Year: 2005

As part of our continuing effort to highlight terrific databases available at no charge from local public libraries, I’d like to introduce ReferenceUSA Business. ReferenceUSA Business is a directory of over 12 million U.S. businesses. It contains detailed information including contact info, estimated sales, number of employees, Fortune 1000 ranking, credit rating, lines of business …

Today’s Wisconsin State Journal has a nice explanatory article entitled “Working on the Wikipedia.” Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute. The article appears on the front page of the Daybreak section. It doesn’t seem to be available on line yet, but will probably be available soon on the WSJ web site …

Robert Ambrogi reports on a recent article on the downsides of blogging from the Chicago Tribune. The article opens with one woman’s decision to halt her company’s 3-year-old blog. “I believe blogging is not profitable,” [she] said, “and there are better ways to connect with your clients.” The article warns businesses about jumping too quickly …

BlogPulse is a useful new tool that can help you evaluate the content and influence of a particular blog – who authors it, how active the blog is, how it ranks in comparison with other blogs, what it’s about, etc. Simply enter in a blog’s url to view it’s BlogPulse Profile. WisBlawg’s profile reveals our …

Thanks to ublaw phoenix & Out of the Jungle’s James Milles (University at Buffalo Law School), we have a cool new Law Libraries button that links to the list of Law Library Blogs and Blogs by Law Librarians or Law Library Associations. Check out the bottom of the right sidebar. I highly recommended that other …

The New York Times reports: Stung by a publishing industry backlash, Google Inc. has halted its efforts to scan copyrighted books from some of the nation’s largest university libraries so the material can be indexed in its leading Internet search engine. [The suspension is effective until November.] Google wants publishers to notify the company which …

Two from the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) newsletter: The Depository Library Council (DLC) has developed the DLC Vision Outline blog so that the library community and general public may post their comments on “Toward a Vision of the Government Information Environment of the 21st Century: A Draft Outline.” An RSS Feed for FDLP Desktop …

Paula Seeger, of DCLRC Blawg, announces a new blog called Burning Ears which will track stories about law libraries and law librarians in local news reports across the United States. Reports that are available for free will be linked, while fee-based articles will be cited and summarized. Feel free to submit stories you find in …

The Law Library of Congress has compiled a lengthy bibliography of resources by and about Supreme Court Nominee, John G. Roberts. The guide includes materials in the following categories: articles/books, cases, opinions by, cases – argued, cases – Deputy Solicitor General, nomination hearings, nominations in general, secondary sources and web resources. Source: Law Librarian Blog

The next time you use Google, check out the wildcard feature. Include an asterisk in your query and Google will match one or more words of text so that the query matches a contiguous sequence of words. Huh? Think back to those “fill in the blank” quizzes at school. Here are a couple of examples …