Tag Archives: Top News

Grokker Brings Information Visualization to the Masses

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Information visualization is an effective means of communicating information on large quantities of data. It allows the user to quickly identify patterns and relationships that might otherwise remain buried in long stretches of sequential alphanumeric data. The financial services industry uses this method to make sense of reams of data on companies and markets. Information scientists also use this method to make sense of citation patterns among scholars. Take a look atthis document posted on Drexel University’s web site. It shows multiple visuals of “co-citation networks”.

Now a company named Groxis has brought its information visualization software,Grokker, to the free web through an agreement reached with Yahoo. There’s also a more advanced version for a fee. Grokker provides “A New Way to Look at Search”. The principle behind Grokker is that the sequential lists of web sites that search engines provide are ineffective for complicated, multi-faceted searches because relevant web sites are often buried on the 9th, 23rd, or 64th page of results and few have the time or patience to scroll away the day. Instead, Grokker provides a visual “lay of the land”, an overview in pictures that helps you to understand the different angles of your topic. Once you get an initial results screen, you can drill down on the areas that you’re most interested in. It functions a bit like a table of contents in a book.

So take a look and play around with Grokker. This product will probably be followed by many more like it because information visualization has the potential for making web searching more intelligible and efficient.

Our Virtual Reference on the Web

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Speaking of wikis, the Libraries new instant message (IM) reference serviceAskTULibrary is one of only a handful of libraries doing such listed on Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki.

Another place our virtual reference services are appearing on the web is in records for OpenWorldCat. This project comes out of the WorldCat database of library holdings (accessible from here). OpenWorldCat opens up the records in this database to discovery by search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Searching for terms that match books will bring up results labeled “Find in a Library” that link to an OpenWorldCat record with information on libraries that hold the book in a specific region (based on zip code). When Temple University appears in these records the information link takes the reader to our Ask a Librarian page. Hopefully this will allow a few more Google searchers to discover their local library and its wealth of holdings.

To see an example go to this pre-made search and click on the first or second result.

–Derik A Badman

Wikis and the Classroom

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An interesting article in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education (51.45 (15 July 2005): A35) (the online version may require a password, inquire from one of us and we can give it to you) about using wikis in the classroom. It focuses on professor Mark Phillipson’s use of a class wiki to get his students writing about Romantic poetry. The article briefly discusses the uses and benefits of a wiki for annotation, discussion, writing, and class participation. If you don’t know what a wiki is (and that article doesn’t explain it well enough for you) check out this article from the most famous wiki, the Wikipedia. Wikipedia has garnered a lot of media attention (especially from librarians) because it is a publicly editable (anyone can edit it) online encyclopedia. Like any other reference source it has its pluses and minuses, but many fear that the lack of traditional peer-review negates its utility as a reference for information. –Derik A Badman

Exciting New Online Encyclopedias!

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Temple has just purchased electronic access to seven excellent encyclopedias, mainly on religious topics, through The Gale Virtual Reference Library, which is accessible from TUL homepage on the A-Z database list, the eBooks list, and in the Library Catalog. These specialized encyclopedias are great places to start research on unfamiliar topics, providing nice overviews, bibliographies, and linked cross-references. In addition to the great content, The Gale Virtual Reference Library interface is much more user-friendly than those of other e-book vendors, and each encyclopedia can be searched or browsed. Check out the links below! 1) Contemporary American Religion 2 volumes, 1999

