Let's Play with KOHA

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Let's Play with KOHA

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VOIP - New challenge to cyber crime

Terrorists relying on newer technologies like proxy internet servers and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) as indicated by Pakistan's probe into the recent Mumbai attacks pose a new challenge to police investigations, feel cyber experts."There is so much data communication on the internet at all times that it is very difficult to detect VOIP that is malicious in nature. Even if it is detected, decoding the communication, tracing the locations of the terrorists, monitoring them, etc, is very difficult," says Ankit Fadia, a cyber security expert.VOIP software usually encrypts or encodes the communication, hence making it very difficult for police to decode intercepted calls."Most VOIP software companies like Skype or Google Talk are based outside India. This is a further hindrance to investigation, since it takes a long time to get response from these companies abroad," says Fadia, winner of Indo-American young achiever award.Cyberlaw experts say there are many loopholes that makes it difficult to keep track of terror transactions."At the time when different countries have come up with distinct legislation they have an impact of Cyber Terrorism, having a single provision on Cyber Terrorism, is not likely to help India in the long run," says Pavan Duggal, a cyber law expert.While adding there is a need for specialised cyber terror courts to be established, Duggal says, "Indian government needs to be complimented for coming up with the detailed provision on Cyber Terrorism which makes it as a penal offence punishable with life imprisonment and fine, he says.Fadia says that Indian police is not very equipped to handle cyber crime investigations."Although India is the IT capital of the world, in computer security it is far lagging behind. At a recent conference in Delhi, one police official asked me, "yeh internet ki building kidhar hain" (Where is this internet building?).Pakistan in its findings had said that their national Javed Iqbal had acquired VoIP phones from Spain for Mumbai attackers. And it was the also revealed by the Mumbai police that terrorists used VoIP calling platforms to communicate with their masters on 26/11."With use of proxy servers and other anonymous softwares and devices, it is possible for any person to use the VOIP for the purposes of transmitting his terrorist designs and activities, says Duggal.As per the Indian Cyberlaw, Section 69 of the Information Technology Act 2000 provides for interception of any electronic communication transmitted through any electronic resource within India.But the interception can only be ordered on the orders of the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), which is a statutory authority under the IT Act."The Central Government could apply to the CCA and if it is satisfied that the same is necessary in interest of sovereignty of the country, friendly relations with other nations, or for preventing any incitement to the commission of any offence or contravention of public order, the CCA may direct any interception of any electronic communication passed into any computer resource," Duggal says.Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 has brought in certain amendments under which both the Central and State government could direct interception blocking or monitoring depending on the peculiar facts and circumstances of each case However the same have not yet been notified.http://newsx.mywebdunia.com/2009/02/19/1235030460000.html

MORDENISATION OF SCHOOL LIBRARY A BOON FOR QUALITY EDUCATION

MORDENISATION OF SCHOOL LIBRARY A BOON FOR QUALITY EDUCATION(Accepted for NCERT, NEW DELHI)

Mr.Shiba Bhue Librarian, K.V
North lakhimpur
Guwahati R.O (Assam)

ABSTRACT

Libraries are store house of knowledge, as an integral part of education system helps a lot in achieving the sprit of the human values, creativity, scientific temper attitudes and sense of innovative ness above all enriched intellectual excellence among children. This article discusses how the recent development in information technology and library information science enhanced the qualitative and sustainable learning in school environment and what role to be played by school library in the wake of global knowledge society and current digital and electronic environment.

KEY WORD-

Library Automation, Information Literacy, Knowledge Management, Information Management, Social Network. Blog, Wiki, You Tube.

