textfiles/magazines/CURRENTCITIES/2000.11-1

   Current Cites
   Volume 11, no. 1, January 2000

   Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
   
   The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
   ISSN: 1060-2356
   http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.1.html
   
   Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick , Margaret
   Phillips, Jim Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, Roy Tennant
   
   Antelman, Kristin. "Getting out of the HTML Business: The
   Database-Driven Web Site Solution." Information Technology and
   Libraries 18 (4) (December 1999): 176-181. - Library webweavers who
   are feeling over-burdened with the labor of keeping huge web sites
   current and interesting can take heart: there is a new generation of
   tools that are within reach and can vastly ease the workload.
   Antelman's excellent overview of database-driven web management will
   tell you everything you need to know about how to evaluate the best
   products, as well as how to reorganize the information architecture of
   your web site. She rightly assesses that many library web managers are
   still employing 1995-era tools, even though their sites now receive
   thousands of hits per day and are essential parts of the library's
   mission. Newer products (like Cold Fusion) carry higher price tags but
   are technically within reach for most webweavers. Start here to begin
   updating your sense of the possible. - TH
   
   Bauer, Kathleen. "Who Goes There? Measuring Library Web Site Usage"
   Online 24 (1) (January 2000)
   (http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL2000/ bauer1.html). - This is a
   useful introduction to the subject for all of us who aren't server
   administrators. Requests from clients (web browsers, in this case) to
   servers can be recorded in logs. Bauer gives examples of types of log
   file entries (common log, referrer log, agent log) and explains how to
   read them. Limitations are described; the most important caveat is
   that such logs only record incidents of requests for specific files on
   a server, which doesn't necessarily give a clear measurement of user
   interest due to variables like dynamic IP addressing (e.g. an ISP
   assigning different IP numbers to the same user at different points in
   time) and web page caching in memory at the client end. Sources of log
   analysis software are evaluated and URLs are given for them, and for
   links to further reading. Note that when this cite was written, I
   found that several of the supplied links were broken or lead to wrong
   places. - JR
   
   Bertot, John Carlo, Charles R. McClure and Kimberly A. Owens.
   "Universal Service in a Global Networked Environment: Selected Issues
   and Possible Approaches" Government Information Quarterly 16(4) 1999.
   - Providing universal service for networked information resources is
   generally seen as a good thing. There are some who naively assume that
   once the infrastructure problems are overcome (like creating wireless
   networks in countries so impoverished that people will dig wires out
   of the ground to sell the copper) we'll all join together in a utopian
   global group-hug. This article analyzes the policy questions which
   complicate the issue: governmental controls, the influence of
   industrialized nations, economics, cultural attitudes, even
   conflicting definitions of what is meant by universal service. As the
   U.S. is the leading player, there is a lot of space devoted to
   American policies and efforts, but due recognition is given to the
   fact that some attitudes simply don't work elsewhere, and discussion
   points are proposed which can be used to avoid cultural stalemates.
   All of the articles in this issue of the quarterly are on the subject
   of universal access. These rather dry reports don't have a lot of
   pizazz; I can imagine them in that pile of Al Gore's "fun" reading
   which he gets kidded about. But if you dismiss this sort of thing
   because you consider yourself an anti-bureaucracy, under the radar,
   direct action, access to the people techno-cowboy or girl, just
   remember that ultimately this policy-making layer affects everybody. -
   JR
   
   Clarke, Roger. "Freedom of Information? The Internet as Harbinger of
   the New Dark Ages" First Monday 4 (11) (November 1, 1999)
   (http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_11/clarke/). - Clarke
   assesses the impact of the Internet by deconstructing the popular
   media zeitgeist view of the Net, and then evaluating reactions by
   powerful institutions. "The digital era has ambushed and beguiled us
   all," he says. "Its first-order impacts are being assimilated, but its
   second-order implications are not." While we are being beguiled and
   seduced by a Madison-Avenue dominated dialogue with Utopian overtones,
   vested interests are hard at work to protect their interests. The
   battle royal will continue, he says, and the outcome is uncertain. For
   example, a failure of new paradigms could result in tighter controls
   on new media and limit intellectual expression. On the other hand,
   email is a written medium that, according to The New Yorker's Adam
   Gopnik, is reviving the Eighteenth Century literary culture of letter
   writing as an art form. The one thing that is certain is that the pace
   of change will be rapid, and that no one will relinquish territory
   willingly. - TH
   
