"Information Manager wish all its reader a Happy and prosperous New Year 2007"
All Interview.com
ALLInterview.com ... An unique site ... First of its kind encrypted with a motto to post as many interview questions as possible along with answers that were asked in various interviews and expected questions which may be asked in interviews, to help the needy young generation who are going to face interviews. This site will enlighten the nature and scope of interview questions that will be asked in various interviews, keeping in view the present interviews scenario.
Many eminent personalities from all walks of life have contributed a lot in posting interview questions and answers relating to all categories viz., Software, Sciences, Engineering, Management, Accounting, Government & Private Sector and what not every branch has been covered in this site.
The viewers can also add questions and answers that they have faced in interviews, to share their interview experience and knowledge with the upcoming young generation.
Many eminent personalities from all walks of life have contributed a lot in posting interview questions and answers relating to all categories viz., Software, Sciences, Engineering, Management, Accounting, Government & Private Sector and what not every branch has been covered in this site.
The viewers can also add questions and answers that they have faced in interviews, to share their interview experience and knowledge with the upcoming young generation.
Alert service
Loopnote is a kind of alert service, helps to create alerts. Say you're in a band or you own an art gallery. You can use Loopnote to alert people about an upcoming show. The way it works is simple: You create a topic like "Governor's Park Band" and let people subscribe to it.A service that lets you create a subject-oriented alert service and then people can subscribe to it via RSS, text-messaging, IM, or e-mail.
WEB 2.0 and Its Technologies for Collaborative Library Communication
I really sorry for not blogging for the last few days..Actually I don't have internet connection in my desk at my new work place..Once I get the connection i will be regular in posting...Expecting your regular support and comments... yours saravanan...
WEB 2.0 and Its Technologies for Collaborative Library Communication By Lackie, Robert J This article will provide an introduction to Web 2.0 for libraries and will attempt to bring to light a few notable, free Web- based interactive communication tools that can help librarians and other educators seamlessly access, create, organize, and disseminate information for their library, themselves, colleagues, and friends.
Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation Values
Libraries must consider changes in both policy and technology to remain relevant to the next generation of students By Robert H. McDonald and Chuck Thomas
WEB 2.0 and Its Technologies for Collaborative Library Communication By Lackie, Robert J This article will provide an introduction to Web 2.0 for libraries and will attempt to bring to light a few notable, free Web- based interactive communication tools that can help librarians and other educators seamlessly access, create, organize, and disseminate information for their library, themselves, colleagues, and friends.
Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation Values
Libraries must consider changes in both policy and technology to remain relevant to the next generation of students By Robert H. McDonald and Chuck Thomas
LibWorm
LibWorm is intended to be a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries.
LibWorm collects updates from about 1400 RSS feeds (and growing). The contents of these feeds are then available for searching, and search results can themselves be output as an RSS feed that the user can subscribe to either in his/her favourite aggregator or in LibWorm's built-in aggregator.
LibWorm collects updates from about 1400 RSS feeds (and growing). The contents of these feeds are then available for searching, and search results can themselves be output as an RSS feed that the user can subscribe to either in his/her favourite aggregator or in LibWorm's built-in aggregator.
Renovation of 110-year-old building was six years in the making
CHENNAI: Local Administration Minister, M.K. Stalin, inaugurated the renovated Connemara Library here on Wednesday evening.
The 110-year old building of the Library was restored by the Archaeological Survey of India, spearheaded by the Superintending Archaeologist, Chennai Circle, Sathyabama Badrinath, and Senior Conservation Assistant, Bhagwan Sarathy.
The renovation, six years in the making, was funded by the Departments of Culture, Government of India, and School Education, Tamil Nadu.
Rare books, back issues of periodicals and government documents are now housed in the building that Mr. Stalin described as `an object of pride for the state of Tamil Nadu'.
Read further : The Hindu/22.11.2006
The 110-year old building of the Library was restored by the Archaeological Survey of India, spearheaded by the Superintending Archaeologist, Chennai Circle, Sathyabama Badrinath, and Senior Conservation Assistant, Bhagwan Sarathy.
The renovation, six years in the making, was funded by the Departments of Culture, Government of India, and School Education, Tamil Nadu.
Rare books, back issues of periodicals and government documents are now housed in the building that Mr. Stalin described as `an object of pride for the state of Tamil Nadu'.
Read further : The Hindu/22.11.2006
Will Web resources be the death of the Library?
With the prevalence of online resources in today’s academic world, students and faculty alike are wondering what’s in store for public libraries.
Although the use of electronically obtained articles has increased, search engines like Google and Yahoo have become prominent.Yet, the question remains, will libraries become extinct in the “real world” — where the need for in-depth research is usually minimal?Since the invention of the Internet, patrons use the library and read less, the OCLC survey found, and the majority “anticipates their usage of libraries will be flat in the future.”Some people still have an attachment to the traditional nature and purpose of the libraries — a place that supplies books, the survey states, and it’s often nostalgic in nature.
“I don’t see books going out of style any time soon,” Currie said. “It’s one thing to read a journal article online, it’s another thing to read ‘War and Peace’ online. It will take decades to digitize everything that’s in print and that’s without worrying about copyrights.”
Read full article at : http://www.bupipedream.com/pipeline_web/display_article.php?id=3461
Although the use of electronically obtained articles has increased, search engines like Google and Yahoo have become prominent.Yet, the question remains, will libraries become extinct in the “real world” — where the need for in-depth research is usually minimal?Since the invention of the Internet, patrons use the library and read less, the OCLC survey found, and the majority “anticipates their usage of libraries will be flat in the future.”Some people still have an attachment to the traditional nature and purpose of the libraries — a place that supplies books, the survey states, and it’s often nostalgic in nature.
“I don’t see books going out of style any time soon,” Currie said. “It’s one thing to read a journal article online, it’s another thing to read ‘War and Peace’ online. It will take decades to digitize everything that’s in print and that’s without worrying about copyrights.”
Read full article at : http://www.bupipedream.com/pipeline_web/display_article.php?id=3461
262 libraries for villages
Rs. 5.25 crore has been allocated for 46 library buildingshe process of setting up 262 libraries in rural areas will begin soon, said Thangam Thennarasu, Minister for School Education, here on Tuesday evening.
Speaking at the inaugural of the 39th National Library Week celebrations at the Connemara Library, he said that Rs. 5.25 crore has been allocated for 46 new library buildings across the State. Four district libraries are also being refurbished.
The committee for the selection of books to be bought for libraries would be reorganised soon by the Chief Minister, he added.
Later, he gave away prizes to winners of the oratorical competition held for school children to mark the library week.
K. Anbazhagan, Minister for Finance, gave away medals and certificates for the Best Librarian Award 2006 to 30 librarians representing all districts.
He said that the scheme to allow philanthropists to contribute Rs. 1000 to libraries could help the public participate in the upkeep of libraries. He urged publishers to pay more attention towards the type they use and the binding of the books they bring out, since such factors also contributed to a good experience of reading a book.
K. Ganesan, higher education secretary, Tamil Nadu Government, said the statistics that showed 5.27 crore persons visit the 3751 libraries in the State needed to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Since most of these were repeat visits, the total number of visitors is probably a fifth of the number. There were more than 50 vacancies of librarians in government colleges, he said and urged the Government to take steps to improve facilities in libraries.The Hindu/16/11/2006
Speaking at the inaugural of the 39th National Library Week celebrations at the Connemara Library, he said that Rs. 5.25 crore has been allocated for 46 new library buildings across the State. Four district libraries are also being refurbished.
The committee for the selection of books to be bought for libraries would be reorganised soon by the Chief Minister, he added.
Later, he gave away prizes to winners of the oratorical competition held for school children to mark the library week.
K. Anbazhagan, Minister for Finance, gave away medals and certificates for the Best Librarian Award 2006 to 30 librarians representing all districts.
He said that the scheme to allow philanthropists to contribute Rs. 1000 to libraries could help the public participate in the upkeep of libraries. He urged publishers to pay more attention towards the type they use and the binding of the books they bring out, since such factors also contributed to a good experience of reading a book.
K. Ganesan, higher education secretary, Tamil Nadu Government, said the statistics that showed 5.27 crore persons visit the 3751 libraries in the State needed to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Since most of these were repeat visits, the total number of visitors is probably a fifth of the number. There were more than 50 vacancies of librarians in government colleges, he said and urged the Government to take steps to improve facilities in libraries.The Hindu/16/11/2006
A new one-stop education portal
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER:A new one-stop education portal - www.sakshat.edu.in - launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development ambitiously promises students and teachers in the country access to a comprehensive range of educational resources and services.
Officials claimed that it would address key education and learning-related needs of students, scholars, teachers and lifelong learners.
It has been termed `one-stop' because it promises a solution to learners of all ages - from the kindergarten to the Ph.D. level - including those seeking vocational education and `learning for life skills.' Access to the portal, which has now been launched as a pilot project, is free.
Read more>>>
Officials claimed that it would address key education and learning-related needs of students, scholars, teachers and lifelong learners.
It has been termed `one-stop' because it promises a solution to learners of all ages - from the kindergarten to the Ph.D. level - including those seeking vocational education and `learning for life skills.' Access to the portal, which has now been launched as a pilot project, is free.
Read more>>>
Evaluating Health Information
MedlinePlus offers a great set of material on how to evaluate health information online. It includes links to …
* a flash tutorial called Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine
* 10 Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web (also available in Spanish) from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
* An article from the Harvard School of Public Health on Interpreting News on Diet: Research and the Mass Media
* Tips for the Savvy Supplement User: Making Informed Decisions and Evaluating Information from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
via: CogSci Librarian
* a flash tutorial called Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine
* 10 Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web (also available in Spanish) from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
* An article from the Harvard School of Public Health on Interpreting News on Diet: Research and the Mass Media
* Tips for the Savvy Supplement User: Making Informed Decisions and Evaluating Information from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
via: CogSci Librarian
ZAMZAR
Zamzar is a free online file conversion.Its a handy and nice one,which helps you to convert any file to any desired file format and have them emailed back to you.
It follows in four steps...
1. Select the files to convert(up to 100MB in size)
2. Choose the format to convert to (gives huge file list)
3. Enter your email address to receive converted files
4. Convert by clicking convert (agreeing with their Terms of Service)
visit : http://www.zamzar.com/
It follows in four steps...
1. Select the files to convert(up to 100MB in size)
2. Choose the format to convert to (gives huge file list)
3. Enter your email address to receive converted files
4. Convert by clicking convert (agreeing with their Terms of Service)
visit : http://www.zamzar.com/
President launches free education portal
A pilot scheme to boost education through a 'one stop education portal' Sakshat, was launched by President APJ Abdul Kalam in New Delhi on Monday,30th Oct'2006.Observing that nearly 10 million youth were injected into the employment market every year, Kalam said the country also needed a large number of talented youth with education for the task of knowledge acquisition, knowledge imparting, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing in the 21st century.
In detail:HindustanTimes.com
In detail:HindustanTimes.com
LISZEN : Librarians blog Search Engine
Nice..LISZEN is powered by Google Co-op. Google Co-op enables the customization of web searches for users. LISZEN has taken the first batch of sites from LISWIKI. Connecting you to 500+ blogs within the Library Profession.
Try it and get listed there...cool
Try it and get listed there...cool
Top 10 Research Tools
CNet has selected 10 research tools that help you go straight to expert sources and keep track of your research.These digital tools can keep you on track--whether you're working on a middle-school science fair, wrapping up a graduate degree, or pursuing a hobby.
1. Encyclopedia Britannica 2007
2. Wikipedia
3. FeedDemon 2
4. Diigo beta
5. Google Scholar beta
6. Google Book Search
7. Yahoo Answers
8. Windows Live Local
9. Google Earth 4
10. Google Home
11. Google Search
Cnet
1. Encyclopedia Britannica 2007
2. Wikipedia
3. FeedDemon 2
4. Diigo beta
5. Google Scholar beta
6. Google Book Search
7. Yahoo Answers
8. Windows Live Local
9. Google Earth 4
10. Google Home
11. Google Search
Cnet
Basic Rss Tutorials
lo-fi-librarian- Great set of RSS tutorials for Law Librarians, by Jason Eiseman, Computer Automation Librarian. Generally it can be used by everyone who wants to know about RSS basics and its usage. The tutorials are based on flash with audio.
Part 1: Introduction (approx. 6 min.)Part 1 introduces RSS as a concept. This tutorial discusses why RSS is important, and looks at an RSS feed.