INTRODUCTION
An educational system can not be complete with out well equipped library that is why Dr. S. Radhakrishnan has told library as the heart of educational institution
Above all Gandhi Ji way of complete education which seeks development of body, mind and sprit could not be fulfilled without proper library system. Over the years libraries are in the way of transformation from so called library to modern library and information center .In the recent wake automated digital library system library hold its prime importance and its role in participation in the process of quality education is second to none. The school library of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangatahan, Navodaya Vidayalaya Samiti and other school of the country should also modernize their school library in order to promote quality and sustainable education.
WHAT IS A SCHOOL LIBARARY
A school library or a school library media center is libraries within a school where students, staff, and often, parents of a public, state or private fee paying school have access to a variety of resources. The goal of the school library media center is to ensure that all members of the school community have equitable access "to books and reading, to information, and to information technology.
A school library media center uses all types of media are automated, and utilize the Internet as well as books for information gathering. School libraries are distinct from public libraries because they serve as learner-oriented laboratories which support, extend, and individualize the school's curriculum.A school library serves as the center and coordinating agency for all material used in the school.
PURPOSE OF SCHOOL LIBRARY
The school library exists to provide a range of learning opportunities for both large and small groups as well as individuals with a focus on intellectual content, information literacy, and the learner. In addition to classroom visits with collaborating teachers, the school library also serves as a place for students to do independent work, use computers, equipment and research materials; to host special events such as author visits and book clubs; and for tutoring and testing.
The school library media center program is a collaborative venture in which school library media specialists, teachers, and administrators work together to provide opportunities for the social, cultural, and educational growth of students. Activities that are parts of the school library media program can take place in the school library media center, the laboratory classroom, through the school, and via the school library's online resources.
HOW IT CANBE MOREDENISED
Library modernization is nothing but using all recent tools and technology developed in the wake of advancement in information technology and library information science. The libraries in the school are no longer need to be neglected, its should be became hub of knowledge and information and participate in the process of quality and sustainable education.
FOSTREING REDING HABIT
Now a days reading skill among student diminishing to some extent owing to the present trends in the sphere of science and technology, reading serve a transport which leads student to the realm of fantasy, beauty politics, history sport, games travel, entertainment and education. It provide them relaxation and recreation and make them aware life around us .It will enhanced their and out look sense of judgment and Student life became productive and meaning full.
Reading habit can be stimulated by
1- Updated and strong library collection suits to the need of children.
2- Organizing extramural lecture, observing importance day and celebrating Gandhi, Vivekananda and other great personality birth day in library premises.
3- Setting up separate section in library like career guidance and counseling current affairs etc.
4- By providing other services like newspaper clipping, print out of online .information.
5- Providing other web based service and information literacy technique.
LIBRARY AUTOMATION
Library automation is nothing but mechanization of traditional library activities like classification cataloging circulation serial, reference and administration. The whole process of library can automation will be possible with little investment by school and technical knowledge by librarians. Open source free library automation software like EVERGREEN, KOHA, PMB, and NEW GENLIB. Library automation not only save the time of user but also meet the growing demands of children with little span of time.
ONLINE PUBLIC ACESS CATALOG (OPAC)
As information specialists, school librarians develop a resource base for the school by using the curriculum and student interests to identify and obtain library materials, organize and maintain the library collection in order to promote independent reading and lifelong learning. Materials in the library collection can be located using an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Users typically search a library catalog to locate books, videos, and audio recordings owned or licensed by a library.
INFORMATION LITERACY
This conception, used primarily in the library and information studies field, and rooted in the concepts of library instruction and bibliographic instruction, is the ability "to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information” In this view, information literacy is the basis for life-long learning, and an information literate person is one who:
Recognizes that accurate and complete information is the basis for intelligent decision making.
Recognizes the need for information.
Knows how to locate needed information.
Formulates questions based on information needs.
Identifies potential sources of information.
Develops successful search strategies.
Accesses sources of information including computer-based and other technologies.
Evaluates information no matter what the source.
Organizes information for practical application.
Integrates new information into an existing body of knowledge.
Uses information in critical thinking and problem solving.
Uses information ethically and legally.
Since information may be presented in a number of formats, the term information" applies to more than just the printed word. Other literacy Such as visual, media, computer, network, and basic literacy are implicit in information literacy. Modern library information system will be helpful in providing information literacy to the school children and teacher.
ONLINE ACESS TO EDUCATIONAL WESITES
There are number of e resources for school children some are also freely available that are to be teach to the student by school librarian. The school library also teach the student regarding other educational websites, search engine, educational games and other education related tools in library through the internet.
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Information management entails organizing, retrieving, acquiring and maintaining information. The students by using library online resources learn how to store, organized Retrieve information in different media like CDROM Floppy disk, Pen drives, so in this process they learn the information management technique.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)
Comprises a range of practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice. Library became part in the process of knowledge management in school by creating distribute identifying required knowledge among the student, teachers. Above all for the institution.
TEHONOLOGY ENABLED LIBRARY SYSTEM
BLOGS
Blogs is fundamentally 2.0, and their global proliferation has enormous implications for libraries. Blogs may indeed be an even greater milestone in the history of publishing than web-pages. They enable the rapid production and consumption of Web-based publications. In some ways, the copying of printed material is to web-pages as the printing press is to blogs. Blogs are HTML for the masses. The most obvious implication of blogs is that it is easy to E-Publishing and a school librarian can provide blog service integrated to the school library website about information which helpful for school children.
SOCIAL NETWORK
Social network are perhaps the most promising and embracing technology wich can be integrated in library service. They enable messaging, blogging, streaming media, and tagging. MySpace, Face Book, Delicious, Frappr, and Flickr are networks that have enjoyed massive popularity. While MySpace and FaceBook enable users to share themselves with one another (detailed profiles of users' lives and personalities), Del.icio.us enables users to share Web resources and Flickr enables the sharing of pictures. Frappr is a bit of a blended network, using maps, chat rooms, and pictures to connect individuals. If knowledge of this entire social network can be imparted by librarian the knowledge level of student will be enhance and online community will be developed which will be paid good dividend to the student in the higher classes.
YOU TUBE
You Tube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. You Tube was created in mid-February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. The San Bruno-based service uses Adobe Flash technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as entertainment content such as video logging and short original videos. Now a days IITs are also started to give their course through the you tube. You toube will be very useful particularly for the primary classes’ student.
CONCLUSION.
School library which is the library in the foundation of education, unless and until the foundation strong the building may collapse so modernization of school library never be underestimated. In order to cope up with increasing demand of quality and sustainable education school library need to be modernized with the recent development in library tools and technique and library information science.
REFERENCES
1- http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal Retrieved on 5/1/09
2- http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch. Retrieved on 5/1/09
3- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_library
4- http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/120/1995/00000003/00000003/art00002 Retrieved on 7/1/09
5- Sangam July 2007.KVS New Delhi.
6- Vidyalaya Patrika2003-04 Noonmati K.VS.

