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w | 3 Jul 03:31
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Re: Federated search applications-why did you choose?

We are testing several locally-developed federated search 
applications that focus on resource discovery and ranking. 
The search results show the number of matches to the user 
query and display links that provide “live” connections to 
the native interfaces at the point of the completed search. 
Users can then, if they wish, also modify the search in the 
native interface. We want to utilize the value-added 
features of the native interfaces, including custom full-
text links and our local SFX link resolution button. The 
custom full-text and faceted search links are not 
consistently or typically passed through by vendor federated 
search systems.

One example is our multi-OPAC search at:
http://search.grainger.uiuc.edu/voyagersearch/


We are also testing an undergraduate oriented interface at:
http://search.grainger.uiuc.edu/searchaid/searchassist.asp


and an engineering/business system where users can choose 
specific databases at:
http://search.grainger.uiuc.edu/searchaid/searchaid.asp


Bill Mischo


---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:06:09 -0400
>From: "Pons, Lisa (ponslm)" <PONSLM <at> UCMAIL.UC.EDU>  
>Subject: [Web4lib] Federated search applications-why did
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Nicholas Eshelman | 3 Jul 16:40
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UConn ERM Survey

Hello,

The University of Connecticut Libraries are conducting an environmental
scan of commercial Electronic Resource Management (ERM) products. If you
are using an ERM, we would be very interested in hearing about your
experience with it. The following survey has 24 questions and should
take less than 10 minutes to complete. We will post anonymous results to
our wiki (http://wiki.lib.uconn.edu/wiki/ACQ-SER_ERM/survey ) by August
1, 2006.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=235892304393  

Thanks very much. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------

Please report problems with access to electronic resources to
elibrary@...
<mailto:elibrary@...>  

Nicholas Eshelman

Electronic Resources Librarian, University of Connecticut

nicholas.eshelman@...
<mailto:nicholas.eshelman@...> 

voice: (860) 486-3363 ; Fax: (860) 486-6493
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John Fitzgibbon | 3 Jul 16:34
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the efficacy of filtering software

Hi,

I just wish to use the mailing list as a sounding board to test if my
understanding of how filtering software works is correct.

Filtering software companies use software to retrieve web pages as
search engines do. The retrieved web page is scanned for blocked
keywords. If the page contains any of the blocked keywords, the address
of the web site is added to a list of blocked sites.

This so-called black list is being updated all the time. The list is
downloaded onto the user's PC from time to time and whenever an http
request is made, this list is first checked to determine if the request
will be permitted.

Because the Web is vast and ever changing it is not feasible to keep the
black list up to date

Filtering software will fail to block a large number of pornographic
sites.

Filtering software may, therefore, give parents a false sense of
security; it may give them a mistaken belief that all pornographic sites
are blocked.

Is my analysis correct? If a number of sexual swear words are entered
into a search engine, what proportion of the sites returned is not
blocked by the main filtering software? Would it be one site per ten
i.e. one site on every result page would be accessible or would it be
much less than this?
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Sigrid Kelsey | 3 Jul 16:55
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Call for Papers: Computer Mediated Communication

Call for Chapters for the
Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication
Editor: Sigrid Kelsey, MLIS
Louisiana State University

Introduction: Technology has changed communication drastically in
recent years. Podcasts, Email, the World Wide Web, Blackberries, cell
phones, text messaging, wireless connections, and other forms of
computer mediated communication (CMC) have transformed communication
in numerous ways, not only facilitating the speed and sometimes ease
of communicating, but redefining and shaping today's communication
norms.  The Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication
will provide comprehensive coverage of the most important current
issues, trends, and technologies related to professional computer
mediated communication.

Coverage: The Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication
will feature chapters (5000-7000 words) of a scholarly nature, written
by experts offering in-depth descriptions of concepts, issues, and
trends in various areas of CMC.  The purpose of this handbook is to
provide academic articles written in a more non-academic style, in the
sense that each article should focus on a specific topic -- rather
than a general treatment of CMC -- keeping in mind a readership with a
varied background.  This will allow scholarly ideas to be accessible
to a wide range of readers.  This book will explore various forms of
CMC chapter by chapter and discuss the broad implications that each
medium is having on communication.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to:
- Email
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Traugott Koch | 4 Jul 11:53
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July 15: early registration deadline for the NKOS workshop and ECDL

The preliminary  Networked Knowledge Organization Systems (NKOS) 
workshop programme (see below) was published at the website 
(http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/nkos/nkos2006/) early June.

**It is time to register now, since there is a considerable increase in 
cost after the early registration deadline July 15.**

Please register for participation at the ECDL conference site 
http://www.ecdl2006.org/registration.jsp
At this page, it is possible to register for the workshop only, in case 
you don't want to attend the whole conference.

