Resource of the Week: World Legal Information Institute (WLII)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

Believe it or not, we stumbled across this awesome resource while poking around in the Wirtz Labor Law Library at the U.S. Department of Labor website.

Officially launched in November 2002, the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is a “free, independent and non-profit global legal research facility” affiliated with several academic legal information institutes, among them Cornell’s Legal Information Institute and others from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa, Britain and Ireland, and the University of the South Pacific School of Law. WorldLII provides a single search facility for over 270 databases from 48 jurisdictions in 20 countries.

The user may select a resource area, among which are: legislation, case law, superior or high court decisions, journals, treaties, law reform, domain name decisions, and secondary materials.

Alternatively, a jurisdiction or geographic region may be selected, with an emphasis on Pacific and Commonwealth countries (for the United States only Supreme Court decisions are included).

Among recent additions to the website are World Trade Organization Panel Decisions from the last few years to present, New Zealand Privacy Commissioner Cases 1996 to present, and materials from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (CanLII).

And then we noted, at the end of this description, a hat tip to ResourceShelf contributing editor Stuart Basefsky of Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Martin P. Catherwood Library. Which sealed the deal for us. Stuart routinely brings to our attention quality resources that we otherwise might never have seen.

World LII currently provides access to “891 databases from 123 countries and territories via the Free Access to Law Movement,” which comprises legal information institutes from all over the world, including the venerable Legal Information Institute at Cornell University School of Law — online since 1992.

The collection of databases is basically one-stop shopping for everything available via its University-based LII members:

• Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)
• British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)
• Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII)
• Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII)
• Legal Information Institute (Cornell)
• Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII)
• Wits University School of Law (Wits Law School)

Contentwise, these databases include case law, legislation, treaties, legal reform, law journals, and subject-specific information. These are organized geographically, by continent and then by country. Almost everything is in the English language, unless otherwise noted. A powerful federated search tool allows you to choose which databases to search. A dropdown menu provides Boolean options; additional options include sorting by relevance, word counts, and number of results displayed at one time. Extensive help is available.

You can also browse the offerings here by subject category — from Accounting & Auditing to Women & the Law. Clicking the Other Indexes link at the top of this page displays a list of law-oriented subject indexes available via other websites. (Scroll down below the main subject index.)

The World LII Catalog “provides links to over 15,000 law-related web sites in every country in the world. WorldLII’s Websearch makes searchable the full text of as many of these sites as WorldLII’s web-spider can reach.” Or browse by country. A Recent Additions page links you to the newest resources.

Other features include:

• Law Journals Project:
  

  The Law Journals Project aims to provide a comprehensive search facility for all academic law journals available via WorldLII and other Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) and the nearly 20,000 law journal articles and academic papers available through the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN). Currently, the search facility below allows searches over 45 law journals databases.

• International Treaties Library
• Global Legal Information Network
  

  (GLIN)
  GLIN is a public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN. All summaries are available to the public, and public access to full texts is also available in participating jurisdictions.

• International Courts & Tribunals Library
  

  The International Courts and Tribunals Project (ICT Project) aims to provide a comprehensive search facility for final decisions of all international and multi-national courts and tribunals, whether global or regional. The search facility below allows searches over the decisions of 20 International Courts and Tribunals, comprising over 20,000 decisions. Most databases contain complete backsets and are updated regularly. A few are still being completed.

• Law Reform Project
  

  This project aims to make searchable from one location all of the databases specialising in Law Reform available on any of the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) that are part of WorldLII. The databases currently included are listed below. Individual databases may be searched on their respective host LIIs.

• Final Appeal Courts
• Privacy Law Library
  

  This project aims to make searchable from one location all of the databases specialising in Privacy law available on any of the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) that are part of WorldLII. The databases currently included are listed above. Individual databases may be searched on their respective host LIIs.

To keep track of new information on the site, you can subscribe to World LII News.

Resource of the Week — fueleconomy.gov
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

This site — jointly maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection — is kind of a no-brainer choice for a Resource of the Week, given what is going on at the nation’s gas pumps. I will soon be working just five miles from home on a daily basis, and I downsized my motorcycle to a little guy who gets close to 60 mpg, so I am officially opting out of this mess as much as I possibly can.

On the other hand, I’ve used information found on this site to easily answer several ready reference-type questions in the past week alone. It’s a remarkably decent mix of educational and practical content. So even if you’re getting around on foot, bicycle or public transit, you’ll definitely want to have a look around here.

It’s not a bad idea to start with the FAQ. Here you’ll find a lucid explanation of how fuel economy ratings are derived, whether you can or can’t determine where the gasoline at your local station comes from, how to report suspected price gouging, and much more.

An entire section of this site is devoted to gas prices. Here you’ll find gas mileage tips, fuel economy information for new and used cars (back to 1985), links to sites that will help you find the cheapest gas in your area and get an idea of how prices in your state compare to prices elsewhere, and an extensive FAQ about fuel prices. (Hint: Here is where you’ll find extensive information about historical gas prices, which is something I’ve been asked to find on several recent occasions.)

Teachers and students, take note. There is much fodder here — especially via the articles highlighted in the News section — for school reports on such topics as how electric cars and hybrid vehicles work, alternative fuels, and new technologies being explored by automobile manufacturers.

There’s even a “social media” element here — the Your MPG feature allows you to post the actual fuel mileage for your vehicle(s) and see how it compares to what other owners are getting. And you can get a detailed “energy impact score” for your vehicle that shows — among other things — average mileage (including that reported by other drivers), petroleum consumption, air pollution, and safety. You can even do a side-by-side comparison of up to four different vehicles.

