371 lines
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371 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
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Current Cites
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Volume 13, no. 3, March 2002
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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/2002/cc02.13.3.html
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Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr., [4]Terry Huwe, [5]Shirl
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Kennedy, [6]Leo Robert Klein, [7]Margaret Phillips, [8]Roy Tennant
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Allen, Maryellen. "A Case Study of the Usability Testing of the
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University of South Florida's Virtual Library Interface Design"
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[9]Online Information Review 26(1) (2002): 40-53. - This month's
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addition to the growing literature on usability in libraries concerns
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the trials and tribulations of a Web site redesign at University of
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South Florida Libraries. Both successes and failures are reported as
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the development team refines their testing procedures. Anyone who's
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been through the process of reconciling often highly contradictory
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goals will know how rocky a road a site redesign can be. Hints of
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differences in the literature not only make for interesting reading
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but they also helpfully alert us to challenges we too are likely to
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face when going down the same road. Here the problem was whether to
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use "plain, straightforward language" or "library jargon". Apparently
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library jargon won out. - [10]LRK
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Anhang, Abe and Steve Coffman. "The Great Reference Debate"
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[11]American Libraries 33(3) (March 2002): 50-54. - The debate of the
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title is based on the proposition "Be it reolved that reference
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librarians are toast." The authors debated this issue at the Ontario
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Library Association Super Conference in Toronto in February 2001, of
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which this article is a summary. Abe Anhang debates for the
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proposition, while Coffman debates against. As it turns out, they both
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believe that reference librarians "as we know them -- ...who sit
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behind desks for five or six hours a day...waiting for people to walk
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up and ask questions" are toast. If you ignore the non-debate,
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Coffman's part does a good job of identifying six reasons why
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reference librarians definitely are not toast -- as long as we can
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meet our users where and when they want to be served. - [12]RT
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Brennan, Christopher and Eileen O'Hara. "Murphy Was a Librarian: a
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Case Study in How Not to Handle a Systems Crash" [13]Computers in
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Libraries 22(3) (March 2002): 10-12,72. - Disaster strikes Drake
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Library at SUNY Brockport when a system glitch vaporizes all the MARC
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records from their bib catalog. Backup was faulty and all they had to
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fall back on was a data-run they had submitted five months earlier to
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an outside organization for the purposes of producing a union catalog.
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The public service message coming out of this article is emphasized
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repeatedly by the authors: communicate with your vendor to make sure
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that effective backup procedures are in place and back up early and
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often. - [14]LRK
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Carlson, Scott and Andrea L. Foster. "Colleges Fear Anti-Terrorism Law
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Could Turn Them into Big Brother" [15]Chronicle of Higher Education
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48(25) (March 1, 2002): A31-A32. - Let's take a break from topics like
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the Dublin Core, metadata and XML and consider privacy and
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anti-terrorism in the information age. In October, the USA Patriot Act
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was enacted giving law enforcement extra tools to track suspected
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terrorists including the right to open student computer files or,
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potentially, to see student library records. This kind of invasion of
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privacy, some believe, endangers the "climate of free inquiry"
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traditional to the academic environment. Some universities have
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instituted guidelines for responding to law enforcement requests made
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under the new law. At Cornell, if a staff member is asked by a law
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enforcement agent to disclose information about a student, they should
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first contact the information technology policy advisor who will
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consult with the university's lawyers. In resonse to the Patriot Act,
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the library community with ALA and other library administrators at the
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healm, remains steadfast in its advocacy of privacy rights. - [16]MP
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Ellis, John. [17]"All the News That's Fit to Blog" [18]Fast Company
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(April 2002) (http://www.fastcompany.com/online/57/jellis.html). -
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Weblogs are hot, hot, hot. One can only wonder if the enthusiasm for
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them will wane now that they are becoming a mainstream phenomenon. In
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this article, Ellis points out the shortcomings of the "boring
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pundits" who dominate newspaper op-ed pages and political talk shows,
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and compares them (unfavorably, of course) to the lively new world of
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weblogs. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of pundits are taking
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up blogging themselves -- i.e., [19]Andrew Sullivan
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(http://www.andrewsullivan.com/), [20]Virginia Postrel
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(http://www.dynamist.com/scene.html), and [21]Mickey Kaus
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(http://www.kausfiles.com/). There are any number of free tools that
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allow anyone to set up a weblog and begin publishing immediately,
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which naturally results in a lot of swill, but also generates a
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surprising amount of eloquent, dynamic discourse. Bloggers, says
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Ellis, "assume that their readers are as smart as they are, if not
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smarter." And rather than trying to keep you at their site by any
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means necessary, they routinely send you out across the Web by posting
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links from diverse and often obscure sources. The underlying
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technology -- and philosophy -- is peer-to-peer. - [22]SK
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Emery, David. [23]"The Nigerian E-Mail Hoax: West African Scammers
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Take to the Net" [24]SFGate (March 14, 2002)
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(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/03/
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14/nig erscam.DTL) - Probably you've already gotten one (or
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more...many more) of these e-mails, ostensibly from some high official
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in the government of Nigeria, Ghana or another West African country.
