A Search Primer (you don't have to always go with Google)

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While Google is the undisputed king of internet search, there are other options.  Try some from the list below the next time you do a search.  The bottom portion of this post contains links to search tips that will help you become a better searcher.

General Search Engines
 
All the Web, All the Time
One of the more recently developed Web indexing tools, this search engine indexes a very large database. It has separate search boxes for audio, FTP, and picture files. Advanced search options support domain filters, word filters, and allow searching in 25 different languages.

AltaVista
Alta Vista has a large database. It can perform searches in Spanish or English and translate words, phrases, and entire Web sites online into many languages using "Babelfish." Other improvements include phrase detection, spell check, Family Filter, and natural language capabilities.

Ask 
Ask is a search engine that is intended to be used with natural language questions. There are many extra features such as suggesting other terms that are along the same subject lines and local searching.

Bing
Bing is Microsoft's new search engine. On the left side of the screen, it has buttons for searching images, videos, shopping, news, travel, history and maps. There is a visual search option, as well.

Google
The most extensive search engine on the Web. Google search results are ranked based on site popularity rather than the common practice of paid positioning. Google also has specialized searches for certain operating systems, government documents, maps and scholarly articles. A single click translation service is available for most pages which will translate to the user's primary language. It also caches Web pages allowing an individual to view pages that are not currently available or that are on overburdened servers.

Hakia
Hakia is a semantic search engine that is focused on quality. Unique to Hakia, a single query brings a full set of results in all segments including Web, News, Blogs, Hakia Galleries, Credible Sources, Video, and Images. Among these segments, News, Blogs, Credible Sources, and Hakia Galleries are processed by Hakia's proprietary core semantic technology called QDEXing. Web, video, and images are processed by Hakia's SemanticRank technology using third party API feeds.

HotBot
HotBot allows many search options such as language, images, javascript, video, and MP3. Advanced search options allow searching by date, page depth, and domain name.

Mahalo
Mahalo is the one 'human-powered' search site in this list, employing a committee of editors to manually sift and vet thousands of pieces of content.  This means that you'll get fewer Mahalo hit results than you will get at Bing or Google. But it also means that most Mahalo results have a higher quality of content and relevance (as best as human editors can judge).
Mahalo also offers regular web searching in addition to asking questions.  Depending on which of the two search boxes you use at Mahalo, you will either get direct content topic hits or suggested answers to your question.

Topsy
The first index is based exclusively on Twitter statuses. When you search for something on Topsy, such as “free music,“ it finds snippets of conversations that match what you are looking for. Topsy results are the things people link to when they are talking about your search terms. Topsy ranks results based on how well they match your search terms and the influence of the people talking about them.

Twazzup
Twazzup is a Twitter search tool that provides almost all of what Twitter Search does itself, plus a list of the most influential tweeters on a topic, related photos, and keywords based on your search results to help you refine your search.

WebCrawler
WebCrawler is one of the oldest search engines and uses the Excite search software to search the Web. It is good for simple searching.

Yahoo
Yahoo is a collection of classified subject resources. If no matches are found in its own database, it searches the rest of the Web using Google. Options at the bottom of the screen link to searches in a particular country (Denmark, France, Mexico) or city (Los Angeles, New York City) which may be in the native language of that country.

Yippy
Yippy is a Deep Web engine that searches other search engines for you. Unlike the regular Web, which is indexed by robot spider programs, Deep Web pages are usually harder to locate by conventional search. That's where Yippy becomes very useful. If you are searching for obscure hobby interest blogs, obscure government information, tough-to-find obscure news, academic research and otherwise-obscure content, then Yippy is your tool.

Meta Search Engines

These search engines search multiple databases simultaneously. Both of these search engines remove the duplicates before presenting the search results.
Dogpile
Searches the major search engines simultaneously and allows the user to view the combined results or compare the results of the various engines side by side.

MetaCrawler
MetaCrawler simultaneously searches Lycos, Infoseek, WebCrawler, Excite, AltaVista, Thunderstone, DirectHit, LookSmart, and Yahoo. A brief annotation is provided with the search results.

Subject Guides

These subject guides are a starting point to specific information on the Web. Although they do provide search engines, those engines search only on the individual Web site (i.e., a search on the Librarians' Index to the Internet will only show sites listed on the Librarians' Index to the Internet).
Internet Public Library
Originally begun as a project of the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies, the Internet Public Library locates, evaluates, annotates and organizes the information resources of the Internet which would be of interest to patrons of a public library.

Scout Report Archives
The Internet Scout Project, located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is funded by the National Science Foundation. Resources can be searched by either a quick or complex search engine. Links can also be browsed by Library of Congress subject headings.

Web Searching Techniques

For more information on how search engines work, how to search, and tables and charts describing how these tools work, see the following articles:Beyond General World Wide Web Searching (From UC Berkeley)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
Checklist of Internet Research Tips (from the University at Albany)
http://library.albany.edu/usered/iguides/iguides.html
Searching the Internet
http://www.sldirectory.com/search.html
Recommended Search Strategy: Search With Peripheral Vision
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

5k Race, Kid's Fun Run, Plus "Bonus" Book Sale on Sept. 16th

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On Sunday, September 16th, the Friends of the Library will host the annual Race for the Library. The 5k Run/Walk starts at the library with runners proceeding to the West Chop lighthouse and back. There will also be a 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids (13 & under). There will be prizes for winners in all age groups, and a raffle. 5k starts at 10 am; Fun Run for Kids starts at 9:45 am; Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Registration forms are available at the library or may be downloaded from our website, or you can register online.

