Google’s announcement today: the Google Search Appliance (for indexing and searching on server environments) has just added clustering to the results. It shouldn’t be too long before we see it filtering (ahem) down to the web search realm.
Clustering is not new; to see it in action check out Vivisimo’s Clusty search engine. I have long thought that, as long as it remains user-friendly (and usable) clustering is a fantastic way of narrowing searches.
from ResourceShelf
The World E-Book Library is holding an E-Book Fair starting on July 4th, 2007. In the two fairs it held in 2006, it made all of the content in the e-book library available for free for a one-month period. Mark your calendars….
from ResourceShelf
As discussed on the Infomancy blog, FISH was their response to the problems inherent in the current state of the OPAC (Online Public-Access Catalog). And their response? FISH (Free (as in kittens) Integrated Search Handler).
What’s the difference? Read their post, they explain it well. But you can also try it yourself.
As a note, I wonder when they made the decision that no current OPAC technology suited their needs? Evergreen is quite progressive in its approach, and I would need to really dig into each of their methods to discern how they are different. It isn’t a contest, however, and it is great to see the variety of access search tools in development.
Interesting, however, that all the best tools seem to be coming from groups other than the major vendors….
from Catalogablog
The text of this article makes it clear that this isn’t a case of a library eliminating periodicals, even print volumes (they are however, eliminating it as a technical services department and spreading the duties among other areas), but a strong examination of how one library adapted their personnel structure in order to better reflect changes in their services.
I actually find the “Provisional Organization for Communication” to be the most interesting change implemented. Self selecting from among six groups based on where you feel your job duties fit (and you can select more than one, if you overlap) strikes me as a very good way to establish who needs to communicate with whom, as well as enabling one to diagram the communication pathways in the organization. Its possible that an organizational structure could be developed from that process alone.
from ResourceShelf
Need an introduction to Open Source Software (OSS)? Want to understand what it can do for you? Check out Make The Move, a site that gives you an excellent overview of the benefits and considerations for switching to OSS.
Take the large number of people who work on Wikipedia and have them evaluate web pages, and what do you get? Wikisauri, a search engine from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.
The concept will be that the searches that Google et al. don’t do very well (a large number of sites that cannot be easily differentiated by a computer algorithm) will be evaluated by people, allowing for more accurate and relevant results.
Time will tell, as this is not the first time Wales has attempted to create a search engine.
from Open Access News
(12/24/06: TechCrunch has a screenshot)
PLoS ONE, created by the Public Library of Science, has launched. Open Access takes a terrific step forward!
from Open Access News
There’s a great article about the Georgia Public Library Service‘s Evergreen project on Linux.com. Well worth reading.
from NewsForge
Three interesting resources for information on deities and myths:
Ye Largishe List ov Gods & Spirits (“…currently serving 4862 gods, godesses, deities, avatars, incarnations, angels, demons and various spirits….”)
Encyclopedia Mythica (“…everything from A-gskw to Zveda Vechanyaya….”)
Godchecker.com (“…more Gods than you can shake a stick at”)
from MetaFilter
Library Web is a “rolling” news site that features articles of interest to the library profession.
from ResourceShelf
Although we still have two weeks left to generate a top ten news story, LISNews has their Ten Stories that Shaped 2006 list compiled.
from Web4Lib listserv
Yes, you are a library geek if you understand that the title does not refer to a quick workout plan, but to one of the best statistics resource for the U.S.
The Statistical Abstracts of the United States: 2007 is available online.
from ResourceShelf (other great links in this post, so check it out)
Yes, another Google beta: Google Patents lets you conduct full-text searches of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. What you get is not only the text of the patent, but the patent filing itself.
The Advanced Patent Search page lets you search by Patent Number, Inventor, Assignee, and more.
Well done!
from Official Google Blog
Noesis is one of the first Google Co-Op creations I have seen that is more than a “let’s try this out” website. What it does is lets you search for authoritative philosophical resources.
If you don’t quite understand why Google Co-Op is a big deal for libraries, educational institutions, and research in general, you really should look into it. Find out what people are doing with it, because these adaptations of Google may very well become more common than the generic keyword search of everything on the web that our patrons use today.
from Web4Lib listserv
This potential earthshaking announcement is buried in the awarding of a Mellon Grant to Maison Bisson for work on an innovative merging of blogging software and library catalogs (I’ll just say that it is detailed, and interesting, and could change the OPAC in ways we have only dreamed about).
I was only able to find the Creative Commons MARC records information in this blog post, so I will leave this as unconfirmed at this point. If it is accurate, however, it could be a great step towards making electronic records available to libraries with little or no budget for automation.
from Librarian.net (and read Jessamyn’s take on this… it spells out the potential of this announcement)
Do you have a favorite word? A favorite words list? Wordie is for you!
Wordie is, according to their page, “Like Flickr, but without the photos.” You can look up words, create your own list of words you like, and see people’s lists of words.
from TechCrunch
As an update to this post, it seems that the situation with the EPA library is getting worse.
Presumably in response to a congressional request to halt the closure of its libraries, the EPA is removing thousands of documents from its web servers, and has sold $40,000 worth of library furniture in their Chicago library for a total of $350. The woman who bought the furniture is estimating that she will re-sell it for $80,000 (perhaps when the EPA changes course again and buys its own furniture back).
(Darn! I could use a few good bookshelves right about now at a bargain price!)
from ResourceShelf
Software for Starving Students is simply that: a collection of freeware and open-source software that is able to be distributed to whomever could benefit.
I have been creating distribution CDs like this for my presentations on Open Source Software, and TheOpenCD has been around for a few years. These are great ways to discover what works and doesn’t work for you when it comes to no-cost software.
If you haven’t tried this stuff out, and don’t have the bandwidth to download TheOpenCD or SSS, send me an e-mail… I should be able to send you a CD loaded with the good stuff.
SSS from Gregarius
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Libology Blog
Established July 2006
ISSN: 1946-1852
by Rick Mason
