Internet Resources Newsletter by email and RSS

Over 40,000 people subscribe to the free email version of this Newsletter. Very many thanks go to FUMSI http://www.fumsi.com/ who sponsor this newsletter. FUMSI publishes articles, tools, and a monthly magazine, to give you practical help with information skills.

To subscribe to the Internet Resources Newsletter, at no cost, go to http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/

The Internet Resources Newsletter has an RSS feed: http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn.rss
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A pdf of a foldable A4 leaflet about this newsletter is available. This may be useful for libraries or others who want to spread the word about the newsletter. If you do - many thanks!

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Random quotes

"Library users are going to be less and less willing to spend a lot of time learning about how to access specialist resources. They'll want their information available through the sources they're most comfortable with. As information professionals we may still feel that we should be leading people to our catalogues and teaching them to get the most out of them, but in reality if students are going to search Google we need to make sure they can retrieve our records there as well." Gordon Hunt, University Librarian, University of the West of Scotland. Library + Information Gazette 27 June - 10 July 2008, p.23.

News items of interest.

PRISM™ Cookbook Released
http://www.prismstandard.org/news/2008/PRISM_%20PR070808.pdf
PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata), have announced the availability of the new PRISM Cookbook. The Cookbook is designed to assist new users by providing step-by-step recipes to implement PRISM. 

Inderscience online collection reaches 20,000!
http://www.inderscience.com/mapper.php?id=28#20000

Springer publishes 5,000th volume of Lecture Notes in Computer Science - 09 Jul 2008
http://www.knowledgespeak.com/newsArchieveviewdtl.asp?pickUpID=6357&pickUpBatch=935#6357
STM publisher Springer has announced the publication of the 5,000th volume in the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).
From: Knowledgespeak

Web address total tops one trillion
http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2222620/web-address-total-tops-trillion
From: IWR

A-Z NEW & NOTABLE WEB SITES

100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You’ve Never Heard Of

http://www.teachingtips.com/blog/2008/07/07/100-unbelievably-useful-reference-sites-youve-never-heard-of/

From the Teaching Tips.com blog.

99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web

http://www.collegedegree.com/library/college-life/99-resources-to

A list by Jessica Hupp.

9th International Bielefeld Conference 2009

http://conference.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/

3 - 5 February 2009 in Bielefeld, Germany

The Bielefeld Conference 2009 provides insights into the future of eLibraries, based on the threefold interdependency of service, technology, and economics.

AlterNet

http://www.alternet.org/

“AlterNet is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of dozens of other independent media sources. AlterNet's aim is to inspire citizen action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues.”

Awareness Watch Newsletter

http://zillman.blogspot.com/2008/06/awareness-watch-newsletter-v6n7-july.html

The July 2008 V6N7 Awareness Watch New is available.

The Awareness Watch Featured Report this month features Internet Demographics and Statistics Resources.

The Awareness Watch Article Review covers Key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 by Gaham Cormode, Balachander Krishnamurthy.

Awareness Watch Newsletter

http://zillman.blogspot.com/2008/07/awareness-watch-newsletter-v6n8-august.html

The August 2008 V6N8 issue is available. The Awareness Watch Featured Report this month features Student Research Resources.

The Best Reference Sites

http://websearch.about.com/od/internetresearch/a/newsreference.htm

From Wendy Boswell at About.com

BOSS International

http://www.bossintl.com/

BOSS International, a developer of civil engineering hydrology and hydraulic software, have a new website.

CheckCost UK

http://www.checkcost.co.uk/

Price comparison site for products like computers, consumer electronics, photography, music, movies, books, clothing and more.

Complete University Guide

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/

Previously the Good University Guide (as reported in IRN 162).

Cuil

http://www.cuil.com/

Claims to be the world’s biggest search engine.

”Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.”

DimensionEngine

http://www.dimensionengine.com/

A scientific calculator with automatic units conversion.

”What makes our site different is that units conversion is part of the equation solution, not a separate step.”

DOE Data Explorer

http://www.osti.gov/dataexplorer/

Identifies collections of Department of Energy sponsored numeric files, figures and data plots, multimedia and images, computer simulations, specialized databases, and interactive data maps.

DRIVER Search Portal: Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for European Research

http://search1.driver.research-infrastructures.eu/

This is the DRIVER search portal, which features more than 600,000 Open Access documents from over 110 European repositories in 25 languages.

EDINA Newsline

http://edina.ac.uk/news/newsline.html

The latest edition of Newsline, EDINA's quarterly newsletter, is now available.

Elius Books

http://www.elius-books.co.uk/

An internet based publishing company that produces books about the arts.

