How to use RSS for teaching
.."Pageflakes has customized their platform so that it can be of practical use for teachers and students. It seems that Pageflakes site have been used by teachers to interact on-line with their students"..
31 Dec 2007
Pageflakes for teaching
How to use RSS for teaching
29 Dec 2007
27 Dec 2007
DAF v2.0
DAFWiki
DAF v2.0 provides all the necessary tools required to manage the whole process of a digitization workflow, including its various Phases, User management, file movement and archiving. It provides the flexibility to manage multiple simultaneous projects with a diversity of materials, covering books, journals, newspapers, manuscripts, unbound materials, audio, video, and slides.
GMail security failure
WARNING: Google’s GMail security failure leaves my business sabotaged :: David Airey :: Graphic and Logo Designer
.."What if you also discovered that this was happening because of a Google security infection that can affect every GMail user on the planet?"..
kwout
kwout - A way to quote
"kwout" is a way you quote a part of a web page as an image with an image map.
25 Dec 2007
Computer program that converts XML and HTML into PDF documents
Prince: What's New
Prince is a computer program that converts XML and HTML into PDF documents.
Prince can read many XML formats, including XHTML and SVG.
Prince formats documents according to style sheets written in CSS.
Evidence-based Reviews and Databases: Are They Worth the Effort?
Evidence-based Reviews and Databases: Are They Worth the Effort? Developing Evidence Summaries for Emergency Medicine -- Wyer and Rowe 14 (11): 960 -- Academic Emergency Medicine
.."A broad range of relevant evidence-based resources exists within and outside of EM that collates and summarizes clinical evidence pertaining to many practice questions. Such resources may or may not embrace the equivalent of health care recommendations, and their relationship to clinical decision-making may be complex. A trade-off exists between synthesis quality and ease of practitioner access and use. Keeping all such resources current and valid is a major challenge. Although observational evidence suggests that dynamic interactivity and information retrieval technology may enhance practitioner utilization of these evidence resources, little evidence exists supporting the absolute or comparative effectiveness of different kinds of resources and databases in enhancing evidence uptake or changing clinician behavior"..
23 Dec 2007
They are now talking about "Web 3.0 and medicine"
Web 3.0 and medicine -- Giustini 335 (7633): 1273 -- BMJ
.."In medicine, finding the best evidence has become increasingly difficult, even for librarians. Despite its constant accessibility, Google’s search results are emblematic of an approaching crisis with information overload, and this is duplicated by Yahoo and other search engines. Consequently, medical librarians are leading doctors back to trusted sources, such as PubMed, Clinical Evidence, and the Cochrane Library, and even taking them to their library bookshelves instead. Unless better channels of information are created in web 3.0, we can expect the information glut to continue"..
22 Dec 2007
Another Journal Publisher uses OJS
Learned from Peter Suber, Open Access News that Merlien is a new Open Access Journal Publisher. On visiting their site, was glad to see that they are also using Open Journal Systems (OJS) from PKP. However, out of their three journals - only "The Journal of E-Working" has actually been published. An article - "Framework for Constructing Effective Virtual Teams" by Gaudes and others attracted my attention.
Thinking too much?
According to 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People - Thinking too much without taking any action is bad. It makes your ineffective.
.."Paralysis by analysis can waste years of your life. There is nothing wrong with thinking before you do something. Do some research, make a plan, explore potential upsides and problems. But compulsively thinking and thinking and thinking is just another way to waste your time"..There have been so many ideas coming to me. I have been thinking and just thinking about them, but without any result. Will have to change. "Think and Act" should be my new year's resolution.
21 Dec 2007
New opportunities for health sciences librarians
Bioinformatics opportunities for health sciences librarians and information professionals
.."Traditional librarian activities such as communication, collection development, education and training, writing, and intranet services are equally necessary to support research in bioinformatics, as in any other field, but the diverse set of resources and requirements for extensive domain knowledge in multiple fields places new demands on health information professionals supporting the success of this field. Training and continuing education will enable health information professionals to reach beyond traditional roles and become integral participants in biomedical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and vaccine research projects.."
FireShot a Firefox add-on to capture screenshots
FireShot :: Firefox Add-ons
FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations. Such functionality will be especially useful for web designers, testers and content reviewers.
19 Dec 2007
ISI Impact Factor Data Under Fire
The Medium is the Message: ISI Impact Factor Data Under Fire (again) further puts Impact Factors under suspicion.
Impact Factor / “Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”
“Impact Factors” are also statistics derived out of academic citations. If not understood properly could be misused to support wrong arguments. Need not say again that these too are statistics after all. These numbers originated from the “Information Storage and Retrieval” domain as the by-product of citation indexing. However are being increasingly (mis)used in measuring the academic excellence of individual scientists.
If we go about 60 years back, we know that in 1950s, lot many things were happening in the Information Storage and Retrieval domains. Machines (Early Computers) had shown the promise of information revolution. However, natural languages were found to be inadequate to map concepts with words or phrases. Major problems were mainly due the use of synonyms, homonyms, gender, numbers, order of words in phrases and punctuation marks in natural languages. These grammatical goodies enrich natural languages and make sense to human brains. However in the domain of information retrieval these inhibited one-to-one mapping between concepts and words. So controlled vocabularies like MeSH were being developed.
(In 1958, Eugene Garfield starts ISI with a loan of US$500. - Science for Sale - Features - The Lab - Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science)
Garfield developed the concept of citation indexing in 1950s. A product based on his citation indexing - “Science Citation Index (SCI)” was released officially in 1964. It was meant to be a tool of scientific information retrieval. SCI become more popular for its utility to measure scientific productivity rather than being a search engine. It was due to its by-product “SCI Journal Citation Reports (JCR)” launched officially in 1975. A parameter was evolved to compare various large journals and this parameter become to know as Journal Impact Fact. In the absence of any other objective criteria – Journal Impact Factor has been widely accepted parameter for comparing the “quality” of journals. E. Garfield himself describes the rise of SCI and Impact Factors in the following article.
