How would you rate this situation that lets web visitors decide layoff

PS. As an independent market researcher and not paid by any to do so, I would highly appreciate your opinion on this technique:



In news today:
Ad agency lets web visitors decide layoff
Dec 21, 2008 04:30 AM

Susan Pigg LIVING REPORTER @ The Toronto Star
"A Brussels advertising agency has come up with a novel, new-age solution to the economic downturn – a social layoff site of sorts where you can help decide, with a click, which of its eight employees should be laid off come January.
"Take your courage in one hand and your mouse in the other," says the ironically named company, So Nice, which has created a website that's the online equivalent of The Apprentice – minus the limo rides and the rich rewards." continue reading

See also what comments are @ The Toronto Star +++ Snopes.com

NB. Thanks to BPWebNews for the polldady's lead

A Universal / Global Search Engine Remains an Elusive Target

Terminology, with a uniform and consistent meaning of any word, where is it???? 'Universal search' for instance, as a key word means different to different people, so also for the geeks. Ideally speaking, universal / global search, refers to searching deep, searching far, and searching wide--i.e., searching all databases, all formats, and all possible corners. A single company that declares has an audacious plan to organize everything we know is, Google. How complex and how difficult, semantically, it is to organize everything we know, is now a common sense--ORGANIZE in order to identify, store, retrieve, administer, and facilitate the use of local, remote, and networked databases.

Mighty Google (the world's most popular Internet search engine) does not display a uniform, consistent and systematic approach (in all domains that it owns). See an example of search results (number of search results look alike, but see the preferences for text, videos, Sponsored Links / ads, etc.) in google.co. in / google.ca / google.co.uk / google.com--additionally, each site has much more (to add whatever you like): Images Maps News Shopping Gmail more ▼. [Note: To avoid any error in search results, the above sample does not use the alternate button: pages from the ...]

And, this pattern is precisely revealed by Randall Stross, in Planet Google:

"Not only did Google fail to give consistent attention to products after they had been released, it also neglected work on bringing its disparate collections of new types of information--such as books, scholarly journals, maps, videos--together so that a single search could rummage through all of its new information silos, in addition to its database of Web pages.
Users could, of course, go to the various Google sites and do separate searches, but the sites had been developed separately, in haste, before Google could figure out how to make all of them accessible in a single search..."
"Between 2001 and 2006, several Google engineers briefly took on universal search as a project. But they lost interest before making progress." (p. 182). "In May 2007, Google was ready to announce a limited version of Universal Search.
The search results that users now saw were changed only subtly--only a few non-Web items were added to the first page of search results...." (p. 183).

Some other quotes on Universal / Global approaches:

"Universal Search is still one of those buzz words that keeps coming up within the world of search. By now, many of you probably know that Universal Search refers to search results that blend videos, images, news, local listings and more. Each of the major search engines are taking a stab at their own interpretation of Universal Search. From an online marketing perspective, Universal Search presents many new opportunities to explore and learn what works best in each platform for a site..." continue reading: Ask universal search • Google universal search • MSN universal search • universal search • Yahoo universal search

"Just so I'm clear, I don't care if Google automatically skews the results on google.co.uk even if I do NOT change to see "pages from the UK."
I'm in the UK. I know most people will automatically be redirected to co.uk, and many won't change to .com. I also know many will benefit from having the results be skewed, since they won't do it themselves.
But if I tune into Google.com, that's where I find it strange to have the skewing happen anyway. As far as I'm concerned, Google.com is the international channel that many people all tune into from various locations. Having it broadcast different results is inconsistent, I feel. But that's my take, of course" @ What Do You Hate About Google? - Search Engine Watch Forums

See also:

Google Universal Search vs Yahoo and Microsoft Live - Part 1 » SEO ...

Whaddya Call It? All-a-do-about terminology management   

Google in Jeopardy: What If IBM’s Watson Dethroned the King of Search?  By Vasant Dhar, 10.05.13 Wired Opinion

Blog Reviews - NEW YORK PARALEGAL BLOG

Blog Title: NEW YORK PARALEGAL BLOG
Blog URL: http://www.newyorkparalegalblog.com/
Blogger: Joel Irving
Blog's Date of birth: April 25, 2008

Blogger's Profile: New York Paralegal

Blog profile: Legal news and views from a NY Paralegal.

