296 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
296 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 10, no. 12 December 1999
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The Library 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/1999/cc99.10.12.html
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Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick,
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Margaret Phillips, Jim Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison,
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Roy Tennant, Lisa Yesson
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Arms, William Y. "Preservation of Scientific Serials: Three Current
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Examples" Journal of Electronic Publishing 5(2) (December 1999)
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(http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/05-02/arms.html). - Arms, current
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Editor-in-Chief of D-Lib Magazine, (http://www.dlib.org/) offers three
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case studies that explore the capabilities and efforts of three
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digital publications to meet the challenges of preserving digital
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resources into the next millennium. The ACM Digital Library, the
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Internet RFC series, and D-Lib Magazine were selected as
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representative paradigms displaying significant variations in
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organizational stability and technical specs for the storage and
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delivery of data. Arms examines the feasibility of three commonly
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cited levels of preservation: conservation (full look and feel of the
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scientific article and journal as an artifact), preservation of access
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(maintenance of the material and an effective system of access through
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indexing, metadata, etc.), and preservation of content (warehoused
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articles with minimal metadata). The ultimate question is, to whom
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will the responsibility of preservation fall: publishers?
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not-for-profit institutions, such as university libraries? charitable
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foundations? national archives? Arms envisions a period of initial
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active management by publishers, followed by preservation by another
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body, perhaps the Library of Congress. The ideal solution will no
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doubt arise from a partnership amongst the scientific community,
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publishers, and libraries. - LM
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Breeding, Marshall. "Does the Web Spell Doom for CD and DVD?"
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Computers in Libraries 19(10) (November/ December 1999)
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(http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/nov99/breeding.htm) - Breeding states
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boldly that the trend is "an unmistakable migration away from
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CD-ROM-based products toward web-based information resources accessed
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via the Internet." When CD-ROMs first gained wide use in the library
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world, the user was faced with having to use and learn different
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search protocols for each product running on individual PCs. The
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appearance of CD-ROM networks allowed for multiple access but users
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still faced the problem of multiple search interfaces and the
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difficulty of installation and maintenance. Now the web environment
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uses a model of information whereby the database is stored on a
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centralized server via the Internet or even on locally based servers.
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This is much easier for libraries who can build a standard network
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around TCP/IP - there is no need for proprietary software,
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installation or updating of CDs. In addition the move to web-based
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catalogs allows for greater integration of electronic resources,
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indexes, abstracts and full-text databases. Finally, while search
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interfaces do differ there is a certain homogeneity because of
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web-based approach. Breeding makes a number of predictions. Libraries
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will not be installing large scale CD-ROM networks but using a
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miniserver approach; as "the web is the ubiquitous approach for
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providing access to library resources to remote users" even non-web
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based resources will be accessed via web-launching applications. CDs
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and DVDs will only be used a distribution medium with DVD gradually
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becoming the standard, and vendors will themselves move away from
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these formats to FTP for updating. Breeding suggests diversifying
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servers so that heavily used databases are on local intranet servers
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in order to offer better performance. - ML
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Carvajal, Doreen. "Racing to Convert Books to Bytes" New York Times
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(December 9, 1999): C1; C27. - In this informative overview of the
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trend within publishing to producing digital books, Carvajal
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highlights the example of the University of Texas at Austin. The
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University has a $1 million budget for digital books and a collection
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of 600 titles with access to over 5000 titles via consortiums. There
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are digital readers that allow users to download electronic titles and
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in the near future users will be able to create their own customized
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versions of books. Random House is attempting to digitize it's entire
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backlist of 20,000 titles, while Simon & Schuster is formatting all
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new books in digital form and starting on it's own backlist. Various
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European publishers have announced that they will produce electronic
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books that can be read in Microsoft's upcoming Microsoft Reader
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software, and journal publishers are joining together to allow
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electronic links between citations. As it is difficult for new
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publishers in the burgeoning field to get hold of titles much
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expansion has been with public domain titles. One publisher,
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NetLibrary is outsourcing data entry to countries such as China and
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India and then marketing to major libraries to buy electronic
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collections. There are still some doubts about whether this will be a
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successful venture on the part of publishers. At the moment most
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ebooks are the same price as print counterparts and all companies are
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grappling with the problem of whether readers will warm to these
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formats with many banking on the younger digital generation leading
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the charge. - ML
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Conservation Implications of Digitization Projects National Digital
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Library Program and the Conservation Division, Library of Congress.
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Washington: Library of Congress, 1999
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(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/conserv83199a.pdf). - This
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report largely describes the procedures followed by the Library of
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Congress to ensure the proper handling of materials when digitizing.
