261 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
261 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
_Current_Cites_
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Volume 4, no. 10
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October 1993
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Information Systems Instruction & Support
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The Library
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University of California, Berkeley
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Edited by David F. W. Robison
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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Contributors:
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David B. Rez, Teri Rinne, Vivienne Roumani-Denn, Mark Takaro, Roy Tennant
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_______________________________________________________________________
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Information Transfer
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Chroust, David Z. "From FirstSearch to Wordperfect: Cleaning Up
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Downloaded Screens" ONLINE 17(5) (September 1993):44-50. Through
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nine well-defined macros, Chroust instructs the reader on
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"cleaning up" OCLC FirstSearch screens downloaded to Wordperfect
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5.1. - VR
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Jackson, Kathy M. and Nancy L. Buchanan. "Unlimited Access to
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FirstSearch: An Online Success Story" ONLINE 17(5) (September
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1993):34-43. Jackson and Buchanan, reporting on Texas A&M
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University's faculty and students' successful experience using
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OCLC's FirstSearch, describe the various methods of access
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available to their clientele, and documentation support. Their
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statistics include monthly use, databases used, connect time per
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search, and per-search pricing. - VR
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Mintz, Anne P. "Availability of Electronic Full-Text Sources: A
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Look Behind the Scenes" Database 16(5) (October 1993):24-31.
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Mintz, Director of Information Services at Forbes, explains the
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"legal, financial, and technological concerns [including image
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technology], as well as issues of data integrity and quality"
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that are affecting online availability of titles. Until these
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issues are resolved, "we have a long way to go...before we see
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easily searchable full text with images." - VR
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Orenstein, Ruth M. "`How Full Is Full' Revisited: A Status Report
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on Searching Full-Text Periodicals" Database 16(5) (October
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1993):14-23. Experimenting with the coverage of Forbes through
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several vendors and databases, including Dialog, Nexis, Data-
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Star, Trade & Industry, Orenstein traces the currency and
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completeness of full text journal coverage. Grids and tables
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substantiate her warning, "...many librarians are considering
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canceling their print subscriptions and relying on online full
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text sources for articles. Given the variability in currency
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shown here, this is a strategy that bears rethinking!" - VR
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Networks and Networking
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Dern, Daniel. The Internet Guide for New Users. New York: McGraw
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Hill, 1993. 570p. $40 (hardcover), $27.95 (paperback). Dern,
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editor of Internet World magazine, has produced a fine new guide
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to the Internet. This book does well by covering both
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introductory material along with specific information on using
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networked resources. Dern leaves no stone unturned, though a
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little more coverage of topics like encryption and the politics
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of network development would be nice. The tone of the book is
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friendly, helpful, and humorous, with captions like, "Remote
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login is a lot like astral projection." Another small nitpick,
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the quality of a few of the images could be improved. Overall,
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this is an excellent all-round guide to networking that even
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intermediate and advanced users will find helpful. - DR
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Hart, Michael S. "How Shared ARE Our Shared Resources, Anyway?"
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Internet Research 3(2) (Summer 1993):4-7. Hart, well known on
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the net for his postings and Project Gutenberg, offers his
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opinion on the idea of public domain works. Hart complains that
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current copyright law fails to protect the public good by
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preventing the free distribution of works over the network for
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too many years. Hart compares this limitation on the access to
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information free of charge to access to other resources, like
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air and water, and describes this as the creation of an
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artificial scarcity. Hart makes some interesting comments,
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often not seeming to realize the implications, for instance,
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publication of expensive artworks on CD-ROM highlights the value
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of the information over the medium (but he seems to believe
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users should only be charged for the medium). He also claims
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that all compression schemes but DES are illegal in the United
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States. The journal's editor, Charles McClure, asks interested
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readers to send their responses in for possible publication. -
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DR
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Kaman, Geradine M. "Broadband-ISDN: Personal Connections to
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Global Resources" Internet Research 3(2) (Summer 1993):8-20.
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Kaman attempts to focus attention on some of the social issues
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surrounding the deployment of both narrowband ISDN (utilizing
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standard copper wire to provide voice, data, and low-quality
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video) and broadband ISDN (fiber in the loop to provide voice,
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data, and high-quality video). Pointing out that technical
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issues have been the primary focus of ISDN development since its
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inception in 1971(!), Kaman suggests that for widespread
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implementation to begin, demand for the service must be created
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by addressing users and their needs. Included with this article
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is handy list of acronyms. - DR
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Kapor, Mitchell and Daniel J. Weitzner. "Developing the National
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Communications and Information Infrastructure" Internet Research
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3(2) (Summer 1993):21-30. Based on testimony before Congress in
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Janury 1993, this article describes the Electronic Frontier
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Foundation's (EFF) Open Platform Proposal to deploy narrowband
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ISDN services in the United States. The EFF supports deployment
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of ISDN technology as a near-term solution to providing wide-
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scale, affordable access to the National Information
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Infrastructure. The discussion presented here describes both
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the benefits and limitations of narrowband ISDN. - DR
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Malamud, Carl and Marshall T. Rose. "An Experiment in Remote
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Printing or Toward the Integration of the Internet and
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Telephony" ConneXions 7(9) (September 1993):27-29. In case you
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have not heard, the communications technology of the early 90s--
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FAX transmission--has been networked, Internetworked. Internet
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FAX combines telephony, IP addressing and the Internet's use of
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long-distance lines to offer FAX services at no charge to the
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user. Internet FAX is now available in all of Australia, all of
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Washington, DC, most of Silicon Valley, parts of Riverside, CA,
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and all of the University of Michigan. Coming online soon are
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Denmark, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Japan, and Sweden.
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International FAX for free? Check this out. - DR
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Medvinsky, Gennady and B. Clifford Neuman. "NetCash: A Design
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for Practical Electronic Currency on the Internet" Proceedings
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of the First ACM Conference on Computer Communications Security
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(November 1993) [available via anonymous FTP, <URL=ftp://
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prospero.isi.edu/pub/papers/security/netcash-cccs93.ps.Z>].
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Addressing the pressing problem of how to conduct fiduciary
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business on the Internet, Medvinsky and Neuman describe a system
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that allows clients, merchants, and currency servers to interact
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in a secure fashion over an insecure medium. The framework
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presented here addresses, to varying degrees, the following
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issues: security, anonymity, scalability, acceptability, off-line
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operation, transferability, and hardware independence. The
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authors readily admit that this scheme does not solve all of
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these problems perfectly, but it does allow for the integration
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of other protocols when utmost anonymity and offline capabilities
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are required. - DR
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Notess, Greg R. "Reading Usenet News: Using the rn and trn
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Newsreader" ONLINE 17(5) (September 1993):94-98. Notess's goal
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is to help us simplify Usenet News reading through selected Unix
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newsreader commands. The commands described help us find and
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move between newsgroups, organize .newsrc (a listing of
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newsgroups available), save articles, and reply to articles. - VR
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Ryan, Joe. "A Pathfinder to Core Resources for Network Users"
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Internet Research 3(2) (Summer 1993):69-87. Ryan has created a
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very useful guide to locating help on using the Internet. Ryan
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adresses this article to beginner, intermediate, and expert
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users. Covered here are suggestions for finding help using
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books, articles, email, and, mentors as well as brief
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descriptions of various general resources like archie, Gopher,
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etc. The references are rather verbose, and I mean that in a
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good way, so are useful as a resource themselves; unfortunately,
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some of the information in the references is out of date, always
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a danger with network resources. - DR
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Tuss, Joan. "Easy Online Access to Helpful Internet Guides"
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ONLINE 17(5) (September 1993):60-64. This is a useful,
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instructional guide to the FTP sites for retrieving Internet
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guides, such as "Surfing the Internet", "There's Gold in them
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thar Networks!", SURAnet "Guide to Selected Internet Resources",
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and others. - VR
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Valauskas, Edward J. "One-Stop Internet Shopping: NCSA Mosaic on
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the Macintosh" ONLINE 17(5) (September 1993):99-101. Valauskas
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describes Mosaic, as an easy way to organize and "pull together
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documents, Internet search tools, scientific data, and other
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[Internet] files under a single framework." The Macintosh and
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MS Windows versions are currently in beta testing, while the X-
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Windows version is in full release. - VR
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Walsh, R. Taylor. "Development of a Community Information
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Service: The National Access Capital Area Public Access Network
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(CapAccess) - A Work in Progress" Internet Research 3(2) (Summer
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1993):41-59. Walsh, acting Executive Diretcor of CapAccess,
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describes the history and development of this civic networking
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project. Beginning from the well-founded premise that local
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governments, organizations, businesses, and citizens have an
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important role to play in networking, this Washington, DC group
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has created a well-run and very interesting community network.