2) Encyclopedia of Buddhism 2 volumes, 2004

3) Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World 2 volumes, 2004

4) Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd ed., 15 VOLUMES, 2005

5) Encyclopedia of Science and Religion 2 volumes, 2003

6) New Catholic Encyclopedia 2nd ed., 15 VOLUMES, 2003

7) New Dictionary of the History of Ideas 6 volumes, 2005

New NIH Database Stirs Controversy

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The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) plays an important role in fostering biomedical research and providing publicly accessible databases like PubMed, PubMed Central, and the genetic resources of NCBI. It funds research in-house as well as in the academic and private sectors. All in all, it plays a vital role in encouraging basic biomedical research. Recently, NIH has come into conflict with The American Chemical Society (ACS), the largest professional chemical society in the US and a vendor of important subscription-based information products, over a new NIH database called PubChem. In 2002 NIH created a framework known as the NIH Roadmap in order to optimize biomedical research. PubChem is the chemical informatics component, containing information on small molecules that may be used in areas such as drug discovery and the study of gene function. ACS is concerned that PubMed replicates and therefore unfairly competes with its own CAS Registry, a database that provides curated substance identification of small molecules. They have asked the NIH to avoid any significant duplication of the CAS Registry. ACS has also asked Congressional supporters to put pressure on the NIH, but the House Appropriations Committee has approved NIH’s annual budget and asked both parties to work together to settle the dispute. For more information, see The American Chemical Society and NIH’s PubChem from the University of California, Office of Scholarly Communication. –Kathy Szigeti

New TUid Numbers

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Most of you should already know that the University is switching over to a new TUid number in July. Everyone is being issued a new ID card, called an OWL Card, which has your new TUid printed on the bottom right corner. It is a nine digit number that will replace almost all uses of the Social Security number in the University. This means that in the library you will now use your new TUid number and OWL Card for: a) Checking out books. You will be expected to have your OWL Card to check out books. Previous to September 30, 2005 we will still accept the old Temple ID card. b) Requesting books through PALCI. c) Requesting Intralibrary loans, Interlibrary Loans, or placing recalls, as well as most of the other services with online forms. d) Logging into My Library Account to see your currently checked out items, renew items, or create saved searches. All these functions will require your new TUid number starting on the weekend of July 1st.

Pennsylvania Gazette and African-American Newspapers

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Temple Libraries today acquired the electronic version of the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1800. Published in Philadelphia, the Gazette is often called the New York Times of the 18th Century. For now, researchers should go directly to Accessible.com for access to this full-text resource. Once at the site, click on “Search” to begin. A second major acquisition is African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century, also available from Accessible.com. Representative titles include Freedom’s Journal, the North Star, Provincial Freeman and the Frederick Douglass Papers. –David C. Murray

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology

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Temple now has online access to the Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, available from the e-books page. The 5 volume print version is available in the Paley Reference Stacks. Here’s what the publisher says about this reference work: “The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology is the first work to map this ever-changing field. It is the most comprehensive, research-based encyclopedia consisting of contributions from over 900 noted researchers in over 50 countries. This five-volume encyclopedia includes more than 550 articles highlighting current concepts, issues and emerging technologies. These articles are enhanced by special attention that is paid to over 5,000 technical and managerial terms. These terms will each have a 5-50 word description that allow the users of this extensive research source to learn the language and terminology of the field. In addition, these volumes offer a thorough reference section with over 11,500 sources of information that can be accessed by scholars, students, and researchers in the field of information science and technology.” –Fred Rowland

Early American Imprints

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A major new acquisition, Early American Imprints (EAI) Series I and II will be particularly welcome among students of Americana.

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans (1639-1800)

Based on the renowned American Bibliography by Charles Evans. The definitive resource for every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, and just about any other topic imaginable. Upon completion, Evans Digital will consist of more than 36,000 works and 2,400,000 images.

Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819)

Covering every aspect of American life during the early decades of the United States, this rich primary source collection provides full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the first nineteen years of the nineteenth century. Its intuitive interface allows students and scholars to explore the development of the American nation as never before.

To access the database simply click on the appropriate series title above. Alternately, from the Libraries’ Home Page, click on Find Articles > All Research Databases > NewsBank Fulltext Pennsylvania Newspapers. From there, click on Series I or II as desired. EAI will soon have its own link on the “All Research Databases” page. If accessing Early American Imprints from off-campus, log into the Libraries’ Home Page via TUPortal.

–David C. Murray

New Instant Messaging Service

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Visit the Ask A Librarian page http://ask.library.temple.edu to see the latest addition to our suite of services – Instant Messaging (IM).

We have just started a pilot period of offering reference assistance by IM. Librarians can be contacted through four major IM services (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ) and are available to answer questions or help with research. The best way to know when we are online is to add the library to your buddy list.

The libraries’ usernames are:

AOL Instant Messaging (AIM): AskTULibrary
Yahoo Messenger: AskTULibrary
Microsoft Messenger (MSN): asktulib@temple.edu
ICQ: 225917375

So, send us a message. It’s a quick and easy way to chat with a librarian.

–Derik A. Badman