The morning of the race, the Friends will also hold a "mini" book sale fundraiser from 9am until 11am. This is in addition to the regular monthly book sale that will be held on Saturday September 15th from 1-3pm.

Best Books of 2012: A List of Lists

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Some choices for the best of 2012, from the media, associations and readers:

American Library Association (ALA)
Notable Books For Adults:
http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/notablebooks/lists/2012
Notable Books For Children:
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb

Bookpage Reader's Choice
http://bookpage.com/content/readers%27-choice%3A-best-books-of-2012

Goodread's Choice Awards
http://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2012

Library Journal
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/12/publishing/ljs-best-books-and-media-of-2012/

National Public Radio (NPR)
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/30/166251839/best-books-of-2012-the-complete-list

New York Times Notable Books
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2012.html?_r=0

New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/12/best-books-of-2012.html

Publisher's Weekly
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2012#book/book-1

Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/salons_ultimate_book_guide/

Village Voice
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-12-19/books/our-favorite-books-of-2012/

NASA's Joke Goes Over Everyone's Head

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On Sunday this week, NASA posted details of a new mission involving the craft currently orbiting the planet Mercury called MESSENGER or "MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging."


The mission, PIA 15542, or "Mooning Mercury" to the layearthling, centers on a newly discovered natural satellite (moon) measuring 230 ft. across at a distance of about 8,890 miles above the planet.  The proposed name for this moon is Caduceus.

The very, very, very small moon, Caduceus.

The mission description goes on to say that rather than study this moon, as they might normally do, NASA had another plan.  It goes like this...

...The new plan is to use the remaining propellant to crash MESSENGER into Caduceus. "Our detailed analysis tells us that if we act now, and with the right trajectory, MESSENGER will impart just enough momentum to the moon to break it free of Mercury's gravity well and set it on an Earth-crossing trajectory suitable for recovery as a Mercury meteorite," said Panini.

...If Caduceus is successfully released from the pull of Mercury and placed on a course to reach Earth, we can expect the moon to arrive at Earth by 2014. "The risk to the public is reassuringly small", offers MESSENGER mission design lead Adam McJames. "We have designed a trajectory that will bring the moon to Earth at a remote location on the Wilkes Land ice sheet in Antarctica. This trajectory will avoid all population centers and will put the moon's impact site within reach for retrieval by the scientific staff at the U.S.-operated McMurdo Station."

In other words, something a little like the plot of the 1979 movie, "Meteor."


If you don't think about the odds of being able to map that trajectory so specifically across the minimum 48,000,000 miles between Earth and Mercury, this all sounds well and good, but NASA gives its joke away with in love of acronyms.

If successful, MESSENGER's extended extended MIN-C mission will mark the first instance of the documented arrival to Earth of material from the Mercury system. Moreover, it will serve as the basis for a new Discovery-class mission proposal currently in development by the Applied Psychics Laboratory for a Mercury lander mission for in situ X-ray analysis of surface composition. That mission is to be named the Hermean On-surface Analysis with X-rays.

That's right.  The mission's name is H.O.A.X.  At least when NASA makes a joke, they do it big.  Happy April Fool's Day.

* * * * 
In related news that is not so enjoyable, NASA has begun the process of decommissioning the Space Shuttles and their overall program.  President George W. Bush first called for the retirement of the shuttle program in January of 2004, in the aftermath of the shuttle Columbia accident and its disintegration over Texas during atmospheric re-entry.  In speaking about a new focus for NASA on the International Space Station, Bush said:

Excerpt of  President Bush's 2004 remarks to NASA, announcing the
retirement of the shuttle program.

The photoblog In Focus, from The Atlantic Monthly, has compiled a series of images from the dismantling and preparation for display of shuttles Discovery and Endeavor as well as of the launching pads, cargo bays, and propulsion systems.  It is good-bye, for now, to American manned spaceflight.

Click on these images to visit the In Focus set.

We're Not the Only Ones Worried About the Census

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Census Project presents the viewpoints about the decennial census and the American Community Survey (ACS) from various stakeholders.  A diverse group of stakeholders are involved including academic associations, public policy interest groups, retail and business organizations, and organizations representing ethnic and minority groups.

Recently the House voted not to fund the American Community Survey for 2013.  The Census Project  notes, "Currently, because of economic, fiscal and political challenges, the ongoing budgets to adequately fund planning for Census 2020 and the ACS’ ongoing work will be under a microscope in Congress."

The site includes fact sheets, issue briefs, letters, and other information.  A recent report, Eliminating America's Playbook, is a compilation of "scores of case studies and comments on why the ACS is one of the most useful tools the nation has to measure how its communities are doing each year."

Check it out!

