285 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
285 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 9, no. 1
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January 1998
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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/1998/cc98.9.1.html
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Contributors:
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Christof Galli, Kirk Hastings, Terry Huwe,
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Margaret Phillips, Richard Rinehart, Roy Tennant
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Jim Ronningen, Lisa Yesson
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DIGITAL LIBRARIES
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Crane, Gregory. "The Perseus Project and Beyond: How Building a
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Digital Library Challenges the Humanities and Technology" D-Lib
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Magazine (January 1998)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january98/01crane.html). - The Perseus
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Project was one of the earliest large-scale digital library efforts
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to be undertaken. Conceived and created before the explosion of the
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World Wide Web, this ambitious interdisciplinary collection of digital
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materials relating to Ancient Greece has become the project by which
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others measure themselves. In this article the projects founder, Dr.
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Gregory Crane, reflects on the last ten years and describes future
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directions and goals. The article focuses on how the developers of
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Perseus have tried to transcend the constraints of the printed
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document by offering a completely integrated set of tools for the
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navigation and analysis of interrelated texts, objects and scholarly
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writings. Judging by their Web site, I would say that the project has
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succeeded to a large extent. Dr. Crane then goes on to discuss how
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such an effort can be a positive force for the scholarly comminutes
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which they serve. A number of new and innovative careers have been
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built around the project, and it continues to be an active arena for
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the development of a "new generation of humanists". Looking forward to
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the future, Dr. Crane explores ideas for new formats, expansion of the
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project's subject coverage, and how Perseus might be a force for the
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institutionalization of electronic scholarship. - KH
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Crawford, Walt. "Paper Persists: Why Physical Library Collections
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Still Matter" Online 22(1) (January 1998)
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(http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/JanOL98/crawford1.html). - For
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many years the library community has benefited from Walt Crawford's
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reality checks. No technophobe, he analyzes information systems for
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the Research Libraries Group. With this Online essay, he addresses an
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audience which may see total digitization as imminent, but he gently
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deflates that notion by citing examples of digital media limitations
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and library usage patterns. He makes a convincing case that, for now
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and the forseeable future, the value of online resources will beto
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enhance and extend library collections. For those administrators and
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others who demand that an argument be put succinctly, he offers the
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simple phrase "and, not or" as a reminder that any good information
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center will combine appropriate technologies, including the printed
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page. - JR
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Klemperer, Katharina and Stephen Chapman. "Digital Libraries: A
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Selected Resource Guide" Information Technology and Libraries 16(3)
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(September 1997): 126-131
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(http://www.lita.org/ital/1603_klemperer.htm). - An excellent selected
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guide to digital library resources for anyone wanting an overview of
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digital library issues, draft standards, and technologies, as well as
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strategies for staying current in the field (full disclosure: Current
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Cites is mentioned). The sources cited here serve as good background
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Main sections include general resources, bibliographies, retrospective
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conversion and preservation, electronic publication of current
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materials, initiatives to follow, listservs, conferences, journals,
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and workshops. - RT
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Lamont, Melissa and G. Ian Bowles. "Advancing the Digital Map
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Library"Information Technology and Libraries 16(3) (September 1997):
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121-124. - This article describes an innovative service wherein Web
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users can select census data for the state of Pennsylvania and have a
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thematic map created to their specifications. The Pennsylvania County
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Mapper allows users to select a data set and a year, then a
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subdivision of the data set, the variable to map, the type of data
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classification, the number of data classes and the color. How this
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service is constructed is discussed in the article, but basically the
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three pieces are static HTML pages for setting up the map, a CGI
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program written in Perl to translate the settings, and a script
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written in Arc Macro Language to interact with ArcInfo, which draws
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the map. This project demonstrates how current technologies can be
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used to create innovative and useful library services. - RT
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Lejeune, Lorrie. The Internet Public Library: Before Its Time" JEP:
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The Journal of Electronic Publishing 3(2) (December 1997)
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(http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/IPL.html). - This article
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describes an innovative project to offer public library services to
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the entire Internet. Growing out of a graduate school project, the IPL
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soon took on a life of its own, complete with grant funding, staff,
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and a burgeoning Web site and clientele. It is an interesting story,
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and one that raises questions about how to support projects that serve
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the common good when there is none of the tax structure in place that
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normally supports such efforts. Needless to say, until new funding
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models are created and realized, efforts such as this one may be
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doomed to failure. How we can prevent this from happening is the
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challenge set forth by this article. - RT
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ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
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Gilpin, Kenneth N. "Concerns About an Aggressive Publishing Giant" New
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York Times (December 29, 1997):C2. - Although buried in the business
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section, this article on the aggressive business practices of Reed
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Elsevier, one of the world's largest publishers of science journals,
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is really more about the nature of scholarly communication and about
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how consolidation among publishers is stifling competition and driving
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up journal prices -- in other words, it's about the "Microsoft-zation"
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of the science publishing industry. With Purdue University at the
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lead, libraries and academic communities may be starting to fight
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back; when Reed Elsevier's president offered to lock in the annual
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increase in the price of 350 online publication to 9.5 percent, Purdue
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University balked and ended up cancelling many of its Elsevier titles.