Subject Profile: Law & Legal News & Media

Tags: law legal news criminal law paralegal civil law new york paralegal

Tag Cloud @ Blogcatalog:

000
charges
department
for
in
justice
new
new
york
new
york paralegal blog
of
paralegal
pay
the
to
york

Blog Posts Frequency: November (20); October (32); September (39); August (41); July (32); June (59); May (21); April (9).

Strength: Excellent in content, analytic, focused and compassionate.

Weekness: There is none as a major issue. However, Labels, as a feature are unweildy (none has time and patience to scroll the full length of the list of all the labels). Need a smaller widget that shows prominent ones, ONLY.

First post: Advertise With New York Paralegal Blog

Bottomline of the First Post: None (to quote)

What do others say about this blog: No comments, as yet from the audience to say what they like or not. There are however, discussions about posts, and that is a positive sign of loyal audience.

Recommendation: Very useful information for all those who are interested in legal guides, judicial reports, case studies, etc.

See also Amazon's related titles:

eMetrics or Web-Metrics or Webometrics - A new book for Library & Information Professionals

Web-metrics or Web analytics as a term is yet to get a standard and acceptable name (aka. Webometrics, Webmetrics, emetrics, etc.). Interentingly, Library of Congress prefers for a book on e-metrics a subject heading, such as: Web usage mining.

The other subject headings for a book on e-metrics are:

• Digital libraries --Collection development --Statistical methods.
• Electronic information resources --Use studies.

I am reading, now, E-metrics for Library and Information Professionals: How to Use Data for Managing and Evaluating Electronic Resource Collections ~ Andrew C. White

My 2 cents: This is an excellent book, easy to read, thematically organized, and focused exclusively on developing metrics for library's electronic resources. Those who were used to user-studies, traditional library use-studies, library performance measurements, and quantitative methods, so on and so forth will find in this book great help to move forward (and thereby get to know some newer ways of looking at numbers and use behavior of the digital citizens). Highly recommend to any librarian / techie / information professional and interested in virtual library collections, Web Analytics, library management, etc.

On the same shelf: Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives

see here: Cyber Worship: Website Evaluation - Questionnaire and Survey Results 314-324.

Txtng: The Gr8 Db8

Today's find, is a book that is saying 'text messaging demystified.' Read the following and you will get a glimpse of this message: The Myths of Texting Posted by Kent Anderson

"Text messages continue to impress and confound (a recent use for announcing a vice-presidential pick is a good example). Today, texting has evolved (thank to Twitter and others) into networked microblogging.
A new book by David Crystal entitled “txtng: the gr8 db8” brings data and a healthy dose of reality to the subject.
For instance, I was surprised to learn that in 2006 text services generated $70 billion in revenues, 3 times the total box office for all Hollywood studios that year." continue reading

Blog Reviews - Security for idiots and other people that care

Blog Title: Security for idiots and other people that care
URL: http://securityforidiots.blogspot.com/
Blogger: David Tamayo
Blog's Date of birth: April 3, 2008.
Blogger's Profile: "Intense in a caring nurturing kind of way. I would gladly give my life to defend those that I love. I will teach those that I do not know how to defend themselves, but to learn from each other, I will come to know you. Once I know you, you will become someone that I love."
Blog profile: "The goal is to develop a community of like minded people that believe if they strive to be the best that they can possibly be they will be better able to serve and protect the ones that they love. True security comes through the peace of mind of knowing that your life is totally under your control. Let's grow together during this journey and realize what true power over our lives really means."
Subject Profile: Personal Development Development and Growth
Tags: love Security self defense power peace of mind intent

Tag Cloud
caregiver
decisions
eddie
boy
ellen
degeneres
Help
hope
inspiration
intent
olympic
games
positivism
prayers
senate
president
stress
thank
you
wealth

Blog Posts Frequency (2008 sample): August (1); July (1); June (5); May (5); April (7)
Strength: Caregiving and lifegiving. Looks good with visuals, and banners.

Weekness: I agree with one reviewer, about the word idiot in the title. Addressing someone as Idiot, I would say, idiot may sound as unintentional mockery of a human being.
First post: Why discuss this?
Bottomline of the First Post: "First off, I do not want anyone to think that I will only be talking about security in the missionary sense. Really how one lives one's life will reveal the total sense of how secure one's life can be. Don't get me wrong, gadgets gizmos and techniques will definitely be covered. Please feel free to ask questions, give feedback, or just critique."