Oh, and mobile device users get their own version of fueleconomy.gov, which offers:

• Fuel economy ratings for all cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. back to model year 1985
• Annual fuel cost estimates
• Annual petroleum use (barrels of domestic and imported petroleum)
• Carbon footprint (tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually)

Especially in “these troubled economic times,” we think fueleconomy.gov is an excellent use of tax dollars. E-government at its best.

Resource of the Week — Association for University Business and Economic Research: State Economic Data Sources
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

As an information professional working in Florida, I routinely encounter requests for Florida-specific business and economic data. One of my favorite fishing holes for this type of information is the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at the University of Florida (”Tracking Florida’s Population and Economy Since 1929″). While some resources from this agency cost money — i.e., the Florida Statistical Abstract, which can be found in virtually every Florida library anyway — there is plenty of information available here for free. Population estimates, demographic data, housing and building data, price indexes, working papers, research reports… The BEBR in the News archive alone is quite valuable, as it offers both press releases and links to news articles citing BEBR information.

At some point, it occurred to me that university-based resources like this probably exist in every state and that, perhaps, someone somewhere has compiled a list of these. And that is how I discovered the Association for University Business and Economic Research (AUBER)

The Association for University Business and Economic Research

• Advances research in business, economics, and public policy;
• Promotes the collection, analysis, and dissemination of business, economic, and public policy information, with emphasis on regional issues;
• Facilitates continuous improvement in the management, research, and services of AUBER members; and
• Demonstrates the importance of the economic development, outreach, and research roles of AUBER members, and increases the visibility of member units to their colleges, universities, and other constituencies.

The interactive map here makes it easy to locate university-based economic research agencies in every state and, sometimes, individual AUBER members who are associated with these agencies. Click on a state and you get a listing of agencies beneath the map. Click on the name of an agency for more information, including address, phone/fax/e-mail, key individuals, types of research activities performed and a link to the website, where available. Alternately, you can use the search form to locate people by title or last name, or agencies by research activity.

There’s also a searchable database of publications available from the various research agencies. Search by keyword, state, title or university, or view listings by publication type: Articles, Business Directories, Data Profiles, Economic Forecasts, Electronic Publications, Factbooks, Journals, Monographs, Newsletters, Statistical Abstracts. Note that these are title listings only; they don’t link to the actual publications, or even to the agencies that produced them. So if you see something you’d like to look at, you’ll have to go back and rummage around in the institution listings to locate the website of the agency that produced it, and then visit that website to find the document. (Alternately, of course, you can just try searching on the title in Google or any other large web engine.) It’s kind of inconvenient, but at least it gives you a quick look at what types of reports are available from these research units.

Bonus resources — other places to look for state and regional business/economic information:

+ Bureau of Economic Analysis: Regional Economic Accounts — Beaucoup tables, charts and graphs; many interactive.

+ Bureau of Labor Statistics: U.S. Economy at a Glance — Interactive map; also offers metro area data.

+ Business.gov: State and Local Resources — Interactive map (”Click on your state to find links to State regulations and local governments.”)

+ globalEDGE — State Insights — New-ish business-oriented resource mentioned here on ResourceShelf earlier this month.

+ National Association for Business Economics: Regional Economic Data and Issues — Useful list of links to relevant census data and information provided by other agencies — universities, federal and state agencies, etc.

+ U.S. Census Bureau: 2002 Economic Census: Geographic Area Series Schedule. From the U.S. Census Bureau; data is also available by business sector.

+ U.S. Census Bureau: Business and Industry: Census Bureau Economic Programs — “Economic Statistics by Geography, Sector, and Frequency”

+ U.S. Census Bureau: State Export Data — Includes:

• U. S. Exports of Goods by State, Zip Code Based, by NAICS-Based Product
• State Exports by Commodity and Country
• World Trade Atlas - State Export Edition Online.

+ U.S. Small Business Administration — State Economic Profiles

Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories, published in 2007 is a review of how small businesses fared in their respective states and how they contributed to the economic condition in their states and that of the United States. This annual profile contains sections on the following topics: the number of firms, industry composition, small business income, banking, women and minority business ownership, and employment.

Resource of the Week — Best of ResourceShelf 2008
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

If you couldn’t make it to the Computers in Libraries (CIL) conference last week, we’re bringing a small part of it to you, in the form of Gary’s annual Best of ResourceShelf presentation.

Gary’s presentation links to a wide range of tools and websites in several key ResourceShelf categories — mobile, multimedia, data mining/search, digitization, FireFox add-ons, people search, Web preservation, aerial imagery, resources for educators, and location-based and real-time information.

Note that the first item on this page says Shirl’s links. I am, in fact, allowed out in public from time to time, and I enjoyed helping Gary with this presentation.
Read the rest of this entry »

Resource of the Week: Subject Guides from the UC-Boulder Government Publications Library
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

If you’re one of our regular readers, you already know how fond we are of government documents. So you can imagine how our virtual pulse quickened when we encountered this large and beautiful collection of government-oriented subject guides covering everything from Acronyms to Worldwide Demographic Information.

Mixed in with the actual guides are links to such key resources as The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance and earthquake/seismic info from the U.S. Geological Survey. But sometimes, when you expect a direct link to a resource, you get a nice surprise. For example, click on the link for the Government Accountability Office, and you are taken to a page that explains what it is, what it does, and how to use it, including integration with the local OPAC.

