281 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
281 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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_Current Cites_
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Volume 7, no. 2
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February 1996
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The Library
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University of California, Berkeley
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Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1996/cc96.7.2.html
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Contributors:
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Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips,
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David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
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Electronic Publishing
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Browning, John. "Information Marketeers Focus on Content
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Rather than Access" Scientific American 274(2) (February
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1996): 30-32. -- The author briefly explores the shift in
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ways of conveying information, from the old method of
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controlling the access points (one-to-many broadcast) to
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new methods made possible with the Internet (many-to-many
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multicast) which changes the focus from the quality of the
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service to the quality of content needed to capture
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audience. The shift is evidenced in Microsoft Network's
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decision to change from a proprietary access-controlled
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outernet, to a more open Internet publishing site. -- RR
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Taubes, Gary. "Science Journals Go Wired" and "Electronic
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Preprints Point the Way to 'Author Empowerment" Science 271
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(February 9, 1996): 764-768. [http://science-mag.aaas.org/
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science/scripts/display/full/271/5250/764.html] -- This
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pair of complementary articles, although focused on
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scientific literature in the main, are excellent overviews
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of the current state of electronic periodical literature.
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In the first one, Taubes outlines some of the major
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advantages that electronic journals have over their
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paper-based relatives, such as video and audio, search
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functions, discussion forums, links to related articles,
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and automatic notification and alerting services. Some of
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the challenges facing publishers include technical problems
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that prevent a fast transition from submission to
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publication (a trait that should be a major advantage of
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electronic journals), the lack of tried and true cost
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recovery methods, and archival issues. A sidebar outlines
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the plans of the major scientific journal publishers for
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mounting their journals on the network. The accompanying
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article on electronic preprints (pre-publication articles
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of vital importance to the scientific community) serves as
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an interesting counterpoint, in that it describes a
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movement to bypass the traditional publishing system
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entirely. I highly recommend this pair of short articles
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to anyone wishing an overview of the current state of
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electronic periodicals. If you visit the online version
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(address above) you get the added benefit of gaining
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first-hand experience with some of the added benefits
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that electronic publication has over print. -- RT
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Multimedia and Hypermedia
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Donovan, Kevin. "The Anatomy of an Imaging Project: A
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Primer for Museums, Libraries, Archives and other Visual
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Collections" Spectra: Journal of the Museum Computer
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Network 23(2) (Winter 1995/6): 19-22. -- A terrificly
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useful article for anyone directing an imaging project.
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This article outlines specific points for consideration
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in launching an imaging project, from the initial audit
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and proposal to tips for maintaining quality and
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consistency, storage and archiving, and eventual
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delivery via networks or CD-ROM. -- RR
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Feder, Judy. "Image Recognition and Content-Based Retrieval
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for the World Wide Web" Advanced Imaging 11(1) (January
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1996): 26-28. -- While this article is written by the
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director of marketing for the main product under discussion,
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it is still a useful introduction to the current progress
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toward making multimedia intelligent. Currently multimedia,
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whether networked or standalone, is made of "dumb"
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multimedia files, manageable and searchable only by textual
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meta-data. Content-based retrieval proposes to let you use
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an image, for instance, as a starting point to search for
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similar images and so forth. Experiments are ongoing in this
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field, with huge implications for research resources in art
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history, archaeology, not to mention law enforcement or any
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other visual field. This article discusses some real-world
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applications under development. -- RR
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Karpinski, Richard. "Netscape to Get Real-Time Audio,
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Video" Communications Week no. 595 (February 5, 1996):
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1, 64. -- A short introduction to Netscape's plans for
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enabling delivery of multimedia over the Internet in
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Real-Time. Of note is mention of an emerging new protocol,
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RTP or Realtime Transport Protocol, for streaming
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multimedia over networks (RealAudio is another example
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of streaming technology). -- RR
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Karpinski, Richard. "The Web in 3-D" Communications Week
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no. 595 (February 5, 1996): IA1-IA3. -- You have probably
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heard about VRML or Virtual Reality Markup Language, which
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is a meta-language, like the HTML that it works with, but
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for creating and delivering 3-D graphics over the WWW.
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This article introduces a few new tools that make it easy
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to actually use this new language. Some applications of
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VRML might be virtual tours of architectural sites or
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re-constructed ruins, or new interfaces to other forms of
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information. -- RR
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Ozer, Jan. "Software Video Codecs: The Search for Quality"
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New Media 6(2) (January 29, 1996): 46-52. -- A thorough
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comparison of current video codecs for compression and
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rendering of digital video, including Cinepak (used by
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QuickTime), Indeo (from Intel), IVI (fom Intel as well)
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and other more proprietary formats. Criteria for
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comparison include: required level of hardware,
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compression ratio, and visual quality. Anyone authoring
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digital video should know what codec they are using as
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it largely determines quality and file sizes. -- RR
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Pohler, Ulrike. "Legal Aspects of Multimedia: A European
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Perspective" Spectra: Journal of the Museum Computer
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Network 23(2) (Winter 1995/6): 27-29. -- This article
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reports on the European Commission Green Paper, which
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explored the issues of copyright, including digital
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media, as they applied to the newly united European
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Union. The paper may form a model for copyright
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agreements that span national boundaries, currently a
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major restriction to multimedia content development.
