irc accra and iro accra november, 2011. “the 10 most amazing databases in the world do more than...
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THE 15 MOST AMAZING DATABASES IN THE WORLD
FOR 2011 AND 2012: AS CHOSEN BY POPULAR SCIENCE
MAGAZINE, AND BY THE IRC ACCRA
IRC ACCRA and IRO ACCRA
NOVEMBER, 2011
“The 10 most amazing databases in the world do more than store knowledge.
They provide researchers with new ways to solve long-cold crimes, predict economic recessions, measure your love life, map the universe, and save lives.”
POPULAR SCIENCE MAGAZINE (Oct 24, 2011)
TO THIS LISTING OF DATABASES CHOSEN BY POPULAR SCIENCE , THE IRC IN ACCRA ADDED FIVE ADDITIONAL ONES, LITTLE KNOWN TO EDUCATORS OR STUDENTS
IRC ACCRA ACCRA, GHANA
These databases are free and incredibly valuable to students, educators, scholars, and journalists all over the world.
These five additional databases are:
Exploratorium Social Sciences Research
Database (SSRN) Free Educational Videos
through www.learner.org OAISTER:
oaister.worldcat.org WorldCat
www.worldcat.org
THE DNA DATABASE: THE COMBINED DNA INDEX SYSTEM TO SOLVE CASES LONG GONE COLD
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE
HERE IS A SEARCH ON GIRAFFES IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE: NOTE THE TABS AT THE TOP FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION
FAOSTAT: FEEDING THE WORLD
HOW FAOSTAT IS USED: USING FAOSTAT, RESEARCHERS CAN QUICKLY DETERMINE THAT
IN 2000, HUMANS CONSUMED 249 MORE CALORIES PER DAY THAN THEY DID 20 YEARS EARLIER; THAT 70 PERCENT OF THE WATER THAT HUMANS USE GOES TO AGRICULTURE; THAT NEARLY TWO BILLION SHEEP AND GOATS EXIST IN THE GLOBAL HERD; AND THAT EVEN THOUGH THE PLANET PRODUCES ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED EVERYONE, 13 PERCENT OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE UNDERNOURISHED. LAST YEAR THE FAO MADE FAOSTAT FREE, AND SINCE THEN THE NUMBER OF USERS HAS JUMPED FROM 400 TO 11,500.
AMONG THEM ARE GOVERNMENTS AND NGOS PLUMBING FAOSTAT FOR WAYS TO FEED PEOPLE MORE EFFICIENTLY. IN ONE RECENT STUDY, CHINA’S MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE COMPARED FAO DATA ON FARMLAND USE IN 19 COUNTRIES WITH THE AMOUNT OF STAPLE FOODS THOSE NATIONS PRODUCE. ONE OF THE SURPRISES: CHINA’S FARMS HAVE MORE WORKERS THAN THEY NEED AND WOULD ACTUALLY BE MORE EFFICIENT IF MORE PEOPLE MIGRATED TO CITIES
FAOSTAT: HTTP://FAOSTAT.FAO.ORG/DEFAULT.ASPX
COUNTRY PROFILE DATA FOR GHANA IN FAOSTAT
MORE COUNTRY PROFILE DATA FOR GHANA IN FAOSTAT
THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT
MORE INFO ON THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT: THE BEST RECORD OF EARLY HUMAN MIGRATION IS FOUND
NOT IN ANCIENT BONES OR ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARTIFACTS, BUT IN THE DNA OF PEOPLE LIVING TODAY. IN 2005, TO MAKE THAT INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE, THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY AND IBM LAUNCHED THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT.
THE PROJECT SELLS DNA-COLLECTION KITS TO PEOPLE AND PROVIDES THEM WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THEIR ORIGINS. PARTICIPANTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO DONATE THEIR RESULTS TO AN ANONYMOUS DATABASE, WHICH ALSO STORES DNA PROFILES OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE COLLECTED BY ANTHROPOLOGICAL GENETICISTS IN 10 FIELD LABS. BY MINING THE 420,000 PROFILES STORED IN THE DATABASE, SCIENTISTS CAN TRACK GENETIC MUTATIONS ACROSS POPULATIONS, RETRACING THE STEPS OF ANCIENT HUMANS.
