INFOMINE @ UCR Libraries

Wiki, wiki, everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:52:00 +0000

A proliferation of wikis has exploded on the web in recent years. These community-edited encyclopedias/databases/knowledge forums have moved beyond general information into specialized applications. While the looming influence of Wikipedia may still be treated with suspicion in academia (see this Inside Higher Ed article), companies like Encyclopaedia Britannica (see this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus) have been goaded into the conclusion that this is a new model for the sharing of knowledge. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

INFOMINE catalogers can't keep up with all the wikis on the web, but a good number of academic and library wikis have been entered into our database. For an overview of wikis in general, start with the Wikipedia article on wiki. We'll offer some examples of wikis that have been entered into the INFOMINE database. These all have their own authorship requirements; some are written by experts in their fields, some by informed laypersons. Explore them individually to see policies. Wikis generally provide very good reference lists and bibliographies, even if you do not find exactly what you're looking for within the content of a given article.

New to INFOMINE this week: Open Access Directory
Wiki by and for the OA community offers articles on open access publishing, software, guidelines, research, institutions, repositories and more.

Sciences, computing
Chemical Information Sources Wiki
Covers starting points, general sources, internet resources and specialized searches for chemistry research. Also features sections on teaching and studying chemistry, newsgroups and blogs, careers, and cheminformatics.

Encyclopedia of Life
The Encyclopedia of Life is a collaborative project to document every living species on Earth. An initial 30,000 species pages were launched in February 2008, with basic template pages for one million more species. Entries include classification, description, images, ecology, distribution maps, literature references and more.

Encyclopedia of Earth
A wiki-style encyclopedia about "the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society." Consists of "articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other's work." Articles may be searched or browsed by author or topic.

Game Programming Wiki
The Game Programming Wiki features tutorials, programming techniques, game industry information, design, project management guidelines, software tools, and a bibliography of reference books.

Humanities, libraries, recreation
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
A wiki for sharing ideas in library innovation. Categories include management, leadership, collection development, reference services, information literacy, marketing, professional development, and technology implementation and access.

Wex
Collaboratively-created law encyclopedia and dictionary from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School.

The Digital Classicist
Resource guide and wiki for researchers and students of classical civilization, with a focus on computing and technology applications.

English Medieval Legal Documents Wiki
"The goal of this project is to create a collaborative database on the published sources of English medieval legal documents, and to provide links to the growing number of online sources currently being developed." Categories include case law, statutory law, administrative law, private legal documents, writs and pleadings, early legal treatises, links to online resources, research guides and bibliographies.

Wikitravel
A wiki of worldwide travel information, including places to go, how to get there, things to see, where to stay, travel phrasebooks, and more.

Wikiquote
This quotations wiki, part of the Wikipedia group of websites, offers quotations from people, literature, film and television. Entries link to relevant sources, Wikipedia articles, and related websites.

Government information wikis
State Agency Databases Across the 50 States
A wiki from ALA's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) with information on online state government databases, listed by state.

Congresspedia
Wiki about Congress, with topics on Congress members, legislation, rules, caucuses, votes, Congress members under investigation, news, and more.

SourceWatch
SourceWatch is a wiki on public policy influence, lobbyists, special interest groups, and media outlets. "It catalogues descriptions and details of PR firms, activist groups and government agencies as well as the criticisms that are made of these groups from different perspectives."

Tools for creating and using wikis
WikiMatrix
A comparison tool which examines various Wiki creation and editing software. Select Wiki programs based on the features available or compare the represented engines in side by side charts.

WikiMindMap
WikiMindMap is a graphical clustering search engine for Wikipedia articles.

Libraries and open source

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:15:00 +0000

There are many content management systems, open source ILS packages and other free and open library management resources. INFOMINE, for example, uses the iVia virtual library software developed by the iVia Research and Development Group of the library of the University of California, Riverside. This software package is open source with a GNU General Public License. Open source projects for library management and patrons continue to become an increasing influence on the world of libraries and information. Some good examples of software and research resources from the INFOMINE database include:

oss4lib: Open Source Systems for Libraries
This is a blog and database of open source software for libraries, including library systems, applications, metadata and standards.

Open Source Alternative
Directory of open source software alternatives to commercial software. Categories include business, communications, databases, graphics, multimedia, system utilities, and more. Many listings include ratings and reviews.

Public Knowledge Project
Begun in 1998, PKP has developed Open Journal Systems and Open Conference Systems, free software for the management, publishing, and indexing of journals and conferences, as well as Open Archives Harvester and Lemon8-XML to facilitate the indexing of research and scholarship.

Information Technology and Libraries
"Information Technology and Libraries publishes material related to all aspects of libraries and information technology, including digital libraries, metadata, authorization and authentication, electronic journals and electronic publishing, telecommunications, distributed systems and networks, computer security and intellectual property rights, technical standards, geographic information systems, desktop applications, online catalogs and bibliographic systems, optical information systems, software engineering, universal access to technology, futuristic forecasting, library consortia, vendor relations, and technology and the arts." Complete tables of contents and some fulltext articles and columns provided online.