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-- RR
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Networks and Networking
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Bustos, Rod and Roxann Bustos. "Internet Resources for
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Liberalism" College & Research Libraries News 57(2)
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(February 1996): 86-87. -- As a companion piece to an
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earlier C&RL News feature on Internet resources for
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conservatism (July/August 1995), this article focuses
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on resources for liberalism. Of the hundreds of liberal
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sites that must exist on the Internet, this article
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provides only a selective list of electronic journals,
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World Wide Web resources, electronic discussion groups,
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usenet groups and gophers. While a listing for MojoWire,
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the online edition of Mother Jones, and Turn Left (the
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Home of Liberalism on the Web) with its links to a
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variety of other liberal sites, seem like obvious choices
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for inclusion in this list, references to the Democratic
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National Committee Home Page and the Anti-Defamation
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League Home Page, leave this Current Citer wondering
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about the authors' exact definition of liberal. -- MP
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DeJesus, Edmund X. "Toss Your TV: How the Internet Will
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Replace Broadcasting" BYTE 21(2) (February 1996): 50-64.
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[http://www.byte.com/art/9602/sec8/sec8.htm]. -- One of the
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best articles I've seen on the challenges of delivering
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multimedia over the Internet and the mix of technologies
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that may make it possible. From server infrastructure to
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network bandwidth to client software, DeJesus takes us on a
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magical mystery tour of Internet multimedia developments.
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Promising? Yes. Time to toss your TV? Not yet. But as
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DeJesus says, "keep your browsers tuned." -- RT
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Herbst, Kris. "Webfest IV: A Report of the Happenings at
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the Fourth World-Wide Web Conference" Internet World 7(3)
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(March 1996): 22-26. -- For Web-heads who missed the show
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in Boston, this article hits the high points of this
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conference (as well as briefly recapping the show-stealers
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of the previous shows). With all the Web and Internet
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conferences that have sprouted up in the last two years,
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it is hard to keep them straight. But this one is the
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real McCoy, sponsored by the World Wide Web Consortium
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(W3C). Highlights include Java, VRML, Video Mosaic
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(Vosaic), payment systems, and the future of HTML. -- RT
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Nash, Stanley D., Miles Yoshimura, William Vicenti.
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"American History Resources on the Internet" College &
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Research Libraries News 57(2) (February 1996): 82-84,
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90. -- The increasing availability of full-text documents
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such as treaties, acts, diaries and maps as well as the
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availability of images and sound on the Web could
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potentially revolutionize the nature of scholarly
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historical research as we know it. This article provides
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a selective list of some of the important full-text
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sources available on the Internet listing resources
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such as the Anti-Imperialism in the U.S.A. Web page, the
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American Prohibition Project, and the American Civil War
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Home Page which provides links to diaries, letters and
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military rosters from that era. There is a listing of
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indexes and guides to historical texts available on the
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Internet and the article also lists important listservs
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and the homepages or gophers for historical organizations.
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-- MP
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Maxwell, Bruce. _How to Access the Government's Electronic
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Bulletin Boards_ Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly,
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Inc. 1996. -- A second edition to last year's book of the
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same title, this book provides detailed descriptions of more
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than 200 free, public-access electronic bulletin board systems
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(BBSs) operated by federal agencies and departments.
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Electronic bulletin boards operated by the federal government
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provide access to a wide range of information sources such as
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lists of federal job opportunities, staff directories for
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particular agencies, and documents like the full text of
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Supreme Court opinions, grant information from the National
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Institutes of Health (NIH Grant Line), or statistical
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information issued by the Bureau of the Census. A layperson's
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guide, this book describes how to reach these BBSs, what
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they offer, and how to navigate through them. Particularly
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helpful is the introduction which provides background
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information in simple, practical terms about what one needs
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to connect to electronic bulletin boards in terms of hardware
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and software, in addition to a basic introduction to menu
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commands and solutions to common problems. The 1996 edition
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includes helpful information about how certain government
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information sites have changed or been improved (NASA
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Spacelink, for instance, which used to be almost unnavigable,
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has been completely transformed by a new easy-to-use
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interface); also included in the 1996 edition is an appendix
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which lists which BBSs have been added since last year, which
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ones have been deleted and which ones have undergone name
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changes.-- MP
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Optical Disc Technology
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Adkins, Susan L. "CD-ROM: A Review of the 1994-1995
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Literature" Computers in Libraries 16(1) (January 1996):
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66-74. -- In what has now become an annual tradition in
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the pages of Computers in Libraries, Adkins attempts to
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summarize the major trends in the CD-ROM industry as a
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whole and how these play out in libraries. This literature
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review, with accompanying bibliographic cites, is broken
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down into the follow categories: hardware, networking,
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multimedia, CD-Recordable, other optical disc formats,
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CD-ROM v. online, developing countries, selection/
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evaluation, reference issues and bibliographic
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instruction. A rather startling statistic presented in
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the conclusion is that on average, professionals spend
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only 5 to 15 percent of their time reading--but up to
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50 percent of their time looking for information. In
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light of this startling statistic, Adkins argues,
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electronic publishing via CD-ROM is not merely an
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alternative, but a solution, since it offers search
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and navigation capabilities that paper can never have.
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However, 95 percent of corporate information is still
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stored in paper documents. -- TR
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current Cites 7(2) (February 1996) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright (C) 1996 by the Library, University of
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California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
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of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this
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publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the
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product.
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[URL:http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/]
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To subscribe, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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listproc@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]"
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with your name. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use
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by computerized bulletin board/conference systems, individual
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scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the
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journal to their collections at no cost. An archive site is
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maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in directory /pub/Current.Cites
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[URL:ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites]. This message
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must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires
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permission from the editor, who may be reached in the following
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ways:
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trinne@library.berkeley.edu // (510)642-8173
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