The subject guides themselves comprise collections of links to agencies, databases, reports and other items, with brief annotations. There are some unusual collections here, including:
+ Ask an Expert!, including links to “Ask an Expert” pages at many different agencies, including the Census Bureau, the National Park Service, and NASA. This unusual aggregation is a clever idea.
+ Kids Pages from various agencies (including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Who knew?)
+ Declassified Documents, from the U.S. and other countries.
+ Statistical Information by State
+ Technical Reports — a nice compendium, which also includes links to subscription databases accessible to the university community.

Just cruising through some of these guides, we reacquainted ourselves with valuable resources that we haven’t visited for awhile. For example, in the Charities guide, we found a link to the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics, which we’d quite forgotten about. And the Religion Statistics guide is an excellent compendium of sites we know about and use regularly — e.g., Adherents.com — and The Pluralism Project at Harvard University, which we think is new to us. (Look at this collection of “in-depth profiles of individual religious centers,” which can be sorted by state or by religious tradition.)

Be aware that not every link in every subject guide is to an official government agency. But research institutions, think tanks, etc., also provide valuable information, and we’re glad to see that they were included as well.

And don’t leave this site without checking out the ginormous database of library-created research and subject guides and tutorials. Says here that the three “most request guides” are:
+ History Course Web Pages
+ Aerial Photography and Satellite Imagery
+ Religious Studies Subject Guide

Resource of the Week: Quick Guide to Military Information
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

I’ve just completed a major update of a resource I’ve been maintaining for several years. Though it is not a glitzy resource by any stretch of the imagination, I thought it would also be helpful to share this Quick Guide to Military Information as a Resource of the Week. Unless you work with military information on a regular basis, it is can often be frustrating to find what you need.

What’s here? Links to resources that provide the type of information I often need. Everything here — at least right now — is freely accessible on the open Web; all of these links were functional from my network at home. That being said, there are at least a few sections on some of these websites that are not open to the general public.

This guide is divided into nine sections:

• Major Directories and Search Engines
• Academic Sites
• Demographics and Statistics
• Facilities and Installations
• International Interest
• Legal
• Rank Insignia and Uniforms
• Miscellaneous (defense business, imagery, publications, etc.)

Note that the International Interest section contains a few items that are not specifically “military” in nature, but I’ve found them to be useful in the past, for ready reference.

The image repositories are particularly interesting. Unless otherwise specified, all DoD images are in the public domain, although you should credit the photographer for anything you use. You’ll also find audio and video on some servers. For example, check out this “Sounds From the Department of Defense” link. Who knew?

At any rate, enjoy…and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Resource of the Week: CDC Health Information for International Travel 2008 (The Yellow Book)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

The venerable Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy has long been informally acknowledged as the hypochondriac’s bible. However, the traveling hypochondriac may be much more interested in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Yellow Book.

The Yellow Book is published every two years by CDC as a reference for those who advise international travelers of health risks. The Yellow Book is written primarily for health care providers, although others might find it useful.

And not just the mainstream hypochondriac who, having exhausted the possibilities in the Merck Manual, is looking for more exotic diseases about which to obsess. This resource has attracted a diverse clientele in the 25 or so years since it was first published as a pamphlet that advised travelers on how to prevent such diseases as smallpox. The Yellow Book has proven to be a useful reference for the travel industry, international businesses, missionary and humanitarian aid organizations, and just plain regular folks who are planning a vacation abroad.

You can get a quick idea as to the scope of this resource by browsing what’s new in the 2008 edition, including updated yellow fever requirements and recommendations, updated malaria information, and a variety of new sections:

• Responsibilities of Clinicians, Travelers, and the Travel Industry
• Influenza section now includes information about avian and pandemic influenza
• Skin Problems in Returned Travelers
• Deep Vein Thrombosis/Pulmonary Embolism
• Humanitarian Aid Workers

Read the rest of this entry »

Resources of the Week: International Business and Economics Statistics (Part 2)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

Last week, we introduced you to a variety of sources for international business/finance/economic statistics. This week, as promised, we have even more for you.

+ You may have never heard of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). It’s not like you or I would have any reason to transact business with this institution, “an international organisation which fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks.” As a matter of fact, we couldn’t — even if we wanted to: “As its customers are central banks and international organisations, the BIS does not accept deposits from, or provide financial services to, private individuals or corporate entities.” Read more on the “About BIS” page.

There are, however, a few good reasons to visit this website. For one thing, it offers a comprehensive alphabetical list of links to central banks all over the world. It also hosts a Central Bank Research Hub, where you can find working papers from central banks worldwide. There are many different ways to browse these papers. You’ll also find a repository of speeches by central bankers.

Finally, there are A LOT of statistics here:

• the cross-border lending and borrowing of internationally active banks in key financial centres, including offshore centres (banking statistics)
• issuing activity in international and domestic securities markets (securities statistics)
• operations in over-the-counter and exchange-traded derivatives markets (derivatives statistics)
• effective exchange rate (EER) indices for 52 economies (effective exchange rates)
• operations in the global foreign exchange markets (foreign exchange statistics)
• external debt positions of individual countries based on BIS banking and securities statistics as well as on data from other international organisations (external debt statistics)
• payment and settlement systems in major financial centres (payment statistics)

–
+ B&E Datalinks, sponsored by the Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association, offers “a comprehensive set of links to data sites on the Web along with a user-based assessment of the quality of each site.” The search page allows you to either browse the sites by broad category (Macroeconomics, Labor and General Microeconometrics, Business Datasets, Finance) or do a keyword search in any or all of the categories.

