Wednesday, June 29, 2005
National Consultation on Access to Scientific Research Data
In mid-June, an expert Task Force, appointed by the National Research Council Canada (NRC),
came together in Ottawa to plan a national Forum as the focus of the National Consultation on
Access to Scientific Research Data (NCASRD). The Forum brought together more than seventy
leaders Canada-wide in research, data management, administration, intellectual property and other
important areas.
This Report is a comprehensive review of the issues, opportunities and challenges identified at the
Forum, complemented by a selection of the supporting documents presented as Appendices.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Segway | Concept Centaur
Segway | Concept Centaur: "
Like the mythical half-horse, half-man of Greek lore, Concept Centaur combines the best of several technologies to create an innovative whole. The result of exploration by Segway LLC's product development team, Concept Centaur will challenge the way you think about four-wheeled transportation.
From time to time Segway's product development team devotes days, or even weeks, to creating new product concepts with the goal of finding a prince among frogs. It's a product exploration process they call 'frog kissing.' During this time, engineers and designers are encouraged to use any available materials in a very short time frame to prove a concept will work.
Recently, the product development team demonstrated that Concept Centaur was a prince�a concept that passed this initial feasibility test, but is not yet ready to become a product. Concept Centaur demonstrates Segway's continued commitment to breakthrough innovation and the innumerable possibilities for the future of personal transportation. "
Blogger Help : How do I post pictures?
Blogger Help : How do I post pictures?: "How do I post pictures?
The image icon in the post editor's toolbar will allow any users (with blogs on BlogSpot or published via FTP) to upload images to their blogs: "
Reading And Buying Books For Pleasure - 2005 National Survey -- Canada
Executive Summary - Reading And Buying Books For Pleasure - 2005 National Survey
This national telephone survey was carried out between January 5 and January 31, 2005, and was based on a random sample of 1,963 Canadians 16 years of age and older, including an oversample of respondents from minority official-language communities.
The primary purpose of the survey was to provide a detailed statistical picture of the habits of Canadians with respect to buying and reading books for pleasure, as well as to update the findings of Reading in Canada 1991, undertaken by Ekos on behalf of Canadian Heritage.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
SPECIAL LIBRARIES MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK: THE BASICS
SPECIAL LIBRARIES MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK: THE BASICS: "SPECIAL LIBRARIES MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK:
THE BASICS
These 'chapters' were written by students in CLIS 724 (Special Libraries and Information Centers) at the University of South Carolina College of Library and Information Science over the period 1999-2004.. Their assignment was to produce a chapter in a class-produced practical handbook on the management of special libraries and information centers. These chapters are written from the perspective of the beginning special librarian and are intended to provide basic 'how-to' instructions on dealing with the issue or problem addressed. Additional chapters will be produced by students in other classes and will be posted here.
These chapters are the intellectual property of the authors. The authors have granted permission for copying and downloading for individual and professional use by special librarians. However, any additional use of these materials in any published form (including re-publication on the Web) must be by permission of the authors. Most of the authors have included an e-mail address for contact purposes but if that does not work then you may contact me, Robert V. Williams, Professor at: bobwill@sc.edu and I will be in touch with the authors. "
Friday, June 17, 2005
Internet Scout NSDL Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology is no more :( -- Confessions of a Science Librarian
Confessions of a Science Librarian: "Internet Scout Project Says Goodbye to NSDL Scout Reports
Dear Reader,
With this edition, the Internet Scout Project ends the NSDL Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology after four years of publication. We are very excited about our newest NSF National Science Digital Library-funded effort, the Applied Mathematics and Science Education Repository (AMSER), a new four-year project that will link community and technical colleges to online applied math and science resources via a web portal and complimentary services. Our goal is to make AMSER-- http://amser.org/ -- the same kind of high-quality source of information about online resources that the NSDL Scout Reports have been."
From John Dupius' blog. I read that report just this morning and did not read this part. I checked the amser.org site and they do not have any rss feeds for anything let alone new resources. I send them an email asking if they were considering such a thing.
thanks John for bringing this to my attention
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Science Research Portal
Science Research Portal - Search Page: "Deep Web Technologies is proud to present ScienceResearch.com - a free, publicly available web portal allowing access to numerous scientific journals and public science databases. It allows students, teachers, professors, researchers, and the general public to access pertinent science information quickly and easily. "
found via June 17 NeatNew and ExLibris from Marylaine Block http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
Science Library Pad: SLA2005 - post-a-palooza - 229 postings
Science Library Pad: SLA2005 - post-a-palooza - 229 postings: "Carolyne boggles my mind with..."