Part 2: Using an aggregator (approx. 13 min.)Part 2 deals with how to set up an RSS aggregator and subscribe to RSS feeds.
Part 3: Advanced RSS (approx. 15 min.)Part 3 goes over specific tools that law librarians can use to set up RSS feeds which might benefit their libraries.
Part 1: Introduction (approx. 6 min.)Part 1 introduces RSS as a concept. This tutorial discusses why RSS is important, and looks at an RSS feed.
Part 2: Using an aggregator (approx. 13 min.)Part 2 deals with how to set up an RSS aggregator and subscribe to RSS feeds.
Part 3: Advanced RSS (approx. 15 min.)Part 3 goes over specific tools that law librarians can use to set up RSS feeds which might benefit their libraries.
Happy Deepavali
Information Manager wish you a very happy, prosperous and safe Deepavali!
Sree Ganesh Aur Mahalaxmi
ka ye tyohar
DEEPAWALI
Apke liye
SUkh, Shanti, Samraddhi, Yash, Kirti,
Sampannta, Vaibhav aur Sampurnta.
Lekar Aye
http://www.resultr.com
ResultR.com provides you with useful and relevant information from your favorite sources in one simple search. ResultR.com has grouped the best sources for news and information into eight categories. This makes it easy to find wanted information quickly. Plus: you can create your own personal search engines in 2 simple steps, without registering. Below a list of available sources.
ResultR.com may not be very different from some other comparable search engines, but some things may help you choose to use ResultR.com instead of others.
- It's easy to create personal search engines without registering
- Firefox plugins for every search, also custom made ones
- We got some sources, such as Wikipedia, Encarta & eBay, that others don't have
- Set preferences, such as font size and appearance
- No mixing of results. Results are grouped according to source
- Clear categories with selected sources (not 400 engines, just 50 good ones)
- No "work" to do for users: no rating, no voting, no things that could result in spam
http://www.resultr.com
ResultR.com may not be very different from some other comparable search engines, but some things may help you choose to use ResultR.com instead of others.
- It's easy to create personal search engines without registering
- Firefox plugins for every search, also custom made ones
- We got some sources, such as Wikipedia, Encarta & eBay, that others don't have
- Set preferences, such as font size and appearance
- No mixing of results. Results are grouped according to source
- Clear categories with selected sources (not 400 engines, just 50 good ones)
- No "work" to do for users: no rating, no voting, no things that could result in spam
http://www.resultr.com
Test SQL knowledge
SQL Quiz is absolutely free and you can take as many tests as you like..SQL quiz site is aimed at high school and college students learning SQL and at anybody else interested in improving and testing her/his SQL skills.Each SQL quiz contains 15 questions randomly selected from a pool containing over 500 questions. At the end of the test you will find out which and how many questions you have answered correctly.
Guruji.com, the Gateway to Indian Cyber-Space!
Guruji.com is the first crawler based search engine for India and India related content.India, known for being the spiritual Guru of the world, is now seeking to become the technology Guru with Indians spearheading the IT revolution. With Guruji.com, a totally indigenous product, we aspire to become a world-class search engine and showcase the "Indian" content to the world.
Guruji, a respectful way to call one's teacher, is the person one seeks help from in times of need. Likewise, Guruji.com is built to help provide easy access to information in every walk of life.
Guruji.com is the first crawler based search engine for India and India related content. Our proprietary algorithm automatically identifies India related content on the web and organizes it in such a way that you get the most relevant results fast. Our team of young, dynamic and passionate engineers from India's premier institutes like the IITs,IISc and other top engineering colleges, is working arduously to make this product better each day.
Try Searching @ guruji.com
Guruji, a respectful way to call one's teacher, is the person one seeks help from in times of need. Likewise, Guruji.com is built to help provide easy access to information in every walk of life.
Guruji.com is the first crawler based search engine for India and India related content. Our proprietary algorithm automatically identifies India related content on the web and organizes it in such a way that you get the most relevant results fast. Our team of young, dynamic and passionate engineers from India's premier institutes like the IITs,IISc and other top engineering colleges, is working arduously to make this product better each day.
Try Searching @ guruji.com
Thanjavur library to be a research centre
Thanjavur: Bharathidasan University has approved the Saraswathi Mahal Library at Thanjavur as its research centre, said C. Thangamuthu, Vice-Chancellor of the university, here on Monday.
Speaking at the 229th birth anniversary of Maratta King Serfoji II, the architect of Saraswathi Mahal Library, Dr. Thangamuthu said that guides would be sent from the university as guest professors to the library to help the research scholars of the library. Candidates could do research in Sanskrit, Tamil, Maratti and History and get doctorate.
C. Subramaniam, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil University, also said that other than the subjects mentioned by the Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, Tamil University would award doctorate to students who do research in the library.The Collector, C. Vijayaraj Kumar, who is also the Director of the library, said that two kings — Raja Raja Cholan, who built the Big Temple, and Maratta King Serfoji II, who established the Saraswathi Mahal Library — brought reputation to Thanjavur. The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam has come forward to digitise the manuscripts in the library free of cost. The UNESCO has accorded the world heritage status to 86 rare manuscripts of the library, he said.
He released a CD on the library. Dr. Subramaniam received the first copy of the CD.Prof. S. Sathyaseelan, a Tamil scholar, participated in the function. Sami Sivagnanam, Administrative Officer of the library, welcomed and R. Vivekananda Gopal proposed a vote of thanks.
Thanks: The Hindu, Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006
Speaking at the 229th birth anniversary of Maratta King Serfoji II, the architect of Saraswathi Mahal Library, Dr. Thangamuthu said that guides would be sent from the university as guest professors to the library to help the research scholars of the library. Candidates could do research in Sanskrit, Tamil, Maratti and History and get doctorate.
C. Subramaniam, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil University, also said that other than the subjects mentioned by the Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, Tamil University would award doctorate to students who do research in the library.The Collector, C. Vijayaraj Kumar, who is also the Director of the library, said that two kings — Raja Raja Cholan, who built the Big Temple, and Maratta King Serfoji II, who established the Saraswathi Mahal Library — brought reputation to Thanjavur. The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam has come forward to digitise the manuscripts in the library free of cost. The UNESCO has accorded the world heritage status to 86 rare manuscripts of the library, he said.
He released a CD on the library. Dr. Subramaniam received the first copy of the CD.Prof. S. Sathyaseelan, a Tamil scholar, participated in the function. Sami Sivagnanam, Administrative Officer of the library, welcomed and R. Vivekananda Gopal proposed a vote of thanks.
Thanks: The Hindu, Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006
Tapping the e-word
Tapping the e-word, Varada Rajakumar Ratnam, Prof Electronic and Electrical communication Engineering at IIT, Kharagpur says "The use of e-journals by engineering colleges is still largely restricted. A look at issues of concern"
Improving the connectivity of institutions, revision of pricing policies of e-journals by publishers, creation of a proper policy on the usage of journal archives, and the archiving of research output by institutions are some of the issues that need immediate attention.
Thanks to the ERNET programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Indian Institute of Science and the IITs were networked to provide high-speed access to the intranet, the Internet, e-mail and file transfer (ftp) services.
E-journal use was still very restricted. Till 2000, digital library activity, even in premier institutions, was confined to the use of a negligible fraction of journals, by subscription, and, in addition, some free online access bundled by journals with subscriptions to their hard copy version.
One reason for this was that while institutes such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), which is a non-profit making body committed to the propagation of Electrical engineering knowledge, adopted a pricing policy for its publications and, online too, which makes subscription affordable, this is not true in the case of most publishers, many of whom apply hard copy type of prices to e-journals as well! ...
[After the launch of] the "Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology (INDEST) Consortium"...E-journal access statistics rose phenomenally and the culture of electronic browsing got set in...
Subsequently, many other universities/institutes under the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) umbrella, including some privately-owned institutions, joined the consortium with the support of the AICTE.
But the bulk of engineering institutions, particularly those owned by private managements, still do not avail of this facility....As a consequence, today even many B.Tech theses in the country are completed without consultation of research papers from reputed international journals.
The premier institutions now have access to more than 10,000 e-journals, Conference proceedings and standards under this consortium....
The UGC-INFONET, an e-journal consortium established in 2003 under the INFLIBNET, has also emerged as another active consortium mainly to cater to the digital library needs of the universities....
Via...The Hindu Business Line, dated 09th Oct'2006
Improving the connectivity of institutions, revision of pricing policies of e-journals by publishers, creation of a proper policy on the usage of journal archives, and the archiving of research output by institutions are some of the issues that need immediate attention.
Thanks to the ERNET programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Indian Institute of Science and the IITs were networked to provide high-speed access to the intranet, the Internet, e-mail and file transfer (ftp) services.
E-journal use was still very restricted. Till 2000, digital library activity, even in premier institutions, was confined to the use of a negligible fraction of journals, by subscription, and, in addition, some free online access bundled by journals with subscriptions to their hard copy version.
One reason for this was that while institutes such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), which is a non-profit making body committed to the propagation of Electrical engineering knowledge, adopted a pricing policy for its publications and, online too, which makes subscription affordable, this is not true in the case of most publishers, many of whom apply hard copy type of prices to e-journals as well! ...
[After the launch of] the "Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology (INDEST) Consortium"...E-journal access statistics rose phenomenally and the culture of electronic browsing got set in...
Subsequently, many other universities/institutes under the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) umbrella, including some privately-owned institutions, joined the consortium with the support of the AICTE.
But the bulk of engineering institutions, particularly those owned by private managements, still do not avail of this facility....As a consequence, today even many B.Tech theses in the country are completed without consultation of research papers from reputed international journals.
The premier institutions now have access to more than 10,000 e-journals, Conference proceedings and standards under this consortium....
The UGC-INFONET, an e-journal consortium established in 2003 under the INFLIBNET, has also emerged as another active consortium mainly to cater to the digital library needs of the universities....
Via...The Hindu Business Line, dated 09th Oct'2006
IIT among world's 100 best universities
LONDON: The Indian Institute of Technology has joined the premier league of best universities in the world. According to the rankings compiled by the Times Higher Education Supplement , published on Thursday, India’s premier science and technology education centre is ranked No.57 in the global list.
American and British universities comprised nearly half of the top 100 universities in the world.
United States led the way with 33 universities in the top 100, while Britain ranked second with 15. Australia and the Netherlands were next with seven each, while Switzerland and France followed with five. Hong Kong, Japan, Canada and Germany each had three to their credit.
China and India, the world's two most populous countries, had two apiece, along with Singapore, New Zealand and Belgium. Denmark, South Korea, Mexico, Ireland, Austria and Russia all had one university in the top 100.
Via : The Economic Times/Education
American and British universities comprised nearly half of the top 100 universities in the world.
United States led the way with 33 universities in the top 100, while Britain ranked second with 15. Australia and the Netherlands were next with seven each, while Switzerland and France followed with five. Hong Kong, Japan, Canada and Germany each had three to their credit.
China and India, the world's two most populous countries, had two apiece, along with Singapore, New Zealand and Belgium. Denmark, South Korea, Mexico, Ireland, Austria and Russia all had one university in the top 100.
Via : The Economic Times/Education
WriteToMyBlog
WriteToMyBlog is a free web word processor for your Blog. Create Post Entries for your Blog from right here with our advanced word processor. Completely free, no membership required, can Post to multiple Blogs, view and edit Posts, works with all major Blog programs, and is easy-peasy!
Ten Reasons Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google
Ten Reasons Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google...
Why?...Because For all types of searches, Ask.com offers one-click links to narrow your search, expand your search, and provides links to results for related terms.
This is one of the reason among the ten reasons given by Librarian in Black.Great post ..make a try on Ask.com.
Why?...Because For all types of searches, Ask.com offers one-click links to narrow your search, expand your search, and provides links to results for related terms.
This is one of the reason among the ten reasons given by Librarian in Black.Great post ..make a try on Ask.com.
Quillpad
Digital Inspiration : Quillpad is essentially an online typing tool [not a keyboard tutor] that lets you type Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam using simple English. Just think in your language but type in English.Think of the text in your local language like you would pronounce it but type the same text in English and Quillpad will do the correspoding transliteration in the Indian language of your choice.Users can type text in English the way it sounds in native Language. The input text automatically appears in the native Language.Its very usefull those who don't know to write the native language.it’s web-based and is now online with email and internet search features.
http://www.quillpad.com/
http://www.quillpad.com/
NPTEL- National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning
NPTEL.This is a joint venture of Seven IITs & IISc Bangalore and other premier institutions as a collaborative project.The main objective of NPTEL program is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum based video and web courses.