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Given the wide diversity of material types digitized by LC, as well as
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the volume of materials handled and the length of time LC has been
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doing this kind of activity, this information on how LC does it can be
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extremely valuable to those with less experience. Appendix I is a
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handout used for an in-house course, and is available separately at
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http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/conserv83199b.pdf. Appendices II
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and III are promised shortly, and will be listed at
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http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftpfiles.html when they are available. -
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RT
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Dutton, William H., Anita Elberse and Matthew Hale. "A Case Study of a
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Netizen's Guide to Elections" Communications of the ACM 42(12)
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(December, 1999) - The horserace metaphor for an election brings to
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mind this homily: you can lead 'em to water, but you can't make 'em
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drink. For the 1998 California gubernatorial primary, voters could dip
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into the Democracy Network (http://www.dnet.org/), a much deeper well
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of candidate info than what was available from traditional sources.
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This case study describes the construction of the site, the methods of
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gathering content, and the patterns of use. It was a wonderful
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resource for people who cared enough to research the issues, but of
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course its impact on voters' decision-making process was small
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compared to the effect of broadcast media. As one campaign manager put
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it, "It is going to come down to potentially who the voters like
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better, character and personality... commercials, and quick sound bite
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flashes, show what kind of people they are." However, in the usage
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patterns the authors do see some encouraging signs: the increase in
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focused searches during the week prior to the election could indicate
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good use of the site for making informed choices. The study is
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valuable for those of us who assist with research in politics and
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government, but it's also of interest to anyone pondering the effects
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of the Internet on information-seeking behavior. - JR
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Graham, Margaret E. "The Description and Indexing of Images: Report of
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a Survey of ARLIS Members, 1998/99" Newcastle: Institute for Image
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Data Research, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, May 1999
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(http://www.unn.ac.uk/iidr/ARLIS/). - This report comes out of an
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effort led by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the
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Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK to study the efficacy of
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content-based image retrieval (CBIR, see the report cited in the
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September 1999 issue of Current Cites and the web site at
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http://www.unn.ac.uk/iidr/CBIR/cbir.html). To support that work, it
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was decided to survey current practice for indexing images among
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institutional members of the Art Libraries Society (UK). The findings
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of that survey, conducted from November 1998 to January 1999, are
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summarized here. Anyone interested in current practice in indexing
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images will find this report useful, with one caveat. Despite the fact
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that typically only about 25% of the respondents felt that CBIR might
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be useful to any degree whatsoever, they nonetheless put an overly
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positive light on that finding by basically ignoring the overwhelming
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majority who answered "Don't Know" or "No Response" (accounting for
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over 60% of the responses in most cases). - RT
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Guernsey, Lisa. "The Web: New Ticket to a Pink Slip" New York Times
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(December 16 1999): D1, D8, D9. - Guernsey highlights recent trends in
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workplace surveillance. 40 employees of Xerox were recently fired for
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surfing to "forbidden" web sites at work. They were caught because
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Xerox, and numerous other large corporations, are using specialized
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software such as Spector or Websense to monitor employees computer
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use. Approximately 45% of employers use a variety of monitoring
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techniques whether of phone calls, email or computer use. Their
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argument is that this is necessary to clamp down on time wasted by
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employees and also to stop employees from creating a potentially
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hostile environment for their fellow workers. The monitoring of
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workers has a long history in US labor relations but the Internet has
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added a whole new area for management intrusion. While there are some
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laws, mostly concerning wiretapping, that offer some protection to
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workers, this is an unsettled area of the law. There are some cases of
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employees arguing that their privacy rights have been invaded by
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electronic monitoring but none thus far have reached a jury. Many
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privacy groups are arguing that workers have greater expectation
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privacy rights in the workplace than employers are willing to
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recognize. In a sidebar "What Employers Can View at Work" Guernsey
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outlines some parameters of worker privacy. As she starkly states
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"most employees should not consider their office email to be private,
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nor should they assume that their employers are not looking at logs of
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web sites they have visited." - ML
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Harnad, Stevan. Free at Last: The Future of Peer-Reviewed Journals"
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D-Lib Magazine 5(12) (December 1999)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december99/12harnad.html). - Harnad has long
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been a vocal advocate of using networking technologies to free
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scholarly communication from standard publishing models. In his most
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recent argument for such a change, published by D-Lib Magazine as an
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opinion piece (for which they also take pains to absolve themselves of
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any implied support), he advocates methods by which authors of
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scholarly works can "self-archive" their work. If such local archives
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follow the emerging conventions of the Open Archives Initiative
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(http://www.openarchives.org/), then the resulting interoperability
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would enable users to easily locate a specific paper in whatever
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archive it is stored. This, Harnad asserts, is inevitable -- all that
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is required is that universities (and more specifically, the
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librarians working there) rise to the challenge of implementing the
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appropriate infrastructures and support mechanisms for authors.
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Interestingly enough, some universities are rising to the challenge.
