A warm welcome to new readers of this newsletter. Here you'll find information about new websites and blogs of interest to academics, plus news about networked resources and services, reviews of books about the Internet, and much more.

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Internet Resources Newsletter by email and RSS

Over 34,000 people now subscribe to the free email version of this Newsletter. Very many thanks go to Willco who distribute the email version. To subscribe, at no cost, go to http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn.html

The Internet Resources Newsletter has an RSS feed (essentially the Table of Contents for each issue): http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn.rss

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Here is this month's selection of news items of interest

[Contents] - [ IRN Home Page ] - [HWU Library Home Page] 

A-Z NEW & NOTABLE WEB SITES

Academic Journal Policy Database: AJPD

http://www.etd.uc.edu/journal/

“Experience shows that violating publishers' publication policies is one of the main concerns of faculty and students embarking on electronic submission of a thesis or dissertation (ETDs). It is often difficult to discover the publishers' policies and thus even more difficult to properly inform faculty and students about these policies.

In response to this problem, the University of Cincinnati has developed a database of links to publishers' journal policies called the Academic Journal Policy Database (AJPD). Our goal is to provide a global mechanism for students, faculty, administrators, and publishers to share information and facilitate electronic publishing education.”

Acre Resources Ltd

http://www.acre-resources.co.uk/

Previously known as Oxygen Recruitment (as reported in issue 119 of this newsletter), Acre Resources is a leading recruitment agency specialising in the environmental and sustainability sectors.

Awareness Watch Newsletter

http://virtualprivatelibrary.blogspot.com/Awareness%20Watch%20V3N8.pdf

The August 2005 V3N8 issue is available, and includes a listing of online resources, sources and sites covering areas for finding people.

BA Festival of Science

http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/FestivalofScience/

Dublin (3-10 September 2005).

Batch

http://www.batch.co.uk/

The batch.co.uk service is wholly owned by The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland. The system has been designed to help the book trade reduce overheads in the supply chain by improving communication between suppliers and their customers and providing organisations of all sizes the opportunity of the advantages of trading electronically.

BEAMAEnergy

http://www.beamaenergy.org.uk/

BEAMAEnergy is the UK trade association group for the controls, metering and energy related communications industries and part of BEAMA – the British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers’ Association.

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine: BASE

http://base.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/index_english.html

BASE offers an integrated search in heterogeneous scientific resources worldwide.

Blankspace

http://www.blankspace.co.uk

Blankspace have developed a trading platform aimed at buyers and sellers of online advertising space.

Operating along similar lines to ebay, it allows media owners to sell web advertising space by auction, or buy it.

Building the Info Grid

http://seminar.deff.dk/

Digital Library Technologies and Services - Trends and Perspectives, Copenhagen, 26-27 September 2005.

Centre for Science and Environment

http://www.cseindia.org/

Based in New Delhi, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is an independent, public interest organisation which aims to increase public awareness on science, technology, environment and development.

CIRCA Art Magazine

http://www.recirca.com/

Ireland's leading magazine for contemporary visual arts and culture.

Clearing the Air

http://www.clearingtheairscotland.com/

New legislation will come into force on March 26 2006 which introduces a ban on smoking in public places.

Combinatorial Chemistry

http://www.combichemistry.com/

This web site provides a basic introduction to the field of combinatorial chemistry describing the development of major techniques and some applications.

Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety: CROSS

http://www.scoss.org.uk/cross/

The objective of SCOSS is to promote the safety of structures in the UK construction industry by obtaining, distributing and analysing safety-related reports which might not otherwise be available whilst at all times keeping the identity of the reporter confidential.

Construction WebLinks

http://www.constructionweblinks.com/

Engineering and building industry portal with links to over 7,000 Web sites, indexed and annotated.

Cultural Commission

http://www.culturalcommission.co.uk/

“The Cultural Commission was established by Frank McAveety MSP, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport in April 2004 to undertake a review. A review which presents a "generational opportunity – to look seriously and maturely at our culture and decide the framework for its support in the future".”

Digital Repositories: Helping universities and Colleges

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/HE_repositories_briefing_paper_2005.pdf

A JISC briefing paper.

Domestic Water Treatment Association: DWTA

http://www.dwta.org.uk/

The DWTA was established in 2004 with an objective to introduce and promote product and installation quality standards for the chemical water treatment sector.