Currently samples from approximately 70 courses offered by faculty in various departments and to students at all levels (B.Tech, M.Tech, M.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.) are given here. Approximately 140 courses are in various stages of preparation and distribution through internet.
This is just a trial period going on and hence everyone can register at the link given.http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/
Currently samples from approximately 70 courses offered by faculty in various departments and to students at all levels (B.Tech, M.Tech, M.S., M.Sc., Ph.D.) are given here. Approximately 140 courses are in various stages of preparation and distribution through internet.
This is just a trial period going on and hence everyone can register at the link given.http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/
The Top 10 Reasons to Be a Librarian
10. Ever-changing and renewing.
9. Romance.
8. Useful skills.
7. Great Conferences.
6. Time off.
5. A job with scope.
4.It pays the rent.
3.Good working conditions.
2.Cool coworkers.
1. Grand purpose.
By Martha J. Spear
Library media specialist Berkley (Mich.) High School
Read in detail
9. Romance.
8. Useful skills.
7. Great Conferences.
6. Time off.
5. A job with scope.
4.It pays the rent.
3.Good working conditions.
2.Cool coworkers.
1. Grand purpose.
By Martha J. Spear
Library media specialist Berkley (Mich.) High School
Read in detail
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple :Attraction of Srirangam
Located in the city of Tiruchirappalli, on a small island between branches of the rivers Kaveri and Coleroon, stands the massive temple of Srirangam.Srirangam is the foremost of the eight self-manifested shrines (Swayam Vyakta Kshetras) of Lord Vishnu . It is also considered the first, foremost and the most important of the 108 main Vishnu temples (Divyadesams).
This temple is also known as Thiruvaranga Tirupati, Periyakoil, Bhoologa Vaikundam, Bhogamandabam. In the Vaishnava parlance the term "KOIL" signifies this temple only. The temple is enormous in size. The temple complex is 156 acres in extent. It has seven prakaras or enclosures. These enclosures are formed by thick and huge rampart walls which run round the sanctum. There are 21 magnificent towers in all prakaras providing a unique sight to any visitor. this temple lies on an islet formed by the twin rivers Cauvery and Coleroon.
For more information visit:
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
Srirangam Wiki
This temple is also known as Thiruvaranga Tirupati, Periyakoil, Bhoologa Vaikundam, Bhogamandabam. In the Vaishnava parlance the term "KOIL" signifies this temple only. The temple is enormous in size. The temple complex is 156 acres in extent. It has seven prakaras or enclosures. These enclosures are formed by thick and huge rampart walls which run round the sanctum. There are 21 magnificent towers in all prakaras providing a unique sight to any visitor. this temple lies on an islet formed by the twin rivers Cauvery and Coleroon.
For more information visit:
Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple
Srirangam Wiki
India's Biggest Blog Unconference
Welcome to BlogCamp - India's Biggest Blog Unconference on 9th and 10th September 2006, venue: Tidel Park, Chennai, IndiaThis event will be INDIA'S
BIGGEST & THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE blog event ever conducted. There will be exclusive tracks for blogging, podcasting and videocasting.The unconference will be a rich mixture of workshops, practical demos, presentations, interactive quizzes, lectures, iron-man challenges, debates, group discussions and games.This event will be global in nature as arrangements will be made for participants from around the world can participate via video conferencing. Not to mention live blogging, webcasting and podcasting of all the sessions.For more information on BlogCamp, please visit www.BlogCamp.in
Web 2.0 Awareness Test
Micro Persuasion :Part disturbing, part humour, this is a built-overnight, fun "Web 2.0 Awareness Test" based on a combination of CSS and Javascript which allows a site to programmatically determine if a link has been visited before. So lets determine which Web 2.0 sites you have visited recently and assigns you a Web 2.0 awareness score.
Chemistry Central
Michael Knee:
Chemistry Central is a sub-set of BioMed Central. It features articles from journals that are peer-reviewed and open access. Initially, Chemistry Central is offering articles from:
Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry
BMC Biochemistry
BMC Chemical Biology
BMC Structural Biology
Geochemical Transactions
Chemistry Central plans to offer additional journals in the future.
Michael Knee
Chemistry Central is a sub-set of BioMed Central. It features articles from journals that are peer-reviewed and open access. Initially, Chemistry Central is offering articles from:
Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry
BMC Biochemistry
BMC Chemical Biology
BMC Structural Biology
Geochemical Transactions
Chemistry Central plans to offer additional journals in the future.
Michael Knee
Open access electronic journal gaining acceptance
CHENNAI: The open access electronic journal is an indication of how science communication will shape up in the 21st century, K. Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India, said on Saturday.
Delivering the fourth M. V. Arunachalam endowment lecture on `Medical and scientific journalism-A 21st century perspective,' he pointed out that the open access format was gaining wide acceptance as opposed to the user-paid mode of accessing scientific journals.
The open access format, whose advocates include even the United Nations, could become an important tool in people's empowerment and straightening out the asymmetry of knowledge in the doctor-patient relationship.
The lecture, instituted by the Vellayan Chettiar Trust and the Murugappa Group, was co-hosted by the MV Arunachalam Centre for Information and Education and Education in the Neurosciences and the Institute of Neurological Sciences at Voluntary Health Services.
via : The Hindu,dated:27/08/2006
Delivering the fourth M. V. Arunachalam endowment lecture on `Medical and scientific journalism-A 21st century perspective,' he pointed out that the open access format was gaining wide acceptance as opposed to the user-paid mode of accessing scientific journals.
The open access format, whose advocates include even the United Nations, could become an important tool in people's empowerment and straightening out the asymmetry of knowledge in the doctor-patient relationship.
The lecture, instituted by the Vellayan Chettiar Trust and the Murugappa Group, was co-hosted by the MV Arunachalam Centre for Information and Education and Education in the Neurosciences and the Institute of Neurological Sciences at Voluntary Health Services.
via : The Hindu,dated:27/08/2006
Site 24x7
Site 24x7 is in its beta version .This web-based service (FREE) service comes from AdventNet, which periodically monitors the performance and alert you the ups and downs of URLs. it includes feature like..
1. Monitor performance and availability of websites using HTTP and HTTPS requests, from end-user perspective, 24 x 7 x 365.
2. Monitor a single URL or a sequence of URLs. No complex installations of software.
3.Validate dynamic web pages that pull data from databases.
4. Check content in a web page.
5. Check current page size and the percentage change in current page size to previous page size.
6. Get notified when there are problems such as slow page load time, connectivity problems, content errors, etc., with your application.Receive Emails, SMS alerts
7.Generate reports to analyze the performance trends of the website over a period of time.
8. Validate for specific error messages.
9. Retrieve a web page's content
10. Low total cost of ownership, because you pay according to the usage
1. Monitor performance and availability of websites using HTTP and HTTPS requests, from end-user perspective, 24 x 7 x 365.
2. Monitor a single URL or a sequence of URLs. No complex installations of software.
3.Validate dynamic web pages that pull data from databases.
4. Check content in a web page.
5. Check current page size and the percentage change in current page size to previous page size.
6. Get notified when there are problems such as slow page load time, connectivity problems, content errors, etc., with your application.Receive Emails, SMS alerts
7.Generate reports to analyze the performance trends of the website over a period of time.
8. Validate for specific error messages.
9. Retrieve a web page's content
10. Low total cost of ownership, because you pay according to the usage
'Google Library' to world: give us 'all books in all languages,' free of charge
Google proudly announced that it is helping “bookworms everywhere find gems in the libraries around the world” with a new Library Catalog Search feature in Google Book Search.Google continues to set its sights on the content of others in furtherance of its mission to “organize” all the world’s information.
Google takes its mission literally; For Google, all the world’s information includes “all books in all languages.” Google aims to be the world’s single virtual depository for access to every single book in the world.
Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.
Read Further>>>
Google takes its mission literally; For Google, all the world’s information includes “all books in all languages.” Google aims to be the world’s single virtual depository for access to every single book in the world.
Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.
Read Further>>>
Tech support sites
Brian Satterfield in Techsoup list variety of tools for solving both hardware and software problems, including message boards, articles, and even expert answers to your specific questions.
I-schools to be the next big thing
THE ECONOMIC TIMES NEW DELHI: Information overload and a virtual absence of formal training and infrastructure for information managers are posing a big challenge for companies globally. Most companies are today willing to put a hefty premium on qualified information managers who are hard to come by. No wonder the education fraternity has been quick to spot an opportunity to churn out those much needed information managers.
I-schools began springing up four-five years back and it got a formal platform only last year.
The US boasts of institutions such as Berkeley School of Information, School of Information Science and Technology, Penn State, Michigan School of Information and Pittsburg School of Information have become the hub for the information architects.
India is getting its first I-school — International School of Information Management (ISIM) at the University of Mysore.
I-schools, or information schools, are tipped to be the next big thing in the knowledge economy, after B-schools. The logic behind it is that the country, which is witnessing an industrial revolution of sorts, is in need of information managers.
A novel idea globally — I-schools began springing up four-five years back — and it got a formal platform only last year, through the first ever I-conference held in Pennsylvania State University. Today, the US boasts of institutions such as Berkeley School of Information, School of Information Science and Technology, Penn State, Michigan School of Information and Pittsburg School of Information, which have become the hub for the much needed information architects.
Not to be left behind, India has made a quick plunge into the movement and is getting its first I-school — International School of Information Management (ISIM) at the University of Mysore. Being set up in collaboration with, International Institute of Information Technology, University of Pittsburgh and Informatics India, it will train students in all aspect of information handling — internet technology, data mining and data warehousing, natural language processing, project planning, scheduling and management, information management and security.
Until recently, the lack of dedicated institutions in this area led domestic companies to produce their own information experts. “Till now data mining or engineering courses (which are just a part of information management) were being offered as electives in some of the premier institutions of the country, but with the setting up of an I-school, we can have a much more focused approach and quality information managers,” says Prasad Ram, chief technology officer, Yahoo! India.
Adds Shalini R Urs, director, ISIM, “In today’s world, where loads of data is being generated every second, we need competent information managers to stay ahead of the competition. So there is a huge demand for data mining, data analytics, informatics experts or people from similar background who can decipher data in any form.”
Amid all this, companies are pampering the new information czars. Whether it is the technology blue chip Infosys or manufacturing giant Tata Steel, information managers have become indispensable for all to make an informed decision. These chief information officers, or CIOs, not only earn at par with software engineers but, at times, command a premium and earn a package that is 15-20% more than software engineers.
Says Mr Ram of Yahoo!, “At the entry level, they can earn anything between Rs 2-10 lakh, which can go up to Rs 4-15 lakh with 3-5 years of experience.”
I-schools began springing up four-five years back and it got a formal platform only last year.
The US boasts of institutions such as Berkeley School of Information, School of Information Science and Technology, Penn State, Michigan School of Information and Pittsburg School of Information have become the hub for the information architects.
India is getting its first I-school — International School of Information Management (ISIM) at the University of Mysore.
I-schools, or information schools, are tipped to be the next big thing in the knowledge economy, after B-schools. The logic behind it is that the country, which is witnessing an industrial revolution of sorts, is in need of information managers.
A novel idea globally — I-schools began springing up four-five years back — and it got a formal platform only last year, through the first ever I-conference held in Pennsylvania State University. Today, the US boasts of institutions such as Berkeley School of Information, School of Information Science and Technology, Penn State, Michigan School of Information and Pittsburg School of Information, which have become the hub for the much needed information architects.
Not to be left behind, India has made a quick plunge into the movement and is getting its first I-school — International School of Information Management (ISIM) at the University of Mysore. Being set up in collaboration with, International Institute of Information Technology, University of Pittsburgh and Informatics India, it will train students in all aspect of information handling — internet technology, data mining and data warehousing, natural language processing, project planning, scheduling and management, information management and security.
Until recently, the lack of dedicated institutions in this area led domestic companies to produce their own information experts. “Till now data mining or engineering courses (which are just a part of information management) were being offered as electives in some of the premier institutions of the country, but with the setting up of an I-school, we can have a much more focused approach and quality information managers,” says Prasad Ram, chief technology officer, Yahoo! India.