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One such example is the Electronic Scholarship initiative of the
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California Digital Library of the University of California. - RT
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Heckart, Ronald J. "Imagining the Digital Library in a Commercialized
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Internet" The Journal of Academic Librarianship 25:4 (July
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1999):274-280. - In this thought provoking article, Heckart considers
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the ripe technologies of artificially intelligent navigational tools,
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interactive (personalized) technologies, and user data collection and
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analysis in the context of digital libraries. Of particular interest
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is Heckart's consideration of the user's expectations for such
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technologies and tools in the library setting based on their
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commercial Internet experiences. His thoughts on the meaning of a
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balance between user privacy and service brings to light a major
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digital library issue. The article is an excellent example of
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"informed speculation" and bears a thorough read for anyone doing
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digital library planning or brainstorming. - LR
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Kelly, Henry. "Information Technology and the Environment: Choices and
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Opportunities" iMP Magazine (Information Impacts Magazine) (October
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1999) (http://www.cisp.org/imp/october_99/10_99kelly.htm) - Serving as
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the Assistant Director for Technology in the White House Office of
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Science and Technology Policy, Kelly discusses environmental impact of
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information technology and presents areas for possible resource
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savings when developing, manufacturing, and choosing information
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technologies. Kelly's article presents the relationship between
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economic growth and reduced natural resource consumption in terms of
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three fundamental features: intelligent production processes,
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intelligent design of products, and intelligent operation of products.
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While libraries may not often concern their technology use with the
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fate of natural resources, there is room for us to play a responsible
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role in the planning, creation and implementation of resource
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efficient information technologies. - LR
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Lieb, Thom. "Looking Good" The Journal of Electronic Publishing 5(2)
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(December 1999) (http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/05-02/lieb0502.html) -
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This article examines in a nutshell the sad plight of electronic
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publishers caught up in the struggle to produce uniform pages in spite
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of browsers' variations in supporting Java and Javascript, frames,
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style sheets, dynamic HTML (DHTML) and tables, to name the most
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obvious landmines in "the Browser Wars." He also covers a number of
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publishing-specific problems issuing for the most part from
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differences in platform: offset, text size, tracking and leading.
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Monitors also join the fray, as the source of problems relating to
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canvas size. But, he cautions, even when all external adversaries in
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the Browser and Platform Wars have been vanquished, bad output may
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simply come down to bad coding, concerning which some browsers are
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more lenient than others. In the end, the best advice is the most
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obvious: Lieb advocates using a code validator, adhering to the lowest
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common denominator in terms of presentation, and giving more weight to
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content. - LM
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Miller, Rush G. and Peter X. Zhou. "Global Resource Sharing: A Gateway
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Model" The Journal of Academic Librarianship 25(4) (July
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1999):281-287. - Miller and Zhou share the success of the University
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of Pittsburgh's Gateway Service Center of Chinese Academic Journal
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Publications. The project implements the gateway model for global
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resource sharing, by bringing together several academic libraries from
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China, Taiwan and Hong Kong to establish a protocol of document
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delivery of Chinese journal publications for U.S. researchers.
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Challenged by distance, language, political climate and copyright
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issues, the project has been quite successful and has demonstrated
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that the necessary protocols, agreements and other complex
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negotiations required for global resource sharing are not impossible
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to establish. The Gateway Service Center of Chinese Academic Journal
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Publications may be accessed at http://www.library.pitt.edu/gateway/.
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- LR
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M�hlberger, G�nter. "Digitisation of Newspaper Clippings: The LAURIN
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Project" RLG DigiNews 3(6) (December 15, 1999)
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-6.html#feature). - Much
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of the most practical digital library developments are coming from
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Europe, and a case in point is the project described in this report.
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The LAURIN project (http://laurin.uibk.ac.at/) of the European
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Commission (launched in 1998) brings together seventeen partners from
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seven European countries to develop an infrastructure to support the
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digitization and management of newspaper clippings. One of the
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outcomes of the project has been the development of libClip, a
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software application that semi-automates the process of digizitizing a
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particular clipping, analyzing the article layout, recognizing the
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characters on the page (OCR), and metadata capture. The development of
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this software dramatically increases the efficiency of this type of
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procedure. They promise that a full trial version of the software will
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be available at their web site by the time this issue of Current Cites
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is published. - RT
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 10(12) (December 1999) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright (c) 2000 by the Library, University of California,
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Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin
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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. This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use
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requires permission from the editor. All product names are trademarks
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or registered trade marks of their respective holders. Mention of a
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product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of
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the product. To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send
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the message "sub cites [your name]" to listserv@library.berkeley.edu,
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replacing "[your name]" with your name. To unsubscribe, send the
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message "unsub cites" to the same address. Editor: Teri Andrews Rinne,
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trinne@library. berkeley.edu.
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