I'm famous now!!
thanks Richard!
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
2005 SLA Toronto - Knovel Presentations
2005 SLA Toronto - Knovel Presentations: "Special Libraries Association (SLA) 2005 Annual Conference
June 5-8, 2005, Toronto, Ontario
Mon, June 6 - Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Contributed Papers Session (11:30 am to 1 pm)
William Woishnis, Knovel Co-founder & Chairman of the Board
Presentation: 'Food Chemicals Codex, the Next Generation Interactivity'"
SLA2005
Open Access to 7 Years of SVC Technical Conference Proceedings from Knovel
Readers of K-News have two weeks of open access to a select title or group of titles in each issue. This issue features seven years of conference proceedings from the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC), available in the Semiconductors & Electronics Subject Area:
SVC - 41st-47th Annual Technical Conference Proceedings (c)1998-2004, Society of Vacuum Coaters. The SVC is a nonprofit professional and educational organization, dedicated to the development of equipment and processes for high-volume production of coatings using vacuum-based processes. Proceedings volumes published by the SVC contain manuscripts presented at the Annual Technical Conference. These serialized volumes provide views of specialized topics and frequently offer comprehensive overviews of rapidly developing areas, such as vacuum web coating, process control and instrumentation, optical coating, plasma processing, tribological and wear coating, decorative and functional coating, large area coating, and emerging technologies. Its unique industrial focus targets the processing engineer and technician, end-user, equipment manufacturer, and the materials supplier.
Mary Ellen Bates - Speeches -- 6 of them at SLA 2005
Mary Ellen Bates - Speeches: "June 2005, 'Fee vs. Free and Beyond: Convincing Your Boss That Quality Counts' half-day continuing education workshop, Special Libraries Association annual conference, Toronto, Canada
June 2005, 'The Next Information Revolution, and Our Role as Revolutionaries' Special Libraries Association annual conference, Toronto, Canada
June 2005, 'One Dot Shopping: Finding Government Statistics on the Web and Having Fun Doing It' Special Libraries Association annual conference, Toronto, Canada
June 2005, 'But I Don't Like to Market Myself!' Special Libraries Association annual conference, Toronto, Canada
June 2005, 'Mining the NEW Web For Information: RSS Feeds, Blogs, Social Networks and More' Special Libraries Association annual conference, Toronto, Canada
June 2005, '60 Tips in 90 Minutes' Special Libraries Association annual conference, Toronto, Canada "
All the SLA 2005 I could find
All the SLA 2005 I could find
After hunting around and finding and then losing SLA 2005 blog postings I decided to put them all here. Enjoy.
229 posts I have found and marked already and a few more I have found but the system is causing problems today so I cannot link them yet.
If you know of others, please let me know.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Received in the mail today (June 14)
"Come to booth ### to see what is new with #######!"
"Please register online by Thursday June 2nd"
OK, I know the mail can be slow between the US of A and Canada, but really!
I also received today the May 2005 SciTech News telling me all about the conference sessions available from the divisions.
SLA2005
Monday, June 13, 2005
Bill Gates' House
From US News and World Report, a virtual tour of Bill Gates' house.
usnews.com: Technology: Bill Gates' House
Friday, June 10, 2005
SiliconValleyWatcher.com: A tribute to one of Silicon Valley's most influential and forgotten researchers at Xerox Parc event
SiliconValleyWatcher.com: A tribute to one of Silicon Valley's most influential and forgotten researchers at Xerox Parc event: "The place to be Wednesday evening was at Xerox PARC, for a reunion of the seminal Homebrew Computer Club and a tribute to a man that history has tried to forget, or at least relegate to a minor role: Doug Engelbart.
Mr Engelbart is usually remembered simply as the inventor of the computer mouse. But dozens of computer pioneers stood up Wednesday to acknowledge his much larger role, as one of the most profound and influential thinkers of their time. "
Connie Crosby: Establishing a Weblog on Your Organization's Intranet -- SLA 2005
Thanks Connie... this was a session I wanted to go to but had other commitments.