Adds Shalini R Urs, director, ISIM, “In today’s world, where loads of data is being generated every second, we need competent information managers to stay ahead of the competition. So there is a huge demand for data mining, data analytics, informatics experts or people from similar background who can decipher data in any form.”
Amid all this, companies are pampering the new information czars. Whether it is the technology blue chip Infosys or manufacturing giant Tata Steel, information managers have become indispensable for all to make an informed decision. These chief information officers, or CIOs, not only earn at par with software engineers but, at times, command a premium and earn a package that is 15-20% more than software engineers.
Says Mr Ram of Yahoo!, “At the entry level, they can earn anything between Rs 2-10 lakh, which can go up to Rs 4-15 lakh with 3-5 years of experience.”
Five Types of Content on a Library Website
Traditional Content, or “Stuff we Buy”: this is the no-brainer area. It includes books, videos, music, journals, etc. All the usual stuff that libraries collect. The main thing to remember here is to be format-agnostic. For example, libraries collect books - paper books, audio books, ebooks, digital audio books, etc. but they’re all books.
Original Content, or “Stuff Librarians Create”: Library employees create great content, and most of it should be featured prominently on our websites. Here are some examples of original content: tipsheets on using databases, topical pathfinders (gee, I hate that word), articles about a topic on a subject guide, and all those “if you like Danielle Steele, try…” Reader’s Advisory guides. I’d lump in digitized local history content here as well. Much of the read/write web would also appear here (blogs, wikis, etc).
Attendable Content, or “Things you Attend or Visit”: My library puts on seminars, classes, storytimes, exhibits, and even concerts once in awhile. All these types of events are “attendable content” - great content, but you have to be there to soak it in.
Collaborative Content, or “Interacting with Patrons”: Think of this as content that patrons create or help to create. This can be slightly more traditional, like taking a poll of favorite romance videos (and then placing those results online), or hip and emerging, like commenting on blogs, wiki content added by patrons, etc. But it’s all content coming directly from patrons.
Library/Librarians as Content, or “Content About the Library”: This last one is a bit more of a hodge-podge (so if anyone has a better way to explain it, please chime in!). Here, I’m including library services, locations, staff contacts, etc - everything under that “about the library” link found on most library website pages. Steve Krug calls this type of information “Utilities.” Besides all that About stuff, here’s another couple examples of what I’d include in this section: information on your home-bound books program (a library service), or information about free wifi at the library (library service, freebie you can get when using the library).
David lee king
Original Content, or “Stuff Librarians Create”: Library employees create great content, and most of it should be featured prominently on our websites. Here are some examples of original content: tipsheets on using databases, topical pathfinders (gee, I hate that word), articles about a topic on a subject guide, and all those “if you like Danielle Steele, try…” Reader’s Advisory guides. I’d lump in digitized local history content here as well. Much of the read/write web would also appear here (blogs, wikis, etc).
Attendable Content, or “Things you Attend or Visit”: My library puts on seminars, classes, storytimes, exhibits, and even concerts once in awhile. All these types of events are “attendable content” - great content, but you have to be there to soak it in.
Collaborative Content, or “Interacting with Patrons”: Think of this as content that patrons create or help to create. This can be slightly more traditional, like taking a poll of favorite romance videos (and then placing those results online), or hip and emerging, like commenting on blogs, wiki content added by patrons, etc. But it’s all content coming directly from patrons.
Library/Librarians as Content, or “Content About the Library”: This last one is a bit more of a hodge-podge (so if anyone has a better way to explain it, please chime in!). Here, I’m including library services, locations, staff contacts, etc - everything under that “about the library” link found on most library website pages. Steve Krug calls this type of information “Utilities.” Besides all that About stuff, here’s another couple examples of what I’d include in this section: information on your home-bound books program (a library service), or information about free wifi at the library (library service, freebie you can get when using the library).
David lee king
N R Narayana Murthy, Infosys Chairman Retires
N R Narayana Murthy, the founder and chairman of Infosys Technologies, India’s top technology and software company that put India on the global tech scenario retires as he turns 60 years old in accordance with company policy.
Narayana Murthy will continue to remain on the board as a non-executive chairman and chief mentor to the company. Nandan Nilekani, currently the company’s CEO, president and managing director and one of the co-founders of the company will take charge from now.
Infosys was started by Narayana Murthy and six others in 1981, just 25 years back with Rs 10000 ($250) and has now grown to become a top blue chip $2 billion global company. A man whose life is showcased by examples of simple living (I hear he sometimes still travels by economy class by air) and high thinking , rarely features in lists of Indian top Billionaires (unlike Azim Premji of competitor Wipro) or family promoting businesses. His wife Sudha Murty is well known woman personality too.
Infosys is a favourite blue chip tech company in stock market portfolios and well known for several bonus issues. Infosys has been the top choice for high salary jobs in India for software engineers (not to mention chances to get a good bride / groom) and has created hundreds of young millionaires in India. They created a record of sorts by recieving a million job applications. Infosys Technologies, India’s biggest software and services giant, developed the world’s largest corporate training centre in Mysore.
N R Narayana Murthy has inspired a new generation of young entrepreneurs and lead India to the technlogy global forefront besides creating more millionaires every year…
Narayana Murthy will continue to remain on the board as a non-executive chairman and chief mentor to the company. Nandan Nilekani, currently the company’s CEO, president and managing director and one of the co-founders of the company will take charge from now.
Infosys was started by Narayana Murthy and six others in 1981, just 25 years back with Rs 10000 ($250) and has now grown to become a top blue chip $2 billion global company. A man whose life is showcased by examples of simple living (I hear he sometimes still travels by economy class by air) and high thinking , rarely features in lists of Indian top Billionaires (unlike Azim Premji of competitor Wipro) or family promoting businesses. His wife Sudha Murty is well known woman personality too.
Infosys is a favourite blue chip tech company in stock market portfolios and well known for several bonus issues. Infosys has been the top choice for high salary jobs in India for software engineers (not to mention chances to get a good bride / groom) and has created hundreds of young millionaires in India. They created a record of sorts by recieving a million job applications. Infosys Technologies, India’s biggest software and services giant, developed the world’s largest corporate training centre in Mysore.
N R Narayana Murthy has inspired a new generation of young entrepreneurs and lead India to the technlogy global forefront besides creating more millionaires every year…
50 Coolest Websites: The complete List 2006
TIME magazine has a list of the 50 Coolest Websites.Many of this year's choices are shining examples of Web 2.0: next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips
TechXtra : Free source of information for engineering, mathematics and computing
TechXtra : The free source of information for engineering, mathematics and computing - is now an independent service. Previously connected with the EEVL gateway, TechXtra is an initiative of the ICBL and the Library at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and receives no external funding.
TechXtra’s is based around a search engine which facilitates immediate access to the freely available full-text content of millions of articles, key websites, theses and dissertations, books, industry news, new job announcements, technical reports, eprints, learning & teaching resources and the latest research, in engineering, mathematics and computing. In cases where the full-text is not freely available, TechXtra provides links to vendors for pay-per-view options.
Hundreds of free trade magazine subscriptions and technical document downloads, job announcements, the latest industry news, cut-price new books, discovery guides, information about validated engineering design data, information about offshore engineering publications, newsletters and more, are also available via TechXtra.
Anyone looking for information in technology will find TechXtra useful.
Thanks to
Roddy MacLeod,
Senior Subject Librarian
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
TechXtra’s is based around a search engine which facilitates immediate access to the freely available full-text content of millions of articles, key websites, theses and dissertations, books, industry news, new job announcements, technical reports, eprints, learning & teaching resources and the latest research, in engineering, mathematics and computing. In cases where the full-text is not freely available, TechXtra provides links to vendors for pay-per-view options.
Hundreds of free trade magazine subscriptions and technical document downloads, job announcements, the latest industry news, cut-price new books, discovery guides, information about validated engineering design data, information about offshore engineering publications, newsletters and more, are also available via TechXtra.
Anyone looking for information in technology will find TechXtra useful.
Thanks to
Roddy MacLeod,
Senior Subject Librarian
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Guruvayur : The abode of Lord Vishnu
Guruvayur (also written Guruvayoor) is a small town in the Thrissur district of Kerala state, south India.It is a temple town located at 10°36′N 76°3′E with a population of 21,187 (2001 census). It is 25 km to the north west of Thrissur City in Thrissur district. It is famous for the Guruvayur temple which is many centuries old and one of the most important in Kerala. The temple is famous as a site for pilgrimage and also a cultural centre as it is one of the centre-points along which Kerala literature and art-forms have been developed. There are other temples nearby. The deity is Lord Krishna. 
Legend has it that at the beginning of this era (yuga), Guru Brihaspati found a floating idol of Lord Krishna. He along with Lord of Air ( Vayu ) installed the idol in this temple for helping mankind get through the travails of this yuga. Hence the deity is named Guru-Vayur-Appan. The temple does not admit non Hindus.
Another attraction is the famous Elephant Sanctuary (Punnathur kotta) near the temple where elephants are trained for temple purposes. Here right now more than 60 elephants are kept. All these elephants were offered by devotees of Lord Guruvayurappa. Gajapooja (Worshipping Elephants) & Anayoottu (Feeding Elephants) are conducted here, as an offering to Lord Ganesha.
Buses ply every few minutes from Thrissur Shaktan Thampuran Bus Stand. Buses also operate from other places like Ernakulam, Kottayam, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Kottarakkara and also from Trivandrum. The railway operates passenger local trains to Thrissur and Cochin and also an overnight express train to Trivandrum and further to Chennai. It is 80 km away from Kochi International Airport.
Visit: Guruvayoor wiki to know more about Thrissur District,Guruvayoorappan,Guruvayur Temple, Punnathur kotta etc...
Legend has it that at the beginning of this era (yuga), Guru Brihaspati found a floating idol of Lord Krishna. He along with Lord of Air ( Vayu ) installed the idol in this temple for helping mankind get through the travails of this yuga. Hence the deity is named Guru-Vayur-Appan. The temple does not admit non Hindus.
Another attraction is the famous Elephant Sanctuary (Punnathur kotta) near the temple where elephants are trained for temple purposes. Here right now more than 60 elephants are kept. All these elephants were offered by devotees of Lord Guruvayurappa. Gajapooja (Worshipping Elephants) & Anayoottu (Feeding Elephants) are conducted here, as an offering to Lord Ganesha.
Buses ply every few minutes from Thrissur Shaktan Thampuran Bus Stand. Buses also operate from other places like Ernakulam, Kottayam, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Kottarakkara and also from Trivandrum. The railway operates passenger local trains to Thrissur and Cochin and also an overnight express train to Trivandrum and further to Chennai. It is 80 km away from Kochi International Airport.
Visit: Guruvayoor wiki to know more about Thrissur District,Guruvayoorappan,Guruvayur Temple, Punnathur kotta etc...
Social Networks gaining top hand....
Compete: Membership at social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is exploding. Everyone is doing it. Well… a lot of people are. In June, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social networking site.Since January 2004, the number of people visiting or taking part in one of the top online social networks has grown by over 109% (primarily driven by MySpace). Most of this growth has come about in the past 12 months alone! Social networking sites are now close to eclipsing traffic to the giants - Google and Yahoo.
For a clearer picture, take a look at the charts below:
More and more people are and will discover online social networking over time, much like we discovered email back in the 90’s. Explosive usage growth of the social networking sites mentioned in this post is a clear indicator that this is already happening. Will social network usage surpass that of Yahoo and Google? If I were a betting man, I would put my money on it.
For a clearer picture, take a look at the charts below:
More and more people are and will discover online social networking over time, much like we discovered email back in the 90’s. Explosive usage growth of the social networking sites mentioned in this post is a clear indicator that this is already happening. Will social network usage surpass that of Yahoo and Google? If I were a betting man, I would put my money on it.
e-learning 2.0
e-learning 2.0 - how web technologies are shapping educationWritten by Steve O'Hear and edited by Richard MacManus in which Steve will explore how Web technologies are being used in education.
Study examining the relationship between copyright law and education
Berkman
Research Release: "The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age"This foundational white paper reports on a year-long study examining the relationship between copyright law and education by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Berkman Center Faculty Director William W. Fisher III and Berkman Fellow William McGeveran. The study explores whether innovative educational uses of digital technology – everything from DVDs in the classroom to digital music libraries to online resources such as Wikipedia -- are hampered by copyright restrictions.
It's available in HTML and PDF.
