ILibrarian blog: latest posts

The "ILibrarian" blog posted information (24/1/08) about case study report on "Libraries and Facebook". The report provides an overview of Facebook, a brief literature review, details the project’s use of the Facebook social network, discusses Facebook groups, applications, and pages of interest to libraries, and recommends best practices for using Facebook as a librarian.

Other interesting posts are: Academic Library Blogging Book (24/1/08), 7 Things You Should Know About Lulu (web-based self-publishing service)(23/1/08), Online Higher Education ranking (23/1/08), Gamimg to Develop Research skills (18/1/08), Changing the Way We Work(16/1/08), Library use "IGoogle" as start page (15/1/08), 10 Blogs To Read In 2008 ( 14/1/08)

Elsevier Library Connect Newsletter, no.1, 2008

In this newsletter:
* Sign up for Research Trends: To fulfill the increasing demand for high-quality research performance measurement (RPM) and trend-related information, the Scopus team recently launched Research Trends, a free bimonthly e-newsletter delivering updates on developments, approaches and tools in this area. Launched in October 2007, Research Trends provides objective, up-to-the-minute news on scientific trends as well as articles based on bibliometric data. The articles are written by experts in the field of bibliometrics. Each issue focuses on five categories: the value of bibliometric measures, research trends, country trends, expert opinion and citation choices of individual authors. Developed for deans, faculty heads, researchers, funding bodies, ranking agencies and research libraries, Research Trends aims to be an essential source of information for the research community at large: www.researchtrends.com
* How marketing can help increase the value of e-resource investments: Five key findings
1. Interpersonal connections make the difference
2. Training is a key component of the marketing mix
3. Never underestimate the importance of a librarian
4. Interactive promotions are effective
5. Repetition is important
* Research watch
- Academic libraries positively impact student retention
- Assessing library instruction indicates lasting results
* Community connections
- European libraries feel effects of VAT on e-publications: At the moment, many libraries are hanging in limbo, stuck between traditional print materials and the advancement of electronic publications. Statistics tracked by libraries often compare usage metrics and budget percentages allotted for each format so as to try and find a happy medium for users who prefer holding physical forms of information in their hands and users who routinely conduct research using online resources.
- Study shows migration to online books saves libraries money and increases usage: The availability of digital journals is without doubt one of the cornerstones of today’s academic library. Thousands of STM journals are currently accessible via increasingly sophisticated electronic platforms like ScienceDirect. Now, many publishers, including Elsevier, are making significant progress in bringing book content online.
* Staying connected
- Want to learn more about tagging and RSS? Visit the Elsevier TrainingDesk and register for a free topic-focused online training. The TrainingDesk also offers downloadable presentations, tutorials, practice exercises and reference materials covering best-practice use of Elsevier electronic products. While visiting the TrainingDesk site, take a look at the blog and wiki.www.trainingdesk.elsevier.com
- Reprints Desk delivering ScienceDirect articles: Since November 2007, Elsevier has been partnering with Reprints Desk, a new content re-purposing company focused on medical and scientific publishing, to provide full-service article delivery. Through this initiative, customers can order individual articles from over 2,000 scientific journals published by Elsevier and receive the articles electronically or in print. Reprints Desk delivers articles in their original format and color, either in PDF or in professionally printed hardcopy: www.reprintsdesk.com
- Academic Database Assessment Tool: JISC Collections, in partnership with DataSalon Ltd., UK, has created the Academic Database Assessment Tool — a free online database comparison tool. Librarians can use it to evaluate and make purchasing decisions for online resources. The tool provides title lists for bibliographic and fulltext databases, plus service information regarding content platforms. Sponsors include Scopus, Engineering Village and EMBASE.com, as well as Thomson Scientific and ProQuest: www.jisc-adat.com/adat/home.pl
Click on the TITLE to access this newsletter. Even if it is addressing librarians, can be very useful to the researchers and academics to read.

UKSG Serials-eNews

In the Current UKSG Serials-eNews, no. 161, 11 Jan 2008, the following news are noteworthy:

* UKSG seminar report: Caught up in web 2.0? Feedback from Web 2.0 seminar. Presenters from Ingenta, CABI, Talis, etc. talked about the "the web 2.0 emphasis is on public sharing of data and enabling improved communication", "Blogs have also been used to replace email communication between library staff", "some advice on the use of web 2.0 concepts in web page design", "a publisher's view of web 2.0 and talked about the move from formal to informal scholarly communication", "number of case studies describe the use of social software for the presentation of reading lists", " about web 2.0 in relation to library management and catalogue systems", "the life of an avatar inside the virtual world, Second Life".

