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259 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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[1]Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
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Volume 12, no. 1, January 2001
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Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
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The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
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ISSN: 1060-2356 -
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2001/cc01.12.1.html
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Contributors: [3]Terry Huwe, [4]Michael Levy, [5]Leslie Myrick , Jim
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Ronningen, [6]Roy Tennant
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Austen, Ian. [7]"Rebooted Any Good Books Lately?" [8]The New York
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Times (January 4, 2001): Section G; Page 1; Column 2
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(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/technology/04BOOK.html). - This
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overview of e-books takes a look at dedicated book readers such as the
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Franklin eBookman and the REB 1100 from RCA as well as software such
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as Microsoft Reader that allows palm style devices to act as reading
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devices. The issues to keep in mind when selecting an ebook include
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battery life, ease of use and navigation, readability, size and,
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something that is sometimes overlooked, the availability of books to
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download. While each of the readers and software options have their
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own strengths and weaknesses it is the difficulty of locating and
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downloading titles that appears to be a major obstacle in the adoption
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of this technology. For example, various titles available online may
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only be read using Microsoft Reader and only on a desktop or laptop
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computer, the process of downloading can be onerous and the cost of
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e-books is barely less than their print counterparts. It seems that
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this interesting area of new reading technology has a ways to go
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before competing with the erstwhile paperback. - [9]ML
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Calhoun, Karen, and John J. Reimer, guest eds. "CORC: New Tools and
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Possibilities for Coopertaive Electronic Resource Description" [10]The
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Journal of Internet Cataloging 4(1/2) (2001). - The entire issue is
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devoted to discussing the [11]Cooperative Online Resource Cataloging
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(CORC) project, an effort led by [12]OCLC to catalog Internet
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resources. If this is all new to you, begin with the first article
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"Collaboration in CORC" by Thomas B. Hickey of OCLC (p.5-16). Other
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contributions cover specific areas of the CORC effort, or particular
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experiences with using it. [By the way, is it just me, or shouldn't
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the Journal of Internet Cataloging at least have Dublin Core metadata
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in META tags on the journal home page?] - [13]RT
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Cohen, Laura B. "Yahoo! and the Abdication of Judgment" [14]American
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Libraries 32(1) (January 2001): 60-62. - In this piece Cohen rightly
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criticizes the library profession for overlooking the many faults of
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the Internet subject directory [15]Yahoo!. She cites several reasons
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for this: a) a fear that users will see our opposition to typical user
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behavior as irrelevant, b) our desire to give our customers what they
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want (even if it isn't particularly good for them), c) abandonment our
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mission to improve user searching behavior, and d) negligence of our
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professional responsibilities. "In a world where the proliferation of
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information is accelerating," Cohen asserts, "and paradigmatic changes
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are sweeping our profession, we cannot toy with our standards or the
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trust of our users." Her solution? "We should explain to our users the
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deficiencies of Yahoo!, establish a repertoire of recommended
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alternatives, and teach those alternatives with confidence." Cohen
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reminds me that the reaction of the library profession (not everyone,
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but in general) to the Internet passed through several stages:
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indifferent ignorance, denial, opposition, tentative acceptance, and
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slavish acceptance. It appears that Cohen is hopeful that we can move
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out of the slavish acceptance stage by remembering and reapplying our
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professional principles to the Internet age. - [16]RT
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Cox, Richard J. [17]"The Great Newspaper Caper: Backlash in the
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Digital Age" [18]First Monday 5(12) (December 4, 2000)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_12/cox/). - Anyone who ever
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felt peeved reading noted author Nicholson Baker's send-up of the San
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Francisco Public Library's new building, and, more recently, his
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article on the crisis in newspaper preservation, should read this
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article. Cox presents a well-organized deconstruction of Baker's
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central premises, and manages to be polite in doing so. He makes the
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case that a "big lie" is being foisted on the American public, namely,
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that research libraries are being irresponsible. This and other points
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are made throughout the article, making this it a useful companion
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piece to Baker's ruminations. - [19]TH
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Gregory, Vicki L. [20]"UCITA: What Does it Mean for Libraries?"