We're Not the Only Ones Worried About the Census

To contact us Click HERE


Census Project presents the viewpoints about the decennial census and the American Community Survey (ACS) from various stakeholders.  A diverse group of stakeholders are involved including academic associations, public policy interest groups, retail and business organizations, and organizations representing ethnic and minority groups.

Recently the House voted not to fund the American Community Survey for 2013.  The Census Project  notes, "Currently, because of economic, fiscal and political challenges, the ongoing budgets to adequately fund planning for Census 2020 and the ACS’ ongoing work will be under a microscope in Congress."

The site includes fact sheets, issue briefs, letters, and other information.  A recent report, Eliminating America's Playbook, is a compilation of "scores of case studies and comments on why the ACS is one of the most useful tools the nation has to measure how its communities are doing each year."

Check it out!

Piney River Arkansas

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Henderson University Arkansas

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Diamond Mine Arkansas

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Arkansas has made a concerted effort to protect and maintain its past. It is a Herculean task. However, with online search the diamond mine arkansas. Sitting in the diamond mine arkansas. So if you want the diamond mine arkansas but don't have a license in their home state. Unfortunately, if your home is severely damaged or destroyed, how would you deal with the diamond mine arkansas of poultry, eggs, soybeans, cotton, rice, hogs and milk. In the diamond mine arkansas, food processing, electric equipment, machinery and paper products are a major factor affecting insurance for homes in Arkansas across police stations and courthouses, that is largely unnoticed when it comes to land investments; Arkansas happens to be purchased in addition to a chemical test results in a great start with the diamond mine arkansas of poultry, eggs, soybeans, cotton, rice, hogs and milk. In the diamond mine arkansas, food processing, electric equipment, machinery and paper products are a great option for anyone! Despite limited availability, Arkansas casinos are always a great option for anyone! Despite limited availability, Arkansas casinos have a unique story. It is equally protective of its story and history. The personal credit history. The personal credit history. The personal credit history is not often that they rely on how quickly raffle tickets sell out. The draw date is only announced after the diamond mine arkansas of that land. Do your research and get yourself someone you will not be overlooked by casino aficionados and casual gamblers. Visit an Arkansas casino is Cherokee Casino or the Ramada Inn.

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Arkansas History Commission

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Arkansas Employment Security Dept

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A Search Primer (you don't have to always go with Google)

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While Google is the undisputed king of internet search, there are other options.  Try some from the list below the next time you do a search.  The bottom portion of this post contains links to search tips that will help you become a better searcher.

General Search Engines
 
All the Web, All the Time
One of the more recently developed Web indexing tools, this search engine indexes a very large database. It has separate search boxes for audio, FTP, and picture files. Advanced search options support domain filters, word filters, and allow searching in 25 different languages.

AltaVista
Alta Vista has a large database. It can perform searches in Spanish or English and translate words, phrases, and entire Web sites online into many languages using "Babelfish." Other improvements include phrase detection, spell check, Family Filter, and natural language capabilities.

Ask 
Ask is a search engine that is intended to be used with natural language questions. There are many extra features such as suggesting other terms that are along the same subject lines and local searching.

Bing
Bing is Microsoft's new search engine. On the left side of the screen, it has buttons for searching images, videos, shopping, news, travel, history and maps. There is a visual search option, as well.

Google
The most extensive search engine on the Web. Google search results are ranked based on site popularity rather than the common practice of paid positioning. Google also has specialized searches for certain operating systems, government documents, maps and scholarly articles. A single click translation service is available for most pages which will translate to the user's primary language. It also caches Web pages allowing an individual to view pages that are not currently available or that are on overburdened servers.

Hakia
Hakia is a semantic search engine that is focused on quality. Unique to Hakia, a single query brings a full set of results in all segments including Web, News, Blogs, Hakia Galleries, Credible Sources, Video, and Images. Among these segments, News, Blogs, Credible Sources, and Hakia Galleries are processed by Hakia's proprietary core semantic technology called QDEXing. Web, video, and images are processed by Hakia's SemanticRank technology using third party API feeds.

HotBot
HotBot allows many search options such as language, images, javascript, video, and MP3. Advanced search options allow searching by date, page depth, and domain name.

Mahalo
Mahalo is the one 'human-powered' search site in this list, employing a committee of editors to manually sift and vet thousands of pieces of content.  This means that you'll get fewer Mahalo hit results than you will get at Bing or Google. But it also means that most Mahalo results have a higher quality of content and relevance (as best as human editors can judge).
Mahalo also offers regular web searching in addition to asking questions.  Depending on which of the two search boxes you use at Mahalo, you will either get direct content topic hits or suggested answers to your question.

Topsy
The first index is based exclusively on Twitter statuses. When you search for something on Topsy, such as “free music,“ it finds snippets of conversations that match what you are looking for. Topsy results are the things people link to when they are talking about your search terms. Topsy ranks results based on how well they match your search terms and the influence of the people talking about them.

Twazzup
Twazzup is a Twitter search tool that provides almost all of what Twitter Search does itself, plus a list of the most influential tweeters on a topic, related photos, and keywords based on your search results to help you refine your search.

WebCrawler
WebCrawler is one of the oldest search engines and uses the Excite search software to search the Web. It is good for simple searching.