A Reading List for Barack —and the Rest of Us

A Reading List for Barack —and the Rest of Us
This year’s best reads for help us better understand ourselves
By Barbara Genco -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2009
Also in this article:Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.The Numerati.The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully.This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind.The Great Swim.Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines.Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures.Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid.Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
Illustration by Victor Juhasz.With the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the most troops overseas since Richard Nixon’s presidency, President-elect Obama will certainly have his work cut out for him. But at least Obama is a reader (and a writer), and, as we all know, there is no better antidote to the stress of the present than an hour or so lost in a good book. This year’s selection of great reads—for President Obama as well as the rest of us—was created to help us better understand our past, our present, our brave new future.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.Atwood, Margaret. House of Anansi. 280 p.
Trust Margaret Atwood, the Canadian Booker Prize–winner and best-selling author of dystopian novels like The Handmaid’s Tale, to penetrate the economic heart of darkness: debt. These five essays were taken from Atwood’s 2008 Massey Lectures, which were broadcast on CBC’s Radio One. (To hear them, visit www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey.html.) Self-revelatory and anecdotally rich, the essays are mind-expanding and often downright funny. For Atwood, “payback is not about debt management, or sleep debt, or the national debt.” Instead, she views debt as human and imaginative, something that “magnifies both voracious human desire and ferocious human fear.” She limns the literary, cultural, and historical aspects of debt—concluding that it has much more to do with human nature than economics—and ransacks history, literature, pop culture, and even theology, drawing on personalities both real and imagined (like Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge and Disney’s Uncle Scrooge McDuck). Clever and timely, Atwood’s essays are a lot more engaging than anything you’re likely to find in The Economist.
The Numerati.Baker, Stephen. Houghton. 256 p.
Baker, a writer for BusinessWeek and coauthor of blogspotting.net—a blog that examines how “cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society”—introduces readers to the men and women of the “new math intelligentsia” and explores the changes in technology and data crunching that underlie most of today’s sophisticated marketing and business plans. Baker shows us how these new data profilers are using a ginormous amount of online data to predict trends and anticipate the actions of all sorts of groups—from consumers and voters to gamblers and potential terrorists. At the core of this work are algorithms, which come into play whenever we visit an online merchant like Amazon.com, where, for example, a sophisticated set of programming commands present us with shopping options based on our past purchases. Happily, the work of these “numerati” isn’t all profit driven. Google’s recent announcement that as a result of a spike in the number of searches for “flu and flu-like symptoms” it was able to predict the onset of influenza a full two weeks before the Centers for Disease Control is an example of how this data can become a force for good. (To learn more about Google’s prediction, go to www.google.org/flutrends.) In fact, one of the numerati that Baker interviewed predicted that the world’s next Jonas Salk will probably be a mathematician—not a physician. Now what are the odds of that?