D-Lib Magazine
"D-Lib Magazine is a monthly electronic publication with a primary focus on digital library research and development, including but not limited to new technologies, applications, and contextual social and economic issues."

SourceForge.net: iVia
SourceForge page for the iVia content management system, metadata harvesting and virtual library software.

iVia Project
The iVia homepage provides the iVia Virtual Library Software, DataFountains, the Nalanda iVia Focused Crawler, various utilities and project documentation.

Web collections by real people

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:05:00 +0000

There are many sites like INFOMINE with human-selected web resources. It's valuable to use these resources in your research; many have library subject specialists adding regular targeted content or highlight new resources that may not always show up near the top of a Google search. Experiment and see which interfaces and content will encourage you to return for another search. We maintain a Feedback form for INFOMINE and welcome comments and suggestions. INFOMINE links to many of these human-selected internet resource databases, below are several examples.

Intute
Description from Intute: "Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners. Subject specialists select and evaluate the websites in our database and write high quality descriptions of the resources." Nice site layout, plenty of browse and search options, and tutorials such as the Virtual Training Suite.

Librarians' Internet Index (LII)
Formerly the Librarians' Index to the Internet, this librarian-created database provides annotated links to both academic and general interest sites.

Internet Public Library : IPL
Website directory for general reference in many topics. Also offers pathfinders for several research topics, with internet and print sources.

DMOZ Open Directory Project
Nearly five million websites offered in this human-edited web directory, on the web since 1998. Sites here run the gamut from commercial websites to educational resources to chat forums. Worth a look, if maybe too glutted for targeted searches.

Employment info online

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:31:00 +0000

Don't limit yourself to Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com in your job search. There is a wealth of resources online for career research, employment listings, vocational training and occupational outlooks. Many of these resources are cataloged in INFOMINE, from professional societies' specialized job databases to the expansive database of available federal government jobs. Some noteworthy examples:

The Riley Guide : Employment Opportunities and Job Resources on the Internet
Huge metasite of employment information; everything from preparing a resume to networking to salary guides.

Occupational Outlook Handbook
For each of more than 250 occupations, information is given on the nature of the work done, working conditions, employment outlook, required training, and earnings. Current edition is 2008-2009.

Career Guide to Industries
Companion to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, with information on the job market in each state, job prospects, working conditions, training, advancement and earnings.

Career Voyages
Career guide designed for students and their parents.

USA Jobs
Search for notices of job openings throughout the U.S. federal government. Includes information on how to apply for federal jobs, information on federal government salaries and benefits, application forms, and a section dedicated to veterans' employment resources.

Some specialized job resources:
New Scientist Jobs
Database of science jobs.

Library Job Postings on the Internet
Guide to finding library job postings, libraries, archives and other jobs for information professionals online. See also LISjobs.com.

Health Occupations : MedlinePlus
Guide to careers in the health professions.

Browse the Jobs resource type in INFOMINE to find other websites containing employment information. Or search with your field of interest and jobs as keywords. We've even got resources for game development and animation jobs cataloged in INFOMINE.

Library blogs and more

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:42:00 +0000

Blogs present particular challenges in a resource catalog like INFOMINE. They are dynamic, generally jumping from one topic to the next and unified only by an institutional attribution or an author's voice. They are also very widely used by many libraries, for many different functions. Some detail the activities and events of the library or organization and serve to keep patrons informed, some comment on librarianship and information sciences, and others simply highlight notable resources.

Some interesting examples:

Library of Congress Blog
Check out the category index for a sample of the many topics explored in this blog.

WorldCat Blog
A multi-author blog from OCLC's WorldCat. WorldCat has recently introduced a new interface at WorldCat.org with many new user-centered features. Make book lists, similar to LibraryThing, build bibliographies, or download browser toolbars. All this in addition to the existing ability to find out what materials are in libraries near you. This is a very nice site redesign.

Sites and Soundbytes
This is a good example of a public library blog aimed at providing library patrons with interesting online resources.

There aren't a great deal of individual blogs cataloged in INFOMINE, but there are some, such as:
Everyday Sociology.
This multi-author blog explores issues in sociology by using real life examples, and is provided by W.W. Norton publishers.

To find other blogs in INFOMINE, try using the keywords blog or blogs combined with the topic of your interest. There are many blog search engines indexed in INFOMINE, many government blogs, and sources for library and information science blogs.

Nature and field guides

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:05:00 +0000

With spring fast approaching, it's time for a look at some of the guides to nature that can be found in INFOMINE.

eNature : Field Guides
Field guide to more than 5,500 animals and plants. Birds section includes audio.

What Tree is That? Tree Identification Guide
Guides for tree identification in the Eastern and Western United States. Each module includes a step-by-step guide, illustrations and descriptions in a list of trees for each region, and a glossary. Also featured is an animated tree identification tutorial.

All About Birds
Cornell University's Ornithology Lab presents information on locating, identifying, and appreciating bird species. Features include birding basics, online bird identification guide and multimedia.

Audubon's Birds of America at the University of Pittsburgh
Complete digital edition of Audubon's Birds of America includes 435 high-resolution color plates and accompanying text. Search, browse plate names or browse image thumbnails.