Yahoo
Yahoo is a collection of classified subject resources. If no matches are found in its own database, it searches the rest of the Web using Google. Options at the bottom of the screen link to searches in a particular country (Denmark, France, Mexico) or city (Los Angeles, New York City) which may be in the native language of that country.

Yippy
Yippy is a Deep Web engine that searches other search engines for you. Unlike the regular Web, which is indexed by robot spider programs, Deep Web pages are usually harder to locate by conventional search. That's where Yippy becomes very useful. If you are searching for obscure hobby interest blogs, obscure government information, tough-to-find obscure news, academic research and otherwise-obscure content, then Yippy is your tool.

Meta Search Engines

These search engines search multiple databases simultaneously. Both of these search engines remove the duplicates before presenting the search results.
Dogpile
Searches the major search engines simultaneously and allows the user to view the combined results or compare the results of the various engines side by side.

MetaCrawler
MetaCrawler simultaneously searches Lycos, Infoseek, WebCrawler, Excite, AltaVista, Thunderstone, DirectHit, LookSmart, and Yahoo. A brief annotation is provided with the search results.

Subject Guides

These subject guides are a starting point to specific information on the Web. Although they do provide search engines, those engines search only on the individual Web site (i.e., a search on the Librarians' Index to the Internet will only show sites listed on the Librarians' Index to the Internet).
Internet Public Library
Originally begun as a project of the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies, the Internet Public Library locates, evaluates, annotates and organizes the information resources of the Internet which would be of interest to patrons of a public library.

Scout Report Archives
The Internet Scout Project, located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is funded by the National Science Foundation. Resources can be searched by either a quick or complex search engine. Links can also be browsed by Library of Congress subject headings.

Web Searching Techniques

For more information on how search engines work, how to search, and tables and charts describing how these tools work, see the following articles:Beyond General World Wide Web Searching (From UC Berkeley)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
Checklist of Internet Research Tips (from the University at Albany)
http://library.albany.edu/usered/iguides/iguides.html
Searching the Internet
http://www.sldirectory.com/search.html
Recommended Search Strategy: Search With Peripheral Vision
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

5k Race, Kid's Fun Run, Plus "Bonus" Book Sale on Sept. 16th

To contact us Click HERE
On Sunday, September 16th, the Friends of the Library will host the annual Race for the Library. The 5k Run/Walk starts at the library with runners proceeding to the West Chop lighthouse and back. There will also be a 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids (13 & under). There will be prizes for winners in all age groups, and a raffle. 5k starts at 10 am; Fun Run for Kids starts at 9:45 am; Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Registration forms are available at the library or may be downloaded from our website, or you can register online.

The morning of the race, the Friends will also hold a "mini" book sale fundraiser from 9am until 11am. This is in addition to the regular monthly book sale that will be held on Saturday September 15th from 1-3pm.

The Peter H. Luce Play Readers perform "Comedies of Manners"

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The two best-known, most highly-praised and most frequently-produced comedies of manners are Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" and Noel Coward's "Private Lives". Scenes from both classic plays will be performed as staged readings on Sunday, January 13th at 2pm at the Vineyard Haven Public Library. The program is presented by the Friends of the Library as part of their monthly "Sunday with Friends" series. The reading is free and refreshments will be served.

Excerpts from Act II of "...Earnest" will feature performers Mike Adell, Ellie Beth, Myra Stark and Eric Turner. The performers in excerpts from Act III of "Private Lives" will be Mike Adell, Linda Comstock, Leslie J. Stark and Rise Terney. Mr. Stark has adapted and will direct both scenes. Elaine Eugster will introduce the program, and will read the stage directions.

For nearly 15 years, the Peter H Luce Play Readers have met every Wednesday of the year at the Vineyard Haven Senior Center from 9AM to Noon to read plays of every era and of every genre, from the Greek and Roman clasics to the cutting-edge works of contemporary playwrights... and everything in between: Shakespeare, Shaw, Checkov, Moliere, Miller, Ibsen Albee, O'Neil, Pinter and Neil Simon. The group is named for its founder, Peter Luce, who died in 2007.

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library encourage public understanding of the Library's vital role in the community, support activities for both adults and children, and provide various other volunteer services. Their mission is to support the Library, to build a partnership between the Library and the community and to advocate for exemplary library service. All volunteers and those who are interested in knowing more about the Friends meet at 1:00 pm on the fourth Monday of every month (except December) at the library.

Art in the Stacks: Joe Doebler

To contact us Click HERE

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Public Library are pleased to present an exhibit  of photographs by Joe Doebler beginning Sunday, December 2nd. The exhibit will be on display during regular library hours through December.  “Art in the Stacks” is an initiative of the Friends of the Library, to provide individual artists an opportunity to show their work, and for library patrons to enjoy art at the library throughout the year.