For each resource, you’ll find a brief description, the date the entry was last modified, and a user-provided rating. There’s also a link to “more info” — generally a brief description of the organization providing the data — and another link that allows you to rate that resource. Do be aware that some of the entries have not been updated in quite awhile, so you will find the occasional dead link or outdated description.
–
+ The International Monetary Fund
“is an international organization of 185 member countries. It was established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.” We really like the Country Information Page, where you can browse IMF reports and publications by country. There’s some good, detailed stuff here, and much of it is quite current. Browsing under Afghanistan, for example, we unearthed a “Statistical Appendix” (PDF; 385 KB), dated February 20, that was filled with GDP data, industrial sector statistics, transportation and communications data, and agricultural data — including “Opium Production and Prices, 1994–2007.”

The Data & Statistics page, of course, is also worth a bookmark. Here you will find links to a number of statistical databases (some subscription, most free), manuals and guides, and even a few online discussion groups.
–
+ The Pliny Fisk Library of Economics and Finance (Princeton University Libraries) offers several useful resource collections:

• Basic Sources of Economic Statistics
• Economic and Political Risk
• International Trade Statistics

Don’t miss the excellent Guide to Globalization Resources, also available as a flat file. Keep in mind that, as with most academic libraries, research guides like this often contain links to subscription resources available only to members of that academic community.
–
+ Also worth a look — RenSearch: International Business Statistics from the Rensselaer Research Libraries, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
–
+ The Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA) offers a nicely annotated page — Really Useful Links for International Trade: Trade and Economic Statistics. And take a look at the Country Profiles and Resources — “…links to resources for most countries in the world as well as more than 80 country profiles developed by Export Enterprises, of Paris, France.” There’s also a link to Exportnavigator.com, a database of roughly 10,000 free market reports of various vintages.

Take a good look at the Tools of Trade section in the lefthand navigation panel on the FITA side; it offers a variety of resources, including glossaries, foreign exchange info, maps, trade law, transportation and logistics info, and much more. FITA, by the way, is kind of an umbrella organization for more than 450 independent international associations such as world trade clubs, chambers of commerce, and various related professional associations. It also offers a free bi-weekly e-mail newsletter — Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals — which highlights some of the resources on the website.
–
+ Finally, have a look at the World Bank’s Data & Research website. There is a wealth of material here, including working papers, research articles, journals and other publications. If you’re mainly interested in statistics, you can jump right to the page where this type of information is directly available.

Resources of the Week: International Business and Economics Statistics (Part 1)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
We’ve had a request — inquiring minds would like to know where to find international biz stats on the Web. We actually turned up a number of promising fishing holes for you to explore. We’ll introduce you to some of them this week and finish up with the rest in next week’s ROTW posting.

+ Davidson Data Center and Network (DDCN)

Davidson Data Center and Network (DDCN) is an integrated, fully searchable database on transition and emerging markets. DDCN archives and provides free access to socio-economic micro and macro data on transition economies.

This is a three-faceted resource:

• Data Locator — DDCN points to data resources, primarily available on the web, held by other institutions (both free data and from commercial vendors).
• Archiving and Dissemination — DDCN also archives and disseminates data. Data sets that can be made available in the public domain are downloadable directly from this website at no charge. To save files from this site, we only require a one-time, free registration.
• Data Exchanges — DDCN facilitates data exchanges between researchers and between institutions. For data that cannot be made available in the public domain, DDCN assumes an active role in the brokering of access.

What, exactly, can you find here? If you browse by subject, you’ll see…

Macro Data (Comprehensive Databases, Macroeconomics and Growth, Monetary Data, Fiscal Data, Prices, Finance and Banking, Labor Force, Employment and Earnings. External Sector Data, Enterprises and Privatization, Poverty and Income Inequality, Population and Social Indicators, Science and Technology, Economic Sectors, Governance and Anti-Corruption)

Micro Data (Labor Force Surveys, Household Budget Surveys, Census Data, Public Opinion Surveys, Other Surveys, Administrative Records)

Firm Level Data (Enterprise Surveys, Bank Surveys, Other Firm Surveys, Administrative Data)

You can also browse by country, use the simple search form on the home page, or take advantage of an advanced search form that offers a multiplicity of options via dropdown menus and check boxes. Note that not all the data available here is free.

DDCN “is funded jointly by the William Davidson Institute (WDI) and a National Science Foundation (NSF) seed grant.” WDI, at the University of Michigan, “is a non-profit, independent, research and educational institute dedicated to developing and disseminating expertise on issues affecting firms in transition & emerging market economies.”
–
+ Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, provides “the European Union with statistics at European level. By harmonising statistics from the European statistical system (ESS) to a single methodology, the statistics are made comparable.” This is a scary-large, complex site. If you think you’re going to be visiting here regularly, you may want to download and watch a special three-minute Flash-based animation (zip file) that “gives a short overview on Eurostat’s mission and its activities. It shows all the products available. The show gives a guide to the publications and services and informs how to consult and extract the data stored in the existing databases. It also explains how to make self extractions for personalised tables.” There’s also a comprehensive FAQ.

Alternately, you can check the Eurostat Press Centre, where you can browse the press release archive or search these and/or a broad range of other Eurostat collections via a simple-to-use form. You can also restrict your search to one or more major “themes” — General and regional statistics, Economy and finance, Population and social conditions, Industry/trade/services, Agriculture and fisheries, External trade, Transport, Environment and energy, Science and technology.