Emerald Bookstore

http://books.emeraldinsight.com

Over 2,000 books now available to browse and buy online.

Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings: EDVR

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php

The Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR) is an index to master recordings (matrixes) and published discs made by the Victor Talking Machine Company beginning in 1900. The database is edited by a team of researchers based at the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries and currently includes master recordings made by Victor in the United States through the fall of 1914. The database includes trial recordings of new artists and sessions from which no discs were issued. Approximately 1,000 new master recordings are added to the database monthly and the database will eventually extend to the end of the 78rpm era in the early-1950s.

Energies

http://www.mdpi.org/energies/index.htm

A new Open-Access Journal of Related Scientific Research, Technology Development and Studies in Policy and Management.

Engineering Learning Wiki: E-Wiki

http://econtent.wikispaces.com/

This portal is a repository of engineering learning and reference support links.

EUROPARC

http://www.europarc.org/

EUROPARC is the umbrella organisation of Europe's protected areas. It unites national parks, regional parks, nature parks and biosphere reserves in 38 countries, with the common aim of protecting Europe's unique variety of wildlife, habitats and landscapes.

European Portal on Research Infrastructures Database

http://www.riportal.eu/public/

“The European Portal on Research Infrastructures Database provides information on a large number of Research Infrastructures (RIs) of pan European interest in all fields of science. It covers facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct top-level research in their respective fields.

This database is not exhaustive and intends to be a tool for the scientific community looking for services offered by these infrastructures. It resulted from a survey undertaken by the European Commission (EC) and the European Science Foundation (ESF) in a tentative to identify the current scenario of infrastructures in Europe.”

Faronics

http://www.faronics.com/

“Market leaders in delivering solutions that help manage, simplify, and secure computing environments.

Driven by a desire to deliver a trouble-free computing experience, Faronics is focused on solving real world computing problems that threaten user productivity, system integrity, and organizational efficiency.”

FictionDB

http://www.fictiondb.com/

- Find author pseudonyms
- Read the latest reviews from a variety of websites
- Browse series of books by publisher and by individual author
- Learn about upcoming releases
- Search almost every field in our database
- Visit author websites
- Buy books from sellers around the world
- Track your collection and wish list
- Sell your books to customers directly with no commissions

FileInfo.net

http://www.fileinfo.net/

“The purpose of the FileInfo.net website is to make finding file extension information simple and fast. The layout of each FileInfo.net page is designed to clearly display file extension information, while providing easy navigation and fast-loading pages.

While other file extension lists provide only short definitions of each extension, FileInfo.net gives a detailed description of each extension and lists the programs that can open the file. Programs are listed for both Macintosh or Windows platforms, if available. Each entry also includes the file type (or file format) and indicates whether the file extension is common or not.”

Five Dials

http://www.fivedials.com/

“Hamish Hamilton is a London publisher specialising in contemporary writing from both sides of the Atlantic. You can learn what’s new, meet our authors, browse our titles, and download our new magazine, Five Dials.”

Graduate Junction

http://www.graduatejunction.com/

The Graduate Junction is a brand new website for Masters, Doctoral and Postdoctoral researchers working in any field all over the world.

The Graduate Junction is the first website to give graduate researchers an easy way of making contact and communicating with other researchers who share their research interests no matter which department, institution or country they work in.

Highlights

http://www.inderscience.com/mapper.php?id=19

The summer issue of the Inderscience Highlights newsletter is now available, featuring details of new titles, calls for papers, an overview of sustainable strategic management, and more.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

An article in Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2008.

Kigose

http://www.kigose.com/

Kigose is a website designed for students and teachers to find educational resources. Kigose only includes public websites that are for educational purposes only. Educational websites that need subscription are excluded.

Knol

http://knol.google.com/

New from Google.

A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.

Many Eyes

http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/home

For shared visualisation and discovery.

MyNetResearch

http://www.mynetresearch.com/

A new website for online global collaborative research.

MyNetResearch contains a variety of features and functionality designed to support the entire Research Enterprise for Academic and Corporate members alike.

Nederlands Observatorium van Wetenschap en Technologie: NOWT

http://www.nowt.nl/index.php?lang=GB

”NOWT focuses on the collection and analysis of figures about the Dutch research system in a broad sense, including interfaces with public information services related to science, the higher education system, and the technological innovation system. The CWTS and UNU-MERIT researchers involved in NOWT studies concentrate mainly on the position and performance of the Netherlands in an international comparative context with an emphasis on recent trends and topical long-term developments.”

Oil, Gas, Alternative Energy Jobs

http://www.totaljobs.com/IndustrySearch/OilGasAlternativeEnergy.aspx/

A new addition to the Totaljobs.com service.