ARTIST’S  STATEMENT

“I received a second hand camera as a gift when I was 12 and started taking pictures. I financed my new hobby with a paper route.   I took pictures of everything, my friends, landscapes and nature.  I quickly decided to become involved with the enlarging and chemical processing of my photos so I could have control of the finished product.  I was fascinated with the technology involved. During the past 20 years I followed the transition of photography from film and chemicals into digital cameras and computers.  The new digital technology brought new challenges of its own but also made results much quicker to achieve. “  All of my pictures are taken and printed by me.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

In real life Joe was an underwater acoustic engineer for the Navy, explaining that his favorite subjects in school were math and physics.  He and his wife retired and washed ashore here in 1996.  Retirement has given him more time for travel and photography.  It is fair to say that he has taken  photos from all over the world.  He has sold photos, donated photos to many local benefits and shown his work at Featherstone Center for the Arts, and at other venues.  He also edits and produce a small circulation photo calendar.

5k Race, Kid's Fun Run, Plus "Bonus" Book Sale on Sept. 16th

To contact us Click HERE
On Sunday, September 16th, the Friends of the Library will host the annual Race for the Library. The 5k Run/Walk starts at the library with runners proceeding to the West Chop lighthouse and back. There will also be a 1/2 Mile Fun Run for Kids (13 & under). There will be prizes for winners in all age groups, and a raffle. 5k starts at 10 am; Fun Run for Kids starts at 9:45 am; Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Registration forms are available at the library or may be downloaded from our website, or you can register online.

The morning of the race, the Friends will also hold a "mini" book sale fundraiser from 9am until 11am. This is in addition to the regular monthly book sale that will be held on Saturday September 15th from 1-3pm.

Holiday Hours and Upcoming Events

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The library will close early at 1pm on Monday, December 24th, and will be closed on Tuesday December 25th. We will also close early at 1pm on Monday, December 31st, and will be closed on Tuesday January 1st.

On Wednesday, December 19th at 7pm, enjoy a celebration of the winter solstice with readings from some of our Island's most popular writers. Ellie Bates, Marianne Goldberg, Jill Jupen, Clark Meyers, Donald Nitchie, Barbara Peckham, Annette Sandrock, Laura Wainwright and William Waterway will be reading, and Island Poet laureate Lee McCormick will also be there. Please bring poetry or prose you would like to share. Refreshments will be served.

The Library is also pleased to present a free concert and celebration to welcome the new year. Join us on Sunday, January 6th at 4pm for holiday refreshments and a performance on the mini-grand concert harp by Nathaniel Horwitz.

Did you know you can check out free eBooks and downloadable audiobooks from the library? For those who recieve a new eReader or audio player for the holidays, drop by the library on Saturday mornings between 10am and noon for informal demonstration of the library's "Overdrive" service. Library staff will be present to answer your questions and show you how to get started.

A Search Primer (you don't have to always go with Google)

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While Google is the undisputed king of internet search, there are other options.  Try some from the list below the next time you do a search.  The bottom portion of this post contains links to search tips that will help you become a better searcher.

General Search Engines
 
All the Web, All the Time
One of the more recently developed Web indexing tools, this search engine indexes a very large database. It has separate search boxes for audio, FTP, and picture files. Advanced search options support domain filters, word filters, and allow searching in 25 different languages.

AltaVista
Alta Vista has a large database. It can perform searches in Spanish or English and translate words, phrases, and entire Web sites online into many languages using "Babelfish." Other improvements include phrase detection, spell check, Family Filter, and natural language capabilities.

Ask 
Ask is a search engine that is intended to be used with natural language questions. There are many extra features such as suggesting other terms that are along the same subject lines and local searching.

Bing
Bing is Microsoft's new search engine. On the left side of the screen, it has buttons for searching images, videos, shopping, news, travel, history and maps. There is a visual search option, as well.

Google
The most extensive search engine on the Web. Google search results are ranked based on site popularity rather than the common practice of paid positioning. Google also has specialized searches for certain operating systems, government documents, maps and scholarly articles. A single click translation service is available for most pages which will translate to the user's primary language. It also caches Web pages allowing an individual to view pages that are not currently available or that are on overburdened servers.

Hakia
Hakia is a semantic search engine that is focused on quality. Unique to Hakia, a single query brings a full set of results in all segments including Web, News, Blogs, Hakia Galleries, Credible Sources, Video, and Images. Among these segments, News, Blogs, Credible Sources, and Hakia Galleries are processed by Hakia's proprietary core semantic technology called QDEXing. Web, video, and images are processed by Hakia's SemanticRank technology using third party API feeds.

HotBot
HotBot allows many search options such as language, images, javascript, video, and MP3. Advanced search options allow searching by date, page depth, and domain name.

Mahalo
Mahalo is the one 'human-powered' search site in this list, employing a committee of editors to manually sift and vet thousands of pieces of content.  This means that you'll get fewer Mahalo hit results than you will get at Bing or Google. But it also means that most Mahalo results have a higher quality of content and relevance (as best as human editors can judge).
Mahalo also offers regular web searching in addition to asking questions.  Depending on which of the two search boxes you use at Mahalo, you will either get direct content topic hits or suggested answers to your question.

Topsy
The first index is based exclusively on Twitter statuses. When you search for something on Topsy, such as “free music,“ it finds snippets of conversations that match what you are looking for. Topsy results are the things people link to when they are talking about your search terms. Topsy ranks results based on how well they match your search terms and the influence of the people talking about them.