- E. Garfield. The evolution of the Science Citation Index (2007) http://www.iec.cat/1jcrc/GarfieldEEvolution.pdf
However, one should always remember that “Impact Factors” that are calculated are only applicable to journals included in ISI database (SCI). I am very frequently encountered by this question – what is the impact factor of some Indian journal? Well very few Indian journals are covered in SCI database, so except for few, most do not have impact factors. I feel like replying –There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and impact factors! Because I know that these “impact factors” being applied to areas for which they were never meant. It sometimes becomes very difficult to explain that it undercounts the number of citations from journals in less-developed countries. The research priorities for less-developed countries could be entirely different that of developed countries. If the research is not of contemporary interest of journals indexed in ISI databases it is unlikely to be cited. Linking research to citations and impact factors could lead to a situation where the less-developed countries fund for the research problems of the developed countries. Academic administrators - without knowing complexities of the Impact Factors – are now increasingly temped to apply these to measure the individual productivity of scientists. The following article explains the problem with such “numbers”.
- Richard Monastersky. "The Number That's Devouring Science", The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14 2005.
Here is one more reference:- P.O. Seglen. Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. (1997) BMJ 314(7079): 498-502. PubMed: 9056804.
[Try - http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/314/7079/497 for full text]
However, there is one good thing about these “Impact Factors”. They at least are best at indicating the "popularity" of journals. Well - does "popularity" and "quality" means the same?
One more thing - they arose from “citation indexing” which the founders of Google used to develop a killer search engine.
18 Dec 2007
Lifehacker's 2007 Guide
Feature: Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps
Guide to Lifehacker's favorite pieces of free software and web services for common computing tasks on every platform.
Library Blogosphere
The Bloggers Among Us - 12/15/2007 - Library Journal
..A survey of the library blogosphere shows the mainstreaming of the medium..
Personas for Firefox
Mozilla Labs Blog » Blog Archive » Personas for Firefox
Personas for Firefox is a extension that adds lightweight theming to your browser.
Task MLA - Force on Social Networking Software - Findings
Task Force on Social Networking Software » Blogs - social networking software survey analysis
.."Hospital librarians are significantly more likely to never use blogs in their professional lives, whereas academic librarians are significantly more likely to use blogs daily in their professional lives (p <.0001)"..
17 Dec 2007
Presentation noted by Peter Suber's Blog
My presentation Bio-Medical Information Retrieval from Net finds mention in Peter Suber, Open Access News.
Educational fair use today
Educational fair use today, by Mr. Jonathan Band, JD.
.."Three recent appellate decisions concerning fair use should give educators and librarians greater confidence and guidance for asserting this important privilege. In all three decisions, the courts permitted extensive copying and display in the commercial context because the uses involved repurposing and recontextualization. The reasoning of these opinions could have far-reaching implications in the educational environment"..
.."Three recent appellate decisions concerning fair use should give educators and librarians greater confidence and guidance for asserting this important privilege. In all three decisions, the courts permitted extensive copying and display in the commercial context because the uses involved repurposing and recontextualization. The reasoning of these opinions could have far-reaching implications in the educational environment"..
Academic Commons
Academic Commons aims to share knowledge, develop collaborations, and evaluate and disseminate digital tools and innovative practices for teaching and learning with technology.
A new Medline exploration approach
An active visual search interface for Medline. [Comput Syst Bioinformatics Conf. 2007]
A new Medline exploration approach by incorporating interactive visualization together with powerful grouping, summary, sorting and active external content retrieval functions.
16 Dec 2007
Google Profile
About the Google Profile
A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products — it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you're all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you'd like.
Open Journal System (OJS) 2.2 Released
Version 2.2 of Open Journal System - an open source software to manage publication of scholarly journals has been Released. It has improved the metadata storage and has support for numerous external packages and services such as OpenAds, phpMyVisites, and Google Analytics.
15 Dec 2007
Free Government Information (FGI)
I like the tag line "Government Information needs to be Free" of Free Government Information (FGI) - an initiative taken by three Librarians.
Free Government Information (FGI) | Because government information needs to be free
Free Government Information (FGI) | Because government information needs to be free
.."Free Government Information (FGI) is a place for initiating dialogue and building consensus among the various players (libraries, government agencies, non-profit organizations, researchers, journalists, etc.) who have a stake in the preservation of and perpetual free access to government information"..
Cataloging and metadata pilot by OCLC
OCLC to conduct new cataloging and metadata pilot [OCLC]
.."OCLC is conducting a pilot project to explore the viability and efficiency of capturing metadata from publishers and vendors upstream and enhancing that metadata in WorldCat, an approach that could provide added value to libraries and publishers by enhancing and delivering data that can work in multiple contexts and systems"..
Knols by Google
Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge - Google has announced that they have started inviting a selected group of people to try their new, free tool "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge.
.."Knols will include strong community tools. People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads"..
Guide to the surgical literature
Users' guide to the surgical literature: how to us...[Can J Surg. 2007] - PubMed Result
Users' guide to the surgical literature: how to use a decision analysis - Free Full text of the article is available.
14 Dec 2007
Medical Informatics and Decision Making Journal
BioMed Central | BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in information management, systems and technology in healthcare and the study of medical decision making. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (ISSN 1472-6947) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE, Thomson Scientific (ISI) and Google Scholar.
Hand Book of Medical Informatics
Hand Book of Medical Informatics (free web version). Edited by J.H. van Bemmel, Erasmus University, Rotterdam and M.A. Musen, Stanford University, Stanford.