What do others say about this blog:

• "Security for idiots and other people that care" is a very interesting blog. One can spend hours reading blog spots, concerning some quite delicate themes, without getting bored. All the articles provide a considerable amount of information, yet there is always the author's opinion that can be felt.
• Very useful articles, unbalanced advices and encouraging words, great blog! There is only one thing I don’t like (it’s just a matter of personal taste) the word idiot from the blog title, but that is just my opinion. Your blog is really great - your honesty and sweet soul come out in your passionate writing... it really is compelling to read your thoughts on various topics...

Recommendation: We need many more compassionate and spirited bloggers, and David's Blog can be rated as doing its best to meet its goal. I read his review of a movie on Caregiver, and was highly impressed by his writing style, and in one word he is: communicative.* Any expatriate will enjoy reading this analysis of the movie.

*Would you leave your family to take a job in another country? / Caregiver Photo video part 2a / Caregiver Photo video part 2b :

Blog Reviews - Me, a writer of movie scripts

Blog Title: Me, a writer of movie scripts
Date of birth: June 9, 2008.
Blogger Profile: Désirée: Writer of movie scripts.
Subject Profile: Writing Cinema.
Blog Posts Frequency (2008 sample): August (20); July (11); June (12)
Strength: Creative writing, Educating, Scripting.
Weekness: None.
First post: So, I have become a blogger
Bottomline of the First Post: So why become a blogger? I want to "meet" others, share the love of writing, share ideas, get feedback.

Topics / Themes:

• Blake Snyder (1)


• Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (5)


• Characters (9)


• Contrasts (2)


• Current project (10)


• Early writing (6)


• Examples (2)


• Exercise (4)


• Final Draft (2)


• Goals (3)


• Language (2)


• Linda Seger (4)


• Mix (1)


• Reflections on events and news (3)


• Reviews (4)


• Set-up (1)


• Stories from life (5)


• Writing action (1)


• Writing dialog (2)


• Writing process (14)

What do others say about this blog:

• I like the thoughts on everyday events from this specific script view point.


• If you have ever wondered what goes on in the mind of a writer, this is a blog that you must visit--time and time again!!! much more
  

Recommendation: If you are interested in movies and about movie scripts, dnor's blog will be in your most frequented blog-roll.

Researchers offer new way to avoid bogus websites

By Jordan Robertson, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Intercepting Internet traffic, and spying on the communication between two computers, is a gold mine for hackers. Now Carnegie Mellon University researchers hope software they've built will make it harder for criminals to hit that jackpot.

The software, a free download for use with latest version of the Firefox Web browser, creates an additional way for people to verify whether the site they're trying to visit is authentic. continue reading @ USATODAY.com

see also: Mememoir: The Radical Scientific Wiki Engine

Blogosphere: Information professionals guiding you to the best bits of the blogosphere

[Note: This is not a review / interview from my desktop]

"Much relieved Fulham FC fan James Lappin tracks the inspiration for his blogging career back to reading a Korean poem while waiting for a haircut in a barber's shop in Surrey"

Q: What do you do?

A: I am a 39-year-old records management consultant and trainer,working for TFPL in London.

Q: Where is your blog?

A: I am one of the contributors to the TFPL blog, at http://tfpl.typepad.com

continue reading the interview

Federated Search - Reading now

The term federated search is also known as, meta-search, cross-search, combined-search, and aggregated-search. First, it is about simultaneously searching, with one-click, in several electronic sources. Second, it is about getting all the search results displayed in a single browser. And the book I am reading is Federated Search by Christopher N. Cox

I recommend the book for a basic understanding on the emerging theme of federated search strategies, especially about American academic libraries’ experiences in this sphere.

OCLC Top 1000: 2005 Complete list

"This list, updated for 2005, contains the "Top 1000" titles owned by OCLC member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" oflibraries." Complete list

Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy

This is not a review, it is just an aggregation of some content.

Dante.Inferno.Canto I:

• Dante.Inferno.C anto II
• Dante.Inferno.C anto III
• Watch all @ 14 Videos Youtube
  

Info courtesy: Dante Explorer:

Dante Explorer is a journey through the afterlife of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise with the poet Dante in his work, The Divine Comedy.

Why would I want to read Dante today? Here are 10 reasons to read Dante

New to Dante? A Beginners guide to Dante

Ready to start the journey? Begin the Journey - Inferno

Dante Explorer is updated regularly, please check back often at the: Dante Explorer Blog for the most current post, or subscribe to the RSS feed at the top of the page.

Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is Ten Commandments for Web Pages

Here is a sample from inside the Book: Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives--full of resources, and KM accessories, that will facilitate building bridges in a Multifaith society. Table of Contents / Reviews

Chapter 4. 'Navigating the Deep Sacred Space via Experiences of the Wise': Resource of the Week is Ten Commandments for Web Pages, by Bill Fergerson (see much more on pages 131-132).

