Although Wikipedia is a great place to find information, it's subject to incomplete citations, biased views, and inaccuracies. And when you absolutely have to have undisputable facts, that's just not good enough. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives out there that can deliver with high quality accuracy, and we've listed 25 of the best here.
Citizendium: This wiki focuses on credibility, using both the general public and credentialed experts. It works just like Wikipedia, but better.
AmericanFactFinder: This database from the US Census Bureau is a great source for information on housing, economics, geography and population.
The Linguist List: The Linguist List is home to a peer-reviewed database of language and language-family information.
Intute: Created by a network of UK universities and partners, this database is full of evaluations from subject specialists.
Classic Encyclopedia: This online encyclopedia is based on the 1911 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittannica. Although quite old, it offers an in-depth look on more than 40,000 items, and it's widely considered to be the best encyclopedias ever written.
Virtual Reference Shelf: This Library of Congress site offers a number of high quality selected web resources.
MedBioWorld: Get professional medical and biotechnology information from this resource for journals, reference tools, databases, and more.
Library Spot: Check out this site for libraries online, a reading room, reference desk, and more.
FactCheck.org: FactCheck.org researches politics and delivers the truth on candidates and more.
iTools: Use iTools' research tools to find facts and theories on just about any subject.
Browse Topics: Maintained by professional librarians, this site links to Federal websites that offer facts.
WWW Virtual Library: Created by Tim Berners-Lee, who also created HTML and the Web, this library uses experts to compile high quality information.
Open Site: Open Site uses volunteer editors to offer a fair, impartial Internet encyclopedia.
CredoReference: CredoReference aggregates content from some of the best publishers in reference, offering more than 3 million reference entries.
Internet Public Library: In the Internet Public Library, you'll find references for nearly every subject out there.
Infoplease: Infoplease offers an entire suite of reference materials, including an atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia, and almanacs.
STAT-USA/Internet: This service of the US Department of Commerce offers information on business, economics, trade, and more.
Mathematica: Mathematica, the Wolfram Library Archive, offers research and information on math, science, and more.
Refdesk: Refdesk calls itself the single best resource for facts, and it delivers. Visit this online reference desk to find facts in their tools, facts-at-a-glance, or facts search desk.
AskOxford: This reference tool from Oxford University Press offers facts and tips on the English language and more.
The Old Farmer's Almanac: Whether you're searching for weather, food, gardening, or beyond, you'll find what you need in this online almanac.
eXtension: The information you'll find on eXtension is objective, research-based, and credible.
FindLaw: This listing of legal resources makes it easy to find cases, codes, references, and much more.
CIA Factbook: The CIA Factbook offers information on world countries and more.
Martindale's: The Reference Desk: Find reference material for nearly everything, from medicine to weather
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
25 Awesome Beta Research Tools from Libraries Around the World
If you're tired of using the same old search box on your local library website for research projects, it might be time to broaden your horizons. Try out one of these in-the-works betas sponsored by world-class libraries around the world. From academic libraries like that at MIT or renowned research centers like the Library of Congress, the following beta research tools feature innovative tricks to connect you with the most relevant, valid results on the Internet and in their card catalogs. Melvil Dewey would be proud. Tools Used at College and University Libraries
Check out this list for academically-minded beta search tools sponsored by universities around the world.
Vera Multi-Search: MIT: This new tool is still in the works, but once it's officially approved, students and researchers can use Vera Multi-Search as a way to find material in several different databases with one single search.
Project Blacklight: University of Virginia: UVA's Blacklight tool gives students the advanced ability to narrow down their searches and "more easily filter content" in order to increase their chances of finding exact matches and helpful research materials. Developed by Erik Hatcher and UVA library staff, Blacklight features several filters, subject searches and multimedia tools to enhance the research process.
LibX: This browser extension lets users search library catalogs, e-journal lists, databases and other library websites from their toolbars. Users can also easily highlight key words, save information and access personal library accounts. LibX is an open source project, allowing universities to continually develop and rework their own versions of the plugin.
Quick Start: Brigham Young University: This program, used at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library, lets students tailor their search to books, articles, or a combination of the two. Powered by the GoogleScholar Beta, Quick Start points researchers in the right direction from the very beginning.
Encore: Michigan State: Michigan State's new beta project, Encore, connects researchers to books, journals, articles and other materials. Try out the search, and then send in your feedback.
HBLL Firefox Extension: Brigham Young University: BYU's Harold B. Lee Library also sponsors this unique Firefox extension. The beta search tool lets researchers search within the HBLL for articles, books, personal account information and other materials with just one search box hidden inside your Firefox toolbar. Other quick links include information about library hours, floor maps, study room reservations and interlibrary loans.
New Books Beta: University of Otago: This New Zealand library keeps new books in a separate search engine for one week before sending them into general circulation. Users can search by subject or library to narrow down their search even further.
Library Search: University of Minnesota: The college's new Web interface is simply called Library Search, a program that is divided into two sections: Books and More: Twin Cities (MNCAT Catalog) and Articles. The MNCAT Catalog searches materials in libraries and databases in the Twin Cities. Researchers can find individual titles and journal entries in the Articles search.
LCSH Tag Cloud: Flinders University: Australia's Flinders University is currently testing out this search tool, which displays categories in a cloud-like format, similar to ones used on social media sites and blogs.
