Medpedia

Medpedia, a online medical encyclopedia relying on user-generated content from anyone with an M.D. or a Ph.D. in a biomedical field, officially became available yesterday. According to the website, the goal of Medpedia "is to create a new model of how the world will assemble, maintain, critique and access medical knowledge. It will, over time, be a repository of up-to-date unbiased medical information, contributed and maintained by health experts around the world, and freely available to everyone." The Medpedia Project is a long-term, worldwide project to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine and the body among medical professionals and the general public. This model is founded on providing a free online technology platform that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and transparent. Read more about the model.

Users of the platform include physicians, consumers, medical and scientific journals, medical schools, research institutes, medical associations, hospitals, for-profit and non-profit organizations, expert patients, policy makers, students, non-professionals taking care of loved ones, individual medical professionals, scientists, etc.

As Medpedia grows over the next few years, it will become a repository of up-to-date unbiased medical information, contributed and maintained by health experts around the world, and freely available to everyone. The information in this clearinghouse will be easy to discover and navigate, and the technology platform will expand as the community invents more uses for it. In association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations, Medpedia will be a commons for the gathering of the information and people critical to health care.

Exploring a ‘Deep Web’ That Google Can’t Grasp

One day last summer, Google’s search engine trundled quietly past a milestone. It added the one trillionth address to the list of Web pages it knows about. But as impossibly big as that number may seem, it represents only a fraction of the entire Web.

Beyond those trillion pages lies an even vaster Web of hidden data: financial information, shopping catalogs, flight schedules, medical research and all kinds of other material stored in databases that remain largely invisible to search engines.

Now a new breed of technologies is taking shape that will extend the reach of search engines into the Web’s hidden corners. When that happens, it will do more than just improve the quality of search results — it may ultimately reshape the way many companies do business online.

Search engines rely on programs known as crawlers (or spiders) that gather information by following the trails of hyperlinks that tie the Web together. While that approach works well for the pages that make up the surface Web, these programs have a harder time penetrating databases that are set up to respond to typed queries. To extract meaningful data from the Deep Web, search engines have to analyze users’ search terms and figure out how to broker those queries to particular databases. Google’s Deep Web search strategy involves sending out a program to analyze the contents of every database it encounters. As the major search engines start to experiment with incorporating Deep Web content into their search results, they must figure out how to present different kinds of data without overcomplicating their pages. This poses a particular quandary for Google, which has long resisted the temptation to make significant changes to its tried-and-true search results format.

Beyond the realm of consumer searches, Deep Web technologies may eventually let businesses use data in new ways. This level of data integration could eventually point the way toward something like the Semantic Web, the much-promoted — but so far unrealized — vision of a Web of interconnected data. Deep Web technologies hold the promise of achieving similar benefits at a much lower cost, by automating the process of analyzing database structures and cross-referencing the results.

Blogmeister

Blogmeister is a great way where the teacher can evaluate, comment on, and finally publish students' blog articles in a controlled environment.

National Workshop On KOHA

Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut in association with C H M K Library, University of Calicut is organizing a Two-Day National Workshop on Integrated Library Automation Package Koha scheduled to be held on 20-21 March 2009, at the INFONET Centre, University of Calicut. The purpose of the Workshop is to familiarize the participants with the open source KOHA software developed by Katipo Communications, New Zealand. KOHA is considered as a highly sophisticated Integrated Library System (ILS) in the open source domain which offers full featured ILS including OPAC, circulation, cataloguing, acquisitions, serials control etc. The software is web-centric, modular, and multilingual and conforms to bibliographic standards including MARC 21, Z 39.50, ISO 2709, etc.

KOHA

• KOHA is an open-source Integrated Library System (ILS).

• It supports global standards including MARC 21 bibliographic format and Z 39.50 information retrieval protocol.

• Web-centric architecture (no additional software/utility is required at the client side, access through the browser Mozilla Firefox only).

• Provides tremendous freedom for customization.

• All the modules of LMS including Acquisition, Cataloguing, Circulation, OPAC, Membership Management, System Administration, Serial Control, etc is available.

• Web based OPAC system (allows the public to search the catalogue in the library and at home).

• The software is UNICODE compliant. The creation and retrieval of Indic script based documents is possible.

• Export/Import and backup/restoration facilities are available.

• Includes features of fourth generation Library Management Software (LMS). • Runs on Linux, Unix, Windows and MacOS platform.

• KOHA uses MySQL as backend RDBMS and Apache Web server (these software are also open source).

Objectives

• To introduce the LINUX operating system to the LIS professionals.

• To acquaint the participants with the installation of KOHA.

• To provide extensive hands on training to the participants so as to enable them to work independently.

Target Audience

The Workshop will be of immense benefit to LIS professionals working in any type of library. The number of participants is restricted to 30 and admission will be strictly on a first-come-first-served basis. Extensive practical sessions/hands on training, enriched with interactive sessions will be the hallmark of the programme.

Workshop Faculty

The Workshop will be handled by experts with extensive practical experience in LINUX and KOHA.

Participation Fee

The Participation Fee for the Workshop is Rs.300 per participant. The fee covers the cost of course material, lunch and tea. The fee should be paid in the form of Demand Draft or local Cheque drawn in favour of Workshop Director, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut, Calicut University P.O., PIN-673 535, Kerala.

After Workshop Technical Support

DLISc., University of Calicut will be pleased to offer the technical support to libraries after the workshop for installation, maintenance, database migration etc. You are welcome to write to us for details.

Application

The Application should be made in the format given along with this brochure. Detailed brochure and copies of the application can also be downloaded from the Calicut University website http://www.universityofcalicut.info/. The filled up application along with the DD/Cheque should reach to the Workshop Director on or before 10th March 2009.

Contact Details

Programme Coordinators

Dr. T A Abdul Azeez

University Librarian (i/c), University of Calicut, Phone: 9447332612.

T.M. Vasudevan

Lecturer, Department of Library & Information ScienceUniversity of Calicut, Phone :9446418742.

Organizing Secretary

Dr. Mohamed Haneefa K

Lecturer, Department of Library and Information ScienceUniversity of Calicut, E-mail: hanee4u@gmail.com, Phone: 9895622811.