Tara Calishain is the co-author of Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research, 2nd Edition, and author or co-author of four other books. She is the owner of CopperSky Writing & Research.
In This Issue:
New Update to “Oil and Gas on the Internet”
Mailing List for Securities Law Available
State of Illinois Launches ‘Workforce Info Center’
A Directory for Nursing Homes and Home Health Care Agencies
Pac-Info Fixes Problems, Adds Sites
Large Scientific Dictionary Available from Harcourt
Boston Globe Makes Archives Free for September
Google Offers Site Search Beta — Tweak Tips
LLRXBuzz Archives: April 3, 2000 – Present
LLRXBu zz Research Tip Archives
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New Update to “Oil and Gas on the Internet”
There’s a new update to the “Oil and Gas on the Internet” database. Currently the database contains information and links to 5,187 oil industry sites. That includes the sites of 1,195 oil and gas companies, 1,692 support companies, 404 industry associations, and 256 industry journals. The database is available in electronic format or in a printed version; you can get more information on ordering it at http://www.catsites.com/publications.html .
Mailing List for Securities Law Available
LLRXBuzz reader JB wrote in to let me know about the FundLaw list, which deals with securities law and related information, including legal issues relating to registered investment companies and investment advisers, hedge funds, and general investment management. It’s an eGroups list so you can check it out at http://www.egroups.com/group/fundlaw . Archives are also available from this list. As you’ll be able to see, it’s a very low-volume list; month’s archive has more than 45 messages.
State of Illinois Launches ‘Workforce Info Center’
The state of Illinois has launched a workforce information center at http://www.ILWorkInfo.com/ . There’s a variety of information here, broken into several categories. The employer section industry trends for the entire state (or a single county, or Metropolitan Statistical Area, or Workforce Investment Area, etc.) (There are also maps available if you’re not familiar with Illinois.) There’s occupational wage information available for a long list of jobs from Able Seamen to Writers & Editors. When you select a job title, you get hourly wage information for entry level, median, and experienced worker information. There’s unemployment information, and a statewide company directory.
Man, there’s a ton of stuff here. Okay, there’s also a section for job seekers that includes job listings (searching in America’s Job Bank and IllinoisSkillsMatch.com), small business resources, and information on apprenticeship programs.
There’s a section on career information that allows you to search a section of the state or the entire state. This is set up like the occupational wage information (though with not the same list of jobs.) Choosing a job title gets you description (when available), wage information (when available), and employment trend and annual average openings.
‘Local Area Profile’ allows you to select an area of the state and get a variety of information, including the unemployment in the area, median income, population (with population trend graph). You can also check out the industry mix and the largest private employers. If you click on the “Facts & Figures” link over in the left column, you can get additional demographic information. Finally there’s the labor economic database. The data series links offers information in several areas, including Population & Labor Force, Industry, and Economic Data.
The tables link offers labor market information and statistical tables of various types. Whew. There’s a lot of stuff here, but organized well, and presented in large, easy-to-read tables. Worth a look if you need the info.
A Directory for Nursing Homes and Home Health Care Agencies
CareScout.com ( http://CareScout.com/ ) is a new directory of long-term care for the aged. The site offers 53,000 nursing homes and home health care agencies. You can search from the front page, by specifying whether you want providers of nursing homes, assisted living, or home health. After that you specify state and city.
You’ll be presented with a results screen, but only some of the results can be viewed immediately. The CareScout Nursing Home Report costs $35. Seeing reviews of the facility posted by others is free. Getting the total number of beds is free, but seeing the CareScout Historical State Rating/Ranking, the CareScout Current State Rating/Ranking, the CareScout Bed Availability Indicator, or Miles from your zip code will all require registration. Registration at its minimum requires your e-mail address and zip code. The optional registration asks for much more information, including your age.
Pac-Info Fixes Problems, Adds Sites
Public database directory Pac-Info ( http://www.pac-info.com ) has fixed a problem that would occasionally affect Netscape 4.7 users who would browse the site and end up at a blank screen. Several sites were removed from Colorado, while several more sites were added, including:
California – Eldorado County Real & Personal Property
Wisconsin – Chartered Banks
Wisconsin – Corporations
Michigan County Codes
Montana – Government Phone Directory
Ohio – Butler County Court Records Pennsylvania-Montgomery County Property
Large Scientific Dictionary Available from Harcourt
There’s a monster of a dictionary available at http://www.harcourt.com/dictionary/ . The dictionary, put online by Harcourt and Academic Press, contains over 130,000 terms from 130 scientific fields. The front page allows you to search by keyword, or begin browsing the dictionary in one of seven categories (Engineering Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine, Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science, Social Sciences, and General and Miscellaneous.) Searching for a single word can give you a variety of results. For example, searching for “genetic” will give you a huge list of results, from additive genetic variation to virogenetic. Choosing one of them brings to you a definition with the previous and following words in the dictionary. There doesn’t seem to be a spell-check in the dictionary; searching for “genetik” brought no results.
Because your search can provide several results, however, you can just search for the beginnings of words. For example, if you’re looking for dextromethorphan hydrobromide, you can just search for dextro. Browsing is slightly different. For a start choose one of the seven categories on the front page. From there you’ll get a subcategory to choose from. (The Physical Sciences category, for example, has over thirty sub-categories.) From the subcategory you’ll get the first page of the dictionary with all the “a” words on it. There are links near the top of the page that take you to each letter’s listing of words. NOTE: There’s a search box above the letter-links, but it searches the entire dictionary, not just a sub-category. Lot of stuff here, though it might take you a little while to learn to get around it. Worth a look.
Boston Globe Makes Archives Free for September
The Boston Globe has made the full text of any staff-written article from 1979 to the present free at http://www.boston.com/freearchives/ . (The archive appears to be text only; no photos are available.) Searching is free, but if you want to access an article you’ll have to register for a Boston.com membership. (The registration asks only for your name and e-mail address; the privacy policy is available at http://www.boston.com/help/privacy.shtml ) The search interface itself is easy to use. There’s a keyword search box (the keyword box defaults to Boolean AND; specify phrases with double quotes “like this.”)
Pulldown menus let you limit results (from 25 to 500) sort the results (by date, relevance, or frequency) or year of search (you may search any individual year or all years. Too bad you can search by decade or some other division of years — like presidential terms, for example.)