Some posts from the Internet Resources Newsletter, March 2009

Posted by Celia Walter | 28 Feb, 2009

An introduction to Google's search engine

http://websearch.about.com/b/2009/01/22/google-search-google-search-engine-basics.htm

From About.com

AuthorMapper

http://www.authormapper.com/

AuthorMapper, an online tool for visualizing scientific research, enables document discovery based on author locations and geographic maps.

 

CiteAlert

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/cite_alert

CiteAlert is a service which automatically notifies authors by e-mail soon after their work is referenced in a newly published article on ScienceDirect.

Europeana

http://www.europeana.eu/portal/

Multi-lingual online collection of millions of digitized items from European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections.

 

Federated Search Finds Content that Google Can’t Reach

http://www.altsearchengines.com/2009/01/11/federated-search-finds-content-that-google-cant-reach-part-i-of-iii/

From AltSearchEngines.

 

Free Language Translator

http://www.codeplex.com/LanguageTranslator

This is a desktop language translator application using the Google translation service. It adds more features to the existing service and addresses some of its shortcomings.

 

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website

http://www.labnol.org/internet/how-to-embed-in-html-webpages/6365/

From digital inspiration.

 

Joomla

http://www.joomla.org/

Award-winning Open Source content management system.

 

 

JURN

http://www.jurn.org/

Search 1842 free scholarly ejournals in the arts & humanities. See also the Jurn blog..

 

Khan Academy

http://www.khanacademy.org/

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.

 

Learning occurs in social networks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA&eurl=http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/video-learning-occurs-in-social.html&feature=player_embedded

A YouTube video.

 

MelZoo

http://www.melzoo.com/en_GB/search

This Meta search engine, offers "visual previews" of the search results.

 

Memidex

http://www.memidex.com/

This is a free online dictionary/thesaurus with several unique features, including more extensive cross-referencing, complete inflections, simple interface, and frequent updates.

 

PDFse

http://pdfse.com/

Ebook search

 

Ranking Web of World Repositories

http://repositories.webometrics.info/

The "Webometrics Ranking of World Universities" is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain.

 

Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment: Themes from the Literature and Implications for Library Service Development.

http://www.oclc.org/programs/publications/reports/2009-02.pdf

Report commissioned by OCLC Research.

 

The European Library

http://www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org

The European Library has announced a new site release.

The new portal incorporates many of the recommended enhancements from user feedback studies. Top of the list was more multilingual facilities. As a result, users can now navigate and scan over 330 collections in their native language. Support materials, including FAQs and a first-time user guide, are available in 22 European languages.

 

Twidox

http://www.twidox.com/

Twidox is a free, user generated online library of quality documents that allows individuals and organisations to easily publish, share and search for them, allowing people to share their knowledge and help others with their work, learning, teaching and research.

And there's lots more good stuff:

Internet Resources Newsletter, 170, March 2009

http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn170/irn170.html

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A Journal Feeds Wikipedia

Posted by Celia Walter | 28 Feb, 2009

In a fascinating and forward-thinking policy change, the journal RNA Biology recently began requiring authors to submit a Wikipedia-ready page after acceptance, so that new findings can be published in Wikipedia after journal publication.
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/01/13/a-journal-feeds-wikipedia/
From: The Scholarly Kitchen

From Internet Resources Newsletter March 2009

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Twenty-Nine Reports About the Future of Academic Libraries

Posted by Celia Walter | 26 Feb, 2009

John Dupuis, Head of the Steacie Science & Engineering Library at York University in Toronto has compiled a list of Twenty-nine reports about the future of academic libraries. All of the reports are freely available. Here are just a few, be sure and check out the full post for more:

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

From iLibrarian blog

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Computer Hardware in Plain English

Posted by Celia Walter | 26 Feb, 2009

The folks at the Common Craft Show have created a new “in plain English” video detailing the basics about such computer hardware as hard drives, RAM, and processors.