E.L.V.S. (“e-Learning” in the Voluntary Sector)

http://www.elvs.org.uk/

Primarily a website for a project to research and promote e-learning in the Voluntary Sector in Wales, but has resources that would be of interest to a wider audience. Over 3,000 free online courses are signposted, along with 200+ practical resources for implementing e-learning.

E-Commerce Alert

http://www.library.ualberta.ca/mt/blog/ecommerce/

The Alert is a current awareness service aimed at professionals who want enough, but not too much electronic commerce, technology, Internet information. It is a service useful for professionals and academics alike. Each entry includes a brief summary of the article or report and a direct link to the source as well as a permanent record of the correct attribution. The coverage is not meant to be comprehensive, but to simply act as a tool to keep individuals abreast of what is current, with enough information for them to filter the "good stuff" from all the "noise" on the Net.

Edinburgh Libraries and Information Services Agency: ELISA

http://www.elisa.lib.ed.ac.uk/

ELISA is an organisational network for the libraries and information services in the City of Edinburgh. The Agency aims to facilitate collaboration and co-operation between all the libraries and information services in Edinburgh so that all Edinburgh citizens and visitors can benefit from the wealth of library and information services and resources in our City.

Engineering Jobs

http://www.engineeringjobs.co.uk/

A new site listing vacancies in engineering.

Enterprise Software 2005

http://www.enterprisesoftware2005.com/

5-6 October, 2005, London. A major Information Age conference examining the management, development, integration and use of enterprise software.

FEAdomain.com

http://www.feadomain.com/

The goal of this web site is to provide a framework for free exchange of information on Finite Element Analysis.

Free Statistics

http://freestatistics.altervista.org

List of free statistical and maths software.

Hamilton Palace

http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/hamilton/

This website is the first stage of a longer term research project to provide more information about one of Scotland's most famous lost buildings, its magnificent contents and its occupants throughout the centuries.

HEIRNET: Historic Environment Information Resources Network

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/HEIRNET/

HEIRNET enables access to Historic Environment Information Resources for conservation, research, learning and general interest.

High Energy Physics Libraries Webzine

http://library.cern.ch/HEPLW/11/index.html

Issue 11, August 2005 is now available.

Housing Trends in Scotland

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/05/23152516/25190

A Scottish Executive National Statistics Publication.

Statistical Bulletin Housing Series HSG/2005/3 Housing trends in Scotland: quarter ending 31 December 2004.

Iambeingfired

http://www.iambeingfired.co.uk/

A virtual law site giving facts on what your rights are and how you can protect your job or get the compensation you deserve if your employment has already been ended.

Inspex 2005

http://www.inspex.co.uk/

4-6 October, NEC, Birmingham.

“The exhibition and conference for the quality, inspection and measurement industries.”

Inspire

http://www.inspire.gov.uk/

The Inspire programme seeks to provide a seamless cross-sectoral pathway for learners across public, academic and national libraries.

InterEC.NET

http://www.interec.net/

InterEC.NET is an independent web site maintained by a small group of engineers who feel that engineers should have a good dedicated job search web site.

Invisible Web Gateways-Portals to the Deep Web

http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/a/invisibleweb.htm

From About.com

Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship

http://www.istl.org/05-summer/index.html

The Summer 2005 issue is available. Includes is an article on Open Access and Scholarly Communication -- A Selection of Key Web Sites.

JobSetGo.com

http://www.jobsetgo.com/index.asp

UK Internet job awareness business.

Journal of RNAi and Gene Silencing

http://libpubmedia.co.uk/RNAiJ/RNAiJHome.htm

A new Open Access title.

“The Journal will publish high-quality peer-reviewed articles addressing the biology and application of RNA interference and gene silencing in all systems. The Journal aims at providing an efficient route to fast-track publication, within 10-12 weeks of manuscript submission if accepted. Furthermore, manuscripts will be made available online in their final form generally within two weeks of acceptance.”

Journal titles with RSS feeds

http://library.usask.ca/ejournals/rss_feeds.php

The University of Saskatchewan Library list the RSS feeds of a large number of electronic journals. These are really useful if you want to be alerted to new content.