Windows Live Academic Search: Schools like University College Dublin are trying out this beta search tool, which supports books, dissertations, conferences and more.
MIT Tech TV: This beta program also comes with a collection of video tutorials that gives tips on using the MIT library services.
JHOVE: This tool, developed by JSTOR and Harvard University, "provides functions to perform format-specific identification, validation, and characterization of digital objects."
Google Scholar: Google Scholar and Google Advanced Scholar Search are popular beta tools that allow researchers to search academic journals, books, articles and other materials.
Live Search Books: Windows Live Book Search has partnered with with the University of California and University of Toronto to improve academic and book searches within its beta program. Non-Academic Libraries and Tools
For access to even more new developments and cutting-edge research tools, review this list of betas, sponsored by Firefox, the Library of Congress, the British Library and more.
Zotero: This Firefox add-on is perfect for students and professionals who need to keep track of a heavy load of research sites. The add-on stores PDFs, files, images, links and records in any language; automatically saves citations; offers a note taking autosave feature and more. The best part? It all fits neatly in your Firefox browser without getting in the way. The tool is currently used at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young but is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
New Search (BETA) -- Library of Congress: This simple tool lets researchers search just the Library of Congress website, U.S. historical collections, LofC online catalog, prints and photographs online catalog, the THOMAS Legislative Information System, or all 5 at once. It's the first time the library has given its users a chance to search all areas of the site by typing in keywords only once.
WorldCat: WorldCat connects libraries all over the world with information on the Internet. Many university libraries like the University of Washington, Trinity College, Wheaton College, the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona all use WorldCat to enhance student, faculty and personal research abilities. Features like custom-designed search lists, shareable search results and browser plugins have made this beta a success so far.
Web Curator Tool Project: A project sponsored by the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library, this beta tool is designed to help researchers find relevant information on the Internet.
JISC Academic Database Assessment Tool: This tool, sponsored by Scopus, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Thomson Scientific and ProQuest, is designed to help libraries identify quality future subscriptions to various databases. Users are encouraged to compare journal title lists, database platforms and eBook platforms to find the best fit for their library.
Fez: This open source project lets libraries working with Fedora "to produce and maintain a highly flexible web interface" for organizing their online archives and documents. Organizations currently involved in the project include Tufts University, University of Queensland, MediaShelf, Digital Peer Publishing and the University of Prince Edward Island.
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections: This project aims to redesign and evaluate a new system of describing content with appropriate digital formats, making it easier for users to search through catalogs and databases.
Google Book Search Library Project: Google's popular Book Search is now working with libraries to incorporate their card catalogs into Google's beta tool. Users will be able to find copyrighted books as well as books that are out of print.
THOMAS: The Library of Congress is developing another search tool, called THOMAS. Researchers seeking legislative materials like the Congressional Record, U.S. treaties and more. Users can search the entire database with only one search box and choose to search by sponsor or topic.
LibWorm: This beta helps you "search the biblioblogosphere and beyond." When you want to start your search on the Internet but only want to find library-related material, this tool can help. By pulling information from over 1500 RSS feeds in categories like academic libraries, government libraries, law libraries, podcasts: librarianship, medical libraries and more.
PhiloBiblon: This highly-specialized beta search engine is in development at the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE. Early texts produced in the Iberian Peninsula are available on the Internet through this search engine, helping researchers find rare materials
Check out this list for academically-minded beta search tools sponsored by universities around the world.
Vera Multi-Search: MIT: This new tool is still in the works, but once it's officially approved, students and researchers can use Vera Multi-Search as a way to find material in several different databases with one single search.
Project Blacklight: University of Virginia: UVA's Blacklight tool gives students the advanced ability to narrow down their searches and "more easily filter content" in order to increase their chances of finding exact matches and helpful research materials. Developed by Erik Hatcher and UVA library staff, Blacklight features several filters, subject searches and multimedia tools to enhance the research process.
LibX: This browser extension lets users search library catalogs, e-journal lists, databases and other library websites from their toolbars. Users can also easily highlight key words, save information and access personal library accounts. LibX is an open source project, allowing universities to continually develop and rework their own versions of the plugin.
Quick Start: Brigham Young University: This program, used at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library, lets students tailor their search to books, articles, or a combination of the two. Powered by the GoogleScholar Beta, Quick Start points researchers in the right direction from the very beginning.
Encore: Michigan State: Michigan State's new beta project, Encore, connects researchers to books, journals, articles and other materials. Try out the search, and then send in your feedback.
HBLL Firefox Extension: Brigham Young University: BYU's Harold B. Lee Library also sponsors this unique Firefox extension. The beta search tool lets researchers search within the HBLL for articles, books, personal account information and other materials with just one search box hidden inside your Firefox toolbar. Other quick links include information about library hours, floor maps, study room reservations and interlibrary loans.
New Books Beta: University of Otago: This New Zealand library keeps new books in a separate search engine for one week before sending them into general circulation. Users can search by subject or library to narrow down their search even further.
Library Search: University of Minnesota: The college's new Web interface is simply called Library Search, a program that is divided into two sections: Books and More: Twin Cities (MNCAT Catalog) and Articles. The MNCAT Catalog searches materials in libraries and databases in the Twin Cities. Researchers can find individual titles and journal entries in the Articles search.
LCSH Tag Cloud: Flinders University: Australia's Flinders University is currently testing out this search tool, which displays categories in a cloud-like format, similar to ones used on social media sites and blogs.
