423 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
423 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 7, no. 6
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June 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/cc96.7.6.html
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Contributors:
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Campbell Crabtree, Terry Huwe, John Ober,
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Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart,
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Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
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and
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Special Guest Contributor Karen Coyle
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Electronic Publishing
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Arms, Caroline R. "Historical Collections for the National
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Digital Library: Lessons and Challenges at the Library of
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Congress, Part 2" D-Lib Magazine [http://www.dlib.org/]
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(May 1996). [http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may96/loc/05c-arms.html]
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-- This is part two of a piece that we cited in the April issue
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of Current Cites. It is an excellent overview of the challenges
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faced by the Library of Congress in digitizing major collections
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and making them available on the Internet. The insights shared
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in this article are invaluable to anyone involved in similar
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activities. If you read but one article on digital library
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issues this year, make this (both parts, of course) the one.
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-- RT
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Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. "The Social Life of Documents"
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[http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue1/documents/index.html]
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First Monday 1(1) [http://www.firstmonday.dk/index.html]
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(May 1996) -- Brown and Duguid offer a redefinition of the
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meaning of "documents", both in history and in cyberspace,
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primarily by expanding the definition of the word to include all
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of the social interaction and "negotiated meaning" a document
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must entail. Audacious, but it works. As an extended metaphor,
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the document enables the authors to connect "virtual communities"
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to the traditions of discourse that have long been part of the
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world of paper technologies (though they move at a much slower
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speed). For example, sociologist Anselm Strauss (much depended on
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here) sees documents as community builders, hence the "social
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world" of the title. They conclude by saying that contemporary
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society focuses on the "commercial life" of documents, but we
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should remember to understand the social uses of documents (and
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the endless margin notes and copies they engender). Clever,
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iconoclastic, and written to challenge our assumptions about
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information exchange in the bitstream, this article invites us
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to reassess our assumptions about ideas, paper, and electrons.
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-- TH
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French, Rob. "Where is Publishing Headed?" Adobe Magazine 7(5)
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(May/June 1996): 34-39. -- You'd have to be living on the moon
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to miss the fact that the Internet offers both a challenge and
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an opportunity to the publishing world. In this
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thought-provoking article from a magazine on "publishing, design
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and digital media", some interesting facts and figures are cited
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in between quotes from major and minor players in Internet-based
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publishing. -- RT
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Gagos, Traianos, with sidebars by Peggy Daub, Ariel Loftus and
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Shannon Zachary. "Scanning the Past: A Modern Approach to
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Ancient Culture" Library Hi Tech 14(1) (1996): 11-22. -- A
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detailed look at University of Michigan's Papyri Digitization
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Project (http://www.lib.umich.edu/pap/) including project
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proposal plan, hardware/software used, image capture
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specifications, and intellectual controls. Initiated as a
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preservation project, the digitization of the materials and
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their wider availability has changed collection use policies
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and facilitated research and instruction. Since the beginning
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of the project in 1991, technology has, inevitably, improved
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and become more accessible. Other institutions are now doing
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similar digitization projects, see Duke University's papyrus
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collection (http://odyssey.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/). The Advanced
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Papyrological Information System (APIS) is a planned "virtual
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collection", which will make possible the electronic
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reunification of papyrus fragments not physically located in the
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same repository. The participating institutions are University of
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Michigan, Duke, Columbia, Princeton, Yale and U.C. Berkeley.
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-- CJC
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Laplante, Mary. "Information Interoperability" Inform (Magazine
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of AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management)
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10(5) (May 1996): 16-18. -- One of the best concise
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introductions to SGML that I have seen. This article outlines
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the use of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) for
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document management and dissemination by the academic and
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commercial sectors. The benefits of SGML include the ability
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to encode information in such a way that it can be repurposed
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for many uses, thus speeding and economizing many operations,
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all while using an open standard. The role of HTML (certainly
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the most popular implementation of SGML) for document delivery
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(but not storage) is outlined as well. The article is a great
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starting point (make a copy for your Dept. Chair/CIO/Director)
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and a gentle nudge to move to the next step beyond HTML. -- RR
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McClung, Patricia A. _Digital Collections Inventory Report_.
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Washington, DC: Council on Library Resources and the Commission
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on Preservation and Access, 1996. -- Any print publication that
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provides an inventory of digital projects is out-of-date upon
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release. But as is mentioned in the foreword, this is a
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"snapshot" of projects existing at the time (February 1996), and
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will provide a historical benchmark at the very least. But it is
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also useful for more than that. Discovering the information
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included in this slim volume online would be difficult if not
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impossible. For each project there is a brief description,
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contact information, and, when available, a Web address. -- RT
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Musciano, Chuck & Bill Kennedy. _HTML: The Definitive Guide_.