* Cambridge Journals Online. 2007 has been a significant year for Cambridge Journals, marking their tenth year of online journals publishing. Some key new developments were released by Cambridge Journals Online in December

* Thomson Scientific launches journal citation impact forum. Thomson Scientific have launched an online Citation Impact Forum aimed at promoting scholarly discussion about all facets of citation-based research evaluation - from Thomson Scientific's own influential Journal Impact Factor to emerging citation metrics, such as the h-index.

* Discussion paper: the identification of digital book content. An important discussion paper on the identification of digital content, written for BIC and the Book Industry Study Group in the US by Michael Holdsworth, has been published. It can be freely accessed on the website.

* CrossRef passes 30 million DOI mark. CrossRef recently registered its 30 millionth DOI. While the majority of CrossRef's Digital Object IdentifiersR (DOIs) are assigned to online journal articles, there are now over 2.5 million DOI names assigned to other types of publications, including conference proceedings, dissertations, books, datasets, and technical reports. Over 2,400 publishers and societies participate in CrossRef linking.

* JSTOR and the journal 'Science'. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has reversed its earlier decision to pull its flagship publication, Science, from JSTOR, the scholarly electronic journals archive. Officials issued this statement: "AAAS and JSTOR are pleased to announce that we have concluded an ongoing discussion and have been able to reach an agreement to continue what has been a very productive relationship between JSTOR and the journal Science."

* Wiley-Blackwell takes on journals. Wiley-Blackwell have formed two new publishing partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region. They will publish Basic & Applied Pathology and Pacific Focus from 2008. The have also been selected by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) to publish IUBMB Life.

Other announcement of interest are: Nature Archive go live; Nature GeoScience launched (the library order it for the Faculty of Science); Nature Publishing launches Mucosal Immunology; Future present: changing your environment with e-books? EBSCO digitises backfile for International Political Science Abstracts

SAOUG Workshop

Southern African Online User Group in conjunction with South African Online Information Services are delighted to bring you a talk with a difference!

Date: Monday, 18 February 2008
Venue: Goldenpipit, End Street 241, Centurion. Tel. 012-654 3009
(see http://www.goldenpipit.co.za/map.htm for map)
Time: 11:30 – 15:00
Cost: R50 for paid-up members; R80 for non-members

Programme:
11:30 -12:00 Registration
12:00 -13:00 Financial Strategic Planning for Libraries by Dave Crawford
13:00 - 15:00 Lunch

Financial Strategic Planning for Libraries
Do you hate that time of year when you’re asked to put in your budgets for your information services? Do you absolutely hate trying to second-guess what the Rand is going to do against a basket of foreign currencies, or what nasty surprises the Minister of Finance/Receiver of Revenue have tucked up their expensively tailored sleeves with regard to VAT or other tax implications for your services? Do you wish that courses on Basic Bookkeeping 101/Excel 101/Financial Planning for Non-Financial Managers had been included in your LIS subjects for compulsory attendance? Do you absolutely loathe and detest your vendors and the publishers when they won’t reveal how their annual subscription price increases can be justified? Is there NO ONE your institution that understands Library Finance? Are you a lonely little librarian in your weedy petunia patch of onion-like finance bulbs? Do you still count on your fingers?
If you’ve answered yes to at least one of these questions, then you absolutely have to come and hear what Dave Crawford has to say! Dave Crawford is Chief Financial Planner of Crawford Employee Financial Guidance and oversees financial education. He has been involved in this work since 1992 and Writes regularly for the Sunday Times answering reader queries in the Rands and Sense column. He also hosted a financial program on Radio Today for four years.

