Research Infrastructure

Library and Information Center

Rowland Institute at Harvard
Library News & Notes
July 23, 2004

Notes

Garrett will be on vacation the week of July 26-30. Please send requests for journal articles and books to Jason.

Internet Sites of the Week

Beethoven Piano Sonatas
The BBC has posted recordings of a complete set of Beethoven piano sonatas, performed last year by Artur Pizarro (RealPlayer). Happy listening.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/pizarro/
(Source: My Computational Complexity Weblog)

Biotechnology and the Popular Press: Hype and the Selling of Science
How accurately does the media report science? What forces do commercial pressures exert on the media, public perception and research funding? A review article explores some data and its implications.
http://dx.doi.org.ezp1.harvard.edu/10.1016/j.tibtech.2004.03.014

Boston Prepares for Democratic National Convention
The Scout Report's In the News section hosts a variety of links, including the convention website, as well features on security, delegates and labor disputes.
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2004/scout-040723-inthenews.php
However, most will probably want to see a map of transportation routes:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/traffic/
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/survival/boston/
(Sources: The Scout Report, Boston.com)
(Addendum: the convention will be blogged; see
http://politics.feedster.com/,
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/001461.php)
(Sources: ResourceShelf, Feedster Feed of the Day)

Download For Democracy: P2P goes to Washington
This website includes a library of more than 600 public documents relating to recent government activities including the 9/11 commission ( http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html), vice-president's energy task force, USA PATRIOT Act, and much material that is legally available but may be difficult to find.
http://www.outragedmoderates.org/DownloadForDemocracy.html
See also coverage in Wired
( http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64237,00.html)

Inducing of Copyright Infringement Act
Two articles examine the implications of recent legislation in the Senate that would criminalize networks and applications that may potentially be used for copyright infringement. This may include file-sharing networks and devices like the iPod.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64297,00.html
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/07/22/induce/index_np.html
(free after watching a brief commercial) Furdlog
( http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/index.php?p=2298) and Copyfight
(http://www.corante.com/copyfight/ ) have more on the issue.

Kite Aerial Photography
http://scotthaefner.com/kap/gallery/
(Source: ResearchBuzz)

news@nature.com
Nature has revamped its daily news section (formerly called Nature Science Update,) and will include free daily news and premium content from its stable of magazines. All content on the site is openly available to registered users until September. Nature also offers RSS feeds for several subject categories, including biotech, medicine and physical sciences, or you can get all news from one feed.
http://www.nature.com/news/index.html

Oxymorons.info
A playful discussion site highlighting contradictory juxtapositions, featuring an oxymoron of the day (“impatient patient”) and an oxymoronic quote of the day. Also includes exhaustive categories and subject listings.
http://www.oxymorons.info/
(Source: The Scout Report)

Paradox Lost
Stephen Hawking revises his thinking on black holes.
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2941288
Hawking's page can be found at:
http://www.hawking.org.uk/home/hindex.html
(Sources: Arts & Letters Daily; Librarian's Index to the Internet)

Rowland Institute Announces New Junior Fellows
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/07.22/99-rowland.html

Signs of the Times
http://www.rowland.harvard.edu/news/sign.html

They Think They Can: Small Engines Challenge Big Search Sites
A news article profiles several perhaps lesser known search sites such as Topix.net, Vivisimo, and Eurekster and describes their unique features (news, clustering) (Source: beSpacific)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/19/BUGOJ7ME731.DTL&type=business
(Meanwhile, some reflected on the early days of search engines: http://fury.com/images/weblog/google_circa_1960.jpg)
(Source: Slashdot)

“UK Report”: Scientific Publications — Free for All?
The Science and Technology Committee of the British Parliament's House of Commons released a report urging more funding for and a strategic approach to open access publishing on the part of Britain's research institutions and funding agencies.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/
cmsctech/399/39902.htm
See Peter Suber's excellent summary
( http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2004_07_18_fosblogarchive.html
#a109028453862279542)
and other resources on the report at Open Access News.

NEW BOOKS/VIDEOS

Received July 17-23, 2004