ranking
Assignee: Google
#: 20080010252
A system receives bookmarks associated with one or more documents or sites. The system searches a corpus of documents to obtain search results and ranks the search results using the received bookmarks.
Title: Advertising using a combination of video and banner advertisements
Assignee: Microsoft
#: 20080010654
In a system that includes a processor and a display device on which video programming can be displayed, a method for transitioning to a video advertisement by displaying a related banner advertisement. The method includes generating, on the display device, a display screen on which a video advertisement is to be displayed, the display screen being generated at a time before a time at which the video advertisement is available to be displayed. A banner advertisement is displayed on the display screen at a region that coincides with a region where the video advertisement is to be displayed. The banner advertisement can have a subject matter that is related to that of the video advertisement or alternatively have any subject matter. When the video advertisement becomes available to be displayed, the method can include replacing the banner advertisement with the video advertisement.
Title: System And Method For Providing An Improved Graphical User Interface For Search
Assignee: NA
#: 20080010607
Title: Techniques for clustering structurally similar web pages
Assignee: Yahoo
#: 20080010291
Title: Relevance ranked faceted metadata search method
Assignee: Executive Development Corporation (d/b/a LIesiant Corporation)
#: 20080010276
Title: Automatic relevance and variety checking for web and vertical search engines
Assignee: Yahoo
#: 20080010269
Techniques for automatically checking the relevance and variety of search results are provided. A query is submitted to a search engine, which uses a search algorithm to obtain search results based on the query. A set of the top n related terms for the query is identified. For each related term in the set of terms, its relative frequency in relation to all terms in the set of terms is determined. If the term does not occur in any of the results, then a loss in variety proportional to the relative term frequency for the term has occurred. Otherwise, the relevance of the search results is calculated by comparing the proportion of results containing the term with the relative term frequency for a term. This process is repeated for all terms in the set of related terms to produce a total variety and relevance for the results.
Title: Relevance ranked faceted metadata search method
Assignee: NA
#: 20080010264
One embodiment of the invention may include a method for searching electronic information to produce search results based on a taxonomy item, a user-controllable threshold, and a user-controllable weighting factor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Title: Search engine
Assignee: NA
#: 20080010263
Title: Temporal Search Query Personalization
Assignee: AOL
#: 20080010253
A user is made able to configure a search query to be responsive to temporal factors in order to adjust the search query to more accurately reflect the user’s true information need. By adjusting the search query in this way, the user is more likely to receive satisfactory search results.
Title: Trust information management system
Assignee: 20080010180
#: Lehman Brothers Inc
Title: Secure and extensible pay per action online advertising
Assignee: 20080010143
#: NA
Title: On-line marketing optimization and design method and system
Assignee: Internet Real Estate Holdings LLC
#: 20080010142
Title: Infused Keywords
Assignee: NA
#: 20080010138
Partial Abstract: A method and system for allowing a regional advertiser or publisher or merchant to assemble one or more natural language phrases: from information about the advertiser or publisher or merchant, from the region in which they wish to associate, from natural language phrases with which they wish to associate, from data feeds, and from programmatic instructions they wish to convey.
Title: Syndicated Trackable Ad Content
Assignee: NA
#: 20080010112
Title: Authorized Mobile Content Search Results
Assignee: NA
#: 20080009268
Title: Natural Language Based Location Query System, Keyword Based Location Query System And A Natural Language And Keyword Based Location Query System
Assignee: NA
#: NEC (China) Co., LTD.
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