Lark Birdsong's List: Science

"This guide is designed to assist scholarship regarding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A digital library containing many more documents and sources is under development."

"Searching: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts"

"Carr believes that the Internet is a medium based on interruption - and it's changing the way people read and process information. We've come to associate the acquisition of wisdom with deep reading and solitary concentration, and he says there's not much of that to be found online. "

"Tar balls. Top Hats. Hot Taps. Junk Shots. Confused by all the technical terms used to describe the oil spill? You won't be after reading our glossary"

"The trouble--and Bell falls into this often--is the tendency to equate digital records with truth. In his view, it trumps the fallible human mind. Many of us agree. Our heads, so prone to delusions, middle-aged lapses, and distortions bred by fears, desires and egos, are about as reliable as Ouiji boards. We don't even trust what we see anymore. A whole nation of sports fans clamors for instant replays every time a referee makes a close call. We want proof. Machines provide it. Humans, it seems, cannot."

Blueprint America is a precedent-setting multi-platform initiative — developed and produced by Thirteen/WNET, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation — that will harness the power of public broadcasting’s most prestigious programs, primetime documentaries, community and educational outreach, and the web to shine an unyielding spotlight on one of the most critical issues facing our country, yet one that has been under-reported by the traditional news media: America’s decaying and neglected infrastructure. We hear about infrastructure only when it results in a catastrophic bridge collapse or levee failure, but in fact, it is placing our quality of life and our ability to compete in a global economy at risk.

The next "killer app" is probably sitting right now on the computer screen of a student in the humanities and social sciences.

The recent economic downturn has caused, and undoubtedly will continue to cause, cutbacks in the budgets of libraries worldwide. While some savings may come out of operations, many cuts will need to come from collections and may include indexes, databases, data sets, journal subscriptions, etc. While this is obviously dismal news, it is also an opportunity to explore alternative means of obtaining duplicate or analogous information sources for library users. Fiscal exigency is a good time to examine traditional assumptions and priorities. Just because a commercial database costs a lot of money and has always been available as a library resource does not mean it is necessarily better than a freely available resource. Habit alone can no longer justify automatic continuation. Librarians who have not systematically looked for resources outside their library networks may be surprised by the depth of information now freely available on the open web.

In 1982 the U.S. Congress established the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to stimulate technological innovation, utilize small business to meet federal research and development needs, and increase private sector commercialization

Science.gov searches over 42 databases and over 2000 selected websites from 14 federal agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results. Science.gov is governed by the interagency Science.gov Alliance

COS is the leading global resource for hard-to-find information critical to scientific research and other projects across all disciplines. We aggregate valuable information so you spend less precious time and money searching for the information you need, leaving you more time and money for your projects.

As the world’s leading publisher of science and health information, Elsevier serves more than 30 million scientists, students and health and information professionals worldwide.

We help customers advance science and health by providing world-class information and innovative tools that help them make critical decisions, enhance productivity and improve outcomes.

"NASA has mapped the world's forest heights, based on satellite data, for a first-of-its-kind global view. While there are plenty of maps that show forest height regionally and locally, this is the first time it's been mapped globally with a single, uniform method."

The dynamic nature of the BP oil spill has been a challenge for a range of communities – from hotel operators to fishermen to local community leaders. We know the American people have questions about how the federal government is responding to this crisis, and we are committed to providing the answers with clarity and transparency. The site you’re viewing right now is a symbol of that commitment.

GeoPlatform.gov/gulfresponse is a new online tool that provides you with near-real time information about the response effort.  Developed by NOAA with the EPA, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Interior, the site offers you a “one-stop shop” for spill response information.