From iLibrarian blog

 

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Make Better Presentations - The Anatomy of a Good Speech

Posted by Celia Walter | 25 Feb, 2009

Social media guru Chris Brogan offers speaking advice in his latest post, Make Better Presentations - The Anatomy of a Good Speech. If you have an upcoming presentation, you may want to stop by and check out these tips:

  • Start with WIIFM
  • What Is the Goal of a Presentation?
  • Use a Framework of Some Kind
  • Inspiration for Great Speeches
  • Shop Your Work
  • How I’ve Been Doing It
iLibrarian

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What Libraries Can Learn from Facebook

Posted by Celia Walter | 25 Feb, 2009

Peter Bromberg at Library Garden discusses privacy issues in light of the recent Facebook TOS controversy in What Libraries Can Learn from Facebook.

“We know all this, and we personally experience the benefits, but librarians still seem generally loathe to let our customers share their personal information in exchange for anything. We don’t just protect customer privacy, we paternalistically protect it from the customers themselves, rendering them childlike. Our privacy philosophy often reduces down to, “We know better”, or “You can’t be trusted with that–you’ll hurt yourself.”

iLibrarian blog

 

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60+ Great How To Sites and Resources

Posted by Celia Walter | 25 Feb, 2009

Cameron Chapman at Mashable presents a mega guide to 60+ Great How To Sites and Resources. If you’re looking for guidance in a particular area, you’ll want to check out some of these resources which are divided into the following categories:

  • General How-to
  • Technology How-To
  • Productivity and Efficiency How-To
  • Business and Career How-To
  • Mashable How-Tos
  • Miscellaneous How-To
iLibrarian blog

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Ten essentials for any library site

Posted by Celia Walter | 25 Feb, 2009

Brian Mathews, User Experience Librarian at Georgia Institute of Technology, writes Web Design Matters: Ten essentials for any library site for the most recent issue of Library Journal. The article details ten key elements which will update and improve your library’s website, and provides helpful examples for each. Here are his first five recommendations, be sure and read the full article for more:

  1. Promotion
  2. Segmentation
  3. Visual Cues
  4. Inspiring Photos
  5. Search Boxes

via Tame the Web

From iLibrarian blog

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Information literacy

Posted by Celia Walter | 24 Feb, 2009
Hjørland, Birger (2008) Information Literacy and Digital Literacy. PRISMA.COM n.º 7 4(7):pp. 4-15. From DList

Abstract

This paper considers “information literacy” as a scholarly skill associated with knowledge about information sources, “source criticism”, critical thinking and theory of knowledge. From the perspective of Library and Information Science (LIS) it should be defined in relation to the research field of LIS: What we can offer and what we should offer in relation to this concept? It is argued that the core issue is the critical understanding of knowledge production and knowledge claims and how to enable users to make rational decisions in the overloaded information ecology. Emphasis should be put on the functions of the scholarly communication system considered from sociological and epistemological perspectives

Full text: http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/2545/01/PRISMA%5FB.docx

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Al Jazeera on CTV

Posted by Celia Walter | 24 Feb, 2009
On Monday evening I watched the Al Jazeera English news on CTV, from 20h00-21h00.

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2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize... from Africa: Shortlist

Posted by Celia Walter | 23 Feb, 2009

The shortlists for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book and Best First Book from Africa were announced today, 18 February 2009.

Former regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize winner for Africa's Best Book, Damon Galgut, is joined by academic Tim Keegan and journalist, poet and campaigner Mandla Langa in the line up for the Best Book Award. Sindiwe Magona and Zoë Wicomb complete the shortlist. 

The full shortlists are: 

Best Book
Damon Galgut (South Africa) The Imposter Penguin 
Tim Keegan (South Africa ) My Life with the Duvals Umuzi
Sindiwe Magona (South Africa)  Beauty's Gift Kwela books
Mandla Langa (South Africa) The Lost Colours of the Chameleon Picador Africa 
Zoe Wicomb (South Africa) The One That Got Away Umuzi  

Best First Book
Jassy Mackenzie (South Africa)  Random Violence Umuzi
Uwem Akpan (Nigeria) Say You're One of Them Abacus 
Megan Voysey-Braig (South Africa) Till We Can Keep An Animal Jacana Media 
Chris Mamewick (South Africa) Shepherds and Butchers Umuzi
Sue Rabie (South Africa) Boston Snowplough Human & Rousseau 
Jane Bennett (South Africa ) Porcupine Kwela Books

The judging panel was chaired by Elinor Sisulu (South Africa). She was joined by judges Kole Omotoso (Nigeria) and Billy Karanja Kahora (Kenya). 