Windows Live Academic Search: Schools like University College Dublin are trying out this beta search tool, which supports books, dissertations, conferences and more.
MIT Tech TV: This beta program also comes with a collection of video tutorials that gives tips on using the MIT library services.
JHOVE: This tool, developed by JSTOR and Harvard University, "provides functions to perform format-specific identification, validation, and characterization of digital objects."
Google Scholar: Google Scholar and Google Advanced Scholar Search are popular beta tools that allow researchers to search academic journals, books, articles and other materials.
Live Search Books: Windows Live Book Search has partnered with with the University of California and University of Toronto to improve academic and book searches within its beta program. Non-Academic Libraries and Tools
For access to even more new developments and cutting-edge research tools, review this list of betas, sponsored by Firefox, the Library of Congress, the British Library and more.
Zotero: This Firefox add-on is perfect for students and professionals who need to keep track of a heavy load of research sites. The add-on stores PDFs, files, images, links and records in any language; automatically saves citations; offers a note taking autosave feature and more. The best part? It all fits neatly in your Firefox browser without getting in the way. The tool is currently used at the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young but is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
New Search (BETA) -- Library of Congress: This simple tool lets researchers search just the Library of Congress website, U.S. historical collections, LofC online catalog, prints and photographs online catalog, the THOMAS Legislative Information System, or all 5 at once. It's the first time the library has given its users a chance to search all areas of the site by typing in keywords only once.
WorldCat: WorldCat connects libraries all over the world with information on the Internet. Many university libraries like the University of Washington, Trinity College, Wheaton College, the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona all use WorldCat to enhance student, faculty and personal research abilities. Features like custom-designed search lists, shareable search results and browser plugins have made this beta a success so far.
Web Curator Tool Project: A project sponsored by the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library, this beta tool is designed to help researchers find relevant information on the Internet.
JISC Academic Database Assessment Tool: This tool, sponsored by Scopus, the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Thomson Scientific and ProQuest, is designed to help libraries identify quality future subscriptions to various databases. Users are encouraged to compare journal title lists, database platforms and eBook platforms to find the best fit for their library.
Fez: This open source project lets libraries working with Fedora "to produce and maintain a highly flexible web interface" for organizing their online archives and documents. Organizations currently involved in the project include Tufts University, University of Queensland, MediaShelf, Digital Peer Publishing and the University of Prince Edward Island.
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections: This project aims to redesign and evaluate a new system of describing content with appropriate digital formats, making it easier for users to search through catalogs and databases.
Google Book Search Library Project: Google's popular Book Search is now working with libraries to incorporate their card catalogs into Google's beta tool. Users will be able to find copyrighted books as well as books that are out of print.
THOMAS: The Library of Congress is developing another search tool, called THOMAS. Researchers seeking legislative materials like the Congressional Record, U.S. treaties and more. Users can search the entire database with only one search box and choose to search by sponsor or topic.
LibWorm: This beta helps you "search the biblioblogosphere and beyond." When you want to start your search on the Internet but only want to find library-related material, this tool can help. By pulling information from over 1500 RSS feeds in categories like academic libraries, government libraries, law libraries, podcasts: librarianship, medical libraries and more.
PhiloBiblon: This highly-specialized beta search engine is in development at the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE. Early texts produced in the Iberian Peninsula are available on the Internet through this search engine, helping researchers find rare materials
Be a high-tech librarian
After Information Technology and Biotechnology, is the new mantra going to be Library Technology (LT)? Library Technology seems to be all set to hit our country in a big way and, the libraries and librarians in India will soon have their services and job profiles redefined with technology revolution seeping through this segment as well.
This changed library scenario will demand a considerable amount of reskilling and upgradation initiatives from conventional librarians in order to fit into the new requirement.
The country has over 400 large (employing nearly 10,000 people) and thousands of small and medium libraries. The entire library (content storage and management) segment awaits a total makeover as the way information is handled, stored and retrieved today is going to be completely changed.
According to H S Siddamalliah, president of Karnataka State Libriarians’ Association, the definition of libraries has changed with technology having started to facilitate easy access to "tailor-made or micro-information." This changes the overall profile of librarians, he says.
From mere book keepers and journal managers they are now transforming into publishers, editors, digitalisers, converters, compilers, categorisers, aggregators, collectors, collators, indexers and consolidators of content.
"Online content is growing rapidly along with multimedia learning materials. As classroom-centric teaching practices are becoming library-centric, our librarians need to be tech-savvy. Librarians should be familiar with content management software products and solutions."
While there is a lot of awareness among librarian attached to research agencies, defence departments or private library outfits, says Siddamalliah, but librarians working in the government segment - universities and other educational outfits - remain largely unaware of the technological revolution sweeping their field.
T B Rajasekhar, Associate Chairman, National Centre for Science Information (NCSI) IISc, Bangalore, says that digitalisation of library is all about a system that manages and preserves documents intelligently and makes them easily accessible.
"These open online archives should be able to talk to each other," he says elaborating on the magic of technology.
Waikanto University of New Zealand has developed an open source software - GreenStone - tool that helps in managing, searching and retrieving specific content from digital libraries. IISc will start using the software from April and it is also planning workshops to educate the librarian fraternity, he informs.
"The challenge in front of librarians is that they should be able to use technology to enhance the content management, online publishing and content refreshing," Rajasekhar says.