Berkman
Research Release: "The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age"This foundational white paper reports on a year-long study examining the relationship between copyright law and education by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Berkman Center Faculty Director William W. Fisher III and Berkman Fellow William McGeveran. The study explores whether innovative educational uses of digital technology – everything from DVDs in the classroom to digital music libraries to online resources such as Wikipedia -- are hampered by copyright restrictions.
It's available in HTML and PDF.
Berkman
WWW Time line : Fifteen years of the web
6 August
Tim BernersLee releases web software
LETTERSPACING0 KERNING0Tim BernersLee formally introduced his world wide web project to the world on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. In the post he said the project "aims to allow links to be made to any detrmation anywhere". It did this by using hypertext a method for linking between different documents. Although invented many years earlier Mr BernersLees invention married hypertext with the internet. He also made available all of the files necessary for people to replicate his invention...>>BBC News
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2006
There are now 92615362 websites online with 882 million people around the world reading online.
Tim BernersLee releases web software
LETTERSPACING0 KERNING0Tim BernersLee formally introduced his world wide web project to the world on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. In the post he said the project "aims to allow links to be made to any detrmation anywhere". It did this by using hypertext a method for linking between different documents. Although invented many years earlier Mr BernersLees invention married hypertext with the internet. He also made available all of the files necessary for people to replicate his invention...>>BBC News
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2006
There are now 92615362 websites online with 882 million people around the world reading online.
Fast, Quality Searches...Yurnet
YurNet uses it's metasearch technology to search the Internet's top search engines, includingGoogle, Yahoo!, MSN, WiseNut, Altavista, ODP and a whole lot more.
YurNet accurately finds and compiles the results from the world's leading search engines to save time for all visitors so they don't have to search many single search engines.YurNet makes it easy to refine your search results making them more meaningful!
YurNet's comparison engine is newly added. Select up to 3 engines and compare results.
Any more than 3 would be too crowded for the display.You can port YurNet search to your website.
YurNet accurately finds and compiles the results from the world's leading search engines to save time for all visitors so they don't have to search many single search engines.YurNet makes it easy to refine your search results making them more meaningful!
YurNet's comparison engine is newly added. Select up to 3 engines and compare results.
Any more than 3 would be too crowded for the display.You can port YurNet search to your website.
O'reilly Open Books Project
This is a follow-up to my last blog entry. The O'Reilly Open Books Project contains freely available computing books. Books that are out of print as well as in print are included. There are even O'Reilly books with 2006 copyright dates.
Kathakali -Classical Dance from South India (kerala)
Kathakali-(katha for story, kali for performance or play) is an expressive form of Indian dance-drama. Once I got a chance to watch this great performance in kerala with one of my friend there. It originated in the South Indian state of Kerala, which dates from the 17th century and is rooted in Hindu mythology.Kathakali has a unique combination of literature, music, painting, acting and dance.Characters with vividly painted faces and elaborate costumes re-enact stories from the Hindu epics, Mahabharatha and Ramayana.
Costumes:
The headgear worn by the various characters in Kathakali are excellent
specimen of intricate wood carving, an ancient speciality of the region.
Even the shiny finishing with trinkets take hours of painstaking labour by expert
craftsmen. Most of the ornaments donning each character are made in this fashion too.
Make-up:
The make-up, called Chutty in the bibliography of Kathakali,is also an art form in itself.The colourful faces are the results of hours of painstaking handiwork by expert artists.Their work is,by no means subordinate to portrait painting.The basic materials used for the make up are very crude items like raw amorphous Sulphur,Indigo, Rice paste, Lime, Coconut oil etc.
Music:
One of the major distinguishing features of Kathakali is the absence of oral communication. A considerable part of the script is in the form of lyrics, sung by vocalists. The only accompaniments are percussion instruments. Chenda(Drum played with sticks) Maddalam(Drum played with fingers), Chengila(Gong) and Ilathalam(Cymbals). The style of music traditionally accepted is Sopana, where the range is limited to one and half octaves.
Enquisite ; Unlocking Search Trend
Enquisite Beta : Enquisite analyzes your search engine traffic & helps you determine what users want from your site. It claims to be a ground breaking, patent pending technology that revolutionizes Internet marketing and bridges the online and offline marketing divide. It offers an unparalleled view into user intent, and will forever alter the way both advertising and marketing are executed, online and offline. Enquisite will dramatically change the way companies do business. It's easy to use, and it's FREE!. Is it so...Just give a try>>
When should we introduce our Tiny-Tots to the cyber world ?
Digital inspiration:Computer literacy is increasingly seen as an essential skill for children. But what is the best age to introduce them to computers and does it give them a head-start?
When should we introduce our Tiny-Tots to the cyber world ? How long should they be allowed to work on the internet each day ? These are some of the most commonly asked questions by young parents. BBC has a few answers here and here
When should we introduce our Tiny-Tots to the cyber world ? How long should they be allowed to work on the internet each day ? These are some of the most commonly asked questions by young parents. BBC has a few answers here and here
Easy Shutdown/Restart
If you constantly shutdown your computer, restart it, or log off then maybe you should think about creating shortcuts to do it for you. You could then save yourself a few clicks from having to go through the Start Menu. It is surprisingly easy and only takes a few steps: cybernet
Wiki of MedLib Blog
Medicallibrarianshipblog : A wiki started by David Rothman to have a complete list of medical librarian blog .All the blogging medical librarian can go and edit their blog information there..The medical librarian blog can be defined as
1. A blog specifically about (Medical, Health, Health Sciences, BioMed) Librarianship
2. A blog written by a medical librarian
3. A blog maintained by a medical library
4. A blog maintained by a professional association of medical librarians and or medical library paraprofessionals
1. A blog specifically about (Medical, Health, Health Sciences, BioMed) Librarianship
2. A blog written by a medical librarian
3. A blog maintained by a medical library
4. A blog maintained by a professional association of medical librarians and or medical library paraprofessionals
Site for the medical physics community
Newly launched in 2006, medicalphysicsweb is a unique site for the medical physics community. It provides in-depth analysis and incisive commentary on the fundamental research, emerging technologies and clinical applications that underpin the dynamic disciplines of medical physics and biomedical engineering. It provides access to information in the following categories: opinion, industry, research, journals, products, companies, and events. Most of information is freely available; however registration or subscription is sometimes required.
Tracking blog conversations
The Hindu dated 31st july'2006 : J.Murali writes on the heading"Tracking the blog conversations"
An interesting aspect of a blog is its potential to generate active conversations through the `Comments' feature. Besides helping a blogger disseminate her ideas with blog entries, the blog's `Comments' feature provides her an opportunity to engage in an active conversation with the readers. In fact, in many popular blogs the `Comments' section present far richer content, when compared to the original entry. If you go through the 'Comments' section of famous technology blogs such as Slashdot and Digg, you will realise it.
Of course, all the comments relating to a blog entry will not appear in a single day — it is a continuous flow, lasting a few days. However, going back to the blog entry time and again to read the latest comments is impractical, especially when one visits several blogs daily.
As such, we need tools for accomplishing this task automatically. This requirement inspired many web enthusiasts and led to the generation of a crop of services called comment trackers. A few such services are detailed here.
http://www. cocomment.com/is an effective comment-tracking tool
http://www. cocomment.com/is another feature-packed comment monitoring service available in the blogosphere. like wise...Also points out Resume hosting service, Free telephone calls and On-line spell check..Read full article
An interesting aspect of a blog is its potential to generate active conversations through the `Comments' feature. Besides helping a blogger disseminate her ideas with blog entries, the blog's `Comments' feature provides her an opportunity to engage in an active conversation with the readers. In fact, in many popular blogs the `Comments' section present far richer content, when compared to the original entry. If you go through the 'Comments' section of famous technology blogs such as Slashdot and Digg, you will realise it.
Of course, all the comments relating to a blog entry will not appear in a single day — it is a continuous flow, lasting a few days. However, going back to the blog entry time and again to read the latest comments is impractical, especially when one visits several blogs daily.
As such, we need tools for accomplishing this task automatically. This requirement inspired many web enthusiasts and led to the generation of a crop of services called comment trackers. A few such services are detailed here.
http://www. cocomment.com/is an effective comment-tracking tool
http://www. cocomment.com/is another feature-packed comment monitoring service available in the blogosphere. like wise...Also points out Resume hosting service, Free telephone calls and On-line spell check..Read full article
Are You Ready for ISBN-13?
On January 1, 2007, the book industry will begin using 13 digit ISBNs to identify all books in supply chain.This change is happening for the following reasons:
1. To expand the numbering capacity of the ISBN system and alleviate numbering shortages in certain areas of the world;
2. To fully align the numbering system for books with the global EAN.UCC identification system that is widely used to identify most other consumer goods worldwide.
3. Two new prefixes are being created. The 978 prefix will be added in front of the current ISBN-10 and with the addition of a new check digit at the end
Learn more :http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp
1. To expand the numbering capacity of the ISBN system and alleviate numbering shortages in certain areas of the world;
2. To fully align the numbering system for books with the global EAN.UCC identification system that is widely used to identify most other consumer goods worldwide.
3. Two new prefixes are being created. The 978 prefix will be added in front of the current ISBN-10 and with the addition of a new check digit at the end
Learn more :http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp
CREATE, EDIT & SHARE spreadsheets online
Zoho Sheet is a web based alternative to traditional spreadsheet applications, like MS Excel or Openoffice Calc. It provides basic spreadsheet functionalities coupled with web based features like sharing, tagging, publishing and more...
Tricks to control spam hitting your inbox
Amit Agarwal gives really cool tricks on preventing spam from hitting your inbox.He suggests to maintain two seperate mail ids one for business and onother one for other things and don't publish your email addres directly on the homepage - use Email Obfuscators. Give fake mail ids to websites which require mandatory registration before to get access.One of the latest techniques to prevent spam is to create disposable e-mail address which stays just active for a pre-defined period and then expires. SpamBox and Mailexpire, that let you create temporary email address which expire after a given time.
Google launches open-source repository
In its latest effort to further the open-source programming movement, Google opened a site Thursday (27th july 2006)where programmers can host their software projects.
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Diigo Offers "Social Annotation" Tool
Combining bookmarks with sharing, tagging, annotation and very powerful search tools, Diigo is an appealing, evolutionary step forward in how we find, consume and share information on the web.
To use the service, sign up for a free Diigo account, then download the Diigo toolbar (available for Internet Explorer, Firefox or Flock).
To use the service, sign up for a free Diigo account, then download the Diigo toolbar (available for Internet Explorer, Firefox or Flock).
Tips on how to be a good library manager
The Annoyed Librarian thinks library management is an important issue and wish to give some tips to be a good library manager..such as
1. Remember, your employees are not as smart as you. If they were, they'd be managers.
2. Never leave your office. If people have problems, you need to be there for them.
3. Never schedule office appointments. If people have problems, they need to solve the problem themselves.
4. Fix the blame, not the problem.
5. Your subordinates need detailed instructions with every task. Make sure they have them!
and more.....
1. Remember, your employees are not as smart as you. If they were, they'd be managers.
2. Never leave your office. If people have problems, you need to be there for them.
3. Never schedule office appointments. If people have problems, they need to solve the problem themselves.
4. Fix the blame, not the problem.
5. Your subordinates need detailed instructions with every task. Make sure they have them!
and more.....
FUTEF Beta, Searching Wikipedia's Free Encyclopedia
FUTEF is a searching tool for wikipedia's and now available in beta. Currently its working with Wikipedia's free encyclopedia. Wikipedia is an amazing resource of information on a very wide range of topics. The search returns article result on the right and related sub categories on the left, further we can narrow our search by selecting the catergories from the left.Give a try...
LinkScanner, Keep your surfing safe
Linkchecker is a free online service which helps to find if any risk factor involved in visiting a perticular url.Just type in the site URL and LinkChecker would visit the website for you and report back the contents if there's a risk involved.
Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole Earth!
Really wonderfull work..WikiMapia is a project aimed at "describing the whole planet earth". It is an internet resource combining Google Maps and a "wiki" system. The project was created by Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev on May 24, 2006.
Please see my House at Asia>India> Tamil Nadu>Trichy>Police Colony>My House tagged as (LIG-182-saravanan/Sathish House)
Please see my House at Asia>India> Tamil Nadu>Trichy>Police Colony>My House tagged as (LIG-182-saravanan/Sathish House)
Tutorial on selecting online resources
Internet Detective, a free online tutorial designed to help students develop the critical thinking required for their Internet research, is being launched on the Web on June 13th in the RDN Virtual Training Suite at: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/
The tutorial offers practical advice on evaluating the quality of websites and highlights the need for care when selecting online information sources to inform university or college work.
