264 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
264 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 8, no. 7
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July 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/cc97.8.7.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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Digital Libraries
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Green, David. "Beyond Word and Image: Networking Moving Images: More
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Than Just the "Movies"" D-Lib Magazine (July/August 1997)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july97/07green.html). - This is the first
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part of a two part discussion of the issues and techniques involved in
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digitizing media other than text and image, namely moving images and
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sound. With the advent of streaming technologies on the Internet it
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has suddenly become possible to deliver what were once prohibitively
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large files to the user. It has happened none too soon, with the
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disintegration of old film stock and audio tape now a near epidemic. I
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found the author's discussion of film metadata/cataloging efforts
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particularly interesting, although his point that the British are so
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far ahead of us in this and other fields was somewhat depressing. This
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half of the report closes with a detailed examination of a particular
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genre of moving images, namely dance video. Apparently the dance
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community has been producing huge numbers of videos for both
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educational and documentary use for a number of years. Fortunately
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they have been actively involved in the development of cataloging
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standards all along and are actively pursuing methods of access for
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these dance research resources. This is an excellent article, with a
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number of resources and links for those considering the digitization
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of a moving image collection. I look forward to the next installment.
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- KH
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Kirriemuir, John. "Clifford Lynch in Interview" Ariadne (10) (July
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1997) (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue10/clifford/). - In this
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interview with Lynch just before he joins the Coalition for Networked
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Information as its Executive Director, Kirriemuir plies him with
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questions about Z39.50, metadata, caching and mirroring. As usual,
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Lynch is well worth listening to, even if you miss experiencing his
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thoughtful way of delivery and his trademark leather jacket and black
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jeans. - RT
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Powell, Andy. "Dublin Core Management" Ariadne (10) (July 1997)
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(http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue10/dublin/). - Powell has written an
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excellent guide to using Dublin Core metadata for a Web site, and
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offers good advice and tools for those who are interested in doing the
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same. Faithful readers of Current Cites have heard about the Dublin
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Core here for over a year. There's a reason for that. It looks to be
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our best hope for logically describing resources in a way that is both
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powerful and flexible. The specification is still a long way from
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completion, but as Powell describes in this article it is already a
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useful tool. The organization of which Powell is a part, the United
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Kingdom Office of Library Networking (UKOLN) has long been a leader in
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using the latest information technologies to solve library problems.
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It is thus no surprise that they have also been directly involved with
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developing the Dublin Core and tools that make it easy to use. If
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you've considered using the Dublin Core but you don't know how, this
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article should make it crystal clear. - RT
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Powell, Christina Kelleher, and Kerr, Nigel. "SGML Creation and
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Delivery: The Humanities Text Initiative" D-Lib Magazine (July/August
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1997) (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july97/humanities/07powell.html). -
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The Humanities Text Initiative, at the University of Michigan, is one
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of the largest SGML text creation projects in the country. In this
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overview the authors give a very succinct description of what the
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project has accomplished since 1994 and what they hope to achieve in
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the future. The focus is on the project's two major corpuses: The
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American Verse Project and Middle English Prose and Verse. It is
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fascinating to read just how much is involved in the creation of
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accurate texts that are also faithful to the format of the original. I
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was less impressed, however, with the project's facilities for
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searching this massive collection. The user is restricted to full text
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searches and even then such conveniences as text highlighting are not
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employed. The projects future goals are interesting but are somewhat
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one-dimensional. The focus here seems to be on giving the user access
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to the largest number of works possible, without giving much thought
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to the level of searching sophistication necessary to allow the user
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to navigate such a daunting sea of text. - KH
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Shaw, Elizabeth, and Blumson, Sarr. "Making of America: Online
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Searching and Page Presentation at the University of Michigan" D-Lib
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Magazine (July/August 1997)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july97/america/07shaw.html). - Making of
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America is one of the larger digital library projects on the horizon.
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It is a joint Cornell/Michigan project focusing on American social
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history and slated to digitize 5000 volumes dating from 1850-1877.
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Making of America will both digitize images of the original document
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page by page as well as OCR and markup in SGML each of those pages.
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Searching is done both on the metadata collected about the document as
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well as it's full text. Display, strangely enough, seems to be only of
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the document image. This is fine for clearly printed works, but those
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that are less legible would be more useful if the SGML version was
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made available. The navigation of search results as well as image
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display both seem to be particularly well thought out here. The user
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is given sophisticated paging alternatives and a number of image size
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choices.This is obviously a well-funded project that ought to help
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establish a number of standards for digital libraries. - KH
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Information Technology & Society
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Browning, Graeme. "Electronic Democracy Online Update" Database 20:3
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(June/July 1997): 47-54
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(http://www.onlineinc.com/pempress/democracy/updates.html). - This
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article traces the use that grassroots organizations, party
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committees, and candidates made of the Internet as a campaigning tool
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in the November 1996 elections. One of its findings is that
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organizations and candidates with sites that allowed for interactive
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communication in the form of e-mail or chat rooms, were more
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successful than those with "static" sites. Although an exact
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assessment of the impact of Web sites on individual races is
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difficult, many political consultants are convinced that the presence
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or absence on the Web definitely influenced some of the results.