PLANTanswers
Questions and answers, growing information, videos, crop variety trials data, and gardening guides for flowers, fruits, house plants, vegetables, trees, shrubs, and ground cover.

U.S. National Park Service : Visit Your National Parks
Find visitor information for individual U.S. national parks. Select parks by: name, location (state, distance from zip code), topic, interests and activities using the "Find a Park" search tool.

See our post on Bugs!! for resources on creepy crawlies.

Library using INFOMINE

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:50:00 +0000

The UCR Libraries have launched a new Online Reference Shelf that offers useful internet resources in 10 categories: almanacs, biographies, calculators, citing, dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, maps, quotations and weather.

The resources offered were all pulled from the INFOMINE database, or added to INFOMINE to accomodate the project's needs. This is one example of how INFOMINE content can be used in the creation of custom collections.

More on election 2008

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:54:00 +0000

INFOMINE offers many resources on the current presidential election as well as past elections. We'll link to a couple of the newly added resources in this post, and add in a few other interesting election resources from INFOMINE's database.

Vote 2008 : NewsHour Online
PBS's NewsHour feature page on U.S. presidential election of 2008. Includes news reports, candidate profiles, interviews, and more.

The Campaign Legal Center
"The Campaign Legal Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which works in the areas of campaign finance and elections, political communication and government ethics. The Legal Center offers nonpartisan analyses of issues and represents the public interest in administrative, legislative and legal proceedings."

Pew Social and Demographic Trends
Public opinion research on a variety of topics. Of note is coverage on race, ethnicity and campaign 2008.

See also Pew Research Center Reports on Election '08

Some other interesting elections resources

The Living Room Candidate : Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004
A very well-designed site. View videos by election year, candidate, issue and type of commercial.

Printable Maps : Presidential Elections 1789 - 2000
From the National Atlas. Maps of "electoral votes won, by political party, for the fifty-four Presidential elections from George Washington in 1789 to George W. Bush in 2000."

CNN Political Ticker
Political and campaign news blog from CNN.com.

The Great Debate and Beyond : The History of Televised Presidential Debates
Explore the history of presidential debates, and then check out one of the new paradigms at YouTube.

Many media outlets report that late-night TV is where some people are getting their news. It's not in the INFOMINE database, but Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 is a well known example.

Recently added sites in Government Information

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:28:00 +0000

From the 2008 presidential election to tax information, here is a selection of recently added resources from INFOMINE's Government Information.

US Elections 2008 : BBC
BBC News feature page on U.S. presidential election of 2008. Includes articles, candidate profiles, video clips, and more.

Census Atlas of the United States
The Census Bureau has released a fulltext PDF of "the first comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s." More than 800 maps in 300 pages.

NIH Public Access Policy
Site offers the text of the NIH Public Access Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research, information on compliance, policy details and frequently asked questions.

IRS Newsroom
Tax news and hot topics for businesses and consumers from the Internal Revenue Service.

Tax History Project
Documents, images and exhibition on the history of taxation in the United States. Also offers selected presidential tax returns.

U.S. Agricultural Research Service Video Archive
Brief videos on a wide range of recent scientific discoveries and the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.

Law resources

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:57:00 +0000

Finding law resources online can be a daunting task with the sheer wealth of material available. This miniguide will point you in the direction of some quality sites catalogued in INFOMINE. Included here are research guides, portal sites, a law school resource and law blog directory.

Browse or search all of INFOMINE's records tagged with the resource type Regulations and Laws.

Guide to Law Online : Law Library of Congress
Annotated guide to quality law resources available online, emphasizing publicly-available fulltext resources. Sections include states, federal, international, other countries.

FindLaw
Lawyer directory and legal information. A commercial site with plenty of free resources.

Intute : Law
Intute's annotated, searchable guide to global legal information resources on the Internet.

Virtual Chase : Legal Research on the Internet
Annotated legal research guide designed for use by legal professionals.

Native American and Indigenous Law
Resource guide and primary material on Native American law.

Basic Legal Research
A mini research class on the basics of legal research.

Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools
Directory of American Bar Association approved law schools, searchable by location, tuition cost, bar passage rate, curriculum, financial aid, and more. Also presents guides to legal education: prelaw, the LSAT, applying to law school, fields of law, the bar exam, being a lawyer, and post-JD programs.

Blawg Directory : ABA Journal
Directory of law blogs (blawgs), organized by subject, author, location, and law school.

More Open Access and Open Education resources

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:30:00 +0000

We've added a few resources to INFOMINE recently on the open access movement/debate and open education. This recent blog entry lists OpenCourseWare websites. Today we present a few items from the What's New page as well as several other resources from the INFOMINE database.

Open Access Webliography
Guide to online resources related to the open access movement. Includes "starting points," directories, organizations, blogs and more.

OpenCourseWare Finder
Search hundreds of OpenCourseWare offerings provided by universities or browse OCW courses by subject.

Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)
Registry of nearly 1,000 institutional repositories and open access ejournals.