The tutorial offers practical advice on evaluating the quality of websites and highlights the need for care when selecting online information sources to inform university or college work.
Index Translationum
The Index Translationum is a list of books translated in the world, i.e. an international bibliography of translations. The database contains cumulative bibliographical information on books translated and published in about one hundred of the UNESCO Member States since 1979 and totalling more than 1.600,000 entries in all disciplines : literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history and so forth. It is planned to update the work every four months
Which is best? wiki or blog
Read this article by Bob Doyle to understand the difference between them, which tells Wiki is good for old content: business best practices, policies. Blogs are used more for current news.
Future of libraries
Six trends driving the future of libraries
- People Power
Video Unlimited
Personalize It
Carbon Killers
Buy It Now
All Access Economy
Answers to your Questions
Answers.com is an ideal tool for the millions of people who must find and deal with all kinds of information as part of their daily routine, among them: writers, editors, students, educators, marketers, journalists, lawyers, and professionals.
Bibliopage.com
BiblioPage.com is a book finding service. It claims to have a database of approximately 500,000 unique titles. It is an afilliate site of Amazon.com and provide links for our users to purchase titles. The information provided on this site is meant to help anyone who is interested in finding a good book to read.
Forthcoming dLIST Classics by S. R. Ranganathan
Its great-The Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS) has granted the dLIST Classics Project permission to publish online and "provide open electronic access" to eight classic works of the great SR Ranganathan, including the Five Laws of Library Science.
Have a look on Prefatory Matter (Title pages, Table of Contents, Preface by Madras Library Association, Foreword by Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyer, Introduction by Mr. W.C. Berwick Sayers) and the first chapter of Five Laws of Library Science available already.
Have a look on Prefatory Matter (Title pages, Table of Contents, Preface by Madras Library Association, Foreword by Sir P.S. Sivaswamy Aiyer, Introduction by Mr. W.C. Berwick Sayers) and the first chapter of Five Laws of Library Science available already.
WikiBios
You don't have to be a famous celebrity to have a life worth documenting. WikiBios, a place where your friends become the storytellers of your life.It gives everyone an equal right to add, edit, and remove text about you except yourself.
World eBook Fair July 4th - Aug 4th
World eBook Fair is sponsored by Project Gutenberg , World eBook Library Consortia , DPP Store , Baen Books , Qoop , Ask.com
To marks a month long celebration of the 35th anniversary of the first step taken towards today's eBooks, when the United States Declaration of Independence was the first file placed online for downloading in what was destined to be an electronic library of the Internet. Today's eBook library has a total of over 100 languages represented.
It Provides
1. Full Full Text Search of 330,000+ PDF eBook Titles in 100+ Languages.
2. No Membership Required for Access to eBooks from 04-07-2006 to 04-08-2006.
Visit http://www.worldebookfair.com/
To marks a month long celebration of the 35th anniversary of the first step taken towards today's eBooks, when the United States Declaration of Independence was the first file placed online for downloading in what was destined to be an electronic library of the Internet. Today's eBook library has a total of over 100 languages represented.
It Provides
1. Full Full Text Search of 330,000+ PDF eBook Titles in 100+ Languages.
2. No Membership Required for Access to eBooks from 04-07-2006 to 04-08-2006.
Visit http://www.worldebookfair.com/
Move to protect country's traditional knowledge
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to sign an agreement with patent offices across the world to allow patent examiners to access the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) created by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) on India's traditional medicine systems.
The signing of the pact is expected to benefit the country immensely as it could help prevent scientists abroad from getting patents on various medical remedies that are already known to Ayurveda and other traditional medicine systems of India.
Read Further>>>
The signing of the pact is expected to benefit the country immensely as it could help prevent scientists abroad from getting patents on various medical remedies that are already known to Ayurveda and other traditional medicine systems of India.
Read Further>>>
Electronic Book of the Month
Dynamical Systems by George D. Birkhoff has been selected as the Electronic Book of the Month for July. This title is published by the American Mathematical Society and is freely available on their Web site along with numerous other books. The Electronic Book of the Month Archive has been updated.
Top Five Science Blogs
Weblogs written by scientists are relatively rare, but some of them are proving popular. Out of 46.7 million blogs indexed by the Technorati blog search engine, five scientists' sites make it into the top 3,500. Declan Butler asks the winners about the reasons for their success.
Read further>>>
Read further>>>
EBSCO Adding Numerous Full-Text Databases
3rd July' 2006: EBSCO continues to seriously beef up its full text database offerings. At ALA, the vendor announced that it is now marketing a full-text version of MEDLINE, which sports 1200 journals, 1000 of which are available with cover-to-cover indexing, and a total of more than 1.4 million articles dating as far back as 1965 with no embargoed material. The company also has more full-text offerings in the works. By summer's end, Computers & Applied Science Complete (indexing and abstracting for 1300 titles, more than 500 in full text), Education Research Complete (indexing and abstracting for 1500 journals, 750 in full text), and Environment Complete (1200 journals, 400 in full text plus the full text for 80 monographs), all will be complete.
Information via: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6348619.html
Information via: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6348619.html
Open Access for Librarians in Developing countries
An artcle by Morrison, Heatherin G in which basics of open access are presented, as a starting point for discussion by librarians in developing countries. Open access is defined; resources for searching are presented, and resources for creating open access archives and publications. Policy development needed for open access is explained, along with what librarians in developing countries can do to promote open access.
Source : E-LIS
Get full text as:PDF
Source : E-LIS
Get full text as:PDF
Overdue books attracts arrest warrant
A library patron was arrested in Texas for having overdue books
As a teen, you may grow weary of adults telling you what to do all the time. All the well-meaning advice just gets to be too much after awhile. Do this, don't do that, be careful of those—it just seems sometimes that adults worry too much. But you can't really blame moms and dads for being worrywarts. It can be a dangerous world out there.
For instance, do you know where your library books are? Is there an overdue book lurking in the bottom of your closet or under your bed that has somehow escaped your attention? Don't laugh. That little indiscretion just might be the preamble to a long criminal history.
Just ask Judith Galvan of Baytown, Texas. She was recently pulled over for a small traffic violation when the officer on call did a routine check on her. The lawman was alerted to the fact that there was an outstanding warrant for this woman's arrest. The violation? She was harboring overdue library books.
The arrest warrant shows that she was a repeat offender, as there were apparently not one, but three overdue books in her possession.
Just let this be a warning to all you forgetful teens, during these lazy days of summer as you loll on the beach with your books. Don't get too complacent when it comes to the law. Get those books back to the library on time.
As a teen, you may grow weary of adults telling you what to do all the time. All the well-meaning advice just gets to be too much after awhile. Do this, don't do that, be careful of those—it just seems sometimes that adults worry too much. But you can't really blame moms and dads for being worrywarts. It can be a dangerous world out there.
For instance, do you know where your library books are? Is there an overdue book lurking in the bottom of your closet or under your bed that has somehow escaped your attention? Don't laugh. That little indiscretion just might be the preamble to a long criminal history.
Just ask Judith Galvan of Baytown, Texas. She was recently pulled over for a small traffic violation when the officer on call did a routine check on her. The lawman was alerted to the fact that there was an outstanding warrant for this woman's arrest. The violation? She was harboring overdue library books.
The arrest warrant shows that she was a repeat offender, as there were apparently not one, but three overdue books in her possession.
Just let this be a warning to all you forgetful teens, during these lazy days of summer as you loll on the beach with your books. Don't get too complacent when it comes to the law. Get those books back to the library on time.
Thomson Scientific Launches Online Learning Resource
Thomson Scientific (http://www.scientific.thomson.com) announced the launch of a Web-based resource for regulatory intelligence training. Called Regulatory Online Learning, it integrates with IDRAC, which provides reference information for the drug development regulatory environment. IDRAC was acquired by Thomson in 2004.
ebrary Announces eBook Ordering Platform
ebrary (http://www.ebrary.com) announced that it has released the ebrary eBook Ordering Platform (eBOP) version 1.0 Beta. The new self-service platform enables librarians to search through ebrary’s perpetual access e-books, recommend titles for acquisition by selectors, and build a custom database of e-books online.
Enhanced SpringerLink Offers eBook Collection
June 26, 2006 — Springer (http://www.springer.com; part of Springer Science+Business Media), which claims to be the world’s largest STM (scientific, technical, medical) book publisher, has announced it will offer its complete publishing program online and on one integrated platform.
Size of a search engine
When we do a search on google or any other web search engine, the total number of results may help us to give a approximate report on its actual size. Perform a simple search for common words (words that are probably found in every text document like "the", "a", "is", "of", "or") and you can roughly compute the size of the entire search index.
Some very interesting statistics about their index sizes:
1. MSN looks like a new born baby. It indexes just 10% of content when compared with Google.
2. Google indexes the largest number of web pages for any of the common words.
3. Yahoo comes second but not close enough.
Some very interesting statistics about their index sizes:
1. MSN looks like a new born baby. It indexes just 10% of content when compared with Google.
2. Google indexes the largest number of web pages for any of the common words.
3. Yahoo comes second but not close enough.
TutorialFind
TutorialFind is a directory of computing tutorials divided into the following categories: hardware, networking, operating systems, programming, software, and Web design. It provides access to tutorials on other Web sites. TutorialFind can be browsed by category or searched by keywords.
IEEE Computer Society Digital Library Enhancement
The IEEE Computer Society announced a new service enhancement for the IEEE Computer Society Digital Library: citations can now be downloaded quickly to personal bibliography and reference management tools. ASCII text, BibTex, RefWorks, Procite, Endnote, and Reference Manager are now supported.
Professional values
Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed?
The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them couldfigure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who hadbeen fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag oftools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work.He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship'sowners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled outa small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurchedinto life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousanddollars."What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:Tapping with a hammer ...... $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ........... $ 9998.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your lifemakes all the difference
The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them couldfigure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who hadbeen fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag oftools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work.He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship'sowners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do.After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled outa small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurchedinto life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousanddollars."What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:Tapping with a hammer ...... $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ........... $ 9998.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your lifemakes all the difference
CiteULike
CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise the academic papers they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser. There's no need to install any special software. A similar site is Connotea, from Nature Publishing Group: www.connotea.org.
Features includes such as:-
1. The list of tags/keywords on the home page shows large and small tags; the larger ones are used more often
2. You can see other accounts who have saved the same articles as you; you can also see what other tags have been used for that article
3. If there is an article in another account that interests you, you can add it to your account as well.
For more detail visit: http://www.citeulike.org/
Features includes such as:-
1. The list of tags/keywords on the home page shows large and small tags; the larger ones are used more often
2. You can see other accounts who have saved the same articles as you; you can also see what other tags have been used for that article
3. If there is an article in another account that interests you, you can add it to your account as well.
For more detail visit: http://www.citeulike.org/
KidQuery
Parents have the right to keep their kids safe.Is your children sharing his/her pictures or revealing telephone number and home address to predators online KidQuery helps by allowing parents to easily search and monitor their child's profiles over the net.Do you need this?Its free for limited period...
Read more>>>
Read more>>>
CPB of New York state sends warning on google video service
The New York State Consumer Protection Board (CPB) today warned parents that children can easily access and view videos with sexual themes and off-color material through a free service that can be accessed through Google, the Internet search engine. On the Internet, Google has added "video pages" to its array of free services. The Google video service lets viewers choose from more than 100 of the most-popular videos on the Internet....
Read more>>
Read more>>
Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing
THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 — On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky.The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet services.
And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border — at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking — is the backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the years ahead.
Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.
Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together a global network of computers — known in the industry as the Googleplex — that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex.
The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial and agricultural outpost 80 miles east of Portland has been a closely guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations.
Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here — and a third that Google has a permit to build — will probably house tens of thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with Velcro tape in a Google practice that makes for easy swapping of components. The cooling plants are essential because of the searing heat produced by so much computing power.
The complex will tap into the region's large surplus of fiber optic networking, a legacy of the dot-com boom.
The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to locally as Project 02, has been reported in the local press. But many officials in The Dalles, including the city attorney and the city manager, said they could not comment on the project because they signed confidentiality agreements with Google last year.
"No one says the 'G' word," said Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Port of Klickitat, Wash., directly across the river from The Dalles, who is not bound by such agreements. "It's a little bit like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Harry Potter."