Says IRN Gouda, head, Information Centre of National Aeronautic Laboratories (NAL), "These are the digital counterparts of traditional libraries. The content will include a whole lot of printed stuff, images, audio, video, music, movies, art objects, etc."
According to him, digital libraries are all about Knowledge Management (KM), which is currently being treated as a discipline by itself. Gauda says traditional librarians have been all along managing the print versions of content, and, quoting a recent study, he says in India the ratio between off and online content will reach 50:50 from the current 75:25 by the year 2005.
"Digitalisation will also boost other areas like telecom, networking, systems integration. In a sea of information in the future, librarians will not be those who provide the water, but those who navigate the ship," Gouda claims.
Even conventional librarians are slowly seeing the advantages of digitalisation. Putta Basavaiah, deputy librarian at IISc says, "Digital libraries offer many advantages. Information is accessible wherever you are unlike the conventional libraries which were constrained by location and space. Digital libraries provide seamless content sharing (multi-user) facility. Librarians need to take up this new challenge by upgrading their knowledge base and reskilling themselves in selecting, collating, editing and managing the matter online."
Courses in digital library sciences
• National Informatics Centre runs a crash course
• Funded by UGC, NSCI offers a one-year training programme for library science graduates on technology and e-content management.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formed a standard-Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) that helps digitalisation.
• Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, under the ministry of IT, has a cell called Technology Department for Indian Languages (TDIL) to develop tools for digitisation of various Indian language materials.
• Asian Digital Libraries, a body that research problems related to digitalising Asian cultural heritage and languages.
This changed library scenario will demand a considerable amount of reskilling and upgradation initiatives from conventional librarians in order to fit into the new requirement.
The country has over 400 large (employing nearly 10,000 people) and thousands of small and medium libraries. The entire library (content storage and management) segment awaits a total makeover as the way information is handled, stored and retrieved today is going to be completely changed.
According to H S Siddamalliah, president of Karnataka State Libriarians’ Association, the definition of libraries has changed with technology having started to facilitate easy access to "tailor-made or micro-information." This changes the overall profile of librarians, he says.
From mere book keepers and journal managers they are now transforming into publishers, editors, digitalisers, converters, compilers, categorisers, aggregators, collectors, collators, indexers and consolidators of content.
"Online content is growing rapidly along with multimedia learning materials. As classroom-centric teaching practices are becoming library-centric, our librarians need to be tech-savvy. Librarians should be familiar with content management software products and solutions."
While there is a lot of awareness among librarian attached to research agencies, defence departments or private library outfits, says Siddamalliah, but librarians working in the government segment - universities and other educational outfits - remain largely unaware of the technological revolution sweeping their field.
T B Rajasekhar, Associate Chairman, National Centre for Science Information (NCSI) IISc, Bangalore, says that digitalisation of library is all about a system that manages and preserves documents intelligently and makes them easily accessible.
"These open online archives should be able to talk to each other," he says elaborating on the magic of technology.
Waikanto University of New Zealand has developed an open source software - GreenStone - tool that helps in managing, searching and retrieving specific content from digital libraries. IISc will start using the software from April and it is also planning workshops to educate the librarian fraternity, he informs.
"The challenge in front of librarians is that they should be able to use technology to enhance the content management, online publishing and content refreshing," Rajasekhar says.
Says IRN Gouda, head, Information Centre of National Aeronautic Laboratories (NAL), "These are the digital counterparts of traditional libraries. The content will include a whole lot of printed stuff, images, audio, video, music, movies, art objects, etc."
According to him, digital libraries are all about Knowledge Management (KM), which is currently being treated as a discipline by itself. Gauda says traditional librarians have been all along managing the print versions of content, and, quoting a recent study, he says in India the ratio between off and online content will reach 50:50 from the current 75:25 by the year 2005.
"Digitalisation will also boost other areas like telecom, networking, systems integration. In a sea of information in the future, librarians will not be those who provide the water, but those who navigate the ship," Gouda claims.
Even conventional librarians are slowly seeing the advantages of digitalisation. Putta Basavaiah, deputy librarian at IISc says, "Digital libraries offer many advantages. Information is accessible wherever you are unlike the conventional libraries which were constrained by location and space. Digital libraries provide seamless content sharing (multi-user) facility. Librarians need to take up this new challenge by upgrading their knowledge base and reskilling themselves in selecting, collating, editing and managing the matter online."
Courses in digital library sciences
• National Informatics Centre runs a crash course
• Funded by UGC, NSCI offers a one-year training programme for library science graduates on technology and e-content management.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formed a standard-Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) that helps digitalisation.
• Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, under the ministry of IT, has a cell called Technology Department for Indian Languages (TDIL) to develop tools for digitisation of various Indian language materials.
• Asian Digital Libraries, a body that research problems related to digitalising Asian cultural heritage and languages.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
ABCD-Automation of Libraries and Documentation Centers
long awaited ground breking library management software
1ST NUGGET
ABCD is a long held aspiration for the ISIS community, since the first MS-DOS version came out more than 20 years ago. Finally, this aspiration is about to come true.
ABCD is an integrated library management software comprising the main basic library functions:
Definition of any number of new databases (similar to Winisis), which includes: FDT, PFT, FST, and worksheets directly on the Web, or copying from existing ones either from the Web or from Winisis on a local hard disk,
cataloguing of books and serials, independently of the format: MARC, LILACS, AGRIS, etc.
end-user searching (OPAC),
loans circulation,
acquisitions,
statistics,
library services like SDI, barcode printing, quality control, etc.