The site also offers a collection of RSS feeds (most are country-specific). A couple other items of note: a Release Calendar for EU business/economic/financial indicators, and “a continuously updated table (xls) containing the main euro-indicators for the euro area, the EU27, the Member States and, when available, for the US and Japan.”
–
+ globalEDGE, a comprehensive international business portal from Michigan State University’s International Business Center, offers an extensive and well-annotated selection of Statistical Data Sources. The sites are also rated as to usability and content, and they are grouped into three sections: Global, Regional, and Country-Specific.
–
+ International Finance bibliography, from the Gelman Library at George Washington University.

This bibliography includes major sources of multi-country financial information available at Gelman Library. It does not include sources of financial data for individual countries. Other relevant bibliographies are International Economic Statistics and Indicators, Stocks, and Bonds. This page is arranged in the following sections:

• General Statistics
• National Accounts Statistics
• Currency and Foreign Exchange
• Balance of Payments
• Debt
• Payment Systems Statistics
• Foreign Direct Investment
• Governmental Finances
• Locators
• Directories
• Other Reference Materials

Note that this bibliography contains print as well as online resources, and some of the electronic resources are restricted to the GWU community — though you may be able to get access through your own library or institution.
–
Remember to watch for Part 2 of this posting next week.

Resource of the Week — OECD Data Sets
by Stuart Basefsky, Contributing Editor

Editor’s Note:

From time to time, readers of ResourceShelf.com and Docuticker.com see postings about NEW DATA SETS available for FREE from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. These are often discovered by Stuart Basefsky, producer and editor of the IWS Documented News Service, who is also a contributing editor to the two FreePint products mentioned above. We asked Stuart to tell you about this resource collection.

These data sets are exciting information products now available in the public domain, without requiring a subscription to SourceOECD. They are being added to a single online platform which enables one to search for and extract data from across OECD’s many databases for the first time. This platform is called OECD.Stat.

Currently more than 285 data sets can be extracted from this product. The beauty of the platform is that each individual data set has its own link. Consequently, each data set can be cited separately. For example, readers were recently notified about:

+ Dataset: Trade in Services by category of service
and
+ Dataset: Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base

Rather than sending people to a general and sometimes confusing aggregation of data sets, their specific need can be met with one URL. In addition, OECD.Stat offers three key features:

• Discovery: Search for complex statistical data across OECD databases with one click access to the datasets themselves from the search results.
• Mix and Merge: Extract data from across all databases in one enquiry. New functions enable users to gather and assemble data from various datasets in unique and customizable tables.
• Metadata: Improved metadata down to the level of each datapoint means that users can understand the origins of each number and the overall context, aiding comprehension.

  In an attempt to make statistics easier to find, by more people, the Statistics Dissemination Project of OECD is creating services with the following unique features:

  • A searchable index - of over 285 data sets.
  • A citation tool – to enable one to cite accurately and cut/paste into commonly used tools, such as EndNotes and RefWorks.
  • Selective download – the ability to choose variables of interest and download the data directly to your PC for analysis using any database, spreadsheet or statistical package.
  • Context and comprehension – the ability to drill down into the detailed statistical metadata.
  • Alerts – to notify you of database updates.
  • Links between data and analytical material – the ability to discover and navigate seamlessly between analytical outputs and related statistics.
  • Explore data - by theme or by subject and use keyword searches to find relevant datasets.
  • Single platform – having all of the data in one place will offer new opportunities for improving data comparability.

  To discover on your own the numerous data sets available, simple browse the themes in the left margin under the following headings: General Statistics, Agriculture and Fisheries, Demography and Population, Development, Economic Projections, Education and Training, Finance, Globalisation, Health, Industry and Services, International Trade and Balance of Payments, Labour, Monthly Economic Indicators, National Accounts, Prices and Purchasing Power Parities, Productivity, Public Sector, Taxation and Market Regulation, Regional Statistics, Science/Technology/Patents, Social and Welfare Statistics, Non-member Economies.

Resource of the Week: A Fresh Look at the GPO Catalog of Government Publications
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

Been to the Catalog of Government Publications (CGP) lately? If you’re a documents librarian…well, maybe. But the rest of us might not visit it so often, so we thought it would be useful to provide a fresh overview of how to use it and what you can find there.

The CGP Basic Search page, which is the default entry point, provides a nice, clean interface and a no-brainer search function.

Welcome to the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)! The CGP is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word, or click on “Advanced Search” for more options.

The catalog offers you the option to find a nearby Federal depository library that has a particular publication or that can provide expert assistance in finding and using related U.S. government information. Click on the title of interest from your search results list. Then click on the Locate in a Library link within the displayed record.

Click on the Preferences link above the keyword search box, and you can specify how many brief records you want to see on a results page (3. 10, 15 or 20) and how you’d like them displayed — brief, extended, short, standard, or just the document title and a link to its full text on the Internet. If you want more options, click the Advanced Search link. Dropdown menus allow for diverse field searching and Boolean options, and you can limit your search chronologically, by format, and by language. Perhaps the most intriguing dropdown menu is the one at the very bottom of the form page that allows you to choose which catalog you wish to search:

• National Bibliography of U.S. Government Publications (e.g., “everything”)
• Congressional Serial Set Catalog
• Congressional Publications
• GPO Access Publications
• Internet Publications
• Periodicals
• Serials

Not sure what these various catalogs contain? Visit the detailed Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) Search Tips/Help page, where you’ll also find detailed information on the various search options — basic, advanced, expert, and browse searches, which are all available via tabs at the top of the catalog page.

