I suspect that Swine Flu is likely to be a common research question for reference departments around the world during the foreseeable future.  I have had an interest in the 1918 influenza epidemic pandemic for several years, and have spent some time this weekend keeping an eye on various resources.

Several good places to start:

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Swine Influenza. Reliable and up-to-date information from the U.S. Government.
• CDC Human Swine Flu Investigation.  This page is linked from the above page, but is worthy of its own reference as it details the current state of the outbreak.
• Wikipedia has several pages that are relevant:  A general information Swine influenza page, a 2009 swine flu outbreak page, and a 2009 swine flu outbreak in the United States page.  Each of these are especially valuable for their References and Further Reading pages.
• H1N1 Swine Flu Google Maps page.  This is an already sobering, world-wide view of the spread of the outbreak.  Note the legend detailing the meaning of the colors of the markers, as well as whether they contain dots.  Click on the markers for detailed information on that marker’s case(s).

Recognize that there will be a great deal of information pouring through various media, much of it guesswork and possibly incorrect.  Remember that the greatest strength of libraries is our offering not only unfettered access to information, but assisting users in using that information critically.

To illustrate this, I am also linking to one of the best articles I have read on the 1918 influenza pandemic, easily the worst outbreak in modern history:   The Site of origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its public health implications.  It details research into the origins of the outbreak, and makes a very strong case for the original location.  Note, however, that even though this was published over five years ago, most histories (including the Wikipedia link earlier in this paragraph) either ignore it or continue with various misconceptions based on incomplete research.

The lesson: encourage thoroughness and critical thinking in research, and recognize that many can and do get it wrong (but many can and do get it right, as well).

Google Book Search announced today that they were making public domain materials available for download.

In the Information Today article, it was stressed that the downloads were the pdf image files, and were not able to be keyword searched, as can be done through Google Books.

Also in the article was the announcement that the University of Michigan is making many of their scanned books available through the MBooks program. This will include not only public domain material, but also their collection of uncopyrightable works (think U.S. government publications), and works for which they have permission to make available.

This seems to be the start of a very beneficial undertaking…

from Open Access News