Order the book with Publisher:

My book Talk
More in this Weekly series @ Multifaith Information Gateway

See also on the same shelf:
The Ten Web Commandments
by Philipp Lenssen

Blog Reviews - Managing Personal Finance

I tend to find that, by serendipity of course, some blogs are typically more in depth and engaging. However, some others simply link to other sites. Among the former is the following blog:

Blog Title: Managing Personal Finance
Date of birth: Sept 11, 2007.
Blogger Profile: Devray, a consultant in Personal Banking. Contact
Subject Profile: Finance, Personal.
Blog Posts Frequency (2008 sample): April (1), March (3), Feb (2), Jan (2)
Strength: Motivational, educating.
Weekness: None.
First post: Do we manage our personal finance in a right way?

Summary / objective stated in the first post: "Managing Personal Finance" provides you with well researched facts. Each post exposes personal interaction with financial experts and industry professionals. Starting with banking, credit cards, economy, home, insurance, investment, marketing etc. you get in-depth information about a wide variety of subjects. Be it fighting bank with banks or tips to survive an economic storm, planning your child's future or an investment plan for the middle class or even tips to corporate success, all are there for you to gain from.

Also, you will find Devray's involvement with compassion in the world of financial care, and hence the existence of Internet's first get-out-of-debt community. This site offers debt care's 101; includes interesting tid bits, such as, Shocking facts that debt consolidation and debt settlement companies do not tell you; Know how to solve debt problems; etc.

Topics / Themes:

• Banking
• Credit cards
• Economy
• Home
• Insurance
• Investment
• Marketing
• Misc.
• Review

Most Popular Posts (by comments received):

• Loan recovery – Are banks...:
  
• Selecting the right credit...:
  
• Taking care of Eyes:
  
• Credit card – Our fight...:
  
• Tips to Survive the Perfect...:
  

Recommendation: If you want to read and reflect on your financial assets, this one blog will have you hooked up and give you the required peace of mind!

A related resource, just-in-time:

Being Muslim (Groundwork Guide Series)

This book is not an idiot or a dummy series. It is, hence, different altogether in content, context, and communication that helps understand the people, minds, concepts, and percepts. Being Muslim, in short, is interesting, thought provoking and educating. See a few extracts, reviews, etc.:

Quotes I like from this book:
>> "He who wrongs a Jew or a Christian will have me as his accuser on the Day of Judgment." Prophet Muhammad, -- a.k.a., Hadith (page 27)
>> "Donot consider me better than Moses" Prophet Muhammad, -- a.k.a., Hadith (p. 34)
>> "I am closest of all people to Jesus, son of Mary." Prophet Muhammad, -- a.k.a., Hadith (p. 34)
>> "Extremists are also being reminded that the wrath of God constitutes a minuscule part of the Qur'an" (author, p. 147)
>> "Nowadays, jihad is often used without any religious connotation, more or less equivalent to the English word, cusade -- a crusade against drugs..." (Rudolph Peters, p. 127)
>> "The most used word in the Qu'ran, after Allah, is ilm (knowledge)" (author, p. 147).
>> "Not all the Saudi restrictions are Islamic. The taboo against women drivers, for example, is not haram (forbidden), but it is not permitted, in deference to tradition." (author, p. 99).

From the Publisher:
Since 9/11, the world has been confronted with the most volatile facets of Islam with little explanation of how or why these controversial elements developed. Written by one of North America's most honored journalists, Being Muslim presents an up-front and clear explanation of this complex and emotion-laden subject.

From School Library Journal:
The author's tone is conversational and engaging, and frequent breaks in the text make this small book very readable.—Sondra VanderPloeg, Tracy Memorial Library, New London, NH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Without preaching or political jargon and drawing on his travels and interviews in Muslim countries, he shows that the extremists are being challenged by a new generation of Muslims, and welcomes the current internal reformation.

By Deva Kautilya "Too Many Books Too Little Time!" (Cleveland, OH)
I heard the interview of the author on NPR while driving to the airport from a client site! I could not wait to get this book from the library.

By Naazish YarKhan
A must read.

By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) -
If it's an easy overview of key issues, topics and social and political concerns you need to serve as an introduction to Muslim concerns, you can't go wrong with BEING MUSLIM, based on travels in Muslim lands and interviews with experts there and in the West.