The software will be compatible with CDS/ISIS database technology for the bibliographic databases, i.e. reading ISIS-databases and making use of ISIS Formatting Language (or something functionally similar) for producing output (PFT) and indexing (FST) of records;
1The software will run on both Windows and Linux platforms;
2The software will allow the use of MARC-21 cataloging formats and other current standards or protocols (Dublin Core, METS, Z39.50...);
3The software will be published as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the accompanying tools for the developer community;
4The software will be intrinsically multi-lingual, with English, Spanish, Portuguese and French interfaces being available by the end of 2008;
5The software will be fully documented for system-managers in at least one language, preferably English, by the end of 2008;
6UNICODE-compatibility will at least be envisaged and prepared, if not in the actual version then for an upcoming future version, which is part of the ISIS-NBP paralell project;
A testing version will be ready by September 2008 to be presented in the 3rd World Isis Meeting;
This version and manuals will be used as training materials for an international Training Workshop on the software in March 2009.
2ND NUGGET OF ABCD
ABCD is alligned with the CISIS/1660 version 5.2 platform, and will eventually be made compatible with later versions. This means that the inverted file entries are 60 characters long, and will increase in length in the ISIS-NBP based version.
ABCD is compatible with programming languages accepted by the GNU licences, i.e. PHP, Java, Javascript, Python, etc. The current version of ABCD is written in PHP v.5.
The system is totally language independent. The product will be made available in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese by end of 2008, and can be translated into other languages in the same way the CDS/ISIS applications always were.
Cataloguing module
The main feature of the cataloguing module is that it accepts different database structures in a transparent way. Each database has its own configuration files which ABCD interprets in order to apply the necessary procedures to manage each information structure. This follows the same philosophy as CDS/ISIS. Each database has its own FDT (Field Definition Table), etc.
The first version of ABCD has the following functions available:
User control through a database defining username, login, password, user level (Administrator, Operator, Librarian, End user, etc.), where specific information sources and access rights are established.
Database creation in three modalities:
Creating new databases in the traditional, four-step CDS/ISIS way: defining the FDT, a worksheet, a display format (PFT) and an indexing format (FST). ABCD generates the necessary environment files and creates the database in the Web server.
Copying an existing database from the Web server, and making changes afterwards.
Creating a database in the Web server based on a Winisis database available on the local machine. The ABCD system performs all the necessary conversions for the change of operative environment.
Management of multiple structures, providing templates for the separate entry of subfields. The structures can be based on MARC21, UNIMARC, LILACS, CEPAL, AGRIS, or any other ad-hoc structure that the user prefers. ABCD gives the user an extraordinarily wide capacity to define the FDT. It is possible to use repeatable subfields, to give names to subfields and to associate special help messages, pick-lists, etc. to each of them.
Dynamic building of data entry worksheets based on specifications given in the FDT. This table contains not only the specification of the ISIS fields proper, but also the characteristics which the fields will deploy in the worksheets (textbox, select, checkbox options, html area, text area), as well as the facilities to present controlled vocabularies related to the fields.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through authority files, obtained from the same or external databases. This feature is managed through inverted files.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through tables defined in TXT files.
Identification of fields requiring association to external resources (images, pdf, xls, etc) in order to upload these to the server.
Management of different kinds of records in each database, presenting the adequate worksheet for each type.
Management of multiple worksheets, dynamically defined by the user.
Access to records through the MFN, advanced search or alphabetical listing of a field defined as the main entry.
Creation, editing and deletion of records.
Presentation of search results using various display formats.
Printing module allowing different print formats and sorting criteria (depending on the number of records). Facilities for sending the results to wordprocessors or spreadsheets.
A module for the generation of lists and indexes.
Generation of scripts for real-time quality control during data entry.
1ST NUGGET
ABCD is a long held aspiration for the ISIS community, since the first MS-DOS version came out more than 20 years ago. Finally, this aspiration is about to come true.
ABCD is an integrated library management software comprising the main basic library functions:
Definition of any number of new databases (similar to Winisis), which includes: FDT, PFT, FST, and worksheets directly on the Web, or copying from existing ones either from the Web or from Winisis on a local hard disk,
cataloguing of books and serials, independently of the format: MARC, LILACS, AGRIS, etc.
end-user searching (OPAC),
loans circulation,
acquisitions,
statistics,
library services like SDI, barcode printing, quality control, etc.
The software will be compatible with CDS/ISIS database technology for the bibliographic databases, i.e. reading ISIS-databases and making use of ISIS Formatting Language (or something functionally similar) for producing output (PFT) and indexing (FST) of records;
1The software will run on both Windows and Linux platforms;
2The software will allow the use of MARC-21 cataloging formats and other current standards or protocols (Dublin Core, METS, Z39.50...);
3The software will be published as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the accompanying tools for the developer community;
4The software will be intrinsically multi-lingual, with English, Spanish, Portuguese and French interfaces being available by the end of 2008;
5The software will be fully documented for system-managers in at least one language, preferably English, by the end of 2008;
6UNICODE-compatibility will at least be envisaged and prepared, if not in the actual version then for an upcoming future version, which is part of the ISIS-NBP paralell project;
A testing version will be ready by September 2008 to be presented in the 3rd World Isis Meeting;
This version and manuals will be used as training materials for an international Training Workshop on the software in March 2009.
