Snoopings…

The EDUCAUSE Core Data Service provides comparison data about Higher Education information technology environments and practices by campus to help benchmark, plan for, and make decisions about IT on your campus.

Annual survey summary report from 2002 to present are freely available.

The Web-based database service, which includes tools that enable the creation of peer groups of like campuses, on-the-fly generation of summaries of the data for each question, and viewing of raw data identifiable by institution, is available only to EDUCAUSE member campuses.

See: http://www.educause.edu/apps/coredata/

The U.S. Department of Education releases “Digest of Education Statistics: 2007” — an annual roundup of data on colleges and public schools made public over the past year.

See: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/

The Old Bailey Proceedings Online http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/oldbailey/ makes available a fully searchable, digitised collection of all surviving editions of the Old Bailey Proceedings from 1674 to 1834. It allows access to 100,000 trials, free of charge for non-commercial use.

In addition to the text, accessible through both keyword and structured searching, this website provides digital images of the 60,000 original pages of the Proceedings, advice on methods of searching this resource, information on the historical and legal background to trials at the Old Bailey, links to descriptions of published and manuscript materials relating to the trials covered in the Proceedings, and a special section for schools.

Contemporary maps, and images and transcriptions of related manuscript and printed materials for the decade 1746 to 1755, have also been provided.

The Sonoma County Public Library system has just gone live with its downloadable aubiobooks service.

To use the service, one must have a device that supports Windows Media Player (WMA) 9.0 and higher. Unfortunately, this means no iPods. Click the link below for more information on how to download and equipment requirements etc: http://www.sonomalibrary.org/catalog/audiofaq.html.

The collection is relatively small at the moment (it appears there are 676 titles) but SC Public intends to keep adding to this collection. It has been noted that about 15% of the collection (so far) is specifically targeted to children and teens.

Go to http://downloads.sonomalibrary.org/ to start listening to books!

Another fun tool from Google. Google Chart API allows you to generate charts dynamically on your web pages. Line charts, pie charts, bar charts, Venn diagrams, with your choice of size, colors, and labels.

Sounds pretty easy: “You can include a Chart API image in a webpage by embedding a URL within an tag. When the webpage is displayed in a browser the Chart API renders the image within the page.” The Developer’s Guide, along with examples, is at http://code.google.com/apis/chart/

–pch

Alan Levine (http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways) shares his online workshop materials on how to create “some very compelling content with nothing more complex than a web browser. ”

He also has a great list of 50 tools to use to create a story. http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools

“And just to prove it can be done, I am going to try and tell the same story as an example for every tool in the list and use as an example in the workshop materials (see the final list of 50 Stories About Dominoe). It has the basic components you will use- images, text, and audio.”

From the ever-amazing DocuTicker (http://www.docuticker.com/?p=18401)

CDT and OMB Watch Release Report on Searchability of Government Information (PDF; 44 KB)
Source: Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and OMB Watch
http://www.ombwatch.org/info/searchabilitypr121107.pdf

Vital government information appears “invisible” to millions of Americans who are combing the Internet and looking for answers via the most popular search engines, according to a report released today by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and OMB Watch.

The report, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines,” highlights the shortcomings some federal agencies exhibit when trying to comply with the mandates of the E-Government Act of 2002, a landmark law that promotes access to government information and services.
…
While the report points to critical gaps in online access to government information, it makes no judgment call as to the reason this information is inaccessible, other than to expose a simple technological roadblock as the culprit; an equally simple technological fix is also noted in the report.

+ Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines (PDF; 5.4 MB)
http://www.ombwatch.org/info/searchability.pdf

This has come up several times at the ref desk:

The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11, updated November 9, 2007 (Congressional Research Service)

The Universal Digital Library, a book-scanning project backed by several major libraries across the globe, has completed the digitization of 1.5 million books and on Tuesday made them free and publically available. Full article at: CNet News article: http://www.news.com/2100-1025_3-6220358.html

The Universal Digital Library
http://www.ulib.org/

The Universal Digital Library’s Copyright Policy:

The Universal Digital Library (UDL) has books that are both in and out of copyright. It is explicit policy of the Universal Digital Library (UDL) to adhere to the copyright policies of all countries in the strictest possible interpretation. In case there has been an unintentional violation of the policies of any country, we will immediately try to rectify the situation. We request all such notifications of the copyright violations to be sent by clicking on the copyright violation hyperlink on the book metadata displayed while searching.

We are using the following conservative guiding principles for displaying content.

1. For those books that are either out of copyright or permission to scan has been granted, we display the entire contents of the book free to read. We deem any book published before 1923 as being out of copyright.

2. For books under copyright, we only display the title page and other selected pages not exceeding 10% of the pages, under the fair use policy. We currently deem any book published after 1923 as being in copyright, unless:
a. The book is in public domain (e.g. government publications and other approved not-for-profit societies)
b. Explicit permission has been received from the author or publisher or
c. There is authenticated information to indicate that this book should not be in copyright.

An author or owner of a book published after 1923 can request that the entire content be displayed on the UDL website. Please search and open the book in question in the homepage of this website. In the right side window, select copyright error link and provide all the relevant information.

http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html
Today, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announces the release of To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence, a new and comprehensive analysis of reading patterns in the United States. To Read or Not To Read gathers statistics from more than 40 studies on the reading habits and skills of children, teenagers, and adults. The compendium reveals recent declines in voluntary reading and test scores alike, exposing trends that have severe consequences for American society.
…
Among the key findings:

Americans are reading less - teens and young adults read less often and for shorter amounts of time compared with other age groups and with Americans of previous years.

* Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.
* On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.

Americans are reading less well – reading scores continue to worsen, especially among teenagers and young males. By contrast, the average reading score of 9-year-olds has improved.

* Reading scores for 12th-grade readers fell significantly from 1992 to 2005, with the sharpest declines among lower-level readers.
* 2005 reading scores for male 12th-graders are 13 points lower than for female 12th-graders, and that gender gap has widened since 1992.
* Reading scores for American adults of almost all education levels have deteriorated, notably among the best-educated groups. From 1992 to 2003, the percentage of adults with graduate school experience who were rated proficient in prose reading dropped by 10 points, a 20 percent rate of decline.

The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic implications – Advanced readers accrue personal, professional, and social advantages. Deficient readers run higher risks of failure in all three areas.

* Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension “very important” for high school graduates. Yet 38 percent consider most high school graduates deficient in this basic skill.
* American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.
* Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic and individual activities – such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events, and exercising.

Executive Summary (PDF: 819 KB)
http://www.nea.gov/research/ToRead_ExecSum.pdf
Full Report (PDF; 3.3 MB)
http://www.nea.gov/research/ToRead.pdf