Local residents are at once enthusiastic and puzzled about their affluent but secretive new neighbor, a successor to the aluminum manufacturers that once came seeking the cheap power that flows from the dams holding back the powerful Columbia. The project has created hundreds of construction jobs, caused local real estate prices to jump 40 percent and is expected to create 60 to 200 permanent jobs in a town of 12,000 people when the center opens later this year.
"We're trying to organize our chamber ambassadors to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and they're trying to keep us all away," said Susan Huntington, executive director of The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce. "Our two cultures aren't matching very well."
Culture clashes may be an inevitable byproduct of the urgency with which the search engine war is being waged.
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are spending vast sums of capital to build out their computing capabilities to run both search engines and a variety of Web services that encompass e-mail, video and music downloads and online commerce.
Microsoft stunned analysts last quarter when it announced that it would spend an unanticipated $2 billion next year, much of it in an effort to catch up with Google. Google said its own capital expenditures would run to at least $1.5 billion. Its center here, whose cost is undisclosed, shows what that money is meant to buy.
And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border — at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking — is the backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the years ahead.
Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.
Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together a global network of computers — known in the industry as the Googleplex — that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex.
The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial and agricultural outpost 80 miles east of Portland has been a closely guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations.
Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here — and a third that Google has a permit to build — will probably house tens of thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with Velcro tape in a Google practice that makes for easy swapping of components. The cooling plants are essential because of the searing heat produced by so much computing power.
The complex will tap into the region's large surplus of fiber optic networking, a legacy of the dot-com boom.
The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to locally as Project 02, has been reported in the local press. But many officials in The Dalles, including the city attorney and the city manager, said they could not comment on the project because they signed confidentiality agreements with Google last year.
"No one says the 'G' word," said Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Port of Klickitat, Wash., directly across the river from The Dalles, who is not bound by such agreements. "It's a little bit like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Harry Potter."
Local residents are at once enthusiastic and puzzled about their affluent but secretive new neighbor, a successor to the aluminum manufacturers that once came seeking the cheap power that flows from the dams holding back the powerful Columbia. The project has created hundreds of construction jobs, caused local real estate prices to jump 40 percent and is expected to create 60 to 200 permanent jobs in a town of 12,000 people when the center opens later this year.
"We're trying to organize our chamber ambassadors to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and they're trying to keep us all away," said Susan Huntington, executive director of The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce. "Our two cultures aren't matching very well."
Culture clashes may be an inevitable byproduct of the urgency with which the search engine war is being waged.
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are spending vast sums of capital to build out their computing capabilities to run both search engines and a variety of Web services that encompass e-mail, video and music downloads and online commerce.
Microsoft stunned analysts last quarter when it announced that it would spend an unanticipated $2 billion next year, much of it in an effort to catch up with Google. Google said its own capital expenditures would run to at least $1.5 billion. Its center here, whose cost is undisclosed, shows what that money is meant to buy.
BlogBridge
BlogBridge is a blog, feed and RSS aggregator for "info-junkies." While there are other aggregators out there, BlogBridge is designed for people who are required to follow lots of feeds, not 10 or 20, but 200 or 400. You can't read that much, so BlogBridge gives you lots of ways to organize, sort through, skim and discover what's important to you in this avalanche of information.
BlogBridge: Library is a soon-to-be-released product that looks interesting. It is a tool for organizing and presenting RSS feeds. This might be a good way to provide access to news for specialized groups we serve. One for the genealogy folks, another for the bird watchers, another for the anime crowd. For each resource it provides a thumbnail of the page, link, RSS, and an OPML file for the group.
Here is a crucial point that many people will miss but is critical to understand BBL: BlogBridge:Library is a piece of software that you can install on your own server, inside your firewall. It's not the content of the library (the books,) it's the software to organize the library (the building.)
BlogBridge:Library (BBL) creates a flexible web based structure to showcase Feeds, Reading Lists and Podcasts to employees in your company, or members of your organization. It will be the 'store' where users can browse and search for recommendations of content to read with their Aggregators. And, here's the important point: these are recommendations by people in your organization for people in your organization.
BlogBridge: Library is a soon-to-be-released product that looks interesting. It is a tool for organizing and presenting RSS feeds. This might be a good way to provide access to news for specialized groups we serve. One for the genealogy folks, another for the bird watchers, another for the anime crowd. For each resource it provides a thumbnail of the page, link, RSS, and an OPML file for the group.
Here is a crucial point that many people will miss but is critical to understand BBL: BlogBridge:Library is a piece of software that you can install on your own server, inside your firewall. It's not the content of the library (the books,) it's the software to organize the library (the building.)
BlogBridge:Library (BBL) creates a flexible web based structure to showcase Feeds, Reading Lists and Podcasts to employees in your company, or members of your organization. It will be the 'store' where users can browse and search for recommendations of content to read with their Aggregators. And, here's the important point: these are recommendations by people in your organization for people in your organization.
ScienceDirect to Launch New Release in August 2006
Starting in August 2006, ScienceDirect will release new redesigns and features that will include enhancements to the overall user interface, streamlined browsing and searching and additional personalization features. Additional enhancements will be launched over the next two years. Read more >>
BioMed Central launches four new journals
BioMed Central launches four new journals
BioMed Central launches four new open access, peer-reviewed, online journals:
Cell Division
Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration
Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine
World Journal of Emergency Surgery
BioMed Central launches four new open access, peer-reviewed, online journals:
Cell Division
Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration
Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine
World Journal of Emergency Surgery
I just love this thought
By K.G. Schneider
The User Is Not Broken: A meme masquerading as a manifesto
Launched after a discussion with a passionate young librarian who cares. Please challenge, change, add to, subtract from, edit, tussle with, and share these thoughts.------------------
All technologies evolve and die. Every technology you learned about in library school will be dead someday. You fear loss of control, but that has already happened. Ride the wave.You are not a format. You are a service. The OPAC is not the sun. The OPAC is at best a distant planet, every year moving farther from the orbit of its solar system.The user is the sun.The user is the magic element that transforms librarianship from a gatekeeping trade to a services profession.The user is not broken. Your system is broken until proven otherwise.That vendor who just sold you the million-dollar system because "librarians need to help people" doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, and his system is broken, too.Most of your most passionate users will never meet you face to face. Most of your most alienated users will never meet you face to face.The most significant help you can provide your users is to add value and meaning to the information experience, wherever it happens; defend their right to read; and then get out of the way. Your website is your ambassador to tomorrow's taxpayers. They will meet the website long before they see your building, your physical resources, or your people. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to find a library website that is usable and friendly and provides services rather than talking about them in weird library jargon. Information flows down the path of least resistance. If you block a tool the users want, users will go elsewhere to find it.You cannot change the user, but you can transform the user experience to meet the user. Meet people where they are--not where you want them to be.The user is not "remote." You, the librarian, are remote, and it is your job to close that gap. The average library decision about implementing new technologies takes longer than the average life cycle for new technologies. If you are reading about it in Time and Newsweek and your library isn't adapted for it or offering it, you're behind.Stop moaning about the good old days. The card catalog sucked, and you thought so at the time, too. If we continue fetishizing the format and ignoring the user, we will be tomorrow's cobblers. We have wonderful third spaces that offer our users a place where they can think and dream and experience information. Is your library a place where people can dream?Your ignorance will not protect you.
The User Is Not Broken: A meme masquerading as a manifesto
Launched after a discussion with a passionate young librarian who cares. Please challenge, change, add to, subtract from, edit, tussle with, and share these thoughts.------------------
All technologies evolve and die. Every technology you learned about in library school will be dead someday. You fear loss of control, but that has already happened. Ride the wave.You are not a format. You are a service. The OPAC is not the sun. The OPAC is at best a distant planet, every year moving farther from the orbit of its solar system.The user is the sun.The user is the magic element that transforms librarianship from a gatekeeping trade to a services profession.The user is not broken. Your system is broken until proven otherwise.That vendor who just sold you the million-dollar system because "librarians need to help people" doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, and his system is broken, too.Most of your most passionate users will never meet you face to face. Most of your most alienated users will never meet you face to face.The most significant help you can provide your users is to add value and meaning to the information experience, wherever it happens; defend their right to read; and then get out of the way. Your website is your ambassador to tomorrow's taxpayers. They will meet the website long before they see your building, your physical resources, or your people. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to find a library website that is usable and friendly and provides services rather than talking about them in weird library jargon. Information flows down the path of least resistance. If you block a tool the users want, users will go elsewhere to find it.You cannot change the user, but you can transform the user experience to meet the user. Meet people where they are--not where you want them to be.The user is not "remote." You, the librarian, are remote, and it is your job to close that gap. The average library decision about implementing new technologies takes longer than the average life cycle for new technologies. If you are reading about it in Time and Newsweek and your library isn't adapted for it or offering it, you're behind.Stop moaning about the good old days. The card catalog sucked, and you thought so at the time, too. If we continue fetishizing the format and ignoring the user, we will be tomorrow's cobblers. We have wonderful third spaces that offer our users a place where they can think and dream and experience information. Is your library a place where people can dream?Your ignorance will not protect you.
Google "Spreadsheet"
You can sign up for an invitation to join "Google Spreadsheets", an on-line servbice that will allow you to:
Create basic spreadsheets from scratch.
You can start from scratch and do all the basics, including changing the number format, sorting by columns, and adding formulas.Upload your spreadsheet files.
Upload spreadsheets or worksheets from CSV or XLS format – all your formulas and formatting will come across intact.
Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze. Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, change the font, change the cell background color and more. (...)Choose who can access your spreadsheets.
Just enter the email addresses of the people you want to share a given document, and then send them a message.Share documents instantly.
People with whom you share a given spreadsheet can access it as soon as they sign in.Edit with others in real time.
Multiple people can edit or view your spreadsheet at the same time as you – their names will appear in an on-screen chat window.
Create basic spreadsheets from scratch.
You can start from scratch and do all the basics, including changing the number format, sorting by columns, and adding formulas.Upload your spreadsheet files.
Upload spreadsheets or worksheets from CSV or XLS format – all your formulas and formatting will come across intact.
Familiar desktop feel makes editing a breeze. Just click the toolbar buttons to bold, underline, change the font, change the cell background color and more. (...)Choose who can access your spreadsheets.
Just enter the email addresses of the people you want to share a given document, and then send them a message.Share documents instantly.
People with whom you share a given spreadsheet can access it as soon as they sign in.Edit with others in real time.
Multiple people can edit or view your spreadsheet at the same time as you – their names will appear in an on-screen chat window.
Search Engines: Where We Were, Are Now, and Will Ever Be
An article in Ariadne, in which Phil Bradley takes a look at the development of search engines over the lifetime of Ariadne and points to what we might anticipate in the years to come.
Barcode Label Printer - Free Online
Barcode Label Printer - Free Online Barcode GeneratorDeeksha System Private Ltd. which is engaged in giving World-class standard products ranges from Library to distance learning management system. Adopted by top ranked colleges and institutes. Execution by Top notch IT Professionals having experience of 20+ Yrs with Top IT companies.Now it gives bare code printer -Free online Barcaode Generator. For Further information visit : www.deekshasystems.com/Products.htm
Looks like competition to Google Scholar
April 11, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the beta release of its Windows Live™ Academic Search service in seven countries. The new search service is designed to help students,researchers and university faculty conduct research across a spectrum of academic journals. The program is a cooperative effort between Windows Live Search, industry association CrossRef and more than 10 leading publishers. The initial beta release will target the subjects of computer science, electrical engineering and physics, and the company is working with multiple organizations to bring new subjects online in the near future. visit to: www.academic.live.com
Five Laws of S.R. Ranganathan in the Web age
Five Laws of S.R. Ranganathan in the Web age
1. Links are for use the very essence of hypertext;
2. Every surfer his or her link the rich diversity of links across topics and genres;
3. Every link its surfer
4. Save the time of the surfer visualizing web clusters and small-world shortcuts;
5. The Web is a growing organism
By - Lennart Bjrneborn., PhD in webometrics-Royal School of Library and Information Science
1. Links are for use the very essence of hypertext;
2. Every surfer his or her link the rich diversity of links across topics and genres;
3. Every link its surfer
4. Save the time of the surfer visualizing web clusters and small-world shortcuts;
5. The Web is a growing organism
By - Lennart Bjrneborn., PhD in webometrics-Royal School of Library and Information Science
Europe's digital library taking shape
At least 6 million books, documents and other cultural works will be made available online over the next five years under a planned European Digital Library. The European Commission on Thursday released more details about its plans to finance a series of "digitization centers" across the continent and create a framework for protecting intellectual property rights. The centers will house the skills and expertise "needed to achieve excellence for digitization and preservation processes," the EC said. Viviane Reding, the EC's information society and media commissioner, said in a statement Thursday that technology will "enable you to tap into Europe's collective memory with a click of your mouse." People will be able to search the collections of libraries, archives and museums through a single, multilingual entry point, which will take the form of a Web portal. Two million books, films, photographs, manuscripts and other works are expected to become accessible through the library by 2008, rising to 6 million by 2010. The EC said the final figure would be much higher as "every library, archive and museum in Europe will be able to link its digital content to the European Digital Library." The Commission noted that Google's digital library project had "triggered a reflection" on how to deal with Europe's cultural heritage in the digital age. "It is also interesting in that it highlights the possibilities for public/private initiatives in this area. Public/private partnerships or sponsoring by private companies will accelerate digitization," the Commission said. "Given the budgetary constraints on many cultural institutions, initiatives involving the private sector can be a useful means to complement public funding." Steve Ranger of Silicon.com reported from London.