The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully.Chittister, Joan. BlueBridge. 240 p.
By 2020, 18 percent of our nation will be more than 65 years old. If you’re already in the 65-plus column or will enter it in the next 12 years or have grandparents or parents in that age bracket, this book is for you. Chittister, who’s a spry 72, is a Roman Catholic Benedictine nun and cochair of the United Nations Global Peace Initiative for Women. In a series of interconnected meditative essays, she explores “the many dimensions of the aging process, its purpose and its challenges, its struggles and its surprises, its problems and its potential, its pain and joys.” Although a few of her chapters read like a Gray Panthers manifesto, most reveal the author’s breathtakingly frank and clear-eyed awareness that old age is all about “facing that time of life for which there is no career plan.” While aging may have been the catalyst for these meditations, don’t put off reading them until you’re officially an old codger. We can all draw strength from Chittister’s essays on regret (“the sand trap of the soul”), nostalgia (“the temptation to take refuge in what is no more”), and forgiveness (which allows us to “forgive ourselves for being less than we always wanted to be”). She reminds readers of all generations that aging doesn’t have to be a depressing series of losses culminating in a decline toward death. Instead, she says, getting older has allowed her “to come alive in ways I have never been alive before.”
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.Faust, Drew Gilpin. Knopf. 346 p.
What makes a “good death”? In mid-19th-century America, it meant taking time to carefully scrutinize one’s life, select a final resting place, and remember others who had previously died. Families wanted to know that their dying loved ones were well prepared to meet God within the bosom of their family. (The affecting death scene Louisa May Alcott crafted for Beth in Little Women is a prototype of a good death.) Unfortunately, a good death was unavailable to many of the 620,000 Confederate and Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. Faust, the president of Harvard University, demonstrates how the “work of death” uniquely characterized the war and its aftermath. Parents were often not informed of the fate of their deceased sons—there was no plan in place. There were also no dog tags. As soldiers prepared for battle, they pinned pieces of paper on their uniforms with information for their next of kin. Combatants often carried a small Bible or a pocket diary—partly for themselves and partly to assure their families that they had been well disposed at the hour of their death. Soldiers also prized family photos. In fact, many fallen soldiers were found with photos in hand. There were few marked graves, and many soldiers were buried in open, mass graves to avoid contagion. One enduring benefit of the otherwise disastrous Civil War was the creation of organized care for the living and the dying: the American Red Cross and the founding of our national cemeteries. Brilliant and inclusive, this is moving social history.
Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind.Marcus, Gary. Houghton. 224 p.
Marcus, a cognitive neuroscientist and psychology professor, launches some spirited salvos against the intelligent design movement. He carefully marshals research on the brain and cognitive development to counter the belief that we and, most especially, our brains are perfect as originally created. For Marcus, the human mind is definitely imperfect and far from being made “in God’s image.” Furthermore, the human brain is a “kluge—an engineering term for a clumsy or inelegant, yet surprisingly effective, solution to a problem.” Stymied? Think about your brain as a crafty solution cooked up by TV secret agent Angus MacGyver. Why else would the human brain have such a superb capacity for reasoning paired with a seriously flawed memory system and a tendency to neglect the facts when making choices? Along the way, Marcus also reflects on why happiness is nearly always elusive, why human language is essentially ambiguous and communication so complicated, and why we develop false memories. He also reminds us that there’s a neurological reason why teens are innately susceptible to suggestion and impetuous to boot (as if we didn’t already know that). After all, the teenage brain is wired for pleasure, not for analysis. When all is said and done, the human brain is prima facie a product of evolution, a “series of little fixes.” So the next time you find yourself disoriented while trying to multitask or distracted by some shiny object, remember that our brains are a work in progress—and cut yourself some slack.
The Great Swim.Mortimer, Gavin. Walker. 336 p.
Before super-swimmers Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz captured Olympic gold, there was Gertrude Ederle. The daughter of a German-born butcher from New York City, Ederle was already an Olympic gold medalist when, in 1925, she swam 21 miles from the Battery in Lower Manhattan to Sandy Hook, NJ, in 7 hours and 11 minutes (a record that remained unbroken until 2006). The next summer Ederle, along with five other women, attempted to swim the English Channel. A precursor to today’s reality TV shows, the swimmers were sponsored by tabloid newspapers and readers aligned themselves with their favorites, turning a friendly competition into a media circus. Mortimer includes wonderful details about Ederle’s training, her scandalous two-piece bathing suit emblazoned with an American flag, a diet that would shock today’s sports nutritionists, and the required “greasing up” (layering on olive oil, lanolin, and Vaseline) to protect her skin from the cold waters. The swim across the Channel was grueling. When Ederle emerged on the shores of Kent, England, after 14 hours and 39 minutes (breaking the male record by a full two hours), the media attention was overwhelming. On her return to the United States, Ederle was honored by a ticker-tape parade and hounded by enormous crowds. Sadly, fame was fleeting. Nine months later, aviator Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic solo flight eclipsed all other achievements, and Ederle was kicked to the curb. Nevertheless, her record for swimming the Channel stood until 1950.
Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines.Muller, Richard A. Norton. 354 p.
Muller, a physics professor and winner of a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, prepared this accessible briefing based on his renowned course for nonscience students. While every president has a bevy of science advisors, Muller’s book can serve as a primer for the rest of us; it provides a clear understanding of the major scientific trends and challenges that will affect our lives during the next four to eight years. Broad essays on topical matters, such as terrorism, energy, nukes, space, and global warming, are divided into comprehensible subsections. And for those of us who are time-challenged, each section’s final “Presidential Summary” serves up just the facts. Some of Muller’s analyses buck conventional wisdom. For example, writing about terrorism, he cautions that low-tech attacks may be harder to defend against than their high-tech counterparts (witness the recent spate of terrorist raids in Mumbai) and a natural gas explosion may be a greater threat to urban dwellers than the aftermath of a so-called “dirty bomb.” Understandable and genuinely fascinating, this is the best sort of required reading.
Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures.Saltzman, Cynthia. Viking. 352 p.
Next time you’re viewing a painting by a European Old Master in an American museum take a careful look at the label. Did you know that the core collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, Washington’s National Gallery, and many other smaller museums are the products of a very public largesse? In the 19th century, our newly minted museums were desperately seeking cultural credibility. Increasingly, it became the fashion for wealthy entrepreneurs to go abroad and greedily gobble up vast amounts of European painting, sculpture, and architectural fragments. These exported treasures boosted their new owners’ social standings even as they provided our museums with the “right” sort of art that demonstrated that Americans could possess refined cultural sensibilities every bit as elevated as the ancien régimes. Saltzman, a skilled art historian, is no slouch when it comes to explaining the social history of the Gilded Age, and she introduces readers to such compelling and single-minded personalities as the Boston aesthete Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick (a Carnegie protégé and a steel tycoon in his own right), and the renowned financier J. P. Morgan. Begun for private pleasure, the Frick, Gardner, and Morgan collections, still housed in their original opulent mansions, have since morphed into unique public treasures. Meticulously researched and wonderfully detailed, Old Masters is a real eye-opener.
Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid.Troost, J. Maarten. Broadway. 304 p.
With the world becoming smaller and more homogenized by the second, Troost thinks the next (and perhaps final) great journey for Westerners will be to China—an enormous country (3.7 million square miles) with a huge population (over 1.3 billion people) and the world’s largest economic engine. Though most Westerners now depend on China’s consumer products, relatively few of us have traveled beyond its well-worn tourist routes, and even fewer have begun to grasp its vast human, economic, linguistic, and geographic diversity. Troost is a wacky, 21st-century Marco Polo who successfully integrates history, economics, politics, and Chinese high and low culture into a fast-paced narrative that’s self-deprecating, refreshingly ironic, and often laugh-out-loud funny. He muses on China’s often startling juxtaposition of the ancient and modern and the relentless pressures on the former communal society to adjust to capitalism’s triumph over communism. While Troost chronicles such unappealing Chinese ticks as spitting, crowding, and a penchant for jumping lines, he also reveals a culture of unrelenting hard work, love of children, and an ever-present sense of history. As the subtitle suggests, the author shares enough tales about extreme cuisine to rival the exploits of star chef Anthony Bourdain. If you read only one book about China this year, be sure it’s this one. And while you’re at it, consider enrolling the kids in a Mandarin class. According to Troost, they’re going to need it. Soon.
Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.Wartzman, Rick. Public Affairs. 320 p.
In April 1939, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath shot to the top of our nation’s best-seller lists. Meanwhile, throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley (the destination of the fictional Joads and other “Oakies” who fled the Dust Bowl), the publication of this masterpiece brought long-standing social and political unrest to a head. Steinbeck, a native of Salinas, CA, was vilified as a radical, rabble-rousing writer of the shocking and obscene. And that same month, Grapes was publicly banned by the Kern County Board of Supervisors, who asserted that the novel “offended our citizenry by falsely implying that many of our fine people are a low, ignorant, profane, and blasphemous type living in a vicious and filthy manner.” Plus, it “is filled with profanity, lewd, foul, and obscene language unfit for use in American homes.” Kern County Librarian Gretchen Kneif was particularly eloquent in her letter to the library board: “If a book is banned today, what will be banned tomorrow? …It’s such a vicious and dangerous thing to begin and may… lead to… the same thing we see in Europe today.” Two years later, the ban was lifted, though Steinbeck’s works continued to be under siege. This is compelling social history and an incisive case study of censorship in action.

