211 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
211 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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_Current Cites_
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Volume 8, no. 9
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September 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/cc97.8.9.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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Fox, Edward A., et. al. Networked Digital Library of Theses and
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Dissertations" D-Lib Magazine (September 1997)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september97/theses/09fox.html). - Fox and company
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describe an interesting project to build a National Digital Library of
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Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). The article cites a good deal of
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interesting work, and yet I was also eager for more URLs than were provided.
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Where, for example, can one find the "multimedia training materials
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explaining how to use PDF tools"? But that is nitpicking with what is
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overall a very interesting piece that highlights some very thorny issues
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related to publishing information that has a very different (and entrenched)
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paper publishing stream. Will we ever have the NDLTD that Fox envisions?
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After reading this article, I have my doubts, but at the same time I also
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want to go out and help him build it. - RT
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Hildreth, Charles R. "The Use and Understanding of Keyword Searching in a
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University Online Catalog" Information Technology and Libraries 16(2) (June
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1997): 52-62. - If you're a reference librarian Hildreth's research findings
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will not surprise you. After statistically analyzing searches performed
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in a
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university library catalog, Hildreth finds that users "search more often by
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keyword than any other type of search, their keyword searches fail more
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often than not, and a majority of these users do not understand how the
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system processes their keyword searches." He suggests two possible solutions
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to these problems: 1) educate the user, or 2) improve the design of our
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catalog systems. As the second is more practical and attainable, especially
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given the fact that increasingly users of our catalogs do not enter our
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buildings, Hildreth asserts that "it is time to put end-user Boolean
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retrieval systems...behind us." He points to probabalistic retrieval theory
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and hypertextual systems as providing sources for improvements. - RT
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
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Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12
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Education in the United States. President's Committee of Advisors on Science
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and Technology, Panel on Educational Technology, March 1997
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(http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/NSTC/PCAST/k-12ed.html). This report
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to President Clinton culminates the two-year work of the Panel on
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Educational Technology, which was formed to advise him on the application of
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technology in K-12 education. The Executive Summary lists six main
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recommendations: 1) Focus on learning with technology, not about technology,
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2) Emphasize content and pedagogy, and not just hardware, 3) Give special
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attention to professional development, 4) Engage in realistic budgeting, 5)
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Ensure equitable, universal access, and 6) Initiate a major program of
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experimental research. The report also includes a number of tactical
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recommendations that target specific needs for improving the impact of
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technology on K-12 education. In an introductory letter I received with the
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report, the Panel on Educational Technology highlighted the sixth
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recommendation as the most important. This recommendation specifies that the
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ind of expenditure required to support the research needed must be provided
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largely at the federal level. They acknowledge the difficulty of obtaining
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such funding while simultaneously attempting to balance the federal budget,
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but this only serves to underscore the importance they place on this
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recommendation. This report is well worth reading for anyone interested in
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K-12 education and the present and future of our children. - RT
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MULTIMEDIA & HYPERMEDIA
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Avgerakis, George and Becky Waring. "Industrial-Strength Streaming Video"
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New Media 7(12) (Sept. 22, 1997): 46-58
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(http://www.newmedia.com/NewMedia/97/12/feature/Streaming_Video.html). - The
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state of the art of video for the web. Streaming video (playback in nearly
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real time instead of download-and-watch-later) has come of age. This article
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concentrates on reviewing 7 current video servers for the web, but it does
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mention other server-less options such as plugins for QuickTime and MPEG
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formatted video can take advantage of. Perhaps not surprisingly, the handy
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list showing numbers of different video formats on the web to date reveals
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the server-less formats far outrank the pricier server-based formats.