   Coffman, Steve. "'And Now, a Word From Our Sponsors...': Alternative
   Funding for Libraries" Searcher 8(1) (January 2000)
   (http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan00/coffman.htm). - Rabble-rouser
   and pot-stirrer Coffman is at it again. Thank god, since the pot needs
   stirring and the rabble (or, in actual fact, not "rabble" but
   librarians) need rousing. As is sometimes the case, Coffman is long on
   ideas and short on documented fact (although he refers to a number of
   sources, there are few citations). But be that as it may, it would
   behoove librarians to not throw this baby out with the bath water.
   Where Coffman shines is in tipping one of the most staid institutions
   we have (libraries) on its side and shaking hard. Anything not bolted
   down goes flying, and suddenly we're left with figuring out just what
   we *do* need. In the end, we may need almost everything we have now,
   but it's also likely that we have more baggage than we need and fewer
   visas in hand for where we should be going. If you've had enough mixed
   metaphors, stop reading this and find out what I'm talking about.
   Whether you agree or disagree with Coffman, you should know what he
   advocates and where you stand on the issues and why. - RT
   
   Downes, Stephen, "Hacking Memes" First Monday 4 (10) (October 4, 1999)
   (http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_10/downes/). - If you have
   been wondering how to sound smart at "digerati" cocktail parties, look
   no further than this article. Better still, you'll find that the
   effort to be trendy will also be intellectually rewarding — this is a
   fun read. The "meme" concept has been the darling of the never-to-be
   IPO'd Wired Magazine set for years, but it's also a useful metaphor
   for understanding online culture. The author launches his discourse
   with humorous definitions of the term "meme," and quickly moves into a
   larger discussion the digital era that will entertain both technoids
   and general readers. - TH
   
   Hodge, Gail M. "Best Practices for Digital Archiving" D-Lib Magazine
   6(1) (January 2000) (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january00/01hodge.html).
   - In March 1999, the International Council for Scientific and
   Technical Information (ICSTI, see http://www.icsti.org/) sponsored a
   study on digital archiving (the practice of preserving access to
   digital material). This paper is a summary report of the findings (see
   the ICSTI web site for the full report). The study surveyed a number
   of projects with a digital archiving component, and from that survey
   detected some emerging best practices. These practices are categorized
   and described within the topic areas of 1) creation, 2) acquisition
   and collection development, 3) identification and cataloging, 4)
   storage, 5) preservation, and 6) access. - RT
   
   Lukesh, Susan S. "E-mail and Potential Loss to Future Archives and
   Scholarship or the Dog that Didn't Bark" First Monday 4 (9) (September
   6, 1999) (http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_9/lukesh/). - The
   author provides a guided tour of the rapidly evolving crisis
   associated with legacy systems and the disappearance of the hardware
   and software that is needed to read data files. "A pattern has emerged
   in starting presentations on the preservation of electronic materials:
   Disaster!", she says. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau discovered
   that only two computers on earth can still read the 1960 census and
   the bulk of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
   research since 1958 is threatened — it's a troubling picture. Lukesh
   explores the extent of the crisis and some of the remedies that might
   be undertaken to save these essential data sets. - TH
   
   Margiano, Richard. "The Ninth Circuit Holds That the Internet Domain
   Name E-Mail and Web Service Provider is Not a Cybersquatter for
   Trademark Dilution Purposes, Avery Dennison Corp. v. Sumpton" JILT:
   the Journal of Information, Law and Technology 1999:3
   (http://www.law.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/99-3/margiano.html). - The article
   title just about says it all. The Court decided that Sumpton,
   president of Mailbank, an Internet service provider which owns and
   leases 12,000 domain names to third parties, did not dilute Avery
   Dennison's trademarks, and thus, were not cybersquatters preventing
   others from the free use of their names while exacting a price for
   their use. This decision which reverses a previous court's summary
   judgement will prove to be a much debated trademark and Internet
   intellectual property law case. - LR
   
