201 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
201 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 8, no. 4
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April 1997
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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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Acting Editor: Roy Tennant
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1997/cc97.8.4.html
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Contributors:
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Campbell Crabtree, Christof Galli, Kirk Hastings, Terry Huwe,
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Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart,
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Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
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Agada, John "Information Professionals in a Globally Networked
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Society: An agenda for social skills." FID News Bulletin 46(12)
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(December, 1996): 366-375. The author says that "...evaluation of
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information repackaging services is based on the resolution of client
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needs, rather than [just] on retrieval of documents...." . Indeed, the
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importance of good communications skills is well-known in reference
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and document delivery service, especially as the ever-shrinking globe
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and its multitude of cultures offer us plenty of opportunities for
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miscommunication. Agada argues that in order to respond, librarians
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need to focus more on users and less on systems, and they need to
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build new interpersonal skills to do so. - TH
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Woodward, Jeannette "Retraining the Profession, or, Over the Hill at
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40" American Libraries 28(4) (April 1997): 32-34. - There is probably
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no greater challenge facing today's libraries than the need to retrain
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the profession in the latest information technologies. This article
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talks about this need, but more importantly, the personal and
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institutional barriers to doing so. Woodward focuses her attention on
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the large complement of older workers, whom she asserts the
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institution may tend to pass over for training and who also may be
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less motivated to learn. While she suggests some strategies for
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overcoming these barriers, this is a war that can only be won by
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individual battles in libraries across the land. What is at stake is
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nothing less than the future of the profession. - RT
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NETWORKS AND NETWORKING
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Andrews, Whit. "Planning for Push" Internet World 8(5) (May
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1997:45-52. Internet "push" technologies are getting a lot of press
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these days, and it takes only a cursory explanation to understand why.
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What would be better, from an advertising or publishing point of view,
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then to have your message or publication automatically delivered to
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your customer's desktop the instant it's ready? This article explains
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push technology, discusses the major products, and compares them in a
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sidebar. Although the commercial applications are obvious enough, one
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wonders whether libraries or other organizations could use them to
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provide current awareness services. - RT
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Cortese, Amy. "Where the CyberAction Is: Your Hometown" Businessweek,
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(3522) (April 14, 1997): 95-98. In an interesting twist, web service
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providers are discovering a market for "city guides" that sell ad
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space on the Internet. The hook is the simple fact that people do most
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of their living, working and playing within fifteen miles of their own
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homes, and they like web services that help them find the stuff they
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want -- nearby. Billions of advertising dollars are spent on local
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markets because of this, and geography-specific web sites are a hot
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new medium that are giving the local paper a run for the money. But
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don't write off the local paper just yet: many major dailies have
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developed popular web sites and are in a position to keep city-guide
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web services in their pocket. - TH
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Engst, Tonya "The Internet Robot's Guide to a Web Site" BYTE 22(5)
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(May 1997): 63-64. - If you manage a Web site, you need to know what
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is in this article. Many of you may already know about and use a robot
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exclusion file which limits the depths to which search engine robots,
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crawlers, or spiders can plumb, but if you don't this article is a
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quick and easy explanation of it. Engst also explains another
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technique you can try if you are not the server administrator but
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would like to limit robot access to your pages. - RT
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Genesereth, Michael R. and Anna Patterson, editors. Proceedings for
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the Sixth International World Wide Web Conference, April 7-11, 1997,
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Santa Clara, California. Out of all the conferences related to the
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World Wide Web, this is the one most oriented to research. Therefore
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most of the papers are highly technical and somewhat speculative. Some
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papers may describe the kernels of tomorrow's technology, while others
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will remain only as evidence that some graduate students did indeed
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stay off the streets and out of trouble for a time. How do you tell
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the difference? I'll be darned if I know, but it sure can be
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entertaining trying to figure it out! - RT
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Hayes, Brian. "The Infrastructure of the Information Infrastructure"
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American Scientist 85(3) (May-June 1997):214-218. -- Have you been
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wondering where exactly in cyberspace those recent "router problems"
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occur that have had you drumming your fingers while trying to download
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the latest patch for your software? Then the present article may be
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right on target. It describes how messages sent over the Internet are
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broken up into packages and how they work their way through the layers
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of the application, transport (Transport Control Protocol or TCP),
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network (Internet Protocol or IP), data-link, and physical layers of
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the "protocol stack". It examines how routers have to quickly move
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these packages on and at the same time calculate the shortest route to
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other nodes. Packages sent across networks go through "peering points"
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called Network Access Points (NAP) or Metropolitan Area Exchanges
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(MAE). In these NAP's and MAE's, which are owned by telephone
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companies such as Sprint and Worldcom, state-of-the-art routers handle
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traffic coming in from up to 100 networks over powerful data
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transmission channels. The article concludes that the growing
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bandwidth of these channels (soon 2.5 gigabits per second) will
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require changes in the way routers process packages. - CG
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Jenkins, Fred W. and Nancy Courtney "Internet Resources for Classical
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Studies" College & Research Library News 58(4) (April 1997): 255-259.