Association of Research Libraries : Scholarly Communication
ARL page on scholarly communication. Topics include: new models of publishing, libraries in the marketplace, copyright and intellectual property, and licensing. Also features news on the open access movement and scholarly publishing companies.

Public Knowledge Project
Publications, research, software and other information on electronic scholarly publishing, the open access movement, knowledge management, archives harvesting and technical innovations in the information sciences.

ALA Scholarly Communication Toolkit
Articles, resources, and other tools for advocating changes in the process of scholarly communication. Site covers key areas of concern and strategies for change for academic administration, faculty, researchers, and librarians.

Of special note:

Open Access News
Peter Suber's blog is an essential reference to all the goings-on in OA.

Virtual worlds

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Today we offer selected resources on virtual worlds and multiplayer gaming, including a scholarly bibliography on Second Life, research centers, and related websites exploring the many aspects of interaction in virtual and online spaces.

Second Life Annotated Bibliography
Annotated bibliography of articles, websites, and research on using the online game Second Life as an educational tool.

IBM Research : Innovation in Virtual Worlds
Information on IBM's work in virtual worlds, including Second Life. Noteworthy are the publication of IBM guidelines for employees who work in virtual worlds and other publications in the resource library section on leadership in online games and new business models.

The Psychology of Cyberspace
A constantly evolving set of texts on the psychology of online environments and the internet.

EDUCAUSE : 2007 Horizon Report
Report on the potential educational uses of social networking, mobile computing, virtual worlds, new forms of scholarly communication, user-created content, and massively multiplayer gaming.

EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative : 7 Things You Should Know About...
A series from EDUCAUSE offering overviews of newer and emerging web and educational technologies. Some examples are: RSS, Wikipedia, Google Earth, social bookmarking, podcasting, virtual worlds, and blogs. Each topic is offered as a PDF.

MIT Media Lab : h2.0 Symposium Archive
Archived webcasts and presentations from an MIT symposium on the future of human adaptibility; how new technologies will change communication, ideas of self, and medicine.

Color photos from the 30s and 40s

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Here is an example of libraries using popular web applications to share information and allow user interaction with the materials (tagging, comments and favorites); an amazing resource from the Library of Congress on Flickr.

Flickr : Photos from The Library of Congress

Two collections:
1930s and 1940s in color
Over 1,600 full-color images from the Great Depression and World War II eras
News in the 1910s
1,500 black-and-white images of events, news, sports, and life near the turn of the 20th century, primarily in New York City

See also: Bound for Glory : America in Color, 1939-1943 : A Library of Congress Exhibition

Election 2008, libraries, interviews, Africa, and reference

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:03:00 +0000

These highlights from the first two weeks of January include a very nice video resource for the 2008 presidential election, a library locator, interviews, and some reference resources. The INFOMINE What's New RSS feed will let you see all new or newly discovered resources as they are added.

C-SPAN's Campaign Network
Videos related to the 2008 presidential campaign and candidates: campaign ads, speeches, events, news coverage and a library of more than 1,000 videos searchable and organized by candidate and date.

Libraries411 : Public Library Directory, Locator, and Maps
Search by name, location, or zip code to find locations (and directions to) 20,000 public libraries in Canada and the United States.

AccessInterviews
Directory of interviews with celebrities, politicians, writers, scientists and more published by media sources online. Organized by topic and searchable.

Bloomsbury Research Centre
Searchable reference collection with 17,000 entries, from Bloomsbury Publishing. Includes quotations, dictionaries, guide to English literature, and other humanities reference materials.

Aluka : Digital Library of Scholarly Resources from and about Africa
Digital library offering more than 75 collections on Africa, containing more than 300,000 materials; books, images, documents and more.

A Student's Guide to the Medical Literature
Tutorial and resource guide to the medical literature, including search strategies, guide to critical evaluation, resource links and glossary.

And another resource on Africa, added today:
African Timelines
Created for a college course, this site has detailed timelines with copious external links on Africa from prehistory to the present.

Searching the invisible web

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:34:00 +0000

The idea of the invisible or deep web has often been the focus of web searching tutorials and information literacy courses. It's valuable to use a site such as INFOMINE to search for 'hidden' resources that don't usually appear in the top of your popular search engine queries. This Friday's guide offers some other resources for web searching and the deep web. With the growing numbers of institutional repositories, open access journals, and the like, it may be worthwhile to review some of these search strategies. A few tweaks allow you to use major search engines more effectively. The following resources provide more depth on these strategies and places to find what you're looking for.

Those Dark Hiding Places : The Invisible Web Revealed
The "invisible web" are those parts of the internet which, for various reasons, are inaccessible to the large search engines, or ranked so low in relevancy to the web search as to be overlooked. "Invisible" sites are often deeper layers of databases and directories, as well as dynamically-generated sites. This site points users in the direction of smaller directories with annotated information on websites in broad topic areas; databases; and search engines.

Intute : Virtual Training Suite
With segments geared toward internet users working in many different fields, these tutorials point users toward web resources specific to their fields, give information on how to judge the quality of resources found on the internet, and provide tips on web searching. The complete list of Intute tutorials is listed here by discipline.