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This individual urgently seeks your help in transferring a large chunk
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of the national treasury or whatever into a U.S. bank account. All you
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have to do is send this person your bank account number so he or she
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can transfer the money, and he or she will reward your kindness with
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an attractive percentage. Amazingly, people keep falling for
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variations of this scam; the Secret Service says one percent of the
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people thus solicited will respond, and the U.S. Postal Service
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estimates losses to American citizens of more than $100 million
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annually. Who are these pigeons? "Greed and gullibility obviously
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figure in," as do personality traits like risk-taking, susceptibility
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to flattery or intimidation, and lack of interest in news/current
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events. As you might suspect, the Internet has served as a fertile
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breeding ground for scams of this nature. According to the website
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Internet Fraud Watch (http://www.fraud.org/), "Nigerian Money Offers"
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-- also called "Nigerian Advance-Fee Fraud" or "419 Scam" ("419" being
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the relevant section of the country's criminal code) -- surged up the
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charts last year, from seventh to third place, on the list of the most
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common types of online fraud. Next time you receive one of these
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e-mails, forward it to the Secret Service for inclusion in their
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database: [25]419.fcd@usss.treas.gov. - [26]SK
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Kling, Rob, Lisa Spector, and Geoff McKim. [27]Locally Controlled
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Scholarly Publishing via the Internet: The Guild Model. CSI Working
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Paper No. WP-02-01.
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(http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi/WP/WP02-01B.html). - Kling et al.
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suggest that too little attention has been paid to the working papers
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and technical reports of academic departments (and other research
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units) as a model of free scholarly publishing. The "Guild Model"
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relies on the academic reputation of the sponsoring department to
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establish the reputation of its research manuscript archive. In order
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to publish papers in the archive, authors must be affiliated with the
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department. Individual faculty contributions to a department's archive
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do not undergo peer review; however, their authors have undergone
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"career review" as part of the hiring and tenure process, and this
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establishes their scholarly credentials. This interesting and
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thoughtful paper includes examples of the Guild Model and a
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consideration of its pros and cons.- [28]CB
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Kravchyna, V., and Hastings, S. K. [29]Informational Value of Museum
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Web Sites [30]First Monday 7(2) (February 4th 2002)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_2/kravchyna/). - This
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article assesses the behavior of users in using museum Web sites, an
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interesting subject for librarians because the experience of users
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with this type of web site charts a truly new application for museums.
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The authors launched an extensive Internet survey of museum users, and
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report on their findings. Among the chief news: most people are used
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to audio and video programs and enjoy these formats on the web, and a
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high percentage or respondents visited a museum web site before
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visiting the museum itself. Obviously, an Internet-using population
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does not tell the whole story of user populations for museum
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directors, but it's an important segment of that population. The
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authors frame this paper as part of a larger investigation into the
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value of museum Web sites, and they make good use of tables and charts
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to illustrate their findings. The authors conclude that their findings
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can help guide database design, metadata creation, and retrieval
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options for museums; indeed, one hopes they're paying attention. -
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[31]TH
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McClure, Charles R., R. David Lankes, Melissa Gross, and Beverly
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Choltco-Devlin. [32]Statistics, Measures, and Quality Standards for
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Assessing Digital Reference Library Services: Guidelines and
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Procedures Field Test Draft: March 8, 2002. Syracuse, NY: Information
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Institute of Syracuse, 2002.