It covers Data, Information and Computers. Coding and classification of Patient Data. Patient-Centered Information Systems and Medical Knowledge and Decision Support. Strategies for Medical Knowledge Acquisition; Hospital Information Systems; Health Information Resources and Methodology for Information Processing . It also includes a chapter on Medical Informatics as a Profession including Education, Training and International Developments in Medical Informatics.
This free web version of the Handbook has not been updated since 1999. The latest edition (2007) of this handbook is publised from Springer.
It covers Data, Information and Computers. Coding and classification of Patient Data. Patient-Centered Information Systems and Medical Knowledge and Decision Support. Strategies for Medical Knowledge Acquisition; Hospital Information Systems; Health Information Resources and Methodology for Information Processing . It also includes a chapter on Medical Informatics as a Profession including Education, Training and International Developments in Medical Informatics.
This free web version of the Handbook has not been updated since 1999. The latest edition (2007) of this handbook is publised from Springer.
13 Dec 2007
Open Access Calendar 2008
Key Perspectives. Consultants to the scholarly information industry. Publishing consultants. Open access.
A 2008 Open Access calendar, created by Alma Swan, is now available. [Thanks Rupak Chakravarty]
PediatricEducation.org
Pediatrics | Paediatrics | Pediatric Education | Paediatric Education - PediatricEducation.org
PediatricEducation.org is a Pediatric Digital Library and Learning Collaboratory intended to serve as a source of continuing pediatric education.
UMich OAI Toolkit
UMich OAI Toolkit is a set of Perl based tools for harvesting OAI data and creating an OAI-PMH 2.0 compliant data provider.
Scriblio
Scriblio » About Scriblio
Scriblio is an open source CMS and OPAC with faceted searching and browsing features based on WordPress.
12 Dec 2007
Movable Type Open Source Project
MovableType.org - Home for the MT Community: Welcome to the Movable Type Open Source Project
The Movable Type Open Source Project is a community effort, led by Six Apart, devoted to creating an open source version of Movable Type, the award winning, ground breaking and revolutionary blogging platform.
Movable Type
Movable Type Publishing Platform
A platform for building easy-to-maintain blog, web, and social media sites.
Pipl - A tool for searching people
Came across Lifehacker's feature on How to Track Down Anyone Online. Just tried Pipl. Seems to be good tool for searching people on the web. It claims to go deep in Hidden web to cull out details about individuals.
Bio-Medical Information Retrieval from Net
Yesterday, I made a presentation at Lady Irwin College (New Delhi) on "Bio-Medical Information Retrieval from Net". The Presentation consisted of over 90 Power Point PPT slides keeping in mind the information needs of Bio-Medical Researchers. However it did not cover some good subscription based services like "Web of Science" as the focus was on freely available resources on Net.
The presentation can be viewed or Downloaded from http://snipurl.com/1v51n
Presentation starts with an emphasis on the need of having a plan in the form search strategy and evaluation of the retrieved results. The best tool and Internet resource to explore would depend upon the type of information being sought from the net. For general non-scholarly information Internet Search Engines, Meta Search Engines, Web Directories and Subject Guides would be the best way to start with. However there is need to evaluate all such information. Simple criteria - like the authority behind the information; the date of creation and modification and commercial interests if any - can be used to evaluate the authenticity of the information retrieved. Medical websites with "HONcode" logo could be easily evaluated and trusted.
For scholarly literature, researchers are advised to start with Bibliographic Databases. These databases provide references to high quality peer reviewed journals. PubMed and IndMED (For Indian Journals) are best known under this category. The presentation has some interesting pictures to explain the need for "Controlled Vocabulary" like MeSH. Other tools like Scirus can also be used for retrieving scholarly information. Google Scholar can be used to for limited "Cited By" information along with references.
Coming to Full Text of articles, looking for libraries' holdings would be a better strategy. "Union Catalogue" is useful tool to explore collection of neighborhood libraries. Many good journals are now coming out from Open Access Publishers like BioMed Central and PLoS. Some of the good Indian medical journals are also available for free through Internet. NIC's medIND project and MedKnow (an Indian Open Access Publisher) have been instrumental in putting most of them online. Directory of Open Access Journals is a useful tool to find out Open Access Journals in a subject domain. Other resources for finding full text articles are Institutional (like ePrints@IISc ) and Subject Repositories (like OpenMED@NIC). There are now about 1000 such registered and OAI-PMH compliant repositories all over the world. Tools like ROAR can be used to find a relevant repository. These repositories can also be searched through search engine like Google and some special OAI-PMH search engines.
The presentation ends with some special type of resources like Cochrane Library (made freely accessible to Resident Indians through sponsorship by ICMR).
The presentation can be viewed or Downloaded from http://snipurl.com/1v51n
Presentation starts with an emphasis on the need of having a plan in the form search strategy and evaluation of the retrieved results. The best tool and Internet resource to explore would depend upon the type of information being sought from the net. For general non-scholarly information Internet Search Engines, Meta Search Engines, Web Directories and Subject Guides would be the best way to start with. However there is need to evaluate all such information. Simple criteria - like the authority behind the information; the date of creation and modification and commercial interests if any - can be used to evaluate the authenticity of the information retrieved. Medical websites with "HONcode" logo could be easily evaluated and trusted.
For scholarly literature, researchers are advised to start with Bibliographic Databases. These databases provide references to high quality peer reviewed journals. PubMed and IndMED (For Indian Journals) are best known under this category. The presentation has some interesting pictures to explain the need for "Controlled Vocabulary" like MeSH. Other tools like Scirus can also be used for retrieving scholarly information. Google Scholar can be used to for limited "Cited By" information along with references.