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(For more on the burgeoning grassroots efforts to fight back against
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the publishing industry, see a letter by Professor Rob Kirby of the UC
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Berkeley mathematics department:
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http://math.berkeley.edu/~kirby/journals.html.) - MP
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Rosenblatt, Bill. "Solving the Dilemma of Copyright Protection Online:
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The Digital Object Identifier" JEP: The Journal of Electronic
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Publishing 3(2) (December 1997)
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(http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/doi.html). - Publishers have
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long desired a standard way that individual intellectual objects
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(journal articles, for example) can be uniquely identified without
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using a physical address (which is what a Uniform Resource Locator or
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URL is). Books have International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) that
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perform this role for printed books, but a similar system was needed
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that provides the same service but in a networked environment and for
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a much broader range of material. This article describes the process
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that the publishing community went through, and the outcome of their
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efforts in the form of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Rosenblatt
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gives us a good start, but I wish he had provided more links to the
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resources that are required to truly understand how these are
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constructed. For example, he repeatedly refers to the Serial Item and
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Contribution Identifier (SICI, more information at
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/SICI/) as a part of the syntax of the DOI,
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and yet neglects to mention where one can go to figure out how one
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should be constructed. Nonetheless, this article is a useful
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introduction to both the reasons for, and the use of, this object
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identifier. - RT
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Schad, Jasper C. "Scientific Societies and Their Journals: Issues of
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Cost and Relevance" The Journal of Academic Librarianship 23(5)
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(September 1997):406-407. - It seems that for-profit publishers are
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not the only ones to blame for the rising cost of journals (see cite
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for Gilpin in this issue). In this perspective piece, Schad questions
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the publishing motives of scholarly societies. For instance, the
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American Chemical Society states that one of its top priorities in
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publishing a journal is to preserve the archival record of research in
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their disciplines. Another spin on this motive might be that journals
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published by scholarly societies are simply a service for scientists'
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quest for tenure, promotion and grants and as such, some of what is
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published in these journals may be of archival use but may not
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necessarily be of use to currently active scholars. Yes, scholarly
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societies should continue to publish journals since journal literature
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is an important part of scholarly communication; journal prices could
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be reduced, however, if they were downsized and were to publish only
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the best of the professions' scholarship. Schad goes on to suggest
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that if scientific societies want to continue to preserve an archival
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record of research in their discipline, they can do so cheaply by
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providing access to this material in electronic form. - MP
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Turner, Judith Axler. "Pioneering an Online Newspaper: Lessons from
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the Chronicle" JEP: The Journal of Electronic Publishing 3(2)
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(December 1997) (http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/chronicle.html).
