Transcript - irosteveperry

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)
 These
databases
are free and
incredibly
valuable to
students,
educators,
scholars, and
journalists all
over the world.
IRC ACCRA






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
ACCRA, GHANA

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


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.

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 GLOBALWARMING 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.
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.
 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.

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.
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.
 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)
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.
 http://www.opendoar.org/countrylist.php
 DOAR stands for: DIRECTORY OF
REPOSITORIES
OPEN ACCESS
 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]