Coming to Full Text of articles, looking for libraries' holdings would be a better strategy. "Union Catalogue" is useful tool to explore collection of neighborhood libraries. Many good journals are now coming out from Open Access Publishers like BioMed Central and PLoS. Some of the good Indian medical journals are also available for free through Internet. NIC's medIND project and MedKnow (an Indian Open Access Publisher) have been instrumental in putting most of them online. Directory of Open Access Journals is a useful tool to find out Open Access Journals in a subject domain. Other resources for finding full text articles are Institutional (like ePrints@IISc ) and Subject Repositories (like OpenMED@NIC). There are now about 1000 such registered and OAI-PMH compliant repositories all over the world. Tools like ROAR can be used to find a relevant repository. These repositories can also be searched through search engine like Google and some special OAI-PMH search engines.
The presentation ends with some special type of resources like Cochrane Library (made freely accessible to Resident Indians through sponsorship by ICMR).
11 Dec 2007
Open access to published health-care research - WHO has the password
Denying open access to published health-care research: WHO has the password? Sarin R, - J Can Res Ther
"..Health-care professionals in the developing world are being increasingly expected to provide acceptable levels of contemporary clinical care despite resource constraints and to develop cost-effective and evidence-based solutions suited for their health-care setup. This unenviable task is greatly hampered by their limited access to relevant published biomedical research conducted within and outside the developing world.."
IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition
IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition - Nobody Makes it Easier
IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition is a no-charge enterprise search software solution that enables rapid deployment of intranet and file system search for both employees and customers.
10 Dec 2007
Open Source Knowledge Management
Science Commons » Blog Archive » What’s “open source knowledge management”?
Science Commons is developing all of the key elements for a free, web-enabled KM system for biological research that anyone can use, and anyone can build on.
Indian Journal of Medical Informatics
Indian Journal of Medical Informatics (IJMI) is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal adopting a broad definition of "medical informatics" and focusing on the applied aspects of computers to healthcare delivery.
Ethics of Open Access to Biomedical Research
Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine | Abstract | 1747-5341-2-31 | Ethics of open Access to biomedical research: Just a special case of ethics of open access to research
.."Most research is funded so as to be conducted and published, by researchers, in order to be taken up, used, and built upon in further research and applications, again by researchers (pure and applied, including practitioners), for the benefit of the public that funded it -- not in order to generate revenue for the peer-reviewed journal publishing industry (nor even because there is a burning public desire to read much of it). Hence OA needs to be mandated, by researchers' institutions and funders, for all research.."
Database of Web 2.0 Applications
Office 2.0 Database is a listing of Web 2.0 Applications and their details.
9 Dec 2007
Reliability of journal impact factor rankings
BioMed Central | Abstract | 1471-2288-7-48 | Reliability of journal impact factor rankings
Decisions placed on journal impact factors are potentially misleading where the uncertainty associated with the measure is ignored.
8 Dec 2007
7 Dec 2007
MIDAS
About MIDAS
National Institute of General Medical Sciences established MIDAS, Modeling of Infectious Disease Agent Study, to investigate novel computational and mathematical models of existing and emerging infectious diseases.
5 Dec 2007
Video on RFID in Library
Found a video to illustrate how RFID is used in Library. It also shows how and what makes it work.
Census of India - Website
Census of India website provides comprehensive data up to State level free of cost for registered members (Free).
NKC on online educational resoureces
NKC for online educational resources to promote higher education, Today News - By Indiaedunews.net
NKC for online educational resources to promote higher education
Web is creating fresh opportunities - and challenges - for chemistry
Surfing Web2O
..The emphasis on user-generated content, shared amongst online social networks, is typical of Web 2.0, the umbrella term for the current evolutionary stage of the world wide web. In this 'social web', swamps of data could be powerfully linked together. Search engines can trawl it to pick out whatever another user asks for. And user 'tagging', together with underlying machine-readable descriptions, means that related information can be easily linked. For example, clicking on a molecule could eventually bring up not just a 3D picture and a list of properties, but also the related online articles, experiments, videos and blog posts that refer to it..
3 Dec 2007
IT now happens in India!!!!: Library NEXT
Fully functional Next Generation libraries now becoming reality in India. This I realized only last Saturday (1st December 2007).
I happened to visit NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE-NASSDOC (ICSSR) at 35, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi 110 001. They hosted a meeting of "Ranganathan Research Circle". After the meeting, the hosts took us for a visit of their library. Well I was fascinated to see latest technology working for their library.
An ordinary library user needs to have his / her RFID embedded library card to get hold and carry home a book of his/her choice. That too without having to come in personal contact with library staff.
The reader would be able to enter the library by swiping one's card at a special entry / exit automated gate.
I happened to visit NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE-NASSDOC (ICSSR) at 35, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi 110 001. They hosted a meeting of "Ranganathan Research Circle". After the meeting, the hosts took us for a visit of their library. Well I was fascinated to see latest technology working for their library.
An ordinary library user needs to have his / her RFID embedded library card to get hold and carry home a book of his/her choice. That too without having to come in personal contact with library staff.
Library Card
The reader would be able to enter the library by swiping one's card at a special entry / exit automated gate.
Automated Entry / Exit Gate
Once in the library, the user can search library catalogue. It is computerised and available in the form of an online database commonly known as OPAC - Online Public Access Catalogue. I found three terminal aesthetically placed in front of large banner depicting the utility of catalogue.
Library OPAC
Searching OPAC could be useful. But as we know, most users would browse through the stacks. This comes naturally to human mind. One can easily browse the library stack area with help of guides. These guides are full of colours with well thought out background and labels.
Stack Guides
Book stakes are made of wood that matches with the lovely atmosphere of the library. The shelves are made of think glass slabs. Not wonder sliding books to withdraw give a silky touch and hence protect book edges.
Stack Area
Book with RFID Tag
After getting a document of choice, one can choose to sit in a well lighted reading area. Few computer workstations are also available. So internet and electronic databases are are also available to readers.