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Sebastopol: O'Reilly Press [http://www.ora.com] April 1996.
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ISBN: 1-56592-175-5; Order number: 1755. -- "Definitive" might
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be an exaggeration, but this book has excellent coverage of HTML
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commands and extensions (3.0, Netscape, Microsoft). It gives
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"how to" examples and recommends style and structure elements
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that will make your HTML readable by the greatest variety of
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browsers. Covers tables, forms, dynamic documents and other
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advanced topics (though not CGI scripting, which is handled by
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another O'Reilly book, [http://www.ora.com/www/item/cgi_prog.html]
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CGI Programming on the World Wide Web) and other advanced topics.
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Has appendices with quick command reference, the HTML DTD, a list
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of character entities and a color chart. It also includes a handy
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foldout pocket guide to HTML commands. Assumes a working knowledge
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of the Web. -- KC
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_Preserving Digital Information: Report of the Task Force on
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Archiving of Digital Information_. Commission on Preservation
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and Access and the Research Libraries Group, May 1, 1996.
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[http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/] -- Digital preservation is clearly
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one of the most difficult issues that face those who are building
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digital libraries. This report from a Task Force created by the
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Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries
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Group clearly outlines the issues and enumerates a number of
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actions that must be taken should we care to preserve our digital
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cultural heritage. If you count yourself among that number, the
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first thing to do is to read this report. -- RT
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Tennant, Roy. _Practical HTML: A Self-Paced Tutorial_. Internet
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Workshop Series, Number 6. Berkeley: Library Solutions Press,
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[http://www.library-solutions.com/] 1996. ISBN:1-882208-19-6.
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-- Library Solutions Press has issued another in its Internet
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Workshop Series, this one a self-paced tutorial by Current
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Cites own Roy Tennant. (In order to avoid any appearance of
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nepotism, I will try to contain my enthusiasm -- but it may be
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difficult). A practical guide, this workbook is divided into
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two main sections: the first module covers basic HTML such as
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tags for basic structure (head, title, body), general formatting
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(headers, paragraphs, line breaks, etc.) and linking; the second
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introduces some advanced HTML features (image mapping, tables
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and forms). Each module introduces a set of concepts and tags
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followed by an exercise that requires readers to use what they
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have just learned. The value of this workbook is its simplicity
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and its practicality. Roy has been remarkably selective in the
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tags he chooses to teach. Yet, with just a few tags, the reader
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who completes all of the exercises can create an elegant,
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professional quality Web document that incorporates images, links,
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lists, forms and tables. All that is required of the reader is a
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simple text editor and a Web browser; the image files necessary
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to complete the exercises are included in a diskette (both Windows
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and Mac versions) that come with the workbook. Also useful in this
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volume is the quick reference guide at the end which includes a
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glossary and lists of HTML tags ordered both in alphabetical order
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and by function. The Guidelines for Web Document Style and Design
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should be required reading for anyone designing a Web page. -- MP
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Weibel, Stuart, with sidebar by Judith Pearce. "The Changing
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Landscape of Networked Resource Description" Library Hi Tech
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14(1) (1996): 7-10. -- Wiebel gives an update on the status of
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many projects and standards for resource description including
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the Dublin Core, a set of descriptive elements intended to
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promote self-describing Web documents and provide semantic
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interoperability of documents. A sidebar details the experience
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with the Dublin Core of the National Document and Information
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Service (NDIS) Project (http://www.nla.gov.au/2/NDIS/), a joint
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project of the National Library of Australia and the National
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Library of New Zealand. Also, a report from the 34th Internet
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Engineering Task Force with news of advances in the areas of
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HTTP, HTML, URNs and PICS. Of note are OCLC's Persistent
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Uniform Resource Locator (PURL) scheme (http://purl.OCLC.ORG),
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and the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) effort.
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(http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/PICS) -- CJC
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Multimedia and Hypermedia
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Fenske, David E. and Jon W. Dunn. "The VARIATIONS Project at
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Indiana University's Music Library"
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[http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june96/variations/06fenske.html]
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D-Lib Magazine [http://www.dlib.org/] (June 1996)
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-- While much of this article is focused on description of the
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technical challenges and solutions for delivering high quality
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digitized sound to music listening stations - a feat not to be
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taken lightly and whose success at Indiana is receiving wide
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recognition - it is perhaps the tangential comments that are
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most intriguing. Those interested in multimedia technologies
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will relish the thorough description of challenges in bandwidth
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and the explicit naming of hardware and software solutions.
