There is much more information on the web than what can be found through Google. This is often referred to as the Hidden, Invisible or Deep Web. For instance, the Healey Library subscribes to over 80 databases and indexes which are not freely accessible through Google. A recent article from CIO, Six Techniques to Get More from the Web than Google Will Tell You, reccomends several methods to move beyond Google.
We added a new health related subscription to the library's collection. Cochrane Collection Plus provides access to a collection of databases which focus on the effects of health care and evidence based medical practice. It is a comprehensive source of data for anyone in the medical field. The collection of databases, which is provided by EBSCO, includes:
Carnegie Mellon University announced that the Million Book Project has over 1.5 million books. The digital library includes books from at least 20 different languages. In fact, there are more books in Chinese than in English. It also contains rare books and books dating back to 1000 AD. See the project's progress report for more details.
Press release excerpt:
PITTSBURGH— The Million Book Project, an international venture led by Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India and the Library at Alexandria in Egypt, has completed the digitization of more than 1.5 million books, which are now available online.
For the first time since the project was initiated in 2002, all of the books, which range from Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” to “The Analects of Confucius,” are available through a single Web portal of the Universal Library (www.ulib.org), said Gloriana St. Clair, Carnegie Mellon’s dean of libraries.
“Anyone who can get on the Internet now has access to a collection of books the size of a large university library,” said Raj Reddy, professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon. “This project brings us closer to the ideal of the Universal Library: making all published works available to anyone, anytime, in any language. The economic barriers to the distribution of knowledge are falling,” said Reddy, who has spearheaded the Million Book Project.
Though Google, Microsoft and the Internet Archive all have launched major book digitization projects, the Million Book Project represents the world’s largest, university-based digital library of freely accessible books. At least half of its books are out of copyright, or were digitized with the permission of the copyright holders, so the complete texts are or eventually will be available free.
For more on digital books and libraries, check out the New Yorker article, Future Reading.
As the days grow shorter and the weather colder, I like
nothing more than to retreat indoors, drink hot chocolate and curl up with a
good book. Now there a device which may change the way we read. Jeff Bezos,
founder of Amazon, developed a new electronic book. The Kindle has been in the
works for three years and was recently released to the public. It costs $399
and is being touted as the ipod for books. Amazon has over 90,000 downloadable titles for $9.99, as well as newspaper subscriptions. There is plenty of hype about the Kindle, including a cover story in Newsweek. However, will it
live up to the expectations? And more importantly, can you curl up with it?
The Boston Library Consortium (BLC), of which the UMass Boston is a member, will partner with Open Content Alliance (OCA) to build a digital library of its members’ materials. According the BLC press release, “The Consortium will offer high-resolution, downloadable, reusable files of public domain materials. Using Internet Archive technology, books from all 19 libraries will be scanned at a cost of just 10 cents per page.” OCA was created to provide public access to a digital collection of the world’s knowledge and the BLC is their first large-scale consortium partner.
In related news, the New York Times reports on the
freedom of access to digital collections. See "Libraries
shun deals to place books on web".
Searching is sexy and fun with Ms. Dewey. MsDewey.com is a search site created by Microsoft to
introduce Windows Live Search, which is an obvious imitation of Google. Ask Ms.
Dewey any question and she will respond with humor and sarcasm. The search
results are beside the point. If you take too long to type a question she will
knock on the screen and point to the keyboard. This site is not recommended for
real web searching but it is fun to see how Ms. Dewey will respond to your questions.
The Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at UMass/Boston has produced a brochure entitled: ACCESSIBILITY RESOURCES AT UMB 2007-2008. This brochure was created as part of a grant-supported committee at ICI called "Equity and Excellence in Higher Education", you can visit the website here: http://www.eeonline.org. Marilyn Day, Supervisor of the Curriculum Resource Center at the Healey Library and Shannon McCue, Gopen Fellow at the Institute for Community Inclusion (both members of the E&E committee), compiled the information for the brochure. Graphics and layout were done by Dave Temolini at ICI. If you would like more information, please contact Marilyn at 617-287-5945; Marilyn.Day@umb.edu.
Come to one of the six RefWorks workshops with Frances Schlesinger, Reference Librarian. Learn how to create a bibliography in seconds and add footnotes with ease. After learning how to use RefWorks, a student said that it changed her life.
"RefWorks -- an online research management, writing and collaboration
tool -- is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store
and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and
bibliographies." RefWorks allows users to export citations from many of the Healey Library databases and provides hundreds of citation styles, including APA, Chicago, and MLA. For more information about RefWorks and how to use it, see http://healeylibrary.wikispaces.com/RefWorks.
Workshop Dates:
· Monday,
October 29: 1:30-2:20
· Wednesday,
October 31: 2:30-3:45
· Friday,
November 2: 11:30-12:20
· Tuesday,
November 6: 5:30-6:45
· Thursday,
November 8: 10-11:15
· Wednesday, November 14: 4-5:15
Location:
· Center for Library Instruction, Healey Library 4th floor
Please RSVP to Frances Schlesinger, 617 287.5943
Here your opportunity to tell the library how you feel about our services. The Healey Library has begun using LibQUAL+™, a web based survey on library service quality. This survey was first used at UMass Boston in 2003 and we are asking all Healey Library users to participate again. The survey will run from Monday, October 22nd to Friday, November 16th.
Participants who give their email address will to eligible for prizes. The library will award one grand prize of a $500 gift certificate from Amazon.com to a randomly drawn email address from all of the email addresses submitted. There will also be 2 second prizes of a $200 gift certificate from Amazon.com. The prizes will be awarded in December.
Click here to take the survey.
Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature this year and the Healey Library has over 40 of her books, including:
African Laughter : four visits to Zimbabwe
For a complete list of her books available through the library, look at the Healey catalog.
Read more about Doris Lessing at http://www.dorislessing.org/
Read more about the other Nobel Prize winners at http://nobelprize.org