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[21]Online (25)1 (Jan/Feb 2001) p. 30-34
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(http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL2001/gregory1_01.html). - UCITA,
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the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, is really a
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proposal which attempts to standardize contract law for digital
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resource licenses on a state-by-state basis. It must be adopted by
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each state legislature -- contract law generally being a state matter
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-- but its power to change how your library handles such resources is
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just as potent as federal law. Opponents believe that UCITA can
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severely restrict the fair use exemptions in copyright law which
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librarians and others rely upon; adherents believe that copyright law
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will take precedence. This clash and other areas of contention are
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admirably explained in layman's terms by the author, as are the
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diffences between general regulation (copyright) and arrangement
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between private parties (contract). This article will be of particular
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interest to collection development librarians and administrators
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responsible for analyzing the terms of agreement for CDs, DVDs and
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online access. - JR
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Hafner, Katie. [22]"Web Sites Begin to Self Organize" [23]The New York
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Times (January 18, 2001): Section G; Page 1; Column 1
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(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/18/technology/18SELF.html). -
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Librarians are constantly stressing the importance of critically
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evaluating the quality of websites before trusting the information
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provided. In a spinoff from the user ratings seen at sites such as
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Amazon or CNET, there is an emerging class of sites, [24]thevines.com,
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[25]themestream.com, and [26]plastic.com being examples, whereby users
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grade content. For example, a writer can contribute material to one of
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these sites on ancient Rome. Users then rate the work according to a
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grading system. When someone else is looking for work on ancient Rome
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those writings which have received higher grades from users will
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automatically come to the top of the search list. The websites thus
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become self-organizing or self-adapting. Each of the sites have
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developed ways to prevent what they call "click circles" whereby
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groups of friends bombard the site with glowing reviews of a
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particular item. Some sites such as [27]Slashdot do have a modicum of
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editorial oversight but for the most part a user is relying on unknown
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reviewers to filter and rate content. Eventually, one may trust the
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opinions of particular reviewers but for the most part this still
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leaves us with the problem of evaluating the evaluators. - [28]ML
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Lagoze, Carl. [29]"Keeping Dublin Core Simple: Cross-Domain Discover
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or Resource Description?" [30]D-Lib Magazine 7(1) (January 2001)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january01/lagoze/01lagoze.html). - Readers
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of Current Cites are [31]familiar with the [32]Dublin Core (DC) -- a
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draft standard for recording basic information about "document-like
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objects". Designed as a common meeting ground between more robust
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descriptive systems such as MARC, there has been pressure from some
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participants in the process to complicate the DC to allow more complex
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and full-featured DC systems. In this readable and well-argued
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article, Lagoze explains the rationale behind keeping DC simple. By
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using simple but efffective examples, Lagoze makes a compelling
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argument for his contention, and one that those actively using the DC
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would do well to heed. Even users of DC do not always realize that it
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is only meant to be a medium of exchange of metadata between more
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complex metadata schemes, and not a complex metadata scheme itself. It
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is, in the end, too simple to be of much use for anything except
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simple resource discovery. Which, if you remember your history (back
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lo, those many years ago in 1995), is all it set out to be in the
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first place. - [33]RT
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Morgan, Eric Lease, ed. [34]"Special Issue: User-Customizable Library
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Portals" [35]Information Technology and Libraries 19(4) (December
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2000) (http://www.lita.org/ital/ital1904.html) - We've had excellent
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articles introducing the concept and others profiling individual
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sites, but for those who want to delve deeper into the My Library
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thing and see how it's playing out in several locations, this is for
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you. Implementation is still new enough that nobody has really
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conclusive usage stats, but patterns are emerging which show that,
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while they can't replace a well-planned library Web presence and an
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efficient search system, customizable features are catching on and are
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highly valued by early adopters (including librarians who are using
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them to create quick course-oriented library pages). Articles on the
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experience at North Carolina State, University of Washington and
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Virginia Commonwealth University focus on the technical details of
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creation and assessment of usage, while others address change in
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organizational culture and impact on the nature of librarianship. Some
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libraries which already have prototypes in the works may be beyond
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most of this, but I believe that group is still pretty small. The
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library administrators who haven't considered this option because
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they're short on computing staff may want to rethink after reading
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this issue. The paths have been cleared by the pioneers using open