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Others will turn to the comments suggesting a close link
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between building design and technology deployment or explaining
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that delivering sound is only a relatively small component of
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larger pedagogical and library preservation issues. -- JLO
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Frappaolo, Carl. "Moving to Multimedia" Inform (Magazine of
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AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management)
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10(5) (May 1996): 10-15. -- This article outlines the shift in
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information management from purely text based systems to
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increasingly complex multimedia systems. It proposes that
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multimedia should not be considered for its own sake, or as
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separate from other information, but rather considered an
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extension of the document. The author suggests that multimedia
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should also not be considered secondary, mere dressing for the
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substantive textual information, but as a value-adding data type
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in the document, one which improvements in data management
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systems and compression is making more feasible for common use
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by all who manage and provide access to information. -- RR
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Networks and Networking
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Clark, Kathleen A. "Internet Resources for Agriculture" College
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& Research Libraries News 57(6) (June 1996): 359-363. -- Another
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handy list of Internet resources, this article includes
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government sites, sources for agricultural statistics, weather
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and even a list of sites for clip art and agricultural images
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(see close-up images of plant pests, for instance, at a site
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called Agricultural Images from the National Agriculture Library).
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--MP
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Garfinkel, Simson and Gene Spafford. _Practical UNIX & Internet
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Security_ 2nd Edition. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Press
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[http://www.ora.com], 1996. (1004 p.) ISBN: 1-56592-148-8;
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Order number: 1488. -- This is the book that tells you how hackers
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might enter your UNIX system and how you can close those entry
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points. It covers system basics like backups, account auditing,
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detection, and the UNIX file system design, but also deals with
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the management of security incidents and the related personnel
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issues (not all hacking comes from the outside!). More advanced
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topics include firewalls, secure SUID, and NFS and TCP/IP related
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questions. It has both plain language explanations and full
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technical details with code samples. -- KC
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"Proceedings of the Fifth International World Wide Web Conference,
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6-10 May 1996, Paris, France" Computer Networks and ISDN Systems
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(May 1996). [http://www5conf.inria.fr/fich_html/paper-sessions.html]
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-- Out of all the many Web conferences that have sprung up in no
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time at all, this is the one that attracts those who are on the
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cutting edge of Web technologies. That's both good and bad. It's
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good because it attracts researchers involved in some very
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innovative projects. It's bad because a number of the resulting
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papers are narrowly focused on complex topics of limited appeal.
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Many of them will result in no detectable influence on the Web.
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But others may influence the Web's future course in dramatic ways.
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And in the end there is something here for virtually anyone. -- RT
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"Vinton Cerf: Poet-Philosopher of the Net" EDUCOM Review
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[http://www.educom.edu/web/pubs/pubHomeFrame.html] 31(32)
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(May 1996): 26-41.
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[http://www.educom.edu/web/pubs/review/reviewArticles/31336.html]
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-- In the kind of short summary style that characterizes many of
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EDUCOM Reviews pieces, this interview with Vinton Cerf
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(co-developer of TCP/IP, ex-Stanford faculty member, current
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president of data architecture for MCI) covers a lot of ground
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in few pages. Readers are treated to a concise personal history
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of the Internet as well as to Cerf's departure from some Net
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conventional wisdom as, for example, he downplays the threat of
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over-commercialization and reveals his skepticism about the
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complete convergence of communication, computer, and network
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technologies. -- JLO
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Weiss, Jiri. "The Wiring of Our Children"
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[http://www.hyperstand.com] New Media 6(8) (June 3, 1996):
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36-39. -- By the end of this year, 13,000 California schools
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will be connected to the Internet, in part due to the massive
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"Net Day" volunteer activities. The home of the Silicon Valley
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is not alone however: 40 states and 20 other countries have
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similar plans. Educational use of the Internet has long been
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held as one of the promises of networked information, and this
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article shows that, slowly, it may be happening. Through several
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case studies, the author maps the mostly school-initiated
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educational content available online. -- RR
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Optical Disc Technology
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Johnson, Doug. "The Evolution of Information Storage" Inform
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(Magazine of AIIM, the Association for Information and Image
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Management) 10(5) (May 1996): 40-42. -- A short tour of the
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history of information storage (text, not oral/multimedia)
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from pictographs to microfilm, ends by spelling out the
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imminent demise of the latest high-capacity storage solution:
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CD-ROMs. The author introduces us to DVD (Digital Video Disc)
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which is really another form of optical CD, but one using a
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different standard for encoding and retrieval (UDF for
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Universal Disk Format, instead of the current ISO 9660) and a
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different hardware technology for the disks themselves. The
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author does not give in to bemoaning the vagaries of digital
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storage, since the benefits for retrieval and repurpose are
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too great, but rather sensibly advises information managers
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now to adhere to standards since that will enable the porting
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of information to new standards as they emerge. -- RR
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General
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Fox, Edward A. and Gary Marchionini, ed. "Proceedings of the
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1st ACM International Conference on Digital Libraries, March
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20-23, 1996, Bethesda, Maryland" New York: Association for
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Computing Machinery, 1996. -- As with any scientific conference,
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the proceedings are a mixed bag. Some papers will have a very
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limited audience, whereas others will have a much wider appeal.