Reading Area
Taking a book home is easy. Keep it with library card on the Automated Issue / Return Kiosk. Issue it and take it away. The automated security exit would not make any fuss.
Automated Issue / Return Kiosk
I hope Indian Libraries would soon witness adoption of such innovative technologies. The library staff would be spared from routine issue / return activities. Now they can devote their time and energy in some better activities. The 'stereo typed public perception' about librarians would also change.
So can we call such libraries as ATM Libraries?
1 Dec 2007
Some links to ejournals and open access to health science information
NN/LM Electronic Journals and Open Access
Selection of links to basic resources about electronic journals in the health sciences and about open access to health science information.
30 Nov 2007
Student activism: How students use the scholarly communication system
..If librarians offer workshops on getting published or on copyright, they should not miss the opportunity to emphasize the benefits of open access to the author. Early research suggests that student authors are particularly motivated by the accessibility and impact of their work.2 Discussing the dynamics, legal aspects, and market forces of scholarly communication will help students to make informed choices about sharing their research..
Health Care Initiative for US Patients
Personalized Health Care
Personalized Health Care Initiative will improve the safety, quality and effectiveness of healthcare for every patient in the US.
Lexonomy
Lexonomy | A Taxonomy Primer
Taxonomies…thesauri…classification systems…synonym rings. We’ve heard all of these terms in the context of the Web. As Web sites expand, the task of organizing them has become increasingly problematic and complex.
Open Courses in Medical Informatics
Department of Health Administration and Policy
(George Mason University) has Open Online Courses Focussed on Health Informatics and Electronic Helth Records.The syllabus and the content of all lectures are available on the web without password protection.
(George Mason University) has Open Online Courses Focussed on Health Informatics and Electronic Helth Records.The syllabus and the content of all lectures are available on the web without password protection.
27 Nov 2007
Firegoose
BioMed Central | Abstract | 1471-2105-8-456 | The Firegoose: two-way integration of diverse data from different bioinformatics web resources with desktop applications
Firegoose incorporates Mozilla Firefox into the Gaggle environment and enables interactive sharing of data between diverse web resources and desktop software tools without maintaining local copies.
Biomedical Informatics
VUMC Department of Biomedical Informatics (FAQ)
Biomedical Informatics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with biomedical information, its structure, acquisition and use. "Biomedical" is used here in its broadest sense, to include research, education, and service in health-related basic sciences, clinical disciplines, and health care administration.
26 Nov 2007
BioMed Central YouTube channel
BioMed Central blog : BioMed Central YouTube channel debuts
BioMed Central has strated a Channel on YouTube. Authors and editors can upload suitable videos to YouTube and then inform BioMed Central.
23 Nov 2007
Sabeer Bhatia launched Live Documents
Bangalore-based InstaColl, co-founded by Sabeer Bhatia, Sumanth Raghavendra and Kaushal Cavale, today launched an application called Live Documents, which is a hybrid online-offline office suite of applications with features similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
With Live Documents one can:
- Access your documents on the web or on the desktop
- View and edit your documents from anywhere at any time in your browser in a rich user interface that provides the functionality and responsiveness that you expect in your familiar desktop applications.
- Use your existing desktop Office application (Microsoft Office currently and shortly Open Office) as a smart client that permits offline access to your document
- the next time you go online, Live Documents automatically synchronizes all changes to ensure that there is a single version of the truth.
22 Nov 2007
CAVEman Project
Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics - CAVEman: 4D Mapping of Genomic and Medical Information
CAVEman Project aims to create visual maps of information about diseases that have a genetic component, such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. Using an immersive virtual reality environment called the CAVE, the research team will integrate a high-resolution digital atlas of a human body with medical data related to specific diseases. The final result will be a next-generation 4D (space and time) visual system to "see" disease processes and the effects of interventions, such as drugs, on these processes.
Showing Google Scholar Citation in PubMed
PubMed Citations – Userscripts.org
A script takes each result in a PubMed search and then queries Google Scholar to get the number of times it has been cited. Then it places a link with this info next to each search result, linking to the citations in Google Scholar.
JournalBot
Harvey-Semester - JournalBot
JournalBot screens several medical journals for the latest articles on certain topics and displays the results as an RSS newsfeed
21 Nov 2007
Become a Medical Librarian
Medical Library Association | Careers: Medical Librarianship : Join the Healthcare Team
MLA's 11 minute video, "Join the Health Care Team: Become a Medical Librarian," explores the roles and environment of today's health information professionals.
Authors and Their Rights
Association of Research Libraries :: Authors and Their Rights
U.S. Copyright law gives the author of an original work, such as a scholarly article, the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, adapt, publicly perform, and publicly display the copyrighted work. Copyright protection is now automatic. The author obtains these exclusive rights at the moment the copyrighted work has been “fixed in a tangible medium,” such as when a written work has been saved on a computer's hard drive or printed.
Cutter Program
Dewey Cutter Program [OCLC - Support]
The Dewey Cutter Program is a software program that automatically provides cutter numbers from the OCLC Four-Figure Cutter Tables (Cutter Four-Figure Table and Cutter-Sanborn Four-Figure Table) upon input of text.
19 Nov 2007
Medical Informatics, Music and Masti
Hello, I am back from KOCHI. I was there for participating in IAMI 2007 conference. It was a Biennial Conference of Indian Association for Medical Informatics held at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences from 16th to 17th November 2007, Kochi.
This conference had one rather unusual session called "Debosium". There were two teams of four each in this session. The teams were given topics at random. They were supposed to prepare the same in Five Minutes and were to speak FOR or AGAINST it as required by the topic. The persons from audience were picked at random to give their views on the topic and the presentations.