   Mendels, Pamela. "Study on Online Education Sees Optimism, With
   Caution" New York Times (January 19, 2000)
   (http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/01/cyber/education/19education
   .html). - The pick of the crop from the recent New York Times
   Cybertimes features on education examines the University of
   Illinois-based Online Pedagogy Report
   (http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/report/), the product of 16 tenured
   professors under the lead of John R. Regalbuto from the Unversity of
   Illinois at Chicago. The University of Illinois Online program
   (http://www.online.uillinois.edu/) appears to have provided
   considerable impetus for the study. In this short article, Mendels
   characterizes the group's results as at once cautious and optimistic,
   and lays out a few of their findings regarding various strengths and
   pitfalls of distance learning. Strengths included enhanced interactive
   multimedia capabilities in fields such as geometry, and increased
   dissemination of and participation in course material across the
   board. On the latter note, e-seminars, playing themselves out on
   electronic bulletin boards and e-mail lists, appear to foster
   broader-based written discussion, even among less outgoing students.
   The major discovered shortcoming comes as no surprise: a sense of
   digital alienation, which makes creating and maintaining a
   teacher-student bond difficult. Major cautions also come as no
   surprise: a full slate of distance learning courses engineered to
   provide a complete undergraduate or graduate program was deemed
   inappropriate, as was "excessive" class-size, ranging from 35 to 1000
   students, depending on whom one consults. - LM
   
   Nielsen, Jakob. Designing Web Usability Indianapolis, IN: New Riders
   Publishing, 2000. - Jakob Nielsen has long been known as a Web
   usability guru. From his early web design days at Sun Microsystems, he
   has been an advocate of design for the user's sake, and has therefore
   often been at odds with those designers who want to use the latest and
   greatest technology despite its impact on usability. In 1995, to put
   forward his thoughts on web design, Nielsen started a column called
   The Alertbox (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/), with which any web
   designer worth his or her salt is familiar. For a quick taste of
   Nielsen's direct and insightful advice, see his classic "Top Ten
   Mistakes of Web Design" (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html) and
   Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Design. With these credentials, one
   expects a top-notch web design book. Luckily, Nielsen doesn't
   disappoint. This over-400 page book is chock-full of pithy advice,
   full-color screen shots of both good and bad web sites, and
   informative asides (in the form of sidebars). Anyone who designs or
   manages a web site should read this book, commit its lessons to
   memory, and keep it handy on the shelf next to Rosenfeld and
   Morville's book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. - RT
   
   Pack, Thomas. "Bringing Literature Alive: Early English Books Online
   Reshape Research Opportunities" EContent 22(6) (December 1999, pp.
   26-30. - From the vaults of Bell & Howell Information and Learning's
   (http://www.bellhowell.infolearning.com/ hp/Features/DVault/) Digital
   Vault Initiative comes new life for researchers of Early Modern
   English History and Literature. Users of microfilms containing the
   materials listed in Pollard and Redgrave's Short Title Catalogue,
   Donald Wing's Short Title Catalogue, and the Thomason Tracts of
   broadsides on the English Civil War can look forward to a new online
   resource, the Early English Books Online (EEBO) project
   (http://www.bellhowell.infolearning.com/
   cgi-bin/ShowItem?PID=P0086&market=cu&location=na). The herculean task
   of scanning some 22 million pages of microfilm has been completed,
   resulting in a cache of digitized images of the original pages of some
   96,000 literary works, ranging from books, newspapers, and periodicals
   to pamphlets, proclamations and bookplates. According to a librarian
   at the Bodleian, this translates to 80% of the total surviving record
   of English speaking world from 1475-1700. These online facsimiles are
   intended to be a complement to rather than replacement of the higher
   resolution images on microfilm. A list of desiderata for the incipient
   project (only 187 units have been delivered so far) was culled from
   other successful projects, as well as from faculty and library
   committees, to wit: MARC-standardized bibliographic records, speedy
   delivery of images (TIFFs at 400 dpi compressed for web delivery by
   DjVu technology), PDF download, a user-friendly web-interface which
   allows browsing by broad subjects (history, religion, literature), as
   well as searching by author and title keywords; and finally,
   partnerships with libraries which will provide ASCII text in return
   for subscription subventions, or better yet, part ownership of the
   database. - LM
   
