Basil's Blog

KeepingLegal

Very useful blog from Paul Pedley (Head of Research at the Economist Intelligence Unit) on legal issues affecting the information profession. UK perspective.

posted by caron | 11:50 AM

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

International Centre for Health & Society, UCL 2003
2003 Seminar Series

Monday 1 December 5.00pm
(followed by drinks at 6pm)

Richard Layard
Director of the Programme on Well-Being
London School of Economics

'Happiness and Public Policy'

Despite economic growth, longer holidays and better health, happiness has stagnated in Britain over the last 50 years. The main reason has been excessive focus on incentives for individual wealth creation and inadequate focus on the practical ways in which misery can be reduced
and happiness increased. Policy implications include the following.

I. Since much income generation is aimed at improving relative income (a zero-sum game), taxation is less inefficient than is usually supposed.

II. Far more resources should go on treating mental illness, and on related research.

III. There is no need to increase mobility, which increases crime and damages families.

IV. Excessive individualism generates anxiety and should be replaced by a new commitment to the common good (ie the greatest happiness of all).

V. Social science research should be refocused towards explaining happiness and what we can do to affect it.

Richard Layard is Director of the Programme on Well-Being at the LSE. In March he delivered the Robbins Lectures on the subject "Happiness: Has Social Science a Clue?", and is now writing a book on the subject. He has written widely on unemployment, inflation, education, inequality and post-Communist reform. His work inspired the Labour Government's New Deal for the unemployed. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

E-mail: ichs@public-health.ucl.ac.uk
RSVP seminar attendance by 28/11/03
(indicating any special needs and for directions to the seminar room)
Ms Patricia Crowley
International Centre for Health and Society
Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health, UCL
1 - 19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT
T: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 76791708
F: (International code +44 20) or (Domestic code 020) 7813 0280
W: www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology

posted by caron | 2:04 PM

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Internet Resources Newsletter gets its own RSS feed

posted by caron | 1:43 PM

Who uses the NHS more - the poor or the rich?

Poorer people make less use of NHS services than middle income or richer people given their respective needs for health care, a study by LSE academics and Department of Health staff has revealed today [Friday 7 November].

Anna Dixon and Julian Le Grand of LSE’s Social Policy Department and Richard Murray, John Henderson and Emmi Poteliakhoff of the Department of Health’s Economics and Operational Research Unit looked into whether the NHS was equitable - that is, whether some social groups used the NHS more than others according to their need.

In their report Is the NHS equitable? they review what is meant by equitable access, what form inequity takes and what are its principal causes.

posted by caron | 1:24 PM

Monday, November 10, 2003

The Google Deskbar Windows search tool

Pandia discusses the new test version of a Google search tool for the Windows taskbar. Unlike the toolbar, the deskbar is integrated into the Windows taskbar at the bottom of your screen. This means that you can actually search the Web without opening your browser.

However, to look at the pages you do of course need to open Explorer anyhow..... Interesting idea though.

posted by caron | 9:44 AM

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Scottish Archive Network - Online access to the written history of Scotland

On Thursday 23rd October 2003, historian and broadcaster, Magnus Magnusson, delivered the keynote speech at an event to mark the Scottish Archive Network's completion of its 4-year project.

The £4 million project took a team of Scottish archivists and US digitisation experts 4 years to complete. It involved digitising over 4 million unique and fragile documents, and combined the resources of 52 major Scottish archives, known collectively as the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN). The final results, together with helpful tools, information and advice can be accessed at www.scan.org.uk and www.scottishdocuments.com.

posted by caron | 4:50 PM

Managing Information News

Three new files of epidemiological data have been added to Dialog.

The three new files now available exclusively through the Dialog services are Hospital Inpatient Profiles (File 462), Hospital Outpatient Profiles (File 463) and Emergency Room (File 454). Each is composed of data compiled in the United States. The databases are provided by Timely Data Resources (www.tdrdata.com), based in Capitola, California, which also supplies Dialog with its Incidence and Prevalence database (File 465), again available exclusively through Dialog.

posted by caron | 4:45 PM

WEBMASTRY

Gary Price on what Google teaches information professionals that has nothing to do with searching.

posted by caron | 4:39 PM

Friday, October 31, 2003

Open Access Now | Home Page

News from the world of Open Access publishing. (as we were discussing on wednesday in the team meeting)

posted by caron | 3:15 PM

The Medical Algorithms Project home page

Very useful resources. Especially section 1 - Performance Measures & Quality of Life. Contains examples of various questionnaires and scales. In fact the very thing you occasionally get asked for on the library enquiry desk....

posted by caron | 3:10 PM

Googlewhacking: The Search for The One True Googlewhack

Your goal. Find that elusive two word Google query that brings up one solitary search result.....

posted by caron | 9:33 AM

THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world's knowledge

The British Library has redesigned its homepage and welcome pages. Check out the gateway to services for researchers and the one for information professionals.

posted by caron | 9:30 AM

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Google fights for top spot

Speculative article on what might happen in the world of search engines in the future.

posted by caron | 9:28 AM

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Deep Web Research Subject Tracer™ Information Blog

Monitoring research resources in the deep (invisible) web. Am off to check out some of the links...

posted by caron | 5:11 PM

PC World | Graphical Web searching gets Mooted

Mooter is so popular it's been forced to shut down and boost server capacity! An article from PC world explaining a bit more about it.

posted by caron | 4:54 PM

Mooter - New search engine
http://www.mooter.com/

In beta and rumoured to be a contender for Google, this Australian search engine is worth a look. But you might have some trouble getting access to it as the server is very busy.

posted by caron | 4:36 PM

Friday, October 24, 2003

From Thinkers to Clickers: The World Wide Web and the Transformation of the Essence of Being Human

Interesting essay (if you're in the frame of mind)

posted by caron | 9:00 AM

Thursday, October 16, 2003

Library Stuff: Using Weblogs to Market Librarians

posted by caron | 11:44 AM

Monday, October 13, 2003

LLRX.com - The Future of RSS- Is E-Mail Publishing Dead

posted by caron | 11:44 AM

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

BBC NEWS | Health | Vast digital health archive opens

The Lancet archive

posted by caron | 1:03 PM

Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize

You know you've been waiting for it...

posted by caron | 9:25 AM

Monday, October 06, 2003

Implementation of the Copyright Directive

New copyright regulations come in to force on 31st October. See http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/notices/2003/copy_direct3.htm

posted by Valerie | 3:26 PM

test

posted by caron | 3:22 PM

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Scientists take on the publishers in an experiment to make research free to all

posted by caron | 10:17 AM

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

HBS Working Knowledge: Innovation: The Art of Appreciative Inquiry

The process of Appreciative enquiry focuses on what a business does well in order to become more successful, instead of the more usual focus on improving what it does badly.

From HBS Working Knowledge

posted by caron | 9:16 AM

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

The Devil’s Dictionary (2.0): Semantic Web

Entertaining (mostly IT) definitions from the Devil's Dictionary.

posted by caron | 9:46 AM

Monday, September 15, 2003

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Second sight

Weblog culture today and where it's heading.

posted by caron | 1:16 PM

How to Save the World - The Tipping Point and how it works with blogs
Dave Pollard

Relating Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point about how ideas spead as 'social epidemics' to the world of blogs.

posted by caron | 1:08 PM

Friday, September 12, 2003

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Dyke to open up BBC archive

BBC to open up the BBC archive for non-commercial use. Everyone in future will be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.

posted by caron | 3:15 PM

Librarians throw book at doll - smh.com.au

More on that infamous doll....

posted by caron | 12:16 PM