Open Access Directory: OAD

http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Main_Page

The Open Access Directory (OAD) is a compendium of simple factual lists about open access (OA) to science and scholarship, maintained by the OA community at large. By bringing many OA-related lists together in one place, OAD will make it easier for everyone to discover them and use them for reference.

PlanetPhysics

http://planetphysics.org/

PlanetPhysics is a virtual community which aims to help make physics knowledge more accessible. PlanetPhysics's content is created collaboratively: the main feature is the physics encyclopedia with entries written and reviewed by members. The entries are contributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL) in order to preserve the rights of both the authors and readers in a sensible way.

Quantix

http://www.quantix-uk.com/

Quantix, an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner, Microsoft Gold Partner and Juniper Select Partner, specialise in the provision of Database Technology solutions, Business Applications support services, High Performance Networking & Security and Remote Managed Services.

Science and Technology of Advanced Materials

http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/stam

From 2008 this journal will be published in an open-access model, with all content completely free to read. There is no publication charge, as the costs of publication will be covered by the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).

Sharpened.net

http://www.sharpened.net/

“Sharpened.net, which has been around since 1999, serves to help people understand the sometimes intimidating world of computers. When you have a question, but are afraid to ask, Sharpened.net is here for you.”

Slezer’s Scotland

http://www.nls.uk/slezer/index.html

Engraved views from 17th century Scotland.

Springer Content Solutions for Industry

http://www.springer.com/librarians/corporate+licensing?SGWID=0-40475-0-0-0

These feature customised collections of professional, scientific, technical and medical books, journals, reference works and protocols specifically organised for the needs of companies heavily active in research, development and marketing activities.

TechTransferOnline.com

http://www.techtransferonline.com/

www.TechTransferOnline.com is an online marketplace that facilitates the in- and out-licensing, selling and buying of IP. This web site provides a central, global database for organizations and individuals to search, list, license, buy and sell published and non-published IP in a secure setting.

The People History

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/

Find the history of cost of living, prices, events, popular social culture, inventions, technology by year, decade or type from the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's 70's, 80's, 90's and the new Millennium. Also included are over 2,000 video's related to the year or decade or other sections of the site.

TinyPaste

http://tinypaste.com/

Enables you to paste a block of text into a form, and then get a short URL in return.

TWI

http://www.twi.co.uk/

A fresh new look, better search capability and improved functionality for TWI website.

”TWI is a global company delivering world class value to its Members, through research, consultancy and training services in welding and joining, engineering, NDT inspection, materials, surfacing, and lifecycle integrity - respected for its expertise, professionalism and independence.”

Wordle

http://wordle.net/

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Writings about e-book publishing, 2008

http://www.i-a-l.co.uk/resource_ebook2008.html

A list compiled by Chris Armstrong at Information Automation Limited.

[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 often 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.

There are two Nice Web Sites this month:

Wordle
http://wordle.net/
You can have lots of fun with this word cloud site, and there are also various practical uses - e.g. you can make a graphical representation of a talk, lecture, paper or discussion.

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

BLOGORAMA

Selected interesting blogs, RSS feeds and news items

You already know what blogs are, but for more information about RSS see the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol) or Webopedia 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
To add this RSS feed to any feedreader, go to: http://tinyurl.com/39sg5j

Feed Sifter
http://feedsifter.com/create.php
A facility for filtering an RSS according to required word(s)

Library Backwaters
http://www.librarybackwaters.com/

AccessArt
http://www.accessart.org.uk/wordpress/

KM Cyberary: a gateway to Knowledge Resources
http://km-cyberary.blogspot.com/

the Scholarly Kitchen blog
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/
From the Society for Scholarly Publishing

Whats next in tech
http://whatsnextintech.com/

Power of Information Task Force
http://powerofinformation.wordpress.com/
The Power of Information Task Force was established by Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson MP in March 2008.

Joeyanne Libraryanne
http://www.joeyanne.co.uk/

SCIT blog
http://scitblog.wordpress.com/
For staff and students at the University of Wolverhampton

Student as Scholatr
http://student-as-scholar.blogspot.com/

The future of higher education
http://hedebate.jiscinvolve.org/

[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

155.5 CHI (Galashiels Library)
Growing up in the digital age: how stress impacts our younger generation
by Dora Obi Chizea.
Chizea Producations, 2004

A complete list of new books added to Heriot-Watt University Library is available at: http://hw.lib.ed.ac.uk/cgi-bin/newbooks.cgi

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

GET A LIFE! - LEISURE TIME

Sustainable Expeditions
http://www.sustainableexpeditions.org/

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

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