Establishing a Weblog on Your Organization's Intranet
sla2005
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Interesting things learned at exhibits and interesting booths visited:
Interesting things learned at exhibits and interesting booths visited (in no order whatsoever):
CISTI – http://www.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/
CISTI is in the process of creating (with Sirsi) a Competitive Technical Intelligence Portal
The best for sci-tech document delivery!!!
Knovel – http://www.knovel.com/
They take the reference books, and then make the data in them accessible and usable online with interactive charts and tables and graphs.
Dialog – http://www.dialog.com/
P DialogLink 5 has some new features I was unaware of as I have not used DialogLink since it was in version 2 J The one feature which really caught my attention was the customized reporting. (and it is free)
P Chemical structure searching on Dialog – DialogLink has some interesting structure searching features. We use SciFinder, so this is just me keeping an eye on the market
Engineering Village 2 – http://www.engineeringvillage2.org/
Since some of our research is heading back towards physics and away from pure chemistry, I was looking for something to supplement our existing resources. This deserves a look (and a trial)
Minesoft – http://www.minesoft.com/
I had never heard of this company before, but they have interesting offerings and are competing against Delphion.
UMI Proquest – http://www.umi.com/
They had a new digital scanner they were demonstrating. Since much of our archival journal material is on microfilm, I keep a file for scanners in case ours dies.
Ip.com – http://www.ip.com/
We are already a client but it was nice to see them there.
Special issues – http://www.specialissues.com/
They track and find industrial and trade magazine special issues not generally available in the big commercial databases.
British Library – http://www.bl.uk/
A digital page turning demo. The page turning of antiquarian books was done by actually filming the curator turning the pages. The pages turn differently each time. You just drag your finger on the screen. Very cool.
Global Securities Information – http://www.gsionline.com/
Not my usual information need, but they showed me their stuff and let me look into some companies I was interested in. Thanks
Paterra – http://www.paterra.com/
Translations of Japanese patents quickly and online. Worth further investigation.
Serials Solutions – http://www.serialssolution.com/
They should have had a bigger booth. As a solo librarian I don't have time to track down each change of an online title's url nor do I want to worry about ordering documents in journals we have access to through Factiva or Proquest. Serials Solution tracks this for me and it is reasonably priced for my size of collection.
Vivisimo – http://www.vivisimo.com/
Somehow I missed this booth. Must have been when the ice cream arrived J I had intended to visit and see their product in action.
Powell's – http://www.powells.com/My favourite used bookstore. Did not have time to visit when I was last in Portland but will make time on my next trip.
sla2005
A house made entirely of books
Livio De Marchi: "Can you imagine a house made out of books? A house in which even the table, the chairs and the bed seem to have been made of pages to turn and bound covers? You might say that this is a dream turned into reality by Livio De Marchi! "
WatchThatPage - Monitor web pages extract new information
WatchThatPage - Monitor web pages extract new information: "Monitor pages, extract new information
WatchThatPage is a service that enables you to automatically collect new information from your favorite pages on the Internet. You select which pages to monitor, and WatchThatPage will find which pages have changed, and collect all the new content for you. The new information is presented to you in an email and/or a personal web page. You can specify when the changes will be collected, so they are fresh when you want to read them. The service is free!"
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
What Do Your Customers Really, Really Want?
What Do Your Customers Really, Really Want?: "What Do Your Customers Really, Really Want?
by Sherri Dorfman
June 7, 2005
Most businesses these days are under pressure to differentiate their products and services to attract new business. Although customers can play an important role in helping companies define their differentiation, a surprising number of businesses decide to skip this important customer research and launch offerings based on what 'we think our customers want.' "
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Contributed papers session
Contributed papers session
I hope they put these online like the Nashville committee did. The papers I saw were very interesting but not well attended. (I have the handouts if anyone cannot get a copy from another source)
Mueller, Britt "Information seeking behavior of engineers in the corporate environment: implications for information delivery" (Qualcomm, San Diego, Calif.)
Olszewski, Larry and Lynn S. Connaway "What in the world: leveraging corporate assets for internal and external use" (OCLC, Dublin, Ohio)
Augustyniak, Rebecca "The Information professional's role in creating business management systems" (Center for Information, Training, and Evaluation Services, Florida State University, Tallahassee)
Makani, Joyline "It's the attention economy: librarians pay attention" (Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS)
sla2005
The amount and variety of give-aways this year is astonishing. The kids (big and small) are amazed. My favourite so far is the pop-up book light, however I did win a USB memory stick from the British Library in a draw. I still hope for one of the many many iPods.
note added later: seems that this is called swag (or schwag). This is a term I had never heard before, but my mother knew what it meant!