This page offers a way to limit your search to one or more of these catalogs via check boxes.

Note that you can add items to a “bookshelf” as you search, and then display this collection of items during your search or when you’re finished. And you can e-mail items from your search results list, your bookshelf or within a specific item record. You do not have to register to take advantage of these options.

Along with the various search options at the top of the page, there is also a New Titles tab. This is a government documents junkie’s delight.

New Titles predefined searches, a new feature, returns dynamic results from the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) for new titles, both electronic and tangible, which have been cataloged during the specified period of time. These predefined searches only contain new, not updated titles. As dynamic results, they have the same sort and view options and features as the CGP. Search results will change based on GPO’s cataloging activity.

Scroll down the page to access New Electronic Titles Monthly Archive Reports:

New Electronic Titles monthly archive reports are static reports generated from data retrieved from the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP). Reports will be made available in the succeeding months by the middle of the month following.

Since April 2005, we have used the data from the CGP to generate these reports, while we continued to refine the process. With the September 2006 report, our methodology to generate these reports changed. Reports contain only new, not updated records, from the CGP. Development to refine the report format is ongoing.

The current reports will be made available in HTML format with links in the titles to the bibliographic records. These access links to the bibliographic records will remain in the reports for approximately six months, after which time the reports will be archived as PDF files, retaining only the links to the full text of the publication.

Having trouble finding what you want…or need the advice of an expert? The Government Information Online (GIO): Ask a Librarian service may be just what you need — especially if, for whatever reason — you do not have ready access to a library with a specialized government documents department.

GIO is a free online information service supported by nearly twenty public, state and academic libraries throughout the United States. All participants are designated Federal depository libraries in the U.S. Government Printing Office’s Federal Depository Library Program. Many are also official depository libraries for their other types of governments and public agencies.

This service — sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (”a consortium of 12 research universities, including the 11 members of the Big Ten Conference and the University of Chicago”), the Government Printing Office, and the University of Illinois at Chicago — operates by chat (Monday through Thursday, 8am to 6pm; Friday 8am to 5pm; CST) or e-mail. You can direct your question to one of about 20 different libraries (academic, public, state) scattered across the country, or let it go out to all participating libraries. Obviously, if you need state or local government information, you would want to pick a participating library in your state, if one is available. Not every state is represented here.

For more information about this service, see this recent posting on the Free Government Information weblog.

Resource of the Week: UN Environmental Programme Maps and Graphics Library
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

If you’re one of our regulars here at ResourceShelf, you know that we are map junkies. There is no such thing as Too Many Maps. So we are…happy, happy, joy, joy that the database at the UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics library currently contains more than 1,000 items.

What you need to know about UNEP/GRID-Arendal:

The mission of GRID-Arendal is to provide environmental information, communications and capacity building services for information management and assessment. Established to strengthen the United Nations through its Environment Programme (UNEP), our focus is to make credible, science-based knowledge understandable to the public and to decision-making for sustainable development.

OK, so that is a mouthful…typical mission statement. Actually, there’s a whole lot of stuff available on/from this website besides the maps and graphics library, including:

• Vital Ozone Graphics - resource kit for journalists
• Global Outlook for Ice & Snow report
• UNEP (coastal) Shelf Programme One Stop Data Shop
• The EarthWire news portal
• Globalis, an interactive world atlas

But we, of course, are drawn to the maps and graphics library time and again. You’ll find some surprising things here. On a recent visit, the Random Graphic of the Day (lower right side of the page) was a color coded world map: Mobile phones per 1000 people. Provided by the World Bank, this map is part of a special collection/publication called Vital Waste Graphics. But…mobile phones? That seems strange…until you consider the worldwide problem of e-waste. Something else we like — Random Graphic of the Day is available as an RSS feed.

We also liked the world Map of the Moment, at the upper left on the page — Biodiversity loss: state and scenarios 2006 and 2050. As with the Random Graphic of the Day, extensive information about the map is available right below it, including information on how it can be used “in presentations, web pages, blogs and reports,” and whom to credit.

Over on the lefthand side of the page, you can browse the library by region, by theme (biodiversity/conservation, disasters/natural hazards, freshwater, pollution, urban issues, climate change, environment and security, marine issues, poverty, waste), or by collection, e.g.

Most of the UNEP/GRID-Arendal maps and graphics have been published in a project, publication or web-site.

A simple keyword search box is here; searching for e-waste generated 164 different maps/graphics. Alas, searching for ewaste turned up nothing, so obviously this is not the most sophisticated search tool. Be resourceful and try different spellings, synonyms, etc.

Below the search box is a small collection of direct links to interactive maps, such as Globalis mentioned above. At the bottom of the lefthand navigation panel are some links to the most recent maps/graphics added to the library. These are cool; if you mouse over them, you get a preview of each item. And an RSS feed is available.

Don’t use RSS? You can subscribe to Random Graphic of the Day or Latest Graphics by e-mail, from the News and Feeds page. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you’ll find links to “Random Graphic Widgets” that you can display on your desktop, blog, MySpace page, etc.

Resources of the Week: Three-for-One
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor.

I end up “collecting” a lot of sites that I’d like to share in this weekly posting, but they do start “accumulating” after awhile, so here is a three-for the-price-of-one ROTW.