2ND NUGGET OF ABCD
ABCD is alligned with the CISIS/1660 version 5.2 platform, and will eventually be made compatible with later versions. This means that the inverted file entries are 60 characters long, and will increase in length in the ISIS-NBP based version.
ABCD is compatible with programming languages accepted by the GNU licences, i.e. PHP, Java, Javascript, Python, etc. The current version of ABCD is written in PHP v.5.
The system is totally language independent. The product will be made available in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese by end of 2008, and can be translated into other languages in the same way the CDS/ISIS applications always were.
Cataloguing module
The main feature of the cataloguing module is that it accepts different database structures in a transparent way. Each database has its own configuration files which ABCD interprets in order to apply the necessary procedures to manage each information structure. This follows the same philosophy as CDS/ISIS. Each database has its own FDT (Field Definition Table), etc.
The first version of ABCD has the following functions available:
User control through a database defining username, login, password, user level (Administrator, Operator, Librarian, End user, etc.), where specific information sources and access rights are established.
Database creation in three modalities:
Creating new databases in the traditional, four-step CDS/ISIS way: defining the FDT, a worksheet, a display format (PFT) and an indexing format (FST). ABCD generates the necessary environment files and creates the database in the Web server.
Copying an existing database from the Web server, and making changes afterwards.
Creating a database in the Web server based on a Winisis database available on the local machine. The ABCD system performs all the necessary conversions for the change of operative environment.
Management of multiple structures, providing templates for the separate entry of subfields. The structures can be based on MARC21, UNIMARC, LILACS, CEPAL, AGRIS, or any other ad-hoc structure that the user prefers. ABCD gives the user an extraordinarily wide capacity to define the FDT. It is possible to use repeatable subfields, to give names to subfields and to associate special help messages, pick-lists, etc. to each of them.
Dynamic building of data entry worksheets based on specifications given in the FDT. This table contains not only the specification of the ISIS fields proper, but also the characteristics which the fields will deploy in the worksheets (textbox, select, checkbox options, html area, text area), as well as the facilities to present controlled vocabularies related to the fields.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through authority files, obtained from the same or external databases. This feature is managed through inverted files.
Capture of controlled vocabulary through tables defined in TXT files.
Identification of fields requiring association to external resources (images, pdf, xls, etc) in order to upload these to the server.
Management of different kinds of records in each database, presenting the adequate worksheet for each type.
Management of multiple worksheets, dynamically defined by the user.
Access to records through the MFN, advanced search or alphabetical listing of a field defined as the main entry.
Creation, editing and deletion of records.
Presentation of search results using various display formats.
Printing module allowing different print formats and sorting criteria (depending on the number of records). Facilities for sending the results to wordprocessors or spreadsheets.
A module for the generation of lists and indexes.
Generation of scripts for real-time quality control during data entry.
ABCD-Automation of Libraries and Documentation Centers
LONG AWAITED GROUND BREAKING LIBRARY MANAGEMANT SOFTWARE
NUGGET 1ST
Definition of any number of new databases (similar to Winisis), which includes: FDT, PFT, FST, and worksheets directly on the Web, or copying from existing ones either from the Web or from Winisis on a local hard disk,
cataloguing of books and serials, independently of the format: MARC, LILACS, AGRIS, etc.
end-user searching (OPAC),
loans circulation,
acquisitions,
statistics,
library services like SDI, barcode printing, quality control, etc.
The software will be compatible with CDS/ISIS database technology for the bibliographic databases, i.e. reading ISIS-databases and making use of ISIS Formatting Language (or something functionally similar) for producing output (PFT) and indexing (FST) of records;
The software will run on both Windows and Linux platforms;
The software will allow the use of MARC-21 cataloging formats and other current standards or protocols (Dublin Core, METS, Z39.50...);
The software will be published as Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the accompanying tools for the developer community;
The software will be intrinsically multi-lingual, with English, Spanish, Portuguese and French interfaces being available by the end of 2008;
The software will be fully documented for system-managers in at least one language, preferably English, by the end of 2008;
UNICODE-compatibility will at least be envisaged and prepared, if not in the actual version then for an upcoming future version, which is part of the ISIS-NBP paralell project;
A testing version will be ready by September 2008 to be presented in the 3rd World Isis Meeting;
This version and manuals will be used as training materials for an international Training Workshop on the software in March 2009.
NUGGET 2ND
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
what librarian can do for open acccess
EXCERPETD FROM PETER SUBER,S BLOG
1;Launch an open-access, OAI-compliant institutional eprint archive, for both texts and data.
The main reason for universities to have institutional repositories is to enhance the visibility, retrievability, and impact of the research output of the university. It will raise the profile of the work, the faculty, and the institution itself.
A more specific reason is that a growing number of journals allow authors to deposit their postprints in institutional but not disciplinary repositories. Even though this is an almost arbitrary distinction, institutions without repositories will leave some of their faculty stranded with no way to provide OA to their work.
"OAI-compliant" means that the archive complies with the metadata harvesting protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). This makes the archive interoperable with other compliant archives so that the many separate archives behave like one grand, virtual archive for purposes such as searching. This means that users can search across OAI-compliant archives without visiting the separate archives and running separate searches. Hence, it makes your content more visible, even if users don't know that your archive exists or what it contains.