SLA2005
Gary Price - the newest and the best from the one who knows
Gary Price - the newest and the best from the one who knows
Tuesday, Jun 07, 2005
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Location: Toronto Convention Ctr
Gary will be presenting another fast-paced tour of the Web. Come learn about the latest resources and techniques on the ever expanding web. He is sure to include specialized databases and web sources you have not seen and more ways to locate the information you need.
I went. The room was plenty big enough. Some people were on the floor at the back but only because they did not want to pass infront of a lot of people to get to a seat in the middle of a row.
They said they had 300 handouts. They were gone early.
But the room was big and cool.
The presentation is all online at
http://www.freepint.com/gary/2005/newsdivision2005.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/au4cx
or
http://digbig.com/4djpps
so I left and went to the contributed papers session down the hall.
SLA2005
Marketing Intangibles and Tangibles: Selling Information Services/ Luncheon
Marketing Intangibles and Tangibles: Selling Information Services/ Luncheon
Tuesday, Jun 07, 2005
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
An analyst from Outsell Inc. will present the company’s advice on creating the message and delivery format for selling the value of information services to potential clients. Niche marketing principles are important here.
Mary Corcoran from outsell presented this topic after a nice, if crowded, lunch of chicken, rice, and vegetables.
Need to move our products from intangible to tangible
1.5% of time spend on marketing (for a solo = 15 min/week)
See www.outsellinc.com for info on Marketing 101 and Marketing 301. Many of her slides are from these programmes.
Some points I wrote down:
each product needs a product manager to promote and drive the product
a portal on te intranet is either a partner or a competitor
must have all products, presentations, etc. consistant across the function
know who you are – strategic assessmenet
know your customers or taret market – segment the market and understand needs
move from idea of what the library is to how it will help users
only 30% of any population is a library user
target the non-users and find out what they need from te li rary
ask people where they are currently getting their information
ask them how long it takes them
ask them what their biggest issues are
there is a trend back to intermediaries for searching (I have personally noticed this in my work at Xerox)
calculate cost per user. Try to reduce it by getting more users
satisfaction with a product is not loyalty
ask if they would recommend it to others
read book "selling the invisible"
SLA2005
Tuesday Keynote - Bill Buxton
Traffic was not as bad as I thougt it would be getting in from the 'burbs to downtown Toronto (I never do this at rush hour) so I actually made it to Bill Buxton's keynote talk. Very interesting to listen to, but hard to explain to someone who was not there. Perhaps I had not had enough coffee. A few key and interesting points I did retain:
He is a student of the work of Kranzberg
We all need to understand the larger impact of introducing new technology
Good ideas are everywhere, implementing them takes as much or more creativity and hard work
By definition information informs
Recommends the "Historical Atlas of Canada" as a present for a parent, then you can inherit it later
Need to move information and technology to a human centric perspective
Monday, June 6, 2005
Six Sigma
Presenter Jean-Marie Cote
He is a Master Black Belt working for PACCAR
Six Sigma – A strategic tool
Historical background
Developed at Motorola (1987)
.
.
.
GE (1985) – turning point
.
.
.
They have not all been successful. Implementation is the issue, not the programme.
Has many names:
Six Sigma – driving business excellence
Operations excellence
Lean manufacturing
Lean operations
Lean six sigma
TPS
High impact Kaisen
1. close understanding of customer needs and wants
2. design led use of facts, data and statistical analysis
3. diligent approach to problem solving
Six Sigma takes time. It is not a quick fix.