RSS MICRO - DEDICATED RSS FEED SEARCH ENGINE

The most comprehensive RSS feed search on the web that searches 4.3 million RSS, feeds RSSMicro was formed to explore new search capabilities where the web contents become extremely dynamic and grow exponentially. This behavior, along with higher user expectations, creates a dilemma that requires a search service whose capabilities go beyond the limits of conventional search engines. Without new data formats or attached date and time to the content, there will be no reliable search service or product that can efficiently index and make the content available for search. RSSMicro is building and exploring a new search service which balances the freshness, relevance, and reliability of the search results along with a substantial gain in search performance and efficiency.
Excerpted from...nmlis

Technological convergence- An visible option for library

Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks.
Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video that now share resources and interact with each other, synergistically creating new efficiencies.
Convergence in this instance is defined as the interlinking of computing and other information technologies, media content and communication networks that have arisen as the result of the evolution and popularisation of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that have emerged in the digital media space.
Many experts view this as simply being the tip of the iceberg, as all facets of institutional activity and social life such as business, government, art, journalism, health and education are increasingly being carried out in these digital media spaces across a growing network of ICT devices.
Also included in this topic is the basis of computer networks, wherein many different operating systems are able to communicate via different protocols. This could be a prelude to artificial intelligence networks on the internet and eventually leading to a powerful superintelligence[1] via a Technological singularity.
Technological Convergence can also refer to the phenomena of a group of technologies developed for one use being utilized in many different contexts. This often happens to military technology as well as most types of machine tools and now silicon chips.

Messaging convergence
Combinational services are growing in prominence, chief among these being those services which integrate SMS with voice, such as voice SMS (voice instead of text – service providers include Bubble Motion and Kirusa) and SpinVox (voice to text). In addition, several operators have launched services that combine SMS with mobile instant messaging (MIM) and presence.
The Text-to-Landline services are also trendy, where subscribers can send text messages to any landline phone and are charged at standard text message fees. This service has been very popular in America, where it’s difficult to differentiate fixed-line from mobile phone numbers.
Inbound SMS has been also converging to enable reception of different formats (SMS, voice, MMS, etc.). UK companies, including consumer goods companies and media giants, should soon be able to let consumers contact them via voice, SMS, MMS, IVR or video using just one five-digit number or long number. In April 2008, O2 UK launched voice-enabled shortcodes, adding voice functionality to the five-digit codes already used for SMS. Mobile messaging provider Tyntec also provides a similar service based on long number, converging text message and voice calls under one number.
This type of convergence is particularly helpful for media companies, broadcasters, enterprises, call centres and help desks who need to develop a consistent contact strategy with the consumer. Because SMS is very popular today with any demographic, it became relevant to include text messaging as a contact possibility for consumers. To avoid having multiple numbers (one for voice calls, another one for SMS), a simple way is to merge the reception of both formats under one number. This means that a consumer can text or call +44 7624 805555 and can be sure that, regardless of the format, the message will be received.