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Classicists were among the first scholars to take advantage of new
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information technologies, and this month's C&RL News list of Internet
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resources lists some of the important electronic resources the they
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have developed. Most of the items on the list are Web-based (including
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specialized and general web sites, association homepages, directories,
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electronic journals, and electronic text repositories). There is,
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however, an extensive list of discussion groups and listservs. - MP
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McGraw, Gary and Edward Felten "Avoiding Hostile Applets" BYTE 22(5)
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(May 1997): 89-92. If you use the Web then you are open to possible
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attacks from sites that serve malicious Javascript, ActiveX, or Java
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code. This article discusses the four classes of attacks and how Java
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tries to prevent such shenanigans. Even if you aren't curious about
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the internal workings of Java, the page on strategies you can take to
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protect yourself from hostile attacks is well worth your time. - RT
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Wang, Chih "Global networking, Internet and the Global Information
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Infrastructure (GII)" FID News Bulletin 46(12) (December 1996):
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356-363. Wang, a professor at the University of Guam, summarizes the
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development of wide area networks in the United States, and then
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provides an overview of networking initiatives around the globe. He
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devotes special sections to major nations (like Russia) and areas
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(like Asia, Africa and Europe). He then proposes a general plan for a
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"global information infrastructure" which would address cultural,
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economic and social issues in various regions. FID, the International
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Federation for Information and Documentation is sponsoring dialogue
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about global networking, and Wang references the "Tokyo Resolution of
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1994" that FID drafted to improve coordination. - TH
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GENERAL
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Hurwicz, Mike "Cheaper Computer, Part 2: PCs Strike Back" BYTE 22(5)
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(May 1997): 81-88. "Thin clients," "network computers," (NCs) "Java
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stations" or whatever you want to call them have been getting a lot of
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press lately. In this "less is more" world, computer users would have
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minimalist workstations that run only the pieces of code they need for
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specific tasks, which would be delivered via the network to their
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desktop as they need it. Since such machines can do just fine, thank
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you, without Microsoft Windows or Intel processors, it was only
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inevitable that those companies would come up with their solution to
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the problem that NCs were designed to solve. The solution from their
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perspective is a "NetPC" that is much like today's PC but with some
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flexibility removed. Ignore the sidebar "PCs vs. NCs," as it is
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stacked to make NetPCs look good and NCs not (why, for example, did
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they not compare price, which is likely to be one of the most
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important of criteria for comparison?). - RT
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Young, Jeffrey R. "New Metaphors For Organizing Data Could Change the
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Nature of Computers." Chronicle of Higher Education 63(30) (April 4,
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1997): A19-A20. Ever felt like you were at odds with computer
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operating systems, that in fact, they seem to make information
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retrieval harder? You're not alone. This article profiles interesting
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new research at Yale and other universities that tries to take
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advantage of human memory patterns. The Yale program, "lifestreams",
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stores documents of every type in a searchable "stream" according to
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when they were created or received. It turns out that this makes
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intuitive retrieval much easier for people. Interestingly, the
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on-screen program looks very similar to a Macintosh Hypercard "stack".
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The various researchers profiled here believe that the desktop is way
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overdue for improvement, and that the information-space we use should
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break free of the page metaphor. If you're interested, take a look at
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the Yale program, which is on the Web at
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http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/freeman/lifestreams.html. - TH
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 8(4) (April 1997) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (C) 1997 by
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the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
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respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication does not
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necessarily imply endorsement of the 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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listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your
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name. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized
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bulletin board/conference systems, individual scholars, and libraries.
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Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collections at no
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cost. An archive site is maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in
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directory /pub/Current.Cites [URL:
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ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites]. This message must
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appear on copied material. All commercial use requires permission from
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the editor, who may be reached in the following ways:
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trinne@library.berkeley.edu // (510)642-8173
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