   Scaife, Ross, et al. The Stoa Consortium (http://www.stoa.org/). - In
   the spirit of the classical stoa, a public forum for philosophical
   dissemination in the form of open-air discussion, Ross Scaife, from
   the Classics Department at the University of Kentucky, has
   masterminded a web-based humanities publishing forum aptly named the
   Stoa Consortium. The project's goal is succinctly described in their
   FAQ as "refereed collaborative publication of structured data for wide
   audiences." The keywords here are: quality, accessibility, and
   consistency, achieved through a new paradigm of peer-reviewed
   publishing in the humanities, buoyed by new models of scholarly
   collaboration, and using recognized standards, such as TEI-conformant
   SGML, XML, the DOI, and Unicode. The desired outcome will be the
   successful dissemination, migration and archiving of electronic
   material in the humanities, primarily Classics. The projects page
   promises great variety in the form of monographs, editions and
   translations, encyclopedia articles, as well as archaeological and
   geographic resources, including highly popular QTVR panoramas. My
   impression is that the online Suda project (the translation of a
   rather quirky Byzantine Greek encyclopedia) has been the brightest
   twinkle in the creators' collaborative eye until recently, when James
   O'Donnell made an announcement on the Classics-L list regarding the
   release of the electronic version of his 3-volume edition, with
   commentary, of Augustine's Confessions. Insofar as this edition
   coincides with a paper reprint edition, the release exemplifies the
   consortium's ideal of the coexistence of print and electronic
   versions. - LM
   
   Seales, W. Brent, James Griffioen, and Keven Kiernan. "The Digital
   Atheneum — Restoring Damaged Manuscripts" RLG DigiNews (December 15,
   1999) (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/
   diginews3-6.html#technical1) - Under the aegis of the Departments of
   English and Computer Science at the University of Kentucky, the
   NSF-funded Digital Atheneum project (http://www.digitalatheneum.org/)
   is exploring new techniques for restoring and making available
   previously lost witnesses existing in manuscripts that have been
   destroyed by the ravages of nature (such as the fire and attendant
   water damage that damaged the Cottonian MSS at the British Library) or
   any subsequent well-intentioned but faulty conservation techniques.
   The project's aim is the creation of a digital library of images of
   damaged texts that will have undergone a regimen of restoratives,
   including new fiber-optic lighting and contrast-enhancing techniques
   using white light, 3-D representation and mosaicing technologies, and
   a battery of clever restoration algorithms. Users will avail
   themselves of these restored/enhanced images through data-specific
   content search techniques against the data, which will have been
   processed using a semantic object-oriented processing language and
   interface called MOODS (on which see the online article with further
   references at http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/DL/brent.html). - LM
   
   Soloway, Elliot, et al. "K-12 and the Internet" Communications of the
   ACM (http://www.acm.org/cacm/) 43(1) (January, 2000) - The authors
   make a persuasive case for Internet access in grade schools, and have
   good responses for most of the standard objections. They're certainly
   not claiming that Internet use can substitute for learning the basics,
   but that it is a window on the world that needs to be reliably
   available in the classroom setting, where the inequality of resources
   between rich and poor might be somewhat mitigated. School librarians
   play a crucial role in identifying beneficial resources, which, as the
   authors point out, is a process of vetting, not filtering. In
   describing their own University of Michigan Digital Library
   (http://www.si.umich.edu/UMDL/) which is being used in schools in Ann
   Arbor and Detroit, the authors state "We replaced a Sisyphean Task
   (exclusion) with an almost impossible task (inclusion). Children,
   then, do not search the Internet per se; rather they search the
   materials registered in the library." On hardware, the authors know
   from experience that PCs are inappropriate for Internet use in public
   schools because of the problems of maintenance, viruses, mucking about
   with the settings and general physical abuse. They propose simple
   keyboards and monitors, and of course the funding and administrative
   support to keep the access consistent and hassle-free for the teaching
   staff. - JR
   
   Webster, Janet and Cheryl Middleton. "Paying for Technology: Student
   Fees and Libraries" Journal of Academic Librarianship 25(6) (November
   1999): 462-470. - Webster and Middleton examine the seven institutions
   of the Oregon University System and 7 peer institutions to discover
   best practices regarding student technology resource (TR) fees. At
   Oregon State University, like other institutions, the fees were
   instituted at a time of decreasing budgets and increasing needs for
   technology spending. The examination showed that very few libraries
   participated in the development of the TR fee process (planning,
   spending, etc.). Quite remarkably, with few exceptions the library was
   not seen as an important provider of technology for students. The
   authors conclude that strategic planning, budgeting, and communication
   which includes student input are all factors which lead to successful
   uses of technology resource fees. - LR
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Current Cites 11(1) (January 2000) ISSN: 1060-2356
   Copyright © 2000 by the Library, University of California,
   Berkeley. _All rights reserved._
   
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