Recent report on Link Rot
A recent report evaluating a two-year web harvesting project found that 14.3 percent of the original URLs of all titles harvested from the Web and archived during the first year of project had become inactive within at least one year of harvesting. (p.33)
- Two-Year Pilot Project Evaluation. Legal Information Archive, The Chesapeake Project. (June 2009).
More than 4,300 digital items, representing nearly 1,900 titles, have been harvested from the Web and archived, and roughly 14 percent of these titles have already been removed from their original locations on the Web, demonstrating the importance and effectiveness of the project’s efforts. Moreover, the project’s access figures demonstrate both the broad, international reach of the project’s efforts, as well as the successful selection of high-interest and high-use materials by project participants.Continue reading
US Federal Government IT Dashboard: Data and Visualization
If you enjoy interactive data visualizations, make sure you visit the US Federal IT Dashboard. This site is meant for use by both the public and the staff of federal agencies. The goal is to make it easy to explore how the federal government is spending its IT dollars. The major components of the dashboard are:
- Performance Dashboard: supports viewing of major IT investments, filterable by agency
- Data Feeds: will let you select data to download or create a "dynamically XML feed"
- Analysis Visualizations: lets you chart and animate any combination of 15 IT spending statistics from 2002 to present
"The IT Dashboard provides the public with an online window into the details of Federal information technology investments and provides users with the ability to track the progress of investments over time. The IT Dashboard displays data received from agency reports to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), including general information on over 7,000 Federal IT investments and detailed data for nearly 800 of those investments that agencies classify as "major." The performance data used to track the 800 major IT investments is based on milestone information displayed in agency reports to OMB called "Exhibit 300s." Agency CIOs are responsible for evaluating and updating select data on a monthly basis, which is accomplished through interfaces provided on the website."Continue reading
Cell phone computing for libraries
Following up on a recent Pew study on wireless Internet use (see: Minorities embrace internet via handheld devices), here is a presentation on Current Mobile Trends in Libraries:
- M Is For Service: Current Mobile Trends in Libraries, by Gerry McKiernan, Science and Technology Librarian, Iowa State University Library. The Handheld Librarian 2009 Virtual Conference. (July 30, 2009) [PowerPoint, 164 slides, 10.6MB]
Congressional Documents on FDsys
Peggy Garvin has a new article that covers the basics of searching for Congressional information in GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys). Thanks Peggy! The Government Domain - Congressional Documents on FDsys: the Basics, by Peggy Garvin, LLRX (July 27, 2009). Continue reading
Minorities embrace internet via handheld devices
The Pew Research Center report on wireless internet use has some interesting findings regarding broadband access to the Internet.
- Wireless Internet Use, by John Horrigan, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (Jul 22, 2009)
- Pew: minorities embrace internet via handheld devices, By Matthew Lasar, ars technica (July 26, 2009). It says that African-Americans access the Internet via handheld devices more often than whites, for whom an online connection is more likely to come from an ISP-connected computer. "This means the digital divide between African Americans and white Americans diminishes when mobile use is taken into account," Pew says.