+ MissingMoney.com — Yes, the name of this site sounds somewhat…suspect, so let’s poke around a little bit and see what we can find out about it:

Welcome to MissingMoney.com, a free website. MissingMoney.com and its contents and related services are operated by the ACS Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse a service of Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., dba ACS Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse, a Delaware corporation (”ACS”).
…
ACS is the leading provider of unclaimed property support services to state governments. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (”NAUPA”) is the trade association of state governmental entities responsible for administering their respective states’ unclaimed property programs. At the behest of NAUPA and with the cooperation of the respective states and territories of the United States (collectively, the “States”), ACS operates this web site, MissingMoney.com (the “Web Site”), as a means of providing via the Internet ACS’ proprietary database (the “National Database”). ACS is compensating NAUPA in the form of an annual royalty payment, for the exclusive use of their endorsement, name and the logo on the National Database. This Database is searchable by the general public at no charge and integrates unclaimed property information from various states and territories of the United States.

OK, so here is one-stop searching for “unclaimed property” in most of the 50 states. What is “unclaimed property”?

Common types of unclaimed property include:

• Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents
• Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends
• Uncashed checks and wages
• Insurance policies, CD’s, trust funds
• Utility deposits, escrow accounts

Unclaimed property does not include real estate property.

On the home page, you can perform a quick search — type in a first name, a last name and a two-letter state abbreviation. I immediately discovered that I am owed some amount under $100 from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. So I click the “Yes I Can Claim” button, which takes me to another page explaining that I must submit my claim through the State of Florida’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property (which has the charming URL — http://www.fltreasurehunt.org/). A link takes me there, where I need to perform another unclaimed property search, but alas, clicking on the appropriate link brings up a black page in both Firefox and Safari. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe the server was having A Bad Day. I make a note to try again with Internet Explorer at work.

When you receive your initial page of search results, notice at the top that you can now do a name search across all the states in this database at once. Search tips are available, as is a detailed FAQ.

If you prefer to search directly at a particular state’s official unclaimed property website, you can click on the small U.S. map on the home page, which will take you to a larger version. Then you can click on an individual state to be transported to that state’s unclaimed property website. Below this map, you will find official unclaimed property contact information for all 50 states; Washington, DC, and Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
–
+ Centre for Russian Studies’ Database — This resource is hosted by NUPI – the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, a quasi-think tank that was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 1959. The database, which is in English, contains:

• Information on all 89 regions/subjects of the Russian Federation
• Information on more than 1000 persons (biographical data, career, institutional attachments, party attachments, functions)
• Information on about 50 political parties and groups
• Composition of the 1995 State Duma (members of fractions and parties)
• Election and referenda results for the time period 1991-1996
• Information on more than 150 “most important institutions” (ministries, state committees, research institutes, think tanks)
• Information on roughly 100 ethic groups living in Russia, with geographical distribution

In all honesty, it’s difficult to tell when the information was updated; it definitely is not current. Also, there are some bad links, and sometimes you run into unexpected instructions in Norwegian. But it’s pretty decent for contemporary history, and there’s plenty to look at if you poke around in here.
–
+ Ships at sea: positions and weather observations — If you click on the prominent All ships worldwide link, you will see that it’s crazy-busy out there in the world’s waterways. If you go clicking around this amazing “live tracker’ map, you will bring up lists of ships in the vicinity, along with the time each was last reported (UTC), latitude and longitude, and invidual ship’s call sign. Each ship name is a live link that you can click on to view its route to this point. Links to information about weather, tides, water temperature, wind speed, etc., are also available here.

If you don’t want to see “all ships,” you can click on links that will restrict the display to:

• Tall ships
• Oceanographic research ships
• Cruising yachts
• Cruise ships and ocean liners
• Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway
• Panama Canal
• Marine Society webships
• Persian Gulf, Suez Canal, Red Sea
• Alaska State Ferries
  
• Cape Horn

You can also search for individual ships by call sign, name, or latitude/longitude vicinity. Keep in mind that not all ships report weather/position information for any number of reasons. So if you’re looking for a specific vessel and can’t find it, don’t automatically assume the worst.

Resource of the Week: Finding People (via The Virtual Chase)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

This was a “by request” Resource of the Week. And it is a good suggestion. Something everyone seems to want/need to do at some point is track down a person or certain types of people. There are proprietary databases that make this relatively simple, but these are not cheap, and most people do not have access to the best of them.

So I was going to pull together a list of sites…until I rummaged around in my bookmark list and realized that this had already been done — by an acknowledged expert, who is also a good friend of ResourceShelf. Genie Tyburski’s Virtual Chase website is, without a doubt, up there among the creme de la creme of Internet resources. Perhaps you’ve been fortunate enough to hear Genie speak at a conference or, perhaps, read an article she has written. The Virtual Chase, which Genie started as hobby, is now owned by Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll. Genie, whose background is in law librarianship, is Web manager for this amazing resource. And ResourceShelf contributing editor Pete Weiss is The Virtual Chase mailing list consultant.

There is much to see here, but we’re concentrating this week on the “Finding People” section of the site. This collection of richly annotated resources is organized into five categories:

• Public Records and Public Information
• Phone Lookup & Reverse Telephone Directories
• Finding E-mail Addresses
• White Pages Outside of the U.S.
• Disciplinary Actions

The Public Records area starts with a brief Introduction to Public Records Research, in which we find a snippet of information from BRB Publications‘ Public Records Online, that tells us “only 35 percent of public records are available online, and many of these contain insufficient information for verification purposes.” “Moreoever,” the caveat continues, “data in the online records is often erroneous. To be certain you have found information about the right person, you should verify it with the source.” As a news researcher who regularly works with public records databases, all I can say is, “Amen.”

