Searching High and Low

One of the changes in the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is that the “medium of publication” must be included for each item that appears in a works cited page.

I was curious to see a list of the authorized terms MLA wants us to use in describing the “medium of publication” but did not see one in the book.  So, I made my own.

Here’s a list of the MLA “medium of publication” types that I compiled from the seventh edition handbook along with the rule numbers in the manual. The format looks like this:

Broad category

MLA terms appear in bold text - additional description if needed.

Print publications - 5.4 through 5.5

Print – books, periodical articles,

Web publications - 5.6

Web – websites, articles from research databases such as LexisNexis and Academic Search Premier.

Television or radio broadcast - 5.7.1

Radio – (medium of reception) radio broadcasts
Television – (medium of reception)

Sound recording - 5.7.2

Audiocassette
Audiotape - reel to reel
CD
LP

Film or video recording - 5.7.3

Film
DVD
Videocassette
Laser disc
Sound filmstrip
Slide program

Live performances - 5.7.4

Performance

Visual art (indicate the medium of composition) - 5.7.6

Photograph
Graphite on paper
Bronze
Oil on canvas

Interviews - 5.7.7

Personal interview
Telephone interview

Miscellaneous

E-mail - 5.7.13
Microform - 5.7.15 (microfilm, microfiche, microcard)

CD-ROM - 5.7.17
DVD-ROM - 5.7.17

Scores – musical score or libretto - 5.7.5

Digital Files (specify the type of file and follow with “file” ) - 5.7.18

Digital file – Use if you cannot identify type of file
PDF file
Microsoft Word file (italicize titles of software programs)
MP3 file
JPEG file

The Scientist is reporting that pharmaceutical giant Merck created a professional-sounding journal in which to plant “research” articles supportive of the company’s products.  The revelation came in the form of court testimony during a class action lawsuit against the company by former patients who claimed that “Vioxx caused their heart attack or stroke.” (See this BNET Pharma post for even more of what was going on behind-the-scenes at Merck.)

The publishing partner for this marketing scheme was an Elsevier company, Excerpta Medica Communications.  The Scientist article includes links to the first two issues of the the faux journal, The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine (ISSN 1447-5529).

Chemistry Blog has done a content analysis of the two issues and has tabulated the number of times Merck products are mentioned and whether the products are given a positive or neutral light. No surprise, ChemistryBlog’s results show that Merck products did not receive any negative coverage in these fake journal articles.

Based on the following statement that appeared on publisher’s Excerpta Medica site, I would say the company is living up to expectations:

Goal 1: Create new ways to think - accomplished

Goal 2: Create customized programs - accomplished

Goal 3: Surprise and amaze us with your ability to transform ideas into effective programs - accomplished

Life magazine is back from the dead (for the third time). The latest incarnation is in the form of a website, Life.com. And it’s not just a bland archive of their tremendous image collection.

Users will be able to share Life images via social websites and create customized printed books or magazines. Framed prints are also advertised on the site but this feature is either not implemented or was only available for selected images when I visited (none of the Muhammad Ali images I looked at had the “Purchase” button).

So how big is the archive? The site doesn’t mention specific numbers only saying that it’s “the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the Web.”
According to the Digits blog at the Wall Street Journal, scanners have been digitizing approximately 21,000 images per day for the past 2 years in building the image database. I’ll let you do the math.

The University of Texas is testing a program that offers, at a reduced rate, electronic versions of textbooks to students in a number of disciplines. The article also mentions the e-textbook program in Ohio and how this one differs. Read the complete article here:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/04/1004textbook.html

It seems the movement away from high priced textbooks is gaining momentum. I saw references to these three happenings in the past few weeks:

• Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free - The New York Times
• A statistics textbook written by a couple of professors was released under a license on the Connexions (a site for creating, sharing, and borrowing educational materials.)
• Virginia recently announced an open source “flexbook” project for physics education and is seeking contributors.

Here are some additional sites:

• Flat World Knowledge - http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/minisite/index.html (launch planned in 2009). See this article on Ars about the company.
• Merlot - similar to Connexions.
• Washington Open Educational resources (blog) - http://blog.oer.sbctc.edu/

While taking the latest beta redesign of the Ebscohost search interface for a spin I noticed they’ve integrated the popular Add This bookmark button right next to the permanent URL in every article citation.

This particular bookmarking tool is used by many sites on the web and I anticipate our students will recognize it.  Whether they choose to add links to this kind of content on places like Facebook or Myspace is another story.  At least the option is available.  Here’s the sharing list that pops up when the button is clicked:

Wade Roush at xconomy reports on an announcement by OLPC’s founder Nicholas Negroponte (of MIT’s Media Lab) describing their next generation ebook laptop:

The book-like design of the device “comes from something we’ve learned over the past couple of years—that the book experience is key,” Negroponte said during his presentation this morning. “Some people have asked me why not just give kids cell phones? And in fact there will be 1.2 billion cell phones manufactured this year, and cell phones are of huge consequence in the developing world—but the cell phone is not a learning device. The next generation laptop should be a book.”

I saw today that Ebsco support has added a Search Box Builder for those interested in creating a search box widget for Ebscohost databases that can be dropped into any webpage. The builder form asks you to enter a variety of parameters and then generates code that you can copy and paste into your site.

To construct your form you will need to:

• select which Ebscohost databases are to be searched
• enter proxy server information (if any)
• choose search limit options (full text, scholarly journals, etc.)
• select a style from the style gallery (three choices)

That’s it. For libraries that maintain a substantial collection of Ebsco databases, I can see this tool being used to create subject-specific search forms that can be placed on “research by subject” pages on a library site.  Here’s a full text search box for two databases at my library, Academic Search Premier and MasterFILE Premier.  [May not work if you're at home or if your institution does not subscribe to these two databases]

From The New York Times

Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books.

The trend will allow consumers who download audio books to freely transfer these digital files between devices like their computers, iPods and cellphones — and conceivably share them with others. Dropping copying restrictions could also allow a variety of online retailers to start to sell audio book downloads.

…

“Our feeling is that D.R.M. is not actually doing anything to prevent piracy,” said Ms. McIntosh of Random House Audio.

iLibrarian has compiled an interesting list of 40 add ons for the Firefox web browser that may be of interest to librarians. I use a few of them already (FoxyTunes, Meebo, WebDeveloper, Zotero) but will test drive a few more. The first one that caught my eye was the Fireshot add on to make, annotate, and export screenshots. I’ve found it very handy so far in creating some documentation the past couple of days. Here’s an example: