225 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
225 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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_Current Cites_
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Volume 9, no. 10
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October 1998
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The Library
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University of California, Berkeley
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Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1998/cc98.9.10.html
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Contributors:
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Terry Huwe, Margaret Phillips, Richard Rinehart,
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Roy Tennant, Jim Ronningen, Lisa Yesson
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Digital Libraries
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Kranch, Douglas A. "Beyond Migration: Preserving Electronic Documents
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with Digital Tablets." Information Technology & Libraries 17(3)
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(September 1998): 138-148. - Preserving digital information is one of
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the great challenges facing librarians and archivists. There are
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numerous issues that must be addressed, from technical details to
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organizational structures. In this piece, however, Kranch focuses
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mainly on the technical details, by putting forward the idea of
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encapsulating digital content in a "tablet" that contains all the
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hardware and software required to use it. Such tablets would,
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presumably, prevent the need to migrate the information forward into
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new systems that replace the ones used to create the information in
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the first place. Although the idea has some merit, one could just as
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easily consider the information to be "entombed" as well as preserved,
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since presumably it would not be accessible to any future systems that
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add capabilities to the manipulation of digital information.
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Nonetheless, we're too early in the digital preservation game to throw
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out any ideas too hastily. At this point every idea should receive
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serious and thoughtful consideration. - RT
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Sherwood, Lyn Elliot. "Discovering Buffalo Story Robes: A Case for
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Cross-Domain Information Strategies" Computers and the Humanities
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32(1)(1998): 57-64. - Buffalo Story Robes
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(http://www.glenbow.org/srobe/srobe.htm), a small digital exhibit from
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Canada's Glenbow Museum, is the inspiration for this author's insights
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into how to realize the potential of the digital library. Sherwood,
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the head of the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) found
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that this exhibit on the stories of the tribes of the Canadian plains
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had many related resources in government repositories, archives and
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libraries. The exhibit represents one small example of a current
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challenge in the digital environment: how to enable users to find
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related across domains. Sherwood acknowledges that "each of these
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communities is bound by its own traditions and classification schema."
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He asserts that effective access is dependent on increased
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collaboration among the many disciplines, and recommends looking
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closely at the role of authorities, thesauri and a process for mapping
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taxonomies across domains. Perhaps common sense, but essential if we
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are ever to realize the vision of the digital library as "an
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organized, selected or managed body of information." - LY
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Still, Julie and Vibiana Kassabian. "Searching for Bill and Jane:
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Electronic Full-Text Literature" Database 21 (5) (October/November
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1998): 15-24. - This month's cover story takes a closer look at
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electronic text resources available in English language prose with a
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specific focus on Shakespeare, Austen and nature writing. This survey
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is helpful not only for the references to major electronic guides and
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archives on literary resources (both free and fee-based), but also for
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detailed evaluations of individual resources. The authors recognize
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that "people do not usually use electronic texts to read works, but,
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rather to study them." Based on their review, there is ample material
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on Shakespeare for all types of users, some on Austen but very little
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on the genre of nature writing. Their conclusions? Available resources
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still focus on the most widely known or studied authors. And the value
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of these resources for scholars depends on whether they are based on
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authoritative editions and include value-added materials or search
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features. - LY
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Electronic Publishing
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Baca, Murtha, ed. Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital
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Information Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1998, ISBN
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0-89236-533-1. - This concise booklet follows the publication of the
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Getty's earlier Introduction to Imaging with the same small-sized
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format, introductory but not simplistic information, also priced at
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around $8. Just as the earlier publication was an introduction to
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digital imaging from many angles, this booklet introduces the reader
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to the world of standards, with an emphasis on semantic standards such
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as LCSH and AAT. It also provides an overview of different kinds of
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metadata such as record structures (MARC, EAD) and interchange formats
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and tools (SGML, Z39.50). - RR
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Day, Colin. "Digital Alternatives: Solving the Problem or Shifting the
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Costs?" Journal of Electronic Publishing 4 (September 1998).