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source software, so putting it in place doesn't require a large
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investment in systems staff time. - JR
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Raveendra, V.V.S. [36]"E-Business Application Development: The
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Paradigm Shift from In-House Application Development" [37]First Monday
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6(1) (January 8, 2001)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_1/raveendra/). - This
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article analyzes e-business applications in plain English but with
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considerable depth. Systems librarians and others who need to be
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thinking about e-business applications of their own, like digital
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reference on a "24/7" basis, will appreciate the author's
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straightforward remarks. For example, he says that Web pages "'need
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not be beautiful' but they do need to keep customers happy." He also
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displays good awareness of what different settings require. - [38]TH
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[39]"Top Technology Trends" Top Technology Trends Committee, Library
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and Information Technology Association
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(http://www.lita.org/committe/toptech/mainpage.htm). - This is not
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technically a cite, but rather a heads-up notice about the Web
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publication which will summarize this discussion which occurred at the
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ALA Midwinter 2001 meeting in January. Topics included e-books, user
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customization and censorship of online resources crossing national
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boundaries. The site is worth visiting now to see the records of
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discussions at previous meetings, and to become familiar with the
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group. Of course, by the time you read this, the Midwinter 2001
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summary may be already there, but isn't that the net way ... - JR
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 12(1) (January 2001) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright © 2001 by the Regents of the University of California All
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rights reserved.
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Copying is permitted for noncommercial use. Libraries are authorized
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to add the publication to their collections at no cost. This message
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must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires permission
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from the editor. All product or service names are trademarks,
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registered trade marks, or service marks of their respective holders.
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Mention of a product or service in this publication does not
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necessarily imply endorsement. To subscribe to the Current Cites
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distribution list, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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[40]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.
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[41]Copyright © 2001 The Regents of the University of California. All
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rights reserved.
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Document maintained at
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc01.12.1.html by
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[42]Roy Tennant.
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Last update January 29, 2001. SunSITE Manager:
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[43]manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu
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References
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1. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/imagemap/cc
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2. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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3. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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4. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/staff/levy/
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5. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/~scanmgr/LESLIE/citescv.html
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6. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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7. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/technology/04BOOK.html
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8. http://www.nytimes.com/
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9. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/staff/levy/
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10. http://www.haworthpressinc.com:8081/jic/
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11. http://purl.org/corc/
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12. http://www.oclc.org/
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13. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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14. http://www.ala.org/alonline/
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15. http://www.yahoo.com/
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16. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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17. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_12/cox/
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18. http://www.firstmonday.org/
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19. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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20. http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL2001/gregory1_01.html
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21. http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/
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22. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/18/technology/18SELF.html
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23. http://www.nytimes.com/
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24. http://thevines.com/
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25. http://themestream.com/
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26. http://plastic.com/
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27. http://www.slashdot.org/
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28. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/staff/levy/
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29. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january01/lagoze/01lagoze.html
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30. http://www.dlib.org/
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31. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/bibondemand.cgi?query=Dublin+Core&title=Dublin+Core+Citations
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32. http://purl.org/dc/
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33. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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34. http://www.lita.org/ital/ital1904.html
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35. http://www.lita.org/ital/index.htm
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36. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_1/raveendra/
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37. http://www.firstmonday.org/
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38. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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39. http://www.lita.org/committe/toptech/mainpage.htm
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40. mailto:listserv@library.berkeley.edu
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41. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Admin/copyright.html
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42. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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43. mailto:manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu
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