Volume 38, Number 5 - September/October 2014
EDITORIALFrontLines Page 4 If information professionals find jobs outside of libraries using their librarian skills, are they still librarians? Are they still information professionals? By Marydee Ojala Searcher's Voice Page 33 bq reflects on career moves and how to take what you love to do so much, you'd do it for free and make a job out of that passion. By Barbara Quint DEPARTMENTSPage 8 Search Engine Update By Greg R. Notess Page 62 Conference Corral Conference Conversations FEATURESPage 10 Acting on Big Data: A Data Scientist Role for Info Pros Librarians looking at exploring new roles should consider data science, thinks Amy Affelt. Data scientists deal with Big Data, which should be a natural fit, since information professionals have been experts at working with data since the dawn of librarianship. Seize the opportunity to learn about new ways to manipulate Big Data sets. By Amy Affelt Page 16 Cool Tools for Collaboration and Information Sharing New tools and apps that facilitate sharing, increase accuracy, and enhance productivity are welcome additions to the information professional's toolkit. Barbie Keiser identifies several that will cut down on the frustrations encountered when ideas are lost and work must be redone. By Barbie E. Keiser Page 20 Sweet Spots for Market Research Report Retrieval The online availability of market research reports in full text has changed greatly within the past few years. Robert Berkman outlines the changes and gives his evaluation of the best places to locate and download full text, along with some helpful hints about searchability. By Robert Berkman Page 26 A good entry point to data on a wide range of European topics, Eurostat contains a wealth of information and statistics across the European Union membership countries along with a few others not in the EU. By Anja Chemnitz Thygesen Page 38 All About Open Access Repositories  Publishing in a "gold" open access journal is only one option authors have in making their research articles accessible to the public. Abby Clobridge instead focuses on the lesser-known, but very viable alternative that is often overlooked, the "green" route, which Clobridge says can be an even better way to go. By Abby Clobridge Page 42 The Business Case for Information Literacy: Why Training Is an Important Information Services Function With the economy recovering at a slower-than-expected rate, businesses are still looking for ways to cut costs. This article looks at how info pros can use financial metrics to aggressively participate in the budget decision-making process to show how information center training remains a core part of a company's overall success.  Additional viewpoints about training and information literacy can be found online as supplementary material to this article here
By James Matarazzo, Toby Pearlstein Page 50 Algorithms and Big Data The Digital Public Library of America and HathiTrust are two Big Data projects involving libraries, as are several Harvard projects. Not everything is benign, however. Big Data and the role of algorithms present issues about privacy, crime, government intervention, and responsible journalism. By Nancy K. Herther Page 56 Open Source Struggles With Personalities and Security Stephen Arnold discusses trends in open source, including its backing off from the "cult of personality" and implications about security posed by the Heartbleed bug. For libraries, open source adoption can impose unexpected costs. By Stephen E. Arnold Page 60 Bloomberg BNA: An Interview With CEO Gregory C. McCaffery Gregory McCaffery, a veteran BNA employee now CEO of Bloomberg BNA, shares his thoughts on the information industry, legal research, relationship building, and what happens when you work for a company that's been acquired. By Marydee Ojala COLUMNSInternet Express Page 35 The message that we all must be physically fit permeates all areas of our daily lives. But isn't exercising the brain, especially as we get older, just as important? Irene McDermott shares sites and products designed to stimulate the brain and cognition. By Irene E. McDermott On the Net Page 65 The Site Operator for Advanced Search Knowing search syntax gives searchers a considerable edge, particularly when web search engines eliminate or hide their advanced search functionality. Greg Notess explains the intricacies of searching by site. By Greg R. Notess InfoLit Land Page 68 Knowledge Is a River We used to describe knowledge as a lake, but changes happen so fast that now it's more like a river. Much of what we "knew" 10 years ago is no longer valid. From an information literacy perspective, we need to adapt to the flow of the river. By William Badke The Dollar Sign Page 71 Preformatted Company Profiles, Reports, Overviews, and Dossiers Having company information delivered to you already formatted saves the researcher's time in creating a template. Some tweaking may be necessary and knowing what information is included by the source is essential. By Marydee Ojala Control-Shift Page 74 Being Findable: Search Engine Optimization for Library Websites Librarians can use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to make their library webpages more discoverable. Jeff Wisniewski and Darlene Fichter list six important elements affecting how to attract the attention of web search engines. By Jeff Wisniewski, Darlene Fichter Hard Copy Page 77 Recommended Reading on Buying and Selling Content, Library Instruction, Library Science, and Google By Deborah Lynne Wiley Online Spotlight Page 80 The End of the Internet? The Internet of Things, Europe's "right to be forgotten," and questionable reliability of web search results call into question people's faith in the internet for finding information. Going forward, information professionals will need better search tools. By Mary Ellen Bates |