JupiterImages

http://www.jiunlimited.com/en/

A new subscription service that allows unlimited access, at multiple resolutions, to over 330,000 of JupiterImages' highest quality wholly owned stock photos.

KED2005: International Workshop on Knowledge Extraction and Deployment for Digital Libraries and Repositories

http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lac/KED2005/

To be held in conjunction with the 9th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technologies for Digital Libraries, September 22-23 2005, Vienna, Austria.

KM Cyberary

http://www.bhojarajug.freeservers.com/cyberary.html

Details sent in by G. Bhojaraju. This site lists various useful e-resources on Knowledge Management, Technology, BPO, Call Centers, etc.

KnowIT

http://www.knowit.com/

A vertical technology search engine that indexes technology content on the Web.

Learning Internet Resources

http://www.geocities.com/sxm418/lir.htm

Sherif Masoud sent in details of this site, which lists 100 digital resources of interest, including course materials, databases, sources of open access articles, etc.

Local Authority Building Control: LABC

http://www.labc-services.co.uk/default.asp

Local Authority Building Control (LABC) is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards in building design and construction. LABC is a publicly accountable, independent building control provider.

Lulu.com

http://www.lulu.com/uk

Lulu enables you to publish and sell books, ebooks, calendars, etc. There are no set-up fees or minimum orders. What a great idea!

Managing the Unmanageable: Putting Cryptography to Work for Digital Rights

http://www.reviews.com/hottopic/hottopic_essay_03.cfm

A new Computing Reviews Hot Topic essay.

Meet the Author USA

http://www.meettheauthor.com/

A site where you can see authors introducing their books in their own words.

Message'05

http://www.message05.co.uk/

26-27 October, 2005, London.

An event about Secure, manageable and compliant email, IM and mobile messaging.

National Consultation on Access to Scientific Research Data (NCASRD)

http://ncasrd-cnadrs.scitech.gc.ca/home_e.shtml

The final report is now available.

"The National Consultation on Access to Scientific Research Data (NCASRD) is a partnership initiative of the National Research Council Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

The goal of the NCASRD is to help Canada maximize the value received from its publicly funded natural and medical sciences research by recommending an appropriate framework and guidelines, which will facilitate open and long-term access to data coming from that research."

NEC3 digital

http://www.neccontract.com/digital/

NEC3 digital is a new service providing online access to all NEC3 forms and contract data.

The NEC Contract is a legal framework of project management procedures designed to handle all aspects of the management of construction projects.

Open Online Education Network: OOEN

http://www.ooen.net/

“Open Online Education Network, OOEN is the largest and the most comprehensive reference guide to online distance education. OOEN lists online courses and online degree programs offered in all English speaking countries and also lists colleges and universities that offer online distance programs. OOEN also hosts forums to foster a community of online distance learners; OOEN provides news in education as well.”

OSH Update

http://www.oshupdate.com/

“Want to keep up-to-date in worldwide occupational health, safety, hygiene, road safety, water safety, environment trends and the latest information? Do budget constraints not allow you to buy all the latest journals, newsletters and documents that contain the latest information? Can't afford the time to search for the latest information, legislation and standards? No staff to search for this information? And no time yourself to spend hours searching for information?

Then this newly launched, very affordable Internet based service OSH UPDATE, from Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd is the answer for you. Powered by Head Software International's Headfast/Discovery Internet publishing software, OSH UPDATE containing over 532,000 references is now available and is updated monthly“

Peatlands

http://www.peatlandsni.gov.uk/

The simple definition of a peatland is an area where peat is found. Peat, or turf as it is often called in Ireland, is a type of soil that contains a high proportion of dead organic matter, mainly plants, that has accumulated over thousands of years. Close inspection can reveal the types of plants that grew, died and accumulated to form a piece of peat.

Pilot Engineering Repository Xsearch: PERX

http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/perx/

PerX is a two-year (June 2005 – May 2007) JISC Digital Repositories Programme project, to develop a pilot service which provides subject resource discovery across a series of repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research community. This pilot will then be used as a test-bed to explore the practical issues that would be encountered when considering the possibility of a full scale subject resource discovery service. PerX is based at the ICBL in Heriot Watt University, and is part of the Digital Repositories Programme.