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- In this piece the editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education
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describes the process and the lessons learned from moving a print
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publication to the Internet. As a pioneer (Academe Today was one of
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the earlier online publications), they learned a lot, and this article
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shares a good deal of that experience in an informative and engaging
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way. What they learned about online user behavior is well worth the
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time it takes to read the article. But then you get to the "missed
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opportunities" section, in which Turner shares her regrets. Now this
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is candid and informative stuff, and not to be missed. Her ending
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section is titled "Pioneers Are the Ones with Arrows in their Backs",
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but because of the lessons learned from pioneers like Turner's outfit,
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those who follow in their footsteps will have a much better
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opportunity to dodge them. - RT
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NETWORKS & NETWORKING
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Devlin, Brendan. "Conceptual Models for Network Literacy" The
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Electronic Library 15(5) (October 1997):363-368. - Devlin uses
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cognitive science concepts to present a conceptual model for general
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information retrieval and guidelines for when to use the Internet in
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research. The eight step conceptual model can be summarized in four
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phases: (1) identify information in the form of a question, (2)
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classify the type of question (ready reference, known item, subject
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specific, or research), (3) develop asearch strategy and (4) assess
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results. When considering the Internet, Devlin concludes that the
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Internet should only be chosen if the question is unlikely to be
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answered elsewhere, if other sources have proved unsuccesful or if a
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comprehensive source is required. While there is little assessment of
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specific search tools or strategies, this article does provide a
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preliminary framework for the information retrieval process and for
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assessing the Internet as a research resource. - LY
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Knight, Lorrie A. "Locating Public Domain Images" College & Research
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Libraries News 59(1) (January 1998):11-13
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(http://www.ala.org/acrl/resjan98.html). - A concise list of public
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domain image collections available on the web, this may be the only
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resource that web developers need consult to find images for
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incorporating into their sites. Listed here are references to thematic
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image collections like the Library ClipArt Collection
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[http://www.netins.net/showcase/meyers/library_clipart/clipart.html],
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government sites like the NASA Photo Gallery
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[http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/index.html] and image archives like
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The Clip Art Connection [http://www.ist.net/clipart/]. When using
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images from these sites, as the author advises, just remember to abide
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by the appropriate rules of copyright. - MP
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Press, Larry. "Tracking the Global Diffusion of the Internet"
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Communications of the ACM 40(11) (November 1997):11-17. - So many
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unsubstantiated claims are made about Internet growth and usage, it's
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tempting to simply dismiss all estimates. However, when you need to
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know more than that it's just really really big and really really
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busy, this article names the organizations that are making responsible
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efforts to track and quantify, and gives a URL for each. From veteran
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net-watchers like John Quarterman's Matrix Information and Directory
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Services to the newly formed Cooperative Association for Internet
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Data Analysis, each organization's function and methods are
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described. The article appears in an issue themed "Computational
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Infrastructure: Toward the 21st Century," and there are several
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related pieces which depict the evolving infogrid. - JR
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"Special Issue: The Best Library-Related Web Sites" Library HiTech
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15(3-4) (1997) (http://www.pieranpress.com/). - The articles in this
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special issue are from the site managers of the winners of the "Best
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Library-Related Web Sites Contest." If one overlooks the flawed
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contest itself, the articles represent an interesting mix of
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experiences in setting up and managing a diverse range of
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library-related Web sites. Some of these sites are clearly
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well-deserved of their reward, and are setting the standards by which
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others should aspire (for example, the OhioLink site at
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http://www.ohiolink.edu/). Some well-deserved sites are unique in what
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they do and will likely not have many competitors (such as the
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Internet Scout Report at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/). They
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all have stories to tell, and you can pick and choose among them to
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find the ones that best meet your needs or pique our interest. - RT
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GENERAL
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Bronson, Po. "Is the Revolution Over? Report from Ground Zero: Silicon
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Valley" Wired 6.01 (January 1998):99-112. - If you aren't completely
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tired of hearing the Wired digerati proselytize about the ongoing
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digital revolution, you may want to pick up Wired's 5th Anniversary
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issue "The State of the Planet-1998." In particular, Po Bronson's
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journey into Silicon Valley - the epicenter of the new economy - is
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revealing and entertaining. Bronson's stories of knowledge workers in
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the Valley depict the new "total dedication model": no longer to the
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company but to the dream of transforming the world through technology.
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While Bronson is clearly an insider, he doesn't seem to take it all
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too seriously and the result is a generally optimistic, good read. -
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LY
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 9(1) (January 1998) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright ©
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1998 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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_________________________________________________________________
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