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Results of polls and studies conducted by various organizations also
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show that American voters were influenced considerably by information
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they found on the Web. The author predicts for the Internet as a
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political communications tool a development that is similar to that of
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television in the 1950's and 1960's. - CG
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Shenk, David. Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut. HarperEdge:
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San Francisco, 1997. - Few people alive today would take exception to
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the premise upon which this book is based -- that we are awash in
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data. Data that may not result in useful information, knowledge or
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wisdom. However, the conclusions Shenk draws from this situation may
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not be as universally shared. The tenor of the book reminds me of
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Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway by
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Clifford Stoll (cited in the April 1995 issue of Current Cites, which
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raised the act of discovering that there is more to life than
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computers to the level of a religious experience. Shenk's "Laws of
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Data Smog" at the beginning of the book range from glib to
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incomprehensible, although they are at least explained inside. But the
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strength of this book lies in getting us to think critically about the
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"information revolution" and to consider carefully the possible
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casualties. - RT
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Networks & Networking
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Coyle, Karen. Coyle's Information Highway Handbook: A Practical File
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on the New Information Order. Chicago: American Library Association,
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1997. - Karen Coyle has long been speaking at library and internet
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conferences about social and political issues relating to network
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access to information. Thus it should come as no surprise to those of
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us who have heard her speak that this slim but pithy volume is a great
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place to start investigating the topics she covers: economic models,
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copyright and intellectual property, privacy and intellectual freedom,
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censorship and filtering, and equitable access. She begins with
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introductory material on the "new information society" which is
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followed by a section on the "information highway." She focuses fairly
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exclusively on the United States, so non-U.S. readers will need to
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take this into account. Each section includes selected readings in
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full as well as citations for additional resources. As is the case for
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any book on a topic that changes as rapidly as the Internet, it is
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already slightly dated as it hits the shelves. She of course realizes
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this, and asserts in the introduction that even as it captures a
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moment frozen in the past it is nonetheless useful as background
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reading. She' s right. Coyle's assessment of the issues, as well as a
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number of readings that are often seminal if not timeless, make this
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book more valuable than as simply a snapshot of the state of networked
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information policy in the waning years of the century. And if she has
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done her job well enough, and the people who should pay attention do,
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then it will have served its purpose to help place its audience -- the
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library community -- actively in the debate over these important
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issues. - RT
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"Hands off the Internet" The Economist 344 (8024), July 5, 1997, p.
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15. - You would think that The Economist's natural fondness of free
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markets would yield an anti-regulation jeremiad against government
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forces who would do damage to free speech, intellectual property and
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fair use, and other features of the "self-regulating" culture of the
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Net. In fact, the editors give a more cautious view, citing the perils
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of both over- and under-regulation. Cultural difference lie at the
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crux of their thesis: not every country in the world will wish to
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support a virtual Dodge City, they argue; yet, a heavy government hand
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would stifle, even destroy the value of the Net. Instead, they argue
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for a careful approach which would recognize the radically different
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nature of "public discourse" in cyberspace, as we learn how to manage
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it (as well as ourselves). The summary of pro-regulation and
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anti-regulation value systems is succinct and very clear -- the
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article is worth reading just for this feature. - TH
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Leiner, Barry M., Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn,
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Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Lawrence G. Roberts,
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and Stephen Wolff. "A Brief History of the Internet: Part 2"
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OnTheInternet 3(4) (July/August 1997): 28-36. - In this continuation
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of the Internet history begun in the May/June issue of OnTheInternet
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(cited in the May issue of Current Cites), this group of network
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pioneers brings us up to the present day and beyond (history of the
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future? now _there's_ a concept! - RT
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Needleman, Mark H. "Standards for the Global Information
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Infrastructure (GII): A Review of Recent Developments, Ongoing
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Efforts, Future Directions and Issues" Microcomputers for Information
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Management: Global Internetworking for Libraries. 13(3-4, Special
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Issue 1996): 217-236. - This article reports on recent developments in
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electronic and network-based information. It details activities
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surrounding the new version of Z39.50, a client/server-oriented
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protocol defining communication capabilities between information
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retrieval systems. Various user communities have developed profiles
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for the use of Z39.50 in their specific domain of application. One of
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them is GILS, the Government and Information Locator System, which
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defines the use of the protocol for access to government data. Other
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profiles are under development for accessing digital and museum
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collections. The article also treats the Z39.56 Serial
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Item/Contribution Identifier Standard which defines data elements used
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to identify issues of serials and articles in them. Also under
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devlopment is the ILL (Interlibrary Loan) protocol which is promoted
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by ARL's North American Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery
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(NAILDD) Project. In the field of character set standards, the author
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mentions ISO 10646 and Unicode and from among the text formatting
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standards, SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and PDF
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(Portable Document Format). A standard used for commercial
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interactions is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It is designed for
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the electronic exchange of purchase orders, invoices, and other
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business-oriented documents.Needleman also reviews the Internet
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Engineering Task Force's (IETF) work on the definitions of HTTP, HTML,
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URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), URN (Uniform Resource Names), and
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URC (Uniform Resource Citation). In his conclusion, the author points
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out that an appropriate infrastructure to support the technologies
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defined in these standards is as important as the standards
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themselves. The article includes a bibliography and list of relevant
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URL's. - CG
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Vileno, Luigina. "Geography Resources on the Internet" College &
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Research Libraries News 58(7): 471-474
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(http://www.ala.org/acrl/resjul97.html). - A good representative list
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of web resources in geography. Especially strong in U.S. and Canadian
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resources, the guide lists gazetteers, collections of maps, weather
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and climate, sources for international regional information (like the
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CIA Factbook), and electronic journals. - MP
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 8(7) (July 1997) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright © 1997
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by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. _All rights
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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. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same
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address. 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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