Twazzup
Twazzup is a Twitter search tool that provides almost all of what Twitter Search does itself, plus a list of the most influential tweeters on a topic, related photos, and keywords based on your search results to help you refine your search.

WebCrawler
WebCrawler is one of the oldest search engines and uses the Excite search software to search the Web. It is good for simple searching.

Yahoo
Yahoo is a collection of classified subject resources. If no matches are found in its own database, it searches the rest of the Web using Google. Options at the bottom of the screen link to searches in a particular country (Denmark, France, Mexico) or city (Los Angeles, New York City) which may be in the native language of that country.

Yippy
Yippy is a Deep Web engine that searches other search engines for you. Unlike the regular Web, which is indexed by robot spider programs, Deep Web pages are usually harder to locate by conventional search. That's where Yippy becomes very useful. If you are searching for obscure hobby interest blogs, obscure government information, tough-to-find obscure news, academic research and otherwise-obscure content, then Yippy is your tool.

Meta Search Engines

These search engines search multiple databases simultaneously. Both of these search engines remove the duplicates before presenting the search results.
Dogpile
Searches the major search engines simultaneously and allows the user to view the combined results or compare the results of the various engines side by side.

MetaCrawler
MetaCrawler simultaneously searches Lycos, Infoseek, WebCrawler, Excite, AltaVista, Thunderstone, DirectHit, LookSmart, and Yahoo. A brief annotation is provided with the search results.

Subject Guides

These subject guides are a starting point to specific information on the Web. Although they do provide search engines, those engines search only on the individual Web site (i.e., a search on the Librarians' Index to the Internet will only show sites listed on the Librarians' Index to the Internet).
Internet Public Library
Originally begun as a project of the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies, the Internet Public Library locates, evaluates, annotates and organizes the information resources of the Internet which would be of interest to patrons of a public library.

Scout Report Archives
The Internet Scout Project, located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is funded by the National Science Foundation. Resources can be searched by either a quick or complex search engine. Links can also be browsed by Library of Congress subject headings.

Web Searching Techniques

For more information on how search engines work, how to search, and tables and charts describing how these tools work, see the following articles:Beyond General World Wide Web Searching (From UC Berkeley)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
Checklist of Internet Research Tips (from the University at Albany)
http://library.albany.edu/usered/iguides/iguides.html
Searching the Internet
http://www.sldirectory.com/search.html
Recommended Search Strategy: Search With Peripheral Vision
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

NASA's Joke Goes Over Everyone's Head

To contact us Click HERE
On Sunday this week, NASA posted details of a new mission involving the craft currently orbiting the planet Mercury called MESSENGER or "MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging."


The mission, PIA 15542, or "Mooning Mercury" to the layearthling, centers on a newly discovered natural satellite (moon) measuring 230 ft. across at a distance of about 8,890 miles above the planet.  The proposed name for this moon is Caduceus.

The very, very, very small moon, Caduceus.

The mission description goes on to say that rather than study this moon, as they might normally do, NASA had another plan.  It goes like this...

...The new plan is to use the remaining propellant to crash MESSENGER into Caduceus. "Our detailed analysis tells us that if we act now, and with the right trajectory, MESSENGER will impart just enough momentum to the moon to break it free of Mercury's gravity well and set it on an Earth-crossing trajectory suitable for recovery as a Mercury meteorite," said Panini.

...If Caduceus is successfully released from the pull of Mercury and placed on a course to reach Earth, we can expect the moon to arrive at Earth by 2014. "The risk to the public is reassuringly small", offers MESSENGER mission design lead Adam McJames. "We have designed a trajectory that will bring the moon to Earth at a remote location on the Wilkes Land ice sheet in Antarctica. This trajectory will avoid all population centers and will put the moon's impact site within reach for retrieval by the scientific staff at the U.S.-operated McMurdo Station."

In other words, something a little like the plot of the 1979 movie, "Meteor."


If you don't think about the odds of being able to map that trajectory so specifically across the minimum 48,000,000 miles between Earth and Mercury, this all sounds well and good, but NASA gives its joke away with in love of acronyms.

If successful, MESSENGER's extended extended MIN-C mission will mark the first instance of the documented arrival to Earth of material from the Mercury system. Moreover, it will serve as the basis for a new Discovery-class mission proposal currently in development by the Applied Psychics Laboratory for a Mercury lander mission for in situ X-ray analysis of surface composition. That mission is to be named the Hermean On-surface Analysis with X-rays.

That's right.  The mission's name is H.O.A.X.  At least when NASA makes a joke, they do it big.  Happy April Fool's Day.

* * * * 
In related news that is not so enjoyable, NASA has begun the process of decommissioning the Space Shuttles and their overall program.  President George W. Bush first called for the retirement of the shuttle program in January of 2004, in the aftermath of the shuttle Columbia accident and its disintegration over Texas during atmospheric re-entry.  In speaking about a new focus for NASA on the International Space Station, Bush said:

Excerpt of  President Bush's 2004 remarks to NASA, announcing the
retirement of the shuttle program.