Internet Detective : Wise up to the Web
Internet research skills tutorial for students on selecting, evaluating, and using Internet information sources for college and university work. From Intute.

Web Searching : Internet Public Library
The guide directs you to web search engines suitable for use by new searchers, experienced searchers, those looking for quality rather than quantity of resources, and those searching for specialized or arcane information. There are links to pages with search tips and to pages on evaluation of web sites.

Google Guide
Tips on effective searching with Google. Includes guides to features, search operators, understanding results, and the various tools available.

Search Engine Watch
"Search Engine Watch provides tips and information about searching the web, analysis of the search engine industry and help to site owners trying to improve their ability to be found in search engines."

Open education and course modules

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:35:00 +0000

Many colleges and universities are presenting their course offerings freely online, with the stipulations that no credit shall be granted and faculty are unavailable to comment on the coursework or assist learners. Examples of use: lifelong learning, comparing curricula, supporting concept-based learning or instructional design. Courses range from full academic term offerings, to learning modules, lectures, study guides, and notes. Starting with complete courses:

MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) makes freely available online course materials that are used in the teaching of more than 1,800 Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduate and graduate courses. Likely the model for many other institutions with open education materials.

As mentioned yesterday, Open Yale Courses
Free introductory undergraduate level courses from Yale University in astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, and religious studies. Courses include syllabi, lecture notes, exams, video and audio lectures.

Tufts OpenCourseWare
This OpenCourseWare site provided by Tufts University includes lecture notes, syllabi, extensive bibliographies, and various media presentations. Emphasis on courses in the life sciences.

OpenCourseWare at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Courses on medicine, public health, and life science.

Openlearn : The Open University
Free college-level online courses and educational materials in the arts, humanities, business, education, health, computing, math, language, science, study skills, and technology. Course level and estimated completion time are given for each unit. A feature called LabSpace offers the ability to download and "remix" course materials.

The following offer lectures, learning modules, and/or other course materials:

MIT Lecture Browser
Searchable database of MIT lectures. Keyword search or browse by category. There may be problems with the interface in some browsers.

UC Berkeley on Google Video
Course lectures, events and symposia from UC Berkeley. Topics include the sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, technology, government and public policy.

Connexions
"Connexions is an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web. Our Content Commons contains educational materials for everyone — from children to college students to professionals — organized in small modules that are easily connected into larger collections or courses."

OER Commons : Open Educational Resources
Database of free online educational resources for all levels. Includes complete courses, syllabi, demonstrations, tutorials, texts, lesson plans, lectures, and more. Free registration allows site users to save entries and add or share their own descriptive tags.

Also worth a look are the units available at Fathom, provided by Columbia University and iTunes U, a section of the Apple iTunes store with free educational content from many institutions.

Search for OCW
OpenCourseWare Finder
Search hundreds of OpenCourseWare offerings provided by universities or browse OCW courses by subject.

Metasearch, user-friendly government documents and free online education

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:57:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

As our editors return from holiday breaks, we're once again adding resources to INFOMINE.

LOUIS : The Library Of Unified Information Sources
Searchable government documents, including Congressional Reports, Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Federal Register, Presidential Documents, GAO Reports, Congressional Bills and Resolutions. Several search options, both within and across categories. Also see GovernmentDocs.org .

Executive Pay Finder
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission offers 500 filings of executive compensation disclosures and other financial data. Search by ticker symbol or company name, industry, or valuation. Datasets are also provided in the form of XBRL files.

Zuula Search
Web, image, video, news, blog, and job metasearch. View results by search engine source or customize preferences by choosing which primary search engine results to include. Link spotted on ResearchBuzz.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
"The ISFDB is a community effort to catalog works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It links together various types of bibliographic data: author bibliographies, publication bibliographies, award listings, magazine content listings, anthology and collection content listings, and forthcoming books."

Tomorrow's entry will feature a selection of places for free college-level learning. Until then, have a look at what Yale is doing at Open Yale Courses, with free introductory undergraduate level courses from Yale University in astronomy, English, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, and religious studies. Courses include syllabi, lecture notes, exams, video and audio lectures.

Writing help

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:44:00 +0000

Before taking a week off for the holidays, we'd like to offer a selection of writing resources; guides, tutorials, and other websites designed to help improve writing, style, or usage. We will resume regular posting the first week of January.

The OWL at Purdue : Free Writing Help and Teaching Resources
Purdue University offers teaching and learning resources for better writing. Covers professional, academic, technical, and job search writing, as well as grammar, research, citing sources, creative writing, internet literacy and much more.

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
Tutorials and quick facts on academic writing, with a detailed site index offering solutions for commonly-encountered problems and questions.

Writing Center at Colorado State University
Very well-designed and interesting site for writing problem solving, tutorials and guides. Offers 150 guides on the writing process, types of writing, and how to research. Also provides interactive activities (these require a free registration with email address).

A+ : Research and Writing for High School and College Students
A basic guide to selecting a research topic, researching, and writing a paper.