Please RSVP by Friday 11 February 2008 to Christa on:
E-mail: christaf@saonlineinfo.co.za

World Resources 2005: The Wealth of the Poor

I have just posted this on the UJ Science Librarian Blog, but I thought that some of the Info's will find this e-book of interest to their Departments. The latest 2005 edition of World Resources book is available free online (Click on the TITLE for access). The book can be useful as reference source for many UJ students and academics. We have in print some old edditions in the library. See below a short Table of Content:

Part 1: The Wealth of the Poor
* Chapter 1: Nature, Power and Poverty
* Chapter 2: Ecosystems and the Livelihoods of the poor
* Chapter 3: The role of governance
* Chapter 4: Four steps to greater environmental income
* Chapter 5: Turning natural assets into wealth: Case Studies ( NATURE IN LOCAL HANDS: The Case for Namibia’s Conservancies; Regenerating Woodlands: Tanzania's HASHI Project)
* Special section - Global development policies: Making MDGs and PRSPs work for the poor and the environment
Part 2: Data Tables (The World Resources 2005 data tables present information for 155 countries). The following statistics are available: Population & Education; Human Health; Gender & Development; Income & Poverty; Economics & Financial Flows; Institutions & Governance; Energy; Climate & Atmosphere; Water Resources & Fisheries; Biodiversity; Land Use & Human Settlements; Food & Agriculture.
References

Carrot2: New Open Source Search Results Clustering Engine

My previous post informed you about this new "Wikia Search Engine" that is available on the Internet since last week, and today I learned from Mary Ellen Bates newsletter that there is another new search engine available for Info's to explore in time of desperate need. This is what Mary says about Carrot2.

Carrot2 (http://demo.carrot2.org), an open source search-results-clustering engine, just recently out in beta. In a nutshell, it takes search results, analyzes them and, on the fly, creates groups of the most common concepts or terms from those results. Since this is all done by algorithms rather than by humans, expect the odd result every once in a while, but I found the clusters to be consistently useful.
Carrot2's default is to search the web using eTools.ch, a Swiss meta-search engine that queries 10 search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN. However, since eTools only returns the top 20 results from each search engine, I prefer not to use eTool search results. Instead, you can click a tab to limit your search to Google, Yahoo, MSN, Wikipedia, PubMed and a few other finding tools. Because clustering is a computationally intensive process, Carrot2 limits the search results by default to the top 100 results from any of the search engines. However, you can click the Show Options link and set Carrot2 to search and sort up to 400 results. (Note that increasing the number of search results also increases the number of results from each search engine when using the eTools meta-search engine from 20 to 40.)
Geek that I am, I find it even more intriguing that, under that "Show Options" link is a pull-down menu that lets you select which of six different sorting algorithms you want to use. The clustering results are dramatically different (although keep in mind that the search results themselves stay the same -- only the clusters change). With my "social capital" search, I was able to see a variety of groupings of my search results, and identify some of the key writers and terms.
Carrot2 may not be your day-to-day search tool, but it is tremendously useful for those searches in which it is difficult to sift the wheat from the chaff. www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html.

P.S. I have just had a look at this Search Engine. It is not difficult to use and explore. I will add direct link on this blog, so it will be easier for you to access when you need.

New Wikia Search Engine comes to Live

The latest Web 2.0 development tool " Wikia Search Engine" has been made available on Monday, 7th of January 2008. Below are some articles links that can give you an idea of what this search engine is all about. You can do some more searches or visit directly www.wikia.com or http://alpha.search.wikia.com . Click on "About us" option to learn more about this site. Create an account to create a wiki, to upload files and images and other features.

* The New York Times article dated 7th of January 2008, discusses the new Wikia Search Engine, which early version was made available on Monday. Jimmy Wales the co-founder of Wikipedia in 2001 is again behind the 2008 new Internet search engine, Wikia Search, at www.wikia.com. Like Wikipedia, he plans to rely on a “wiki” model, a voluntary collaboration of people, to fine-tune the Wikia search engine. When it starts up Monday, the service will rank pages based on a relatively simple algorithm. Users will be allowed and encouraged to rate search results for quality and relevance. Wikia will gradually incorporate that feedback in its rankings of Web pages to deliver increasingly useful answers to people’s questions. The Wikia search engine will be an open-source project, whose programming code and data will be available to anyone, he said. (Wiki Citizens Taking on a New Area: Searching, By MIGUEL HELFT,

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/technology/07wiki.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin)