OpenID- a shared identity service

OpenID is a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity, single sign-on, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site. OpenID is a decentralized, free and open standard that lets users control the amount of personal information they provide. for detail visit-http://openid.net

Library Mashups: Web 2.0 tool for integrating contents and services of libraries

Library Mashups: Web 2.0 tool for integrating contents and services of libraries( accepted for PLANNER 2008)

Bulu Maharana
Lecturer, P. G. Department of Library & Information Science, Sambalpur University (Orissa)
N. K. Sahu
Lecturer, P. G. Department of Library & Information Science, North Orissa University (Orissa)
Ms. Arundhati Deb
M. Phil Scholar, P. G. Department of Library & Information Science, Sambalpur University (Orissa)
Siba Bhue
Assistant Librarian, IMIS,BBSR

Abstract

Mashup is one of the many new phenomena in the Web 2.0 environment. They are largely experimental, but some of them are very useful, well-designed and very popular. Google Maps is the most popular component of Mashups. Amazon, Yahoo! Maps, and photo-sharing site Flickr are also a source for many of the sites. The libraries have been well adapting to the emerging technologies to integrate contents and services in order to provide innovative services to the users. The paper defines Mashup and discusses its various aspects with specific reference to the libraries.

Keywords: Web 2.0, Mashups, Google Maps, API, RSS, Screen Scrapping

1. Introduction

Over the past several years, as the Web 2.0 movement has gathered critical mass, technological mash ups have generated most of the attention, receiving lots of publicity and lots of programming effort. New Massups are created everyday, ranging from the popular (1412 Google Maps Mashups) to the provocative (Yahoo Wheel of Food). Aaron Boodman, the 27-year-old Google Web developer remarks "The Web was originally designed to be mashed up. The technology is finally growing up and making it possible." [1]

2. Definition

The evolution of Mashup technology is the next stage of Web 2.0. Mashup is a term, originally used in pop music by artists and disk jockeys when two songs were remixed and played at the same time. Web experts have borrowed this term when two or more software tools are merged. The resulting new tool provides an enriched web experience for the users.

Wikipedia defines a mashup as "a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool" [2]. Many popular examples of Mashups make use of the Google Map service to provide a location display of data taken from another source.

Hong Chun (2006)[3] defines Mashup as “a web page or application that combines data from two or more external online sources. The external sources are typically other websites and their data may be obtained by the mashup developers in various ways, including but not limited to APIs, XML feeds*, and screen scrapping§.

3. Technical Concept
As illustrated in a video clip on "What Is A Mashup?" [4] from a programmer's perspective a mashup is based on making use of APIs (Application Programmers Interface). A key characteristic of Web 2.0 is the notion of 'the network as the platform'. APIs provided by Web-based services (services provided by companies such as Google and Yahoo) can similarly be used by programmers to build new services, based on popular functions the companies may provide. Content used in Mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API (web services). Other methods of sourcing content for Mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom), and screen scraping. Mashups should be differentiated from simple embedding of data from another site to form compound documents. A site that allows a user to embed a YouTube video for instance, is not a Mashup site. As outlined above, the site should itself access third party data using an API, and process that data in some way to increase its value to the site's users. Many people are experimenting with Mashups using Amazon, eBay, Flickr, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and YouTube APIs, which has led to the creation of the Mashup editor.
Fig-1: A Google Maps Mashup Showing Location and Data About UK Universities

4. Mashup Architecture

The general architecture of Mashup web applications is always composed of three levels or tiers:
i. The content provider: It is the source of the data. Data is made available using an API and different Web-protocols such as RSS, REST, and Web Services
ii. The Mashup site: It is the web application that provides the new service using different data sources that are not owned by it.
iii. The client web browser: It is the user interface of the Mashup. In a web-application, the content can be mashed by the client web browsers using client side web language for example JavaScript

The Mashup Ecosystem is constituted of Open data, Open Set of services, small pieces loosely joined and you.





Fig-2: Mashup Ecosystem
Fig: Mashup Architecture [Source: Dion Hinchcliffe’s Blog]
http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/


5. Essential Features of Mashups

John Herren (2006)[5] has Mashup has highlighted three basic characteristics of a Mashup:
Combination: It uses multiple data sources; join across dimensions, subject, time and place.
Visualization: It stresses on visual presentation of data sources.
Aggregation: It groups data, creates information from data, uncover hidden aspects of data

However, the essential features of Mashup can be summarised as follows:
A Mashup is a website or application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service.
Uses a public interface, RSS feed, or API.
Original use was music – combining tracks from different sets and artists.
Simple API: Anyone can create one
Content from two or more sites
Current emphasis on presentation – visual maps, Simple two dimension maps
Content structure, data: Issues of compatibility, Every Mashup a unique job
Self Service – embed variety of mashups



6. Mashup for Libraries

Mashups in a general sense have been going on in the libraries for many years. In fact the library world has been a leader in blending its programmes and services with the latest trends and technology developments. The combination of different ideas and services are made to reach different audiences or energize existing ones. In the process new experiences are created and traditional services are revitalized.