PLASA

http://www.plasa.org/

“PLASA was established to provide commercial benefits to a business community, whilst improving working practices and advancing levels of safety and training within the entertainment, presentation, installation and communications industries. Our website aims to be the main gateway to information for industry professionals worldwide. There are many facets to the PLASA organization. At its heart is the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, a leading trade body for the industry, representing just under 500 members worldwide. PLASA also owns the annual PLASA Show in London, and is the publisher of Lighting&Sound International and Lighting&Sound America magazines and the respected LSI Online News service.”

Plaxo

http://www.plaxo.com/

“Plaxo, Inc. keeps people connected by solving the common and frustrating problem of out-of-date contact information. Founded in July 2001, Plaxo provides a free service that securely updates and maintains the information in your address book.”

Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design: PCID

http://www.iscid.org/pcid.php

An open access journal. Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design (PCID) is a quarterly, cross-disciplinary, online journal that investigates complex systems apart from external programmatic constraints like materialism, naturalism, or reductionism.

Promoting Information and Search Skills

http://www.freepint.com/issues/300605.htm#feature

An article in FreePint by Jean Bedord.

ROC Plus

http://www.rocplus.co.uk/

ROC Plus Ltd is an independent business management and support consultancy located in the Highlands of Scotland. The company, established in 2003, provides a comprehensive range of consultancy and business advisory services for small and medium sized companies.

RustySearch

http://www.rustybrick.com/rustysearch.php

The Search Engine Relevancy Challenge - you decide which search engine is best.

Scholarly Web Searching: Google Scholar and Scirus

http://www.infotoday.com/online/jul05/OnTheNet.shtml

An article in Online, by Greg R. Notess.

Science Conferences

http://www.osti.gov/scienceconferences/

From here you can simultaneously query about 16 organizations and collections for scientific and technical conference proceedings or papers.

Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation: SNIPEF

http://www.snipef.org/index.php

A licensed plumbers association.

Scottish Association of Building Standards Managers: SABSM

http://www.sabsm.co.uk/

SABSM provides a comprehensive resource for Building Standards in Scotland.

Search Engines and Directories A to Z

http://websearch.about.com/library/searchengine/blsearchenginesatoz.htm?nl=1

An index to articles by Wendy Boswell which have appeared in About.com

Securing Health Together

http://www.ohstrategy.com/

The strategy is designed to stop people at work becoming ill, and if they do to get them back to work as soon as possible.

SELECT

http://www.select.org.uk/

SELECT is Scotland's trade association for the electrical, electronics and communications systems industry.

SETT - The Scottish Learning Festival

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sett/

21 - 22 September 2005, SECC, Glasgow.

Shell Technology Enterprise Programme: STEP

http://www.step.org.uk/

STEP is a UK-wide programme offering undergraduates project-based work within small to medium sized businesses.

Shetland Museum

http://www.shetland-museum.org.uk/

The Shetland Museum is a local authority Museum funded and administered by the Shetland Islands Council.

Sitekit CMS

http://www.sitekit.net/

“The UK's leading Content Management System, Sitekit CMS enables non-technical, business users to manage their web site with ease.”

Speech and Audio Processing

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/sap/

New Open Access journal.

The aim of “Speech and Audio Processing” (SAP) is to bring together researchers and engineers working on the theory and applications of speech and audio processing. SAP will be an interdisciplinary journal for the dissemination of all basic and applied aspects of speech communication and audio processes.

Stop That Noise

http://ew2005.osha.eu.int/

This year’s European Week for Safety and Health at Work will focus on the issue of noise at work, under the slogan, ‘Stop that noise!’, with the tagline, ‘‘Noise at work – it can cost you more than your hearing’.

Storage Networking World – Europe 2005

http://www.snweurope.com/

Frankfurt, 6-7 September 2005.

”Storage Networking World Europe is the only fully independent conference where IT managers and professionals can attend SNIA-endorsed education tracks, get hands-on access to the wide range of SNIA-sanctioned solutions demonstrations, and get the time to mix with industry peers and technology experts who are faced with similar IT storage issues every day.”

The Facts about Open Access: a study of the financial and non-financial effects of alternative business models for scholarly journals

http://www.aardvarknet.info/access/number53/monthnews.cfm?monthnews=09

ALPSP, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and HighWire Press are jointly funding a major study of the financial and non-financial effects of different forms of Open Access journal publishing. The research is being carried out by Kaufman-Wills Group, LLC.

