textfiles/magazines/CURRENTCITIES/1999.10-10

                       _Current Cites_
               Volume 10, no. 10 October 1999
       The Library University of California, Berkeley
                   Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne

                       ISSN: 1060-2356
  http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1999/cc99.10.10.html

      Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick,
         Margaret Phillips, Jim Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison,
                   Roy Tennant, Lisa Yesson

   _Editor's Note:_ A hearty welcome to two new Current Cites
   contributors who debut with this month's issue: Michael Levy,
   Electronic Services Librarian at UCB's Boalt School of Law and Leslie
   Myrick, who works on the SCAN Project in the Electronic Text Unit of
   UCB Library Systems Office. And an even heartier welcome back to one
   of Current Cites' original contributors, Lisa Rowlison, now
   Coordinator of Bibliographic Services at California State University,
   Monterey Bay.
   
   
   American Association of Law Libraries. Committee on Citation Formats.
   Universal Citation Guide Madison, WI: State Bar of Wisconsin, 1999. -
   The question of how to cite court opinions, legislative materials and
   administrative rules and regulations is crucial to the practice of
   law. As the authors of the Universal Citation Guide (UCG) state in
   their introduction "current citation rules were crafted for the gilded
   age of the law book and this symmetry is disintegrating as computer
   technology reshapes the legal record." After many years of work with
   federal and state courts, the American Bar Association, and various
   public interest organizations the American Association of Law
   Libraries (AALL) has produced a comprehensive set of citation
   principles that will allow for both medium and vendor-neutral
   citation. By adopting the principles laid out in the UCG courts will
   be able to provide a citation to a court case that is not dependent on
   a particular legal publisher or a particular format of publication.
   For court opinions this means using five data elements: case name,
   year, court, opinion number and paragraph number. Thus far eleven
   states have adopted uniform citation, the most significant being
   Wisconsin. While the UCG isn't designed to be scintillating reading,
   it is clearly explained and the rules relatively simple to follow.
   It's overarching importance lies in the fact that it is the most
   significant attempt to date to address citation in the digital medium
   and to cut the ties of dependence on large legal publishers. While the
   UCG isn't available in electronic form, a tentative draft (from 1998)
   is available at: http://www.aallnet.org/committee/citation/ucguide.pdf
   - ML
   
   Besser, Howard. "Digital Image Distribution" D-Lib Magazine 5(10)
   (October 1999) (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october99/10besser.html). -
   This paper is a report on the UC Berkeley study The Cost of Digital
   Imaging Distribution: The Social and Economic Implications of the
   Production, Distribution, and Usage of Image Data
   (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/). The
   purpose of the study was to explore such questions as "As we construct
   new electronic information systems, what are the implications of
   merging content and metadata from multiple sources? How do the costs
   and services in a digital distribution scheme differ from those in an
   analog one? What steps can we take to entice users who currently rely
   upon analog resources to begin seriously employing digital resources?"
   Specifically, the study focuses on the experiences of the Museum
   Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL), which began in 1995. The
   bulk of the paper describes a number of interesting findings from the
   project and the subsequent analysis. Although Besser is an advocate
   for digital imaging, he pulls no punches here in identifying key
   problem areas and issues that require resolution. This paper is
   essential reading for anyone interested in digital image collections.
   - RT
   
   Ensign, David. "West's Copyright Claim to Star Pagination Denied by
   Second Circuit" AALL Spectrum 2(10) (July 1999): 12, 35.
   (http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp9907.pdf) - In this brief and
   succinct article on recent copyright decisions regarding the West
   Publishing Company (now West Group, part of Thomson Corporation),
   Ensign explains the importance of "star pagination" in legal
   publishing and the possible effects on the market for print and
   electronic compilations of court decisions. Two recent opinions from
   the Second Circuit have seriously undermined West's claims that their
   use of star pagination and that the selection and arrangement of
   prefatory information in court opinions is copyrightable. The ability
   of other publishers <20> especially those producing opinions in
   electronic format <20> to insert page numbers from West's National
   Reporter System is crucial in having a viable competitive market in
   legal publishing. With the Supreme Court refusing to hear appeals on
   these two cases it would seem that a major blow has been given to one
   of the behemoths of the legal publishing world. - ML
   