In this perspective, Web Mashups for today’s libraries are carrying on a tradition of innovation started in 1800s, when libraries moved away from the closed organizations that they were into the vibrant cultural and academic centres that they are today. Susan Gibbons, Vice Provost, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester says, “Mashups are critical to reach users, who now have to exit their preferred Web environments to come to the library and use its services”. He further adds, “We have to accept that our library websites are not going to be destinations of choice for our students/patrons. Rather we have to be packaging and serving up parts of our Websites in ways that they can be integrated into the users’ preferred virtual destinations, whether that be Google, Facebook or SecondLife. [6]

7. Important Library Mashups


Library Thing: (URL: http://www.librarything.com/)

LibraryThing is a site for book lovers. LibraryThing helps us to create a library-quality catalog of books. We can do all of them or just what you're reading now. And because everyone catalogs online, they also catalog together. LibraryThing connects people based on the books they share. Adding books to our catalog is also easy. Just enter some words from the title, the author or an ISBN. You don't have to type everything in. LibraryThing gets all the right data from Amazon.com and over 690 libraries around the world, including the Library of Congress.
BookPrice (URL: http://www.bookprice.net/)
bookprice.net offers a quick way to compare the prices of any in-print book of so far 8 online bookstores. We can view the results with or without the shipping costs of a single book. This site collects prices for books in realtime from different online bookstore. There are connections to the original bookstore where one can then buy this item. This is a service to make it easier for us to find low price books, but there is no guarantee that this is the best price. There might be money to save if we check the shipping pages to find the lowest shipping cost.

TOCRoSS (Table of Content by Really Simple Syndication) (URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/)

TOCRoSS demonstrated that it is possible to automate the inclusion of TOCs from a publisher into a library OPAC. TOC data for 160 Emerald journals (3,000) articles was pushed using RSS into the Talis PRISM OPAC at the University of Derby library. Searches on keywords retrieved journal articles, and users were able to link through to and view the full text article. Librarians and end users tested the service, and feedback was on the whole positive about the inclusion of article records in the library OPAC .

Book Finder 4 You (URL: http://www.bookfinder4u.com/)

BookFinder4U is a FREE service that searches 130 bookstores, 80,000 booksellers and 90 million new & used books worldwide to find the lowest book price in A click! At Bookfinder4U, the goal is simple, to provide with a book search and price comparison service that is Comprehensive, Objective and Easy to use.
Journal Junkie (URL: http://journaljunkie.com/
JournalJunkie.com is a free podcast syndication service for medical practitioners with an insatiable interest in the latest medical news, providing abstract summaries from the highest impact medical journals as downloadable audio. During Beta testing alone, and without any marketing, JournalJunkie.com has already attracted around 30,000 hits per month from over 2000 unique visitors. Subscription to JournalJunkie.com is free, and subscribers can:
listen to abstracts immediately
download them to their iPod/MP3 player for later
set up automatic downloads from their favourite journals to their computer or iPod/MP3 player
receive a regular email reminder whenever new audio content from their chosen journals becomes available
LIBWORM (URL: http://www.libworm.com/)
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.
BookJetty (URL: http://www.bookjetty.com/)
BookJetty is a social utility that connects several library sites and checks books' availability in the libraries. For a start, BookJetty links up with only Singapore National Library Board. Now, it connects with more than 300 libraries worldwide from 11 different countries, i.e. US, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong, and more.
xISBN (URL: http://www.worldcat.org/affiliate/webservices/xisbn/app.jsp)
The xISBN Web service supplies ISBNs and other information associated with an individual intellectual work that is represented in WorldCat. If we submit an ISBN to this service, it returns a list of related ISBNs and selected metadata. Ideal for Web-enabled search applications—such as library catalogs and online booksellers—and based on associations made in the WorldCat database, xISBN enables an end user to link to information about other versions of a source work.
8. Conclusion

Modern approaches to thinking about provision of library data and services online create opportunities for numerous applications beyond the traditionally defined library management system. By adhering to standards from the wider Web community, by considering the library system as an interlocking set of functional components rather than a monolithic black box, and by taking a bold new approach to defining the ways in which information from and about libraries are 'owned' and exposed to others, we make it straightforward for information from the library to find its way to other places online. Rather than being locked inside the library system, data can add value to the experience of users wherever they are, whether it is Google, Amazon, the institutional portal, or one of the social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. By unlocking data and the services that make use of it, the possibilities are literally endless, and it is here that efforts such as those around the construction of a library 'Platform' become important.
References

Robert, D. 2005. Mix., Match and Mutate. Business Week. [Online] Available at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_30/b3944108_mz063.htm
Mashup (web application hybrid, Wikipedia,
CHUN, Hong. 2006. Web 2.0-Mashups. ISNM 2006.Modules of Virtual Organizations. Oliver Bohl. [Online] Available at http://www.oliverbohl.de/DOCS/Mashup.pdf
What is A Mashup? [Online] Available at http://news.zdnet.com/2422-13569_22-152729.html
HERREN, John. 2006. Introduction to Mashup development. [Online] Available at http://www.slideshare.net/jhherren/mashup-university-4-intro-to-mashups
STOREY, Tom. 2008. Mixing it up: Libraries mash up content, services, and ideas. Next Space. 9, p. 7
CHO, Allan. 2007. An introduction to Mashup for health librarians. JCHLA/JABSC. v.28, p. 19-22 [Online] Available at pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/jchla/jchla28/c07-007.pdf


Bulu Maharana is working as a Lecturer in Library and Information Science. He has a teaching experience of 7 years and professional experience of 3 years. He has published 35 papers in different national and international journals, seminars proceedings and book chapters. He can be contacted at bulumaharana@gmail.com .





