The Invisible Web Weblog

While I was in Reading to deliver my presentation to the LTEA 2009 Conference, I also attended four useful workshops including: 1. Understanding Digital Identity, run by Patrick Parslow and Sarah Fleming from University of Reading. 2. Designing and Assessing Inquiry Based Learning, run by Phil Levy, CiLASS, from University of Sheffield. 3. Three Dimensions of Collaborative Learning: the PEERS Project at University College Maastricht, run by Oscar van den Wijngaard & Wilfred van Dellen from University College Maastricht. 4. Effective Feedback, by professor Phil Race.

These two presentations have been done recently: Mansourian, Y. (2009). Implications of Inquiry-based Learning in Teaching the Concept of Information Visibility: a Case Study. Presented at the Learning through Enquiry Alliance (LTEA 2009) Conference, the University of Reading, 15 July 2009. Mansourian, Y. (2009). How to Merge an Inquiry-based Learning Approach in Teaching First Year LIS Students: An Action Research. Presented at the Centre for Information Literacy Research Event, the University of Sheffield, 23 July 2009.

The preliminary program for the ASIST Annual Meeting, “Thriving on Diversity - Information Opportunities in a Pluralistic World”, which will take place in November in Vancouver, Canada, is now available at: http://www.asis.org/Conferences/AM09/

The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science is going to publish a special issue on “Image Indexing and Retrieval: Challenges and New Perspective”. This issue will focus on various aspects of digital image perception, understanding, indexing, and retrieval. The themes are: Image indexing strategies within an information retrieval context, Social computing, image tagging and folksonomies, Methods, models, and theories applicable to image research, Image users and uses, Cognitive aspects of image perception and understanding, Cross-Language Image Retrieval, Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR).

The CAB Thesaurus, the largest life sciences and related topics thesaurus in the world, is now available online at http://www.cabi.org/cabthesaurus/. Key features include: Controlled vocabulary that has been in constant use since 1983, Regularly updated (current version released January 2009), Broad coverage of pure and applied life sciences, technology and social sciences, Approximately 96,000 terms, including 64,000 preferred terms and 32,000 non-preferred terms, Includes about 62,000 plant, animal and microorganism names, Multi-lingual, with Spanish and Portuguese equivalents for most English terms, American and British spelling variants, Relevant CAS registry numbers for chemicals, and Commission notation for enzymes.