NEW MEDIA

In 1845 John Lewis Ricardo was among a group who bought the Cooke and Wheatstone British patents for the electric telegraph at a current cost of £10 million. Although many people have examined the history of the telegraph no one seems to have asked the question ‘Why?’ Ricardo was a Member of the Stock Exchange, financier and a leading politician campaigning against monopolies. This paper postulates that his prime objective, while the largest shareholder for the first three and executive Chairman of the Electric Telegraph Company for its first 12 years, was to build a network, obtain and then distribute financial intelligence to its own newsrooms, adjacent to all the Stock Exchanges in Britain. It was not an afterthought as has been widely assumed. Newspapers in the regions took advantage of this new media. When the telegraph companies later formed their own cartel/monopoly, and substantially boosted prices charged to newspapers, Ricardo changed sides and secretly campaigned for their nationalization.     

INTO THE HOPPER

No abstract available for this article.     

Searching the Literature of Veterinary Science

This article is an exploration of techniques used to retrieve items in the veterinary science related literature using the MEDLINE, CAB ABSTRACTS, AGRICOLA and BIOSIS databases. The discussion is database and not vendor-specific and is directed at the medical reference librarian or information specialist currently engaged in online searching. Search aids in the form of tables are presented.     

Current Initiatives for E-Journal Archives and Perpetual Access at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

The article discusses the need for initiatives to be undertaken by the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Library administration to acquire archives of and perpetual access to its subscribed electronic journals. It also reports the findings of a survey conducted to ascertain the publishers' positions on archiving services and the right to permanently access licensed materials paid for during the period of a license agreement. The findings are expected to help the library to plan for securing the right over a three-year period to ongoing access to the back files of journals from fifteen commercial and society publisher platforms.     

(Hyper) local news aggregation: Designing for social affordances

Being able to debate, reflect, form opinions, consider counter evidence and make informed decisions is a foundation of civic life in democratic societies. Government benefits from broad participation in collective decision making in terms of sustainable outcomes (e.g., greater consensus) and quality of life in our cities and communities. These collective decision making capabilities are undermined by a strange combination of diminishing (or extinct) local print media, especially local newspapers, and by its obverse, a plethora of information and communication opportunities that are scattered across numerous disparate and decentralized websites and resources (e.g., webpages, RSS feeds, social network software, email, listservs, podcasts, tweets). To address this problem, a number of news aggregators have emerged that capture local content from dispersed sites. To facilitate civic engagement, these sites also need to support social interaction and information exchange. In this paper we review the state of the art in local news aggregation in the U.S. and their support for social affordances (social trust, networks and interaction) that are essential to civic participation. We present a system we call the Virtual Town Square (VTS) that we have developed for local news aggregation that supports social affordances. We summarize briefly the design strategies and techniques (e.g., algorithms) we used to cluster topics and user generated content derived from existing local sources. This system should lead to a replicable model for other U.S. communities.     

MeeboMe! For Embedded Chat Reference: Patron-Initiated Encounters Without Downloads or Accounts

ABSTRACT

Virtual reference using chat or instant messaging clients (IM) has become an expected service offering for libraries seeking to cater to today's Web 2.0 patrons. The use of chat aggregators to monitor multiple accounts in one interface allows libraries to reach a wider audience of IM/chat users. Embedding chat widgets into library Web pages can further increase chat reference use because it allows patrons without IM/chat experience or accounts to reach librarians seamlessly. This article reviews the use of aggregator software for chat reference monitoring, examines the popularity of the MeeboMe! chat widget for embedded virtual reference and briefly describes the experiences and recommendations of librarians at Samford University Library as they have implemented its use.     

Ukrainian Newspapers on the Web

Abstract

Although there are no aggregate commercial products devoted solely to Ukrainian news, there are a number of newspapers and free aggregate sites available on the web that provide solid coverage of Ukraine. The author reviews several of them.     

Elevating Aggregator Evaluation

Aggregator products available to libraries are both praised and criticized by those that use them. The value of these products depends on perceived attributes and their relevance to the information needs of a library. Disconnects arise when aggregated products are either misunderstood or the structure and design of the products are not appropriately matched to end-user needs. More evaluation of these products is needed to ensure that they are serving end users as intended and are affordable into the future.