In this section, there is a page of Tools for Finding Public Records and Public Information as well as a large collection of actual public records sources. Should you have any question about the currency of this information, check the bottom of the page for the date it was last revised. Both of these pages were updated on January 10, 2008 (as of the date this ROTW was written). Additionally, each resource annotation includes the date it was added.

Many of the public records databases are state-specific. If you’re looking for this type of information, you may also want to check the wiki-based site we featured as Resource of the Week last August — State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States, from the ALA Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT). Daniel Cornwall, Government Publications/Technical Services Librarian at the Alaska State Library, the mover and shaker behind this particular resource, recently alerted me in to State Agency Database Highlights, a related weblog which draws attention to special resources in this wiki.

The Phone Lookup & Reverse Telephone Directories section lists a few you may not have heard of, along with evaluations of same. Generally speaking, it’s been my experience that if you can’t find someone’s listing in a standard online phone directory, it’s probably not findable on the Internet (for free). But you could get lucky.

The Finding E-mail Addresses page is essentially a chart of directories and major features. Note that this page has not been updated since March of 2006. Same for the White Pages Outside of the U.S. chart. The State Library of New South Wales (Australia) has a good annotated list of these, or take a chance with Numberway, which bills itself as “the easy way to find phone numbers all around the world.” If you know of any other good collections of these directories, we’d like to know about them.

Finishing up with The Virtual Chase People Finder Guide…the Public Disciplinary Actions collection comprises mostly state-specific resources. If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, try the GODORT State Agency Databases wiki mentioned above.

By the way, don’t miss the handful of authoritative “people research” articles at The Virtual Chase:

• The Art of Public Records Research
• Finding and Researching Experts and Their Testimony
• The Making of a Public Records Researcher
• How To Vet an Expert
• Not All Criminal Records Checks Are Created Equal

Other resources worth a look:
+ SearchSytems Directory of Public Record Databases (Over 30,000 sources)
+ NetrOnline Public Record Databases (excellent for Real Estate Info)
+ BRBPress and BRB Press Blog

+ Emailpattern.com — Find a Company’s Email Pattern

This site (Wiki) can help you find a prospect’s email address if you have the following information:

• Prospect name
• Prospect company

Search by company name (search box on left), and you can pull up the email pattern for the company - which will allow you to figure out your prospect’s email address.

Resource of the week: GymTicket.com
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

‘Tis the season — New Year’s resolution time. This is the year you are going to get out from behind the computer and exercise regularly. Aren’t you?

Well, we stumbled across an excellent gym and health club database that will help you find a convenient facility that meets your needs.

GymTicket.com has the most complete directory of over 20,000 gyms and health clubs across the country. Find out about gyms near you and get free guest passes at participating gyms, health clubs and fitness centers.

Free guest passes. What a concept. Try before you buy.

Get started by typing in your address and we will display a list of gyms and fitness centers closest to your location. We update our database regularly so you can access the latest information on gym memberships from our health club directory.

You can also browse a directory of gyms by brand (i.e., Crunch, Curves, Bally, Gold’s), which is handy if you travel and want to know if there might be a branch that has reciprocal privileges with your home location.

Or you can browse to find health clubs offering:

• Yoga Classes
• Pilates Classes
• Kickboxing Classes

When you search by location, the results page is a Google Maps mashup. You can mouse over the locations or browse the list below the map. Next to each facility listed is a “Free Guest Pass” button that you click to bring up an e-mail form to request a pass. (The gym will call you to confirm.) When you click on the name of a facility, you get a page with detailed information about it, including a map and (sometimes) photos. Sometimes special “deals” are offered.

This is a commercial site; its parent company is GymInteractive.com. It generates revenue by charging health clubs a small fee for every “lead” — e.g., a potential member who signs up for a free pass. Read more about the company and the business model here (PDF; 3.6 MB).

When it comes to actually joining a commercial gym, you need to be an active and aggressive consumer, because you will definitely face “the hard sell.” With that in mind, here is some expert advice:
+ 10 Things Your Fitness Club Won’t Tell You (SmartMoney.com)
+ 10 Things Your Personal Trainer Won’t Tell You (SmartMoney.com)
+ Health clubs: Which to join and what to look out for (Consumer Reports; subscription required, but it’s very current — February 2008 issue)
+ FTC Facts for Consumers — Health Spas: Exercise Your Rights (Federal Trade Commission)
+ Your state’s consumer affairs website will likely have useful information about health clubs and health club contracts, consumer rights and applicable state laws. For example, the Florida Department of Consumer Services offers a “Health Studios” brochure that includes a toll-free number you can call to check if complaints have filed about a particular facility.
+ Check the Better Business Bureau website as well; input your zip code on the home page and you’ll be taken to “the BBB nearest you,” where you can check the track record of a gym before you sign on the dotted line.
+ And the Better Business Bureau offers some advice for potential health club members: Joining a Gym? Complaints to BBB reveal how to get fit while avoiding the pitfalls

As a health club alternative, “pedometer fitness” — which has been around for a couple of years — suddenly seems to be surging in popularity. 10,000 steps day…that’s the basic goal. Learn more about it here:
+ NPR: Pedometer Fitness Fad Takes Off
+ Pedometers and Step Counting (from About.com)
+ People walk 1 mile more if wearing pedometer (MSNBC.com)
+ Using Pedometers to Increase Physical Activity and Improve Health (Journal of the American Medical Association; subscription required for access to full text)
+ Pedometers: Walking by the numbers (Consumer Reports; subscription required)