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(http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-01/day.html) - While some of us may
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be pinning all of our hopes on electronic publishing as the solution
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to the ills that currently plague academic publishing, Colin Day --
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writing about the academic mongraph -- has made it his responsibility
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to debunk those dreams. Publishers, he observes, are driven by the
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wishes of authors on the one hand and readers on the other. As far as
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he can tell, there is no pressure from either group for any type of
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product "other than the traditional codex, carefully edited, nicely
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produced, and energetically marketed." Digital publication of a
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monograph simply shifts the cost of production from the publisher to
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the scholar. - MP
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Sosteric, Mike. "At the Speed of Thought: Pursuing Non-Commercial
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Alternatives to Scholarly Communication" ARL Newsletter 200 (October
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1998). (http://www.arl.org/newsltr/200/sosteric.html) - By now, to
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talk of the crisis in scholarly communication and to express outrage
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over the escalating costs of journal literature is to sound like a
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broken record. And despite our greatest hopes that new technologies
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will be the solution to this crisis, it looks as if electronic
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publishing has only served as yet another opporutunity for commercial
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publishers to increase their profits; some commercial publishers (the
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few that are left in the increasingly monopolized world of academic
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publishing) have been know to force libraries to purchase both paper
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and electronic versions of their journals at rates that are even
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higher than the standard print costs. Libraries are virtually
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powerless to offset the practices of commercial publishers. At the
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same time, independent scholars are reluctant to take up the call to
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independent publication because too much work is involved, editorial
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duties are not highly regarded when it comes to tenure and advancement
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and there is no organizational support systematically advocating for a
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revolution in scholarly communication. This is where Mike Sosteric
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comes in. He is the director of the International Consortium of
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Alternative Academic Publication (ICAAP) (http://www.icaap.org/),
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whose mission is to "reduce the barriers to independent scholarly
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publication by bringing together scholars and institutions from all
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countries and all disciplines who are interested in bringing economic
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health back to the scholarly communication system." In order to
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fulfill its mission, the group will provide editorial assistance
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(HTML, copy editing, etc.), develop an apprenticeship program for
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young scholars to train them in the art and science of scholarly
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communication, and work to develop technical standards for electronic
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publishing. - MP
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Varian, Hal R. "The Future of Electronic Jounals" Journal of
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Electronic Publishing 4 (September 1998)
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(http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-01/varian.html) - In this article,
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a reprint of a talk he delivered at the Scholarly Communication and
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Technology Conference (http://arl.cni.org/scomm/scat/) in April 1997,
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Varian looks at the economics of journal production in order to make
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some observations about the future of electronic journals. Electronic
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submission and distribution of manuscripts among editorial staff and
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reviewers can reduce the cost of journal production by almost
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one-half. Electronic distribution can bring further savings and has
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the value-added benefit of allowing precise monitoring of the number
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of hits per article, full-text search capabilities, and hyperlinkage
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to other relevant articles. Varian provides a provocative model for
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how electronic journals can solve what he calls the "filtering" issue.
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In the current scenario, more and more articles are being published.
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In other words, if you really want to publish something, chances are
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you can find someone to publish it; this indicates that the filtering
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function of peer review -- designed to ensure that only the work
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that's worthy gets published -- may not be working. While electronic
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publishing will only add to the information glut, Varian's model
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proposes that reviewers' anonymous evaluations be linked (and
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searchable) to the actual article. - MP
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Networks & Networking
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Fleming, Jennifer. Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience
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Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1998. - Probably the second
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most common Web problem (the first being the "World Wide Wait"), is
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getting lost in webspace. This is the experience of becoming
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disoriented and not knowing which link to click to get to where you
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want to go. Many Web sites seem to almost delight in making us puzzle
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over what we can find at the site, or how to get around, or even the
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meaning of certain buttons or labels. Chin up, help has arrived.
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Fleming's book is chock-full of good information, advice, examples,
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diagrams, screen shots (both in full-color and black-and-white), and
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links. With this book, and the recently released Information
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Architecture for the World Wide Web (cited in the March 1998 issue of
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Current Cites), Web managers can no longer use ignorance as an excuse
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for creating unorganized piles of documents instead of useful Web
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sites. - RT
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General
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Proceedings of Reference Services in a Digital Age Washington: Library
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of Congress, 1998 (http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/digiref/). - Don't come to
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the proceedings of the Library of Congress-sponsored institute
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"Reference Services in a Digital Age" to have your questions answered.
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It won't happen. Rather, what this site may help you to do is to raise
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some new questions. What _should_ reference services be like when
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increasingly the information our users need is in digital form, and it
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can be accessed without ever stepping foot in a library? How can we
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interject human (and humane) assistance into these new environments?
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What new roles are there for reference librarians? What new kinds of
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education and training are required to become proficient at providing
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service? These are important questions, and questions that institutes
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such as this can help us frame and deal with as a profession. - RT
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 9(10) (October 1998) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright
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1998 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. _All rights
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reserved._
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
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respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication does not
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necessarily imply endorsement of the product.
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[URL:http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/]
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To subscribe, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same
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Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collections at no
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cost. An archive site is maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in
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directory /pub/Current.Cites [URL:
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ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites].
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This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use
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requires permission from the editor, who may be reached at
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trinne@library.berkeley.edu.
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