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In any case, if you are working in the "digital library" area
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(with all its many definitions), then you should check out these
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proceedings. -- RT
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Intelligent Agent: Newsletter on the Use of Interactive Media
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and Technology in Arts and Education.
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[http://www.intelligent-agent.com] 1(2) (May 1996): 8 pgs.
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-- This newsletter, in its second issue, consists of reviews
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of education-oriented WWW sites, CD-ROMs and books. It also
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contains a few longer articles on digital art, wildlife
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conservation activities online, and "virtual economies". At
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this point it's interesting reading, with a slightly
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underground feel (allusions to Gibson novels), but a bit slim.
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That could change if momentum builds and more writers come on
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board; the focus on arts and education technology certainly
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makes this title worth watching. -- RR
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McNulty, Tom, ed. "Libraries and the Empowerment of Persons with
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Disabilities" Library Hi Tech 14(1) (1996): 23-73. -- This issue
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of Library Hi Tech includes a useful collection of eight articles
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on emerging library technologies and the access implications
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for people with disabilities. These articles are co-published
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with the journal Information Technology and Disabilities, and are
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available by ftp (ftp://ftpvms.rit.edu/pub/easi/itd_journal/).
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Articles discuss such topics as architectural barriers, adaptive
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technology, enhanced GUI environments employing sound and video,
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staff sensitivity, potential access problems and possible
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solutions. --CJC
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Nardi, Bonnie A., Vicki O'Day, Edward J. Valauskas. "Put a Good
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Librarian, Not Software, in the Driver's Seat" The Christian
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Science Monitor [http://www.csmonitor/com88] (132) (June 4,
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1996): 18. -- Yes, the electronic world is revolutionizing
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information but it still requires human beings (namely
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librarians) to analyze information requests, anticipate
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information needs and weed out false drops, not to mention
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evaluate and judge the reliability of sources. A summary of a
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study conducted of corporate librarians in Silicon Valley,
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this article is a delightful ode to special librarians and
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their demonstrated ability to adjust to the ever-changing
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landscape of electronic resources while at the same time
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understanding their clients' information needs in ways that
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"intelligent software agents" cannot. It seems as if I'm
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starting to read more and more articles like this. Is the
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rest of the world finally starting to get it? Or has the
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American Library Association retained the services of a very
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effective PR firm? -- MP
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_Research Agenda for Networked Cultural Heritage_.
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[http://www.ahip.getty.edu/ahip/home.html] Santa Monica, Calif.:
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Getty Art History Information Program, 1996. ISBN 0-89236-414-9.
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-- This latest publication from the Getty AHIP is comprehensive
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and in-depth. It proposes a broad agenda of topics, which range
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from Knowledge Representation and Image and Multimedia Retrieval
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to New Social and Economic Mechanisms to Encourage Access. The
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sections' authors hail from Rutgers to Eastman Kodak and give
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each section thorough consideration. Includes a glossary and
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topical index to the articles. -- RR
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"The Information Appliance" BusinessWeek no. 3481 (June 24, 1996)
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-- Readers of BusinessWeek are used to sifting through the
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editors' unremitting excitement about new technology in order to
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get the skinny on what's new and good. Here's another entry worth
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the read, mainly because Robert D. Hof (primary contributor) and
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his colleagues dissect the dueling proto-platforms that are
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currently battling to bring down Microsoft and Intel and put in
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their place new, cheaper gadgets that more people will buy. It
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is estimated that by the year 2000, twenty-two percent of all
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Internet-access devices will be machines that are not PCs--so,
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what will they be? Early (loss?) leaders include Oracle, Acorn
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Computer and IBM's iterations of the network PC; settop TV box
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technology; "diskless" PCs that are reminiscent of NeXt's first
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foray into the market, and personal digital assistants. There are
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several attending articles in the Special Report that are well
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worth a look; the best are about corporate strategies and
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"intelligent agents". -- TH
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current Cites 7(6) (June 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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trinne@library.berkeley.edu // (510)642-8173
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