See you in Alicante,
Traugott Koch

=========

5th European Networked Knowledge Organization Systems (NKOS) Workshop,
EDCL 2006, September 21nd, Alicante, Spain
======================================================================

Preliminary workshop programme:

09.00 - 09.45     Welcome and introductions
Traugott Koch

       Session 1: KOS representation and services

09.45 - 10.30
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Mike Taylor | 5 Jul 10:06
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New proposed ISEN resources

Matthew Theobald writes:
 > I wanted to let you know that documentation is available for a new
 > standard that would be like an integration of the ISBN, DNS
 > registration, Dublin Core & LCSH.  The patent application has been
 > published [...]

BZZZZT!  No, thanks.

 _/|_	 ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike@...>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "They say that these are not the best of times, but they're the
	 only times I've ever known" -- Billy Joel, "Summer, Highland
	 Falls"

_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4lib@...
http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
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Stacy Pober | 5 Jul 15:04
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Reviews of ERM products

Do you know of an article or something similar that has comparative evaluations
of ERM products?

--
Stacy Pober
Information Alchemist
Manhattan College
O'Malley Library
Riverdale, NY 10471
stacy.pober@...

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Deborah Kaplan | 5 Jul 15:52
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Re: the efficacy of filtering software

On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, John Fitzgibbon wrote:
> Because the Web is vast and ever changing it is not feasible to keep the
> black list up to date
> 
> Filtering software will fail to block a large number of pornographic
> sites.
> 
> Filtering software may, therefore, give parents a false sense of
> security; it may give them a mistaken belief that all pornographic sites
> are blocked.

For a colleague who needed to make a presentation to his local
public library's board, about six months ago I downloaded Net
Nanny and installed it using all of the defaults. I then spent 30
minutes looking around on the Internet and produced a report of:

1. All of the visual and textual porn I was able to find with no
problems at all, and

2. All of the legitimate and educational sites I attempted to
reach which Net Nanny blocked.

It was a frightening list. Now, obviously this was only one
software package and I didn't spend much time playing with the
defaults, but the general rules still apply.  Filtering software
gives a *very* false sense of security.  The only way to block
all porn is to have a whitelist of approved sites instead of a
blacklist of forbidden sites, and that can block valuable
information that your patrons need access to.
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Thomale, J | 5 Jul 15:58
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Usability of "fly-out" navigation menus

Hello all,

I'm trying to gather information about the usability of "fly-out"
(pop-out) navigation menus--ones in which links are organized vertically
and a mouseover reveals submenus. I've spent some time searching for
hard usability statistics on these types of menus, and--in between all
of the opinions and passionate arguments for or against--I've found a
lot of conflicting information. I thought I'd pose this question to the
list and see if anybody could offer any insight or further resources
(preferably recent ones).

I've found some information from a few years ago (2000-2001) criticizing
more the shoddy implementation of the menus than the concept itself. In
fact, I remember hating them when I first saw them popping up (ha...pun
not intended): they used DHTML that relied completely on Javascript, and
they required some pretty difficult mouse movement to use. But now there
are techniques for creating almost-pure CSS versions (with only an .htc
behavior file required for IE compatibility) that are accessible and
seemingly easier to use.

I have found a couple of more recent studies that actually do address
the concept and not the implementation, but their results conflict.

The first one:

http://www.eastonmass.net/tullis/WebsiteNavigation/WebsiteNavigationPape
r.htm

was presented at a conference a year ago, and compared six different
styles of navigation. It found that the fly-out menus fared the worst
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Nick Baker | 5 Jul 16:48
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Re: Usability of "fly-out" navigation menus

We just completed a redesign of our library site 
(http://www.williams.edu/library/) using CSS-based dropdown menus for 
persistent navigation and a new layout for the homepage.  A striking 
result of our usability studies was that students chose the menus over 
identical links within the homepage by a factor of 5 to 1.  Based on 
this and the rest of my experience, I would say that the dropdown menu 
has arrived in website design.  People understand the menu concept and 
know what to do when they see one.  And CSS has progressed to the point 
where menus don't pose an accessibility hurdle, so long as you give 
people with screen readers a link to skip the menu.

-Nick

Nick Baker
Reference and Web Services Librarian
Williams College Libraries

Thomale, J wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>I'm trying to gather information about the usability of "fly-out"
>(pop-out) navigation menus--ones in which links are organized vertically
>and a mouseover reveals submenus. I've spent some time searching for
>hard usability statistics on these types of menus, and--in between all
>of the opinions and passionate arguments for or against--I've found a
>lot of conflicting information. I thought I'd pose this question to the
>list and see if anybody could offer any insight or further resources
>(preferably recent ones).
>
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Gmane