First things first
First things firstHere starts the introspection. What do you really want in life ? How can you manage time ? How efficiently can we handle situations without much tension ? How can we effectively balance family life and professional life ? Plan the action strategy in mind. Make a plan in written format How can we plan and stack our time right from morning ? How much efficiently can we idiolize balancing time and work, right from the time we get up and again go back to rest ? Think… Start the day with a great note of positive energy.. Tell yourself that you are going to give your best today in all aspects.. Remind yourself of the all tasks and activities to be done on a particular day.. Stay positive and never give up. Visualise what do you really want in life ? Work your plan and Plan your work to success. Patience and perseverance is the key for everything... Never postpone things and quit things...“A quitter always feels bitter”. Quitting job today doesn’t mean ending, it means facing it again. You quit a job at best hour to meet the same during future at the worst hour. So what do you learn from this ? Useful times can be measured. And wasteful moments can be realized only after its end. Be positive always and strengthen your mind thru prayers and meditation. Surrender yourself truly to the guru and wait patiently for the right direction which will be shown by the guru.. To put in a nutshell it is just “Landing in the path of excellence through hard work, grace factor and other efforts protected by prayers”. For all these things, mindset is the main trum card..I hope we accept the reality.. Have a smiling face to accept problems and see to that the solution is very close to it which we fail to identify it always. We always blame it on the fate. Of course, we can rewrite it if we have proper sraddha and devotion to god. Try practicing these things by devoting time for talking to your own self, where you analyse more and increase the feeling of acceptance. Auto suggestions are the key for improving our self. Be Positive and never give up. Let us love whatever we are doing daily and be true to our self.
ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!
Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"? To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over -- 5 crore children start playing tennis, 50 lakh learn to play tennis, 5 lakh learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD "Why me?". And today in pain I should not be asking GOD "Why me?" Happiness keeps u Sweet, Trials keep u Strong, Sorrow keeps u Human,Failure Keeps u Humble, Success keeps u Glowing, But only God Keeps u Going..... Keep Going.....
Google Merges Instant Messenger With E- mail
Google is integrating its popular e-mail service with its instant messaging (IM), allowing users to chat and send e-mails from the same web browser window. The new facility will be visible to existing subscribers from within Google's Gmail browser window. Full Details:www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=71207&cat_id=643
Listen to Dr. Ranganathan.
This was on cassette in the collection of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto. It's a 1964 recording of the great librarian S.R. Ranganathan giving a fifteen-minute talk about his connections with Melvil Dewey. They never met, but they did correspond, and Ranganathan recounts that and four other anecdotes, including an amusing one he was told about Dewey conniving so that his female employees could enter his library by the front door and not the fire escape. (Ranganathan jokingly relates the number five to his Colon Classification.) S.R. Ranganathan's Monologue on Melvil Dewey (6 MB MP3). A warning about the audio quality: the first 1m56s were damaged on the cassette, and Ranganathan's voice is very faint and almost overwhelmed by hiss. it's hard to hear. After that, the rest of the speech is of much better quality.
What Open Access is?
What Open Access is
The Open Access research literature is composed of free, online copies of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers as well as technical reports, theses and working papers. In most cases there are no licensing restrictions on their use by readers. They can therefore be used freely for research, teaching and other purposes.
What Open Access is not
There are various misunderstandings about Open Access. It is not self-publishing, nor a way to bypass peer-review and publication, nor is it a kind of second-class, cut-price publishing route. It is simply a means to make research results freely available online to the whole research community.
How is Open Access provided?
Open Access can be provided by various means. A researcher can place a copy of each article in an Open Access archive or repository or can publish articles in Open Access journals. In addition, a researcher may place a copy of each article on a personal or departmental website. Whilst all three routes to Open Access ensure that far more users can access such articles than if they were hidden away in subscription-based journals, the first two constitute much more systematic and organised approaches than the third and maximise the chance of other researchers locating and reading articles. Open Access archives or repositories are digital collections of research articles that have been placed there by their authors. In the case of journal articles this may be done either before (preprints) or after publication (postprints). This is known as ‘self-archiving’. These repositories expose the metadata of each article (the title, authors, and other bibliographic details) in a format compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAIPMH). To access the contents of these archives, you can use Google or one of the specialised search engines for a more focused and efficient search. The latter systematically harvest the contents of the archives worldwide, forming a database of current global research. Open Access repositories may be multidisciplinary and located in universities or other research-based institutions, or they may be centralised and subject-based, such as the one covering certain areas of physics and related disciplines, called arXiv. By the beginning of 2005, there were almost 40 Open Access archives in the UK, and more universities and research institutes are planning to launch their own. A list of Open Access archives in the UK is maintained by the Eprints.org site at Southampton University. If your institution does not have an archive, extensive information on how to set one up can be found on that website. Self-archiving is an international movement that is developing fast, and some grant funders are also now planning central archives to house the articles of their grant-holders. If you are concerned that your journal’s publisher may have copyright restrictions that would prevent you from selfarchiving your articles, this will in most instances not be the case. Current publisher policies on self-archiving and copyright are detailed on the SHERPA project website at Nottingham University. Open Access journals are peer-reviewed journals whose articles may be accessed online by anyone without charge. In many cases they may also be published in print. Some, mainly those published from a university department or with substantial subsidy, make no author or page charges. Others levy a charge for publishing an article, turning on its head the traditional model where a library pays for access to the contents of a journal through a subscription. This charge may be paid by the author(s) but in most cases it is financed by a research grant or institutional funds. Your institution may already have taken the decision to pay for Open Access articles to be published, or your grant-awarding body may have adopted this as one of its policies. A list of grant awarding bodies that explicitly permit funds to be used for this purpose is maintained on the BioMed Central website. BioMed Central is a well-known Open Access publisher with over 100 journals in its portfolio. Other examples are the journals from the Public Library of Science, such as PLoS Medicine, PLoS Biology. In the case of an author’s financial hardship, BioMed Central, PLoS and other Open Access journal publishers will waive the publication fee. Fees levied by Open Access journals vary quite markedly but, as a guideline, BioMed Central charges £330 per article for most of its journals, and PLoS charges US$1,500 (approx. £800). In 2003 JISC secured a deal with BioMed Central on behalf of UK institutions to waive author fees for over 90 biomedical journals. A comprehensive list of Open Access journals in all subject areas is maintained by the University of Lund. In early 2005 this list contained over 1,400 journals. Many of these Open Access journals have impact factors and are indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information for its Web of Knowledge/ Web of Science service. At June 2004, 239 Open Access journals were in this category. Another form of Open Access is found in ‘hybrid’ journals: these are publications that will make an article accessible to everyone online without charge if the author opts to pay for publication. An example of a hybrid journal is the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which will make an article Open Access for a fee of US$1,000.
Why should authors provide Open Access to their work?
There is accumulating evidence that shows that research articles that have been self-archived are cited more often than those that have not. Across most subject areas there is at least a twofold increase in citation rate. In some subject areas it is even higher. This form of Open Access means that research has much more impact than before. Moreover, the research cycle – where work is published, read, cited and then built upon by other researchers – is enhanced and accelerated when results are available on an Open Access basis. Would you not prefer to be able to access all the articles you need
The Open Access research literature is composed of free, online copies of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers as well as technical reports, theses and working papers. In most cases there are no licensing restrictions on their use by readers. They can therefore be used freely for research, teaching and other purposes.
What Open Access is not
There are various misunderstandings about Open Access. It is not self-publishing, nor a way to bypass peer-review and publication, nor is it a kind of second-class, cut-price publishing route. It is simply a means to make research results freely available online to the whole research community.
How is Open Access provided?
Open Access can be provided by various means. A researcher can place a copy of each article in an Open Access archive or repository or can publish articles in Open Access journals. In addition, a researcher may place a copy of each article on a personal or departmental website. Whilst all three routes to Open Access ensure that far more users can access such articles than if they were hidden away in subscription-based journals, the first two constitute much more systematic and organised approaches than the third and maximise the chance of other researchers locating and reading articles. Open Access archives or repositories are digital collections of research articles that have been placed there by their authors. In the case of journal articles this may be done either before (preprints) or after publication (postprints). This is known as ‘self-archiving’. These repositories expose the metadata of each article (the title, authors, and other bibliographic details) in a format compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAIPMH). To access the contents of these archives, you can use Google or one of the specialised search engines for a more focused and efficient search. The latter systematically harvest the contents of the archives worldwide, forming a database of current global research. Open Access repositories may be multidisciplinary and located in universities or other research-based institutions, or they may be centralised and subject-based, such as the one covering certain areas of physics and related disciplines, called arXiv. By the beginning of 2005, there were almost 40 Open Access archives in the UK, and more universities and research institutes are planning to launch their own. A list of Open Access archives in the UK is maintained by the Eprints.org site at Southampton University. If your institution does not have an archive, extensive information on how to set one up can be found on that website. Self-archiving is an international movement that is developing fast, and some grant funders are also now planning central archives to house the articles of their grant-holders. If you are concerned that your journal’s publisher may have copyright restrictions that would prevent you from selfarchiving your articles, this will in most instances not be the case. Current publisher policies on self-archiving and copyright are detailed on the SHERPA project website at Nottingham University. Open Access journals are peer-reviewed journals whose articles may be accessed online by anyone without charge. In many cases they may also be published in print. Some, mainly those published from a university department or with substantial subsidy, make no author or page charges. Others levy a charge for publishing an article, turning on its head the traditional model where a library pays for access to the contents of a journal through a subscription. This charge may be paid by the author(s) but in most cases it is financed by a research grant or institutional funds. Your institution may already have taken the decision to pay for Open Access articles to be published, or your grant-awarding body may have adopted this as one of its policies. A list of grant awarding bodies that explicitly permit funds to be used for this purpose is maintained on the BioMed Central website. BioMed Central is a well-known Open Access publisher with over 100 journals in its portfolio. Other examples are the journals from the Public Library of Science, such as PLoS Medicine, PLoS Biology. In the case of an author’s financial hardship, BioMed Central, PLoS and other Open Access journal publishers will waive the publication fee. Fees levied by Open Access journals vary quite markedly but, as a guideline, BioMed Central charges £330 per article for most of its journals, and PLoS charges US$1,500 (approx. £800). In 2003 JISC secured a deal with BioMed Central on behalf of UK institutions to waive author fees for over 90 biomedical journals. A comprehensive list of Open Access journals in all subject areas is maintained by the University of Lund. In early 2005 this list contained over 1,400 journals. Many of these Open Access journals have impact factors and are indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information for its Web of Knowledge/ Web of Science service. At June 2004, 239 Open Access journals were in this category. Another form of Open Access is found in ‘hybrid’ journals: these are publications that will make an article accessible to everyone online without charge if the author opts to pay for publication. An example of a hybrid journal is the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which will make an article Open Access for a fee of US$1,000.
Why should authors provide Open Access to their work?
There is accumulating evidence that shows that research articles that have been self-archived are cited more often than those that have not. Across most subject areas there is at least a twofold increase in citation rate. In some subject areas it is even higher. This form of Open Access means that research has much more impact than before. Moreover, the research cycle – where work is published, read, cited and then built upon by other researchers – is enhanced and accelerated when results are available on an Open Access basis. Would you not prefer to be able to access all the articles you need
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