HERE IS THE WEB SITE FOR THE GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT: HTTPS://GENOGRAPHIC.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/GENOGRAPHIC/INDEX.HTML
NOTE THE RICH MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES PROVIDED BY THIS SITE
INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE
MORE ON THIS INTERNATIONAL PANEL BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE
LAUNCHED ITS DATA DISTRIBUTION CENTRE (DDC) IN 1998, RESEARCHERS WHO NEEDED CLIMATE-CHANGE PROJECTIONS HAD TO GET THEM FROM THE HANDFUL OF SCIENTISTS WHO SPECIALIZED IN COMPUTING-INTENSIVE STATISTICAL CLIMATE MODELING. MODELERS BECAME BACKLOGGED WITH REQUESTS; STUDIES LANGUISHED.
WORSE, THEY OFTEN USED DIFFERENT ASSUMPTIONS AND DATA FORMATS, MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO QUICKLY COMPARE RESULTS. NOW, HOWEVER, THE DDC SERVES AS THE WORLD’S CENTRAL REPOSITORY FOR PROJECTIONS ABOUT FUTURE CLIMATE. DDC ANALYSTS CONVERT DATA FROM DIFFERENT MODELS INTO COMPATIBLE, DOWNLOADABLE FORMATS BEFORE FEEDING IT INTO THE MASTER DATABASE.
IF A SCIENTIST WANTS TO STUDY HOW A VARIETY OF GLOBAL-WARMING SCENARIOS WOULD AFFECT, SAY, MAIZE PRODUCTION IN CHINA, HE CAN CHOOSE FROM DATA SETS GENERATED BY 49 DIFFERENT STATISTICAL MODELS AND DOWNLOAD DATA THAT’S BEEN CONVERTED INTO A USABLE, APPLES-TO-APPLES FORMAT.
THE MD-PRO
WITH A CATALOG OF MORE THAN 15 MILLION MALICIOUS COMPUTER PROGRAMS, MD:PRO IS THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL EQUIVALENT OF THE CYBERSECURITY WORLD.
FRAME4 SECURITY SERVICES, WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED IN THE NETHERLANDS IN 2006, CREATED THE MD-PRO DATABASE AS A RESOURCE FOR SECURITY EXPERTS, WHO NEED ACCESS TO MALWARE TO IDENTIFY NEW THREATS AND DEVELOP AND TEST DEFENSES.
OK CUPIDS OK TRENDS
MORE ON OK CUPID FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, THE FOUR HARVARD
GRADUATES BEHIND THE DATING SITE OKCUPID HAVE BEEN STUDYING USER DATA FOR INSIGHT INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND SHARING THE
RESULTS PUBLICLY.
THE SITE HAS SEVEN MILLION ACTIVE MEMBERS, EACH OF WHOM ANSWERS AN AVERAGE OF 200 PERSONAL QUESTIONS.
SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATABASE
MORE INFO ON SLOANE SKY DATABASE: WWW.SDSS.ORG
IN 1998, ASTRONOMERS USING THE 2.5-METER SLOAN TELESCOPE AT NEW MEXICO’S APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY BEGAN SCANNING THE SKY AND LOADING THE IMAGES THEY CAPTURED INTO THE FREELY AVAILABLE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATABASE.
SINCE THEN, ASTRONOMERS HAVE USED THAT TO MAP HALF A BILLION STARS, GALAXIES, ASTEROIDS AND QUASARS; CREATE 3-D MAPS OF OUR OUTER GALAXY; AND STUDY THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE AMAZING IMAGES COMING OUT OF THIS PROJECT: HTTP://WWW.SDSS.ORG/IOTW/ARCHIVE.HTML
THE WAYBACK MACHINE
PURPOSE OF THE WAYBACK MACHINE? HTTP://WWW.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/WEB.PHP
THE PURPOSE OF THE WAYBACK MACHINE IS TO COPY AND STORE THE INTERNET.
SINCE THE SAN FRANCISCO–BASED NONPROFIT INTERNET ARCHIVE CREATED THE DATABASE 15 YEARS AGO, BROWSING SOFTWARE CALLED CRAWLERS HAVE CAPTURED 180 BILLION WEB PAGE SNAPSHOTS FROM MORE THAN 200 MILLION SITES.