The Zimbabwean

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/

“We are a group of committed and professional Zimbabwean journalists and friends from around the world who have come together to start the first physical newspaper for Zimbabweans in exile. The paper will be edited by Wilf Mbanga, founder and first Chief Executive of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, the publishers of The Daily News (closed down in 2003 under the terms of the Zimbabwe Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act—AIPPA.) More than 50 Zimbabwean journalists around the world have offered their services on a voluntary basis to get the paper started.”

Trends in business information, provision and use

http://www.freepint.com/issues/110805.htm#feature

An article in a recent issue of FreePInt by Pam Foster.

TrustMark

http://www.trustmark.org.uk/

“Launched in June 2005, TrustMark is an exciting new initiative to help you find reliable and trustworthy tradespeople who can help with improvements and repairs to your home.”

Verdant Works

http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/verdantworks/index.cfm

A jute museum.

Visual Evidence

http://www.visual-evidence.ac.uk/

Visual Evidence: The Photographic presentation of Landscape and People is an RSLP-funded collaborative programme involving the Universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen and Dundee.

Workplace Health Promotion: global initiatives and internet resources for setting up and evaluating workplace wellness programs

http://www.freepint.com/issues/250805.htm#feature

An article in a recent issue of FreePint, by Crystal Sharp.

Zenome

http://www.zenome.com/

“Zenome is a unique, self-organizing, internet search directory. It harnesses the collective intelligence of all its users in order to determine the most relevant Web Pages for any given search.”

[Contents] - [ IRN Home Page ] - [HWU Library Home Page] 

NICE WEB SITE

In the course of finding sites of interest for this Newsletter, we sometimes come across Web sites which we feel deserve slightly more than a passing mention. Each month we will pick out one or more such sites, and give them a short review. The sites will normally be UK based, may be small or large, and be of interest or potential interest to academics. After lengthy discussions we have decided, with incredible creativity :-), to call these: Nice Web Sites. Details of previous Nice Web Sites are available in the Nice Web Site Archive.

Lulu
http://www.lulu.com/uk

Lulu is an independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. You can publish, sell and buy any and all things digital - books, music, comics, photographs, movies, etc. Lulu simply provide the tools that leave control of content in the hands of the people who created the content.

What a good idea!

RM

[Contents] - [ IRN Home Page ] - [HWU Library Home Page] 

BLOGORAMA

News about weblogs, RSS, etc:

Webopedia gives a definition of RSS http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RSS.html

The Internet Resources Newsletter has an RSS feed (essentially the Table of Contents for each issue): http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn.rss

Forbes.com Best of The Web Summer 2005
http://www.forbes.com/bow
The focus is on blogs

What are best practices for measuring the really simple syndication (RSS) feeds we're deploying?
http://tinyurl.com/by6r5
Q&A from JupiterResearch

ListGarden RSS Feed Generator Program
http://www.softwaregarden.com/products/listgarden/
Creates and maintains RSS feeds. This was mentioned recently by ResearchBuzz

Blog Flux
http://dir.blogflux.com/
A directory which was also mentioned recently by ResearchBuzz

feedcatch
http://feedcatch.feedshake.com/
A free service for archiving headlines in an RSS feed.

Investigating the Biblioblogosphere
http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ5i10.pdf
An article in the Sept 2005 issue of Cites & Insights

RSS: 98 per cent of surfers shun it
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39150835,00.htm
Summary of a report from Forrester Research.

Survey: Blog Readership Skyrocketing
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050810/tc_cmp/167600728

Time to check: Are you using the right blogging tool?
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050714gardner/
An article by Susannah Gardner

Mobile Blogs, Personal Reflections and Learning Environments
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue44/trafford/
An article in Ariadne, by Paul Trafford.

http://library.usask.ca/ejournals/rss_feeds.php
The University of Saskatchewan Library lists the RSS feeds of a large number of electronic journals.

RSS feeds college students' diet for research
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-08-01-rss-research_x.htm?csp=34
An item in USATODAY

One in 10 visitors to blog sites uses RSS
More than one in 10 visitors to weblog sites who claim to read weblogs (blogs) regularly or occasionally use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to sort through the increasing number of blogs available, research published today has revealed.
http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2141199/visitors-blog-sites-uses-rss
An item in Information World Review.

