By David Kane

As part of my job as systems librarian at Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland, I test out or devise innovative ways of connecting learners with information. As well as that, I like information in and of itself. Here are just a few relevant online resources that I have got really excited about in the past couple of years.

• Gephi: This could be regarded as Photoshop for data because it is a brilliant tool for making sense of immense datasets, visually. I used it to great effect with some of our Institute’s academic publications data recently. It showed who was working most closely with whom, on what, and how hard. All at a glance!
  
  
• PHPXref: This automatically translates complex code into browsable cross-referenced HTML. When I am wearing my PHP developer hat, my searches for solutions to obscure problems can end at a PHPXref site. Here, I can tease out the subtleties of the code and resolve the issue. I recently had to write a library plug-in for Moodle 2. This information resource saved my bacon, as the new Moodle code I was working with was relatively undocumented.
  
  
• Microsoft Live Labs Pivot: PivotViewer is now hosted by Microsoft Research - Pivot is a data mining system that “allows people to visualize data and then sort, organize and categorize it dynamically”. This tool from Microsoft is not well used enough, in my opinion. It is truly a gem. We used it as an alternative library catalogue for a while.
  
  
• Google Refine: Google Refine (now OpenRefine) is an amazing tool for cleaning and normalising dirty data, such as author records, or addresses. It comes into its own when you have vast amounts of data in a spreadsheet, or some other multi-column text format, that need to be loaded into a database.
  
  
• Scratch Project Editor: MIT’s Scratch is a visual, online tool for kids to learn the basics of programming, from MIT. My children love it. It has a deeply intuitive drag-and-drop interface which makes it very easy to see how simple programs work. It's the baby brother of MIT App Inventor, which grown-ups can use in exactly the same intuitive way to create fully-fledged Android apps.

David Kane is the Systems Librarian at Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland (http://library.wit.ie/). He previously worked as a Systems Administrator and as a Web Developer. He has an interest in open source technologies and their potential to help libraries adapt most quickly to the rapid changes in users' expectations of them. He is an equally passionate advocate for open access to scholarship - he manages the institutional repository.

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• Coming Soon - FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation
  By Andrew Grave on Wednesday, 4th September 2013
  FreePint's exploration of topics of interest to information professionals continues with the FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation which looks at news sources and news aggregators. Andrew Grave, the series producer, introduces the main themes ranging from harnessing news from social media sources to the growth of newspaper paywalls and the phasing out of Factiva.com.
  Posted in: News sources - FreePint news
  
  
• Navigate Complex Compliance Issues with Confidence
  By Andrew Lucas on Tuesday, 3rd September 2013
  Andrew Lucas looks at some of the themes that will feature in our FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context which will be running over the next two months. Compliance is not just about complying with regulatory requirements; it is also about protecting your business by carrying out due diligence on new commercial relationships.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Compliance tools - FreePint news
  
  
• Early Results on FreePint's News Needs and Preferences Survey: Factiva Changes Making Big Waves
  By Robin Neidorf on Tuesday, 3rd September 2013
  WithThe first phase of data collection on our annual survey on News Needs & Preferences already highlights the impact felt by information managers by the changes in Dow Jones' product strategy. Initial data suggests that information managers in organisations where Factiva is currently a preferred product are more likely to be looking at alternatives for the future. However, analysis of all responses to date indicate that the difference may be one of degree rather than of substance: More than 50% of respondents are at least somewhat likely to be looking at alternative products.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - News sources - FreePint news
  
  
• BvD Compliance Catalyst - Getting to Grips with Compliance Workflow
  By Chris Porter on Thursday, 29th August 2013
  Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is well-known to many readers of FreePint as a supplier of highly structured databases of company and executive information. Now, BvD has launched Compliance Catalyst, a workflow application designed to streamline the process of taking an informed, risk-based decision on whether to accept a potential new customer, supplier or other business partner. It also addresses ongoing monitoring and audit trail requirements, with a key focus on using the researcher's time to best effect.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Regulatory compliance - Company sources - Compliance tools - People sources
  
  
• Vendor Value: Exploring What Vendors Get from FreePint
  By Ann Marie Plankey on Monday, 26th August 2013
  For vendors of information products and services it's imperative to keep up with issues, evolving client needs, market developments and key products and services. Ann Marie Plankey looks at recent FreePint Articles and Reports and examines how a FreePint Subscription helps vendors keep updated in essential areas from Thomson Reuters' new product launches to company divestment such as Pearson's planned sale of Mergermarket. Regular product reviews and mini reviews investigate key products such as D&B360 and Global Financial Data while FreePint's original research sheds light on topics from news aggregation products and trends to mobile deployment in the enterprise.
  Posted in: Financial sources - Industry sources - News sources - People sources - FreePint news
  
  
• Leadership Companies Premium: Developing a C-Suite Network
  By Aileen Marshall on Thursday, 22nd August 2013
  Leadership Companies Premium is a robust online interactive directory of senior-level executives from the largest US and worldwide companies, and second-to-none in its field, finds Aileen Marshall. An easy-to-use drill down approach coupled with high quality data ensures organisations which require executive contact and network details will achieve ROI over expending their own resources to collect this information.
  Posted in: Company sources - People sources - Regional sources
  
  
• Continuing Investigation into News Needs and Preferences
  By Robin Neidorf on Wednesday, 21st August 2013
  FreePint's Director of Research, Robin Neidorf, presents a round-up of current and upcoming FreePint Research in areas from news needs and preferences to compliance. FreePint's monthly updates on news sources are always popular and the annual FreePint Survey: News Needs and Preferences is now in it sixth year with the research focus evolving to reflect the changing marketplace. The upcoming FreePint Topic Series: Beyond Aggregation will identify the key issues and tools through a range of articles, features and reviews. Better understanding of compliance issues is also high on many information managers' priorities and if it's a topic you need to know more about, register for the FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context which launches in September.
  Posted in: FreePint news
  
  
• ... More ...