Elinor Sisulu commented: 

'Once again Africa's publishing powerhouses, South Africa and Nigeria dominated the entries. Of over fifty entries received, only two were from Kenya and two from Ghana. There was an unusually high number of short story collections among the entries.'

The Commonwealth Writers' Prize, a much valued and sought-after award, aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience.
The two African regional winners that emerge from the shortlists will be announced on 11 March 2009 at The Time of the Writer Festival in Durban, South Africa. These two winners will then enter the final phase of the competition and go on to compete head to head with the other six finalists from Canada and the Caribbean, Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and the Pacific for the overall Best Book and Best First Book award. 

The two overall winners, chosen by an international panel of six judges coming together in New Zealand, will be announced on 16 May at the Auckland Writers' and Readers Festival (AWRF). 

Each of the regional winners will receive £1,000 and in addition be invited to take part in a week-long series of community events and public readings alongside the final judging in New Zealand, culminating in the announcement of the two overall winners for Best First Book and Best Book.
The overall Best Book winner will receive £10,000 and the overall Best First Book winner will receive £5,000.
Source: http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/news/news/detail.cfm?id=497

 

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Hands-on: tricks, tips and techniques for Photoshop

Posted by Celia Walter | 23 Feb, 2009

The Hands-On website by Kevin Thomas Doyle, otherwise known as Doc Ozone, is a tutorial website dealing with tricks, tips and techniques for image and graphic manipulation and creation in Photoshop. The tutorials were in the main created before 2004, so are not up to date with the current or recent editions of Photoshop, but demonstrate the basic use of a number of principles on which the software is based. The topics covered include: Lighting; drop shadows; JavaScript rollovers; Glass effects; textures; and transparency. All the tutorials are available to download as a Zip file. The website also has links to Doc Ozone's newer websites including his Ozone Asylum web design forum. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.handson.nu

Also a .zip version: "HandsOn.zip", 3780k.

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TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)

Posted by Celia Walter | 23 Feb, 2009

TED: ideas worth spreading
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) was originally started in 1984 as an annual conference which brought together thought provoking thinkers to talk about new developments in the fields of technology, culture and design. Since then its website has expanded to provide free access to several hundred talks and presentations from TED events. These are centred around themes such as the future of technology, evolution, future predictions, new media and innovative solutions to global problems such as poverty, and conservation. Most presentations are 18 minutes in length and are known for featuring witty and innovative speakers. These include Bill Gates and Al Gore. Technical and copyright information is displayed on the website. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.ted.com/

 

From Celia: Some TED programmes are broadcast on CTV

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Emerging Technologies for Learning. BECTA

Posted by Celia Walter | 17 Feb, 2009
Emerging technologies for learning
Emerging Technologies for Learning is an initiative from Becta that draws together news, research, analysis and views around technology developments and trends relevant to education and their use within schools and colleges. It aims to provide an environment for debate on technology futures within the education community and those serving it, encouraging dialogue and building shared understandings about the future. It includes sections on the latest technology research, software / Internet news, plus hardware, multimedia and network / wireless sections. Articles include research reports with references, from Becta and elsewhere, news updates on conferences and events, plus discussion areas for topics including information management and personalised learning. Users can interact with the site in a number of ways including leaving comments on articles and proposing new articles. From Intute.ac.uk
http://emergingtechnologies.becta.org.uk/

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Floola 4.7, an alternative to iTunes

Posted by Celia Walter | 16 Feb, 2009

Those persons looking for an alternative to iTunes might find Floola worth a look. This portable music playing software package allows users to take notes and download photos quickly. Visitors can also use the application to keep their Google calendars updated. This version is compatible with computers running Windows 2000 and newer. http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/ [KMG]

From The Scout Report

 

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