NEW RESOURCES

Data analysts, you’ve now got a huge dataset to swim around in: The entire HathiTrust collection. “The HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC), a cooperative service of Indiana University, University of Illinois, and HathiTrust, has expanded its services to support computational research on the entire collection of one of the world’s largest digital libraries, held by HathiTrust. HathiTrust’s collections include over 14 million digitized volumes, including more than 7 million books, more than 725,000 US federal government documents, and more than 350,000 serial publications. HathiTrust’s collections are drawn from some of the largest research libraries in North America, including Indiana University and the University of Illinois.”

Now available: The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS). “The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) is a new take on an idea that’s been gaining some traction over the last few years, that is, to publish papers about software. On the face of it, writing papers about software is a weird thing to do, especially if there’s a public software repository, documentation and perhaps even a website for users of the software. But writing a papers about software is currently the only sure way for authors to gain career credit as it creates a citable entity1 (a paper) that can be referenced by other authors.”

Cornell University has developed a new Web site for information on climate change in New York. “Now a Cornell partnership at the frontier of climate and information science is making the search for relevant climate information easier and faster. The New York Climate Science Clearinghouse features New York-specific climate data curated by Cornell librarians to provide the public and policymakers access to the most recent and credible information available to inform decisions.”

The Kansas State Library has digitized copies of the “Mother’s Manual” from 1917-1944 and put them online. “They give a detailed look at social norms, medical treatment, child care and hygiene spanning about three decades.” The publications are actually stored on Google Drive!

Okay, maybe a little too niche, but I love the idea. A new-to-me site documents Nottinghamshire bands from the 1960s (and kinda early 1970s, though the focus is really 1960s. The Rockin’ Vulcans! The site has over 70 bands along with a list of agents and gig sites, and a gallery of business cards, pictures, etc.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Oh my. Looks like Baidu and the Chinese government are getting into it a bit. “Suddenly, on Baidu (which is like the Google of China), searches related to the tank man and other symbols of the Tiananmen Square protests were showing up on Baidu….It appears that this is something of a reaction to the Chinese government announcing that it will be investigating Baidu’s advertising practices, following the death of a young man from cancer, who had kicked up quite a lot of attention after he had tried an ‘experimental’ cancer treatment he discovered via an ad on Baidu. When it didn’t work, he blamed Baidu for allowing the ad, and when he passed away there was a public outcry.”

ZDNet takes a nostalgic look back at Thomas.gov. “In 1995 — when Newt Gingrich was Time’s Man of the Year (seriously, he was) and Seinfeld’s ‘No Soup For You’ was the hot catch phrase, and the Web began to take real form — the Library of Congress set out to create a powerful new, online resource: Thomas.gov (then located at thomas.loc.gov).”

SECURITY/LEGAL ISSUES

If you’ve been reading ResearchBuzz for any time at all, you know I’m kind of a nut about two-factor authentication for password security. But if you don’t want to listen to me rant about it, maybe you’ll listen to Betty White. “Did you know today is World Password Day? Neither did we, but nonagenarian actress and living legend Betty White does and apparently has a whole bunch of advice for keeping our digital stuff safe. White partnered up with Passwordday.org to create a series of informational, humorous and suggestive videos to promote keeping your password protected.” I find the double entendre stuff kind of silly, but as long as she’s having fun…

Google and Honeywell have buried the hatchet over thermostat patents.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Research from the University of Missouri: How Public Outrage on Twitter Affects Organizations in Crisis “Findings suggest that unorganized and semi-organized publics use Twitter as a conversational platform to communicate their stances toward an issue. In the case of the NFL and concussions, the lay public enjoyed and was influenced by the ‘Concussion’ movie, ultimately influencing their perceptions of the NFL. The health community public used the NFL concussion issue as a sounding board for promoting their own research and the need for more concussion and head trauma research. Former and current athletes and coaches engaged in dialogue promoting more concussion awareness in sports in general. Journalists were able to leverage the movie as a way to resonate with the lay public and communicate about the health issue of concussions.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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