There are almost a dozen open-source packages for creating and maintaining OAI-compliant archives. The four most important are Eprints (from Southampton University), DSpace (from MIT), CDSWare (from CERN), and FEDORA (from Cornell and U. of Virginia).
When building the case for an archive among colleagues and administrators, see The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper, by Raym Crow.
When deciding which software to use, see the BOAI Guide to Institutional Repository Software.
When implementing the archive, see the SPARC Institutional Repository Checklist & Resource Guide.
Configure your archive to facilitate crawling by Google and other search engines.
If your institution wants an archive but would prefer to outsource the work, then consider the Open Repository service from BioMed Central or the DigitalCommons@ service from ProQuest and Bepress.
Help faculty deposit their research articles in the institutional archive.
Many faculty are more than willing, just too busy. Some suffer from tech phobias. Some might need education about the benefits.
For example, some university libraries have dedicated FTE's who visit faculty, office by office, to help them deposit copies of their articles in the institutional repository. (This is not difficult and could be done by student workers.) The St. Andrews University Library asks faculty to send in their articles as email attachments and library staff will then deposit them in the institutional repository.
Consider publishing an open-access journal.
Philosophers' Imprint, from the University of Michigan, is a peer-reviewed OA journal whose motto is, "Edited by philosophers. Published by librarians. Free to readers of the Web." Because the editors and publishers (faculty and librarians) are already on the university payroll, Philosophers' Imprint is a university-subsidized OA journal that does not need to charge upfront processing fees.
The library of the University of Arizona at Tucson publishes the OA peer-reviewed Journal of Insect Science. For detail and perspective on its experience, see (1) Henry Hagedorn et al., Publishing by the Academic Library, a January 2004 conference presentation, and (2) Eulalia Roel, Electronic journal publication: A new library contribution to scholarly communication, College & Research Libraries News, January 2004.
The Boston College Libraries publish OA journals edited by BC faculty. See their press release from December 16, 2004.
The OA Journal of Digital Information is now published by the Texas A&M University Libraries.
See the BOAI Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal.
See SPARC's list of journal management software.
See the list of what journals can do, below.
Consider rejecting the big deal, or cancelling journals that cannot justify their high prices, and issue a public statement explaining why.
See my list of other universities that have already done so. If they give you courage and ideas, realize that you can do the same for others.
Give presentations to the faculty senate, or the library committee, or to separate departments, educating faculty and adminstrators about the scholarly communication crisis and showing how open access is part of any comprehensive solution. You will need faculty and administrative support for these decisions, but other universities have succeeded in getting it.
Help OA journals launched at the university become known to other libraries, indexing services, potential funders, potential authors, and potential readers.
See Getting your journal indexed from SPARC.
Include OA journals in the library catalog.
The Directory of Open Access Journals offers its journal metadata free for downloading. For tips on how to use these records, see the 2003 discussion thread on the ERIL list (readable only by list subscribers) or Joan Conger's summary of the thread (readable by everyone).
Take other steps to insure that students and faculty doing research at your institution know about OA sources, not just traditional print and toll-access sources.
Offer to assure the long-term preservation of some specific body of OA content.
OA journals suffer from the perception that they cannot assure long-term preservation. Libraries can come to their rescue and negate this perception. For example, in September 2003 the National Library of the Netherlands agreed to do this for all BioMed Central journals. This is a major library offering to preserve a major collection, but smaller libraries can do the same for smaller collections.
Undertake digitization, access, and preservation projects not only for faculty, but for local groups, e.g. non-profits, community organizations, museums, galleries, libraries. Show the benefits of OA to the non-academic community surrounding the university, especially the non-profit community.
Negotiate with vendors of priced electronic content (journals and databases) for full access by walk-in patrons.
A September 2003 article in Scientific American suggests that only a minority of libraries already do this.
Annotate OA articles and books with their metadata.
OA content is much more useful when it is properly annotated with metadata. University librarians could start by helping their own faculty annotate their own OA works. But if they have time (or university funding) left over, then they could help the cause by annotating other OA content as a public service.
Inform faculty in biomedicine at your institution about the NIH public-access policy.
SPARC has put together a good page on the benefits for researchers in complying with the NIH policy and suggestions on how to do so in the most effective way, and another page for librarians on ways to help faculty understand the policy and realize its benefits.
Help design impact measurements (like e.g. citation correlator) that take advantage of the many new kinds of usage data available for OA sources.
The OA world needs this and it seems that only librarians can deliver it. We need measures other than the standard impact factor. We need measures that are article-based (as opposed to journal or institution based), that can be automated, that don't oversimplify, and that take full advantage of the plethora of data available for OA resources unavailable for traditional print resources.
Librarians can also help pressure existing indices and impact measures to cover OA sources.
Join SPARC, a consortium of academic libraries actively promoting OA.
Join the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a coalition of U.S.-based non-profit organizations working for OA to publicly-funded research. See the existing members of the ATA. If you can persuade your university as a whole to join the ATA, then do that as well.
1;Launch an open-access, OAI-compliant institutional eprint archive, for both texts and data.
The main reason for universities to have institutional repositories is to enhance the visibility, retrievability, and impact of the research output of the university. It will raise the profile of the work, the faculty, and the institution itself.
A more specific reason is that a growing number of journals allow authors to deposit their postprints in institutional but not disciplinary repositories. Even though this is an almost arbitrary distinction, institutions without repositories will leave some of their faculty stranded with no way to provide OA to their work.