Citation Style Guides / Citing Sources
Links to resources on citations and citing. Major categories include: APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), Turabian, Chicago Manual of Style , CBE (Council of Biology Editors), Government Publications, Legal Citations, Medical Citations, and Film Resources.

OttoBib
Enter a book's ISBN to generate a bibliographic citation in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian style. Best used with some knowledge of said citation formats to ensure correct formatting.

From the University of California Riverside Libraries:

Cite Your Sources : Social Sciences and Humanities

Creating a Reference List : Sciences

Citing Government Publications and Websites

What's New in gov info: health, taxes, Iran and more

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:50:00 +0000

What's New in INFOMINE's Government Information category.

Iran : Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities : National Intelligence Estimate
National Intelligence Estimate, issued December 2007, assessing the "status of Iran's nuclear program, and the program's outlook over the next 10 years." [Links to 130K PDF]

Kennewick Man Documents : U.S. National Park Service Archaeology Program
Background information and detailed reports on aspects of investigations undertaken by the U.S. Department of the Interior in the Kennewick Man case.

TreeSearch : U.S. Forest Service Research and Development Publications
Over 7,000 online full-text research and development publications (books, chapters, articles, papers, reports, etc.) written by U.S. Forest Service research scientists. Search by author, keyword, originating Forest Service station or date.

National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse
The NDDIC provides publications and patient information on digestive diseases (presented in an A to Z list), clinical trials listings and directories of digestive diseases organizations for patients and health professionals.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign
Resources on the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of celiac disease. Offers patient information, practice guidelines, examples of acceptable foods in a gluten-free diet, and a list of celiac disease organizations.

WIN : The Weight-control Information Network
"The Weight-control Information Network provides the general public, health professionals, the media, and Congress with up-to-date, science-based information on weight control, obesity, physical activity, and related nutritional issues."

SOI Tax Stats : Corporation Tax Statistics
"Numerous articles and data which provide statistics on income, deductions, tax, credits, and more as reported by corporations filing on Form 1120...returns and associated schedules...." Data is by industries in general, not specific companies.

Tax Statistics
This IRS site has data and tables on business, corporate, charitable and individual taxes. Statistics are aggregate, not specific companies, organizations or individuals.

SOI Tax Stats : International Individual Tax Statistics
This site contains "studies relating to individual taxpayers in an international context. For each of these areas, there are text articles and/or statistical tables that include both recent and historical data." Includes information on Foreign Recipients of U.S. Income, Foreign Trusts, Individual Foreign Earned Income, and Nonresident Alien Estate Tax Returns. This data is in the aggregate, not specific individuals.

IRS Data Book
The "IRS Data Book...contains statistical tables and organizational information on a fiscal year basis. The report provides data on collecting the revenue, enforcing the law, assisting the taxpayer, and managing the system, as well as lists of key officials and an organizational chart. The IRS Data Book also presents lists of principal officers and the IRS organization chart."

Image collections

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:48:00 +0000

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or it's nice to look at. Or maybe it illustrates a lesson or promotes creativity. INFOMINE has a multitude of links to sites with educational images. We've gone through and chosen several history, art, and nature image collections for inclusion in this week's miniguide. Search INFOMINE for images related your favorite topic by including the keyword images. Or browse the resource type Images from any of the subject pages.

PictureAustralia
Image collections from participating cultural institutions of Australia, including art, photographs, illustrations, maps, and objects. Search or browse themed albums.

Forestry Images : The Source for Forest Health and Silviculture Images
This project of the University of Georgia and the USDA Forest Service provides over 68,000 images on forest pests and diseases, trees, urban forestry, wildlife, and landscapes.

American Institute of Indian Studies and Center for Art and Archaeology : Photo Archive
From the website description: "The AIIS collection from the Center for Art and Archaeology in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, has over 125,000 photographs in the collection. The images fall into the broad categories of architecture, sculpture, terracotta, painting and numismatics."

Images of England
"Images of England is a ‘point in time’ photographic library of England’s listed buildings, recorded at the turn of the 21st century. You can view over 300,000 images of England’s built heritage from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths, mile stones to gravestones, as well as thousands of bridges, historic houses and churches."

World Civilizations Image Repository
Photographs of historic sites, architecture, and people of Japan, Turkey, Ireland, India, and Thailand.

Images Canada
"Images Canada provides central search access [to over 75,000 images] held on the websites of participating Canadian cultural institutions. Through Images Canada, you can find images of ... Canadian events, people, places and things."

Insect Images : The Source for Entomology Photos
Another project of the University of Georgia and the USDA Forest Service, this resource offers more than 27,000 entomology photographs.

Wellcome Images
Images from the Wellcome Library on the history of medicine, clinical medicine, anthropology, art, and people.

Art History Image Database
Database of 4,000 images of art and architecture from prehistory through the 20th century. Keyword search or browse by cultural period. Note that the search may sometimes take a little longer to complete.

Finally some familiar photo reference, search, and entertainment sites.
Google Image Search. Try out the Google Image Labeler, a game that lets you try match image descriptions with an online teammate (anonymously) to improve Google's image search.

Flickr
View and search millions of images. Organize and share your photos.

morgueFile
Free stock and reference photography.

