In This Issue:
OSHA Announces Reorganization Plan
2002 Best of the Web Announced
CourtEXPRESS.com Launches Criminal Alert
Pennsylvania Web Site Offers Online Renewal of Professional
Licenses
Live Chat Reference at the LOC
LLRXBu zz Tour of 50 State Web Sites
LLRXBu zz Archives : April 3, 2000 – Present
The Latest on Legal Research
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.
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OSHA Announces Reorganization Plan
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced some changes designed to provide more assistance for employers in complying with OSHA regulations. First, is the creation of the Office of Small Business which will provide small businesses with ways to reduce illnesses and injuries in the workplace. It will also solicit feedback about concerns of small businesses. Next, the safety and health standard-setting portions of OSHA will refocus to non-regulatory approaches to dealing with workplace issues. Get a full article on the changes at http://tinyurl.com/1ge9.
2002 Best of the Web Announced
The Center for Digital Government and Government Technology have announced the winners of the 2002 Best of the Web Contest which they sponsored. E-government portals were evaluated for internal efficiencies and citizen conveniences.
Winners are the My Virginia and TampaGov Web sites. My Virginia, at http://www.vipnet.org, features wireless services and real-time customer services, while providing information within three clicks. Tampagov.net’s redesigned Web site has “Find it Fast” and “How do I” interactive applications. Income for Tampa city agencies averages about $100,000 per month from online payments. Get the press release and the full list of winners at
http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/iwprj?id=46128&cat=te.
CourtEXPRESS.com Launches Criminal Alert
CourtEXPRESS.com has announced a product that provides email alerts of court cases involving a specific individual or company. Criminal Alert subscribers can request to be notified when specified parties are named in criminal litigation and when new dockets are filed in a court case. You can get the press release with the announcement from http://library.northernlight.com/FC20020903890000045.html.
Windows XP From A to Z
Kelly Theriot offers an in-depth page of answers for all the questions that come up for Windows XP users at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm. Click on any of the letters from A to Z, and view the questions that have already been submitted under that letter. Some of the questions link to other locations on the page at Kellys-korner and some link directly to the Microsoft support center.
The thing I find most appealing about this site is that you can use it without having a computer degree. Answers are short, explanations are clear and directions are precise.
If you like the A-Z information, don’t forget to check out the XP Howtos link list at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp.htm and the XP Side Issues page at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_side_issues.htm.
Pennsylvania Web Site Offers Online Renewal of Professional
Licenses
PA PowerPort, at http://www.state.pa.us, has announced that licensed professionals living within the state will be able to renew their professional licenses online. Nursing Home Administrators will be the first to renew online, and other professions will be added as their board’s expirations dates occur in the next couple of years. License PA will include licensed-holders in the real- estate, business and health professions.
To access the database from the State’s front page, enter “License PA” in the PA Keyword search box. Registration is required to renew a license or update current record information. You also have the option to click on License
Verification to search for a person or facility by name or number.
Informed Librarian Launches
Infosources Publishing has launched a new free monthly publication called Informed Librarian. This HTML newsletter provides a list of “all the library and information-related journals, e-journals, magazines, e-zines, newsletters and e-
newsletters that have hit their electronic newsstands out during the month.” The list for the first issue covers from AALL Spectrum to Wired West and includes links to multiple issues of ResearchBuzz, the Scout Report, Ex Libris, and The Serials Librarian.
In addition to a list of links to journal and e-zine issues, the newsletter also includes editor’s picks, links to articles of interest to librarians. There’s also a list of new books relevant to librarians and site managers.
Subscription, as I noted, is free. You can sign up for the newsletter at
http://www.infosourcespub.com/ilofreesubscribe.cfm.
Google Goes to Ireland
Google’s opened a country-specific domain for Ireland. http://www.google.ie gives you the option of searching pages from the entire Web or for pages from Ireland only. The interface is also available in Irish.
Live Chat Reference at the LOC
The Recorded Sound Reference Center at the Library of Congress is now offering a live chat reference service from 2-3pm EST, Monday through Friday. The reference service is for answering research-oriented questions about the audio holdings of the LOC (over two million items.)
You can get to the service at http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/. You’ll see that this page offers both text chatting for several different reference services (including manuscripts, business, motion pictures, and science) and general reference information about other sections of the library including law, rare books, and international holdings.