| By Elizabeth Kensler, University of Wales,
Aberystwyth (Aberystwyth Online User Group). Please send your
submissions for the next edition to jrc@aber.ac.uk
askSam Systems: US Governmental and legislative resources
http://www.asksam.com/eBooks/
Freely available online US Governmental and legislative
resources via Ask Sam. Users can browse individual titles
and/or search within the full text. It includes:
- State of the Union Addresses of the American Presidents
from 1790-2006.
- USA Patriot Act as passed by Congress
- 9/11 Commission Report
Britannica Online vs. Wikipedia http://blogs.nature.com/wp/nascent/
Nature magazine recently commissioned an investigation
that compared Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org)
(a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit) and
Britannica Online's (http://www.britannica.com)
coverage of science. Results
showed that error rates were similar in both encyclopedias.
The report, associated comments and link are available via
Nascent - Nature’s blog on web technology and science (under
Recent Posts see Comparing Wikipedia and Britannica)
EBSCO: Free Access to LISTA http://www.libraryresearch.com
EBSCO Publishing have provided free access to their LISTA
(Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts)
database. LISTA indexes more than 600 periodicals plus books,
research reports, and proceedings in subjects such as librarianship,
classification, cataloguing, online information retrieval
and information management with coverage back to the mid-1960s.
Emerald and JISC: Table of Contents by Really Simple
Syndication (TOCRoSS) http://www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald Group Publishing is leading a JISC (http://www.jisc.ac.uk) project to develop an
RSS service that can feed e-journal table-of-content information
automatically into library catalogues. This will enable users
to search for and locate article level information in e-journals
via their library catalogue. The project aims to develop open-source
software that will be made freely available to libraries,
publishers and library management system developers.
JISC: Digital repositories programme wiki and discussion
list http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/
JISC have set up a discussion
list, jisc-repositories, and UKOLN are hosting a wiki called DigiRep to
share information on implementation and development of digital
repositories in the UK. JISC’s Digital Repositories Programme aims to coordinate development
of digital repositories in the UK and share experience in
this growing area.
National Geographic Map Machine
http://mapmachine.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine
The Map Machine provides access to a wide range of interactive
online maps that can be searched and downloaded. Covers political,
satellite (including a Satellite Map of Mars), environmental
(such as the World Earthquake Map) and aerial photographic
maps, as well as more standard geographical maps.
OpenDOAR - The Directory of Open Access Repositories
http://www.opendoar.org/
The OpenDOAR service aims to categorise and list open-access
research collections held in digital repositories worldwide.
The project is a collaboration between the University of Nottingham
and University of Lund, Sweden. The service will cover institutional
and subject-based repositories as well as archive collections
of funding agencies such as the Wellcome Trust. As well as
a means of monitoring the development and future trends of
open access repositories, the service can be used by researchers
to locate open-access research material as well as being a
definitive source for service providers.
PubMedCentral: The Biochemical Journal – 100 years
of content now available online http://www.biochemj.org/
The entire back run (1906-2006) of content of the Biochemical
Journal has been digitised thanks to funding from JISC
and the Wellcome Trust. The archive, hosted by PubMedCentral,
is freely available to all users in perpetuity. Access to
the current year’s content is restricted to subscribers. This
online availability is part of the “Medical journals backfiles
digitisation project”, a partnership between JISC, the Wellcome
Trust and the US National Library of Medicine which aims to
digitise complete backfiles from “important and historically
significant” British and American medical journals.
RDN - Internet tutorial for Learners of English as
a Second Language (ESOL)
http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/fe/tutorial/esol
The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) has launched a new eLearning
tutorial for ESOL students designed to help them develop their
Internet research skills (part of their Virtual Training Suite).
The tutorial aims to show ESOL students how to access selected
web resources successfully, which can help them learn English
and find out more about the UK.
Reference Online: access for all (in England) to
online reference resources
http://www.mla.gov.uk/website/programmes/online_initiatives
/reference_online/Reference_Online/
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has
negotiated deals for 26 online resources covering general
reference materials, online newspapers, and business and financial
information resources for all public libraries in England.
MLA’s new service, Reference Online, will enable public libraries
to provide their users access to a greater number of online
resources that can be accessed from home or office.
Scottish Distributed Digital Library
http://scone.strath.ac.uk/sddl/index.htm
A database of freely available collections of digital texts,
images, and sounds, with Scottish themes. There are 121 collections
listed to date, which can be browsed individually by name or
subject. This service also provides links to freely available
Scottish interest e-books via the Scotland’s Culture website
http://www.scotlandsculture.org/.
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