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Another irony revealed is that QuickTime, until recently authored only on
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Macintosh, is the most popular video type on the web, while none of the 7
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web servers reviewed even run on Macs. Beyond the review, this article, with
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discussions of background, formats, and tips, will be very useful to bring
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you up to date on options for serving video from your website for distance
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learning, putting film resources online, or just viewing that oh-so-cool
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QuickTime panorama taken from the local university's bell-tower. - RR
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NETWORKS & NETWORKING
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Hegener, Michiel. "Internet Unwired" OnTheInternet 3(5) (September/October
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1997): 23-31 (http://www.iicd.org/articles/sep97/hegene10.htm). In the world
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of satellite connections to the Internet, it's GEOS v. LEOS. But don't let
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the acronyms scare you off. This article is a well-written overview of the
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state of Internet connectivity via satellite. Why would you want a satellite
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connection to the Internet? If you're in Manhattan you may not want one. But
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if you're in Niger it may be your only option. Internet satellites will soon
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(finally) make the Internet a truly global network by bringing the
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possibility of connection to every corner of the planet. I say possibility,
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because as you well know, the pipe is only part of the system. Hegener
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mentions some figures regarding estimated "station" costs, but for the most
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part the question of affordability by individuals was left largely
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unaddressed. Nonetheless, this piece is an excellent and highly readable
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overview of the technology and where things stand. - RT
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Karpinski, Richard. "A Tangled Web of Standards" InternetWeek 682 (Sept. 22,
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1997):1, 75 (http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?INW19970922S0001). -
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Focusing on the proposed DOM (Document Object Model) standard, this article
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reveals the tensions between the marketplace and the world of standards. The
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article cites how both Netscape and Microsoft have leapt ahead of the
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standards process in attempting to be the first to bring DHTML (Dynamic
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HTML) products to market and creating yet another browser-war and
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compatibility issue for content providers. Standards groups like the W3C
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(itself made up largely of vendors) are criticized for being too slow in
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finalizing standards, and vendors for giving lip service to
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"standards-based" solutions, yet ignoring the standards process for the push
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to market. Content providers such as universities, libraries, and museums
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are particularly hard hit since they often attempt to serve the broadest
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possible public (and not one market niche) and so must keep keenly aware of
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compatibility and access issues. - RR
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Smith, Alastair G. "Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet
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Information Resources" The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 8(3) (1997)
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(http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html). - While many people have
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written about how to evaluate the quality of Internet information resources,
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Smith has done an excellent job of distilling the essential criteria for
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evaluation. He first briefly considers evaluation criteria for print
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materials, and then continues with a review of previous articles on Internet
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resource evaluation. The core of the piece is the "toolbox" of evaluation
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criteria, which cover the broad areas of scope, content, graphic and
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multimedia design, purpose and audience, reviews, workability, and cost.
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Smith then reviews internet evaluation sites to determine which of his
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criteria they employ. It perhaps comes as no surprise that the sites with
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the most criteria employed in evaluation have librarian involvement (for
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example, the Argus Clearinghouse and the Internet Public Library). - RT
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Radosevich, Lynda. "XML Initiatives Take Shape" InfoWorld, 37 (September 17,
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1997):1,24
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(http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchives.pl?97-t02-37.1.htm). - A
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brief update on vendor progress in bringing XML compliant applications to
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market. XML (Extensible Markup Language) bridges a gap between two important
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standards for information management and sharing: the SGML standard
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(Standard Generalized Markup Language) which can provide detailed structure
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to documents, allowing them to be parsed, searched, and managed (but which
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can be difficult to create programs for), and HTML which benefits from it's
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own simplicity, but is not rich enough to allow documents to be searched or
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managed in precise ways. XML allows one to use customized or standard tags
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to manage data in forms from databases to webpages. Microsoft, Arbor,
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Sybase, and several others are beginning to bring products which support XML
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to the user. - RR
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Wehmeyer, Lillian Biermann. "Evaluating Internet Research" Syllabus 11(2)
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(September 1997):46-50. - Now that students are citing Internet-based
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sources in their schoolwork, instructors must be knowledgeable about how to
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evaluate the quality of the cited works. Being a former librarian, Wehmeyer
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knows the criteria for evaluating print resources, and she makes effective
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use of that background in this article. She points out both print and
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electronic resources that can be used for evaluation, and provides URLs for
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the latter. - RT
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GENERAL
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"Xerox won't duplicate past errors" Businessweek no. 3546 (September 29,
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1997): 98-103. - The mistake they're referring to is Xerox's groud-breaking
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creation of all the icons of modern computing -- graphical user interface,
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the mouse, Ethernet technology -- which were popularized by Apple and are
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now taken for granted. Some of these features were never even patented,
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leaving Xerox completely out of the mammoth revenue stream these products
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created. Now, under the leader of John Seely Brown, Xerox PARC (i.e., Palo
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Alto Research Center) is researching new applications and planning to take
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them to market. This article offers an overview of the products that might
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be in your computing future. These include "hyperbolic trees" that reveal
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more information as you move the cursor around a full circle of "links", new
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approaches to machine processing of spoken human language, and other
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paradigm-breakers. The common denominator to PARC's approach is a growing
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realization that social scientists have a place in systems design. - TH
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 8(9) (September 1997) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (c) 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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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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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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