Using INFOMINE canned search to create custom collections

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:29:00 +0000

INFOMINE has tools available for you to create custom collections for posting on your own web site, library page, or educational resource. They can be found on our Customize page.

The most basic use of our tools would involve creating a search to direct anyone to a set of resources in the INFOMINE database, selected by you. It's as simple as entering some values in the form to receive a custom search query that you can provide as a link. Begin at the Canned Search Query Generator.

We'll create a set of links for a research guide on Japan and Japanese popular culture. The default fields selected in the search form are title, author, keyword, and subject. This helps to keep the search narrowed down and to return the most relevant resources. When you enter your search terms, you are given the URL specific to your query and a chance to preview the search results. We've entered Japan into the search box, which gives us this result. It may be too broad for our intended audience and purposes; there are 827 results. So let's try making a search for japan popular culture. With only eleven results, this may be a good choice to put on our research page. But let's tweak our search a little more. We've entered japanese popular culture. There are only 9 results and they seem more relevant to our purposes. By experimenting with your searches you can find the most useful or interesting results.

By using the display themes dropdown box, you can get a titles only list or a simple, unbranded layout. There are several options to explore, such as results per page, an alphabetical list instead of a relevance ranked list, and category selection.

Use our feedback page to comment or inquire about these tools, or to get more information about having a custom theme or style created for your institution. Librarians from other institutions who participate in INFOMINE can create truly customized collections using some of the editable fields within our catalogued resources. We welcome any feedback and/or comments. Also, if you ever come across broken links while searching INFOMINE, there is an option in the lower right corner of the record description to [Comment on this resource]. INFOMINE editors have been entering resources into the database since 1994, and it is inevitable that broken links will sometimes affect your searches. We appreciate our users reporting these to us so we can correct them.

What's New in government info

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:10:00 +0000

Today, some highlights from the INFOMINE Government Information What's New page.

Citing Government Publications and Websites
University of California Riverside Libraries page connects to guides to citing print and electronic government publications and to guides to legal citation.

ILO AIDS : Legislation and Policies
International Labour Organization's collection of "legislative texts (hard law) and soft law instruments (codes of practice, guidelines, policies) dealing, entirely or in part, with HIV/AIDS and the world of work." Documents for more than 35 countries with links to other ILO HIV/AIDS resources.

Landsat Image Mosaic Of Antarctica : LIMA
Map viewer, digital library, and datasets of new Landsat image mosaics of Antarctica, created for the International Polar Year (IPY 2007-2008). "LIMA is the most geometrically accurate (within a pixel-30 meters by 30 meters of land) mosaic of Antarctica and has the highest spatial resolution."

CBP Export Spotlight, U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) information useful to exporters. Includes information about Automated Export System, export documents and requirements, and harbor maintenance fees. Connects to Blocked, Denied and Debarred Persons Lists.

CBP Border Security Spotlight, U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
Information about the border security activities of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Ports of Entry : United States
Directory of the 326 official ports of entry in the United States and 15 preclearance offices in Canada and the Caribbean. Links from each port description to Canadian and Mexican border ports of entry wait times for commercial vehicles and for passenger vehicles.

MIPT Terrorism Information Center
An extensive digital library of terrorism-related information. The eDocuments section provides free fulltext reports, studies, factsheets and website links in 90 different categories: terrorism prevention, terrorist organizations, first responder and emergency management resources, databases, government information, and more. Access to the eBooks section requires registration and personal, non-commercial use license agreement. Searching the catalog returns records for physical items in the Information Center's library as well as electronic documents.

Independent Counsel Investigations
See more info for description of the independent counsel investigations texts.

Special Focus Facilities Not Showing Significant Improvement
[PDF] A listing of nursing homes in the U.S. which have been determined by the government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to be among the worst in their states.

Election 2008 : NPR
Listen to NPR broadcast news stories on the U.S. elections of 2008 and connect to related information. Includes profiles of presidential candidates.

YouTube : YouChoose '08
Feature page for the CNN/YouTube 2008 presidential debates, with candidate introductions and videos of the debates, featuring questions submitted by members of the public.

Music, Native America and more

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:16:00 +0000

More from What's New

Wikitravel
A wiki of worldwide travel information, including places to go, how to get there, things to see, where to stay, travel phrasebooks, and more.

BBC Languages
Language resources for Spanish, French, German, Italian and Mandarin Chinese were added to INFOMINE this week. The BBC Languages homepage directs you to resources for learning these languages. It also offers resources for other languages and general tips for language study.

Classical Net
Guide to classical music, offering information on composers and a basic repertoire from medieval to modern music. Some commercial links and ads, but nothing too obtrusive.

Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music
Dictionary and encyclopedia of musical terms, music theory, and biographical information on composers and musicians. More than 4,400 entries. At eNotes

NPR Music : World of Opera
Episodes of NPR's World of Opera, offering complete American and international opera productions (streaming audio in the Flash-based NPR Media Player), introductory material, famous arias, and plot synopses.