The photoblog In Focus, from The Atlantic Monthly, has compiled a series of images from the dismantling and preparation for display of shuttles Discovery and Endeavor as well as of the launching pads, cargo bays, and propulsion systems.  It is good-bye, for now, to American manned spaceflight.

Click on these images to visit the In Focus set.

We're Not the Only Ones Worried About the Census

To contact us Click HERE


Census Project presents the viewpoints about the decennial census and the American Community Survey (ACS) from various stakeholders.  A diverse group of stakeholders are involved including academic associations, public policy interest groups, retail and business organizations, and organizations representing ethnic and minority groups.

Recently the House voted not to fund the American Community Survey for 2013.  The Census Project  notes, "Currently, because of economic, fiscal and political challenges, the ongoing budgets to adequately fund planning for Census 2020 and the ACS’ ongoing work will be under a microscope in Congress."

The site includes fact sheets, issue briefs, letters, and other information.  A recent report, Eliminating America's Playbook, is a compilation of "scores of case studies and comments on why the ACS is one of the most useful tools the nation has to measure how its communities are doing each year."

Check it out!

Vilsack Talks Farm Bill, Warns That Rural America Is Becoming Irrelevant

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Agriculture Secretary says Farm Bill delay is thanks to rural America 'becoming less and less relevant to the politics of the country'...

By Jerry Hagstrom
Crossposted from The Hagstrom Report  

In his first major speech since the election, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday directly addressed Republican criticism of the Obama administration during the election campaign, and said that leaders in rural America need to take on a “new attitude” that replaces “trying to preserve what we’ve got” with “a growth mindset.”

Exit polls showed that 59 percent of rural Americans voted for Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and a pre-election poll taken for AgriPulse showed that about 75 percent of farmers with more than 500 acres intended to vote for Romney.

Vilsack told a Farm Journal Forum audience of big farmers and agribusiness executives who were most likely Republicans that he has found it “frustrating to hear conversation about regulations that didn’t exist or were taken care of,” such as the proposals to regulate dust on farm roads or change child farm labor rules that the administration had already rejected.

People talked about “just trying to preserve what we’ve got,” he said, because “they are fearful” rather than “looking at this extraordinary future that is ahead of us.”

Noting that rural youth today have the opportunity to live and work anywhere, Vilsack asked, “How are you going to encourage young people today who have all these opportunities and we want them to keep the farm if we have a reactive message, not a proactive message?”

Only 16 percent of Americans now live in rural areas, and that percentage could continue to drop if young rural Americans do not see a reason to stay there, Vilsack said. He noted that rural America has already lost political power due to the population loss, and said that is a major reason the House of Representatives has not felt compelled to take up the farm bill.

“Why is it we don’t have a farm bill?,” Vilsack asked. “It isn’t just differences of policy, it is because rural America with its shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of the country.”

The fact that “we can’t get a farm bill done,” Vilsack said, shows “it is time for a different thought process. It is time for us to have an adult conversation in rural America.”

“The fights we often pick are misinterpreted in some quarters,” Vilsack said. He cited the reaction to the decision of the United Egg Producers to try to forge an agreement with the Humane Society of the United States to encourage Congress to pass a law setting national standards for cage sizes.

“The egg producers decide they want to sit down and talk to the enemy. They want one rule. They get castigated by [other] folks in agriculture.” He said that while other agriculture groups said the egg producers were going to destroy the system, “actually not, you are going to grow the industry.”

“We have to have a truthful conversation, one in which we don’t get criticized for saying something a little bit controversial,” Vilsack said.

Asked during a question-and-answer period what action should be taken in the farm bill on cutting food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, Vilsack said the debate is another one in which rural Americans have taken a questionable position.

Vilsack said he wants to continue to increase efficiency and reduce fraud and abuse but that SNAP is “a good example of a battle that we are having that is not strategic.” He noted that 90 percent of the people who get food stamps are senior citizens, persons with disability, children or working people who can’t make ends meet.

Rural Americans, he said, “stigmatize those people” and view the program as a competitor to farm subsidies without realizing that the money food stamp beneficiaries spend goes to grocers and ultimately to farmers.

When farmers criticize food stamps, Vilsack said, food stamp beneficiaries think “those rural folks are against us.” People in the cities don’t understand that the commodity title in the farm bill is connected to the food supply, he said, but when farmers criticize SNAP, the situation becomes a fight.

Turning to Tom Dorr, an undersecretary of agriculture for rural development in the George W. Bush administration who was in the audience, Vilsack asked whether he believes that if the SNAP budget were cut in half the money would go to farm programs. Dorr did not answer directly, but later praised Vilsack for his consistent approach to agriculture and rural America.

In an apparent reference to the fact that the minority population is growing in the United States and the pending issue of immigration reform, Vilsack also said, “Rural America is going to have to embrace diversity.”

Calling it “a great place,” Vilsack said rural America should “fight a good fight, a strategic fight, one that is worth fighting” to improve itself.

He noted that agriculture is doing well, although he said the drought is creating new challenges and that prosperity in agriculture is not necessarily translating into good times in the rest of the rural economy.

President Barack Obama brought up the drought and the issue of navigation on the Mississippi River at the most recent Cabinet meeting, Vilsack said, adding that the administration is doing all it can to make sure that navigation continues.