VoIPAction
http://www.voipaction.com/index.php?chan=broadcast&fn=rss
VoIPAction has announced the launch of its new daily news channels featuring the latest news coverage for blogs, blogging, and RSS from 2,000 news sources around the world.

Technorati 100 most popular blogs
http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

Selected interesting blog's and RSS feeds

E-Commerce Alert
http://www.library.ualberta.ca/mt/blog/ecommerce/

BiotechConnection.com
http://biotechconnection.com/
There's a link to RSS feeds containing Biotechnology news from this site.

Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth
http://www.edwebproject.org/andy/blog/
Occasional Musings from Andy Carvin of the Digital Divide Network

NewsResearchUK.com
http://www.newsresearchuk.com/
The idea behind the site is to provide a current awareness tool for information resources relevant to UK domestic news and international affairs, with the individual postings archived to become part of an online research library.

Computer Science (cs) updates on the arXiv.org e-print archive
http://arxiv.org/rss/cs

Woot - the blog
http://www.woot.com/Blog/
Looking for the new and shiny in libraryland and beyond

Tinfoil + Raccoon
http://rochellejustrochelle.typepad.com/copilot/

Gearlog
http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/default.aspx
News about gadgets, etc

TeleRead
http://www.teleread.org/blog/
About e-Books

Libraries for dummies
http://librariesfordummies.blogspot.com/

[Contents] - [ IRN Home Page ] - [HWU Library Home Page] 

PRESS RELEASES

**** IEE launches the IEE Digital Library ****

The IEE is pleased to announce the launch of the new IEE Digital Library http://www.ieedl.org/  The IEE Digital Library is hosted on the Scitation platform from the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and replaces the IOJ (IEE Online Journals) platform.

The IEE Digital Library provides access to more than 50,000 technical papers from IEE journals, magazines and conference publications dating back to 1994, covering a wide range of information in electrical and electronic engineering, telecommunications, computing, power, control, radar, circuits, materials, bioengineering, IT, and more.

In addition to having all IEE publication tables of contents and abstracts freely available, users will enjoy many features of the Scitation platform, including sophisticated browsing and searching, pay-per-view articles for non-subscribers, a complete suite of personalization tools, and extensive citation links to publishers and databases.

For more information on the IEE Digital Library please visit http://www.ieedl.org or contact ieedl@iee.org

**** Current Cites 15th Birthday ****

The popular current awareness service "Current Cites" is 15 years old. The monthly electronic newsletter features citations and evaluative abstracts of articles in information technology and librarianship considered by the Current Cites team as the most significant for that month. Sources of citations include professional magazines, journals, web sites and occasionally books.
The newsletter goes out to a subscription base of over 3,000 individual subscribers and is either forwarded or featured in additional mailing lists, online forums, paper publications, and blogs. Each issue typically contains about a dozen one-paragraph citations, distributed toward the end of each month. Currency is the publication's strength, with some sources appearing only days (or
hours!) before it is cited and published in Current Cites.

Distribution was far different with Issue Number One. That came out as a paper insert to the library newsletter at UC Berkeley. The original intent was to provide an in-house guide to the rapidly expanding literature in information science. Soon however, the first electronic version became available through the University of California MELVYL system. Next came distribution through the PACS-L mailing list, and subsequently through a myriad of systems and protocols that reads like a glossary to technology in the 1990's: FTP, Gopher, WAIS, and finally the Web. Most recently, Current Cites completed a move to WebJunction.org, a library support site managed by OCLC and supported in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Current Cites has always been a volunteer operation, with no budget to its name but simply a team of committed individuals.

The Current Cites team consists of 7 tech-savvy librarians. Their contrasting interests and styles serves to give each annotation a distinctive personal touch. This monthly dive into the literature in order to fish out the pearls is easily as rewarding to the team as the final product hopefully is to the public. Otherwise it would be hard to explain the service's longevity. Nevertheless, as founder and editor Roy Tennant admitted to American Libraries in 2001, "It still amazes me that we have continuously published this resource month after month for almost 11 years." Make that 15 years!

Current Cites is available for online browsing at http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/ or email subscription at http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/currentcites

**** Launch of ILOSearch ****

The Informed Librarian Online http://www.informedlibrarian.com is pleased to announce the launch of ILOSearch, a powerful new database index of articles from library periodicals designed to help library professionals keep up with their professional reading.