Moldenhauer Archives : Music History from Primary Sources
The Moldenhauer Archives at the Library of Congress contain approximately 3,500 items documenting the history of Western music from the medieval period through the modern era. The online presentation includes images of representative examples of more than 130 items (letters, music scores, portraits, etc.) from the Moldenhauer Archives.

Handbook of the Indians of California
The Claremont Colleges Digital Library presents a searchable digitized edition of Alfred Kroeber's 1925 ethnographic text on California's Native Americans.

Indian Reservations in the Continental United States
Map shows shows the location of Federal Indian Reservations in the continental United States.

Beowulf : A New Translation For Oral Delivery
Includes text, proper name glossary, metrical annotations, and an audio recording of the text by its translator. The 2007 Beowulf film by Robert Zemekis may increase interest in the original epic poem.

Expect resources for Election '08 and other government information in the next What's New update.

More What's New highlights

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:39:00 +0000

There have been many additions to the What's New page recently, so once again we'll highlight some of the interesting ones here. Subscribing to the INFOMINE What's New RSS Feed will let you see all new additions as they are cataloged.

USA.gov Tutorials : Help Finding Government Information Online
Tutorials for finding government information and services online using USA.gov, including government auctions, grants, and jobs. Referred by ResourceShelf.

Financial Aid Letter.com
An explanation and guide to costs of attending college and loans available. Sections include a glossary of financial aid terms, samples and explanations of financial aid award letters, how to estimate college costs and how to make college affordable.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics : Digital Video Library
Digital video library supporting K-12 science and math education. Videos are organized by American Association for the Advancement of Science benchmarks, National Science Education Standards, the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, state standards, and instructional methods. More than 1,000 videos.

British Museum : Collection Database Search
Search the catalog of the British Museum's pictorial art collections. More than 260,000 records with 98,000 images as of November 2007.

Sports-Reference.com
Sports statistics and resources on teams, leagues, players, coaches, records, and awards. Covers baseball, basketball, and football.

PDRhealth
Consumer web resource of the Physicians' Desk Reference offers information on drugs (prescription and OTC), dietary supplements, alternative medicine, diseases, health conditions, treatment options, and clinical trials.

Luminaries of the Chemical Sciences
PDF publications with overviews of the lives and scientific achievements of 20th century chemists.

K-12 educational resources

noreply@blogger.com (infomine.ucr.edu) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:43:00 +0000

Today's miniguide is a selection of educational resources for K-12 instruction, including lesson plans, curriculum development, standards-based instruction, and more. This is a very small sample of the resources that can be found in INFOMINE. When searching, either browse the Teaching and Study Resources resource type, or try limiting the search to "subject" in the advanced search form and using terms study and teaching together with a Library of Congress heading like science, mathematics, or history. Alternatively, use study and teaching with an educational level: elementary, secondary, or higher. No special formatting is required to run a subject search, you can enter words just as if you were performing a keyword search. Check out the Library of Congress Authorities or the Wikipedia article on Library of Congress Classification to learn more about the LCSH.

The Science House
Materials for K-12 science teachers: suggested lab activities, professional development directories, online science news and teaching resources.

National Science Resources Center
The NSRC collects and disseminates information about exemplary teaching resources, develops and disseminates curriculum materials, and sponsors outreach activities, specifically in the areas of leadership development and technical assistance, to help school districts develop and sustain hands-on science programs.

GEM : Gateway to 21st Century Skills
"The Gateway to Educational Materials is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to thousands of educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit and commercial Internet sites."

learningscience.org
Science learning tools and interactive multimedia for K-12 students and their teachers, based on the National Science Education Standards. Includes the scientific method, life sciences, physical sciences, space, Earth, and technology.

Lesson Plans Library
Hundreds of lesson plans written by teachers in life science, physical science, social studies, mathematics, history, literature, and economics. As part of a commercial site, some plans are based on specific Discovery Channel products, however each plan offers links to free electronic resources that can be integrated into lessons.

Teachers' Domain
Lesson plans and multimedia resources (documents, images, video, audio, and interactive presentations) for K-12 teachers. Free registration required.

Educator's Reference Desk
Guide to more than 3,000 educational web resources, 2,000 lesson plans, and archived AskERIC questions and answers from 1992-2003.

USGS Learning Web
The U.S. Geological Service Learning Web explains topics in earth sciences, geology, hydrology, geography, biology, and maps for K-12 students, K-12 teachers, and lifelong learners. Basic explanations of earth sciences topics (such as volcanoes, plate tectonics, earthquakes, water use), teachers guides and lesson plans for science units at the elementary and secondary levels, science project ideas for school students, and links to science education websites are offered.

NASA Education
NASA Education programs presents web resources for educators, for students, and for the informal education community. There are links to web pages, curriculum materials, lesson plans, classroom activities in these areas: aerospace technology; human exploration and development of space; earth science; and space science. In addition there are links to the education and outreach pages of individual NASA laboratories and centers.

Advanced Placement Digital Library
The APDL offers resources for teachers and students in Advanced Placement English, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. Resources are reviewed (on content, graphics, format, ease of use) and annotated by a panel of AP teachers and College Board consultants.