When success breeds failure

PS. This is not a review from my desktop.

The Self-Destructive Habits of Good ...
Popular business literature is full of stories of great companies and their invincibility. But with corporate lifecycles coming down at an alarming pace, that doesn’t seem true anymore....

Well known academic Jagdish Sheth is closely watching a clutch of hugely successful companies like Google and Cisco. He is convinced that on their way to success, they have unintentionally acquired certain bad habits which might lead to their downfall. Says Sheth, “With success, Google will become arrogant and complacent. Google is today’s avatar of Microsoft, which is yesterday’s avatar of IBM.” Sheth is convinced that Infosys is treading the same path. And Cisco? “Cisco is succeeding so very well right now that it is underestimating Chinese competition from Huawei,” he says. ...

Jagdish 'Jag' Sheth is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta School of Business. An acclaimed expert in Marketing, Sheth is the author and co-author of books like The Rule of Three and Tectonic Shift.

Information and Emotion

This is not a review, probably a reflection of my previous blog post: Toxicity in the library workplace - a survey

Extract from a book review by Hamid R. Jamali @ Webology

Overall, the studies presented in the book cover several affective and emotional aspects of information behaviour of different groups of people in different contexts. While the first three chapters of the book provide helpful theoretical information about research on emotional aspects of information behaviour, the other chapters present a vareity of research questions as well as methodologies that can be applied to investigate them. Therefore the book can be a source of inspiration for those graduate students and researchers interested in this area of human information behaviour. The book is a valuable addition to the ASIST Monograph Series and a second enlightening book coming out of the SIG USE research community after the Theories of Information Behavior. The publication of this book can be a turning point for establishing a research community and literature related to the affective and emotional aspects of human information behaviour.

Book Publisher Experiments

Publishers warm up to 'Net, sell chapters, give away books Nate Anderson, Arstechnica (Feb 11)

Two book publishers will be making more 'print' available online: Random House will sell selected chunks, and HarperCollins will make some titles free to read.

continue reading info posted by Gwen @ Internet News

I predict that this wiki will be none to sticky

NB. This is not from my desktop.

Posted by David E. Williams of the Health business blog

Reed Elsevier and other big scientific and medical publishers have had a hard time adjusting to the electronic age. Their expensive journals are taking a drubbing from open source alternatives like Public Library of Science (PLoS) –co-founded by my junior high school lab partner, Mike Eisen. And despite the fact that the Health Business Blog itself is delivered to Elsevier clients thanks to an agreement between Elsevier subsidiary LexisNexis and Newstex, Elsevier is still in rather deep trouble.
Unfortunately for them, their latest innovation WiserWiki, isn’t going to bail them out. From Information World Review: continue reading

Info courtesy: Informaticopia

Why Google only tells you what you already know by Farhad Manjoo

From the Inside Flap: "In True Enough, Manjoo presents findings from psychology, sociology, political science, and economics to show how new technologies are prompting the cultural ascendancy of belief over fact."

* John Wiley; Due: March 14, 2008; ISBN-13: 9780470050101; 256pp.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: "Reality" Is Splitting.
Chapter Two: The New Tribalism: Swift Boats And The Power Of Choosing.
Chapter Three: Trusting Your Senses: Selective Perception and 9/11.
Chapter Four: Questionable Expertise: The Stolen Election And The Men Who Push It.
Chapter Five: The Twilight of Objectivity, or What's the Matter with Lou Dobbs?
Chapter Six: "Truthiness" Everywhere.
Epilogue: Living In a World without Trust.

An extract from Farhad Manjoo's Blog @ Salon.com:
"True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society" is a book near and dear to my heart. That's because, wouldn't you know, it's my book! I wrote it, and will be discussing it here a bit in advance of its publication in March.

The book examines a question that's long captivated me, a child of the Internet: Is digital technology advancing truth in the world, or is it distorting it?

By truth, I mean what we call sets of observable, objective, empirical "facts." You might argue -- and many do -- that wide access to information has the capacity to create a more knowledgeable, more tolerant, more rational society. [source: Tech News Review]

NB. I am waiting for the book release. An,d this is nothing to do with a similar blog: http://theytellusnothing.blogspot.com

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

When a book gets really popular, like The Time Traveler’s Wife, then I’m sure I don’t want to read it. When I finally got over myself and read it, it was terrific. This is just probably my need to be special, or something. Thus spake: Ted!

See also: Same shelf and aisle, The Sheila Variations: Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
Strangely enough, I cringed from reading Harry Potter.