The index now contains 36,600+ documents dating back to January 2003, from over 300 different library journals, newsletters, magazines and webzines. The indexing is current through the last day of the previous month, which makes it the most up-to-date library periodical index. Searches can be limited to an individual title, a particular subject collection of journals, or a date range. The Informed Librarian Online is committed to bringing all of the library professionals' professional reading to their desktop every month.

For more information contact Arlene Eis, Informed Librarian Online, http://www.informedlibrarian.com

Note: Internet Resources Newsletter is one of the titles indexed by ILOSearch

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For more news items in business information products we recommend VIP: http://www.vivavip.com/

[Contents] - [ IRN Home Page ] - [HWU Library Home Page] 

RECENT INTERNET BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY

The Mantex Information Design web site has reviews of some of the books mentioned in previous issues of the Internet Resources Newsletter.

Recent Arrivals

025.04 POU
The library and information professional’s internet companion
by Alan Poulter, Debra Hiom and David McMenemy
Facet Publishing, 2005

343.0999 TOD
e-commerce law,
by Paul Todd
Cavendish, 2005

A complete list of new books added to Heriot-Watt University Library is available from the Library News page.

http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/news.html

[Contents] - [ IRN Home Page ] - [HWU Library Home Page] 

BOOK REVIEW

The library and information professional’s internet companion
by Alan Poulter, Debra Hiom and David McMenemy
Facet Publishing, 2005
183 pp. ISBN 1-85604-509-9
£34.95 

This is an excellent companion guide for library and information professionals.  It covers not only the basics, such as files, filenames, search engines, web page production, website design, file transfer technologies, and more, but also looks at wikis, style sheets, dynamic web pages, the Semantic Web, website promotion, phishing, etc.  The explanations are clear, and do not require a great deal of technical knowledge. 

Part 1 looks at important technologies that go to make up the Internet, and Part 2 examines how the Internet has impacted on specific library sectors and services, and how the work of library and information professionals has been transformed in the last fifteen years.  Some specific areas of change are discussed, such as virtual reference services, information literacy issues, cataloguing, digitised collections and the retrieval of information using tools such as portals. 

The Companion gives an overview of a large number of topics rather than attempting to analyse them in detail, so the sets of references for further reading given at the end of each chapter are important.  Most LIS students will find this book particularly useful, but so should many practicing information professionals. If you want a sample of the content, the full text of Chapter 8, covering Networking Technologies, is available at the Facet Publishing website, at:

http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/images/poulter_chap8.pdf

RM

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NETWORK NEWS LINKS

Pinakes: A Subject Launchpad
http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html
Pinakes has links to over 50 subject gateways. Direct links to the news pages of some important sites are listed below.

Netskills: News
http://www.netskills.ac.uk/news/

JISCmail News
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/news/index.htm

UK Data Archive news
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/current.asp

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GET A LIFE! - LEISURE TIME

Chance to Shine
http://www.chancetoshine.org/

Spirit of Romania
http://www.spirit.ro/

Hoppo Hostels
http://www.hoppo.com/
Low price accommodation in Edinburgh

Free Stuff SE
http://www.freestuffse.com/

FutureSport Edinburgh 2005/6
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/futuresport/
"We want to make Edinburgh the most physically active city in Europe by 2020 – and there are hundreds of ways in the city for us all to get active and be healthy."

Year Out Group
http://www.yearoutgroup.org/
A site for those considering a gap year or career break for young people and their parents and advisers.

Gapyear.com
http://www.gapyear.com/

Trekforce Expeditions
http://www.trekforce.org.uk/
Trekforce Expeditions offers challenging expedition and gap year programmes consisting of sustainable jungle and rainforest conservation projects, language, teaching and cultural experiences in diverse environments.

Album Club
http://www.thealbumclub.com/
Complete albums - this is how music used to be purchased.
"With a selection of albums handpicked every month for each member, the Album Club enables anyone living in the EU or EEA with a passion for music to conveniently discover the finest new releases - without even having to leave the house."

The Hillwalking Pages
http://www.hillwalkingpages.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Book This Band

Pseudofunk
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=107911
Exciting Edinburgh based band.

Send me your band websites, and if they're good, I'll try to mention them in future 'Book This Band' sections.

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