Definition
- statistical measure of performance
- rigorous analytic appr4oaqc for
o process variation reduction
o complex prpblem solving
o waste reduction
- a philosophy that higher quality results in
o increased efficiency
o business excellence
o enhanced customer satisfaction
It is NOT
- just statistics
- a rigid mechanical approach – it can be flexigle and can be adjusted
- not a panacea – not suited for all situations
- magic
need all the rigt people and must be top down (ie supported by all levels of management)
driving excellence
define – measure – analyze – improve/design – control/validate
project selection is key
- in line with business strategy
- target customers
- add value
MUST BE VERY WELL DEFINED
Baseline must be understood
Must be able to measure
Definable goals
Timeline
Reasonable boundaries
As project progresses you refine and redefine project]map the process and identify non value added activities (NVA)
Take time to accurately define the defect
Soft tools
Process map (IPO)
Cause and effect matrix (QFD)
- what and how
- what customer wants and how delivered
Cause and effect diagrams (Fishbone)
- what we think is driving the issue
Waste elimination
- value stream map
- process flow
- spaghetti diagram
Pareto and time charts
Input and output characteristics
Input and output characteristics must be characterized and weighted in relation to goal
Critical characteristics must be measures
# of characteristics must be manageable
Focus on the process not the people until y ou know the process is robust. After that training can be addressed.
Low hanging fruit
Non value added steops – get rid of them
All steps need to add value
There are some necessary NVA – legal, EH&S, etc.
Analyze phase
Use information to create knowledge
Draw conclusions
Objectives
find root cause not symptoms
propose options
options mean change. Change means impact on someone. Change may involve investment.
Up to this point you have control and responsibility. After this point someone else may be responsible.
Challenges
Foresee impact of changes
COMMUNICATE
Loop back regularly to revise process
SLA2005
Migraine
I hope to get down this afternoon. I have good sessions I want to attend. Please pass the pain pills, the zomig and a coffee!!!!
Sunday, June 5, 2005
SLA 2005 Continuing Education Course
SLA 2005 Continuing Education Course
Making it count : measuring and communicating the value of special libraries and information centres
Sunday June 5, 2005
Instructors Eileen G. Abels; Lisl Zach
What is value?
Why is it important?
How do we measure?
Usually measure customer satisfaction – need to measure impact and outcome of services on corporate bottom line
We measue happy users. Corporation wants productive users who are not unhappy
Challenges of firm level model
Value to the organization not value to the individual. Not based on what they like, but what provides value and helps meet corporate goals.
Meeting needs of organization
Determine needs of organization based on corporate goals
Top down not bottom up
Developing appropriate measures
What is the most important to your manager
Cost saving
Turn around time – impact of turnaround time on corporate goals
Try to find metrics that "feel" like other department metrics
(note to self: IT department – do they have to justify their existence and keep statistics. Do they worry about this stuff at all? Why or why not?)
Identifying critical success factors
Make your manager's job easier
Eg. recruiting exceptional employees
Creation of intellectual property
Linking services to contributions
Create list of services and link to critical success factors. See Matrix on next page – fill it out
What are key services?
Services related to mission and corporate goals (not provision of nice chairs and the newspaper)
Who are the most important users of this service?
Find out who is using library and how it contributes to their success
Collect statistics on users from each department
Link searches and articles and database accesses to patents issued
Identifying appropriate measures
User focus groups – does this service contribute to you meeting your goals – survey to mark off valuable services (see actionable data handout from other course)
Patents / intellectual property – can we determine % of people with patents / proposals issued who have used library services
Types of measures
Collect data by department instead of aggregate for all information transactions
Survey asking hours saved therefore $ saved
Ask if critical to mission / goals
Ask how they used the information
Communicating value
Find out how your management want to see numbers and results (ask him) (tables, numbers, words, stories, etc….email, voice mail, formal memo, …. Monthly, quarterly, weekly, …)
Your value is measured by the perception of people above you
Other info:
SLA - evidence based practice community of practice
SLA2005
Saturday, June 4, 2005
2005 Annual Conference - Toronto - Special Libraries Association
2005 Annual Conference - Toronto - Special Libraries Association
I am here. One half day continuing education course tomorrow (Sunday) and an afternoon at the vendors is planned. A meeting with my Elsevier rep and then more exhibits. Then dinner with the former Sheridan Park Library and Information Science Committee (currently the SLA Toronto Chapter West Programming SubCommittee) and my pick of receptions. I have invitations to at least 3. Monday though seems to be the reception day for almost everyone else.
See you there!!!
Friday, June 3, 2005
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
The amount and variety of give-aways this year is astonishing. The kids (big and small) are amazed. My favourite so far is the pop-up book light, however I did win a USB memory stick from the British Library in a draw. I still hope for one of the many many iPods.
note added later: seems that this is called swag (or schwag). This is a term I had never heard before, but my mother knew what it meant!
SLA2005
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