   Hyman, Karen. "Customer Service and the 'Rule of 1965'" American
   Libraries 30(9) (October 1999): 54-58. - Hyman puts forth an
   intriguing and all-too-likely premise: "customer service, according to
   the Rule of 1965, defines anything the library did prior to 1965 as
   basic; everything else is extra." To back up her claim, she cites a
   number of examples of the apparent application of this "rule" to
   justify not offering new services. She also offers a "quiz" to see
   whether you are applying this rule in your library. Hyman then
   concludes with the following five things you can start doing today:
   "1) Remember that the customer is not the enemy; 2) Create a climate
   in your library that supports change; 3) Survey the environment
   continuously; 4) Redirect resources; and, 5) Treat every customer like
   a person." Hyman delivers a well-deserved kick in the tail, which I
   hope will propel us into a better customer service posture and render
   the "Rule of 1965" obsolete. - RT
   
   Lee, Stuart D. Scoping the Future of the University of Oxford's
   Digital Library Collections Oxford: Bodleian Library, University of
   Oxford, 1999 (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/scoping/). - Although this
   report is for the internal use of Oxford University, "outsiders" can
   benefit from it in a number of ways. The report provides a high-level
   overview of some (but certainly not all) national and international
   digital library initiatives and a thorough listing of Oxford-based
   digital projects and collections. A significant portion of the paper
   is devoted to findings from the interviews conducted of both on campus
   staff and others active in digitization projects. Accompanying
   appendices provide additional detail on these findings. The final part
   of the paper is devoted to specific recommendations for better
   coordinating and managing Oxford's digital initiatives, largely by
   establishing Oxford Digital Library Services. Any organization, in
   particular large universities, managing a diverse range of
   digitization projects will likely find this report to be useful. - RT
   
   Mappa Mundi (http://mappa.mundi.net) - There is a new breed of
   cartologist out there "mapping the Web" in all its aspects; prominent
   amongst them is Martin Dodge, the creator of a site aptly entitled An
   Atlas of Cyberspaces
   (http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/topology.html). Dodge is also a
   regular contributor to a website which I am perhaps unfelicitously
   naming this month's "Site/Cite for Sore Eyes," not only for its
   drop-dead gorgeous graphics throughout, but also for its
   cyber-cartographically-tinged content, served up in eminently
   digestible portions. Patently a forum for Invisible Worlds Inc., the
   developers (with Danny Goodman in the lead) of the EdgarSpace portal,
   Mappa Mundi nevertheless addresses issues germane to any serious Web
   navigator. A recent article on trace routes
   (http://mappa.mundi.net/maps/archive/maps_004.html) will serve as a
   case in point. The study of trace routes as a tool for keeping
   networks running smoothly is a clear manifestation of the practical
   side of mapping the net. The article in question is rather basic in
   intent and structure: it essentially compares the performance of three
   commercially available traceroute applications: GeoBoy, NeoTrace and
   Visual Route. What is striking is the author's cyber-geographical
   slant, and the added value lading the article itself (great
   screen-shots) and the sidebars (links galore). One sidebar, for
   instance, offers a chance to test-run a triangulating Web tracer from
   Canberra, Australia to the Mappa Mundi server, which sits presumably
   somewhere across the San Francisco Bay. The Map of the Month archives
   are presently mapping aspects of the Web as disparate as Arpanet and
   MUDs. - LM
   
   McLoughlin, Glenn J. "Next Generation Internet and Related
   Initiatives" Journal of Academic Librarianship 25(3) (May 1999):
   226-229. - McLoughlin unpacks the Internet alphabet soup giving
   historical perspective and current status to the many federal
   computing and communications efforts. Included in his treatment are
   the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, the National
   Information Infrastructure (NII), the High Performance Computing &
   Communications initiative (HPCC), the proposed Information Technology
   for the 21st Century (IT2) program, as well as Internet2. The next
   time you're waiting for a Web page to load at a snail's pace, consider
   that the fiscal year 2000 budget request for IT2, HPCC, and the NGI
   amounts to 1.8 billion dollars, which is to be distributed across six
   primary agencies. McLoughlin's final question, "can the NCO [National
   Coordinating Office] ensure that multiple federal computing and
   communications efforts are effective and efficient, and serve the
   national interest?"cuts to the heart of the matter, especially since
   50 percent of the U.S. population will rely upon and access the
   Internet in the year 2000. - LR
   