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Walsh sees community, or civic, networking as an important step
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in the development of the National Information Infrastructure.
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Also included in this article are a number of screen dumps that
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illustrate the breadth of information available through the
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system (in addition to email and online forums), ranging from
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local online library catalogs to information on public-access
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cable television shows to local tax information. - DR
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Wiencko, Joseph A., Jr. "The Blacksburg Electronic Village"
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Internet Research 3(2) (Summer 1993):31-40. Wiencko, project
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manager of the Blacksburg Electronic Village, describes the
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vision and scope of this groundbreaking project now underway.
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The idea is to connect every member of the town of Blacksburg,
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Virginia (pop. 34,000) to a local high-speed network that is
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also connected to the Internet. Part of the project is to
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identify what the critical mass of users is, identify and create
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applications that are useful to users from all sectors of the
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population, and encourage users to create new applications. On
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the technological side, connections will be made available
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through both ISDN and FDDI (optical fiber) services at little or
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no chargeback to the user. - DR
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"WIRE: Women's Information Resource & Exchange Opens Online
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Doors" EFFector Online 6(2) (October 1, 1993) [availabale via
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anonymous FTP <URL=ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/EFF/newsletters/
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effector6.2>]. WIRE is a new resource designed to both provide
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information of special interest to women and to encourage women
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to become involved in networking. Users (women and men) can use
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a special graphical client to access to "databases, discussions,
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alerts, abstracts, resources and experts on health, politics,
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career, finance, technology, parenting, education, lifestyle and
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is fee-based, available both as dial-up and via telnet. For more
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information, email info@wire.net. - DR
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Zeeman, Johan and Dennis MacKinnon. "Spreading the ILLINET: A
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Distributed Network for Library Resource Sharing in Illinois"
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Internet Research 3(2) (Summer 1993):60-68. Zeeman and
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MacKinnon describe the two-phase plan to bring the ILLINET
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resource sharing system into a client-server mode employing
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Z39.50. The idea is to establish a statewide Interlibrary Loan
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system that allows users to order materials from any
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participating library from a single interface. - DR
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Optical Disc Technologies
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Desmarais, Norman. "Driving CD-ROM: MicroSolutions Backpack CD-
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ROM Drive" CD-ROM World 8(9) (September 1993):70-71. Desmarais
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describes an innovative DOS-based CD-ROM drive just released by
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MicroSolutions. Designed for easy portability, the Backpack
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drive is especially convenient for those who want to add CD-ROM
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capability to their system and do not have an available expansion
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slot. This external drive connects to the computer's parallel
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printer port. - TR
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current Cites 4(10) (October 1993) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright (C) 1993 by the Library, University of
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California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of
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their respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication
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does not necessarily imply endorsement of the product.
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Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized
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bulletin board/conference systems, individual scholars, and
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libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their
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collections at no cost. An archive site is maintained at
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ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in directory /pub/Current.Cites
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<URL=ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites>. This message
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must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires
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permission from the editor, who may be reached in the following
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ways:
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drobison@library.berkeley.edu // drobison@ucblibra // (510)643-9494
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