"OAI-compliant" means that the archive complies with the metadata harvesting protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). This makes the archive interoperable with other compliant archives so that the many separate archives behave like one grand, virtual archive for purposes such as searching. This means that users can search across OAI-compliant archives without visiting the separate archives and running separate searches. Hence, it makes your content more visible, even if users don't know that your archive exists or what it contains.
There are almost a dozen open-source packages for creating and maintaining OAI-compliant archives. The four most important are Eprints (from Southampton University), DSpace (from MIT), CDSWare (from CERN), and FEDORA (from Cornell and U. of Virginia).
When building the case for an archive among colleagues and administrators, see The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper, by Raym Crow.
When deciding which software to use, see the BOAI Guide to Institutional Repository Software.
When implementing the archive, see the SPARC Institutional Repository Checklist & Resource Guide.
Configure your archive to facilitate crawling by Google and other search engines.
If your institution wants an archive but would prefer to outsource the work, then consider the Open Repository service from BioMed Central or the DigitalCommons@ service from ProQuest and Bepress.
Help faculty deposit their research articles in the institutional archive.
Many faculty are more than willing, just too busy. Some suffer from tech phobias. Some might need education about the benefits.
For example, some university libraries have dedicated FTE's who visit faculty, office by office, to help them deposit copies of their articles in the institutional repository. (This is not difficult and could be done by student workers.) The St. Andrews University Library asks faculty to send in their articles as email attachments and library staff will then deposit them in the institutional repository.
Consider publishing an open-access journal.
Philosophers' Imprint, from the University of Michigan, is a peer-reviewed OA journal whose motto is, "Edited by philosophers. Published by librarians. Free to readers of the Web." Because the editors and publishers (faculty and librarians) are already on the university payroll, Philosophers' Imprint is a university-subsidized OA journal that does not need to charge upfront processing fees.
The library of the University of Arizona at Tucson publishes the OA peer-reviewed Journal of Insect Science. For detail and perspective on its experience, see (1) Henry Hagedorn et al., Publishing by the Academic Library, a January 2004 conference presentation, and (2) Eulalia Roel, Electronic journal publication: A new library contribution to scholarly communication, College & Research Libraries News, January 2004.
The Boston College Libraries publish OA journals edited by BC faculty. See their press release from December 16, 2004.
The OA Journal of Digital Information is now published by the Texas A&M University Libraries.
See the BOAI Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal.
See SPARC's list of journal management software.
See the list of what journals can do, below.
Consider rejecting the big deal, or cancelling journals that cannot justify their high prices, and issue a public statement explaining why.
See my list of other universities that have already done so. If they give you courage and ideas, realize that you can do the same for others.
Give presentations to the faculty senate, or the library committee, or to separate departments, educating faculty and adminstrators about the scholarly communication crisis and showing how open access is part of any comprehensive solution. You will need faculty and administrative support for these decisions, but other universities have succeeded in getting it.
Help OA journals launched at the university become known to other libraries, indexing services, potential funders, potential authors, and potential readers.
See Getting your journal indexed from SPARC.
Include OA journals in the library catalog.
The Directory of Open Access Journals offers its journal metadata free for downloading. For tips on how to use these records, see the 2003 discussion thread on the ERIL list (readable only by list subscribers) or Joan Conger's summary of the thread (readable by everyone).
Take other steps to insure that students and faculty doing research at your institution know about OA sources, not just traditional print and toll-access sources.
Offer to assure the long-term preservation of some specific body of OA content.
OA journals suffer from the perception that they cannot assure long-term preservation. Libraries can come to their rescue and negate this perception. For example, in September 2003 the National Library of the Netherlands agreed to do this for all BioMed Central journals. This is a major library offering to preserve a major collection, but smaller libraries can do the same for smaller collections.
Undertake digitization, access, and preservation projects not only for faculty, but for local groups, e.g. non-profits, community organizations, museums, galleries, libraries. Show the benefits of OA to the non-academic community surrounding the university, especially the non-profit community.
Negotiate with vendors of priced electronic content (journals and databases) for full access by walk-in patrons.
A September 2003 article in Scientific American suggests that only a minority of libraries already do this.
Annotate OA articles and books with their metadata.
OA content is much more useful when it is properly annotated with metadata. University librarians could start by helping their own faculty annotate their own OA works. But if they have time (or university funding) left over, then they could help the cause by annotating other OA content as a public service.
Inform faculty in biomedicine at your institution about the NIH public-access policy.
SPARC has put together a good page on the benefits for researchers in complying with the NIH policy and suggestions on how to do so in the most effective way, and another page for librarians on ways to help faculty understand the policy and realize its benefits.
Help design impact measurements (like e.g. citation correlator) that take advantage of the many new kinds of usage data available for OA sources.
The OA world needs this and it seems that only librarians can deliver it. We need measures other than the standard impact factor. We need measures that are article-based (as opposed to journal or institution based), that can be automated, that don't oversimplify, and that take full advantage of the plethora of data available for OA resources unavailable for traditional print resources.
Librarians can also help pressure existing indices and impact measures to cover OA sources.
Join SPARC, a consortium of academic libraries actively promoting OA.
Join the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a coalition of U.S.-based non-profit organizations working for OA to publicly-funded research. See the existing members of the ATA. If you can persuade your university as a whole to join the ATA, then do that as well.
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