NB. Web analytics, Web metrics, and e-metrics are expanding their scope everyday. Here is a focus on measuring the performance of vendors (aka brokers, distributors, etc.), beneficial for information professionals, esp. in Third World.

Efficiency analysis of brokers in the electronic marketplace

Virgílio A.F. Almeida^12a, Wagner Meira Jr.^3*,a, Victor F. Ribeiro^b, Nivio Ziviani^4a,b

^aDepartment of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
^bMiner Technology Group, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

Abstract:

In this paper we analyze the behavior of e-commerce users based on actual logs from two large non-English e-brokers. We start by presenting a quantitative study of the behavior of e-brokers and discuss the influence of regional and cultural issues on them. We then discuss a model that quantifies the efficiency of the results provided by brokers in the electronic marketplace. This model is a function of factors such as server response time and regional factors. Our findings clearly indicate that e-commerce is strongly tied to local language, national customs and regulations, currency conversion and logistics, and Internet infrastructure. We found that the behavior of customers of online bookstores is strongly affected by brand and regional factors. Music CD shoppers show a different behavior that might stem from the fact that music is universal and not so language dependent.

Occupational Licensing Does More Harm Than Good

License, certification, accredition, etc., etc.: Yes.
Job quality / Performance measure: Not sure... Here is a book and a comment:

"It is well known that doctors, dentists, and lawyers must be licensed to practice their professions. But what about occupational therapists, manicurists and barbers? How about fortune tellers, massage therapists, shampoo assistants, librarians, beekeepers, electrologists and movie projector operators? These are just a sampling of the hundreds of occupations that require a license in at least some states or counties.

In a new book, "Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?" (Upjohn Institute, 2006), Morris M. Kleiner, an economist at the University of Minnesota, questions whether occupational licensing has gone too far. He provides much evidence that the balance of occupational licensing has shifted away from protecting consumers and toward limiting the supply of workers in various professions. A result is that services provided by licensed workers are more expensive than necessary and that quality is not noticeably affected." ... continue reading

See also:

ALAN B. KREUGER. "Economic Scene; Do You Need a License to Earn a Living? You Might Be Surprised at the Answer." The New York Times (Thurs., March 2, 2006): C3.

REFERENCE ON THE NET or Net as a Reference Tool

NB. Is the following REFERENCE ON THE NET or Net as a Reference Tool. I would prefer the second title. Reference sources are now scattered both in the library and On the Net--And, librarians have been one of the first to use both the worlds.

Here is what I found and is interesting to show how much libraries (whether search in the library or via virtual Web) depend on the Net. This appeared in The Disseminator is an electronic newsletter published by the Nova Scotia Provincial Library V.9, N.11, November 2002*

Here are some more reference questions referred to the Provincial Library by the Regional Public Libraries. They were answered using resources found on the Internet.

Q. Would like plans for building a wooden clock and wooden mechanisms.

A. At the Canadian Home Workshop Magazine Article Index search page at http://www.canadianhomeworkshop.com/articles.html enter clock as a keyword. This locates quite a few clock woodworking projects with the month, year and page where they appeared in Canadian Home Workshop magazine. You can also search the project plans from Woodworker's Journal and Today's Woodworker Magazine at http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/wwjstore2/webpage3.cfm?DID=1. Again enter clock in the search box and this finds 46 plans which you can browse through. Another useful site is Woodworker's Website Association PlanSearch at http://www.woodworking2.org/PlanSearch/search.htm. Enter clock in the keyword search to locate 18 plans. Some are free including Wooden Clock 1 and Wooden Clock 2 on Brian Law�s Woodenclocks site http://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. These have plans for wooden mechanisms.

Q. Would like names and addresses of Canadian companies which distribute or manufacture therapeutic magnetic products.

A. Here are three databases which are useful for answering this question:
At the Canadian Company Capabilities database at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_coinf/ccc/engdoc/homepage.html use the search words magnetic therapy to locate companies.

At the Canadian Exporters Catalogue search page at
http://www.worldexport.com/search/default.asp?Param=English select Safety, Medical and Health-Care Products in the Section field and in the Key Word field enter magnetic.

At the Canadian Trade-marks Database search page at http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/cgi-bin/sc_consu/trade-marks/search_e.pl enter the phrase magnetic therapy and select the Wares and Services (11) field to search in.

***The Disseminator is an electronic newsletter published by the Nova Scotia Provincial Library, which has temporarily ceased publication with the Winter 06/Spring 07 issue.