Tag Archives: Data
Open access breakthrough for South Africa’s Rising Star discovery
On September 10, 2015 a new species of extinct Homo was published, H. naledi. Our genus has only one living species, H. sapiens (humans), but we know of a few extinct cousins from fossil remains. Such finds are exciting because, among other things, they are the rarest of all fossil finds. Berger et al. 2015. “Homo naledi, a new […]
Tracking matatu minibus transit in Kampala
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy posted a newsletter update last month on this interesting matatu (informal private transportation network) mapping project in Uganda: The Kampala Mobility Map will improve way-finding around the city, allowing visitors, new residents and frequent matatu riders to better understand Kampala’s public transport network and plan their trips. With the […]
Library Recommends Long-Term Preservation Formats
The US Library of Congress today released a set of recommended formats for a broad spectrum of creative works, ranging from books to digital music, to inform the Library’s acquisition practices. The format recommendations will help ensure the Library’s collections processes are considering and maximizing the long-term preservation potential of its large and varied collections. The […]
Virtual Kenya offers over a hundred free maps
The Virtual Kenya site offers a variety of spatial data displayed in Google Earth intended for the benefit of Kenyan citizens and educators. As the Google Earth blog notes: “Along with a variety of tutorials and their blog, they feature over 100 informational maps to give you easy access to their data.” Several Google Earth tours are also provided, […]
Paper databases
Many of us recognize that paper based research notes, documentation, and analysis remain an important part of the scholarly toolset across the humanities and social science disciplines, even as options for electronic tools grow. The above linked blog entry describes one historian’s personal research file and quotes from a recent ITHAKA S+R report on historian’s research practices: “In some […]
WiderNet delivers 700th eGranary library in developing world
From the WiderNet Project newsletter: The WiderNet Project recently sold its 700th eGranary Digital Library. The libraries, which contain over 32 million resources, have been delivered to communities and institutions in over 40 countries across the developing world. The lucky #700 was purchased by the non-profit organization TechAide in Ghana. The project addresses poor internet connectivity in […]
Poor numbers: trading mobile time for better data in Africa
Kalan, Jonathan. 2013. “Connecting the ‘last mile’ of market research in Africa.” BBC News: Technology of Business, Nairobi. 31 October (Last updated at 20:14 ET). An informative piece on the dearth of good data on African economies and consumers, along with an introduction to several methods of collecting data in today’s environment (for example trading mobile minutes […]
African countries sized by number of Wikipedia articles
Interactive map Is a country’s presence online based on its population size and access to the internet? Researchers at The Oxford Internet Institute mapped how much was written about each African country on the online reference site Wikipedia. The dropdown menu allows you to compare the data to a number of different factors. The researchers found […]
Laws of preservation
Not for library geeks only? A thoughtful pair of blog entries on print and digital preservation: Paul Banks‘ 10 Laws of Preservation and Dave Thompson‘s 10 Laws of Digital Preservation. Thanks to Kevin Driedger for his library preservation blog.
Databib directory of research data
Databib is a searchable directory or “tool for helping people identify and locate online repositories of research data. Users and bibliographers create and curate records that describe data repositories that users can search.” I just learned of it this week from a presentation by Megan Sapp Nelson, Associate Professor of Library Sciences at Purdue University (her Supporting Information […]
African Studies library 