Yet another surprise was in store at Banquet. The Medical Informaticians turned out to be Musicians too. It started with President and Vice-President of IAMI.
Towards the end of the conference, I went to see the local beauty of Kochi. finally I took a boat ride. I took some photos of the 'Marine Drive' and Shipyard from the boat.
This conference had one rather unusual session called "Debosium". There were two teams of four each in this session. The teams were given topics at random. They were supposed to prepare the same in Five Minutes and were to speak FOR or AGAINST it as required by the topic. The persons from audience were picked at random to give their views on the topic and the presentations.
Yet another surprise was in store at Banquet. The Medical Informaticians turned out to be Musicians too. It started with President and Vice-President of IAMI.
Towards the end of the conference, I went to see the local beauty of Kochi. finally I took a boat ride. I took some photos of the 'Marine Drive' and Shipyard from the boat.
12 Nov 2007
Bentham OPEN
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. Home Page
Bentham Publishers are launching more than 200 peer-reviewed open access journals during this year, under the banner of "Bentham OPEN".
7 Nov 2007
31 Oct 2007
Webmashup.com
Webmashup.com / News, APIs & Mashups
Webmashup.com is the open directory for APIs & mashup example websites.
xISSN
WorldCat Web service: xISSN [OCLC - WorldCat Affiliate tools]: Home
Web service to retrieve a list of International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSNs) associated with a submitted ISSN, based on WorldCat information.
Internet Librarian International 2007 Presentations
Internet Librarian International 2007: Presentation Links
Links to PowerPoint slideshows, Web sites, and other electronic resources used in support of presentations at Internet Librarian International 2007
27 Oct 2007
Library Technology
John’s Eight Laws of Library Technology « John Miedema
"..You can’t build a system out of Web 2.0 widgets. Forget technology; go conceptual. Think very hard about what patrons want; most don’t know...
..RSS is a simple Web 2.0 technology that completely changes our relationship with the web. Instead of having to go to the web, the web comes to you! If you learn nothing else about Web 2.0, learn RSS..
..Library technology is less interesting than librarianship.."
26 Oct 2007
Pronetos
Pronetos | Professor's Network
Pronetos is a home to communities and scholars of every academic discipline: a global think-tank of the leaders in your field
Visible Body
Visible Body features a 360 degree, whole-body, 3D model that
allows unparalleled investigation and study of human anatomy and
physiology. Available on the Web, the Visible Body runs in Internet
Explorer on any PC* connected to the Internet. A free, fully
interactive release is scheduled for mid-November 2007.
allows unparalleled investigation and study of human anatomy and
physiology. Available on the Web, the Visible Body runs in Internet
Explorer on any PC* connected to the Internet. A free, fully
interactive release is scheduled for mid-November 2007.
22 Oct 2007
UNESCO and Digital Libraries
The Director-General attends the presentation of a vision for a World Digital Library: UNESCO-CI
..Encouraging and enabling the preservation and enjoyment of the cultural, scientific and information heritage of the world, including its digital heritage, is a priority for UNESCO..
19 Oct 2007
World Digital Library
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.
Spark
Ignite Realtime: Spark IM Client
Spark is an Open Source, cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations. It features built-in support for group chat, telephony integration, and strong security.
Blog-ging by librarians
The use of Weblogs (blogs) by librarians and libraries to disseminate information
..Blogs have an impact on the activities of information professionals and they are a novel information channel for transferring information both to fellow professionals and to other users of the Web. In addition they also serve as an efficient tool for "marketing" library events and resources. Librarians use blogs to disseminate professional and general information, while libraries often use blogs for announcements.
16 Oct 2007
12 Oct 2007
koonji.com
Koonji - The Best Way to Get Things Done
It resource guide for a particular subject which is broken down into steps. Each step describes a process and can include narrative, recommended links lists, tips, videos, and images. Users can add and recommend links, vote for and add tips, discuss guides in forums, and rate koonji guides.
Open access in Future
Rice University Webcasts: e-Science and Scholarly Communications
Open access in some form or other to such institutional research repositories is likely to become widespread in the near future.
Evidence-based medicine
CEBM > Home
- Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.
- Evidence-based medicine is neither old-hat nor impossible to practice.
- Evidence-based medicine is not "cook-book" medicine.
10 Oct 2007
Zyxware Technologies
www.zyxware.com » Blog Archive » Zyxware Releases Free and Open Source Software to track epidemics like Chikungunya, Malaria, Dengue
A new software developed by Zyxware Technologies all about to revolutionize the way information is collected and processed in tracking diseases like Chikungunya, Dengue, Malaria. The software, is being dedicated to the nation as Free Software under the GNU General Public License (GPL)....
A demo of the application has been set up at Health Monitoring System. The application has two modules - GIS/Report Interface and Management Console. The GIS interface displays reports and graphs of the collected data. Data collection and statistical analysis are/can be done in the Management Console.
9 Oct 2007
5 Oct 2007
2 Oct 2007
25 Sept 2007
LiveStation
LiveStation is a software that delivers a range of live radio and television channels to your computer via the Internet.
There is no need to install a tuner, aerial, or any additional hardware.
10 Sept 2007
Unesco paper on Archival and Preservation System
Towards an Open Source Archival Repository and Preservation System: UNESCO-CI
Recommendations on the Implementation of an Open Source Digital Archival and Preservation System and on Related Software Development
7 Sept 2007
31 Aug 2007
Visibility Forum for Scientists and Researchers from Developing Countries
Visibility - A Forum for Science & Research in the Developing World. It is aimed to be a Platform for the Communication of Science, Research & All Fields of Study between the Scientists and Researchers of the Developing and Developed Worlds.