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(http://quartz.syr.edu/quality/Field_Test_Draft.pdf). - This manual,
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and its accompanying [33]instructions for field testing
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(http://quartz.syr.edu/quality/FTInstructions.pdf) are still in draft
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form, and the authors invite anyone who wishes to test them to contact
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them for more information. Although digital reference service can
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still be considered to be in its infancy, it's nice to know that as
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libraries begin to develop these services that there will be a common
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metric that can be used to measure the effectiveness of those
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services. - [34]RT
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McCord, Alan. [35]"Are You Ready to Discuss IT Outsourcing on Your
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Campus?" [36]EDUCAUSE Quarterly 25(1): 12-19
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(http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0212.pdf). - If there's any
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one message to derive from this article, it's that we can't outsource
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away our IT problems. We have to understand them and their true costs
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before even thinking about handing them over to an outside agency.
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Candidates for outsourcing, the author argues, include larger
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'infrastructure' services: networking, server management and security.
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He's pretty even-handed on both the pros and cons of going this route.
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He argues that while IT is essential to our efforts in the academic
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world, it isn't one of our 'core competencies'. His urge for IT
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departments to develop more 'private-sector-like thinking and skills'
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is something everyone can agree with, though where the
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private-sector-like financing will come from is chronically unclear.
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It won't come from outsourcing. Costs there, the author advises, are
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likely to be a tad higher. - [37]LRK
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Pantic, Drazen. [38]"Internet the Globalizer, and the Impossibility of
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the Impossibility of the Global Dialog." [39]First Monday 7(1)
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(January 7, 2002)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_1/pantic/). - "The world's
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information pool now truly originates in a multitude of sources",
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Pantic says, and no event showed this better than the September 11
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attacks. In the wake of those days in September, the Internet assumed
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a powerful new role as a source of independent and diversified news.
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This article explores that new role and casts the drama of the
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Internet's as change agent as a battle between ideas of modernity and
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local culture. There is evidence, he argues, that a
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"trans-civilizational" dialogue is crying out to be released so much
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so that it may trump cultural behavior such as centralized control of
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media. This brief article succinctly argues that the Internet remains
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surprisingly resilient in the face of censorship efforts, despite the
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tensions between open systems and centralized governments. - [40]TH
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Reilly, Bernard J. [41]"What the Cultural Sector Can Learn From Enron"
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[42]First Monday 7(2) (February 4, 2002)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_2/reilly/). - The very
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public and messy debacle that engulfed the Enron Corporation is a
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metaphorical jumping-off point for the author's premise that a similar
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hall of cards may be lurking in the non-profit information sectors.
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That's a troubling possibility if there's any weight to it, and Reilly
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argues his case based on one key similarity: libraries, museums and
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other cultural repositories now "trade" in "knowledge" assets as much
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as with the assets themselves. The difference lies in the nature of
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the asset, if any. He poses the question, is there a material
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difference between coal and oil deposits and museum collections?
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Whether you agree or not, this Enron analogy will give you pause.
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"Artistic and cultural products are no longer objects, like books,
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paintings, sculpture...nor are they discrete, self-contained events in
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time, like musical performances, dance performances, and so forth," he
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asserts. The new infrastructure for cultural resources is built out of
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the licenses and contractual agreements protecting them. This "matrix"
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of conditions enables preservation, and even if bits of that matrix
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unravel, preservation strategies may be threatened. After an
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interesting exploration of this theory, he argues for better
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safeguards ("underwriting"): namely, a call for "best practices" in
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contract negotiation and licensing. The message to librarians is, once
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again, that libraries are no longer just places; they are also
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"processes" and matrices of relationships. - [43]TH
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Salkever, Alex. [44]"Guard Copyrights, Don't Jail Innovation"
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[45]BusinessWeek Online (27 March 2002)
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(http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2002/nf20020327_2364.h
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tm). - Imagine a parallel universe where every piece of electronic
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equipment that could utilize or record digital information had
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built-in copy-protection features that allowed content owners to
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completely control how their information was used on that device. Want
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to live there? You will if the [46]Consumer Broadband and Digital
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Television Promotion Act, which was recently introduced by Senator
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Ernest F. Hollings, becomes law. Alex Salkever, the BusinessWeek
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Online Technology Editor, doesn't want to live there, and in this
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insightful article he tells us why. - [47]CB
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Tedeschi, Bob. [48]"Is Weblog Technology Here to Stay or Just Another
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Fad?" [49]The New York Times (February 25, 2002)
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(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/25/technology/ebusiness/25ECOM.html?ei
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=5040& en=9876919c1afb6ed7&ex=1015304400) - Is the weblog phenomenon
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breaking ground as "a truly new media species," or is it just the
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latest Information Age fad? It depends on who you ask...but there's no
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denying the popularity of these often very personal online journals.
