Marylaine Block (my vote for the most thoughtful and incisive of the free-lance librarians out there) just posted her latest Ex Libris essay Cultivating Reporters -- excellent 'marketing your library' tips and advice.
Rita Vine, who teaches Internet research skills at WorkingFaster.com, has an interesting article over at LLRX.com called Coming Soon – the Death of Search Engines?
I pretty much agree with her. I do wonder why she didn't mention Teoma, the third large search engine left standing these days.
Cool, free, you chose when, library-related seminars from Dynix. One hour webcasts at Dynix Institute Web Seminar Archive. Includes Michael Gorman on "The Enduring Values of Librarianship," Paula Wilson on " Promoting the Library's Online Collections: 10 Surefire Ways to Increase Usage Statistics," Marshall Breeding on "Where is the Industry Headed? Top Trends to Watch in 2004," and almost two dozen more at this posting. Also, be sure to check out the upcoming webcasts here.
Topix.net monitors breaking news from more than 6,000 sources and lets users filter results by ZIP code. Available via an RSS feed.
I was using MedlinePlus to check on information on osteoarthritis of the hip. I have it and am closing in on a total hip replacement. This librarian is researching! Anyway, just ran across MedlinePlus' collection of interactive tutorials on health -- understandable English (and in Spanish) and available with sound plus the graphics and words.
Interactive Health Tutorials : MEDLINEplus
"Using animated graphics each tutorial explains a procedure or condition in easy-to-read language." You can also listen to the tutorial. More than 150 interactive tutorials explain specific medical diseases and conditions, specific medical tests and diagnostic procedures, and specific surgery and treatment procedures.
XML.org's XML Beginner's Guide is actually a set of links to tutorials and FAQ's posted elsewhere. There are links to three FAQs, one glossary, three XML specifications, six tutorials, and more. Some sample links:
+ XML for the absolute beginner;
+ 20 Questions on XML;
+ XML Namespaces FAQ;
+ Pros and Cons of XML;
+ XML: 11 Best Practices
from Gary Price's Resource Shelf