29 Aug 2007
Webology Journal
Webology is an international peer-reviewed journal in English devoted to the field of the World Wide Web and serves as a forum for discussion and experimentation. It serves as a forum for new research in information dissemination and communication processes in general, and in the context of the World Wide Web in particular. Concerns include the production, gathering, recording, processing, storing, representing, sharing, transmitting, retrieving, distribution, and dissemination of information, as well as its social and cultural impacts.
Web 2.0 as a Social Movement
Web 2.0 as a Social Movement
Web 2.0 development are compared to demonstrate how Web 2.0 is a manifestation of an ongoing interaction between this human rights social movement and communication technology. The values associated with Web 2.0, especially the participative role of users, are congruent with those expressed in the movement to achieve a right to communicate.
Nature into OA Archiving?
Nature Precedings
Nature Precedings is a place for researchers to share documents, including presentations, posters, white papers, technical papers, supplementary findings, and manuscripts. It provides a rapid way to disseminate emerging results and new theories, solicit opinions, and record the provenance of ideas. It also makes such material easy to archive, share and cite. The whole service is free of charge.
20 Aug 2007
ticTOCs project
ticTOCs project aims to develop a freely available service which will transform journal current awareness by making it easy for academics and researchers to find, display, store, combine and reuse tables of contents from multiple publishers in a personalisable web based environment.
31 Jul 2007
30 Jul 2007
Site for Patent searching
FreePatentsOnline at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/ is an online site for free patent searching.
27 Jul 2007
VuFind
VuFind is a library resource portal. It enables library users to search and browse through library's resources.
The portal may include:
* Catalog Records
* Locally Cached Journals
* Digital Library Items
* Institutional Repository
* Institutional Bibliography
* Other Library Collections and Resources
Biomedical Information Retrieval Programme for Medical Information Professionals
We are having concluding session for the "Biomedical Information Retrieval Programme for Medical Information Professionals, 23rd - 27th July 2007. NIC, New Delhi". I was a faculty for it. The RSS and Mashups were the most interesting topics to the participants.
Training Participants
Participants of Biomedical Information Retrieval Programme for Medical Information Professionals, 23rd - 27th July 2007. NIC, New Delhi.
26 Jul 2007
Self Publishing Tool Kit
Self Publishing Tool Kit: How to Write and Publish a Novel
"With 100% online services and very little cash outlay, you can go from idea to published book in no time. You may not be the next JK Rowling (actually, you probably won't be the next JK Rowling), but you could easily be holding a freshly printed paperback with your name on the cover. All you need to do is write"
19 Jul 2007
18 Jul 2007
Now an Open Library
Open Library (Open Library)
Imagine a library that collected all the world's information about all the world's books and made it available for everyone to view and update.
16 Jul 2007
Indian Biomedical Journals and Open Access
I am back to Delhi after presenting our paper at
PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference Blog: "Indian biomedical journals and Open Access: a case study at Indian Medlars Centre (IMC), New Delhi, India".
PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference Blog: "Indian biomedical journals and Open Access: a case study at Indian Medlars Centre (IMC), New Delhi, India".
4 Jul 2007
22 Jun 2007
OCRopus
ocropus - Google Code
OCRopus is a state-of-the-art document analysis and OCR system, featuring pluggable layout analysis, pluggable character recognition, statistical natural language modeling, and multi-lingual capabilities.
21 Jun 2007
BibMe
BibMe - the fully automatic & free bibliography maker (MLA, APA & Chicago)
Bibliography maker that auto-fills.
20 Jun 2007
19 Jun 2007
13 Jun 2007
Campus e-mail on Google?
BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Google's e-mail for universities
Google is expanding its empire into universities - with entire campus e-mail networks switching over to using Google's e-mail service.
5 Jun 2007
OAI-ORE
OAI-ORE - DigiRepWiki
ORE will develop specifications that allow distributed repositories to exchange information about their constituent digital objects. These specifications will include approaches for representing digital objects and repository services that facilitate access and ingest of these representations. The specifications will enable development of a new generation of cross-repository services that leverage the intrinsic value of digital objects beyond the borders of hosting repositories.
16 May 2007
Playing with mobile to Blog
I have been wondering for last few days to try blogging using my mobile phone. Blogger.com does offer such a facility. To get initiated, I had to sent an email to go@blogger.com . This email can not be from a web based service thus using operamini was out of question. I had to configure my Sony Ericsson K750i to use Gmail POP facility. I had to google from phone to find settings. It worked in the very first attempt. Mail to go@blogger.com was successful. As expected an email containning an URL for a new blog and a six digit code was received. All I had do was to visit http://go.blogger.com and enter this code. This became most difficult task for me. I could not do it with my phone. The verification code in the image was the main problem. I had claim my new blog through a PC. While code verification process it allows you change to exiting blog. I am through all the proccess. I am composing this very item on email client of phone. As you are able to read, means I am successful.
11 May 2007
10 May 2007
Why Web 2.0 is leading back to full cataloging
Library Juice » Why Web 2.0 is leading back to full cataloging
Free-form tagging has its place, but where consistency and accuracy counts, as it does in many Web 2.0 sites, I think reliance on users will turn out to have been a dead-end, and there will be a new appreciation for our professionalism.
Scribd - Open Library of Documents?
Scribd - With a mission to create the world's largest open library of documents.
9 May 2007
Best Practice Guidelines for Digital Collections
Best Practice Guidelines for Digital Collections at the UM Libraries.
by Yvonne Carignan, Janet Evander, Gretchen Gueguen, Ann Hanlon,
Kate Murray, Jennifer Roper, Tony Ross, Susan Schreibman
7 May 2007
Author addendum
Peter Suber, Open Access News
Author addendum is a lawyer-written modification of a publisher's standard copyright transfer agreement, stapled to the original and signed by the author. As a contract modification, publishers may accept or reject it. There are many author addenda in circulation, the most important --in chronological order-- are by SPARC (May 2005), MIT (January 2006), Science Commons (June 2006), OhioLINK (August 2006), SURF-JISC (October 2006), and CIC (February 2007).
1 May 2007
Joost
Joost™ - What's Joost?
Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.
24 Apr 2007
Ebooks Blog
Free Ebooks
Free downloadable books on Computers , Engineering, Health, Music ,Fiction, Love and Romance, Management, Medical etc.
23 Apr 2007
Open access on a zero budget
Open access on a zero budget: a case study of Postcolonial Text
A strong commitment to the principles of developing a new field of inquiry committed to global issues of access to knowledge, in combination with open source and Internet technologies, has lowered the barriers to the exercise of academic freedom on a modest, but nonetheless global scale.
16 Apr 2007
Digital Libraries
Digital Libraries: Contents (1999)
From the 1999 manuscript of Digital Libraries, by William Arms, (c) 2000 M.I.T. Press.
10 Apr 2007
9 Apr 2007
ADBI Distance Learning Center
Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) through its
ADBI Distance Learning Center provides educational opportunities and knowledge outreach in developing countries through information and communication technology (ICT).
ADBI Distance Learning Center provides educational opportunities and knowledge outreach in developing countries through information and communication technology (ICT).
3 Apr 2007
30 Mar 2007
7 Mar 2007
Do we practice what we preach?
My today’s mailbox included two special emails. One contained an attachment of proceeding of an International Conference having about 600 pages. I was very glad to receive it and hurried went through it. But it was the second email which forced my to think – it contained information on availability of another conference proceedings as a priced publication. I am asking myself a number of questions. Why should not the conference proceedings be archived somewhere and available through Open Access? What is the ultimate aim of any conference? Why do authors contribute and participate in such conferences? What are the organizers looking for? Perhaps all this is done to spread and share experiences among the professionals. But then, are there better ways?
LIS community from the very beginning had been the champions of “Access to Knowledge”. Why can’t then the proceeding of every LIS conference be made Open Access through archiving? Aren’t their enough LIS Repositories? Or we do not practice what we preach.
While I seek answers from my inner self, may I appeal to LIS Conference Organizers – Let the Knowledge Spread through Open Access.
LIS community from the very beginning had been the champions of “Access to Knowledge”. Why can’t then the proceeding of every LIS conference be made Open Access through archiving? Aren’t their enough LIS Repositories? Or we do not practice what we preach.
While I seek answers from my inner self, may I appeal to LIS Conference Organizers – Let the Knowledge Spread through Open Access.
6 Mar 2007
Me, My Phone and Internet
When, I am not in Office, I use my Mobile Phone to Access Internet.
However, I do not use expensive solutions like Black Berry.
What I use is a Sony Ericsson, k750i to access Internet. One can even use a low-end phone like NOKIA 6030 or any other phone having a GPRS facility (About Rs. 3K). I use Pre-Paid SIM (TRUMP) from MTNL (Delhi), Which gives best value for money. For GPRS facility there is no rental for TRUMP. It only charges 2 (Two) Paise per KB of download. With this I can:
1. Read my Gmails (Other mails should also not be a problems
2. Reply to email in that is urgent.
3. Moderate a number of Yahoo Groups
4. Track http://openmed.nic.in by logging in.
5. Do Google search at times.
6. Login in Orkut (A social networking plateform).
7. Can use Google Talk and other (IM) accounts using a JAVA application http://www.reporo.com/
8. Can also use an Innovative Email Client (http://flurry.com/).
9. Do a WIKIPEDIA Search.
10. I forgot to mention that I use OperaMini (http://www.operamini.com/ as my browser.
11. In fact one can visit any normal site with GPRS. However there is some problems with AJAX enabled sites.
Only problem is the tedious typing that one has to do on the normal phone keypad. PDAs / Phones with QWERY keyboards (Touch Screen like O2 or Blackberry type) can make typing more easy. Anyway, just keeping in touch with emails and Just-in-Time searching can also be done. But then for Serious Typing - Cyber Cafes are always around. After all My requirements are not that of a Businessman!!
However, I do not use expensive solutions like Black Berry.
What I use is a Sony Ericsson, k750i to access Internet. One can even use a low-end phone like NOKIA 6030 or any other phone having a GPRS facility (About Rs. 3K). I use Pre-Paid SIM (TRUMP) from MTNL (Delhi), Which gives best value for money. For GPRS facility there is no rental for TRUMP. It only charges 2 (Two) Paise per KB of download. With this I can:
1. Read my Gmails (Other mails should also not be a problems
2. Reply to email in that is urgent.
3. Moderate a number of Yahoo Groups
4. Track http://openmed.nic.in by logging in.
5. Do Google search at times.
6. Login in Orkut (A social networking plateform).
7. Can use Google Talk and other (IM) accounts using a JAVA application http://www.reporo.com/
8. Can also use an Innovative Email Client (http://flurry.com/).
9. Do a WIKIPEDIA Search.
10. I forgot to mention that I use OperaMini (http://www.operamini.com/ as my browser.
11. In fact one can visit any normal site with GPRS. However there is some problems with AJAX enabled sites.
Only problem is the tedious typing that one has to do on the normal phone keypad. PDAs / Phones with QWERY keyboards (Touch Screen like O2 or Blackberry type) can make typing more easy. Anyway, just keeping in touch with emails and Just-in-Time searching can also be done. But then for Serious Typing - Cyber Cafes are always around. After all My requirements are not that of a Businessman!!
5 Mar 2007
Ask Dr Wiki
Ask Dr Wiki
Ask Dr Wiki
A medical wiki with the goal of creating a collective online memory for physicians, fellows, residents, and medical students.
IzyMail
IzyMail - WebMail in your Inbox
IzyMail enables you to access webmail from major providers such as AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail or Windows Live with any eMail application.
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