HERE’S THE 9/11 ARCHIVE ON THE WAYBACK MACHINE
GHANA AS AN EXAMPLE IN WORLDCAT: HTTP://WWW.WORLDCAT.ORG/ WORLDCAT IS A INCREDIBLE RESOURCE FOR SCHOLARS/STUDENTS THE WORLD OVER
RESULTS OF WORLDCAT SEARCH
MORE RESULTS IN WORLDCAT ON GHANA AND VOLTA
PURPOSE OF WORLDCAT IS TO ALLOW SCHOLARS AND STUDENTS to know if materials exist anywhere in the world
on a particular topic or subject. Materials cataloged include not only Books, but
Theses/Dissertations/Special Governmental Reports, etc.
Also cataloged in World Cat are Videos/Tapes/Archives and Multimedia materials of all kinds
If you are at a U.S. Library, many of these materials are available to you free – or for a reduced fee, via Inter Library Loan (ILL)
A RELATED WEB SITE IS OAISTER, GIVING YOU THE IMMEDIATE FULL TEXT OF MOST ITEMS: HTTP://OAISTER.WORLDCAT.ORG
RESULT OF OAISTER SEARCH ON GHANA AND VOLTA
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORLDCAT AND OAISTER? OAISTER OFTEN INCLUDES THE FREE, FULL TEXT OF DOCUMENT! SEE BELOW
SSRN IS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH NETWORK; A DATABASE OF OVER 300,000 SPECIALIZED RESEARCH STUDIES
ARTICLES ON GHANA AND HIV IN SSRN: ALL FREE TEXT AND ALL DOWNLOADABLE; NEW STUDIES ADDED EVERY MONTH!
THE LAST AMAZING DATABASE FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE: THE EXPLORATORIUM
THE EXPLORATORIUM MAY BE EXPLORED AT WWW.EXPLORATORIUM.EDU
The Exploratorium isn’t just a museum; it’s an ongoing exploration of science, art, and human perception—a vast collection of online interactives, web features, activities, programs, and events that feed your curiosity.
AN EXAMPLE OF EXPLORATORIUM!
EXPLORATORIUM RESOURCES FOR SCIENCE EDUCATORS
NOTE THE RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS AND SCIENCE TEACHING TIPS IN EXPLORATORIUM
EXPLORATORIUM FUN VIDEOS AND ONLINE DISCOVERY EXERCISES FOR TEENS!
NEW OPEN SOURCE DATABASES: UNESCO GLOBAL OPEN ACCESS PORTAL, BRAND NEW!
THE URL FOR THE UNESCO GLOBAL OPEN ACCESS PORTAL IS:
HTTP://WWW.UNESCO.ORG/NEW/EN/COMMUNICATION-AND-INFORMATION/PORTALS-AND-PLATFORMS/GOAP/THEMATIC-AREAS/SOCIAL-SCIENCES/
HERE ARE OPEN ACCESS REPOSITORIES FOR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
NOTICE OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES FOR LIBRARIANSHIP
HERE IS ANOTHER LITTLE KNOWN OPEN PORTAL DIRECTORY: BY COUNTRY AND BY INSTITUTION
THE URL FOR THE OPEN DOAR IS http://www.opendoar.org/countrylist.php
DOAR stands for: DIRECTORY OF OPEN ACCESS REPOSITORIES
NOTE THE VARIOUS FREE DIGITAL INITIATIVES AND DATABASES IN THE U.S.: HTTP://WWW.OPENDOAR.ORG/COUNTRYLIST.PHP?CCONTINENT=NORTH%20AMERICA
OUR LAST SLIDE IS A TEASE: EXPLORE THIS ON YOUR OWN: WWW.DOAJ.ORG
DOAJ: OVER 7288 JOURNALS COVERED IN ALL FIELDS, FULL TEXT PROVIDED! WWW.DOAJ.ORG
THANKS FOR LISTENING: HOPEFULLY YOU LEARNED ABOUT SOME AMAZING NEW AND FREE DATABASES TODAY!
This PowerPoint is courtesy of the IRC in ACCRA and is part of our ongoing Information Literacy Campaign for Ghana.
Reach us at: +233 -030-274-1919
We also can be reached by email at: [email protected]
Our IRO in Accra is Steve Perry at [email protected]