History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium: “Welcome to the history of medicine finding aids project. A finding aid is a tool created by archivists to give information about the contents of archival collections. Finding aids provide contextual information about collections along with detailed inventories to help researchers locate relevant materials. We currently have over 3,000… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2012
Pew – Real Time Charitable Giving
Real Time Charitable Giving – Why mobile phone users texted millions of dollars in aid to Haiti earthquake relief and how they got their friends to do the same – Aaron Smith, Pew Internet Project, Senior Research Specialist “Charitable donations from mobile phones have grown more common in recent years. Two thirds (64%) of American… Continue Reading
2012 Presidential Primary Calendar; 2012 State and Presidential Primary and Caucus Dates
Via The Thicket: “National Conference of State Legislatures’s (NCSL) new 2012 Presidential Primary Calendar, and its companion, a state-ordered table, 2012 State and Presidential Primary and Caucus Dates…Jennie Bowser created the lists and checked them against a multitude of official sources. She says, this year, it was more complicated than ever to assemble this data.… Continue Reading
2012 Index of Economic Freedom
“Heritage and the Wall Street Journal released the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom on January 12, 2012, ranking 179 countries on 10 benchmarks that gauge their economic success. The Index covers 10 freedoms from property rights to entrepreneurship in 184 countries. This year Heritage introduced a new interactive feature that gives you the… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports: Arctic Capabilities, Defense Contracting, Taxpayer Privacy
Arctic Capabilities – DOD Addressed Many Specified Reporting Elements in Its 2011 Arctic Report but Should Take Steps to Meet Near- and Long-term Needs, GAO-12-180, January 13, 2011 Defense Contracting – Improved Policies and Tools Could Help Increase Competition on DOD’s National Security Exception Procurements, GAO-12-263, January 13, 2011 Health Care Quality Measurement – HHS… Continue Reading
IMF – Foreign Banks: Trends, Impact and Financial Stability
Foreign Banks: Trends, Impact and Financial Stability, Prepared by Stijn Claessens and Neeltje van Horen, January 2012 “This paper introduces a comprehensive database on bank ownership for 137 countries over 1995-2009, and reviews foreign bank behavior and impact. It documents substantial increases in foreign bank presence, with many more home and host countries. Current market… Continue Reading
A Toolkit to Assessing Fiscal Vulnerabilities and Risks in Advanced Economies
A Toolkit to Assessing Fiscal Vulnerabilities and Risks in Advanced Economies, IMF Working Paper, by a staff team led by Andrea Schaechter, January 2012 “This paper presents a range of tools and indicators for analyzing fiscal vulnerabilities and risks for advanced economies. The analysis covers key short-, medium- and long-term dimensions. Short-term pressures are captured… Continue Reading
ProgrammableWeb's database of 100 government APIs released in 2011
Programmable Web Services Directory of over 100 government [local, state and federal] APIs released in 2011. Over 2,000 APIs Added in 2011: Social, Telephony, Open Government See also How the Internet of Things Is Turning Cities Into Living Organisms – “When city services can autonomously go online and digest information from the cloud, they can… Continue Reading
Standard & Poor's Takes Various Rating Actions On 16 Eurozone Sovereign Governments
News release: “Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today announced its rating actions on 16 members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU or eurozone) following completion of its review. We have lowered the long-term ratings on Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, and Spain by two notches; lowered the long-term ratings on Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia, and… Continue Reading
Google Adds Social Search to Results
Official Google Blog: “Were transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today were taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features: Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as… Continue Reading
White House Responds to SOPA and PIPA
Follow up to previous posting on ALA – PIPA, SOPA and the OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide, via the White House, Combating Online Piracy while Protecting an Open and Innovative Internet “Right now, Congress is debating a few pieces of legislation concerning the very real issue of online piracy, including the Stop Online Piracy Act… Continue Reading
Draft National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan
Draft National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan, National Ocean Council, January 2012 “For the first time in our Nations history, the National Ocean Policy provides the framework for all Federal agencies to work together to pursue these goals with cohesive actions across the Federal Government, and for engaging State, Tribal, and local authorities, regional governance structures,… Continue Reading