* Wikia Search finds few fans in early going, By Marcus Browne , 8th Jan 2008: Since its launch on Monday much debate has arisen surrounding its validity, its potential to compete against search giants such as Google and Yahoo, and its current performance--which, according to many reports, is unsatisfactory. The search engine also comes complete with several other functions, including a social-networking site, and a "miniarticles" function--a stub of a full wiki page that appears above popular search terms.

http://www.news.com/Wikia-Search-finds-few-fans-in-early-going/2100-1032_3-6225083.html

* Jimmy Wales on Wikia Search's Lukewarm Reveal: We come from the world of open source, which is all about "release early, release often" rather than highly polished releases. Also, since the whole concept of the search engine is to put the editorial control in the hands of the community, we wanted to get started with building that community and getting their support in figuring out what that means in practice.

(http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/01/jimmy-wales-exp.html)

* Wikia Launches Search Engine, Challenges Google, 9 Jan 2008: The new search engine uses Web 2.0 components and touts -- in contrast to Google -- an open algorithm for greater transparency about how the order in which the results appear is determined. Google is taking the arrival of a new competitor in stride.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3048800,00.html

The Bloggers Among Us: Survey results

The article "The Bloggers Among Us" from the Library Journal, dated 15/12/2007, provides useful survey condacted with 839 blogging librarians from US.

Blogging has become central to communication in libraries and traditional library media in the past few years.

* Almost 70% of respondents have had their current blogs for two years or less. The blogs with the most reach, read by thousands of people, focus on how libraries can use technologies to improve services.

* The majority of bloggers (67%) contribute to more than one blog. There are collaborative blogs and individual blogs, staff blogs, and blogs for patrons.

* Men are more likely to blog than women. While women make up approximately 80% of librarians, they represent only 66% of library bloggers surveyed. Still, the percentage of female bloggers has risen, up from 57% in 2005, perhaps because blogging has become mainstream and no longer an activity predominantly for techies.

* Nearly two-thirds of respondents currently work in academic or public libraries. Two years ago, twice as many academic librarians blogged as public librarians, but now the percentages are almost equal. Still, academic librarians remain overrepresented. Why are academic librarians more likely to blog? Perhaps because so many academic libraries encourage or require their staff to publish—they're also overrepresented among published librarians and conference speakers—and blogging is considered good writing practice (22% identified writing practice as a primary reason they blog).

* Respondents were asked to list their top three reasons for blogging. The majority (69%) identified sharing ideas with others. Other popular reasons include building community (38%), contributing to the profession (23.2%), and reaching out to patrons (23%). Some people use their blogs more as a tool for their own continuing education. Nearly 40% believe their blogs help them to keep up with trends in the profession, and 27.3% cite blogging as a way to process their own ideas.

* Nearly one-quarter of librarian bloggers post anonymously. Some may have bosses who don't support employee blogging. Others simply feel more comfortable expressing themselves under the radar

* Librarian bloggers also read—or skim—a lot of blogs. The bulk (47.7%) read up to 40, while the remainder read more, and 10.7% of respondents even reported reading more than 200.
Some 71.1% of those surveyed said they read blogs in a web-based RSS aggregator (Bloglines, Google Reader, etc.), while 15.1% said they visited each blog individually, 7.5% read blogs in a desktop RSS aggregator, and 4.1 % read blogs on a personalized start page

* What does the future hold for the biblioblogosphere? Clearly, the number of bloggers will increase, covering many subject areas beyond technology. Blogs that focus on certain populations, such as teens or medical practitioners, are gaining in popularity.

Click on the TITLE to read the full-text article

Snap Shots from Snap.com on UJ Librarians News blog

Happy New Year to all of you and welcome back to the 2008 Academic year. After a good rest I hope we are ready to face the information overload once again. I had the good intentions to work during the holidays, but I developed a real "holiday virus" - swimming, tanning and reading books. Let's not forget the number of parties, the Christmas shopping's and the movies that came along. In between I managed to exercise, to keep from piling the many calories from the delicious treats. Overall I have an relaxed and enjoyable holiday and I can "hopefully" face the pressure of work.

What is new on this blog?
I have installed in December a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site. Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not. The icon is easy to spot next to the titles. Just take the cursor there. Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Personally I like this tool. It provide a "quick look" at the web page you want to view, even without clicking on the link.

Let me know if you find it useful? Sent me a comment!