   Medeiros, Norm. "Making Room for MARC in a Dublin Core World" Online
   (23)6 (Nov. 1999).
   (http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OLtocs/OLtocnov4.html) - Among
   librarians there has been debate about whether the MARC
   (Machine-Readable Cataloging) format should be replaced, since it was
   created to mimic in computer form something which is nearly obsolete
   now: the library catalog card. New methods of resource description
   have evolved since MARC was designed, but Medeiros points out that the
   millions of MARC records in online catalogs today aren't going to go
   away as simpler descriptive formats such as Dublin Core Metadata are
   implemented for information retrieval, and that MARC will continue to
   be useful, even in some cases for the description of Internet
   resources (which is Dublin Core's raison d'etre). He examines the
   nature of MARC and Dublin Core, contrasts their uses, and describes a
   developing environment in which they peacefully coexist: the
   Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC), an OCLC-sponsored
   project. Participants build the database by contributing records in
   whichever of the two formats is most appropriate for the level of
   detail needed. - JR
   
   Moglen, Eben. "Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of
   Copyright" First Monday 4(8) (August 2, 1999)
   (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_8/moglen/). - Moglen, a law
   professor at Columbia, exercises an insouciant wit in poking holes in
   the existing concepts of intellectual property. Importantly, he
   focuses mainly on "real" software: operating systems, and application
   programs and the like. He declares, "In the digital society, it's all
   connected. We can't depend for the long run on distinguishing one
   bitstream from another in order to figure out which rules apply. What
   happened to software is already happening to music. Their recording
   industry lordships are now scrambling wildly to retain control over
   distribution, as both musicians and listeners realize that the
   middlepeople are no longer necessary." He may have a point, but
   "bricks and mortar" businesses have done well on the Net, and the
   "gift economy" of donated labor hasn't hit my neighborhood record
   store. - TH
   
   Okerson, Ann. "The LIBLICENSE Project and How it Grows" D-Lib Magazine
   5(9) (September 1999)
   (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september99/okerson/09okerson.html) - Under
   the aegis of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR),
   a team of librarians, lawyers and web designers at Yale University
   Library has launched the LIBLICENSE project
   (http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml), a site bristling
   with tools to arm librarians and other purchasers and purveyors of
   electronic resources against a proliferating and confusing array of
   economic and business models for licensing agreements. This is an
   impressive repository of information which seeks to "de-mystify" and
   expedite the process of securing the best possible licensing deal, as
   well as to pave the way for the eventual standardization of electronic
   licensing agreements. The user will find well-researched sections
   covering licensing vocabulary (and its judicious deployment), terms
   and descriptions, as well as bibliography, and links to other
   licensing sites. Flying in the face of those who might seek to keep
   such legal arrangements closeted and esoteric, the LIBLICENSE site
   maintains a page with copious links to actual licenses from both
   publishers and authors, as well as a page devoted to model national
   site licenses. The second phase of the grant has underwritten the
   creation of LIBLICENSE software, freely downloadable, which provides a
   sharp-looking "Integrated Development Environment" for creating one's
   own license, replete with reference material and a panoply of options
   promising to address with the click of a button everything from
   Authorized Users to Warranties. - LM
   
   Olsen, Florence. "Archivists Struggle to Preserve Crucial Records as
   Paper Gives Way to Pixels" Chronicle of Higher Education 45(9)
   (October 22, 1999): A63. - This article provides a good summary of the
   dilemma facing archivists, who want to preserve e-information for its
   value as primary material. The ephemeral nature of digital information
   poses a serious problem over the long term, but that's not news. The
   news is that archivists and information technology managers may have
   discovered that they both exist in the same world and have related
   problems and solutions to share. One can only hope that long term
   partnerships between preservationists and technologists will yield
   some solutions before the ephemera is marooned in outmoded operating
   systems, or other subdirectories in the multi-platform dust bin of
   history. - TH
   