* XML Feed is a form of paid inclusion where a search engine is "fed" information about pages via XML, rather than gathering that information through crawling actual pages. [http://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-glossary.html]
§ Screen scraping is a technique in which a computer program extracts data from the display output of another program. The program doing the scraping is called a screen scraper. The key element that distinguishes screen scraping from regular parsing is that the output being scraped was intended for final display to a human user, rather than as input to another program, and is therefore usually neither documented nor structured for convenient parsing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_scraping]

BENTHAM OPEN: More than 200 open access journals

Bentham Science Publishers are launching more than 200 peer-reviewed open access journals, under the banner of "BENTHAM OPEN". These free-to-view online journals cover all major disciplines of science, technology, and medicine
for detail visit- http://www.bentham.org/index.htm

Koha 3.0.0 RC1 Release

Koha 3 is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source integrated library system.
Release Notes for Koha 3.0.0 RC1
Koha 3 is the next-generation release of the award-winning Koha open-source integrated library system.
You can obtain Koha 3.0 RC1 from the following URL: http://download.koha.org/koha-3.00.00-stableRC1.tar.gz
These Release Notes cover What's New in Koha 3, information about the new Revision control system (Git), and Version-release process, pointers to Download, Installation, and Upgrade documentation, a brief introduction to the new Templates, a call to Translation and Documentation writers, and finally, Known Issues with this version.
to know
What's New in Koha 3? plz visit- http://www.koha.org/about-koha/news/nr1214238926.html

Science 2.0 -- Is Open Access Science the Future

Science 2.0 generally refers to new practices of scientists who post raw experimental results, nascent theories, claims of discovery and draft papers on the Web for others to see and comment on.
Proponents say these “open access” practices make scientific progress more collaborative and therefore more productive.
Critics say scientists who put preliminary findings online risk having others copy or exploit the work to gain credit or even patents.
Despite pros and cons, Science 2.0 sites are beginning to proliferate; one notable example is the OpenWetWare project started by biological engi­neers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The first generation of World Wide Web capabilities rapidly transformed retailing and information search. More recent attributes such as blogging, tagging and social networking, dubbed Web 2.0, have just as quickly expanded people’s ability not just to consume online information but to publish it, edit it and collaborate about it—forcing such old-line institutions as journalism, marketing and even politicking to adopt whole new ways of thinking and operating.
Science could be next. A small but growing number of researchers (and not just the younger ones) have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open tools of Web 2.0. And although their efforts are still too scattered to be called a movement—yet—their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based “Science 2.0” is not only more collegial than traditional science but considerably more productive.
“Science happens not just because of people doing experiments but because they’re discussing those experiments,” explains Christopher Surridge, managing editor of the Web-based journal Public Library of Science On-Line Edition (www.plosone.org). Critiquing, suggesting, sharing ideas and data—this communication is the heart of science, the most powerful tool ever invented for correcting errors, building on colleagues’ work and fashioning new knowledge. Although the classic peer-reviewed paper is important, says Surridge, who publishes a lot of them, “they’re effectively just snapshots of what the authors have done and thought at this moment in time. They are not collaborative beyond that, except for rudimentary mechanisms such as citations and letters to the editor.”
Web 2.0 technologies open up a much richer dialogue, says Bill Hooker, a postdoctoral cancer researcher at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Portland, Ore., and author of a three-part survey on open-science efforts that appeared at 3 Quarks Daily (www.3quarksdaily.com), where a group of bloggers write about science and culture. “To me, opening up my lab notebook means giving people a window into what I’m doing every day,” Hooker says. “That’s an immense leap forward in clarity. In a paper, I can see what you’ve done. But I don’t know how many things you tried that didn’t work. It’s those little details that become clear with an open [online] notebook but are obscured by every other communication mechanism we have. It makes science more efficient.” That jump in efficiency, in turn, could greatly benefit society, in everything from faster drug development to greater national competitiveness.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=science-2-point-0
http://openwetware.org/wiki/Science_2.0

LOCKSS:preserve today’s web-published materials for tomorrow’s readers.

LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is an international non-profit community initiative that provides tools and support so libraries can easily and cost-effectively preserve today’s web-published materials for tomorrow’s readers.
Libraries inform and educate citizens and provide critical support to democratic societies by acting as memory organizations. The memory of a library is its collections; therefore in order for a library to be a memory organization it must build collections. LOCKSS helps libraries stay relevant by building collections even as an increasing portion of today’s content is born digitally and published on the web.
LOCKSS replicates the traditional model of libraries keeping physical copies of books, journals, etc. in their collections, making it possible for libraries to house copies of digital materials long-term. Hundreds of publishers and libraries around the world have joined the LOCKSS community and are working together to ensure that libraries continue their important social memory role.
The ACM award-winning LOCKSS technology is open source, peer-to-peer, decentralized digital preservation infrastructure. LOCKSS preserves all formats and genres of web-published content. The intellectual content, which includes the historical context (the look and feel), is preserved. LOCKSS is OAIS-compliant; the software migrates content forward in time; and the bits and bytes are continually audited and repaired. Content preserved by libraries through LOCKSS becomes a part of their collection, and they have perpetual access to 100% of the titles preserved in their LOCKSS Box.

YouTube video: "Why Libraries Should Join LOCKSS"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POJf38RzihA (part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKr1Adc8tnA (part 2).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdcnXrQkaI
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOE_Jw23cVg)

When Wikipedia Won't Cut It: 25 Online Sources for Reliable, Researched Facts

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

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