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This article cites a statistic putting the current number of bloggers
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at approximately 500,000. What's fueling this boom are the advances in
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blog technology that make it easy to post short bursts of text
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frequently rather than having to update an entire Web page. Some
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companies see an opportunity in offering and supporting these
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technologies, notably Blogger.com and Userland Software, which hint
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that the next wave of interest in blogging may come from the corporate
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sector. Yet some Webheads remain skeptical, feeling it will ultimately
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prove futile expecting users to return to your weblog site day after
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day to keep up with your latest postings. According to this article,
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one Net consultancy in New York stopped posting to its weblog and
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simply started e-mailing the updated information to interested
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parties. - [50]SK
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Zieger, Anne. [51]"Bust the Spam Brigade" [52]IBM developerWorks
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(February 2002)
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(http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-spam.html) - That
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your e-mail inbox is clogged with swill is bad enough. Alas, this
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article predicts an impending boom in wireless spam -- "Wherever there
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are large groups of networked users, marketing messages are sure to
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follow." But don't rush to toss that cell phone or PDA off the nearest
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bridge just yet. The Good Guys are working on technologies that could
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ameliorate the problem. "Unsolicited commercial messages" of the
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wireless kind have already become a problem in Japan, where carrier
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NTT DoCoMo serves some 30 million subscribers. The "mobile marketing"
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types are chomping at the bit to offer you wireless coupons and other
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come-ons, ultimately based on your geographic location. The official
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party line of this industry's trade group -- yes, they have one; it's
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called the Mobile Marketing Association (formerly the [53]Wireless
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Advertising Association -- http://www.waaglobal.org/) -- is that
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commercial wireless messages should only be sent to consumers who wish
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to receive them. But, as with e-mail spam, "it's not the upstanding
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members of professional associations" who are causing the problem;
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rather, "it's the rogues with the willingness to flout professional
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conventions." The article briefly describes some potential technology
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solutions -- Brightmail's Mthree application, which lets users set
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rules for messages forwarded through wired e-mail gateways; "mobile
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messaging controls" written in Java 2, Micro Edition; and Qualcomm's
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Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW), "another option for
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those who need to roll their own spam-filtering solution." Links to
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related resources are offered at the end of the article. - [54]SK
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 13(3) (March 2002) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright � 2002 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 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
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[55]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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References
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1. http://sunsite/cgi-bin/imagemap/cc
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2. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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3. http://info.lib.uh.edu/cwb/bailey.htm
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4. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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5. http://web.tampabay.rr.com/hooboy/
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6. http://leoklein.com/
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7. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/mphillip/
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8. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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10. http://leoklein.com/
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17. http://www.fastcompany.com/online/57/jellis.html
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18. http://www.fastcompany.com/
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19. http://www.andrewsullivan.com/
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20. http://www.dynamist.com/scene.html
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21. http://www.kausfiles.com/
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22. http://web.tampabay.rr.com/hooboy/
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23. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/03/14/nigerscam.DTL
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24. http://www.sfgate.com/
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25. mailto:419.fcd@usss.treas.gov
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26. http://web.tampabay.rr.com/hooboy/
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27. http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi/WP/WP02-01B.html
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28. http://info.lib.uh.edu/cwb/bailey.htm
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29. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_2/kravchyna/
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30. http://www.firstmonday.org/
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31. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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32. http://quartz.syr.edu/quality/Field_Test_Draft.pdf
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33. http://quartz.syr.edu/quality/FTInstructions.pdf
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34. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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35. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0212.pdf
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36. http://www.educause.edu/pub/eq/eq.html
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37. http://leoklein.com/
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38. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_1/pantic/
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39. http://sunsite/CurrentCites/cc.current.html
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40. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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41. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_2/reilly/
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42. http://www.firstmonday.org/
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43. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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44. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2002/nf20020327_2364.htm
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45. http://www.businessweek.com/
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46. http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020321_s2048_cbdtpa_bill.pdf
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47. http://info.lib.uh.edu/cwb/bailey.htm
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48. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/25/technology/ebusiness/25ECOM.html?ei=5040&en=9876919c1afb6ed7&ex=1015304400
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49. http://www.nytimes.com/
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51. http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-spam.html
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52. http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/
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53. http://www.waaglobal.org/
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54. http://web.tampabay.rr.com/hooboy/
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55. mailto:listserv@library.berkeley.edu
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