Internet Public Library
The Internet Public Library began in 1995 as a graduate seminar project in the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan. In some ways, it still retains the flavor of a public library - in addition to a hierarchical subject directory, it includes sections for "Ready Reference" (encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs and so on), the Reading Room (links to web sites that provide access to the full text of books, magazines and newspapers), and KidSpace and TeenSpace (resources for kindergarten through high school students). It also has a collection of "Pathfinders" - guides to both print and online sources for topics ranging from heart disease to Greek mythology
<http://ipl.si.umich.edu/div/pf/>. The Internet Public Library has a far smaller collection of sites than Open Directory Project or Yahoo! Directory, but the web sitesincluded are high quality. The Internet Public Library also comes with an "Ask A Question" service, supported by students in graduate library science and information classes, by professional librarian volunteers and by IPL contributors. The idea is to help library students practice how to provide reference services, especially in an email environment. Allow three days for a response, since this is staffed by students and volunteers. You can submit a question at http://www.ipl.org/div/askus/.
Librarians’ Internet Index
The Librarians’ Internet Index was founded in 1993 and is maintained by librarians, in this case a small staff supported by funds from the California State Library system and the Washington State Library, and several dozen volunteer ontributors, most of whom work in public, university or school libraries. It is organized into broad categories and then subcategories, as with most other web directories. The summaries of the web sites included in the LII are more detailed than most directories, and includes useful cross-reference information. For example, the Politics category includes cross-referenced categories, such as "Activism" and "Notable People: Government", indicated by bold type. Recent additions to the category are in a box on the right. And take a look at each individual entry. If you click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the title, a pop-up box will display additional cataloging information about the site (all the topics within the LII in which the site is listed, when the site was added to LII, and so on). If you click the small box next to the magnifying glass, you can send a comment to the LII staff about the site (perhaps suggesting another category it should appear in or commenting on the description of the site). And clicking the envelope icon lets you email that site description to anyone. Note, also, that below the description of the site is a list of the other categories in which this site appears. Unfortunately, this is not a complete list of all the categories; a better option is to click the magnifying glass icon to see all the places the site appears within LII. One limitation of LII is that it is sometimes California- and Washington-centric, reflecting its origin and the background of its contributors, who are librarians in California and Washington. There are a number of California-specific categories -- California: Travel, California: History, and so on -- for which there is no LII equivalent for other states except Washington. LII offers a weekly newsletter, New This Week, which contains all the entries added to the Index in the last seven days. You can receive the newsletter in email or via RSS feed by filling out the subscription form at ttp://www.lii.org/pub/htdocs/subscribe.htm, or you can read the newsletter online, at http://www.lii.org/cs/lii/query/q/54.
From Mary Ellen Bates
Where's the "hub" in your topic niche? This tool will help you find the most powerful sites in your category (in search engine terms) so that you can make sure you are well-linked to them and thus improve your own search engine rankings. Simply enter a search term plus your URL and up to 10 of your competitors' URLs and you will receive a graph and a long list of sites that link to two or more of the URLs provided. Find out who links to your competitors and does not link to you, and your linking strategy is in place.
From Web Digest For Marketers
WATCH (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders) is a database containing primarily the names and addresses of copyright holders or contact persons for authors and artists whose archives are housed, in whole or in part, in libraries and archives in North America and the United Kingdom. The objective in making the database available is to provide information to scholars about whom to contact for permission to publish text and images that still enjoy copyright protection. WATCH is a joint project of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Reading Library, Reading, England.
Hiring is one of the toughest elements of small business management. Determining what talent a business needs to succeed, then finding the time and know-how to recruit these people, stymies many entrepreneurs. Successful hiring can be expensive and time consuming. Unsuccessful hiring can be disastrous to a company's health.
What makes hiring even more challenging than bookkeeping, business planning, or many other business challenges is that help with the hiring process is difficult to find. Recruiters can be expensive, and may not always have the interests of your business at heart. Books can provide some guidance, but can't be customized.
The key to helping yourself through the process of finding the right person is to develop a crystal clear idea of what you're looking for. This description must include both the duties the job entails and the type of person who is best suited to those tasks. Once you have a description, success hinges on asking the right questions during the interview process.
Throughout the entire hiring process, you also need to evaluate candidates to determine how they will mesh with your company culture and the team members you have in place. They need to be in sync with your company's personality, standards, and vision.
How the hiring tool works (from American Express)
This is a web service that query major search engines to know who links to a specific URL. The results will then be processed and displayed on Talk Digger. There are 3 specifics things that will appear when you dig for a link:
An useful post from Search Engine Marketing about looking beyond search egines to find information.
Sometimes, looking beyond search engines is the best, if not only way to find the information you're looking for.
I call this information sleuthing approach thinking outside the search box. To do this effectively, you need to use different thought process and search strategies, especially with the steps you take after using search engines.
As an example, say you're looking for information on trends in the U.K. market for Internet phones, otherwise known as VOIP (voice over Internet protocol). I actually did this research for a client recently. Here are the steps I took.
I threw "VOIP" into a couple of search engines, just to see what alternative terms showed up, both in the search results and in the paid ads. I found mentions of "Voice over IP", "Internet telephony" and "IP telephony", among others.
I then reviewed the sponsored links, on the assumption that, if a company paid to have its ad appear for the search term VOIP, it might have relevant content. Sure enough, I found links to a white paper that VOIP player Avaya had written, and to Order.VOIP.com, a site that offered a comparison chart of various VOIP providers.
The Publishing Law Centre has a useful resource on legal resources, topics covered include:
Mergers & Acquisitions
Fair Use and Right of Publicity
Pub-Forum. One of the oldest lists. Pub-Forum is unmoderated and populated by experienced publishers. This is where the characters of book publishing hang out. Comments sometime get off-topic. Newbies are welcome as long as they have read at least one book on publishing and know the bare-bones basics of the industry (like how to get an ISBN). Pub-Forum is sometimes like a large cocktail party where a few of the publishers have had one drink too many.
Self-Publishing. Owned by SPAN. Advertising and rudeness are prohibited; signature lines are limited. All posts are read by the moderators (listmoms), and if any of them feel the post should not be allowed, it isn't. Postings are clean and civil. This is a large and popular list of some 1,600 people; the overwhelming majority are new to the business.