   O'Reilly, Tim. "Where the Web Leads Us" xml.com (October 6, 1999)
   (http://www.xml.com/pub/1999/10/tokyo.html) - For the latent mark-up
   code-monkey in all of us there is xml.com (http://www.xml.com), where,
   interspersed amongst hard-core technical articles archived on the
   site, there are plenty of useful "how-to's" for beginners or the
   curious. I would single out any of Norm Walsh's contributions, e.g. "A
   Technical Introduction to XML"
   (http://www.xml.com/pub/98/10/guide0.html), or Tim Bray's interactive
   annotated XML 1.0 spec
   (http://www.xml.com/xml/pub/axml/axmlintro.html). In a similarly
   didactic vein, the October 6th issue of xml.com offers a version of a
   recent talk given at Linux World by publisher Tim O'Reilly, addressing
   how Open Source protocols and tools (TCP/IP, SMTP, BIND, Apache,
   HTML/SGML/XML, Perl, Unicode) will continue to shape the future of the
   Web. The message is schematically simple: O'Reilly traces the
   evolution of the computer/IT industry through a series of paradigm
   shifts, first unleashed when IBM released the specs for the PC: from
   hardware to software to what he labels infoware, i.e.
   information-heavy sites such as Amazon.com or E*Trade, which marry
   powerful backends to deceptively rich and simple user interfaces. This
   article is also a cautionary tale: lest we dance too ebuliently in the
   wake of victories over Goliath, Microsoft has indeed exhibited some
   Hydra-like tendencies in its ability to come back and create
   applications which target specific open source markets, such as ASP as
   a response to Perl/CGI or Exchange Server over against Sendmail. In
   another vein, when the "next killer app" is so heavily entrenched in
   the open source software which makes the Web possible, we may even
   find ourselves facing a new type of proprietary infoware giant and
   empire. - LM
   
   Prinsen, Jola G.B. and Hans Geleijnse. "The International Summer
   School on the Digital Library" D-Lib Magazine 5(10) (October 1999)
   (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october99/prinsen/10prinsen.html). - In a
   field that is in the midst of inventing itself (digital
   librarianship), there are few opportunities for instruction and
   (re)training of working professionals. The most notable exception is
   the International Summer School on the Digital Library, offered for
   the past four years at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. In an
   interesting and apparently effective fashion, the Tilburg University
   Library and Computer Centre jointly launched a commercial venture
   (Ticer, at http://www.ticer.com/) to manage the school. But what is
   really interesting are the things they've learned. For example, they
   found that participants have wanted more opportunity for discussion
   despite the increase of group work and discussion sessions each year.
   They also found, not surprisingly, that the participants were more
   technologically aware and adept each successive year. In addition, as
   technical problems recede in the face of an increasing diversity of
   "off the shelf" solutions, manager and organizational issues become
   more pressing. This is also reflected in the attendance, with the
   largest single group being composed of managerial staff (60% hold
   middle or upper management positions). - RT
   
   Tidwell, Alan. "The Virtual Agora: Online Ethical Dialogues and
   Professional Communities" First Monday 4 (7) (July 5, 1999)
   (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_7/tidwell/). - Tidwell draws
   an analogy between digital forums and the Greek agora, or marketplace,
   which was where citizens met to discuss and debate topics of
   importance. He asserts that the Net is a new agora, giving voice to
   many, and replicating the raucous culture of public debate that was
   far more unruly in Greek city states than in most forms of modern
   discourse. He extends the metaphor by focusing on the use of Web
   technology in fostering and sustaining ethical debates between
   professional communities. - TH
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Current Cites 10(10) (October 1999) ISSN: 1060-2356
   Copyright (c) 1999 by the Library, University of California,
   Berkeley. _All rights reserved._
   
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