But the secretary said the drought situation has raised the larger issue of the future of infrastructure in rural America.

“We have an infrastructure deficit that needs to be addressed including locks and dams and railroads,” Vilsack said, adding that the issue of “water infrastructure has been raised — water storage, irrigation.”

Credit issues are a concern in rural America, he said, noting that the Agriculture Department, which provides loans to farmers who have the hardest time getting credit, has a record level of farm lending.

More resources need to be put into agricultural research, he said, to keep up production and exports through measures such as double cropping. There also need to be research to address climate change, he said, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration needs to do a better job of forecasting weather patterns.

Vilsack said he is worried about declining opportunity in the non-agricultural economy and that poverty is higher in rural America than in the rest of the country. The Obama administration, he noted, has expanded broadband internet service in rural America but said it needs to be expanded even more.

The “cornerstones” for the future of rural America, Vilsack said, are agriculture and exports, biofuels, and local and regional food systems, which will provide an opportunity for population growth and recreation.

The goal, he said, should be “to take everything we grow and turn it into an opportunity. Virtually everything we need in an economy can be plant based and bio based.”

______________________________
Jerry Hagstrom, founder and editor of the best online, subscription-only agriculture and policy newssite The Hagstrom Report, cross-posts at Obama Foodorama.  If you're not a subscriber to The Hagstrom Report, you're missing crucial coverage.

Agriculture Department To Allow 'Flexibility' In School Lunch Program: More Meat, More Grains

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Sec. Vilsack announces change in response to ongoing criticism...

By Jerry Hagstrom
Crossposted from The Hagstrom Report

Reacting to complaints from Members of Congress and some school food directors and students, the Agriculture Department has decided to allow schools to serve more grains and meat or meat alternatives and still be in compliance with the regulations of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act 2010, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a letter to Congress sent on Friday.  The school lunch legislation was championed by First Lady Michelle Obama as a centerpiece of the Let's Move! campaign, and the updated, mandated nutrition guidelines went into effect at the beginning of this school year.

"We always anticipated that some modifications and other allowances would be required for changes of this size and scope,” Vilsack wrote to Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), who sent a letter to the Secretary complaining that the guidelines are too strict.

"USDA has asked for, and states and schools have provided us with, valuable feedback," Vilsack said. "As a result, you should be pleased to know that we have recently moved to allow for additional flexibility in meeting some of the new standards."
 
"For example, the top operational challenge that states and schools have reported is in serving meals that fit within the weekly minimum and maximum serving ranges for the grains and meat/meat alternate portions of the standards. To help schools make a successful transition to the new requirements, we have provided additional flexibility in meeting the requirements for these components. If a school is meeting just the minimum serving requirements for these two food groups, they will be considered in compliance with that portion of the standards, regardless of whether they have exceeded the maximum."

Vilsack added, "This flexibility is being provided to allow more time for the development of products that fit within the new standards while granting schools additional weekly menu planning options to help ensure that children receive a wholesome, nutritious meal every day of the week."

The Secretary hinted that there could be further changes coming to the National School Lunch Program, which feeds about 32 million children in close to 100,000 institutions.

"These actions are by no means exhaustive.  Implementation is a process that takes time, and as the school year progresses we will continue listening and providing education, technical assistance, and flexibilities where appropriate," he said.

Vilsack noted that the regulations were written to try to address childhood obesity and promote good nutrition. The latest government statistics place the child obesity rate at about 17% nationally, with one in three children being identified as overweight or obese.  The school nutrition standards "are just one part of a comprehensive effort taking place across the Federal government to address childhood obesity - a national epidemic with significant health and economic consequences for our country," Vilsack said. 

Mrs. Obama's Let's Move! campaign coordinates the anti-obesity efforts of at least thirteen  federal agencies, including Treasury; Defense; Health and Human Services; Housing and Urban Development; Interior; and Education.

In response to concerns about the minimum and maximum calorie requirements included in the legislation, which set standards according to grade level, Vilsack pointed out that during the school day foods are available to students outside the National School Lunch Program.  

"Students are always permitted to purchase as much additional food a la carte as they want," Vilsack said.  "Schools can also make larger portions of furits and vegetables (or even milk) available at lunch and structure afterschool snack and supper programs to provide additional foods for those who need them.  Many schools have previously found success with parent or school-run booster clubs providing afterschool snacks and may opt to continue or even expand this practice."   

USDA has not yet issued the guidelines required under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act for 'competitive foods' sold in a la carte lines and vending machines at schools. 

The Hagstrom Report obtained a copy of the letter and a USDA source said that it had been sent on Friday to Hoeven and other Members of Congress who had written to complain that the new school lunch standards are too strict.

*Secretary Vilsack's letter [PDF]

*USDA's webpages devoted to school lunch guidelines:  The School Day Just Got Healthier

*Information: The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act 2010

______________________________
Jerry Hagstrom, founder and editor of the best online, subscription-only agriculture and policy newssite The Hagstrom Report, cross-posts at Obama Foodorama.  If you're not a subscriber to The Hagstrom Report, you're missing crucial coverage.
 
*Photo by Lawrence Jackson/White House