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• Compliance Product Vendor Map: Who Does What in the Regulatory Space
  By Chris Porter on Wednesday, 4th September 2013
  There has been a huge amount of consolidation and change amongst vendors of compliance solutions and it is difficult to keep track of who is offering what. The article provides a guide to some of the main players, with a particular focus on those supporting "due diligence" research into customers, suppliers and other business partners.
  Posted in: Regulatory compliance - Company sources - Compliance tools - People sources
  
  
• ProQuest Additions
  By Anne Jordan on Wednesday, 4th September 2013
  New content from ProQuest this month expands availability of several government-related resources including Statistical Abstracts, international data and security archives. Also newly available is the Art and Architecture Archive collection.
  Posted in: Industry sources - Government sources - Regional sources
  
  
• Nexis Takedowns & Nexis Additions
  By Anne Jordan on Wednesday, 4th September 2013
  Additions to and takedowns from Nexis this month include a range of sources from Europe, South Africa, India and the Middle East. New scientific sources from Elsevier have been added, and the existing agreement with ProQuest has also resulted in a boost in titles.
  Posted in: Industry sources - News sources - Regional sources
  
  
• The Story Behind the Headline - Twitter and Google Aim for the Truth
  By Penny Crossland on Monday, 2nd September 2013
  Is the leaking, whistleblowing and revelation of secret documents that continues to capture the headlines having an effect on what consumers of news are expecting to read on the internet? Are they no longer satisfied with the snippets of news that Twitter and other social media outlets provide, preferring to read the stories behind the headlines to get the real picture? Just as traditional news providers are embracing social media tools, it would appear that Twitter and Google are moving the other way.
  Posted in: Media monitoring - News sources - Search - Social media sources
  
  
• Product Review of Leadership Companies Premium: Executive Summary
  By Aileen Marshall on Friday, 30th August 2013
  Leadership Companies Premium offers a tightly focused and well-executed product for organisations which require executive contact and network details on US public companies and the largest/most important private companies, finds Aileen Marshall in her executive summary. Particular strengths include the detail available in the executive records and the links to and visual representation of their networks.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Company sources - People sources - Regional sources
  
  
• FreePint Report: Information Services Management Monthly Update (August 2013)
  Published on Friday, 30th August 2013
  This monthly update collects the current content relevant to those responsible for information service management, information strategy and content procurement in a convenient PDF package for download and offline reading.
  Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - Information purchasing
  
  
• Corporate Social Networking - Be Cautious but Assume It's Here to Stay
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Thursday, 29th August 2013
  Information managers may be right to be cautious in claiming too much for social media within the enterprise, and can perhaps help avoid both the bandwagon effect and the backlash if social networking fails to live up to the hype. But as Pew Research Center findings imply, the senior executives' generation is rapidly getting to grips with social networking. Furthermore, predictions from Microsoft suggest that its roll-out within large organisations is inevitable. One year after its acquisition by Microsoft, Yammer continues to integrate with established Microsoft products and to link with other partners - most recently Klout, which can measure influence and expertise within the workplace.
  Posted in: Collaborative and social tools - Intranets - Social media sources
  
  
• Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst: Executive Summary
  By Chris Porter on Wednesday, 28th August 2013
  Compliance Catalyst from Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is a workflow application which helps organisations to take an informed, risk-based decision on whether to accept a potential new customer, supplier or other business partner. It aims to speed up the due diligence research and decision-making process by streamlining steps which many users are currently undertaking in a very manual way. It also monitors existing business relationships for changes in risk levels.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Regulatory compliance - Company sources - Compliance tools - People sources
  
  
• FreePint Report: Product Review of BvD Compliance Catalyst
  Published on Wednesday, 28th August 2013
  Compliance Catalyst from Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is a workflow application which helps organisations to take an informed, risk-based decision on whether to accept a potential new customer, supplier or other business partner. It aims to speed up the due diligence research and decision-making process by streamlining steps which many users are currently undertaking in a very manual way. It also monitors existing business relationships for changes in risk levels.
  Posted in: Information purchasing - Regulatory compliance - Company sources - Compliance tools - People sources
  
  
• ROI Again - What's the Value of Properly Managed Information?
  By Tim Buckley Owen on Wednesday, 21st August 2013
  There's no shortage of evidence that professional management of an enterprise's information can provide a good return on investment. But as recent reports from the vendors Huddle, Encompass and Wand show, the problem is that it's easy to dismiss evidence from interested parties, no matter how reliable the evidence they provide. But with more neutral analysts such as Gartner and the Economist Intelligence Unit also highlighting the importance of information as an asset, perhaps it's time for the information profession to follow the example of the Chief Marketing Officer Council and set up a resource to concentrate expertise in demonstrating ROI.
  Posted in: Information services management - Information strategy - Information purchasing
  
  
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