Thursday, 1st November 2001

6785587

Business Information Research--United Kingdom
User Surveys
"Britons Waste a Lot of Time When Trying to Find Relevant Online Information"
I'm sure these numbers are not unique to the UK. More ammo for your "why we need info professionals" file. From the news release, "Over 25m British Internet users - 80% of the total users - waste time searching through irrelevant information on the web, according to a new survey commissioned by the UK search engine Mirago. The survey, which was carried out by NOP among UK-based Internet users, showed that over a third (37%) of those online waste a quarter of their time searching the web in vain, 29% waste half of their time and 9% waste three quarters of their time. Amazingly, 5% or approximately 1.5m people waste all of their time ploughing through useless information."
Caveat: As noted in the news release the survey was commissioned by Mirago, a UK based search company. Btw, the Mirago advanced search screen offers several sorting options not seen elsewhere. The company also operates its own web crawler.

U.S. Government Information--Post 9/11
Source: Newsbytes
"Nuclear Regulatory Agency Plans Terrorist-Proof Site"
As many of you know the NRC site has been down since just after the 9/11 attacks. This article reports on the plan for a new site. From the article, The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) soon plans to debut a new Web site, one that contains far less information that could be useful to terrorists planning to attack U.S. nuclear sites.
According to a notice on the site this morning, the NRC "will begin deploying its newly redesigned public Web site in a phased approach." The commission pulled information offline after a question arose over whether portions of the site could provide useful maps for terrorists planning further U.S. strikes.

Web Search--Google
Source: News.Com
"Google Tests Snapshots of Web Pages"
From the article, "Google has been quietly testing a new feature that offers snapshots of Web pages alongside ordinary search results. Google spokeswoman Cindy McCaffrey on Wednesday told CNET News.com that the experimental pages have so far been shown to a random test group made up of less than 1 percent of its audience. She added that the company routinely tests new ideas in this way and has not yet decided whether it will adopt the graphical cues as a standard feature. "It depends on the feedback we get," she said. "We're really most interested in getting someone exactly to the destination that they are looking for. We're open to providing any information to accomplish that, including graphics."

Library Marketing
Source: Free Pint
"Marketing Library and Information Services"
Sheila Webber, a UK based lecturer in info science has constructed a wonderful annotated webliography of resources about this IMPORTANT topic. Impressive and useful!

Information Quality
Source: PC World
"WTO Parody Site Accused of Harvesting E-Mails"
Another article for your "beware" file. Plenty of "spoofed" sites exist but this one ranks high on many engines when searching for the legitimate WTO site. From the article, "Search engines are directing visitors to a subtle parody (Gatt.Org) of the Web site of the World Trade Organization (WTO) instead of the real thing--and the WTO is powerless to stop it, the Geneva-based body warned Wednesday in an e-mail to members of its mailing list...The parody site contains so many references to the WTO that search engines are directing people to it instead of the real thing. A search of Altavista using the keyword "WTO" returns the parody site in fifth place.
I checked several other engines and here's how the "WTO" search ranked.
Excite: Gatt.Org was the number 2 entry
AllTheWeb: Gatt.Org was the number 6 entry
Teoma: Gatt.Org was the number 7 entry in the "web pages" section
Google: Gatt.Org did not rank in the top 100 results
Wisenut: Gatt.Org was the number 36 entry

Online Newspapers--New York Times
Source: Wired News
"News That's Fit to Download"
"Earlier this week, the venerable print icon The New York Times launched The New York Times Electronic Edition, an exact digital replica of its New York edition that is normally not available in print outside the metropolitan New York area. Now, instead of waiting for the paper to arrive on the doorstep, you can download an electronic version overnight, open it on the laptop on your way to work and delve through articles at the office."
See Also: Direct to New York Times Electronic Edition

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources and Documents (3 Items)
---
Biological Incidents--Handbooks
Source:CIA
Chemical/Biological/Radiological Incident Handbook
Recently released unclassified document.
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Chemical Weapons
Source: National Library of Medicine
Chemical Warfare Agents
Includes a bibliography and webliography
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Crime--Schools--United States--Statistics
Source: National Center for Education Statistics
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2001

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