203 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
203 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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_Current Cites_
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Volume 10, no. 2
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February 1999
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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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This issue guest edited by Roy Tennant
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1999/cc99.10.2.html
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Contributors:
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Terry Huwe, Margaret Phillips,
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Roy Tennant, Jim Ronningen, Lisa Yesson
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Beamish, Rita. "Rescuing Scholars from Obscurity." The New York Times
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(February 18, 1999): D7. - How to get wider distribution of obscure
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dissertations? Answer: the Web (of course). This article profiles
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various enterprises for distributing dissertations including two
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commercial sites, Dissertation.com (http://www.dissertation.com) and
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UMI (http://www.umi.com/). Also profiled is Virginia Polytechnic
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Institute (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/) which provide free access to
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its dissertations and is pushing other schools to join its Networked
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Library of Digital Dissertations (http://www.ndltd.org/), which they
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hope will become a worldwide clearinghouse of dissertations. - MP
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Besser, Howard and Robert Yamashita, "The Cost of Digital Image
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Distribution: The Social and Economic Implications of the Production,
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Distribution and Usage of Image Data", 1998,
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(http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/). - "A
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Mellon Foundation grant was awarded to UC Berkeley to study the costs
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and benefits of the networked distribution of digital museum
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information for educational use. This study takes advantage of the
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existing collaboration between the seven cultural repositories and
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seven universities that make up the Museum Education Site License
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Project (MESL), and utilizes professionals from the participating MESL
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institutions as well as the communications and collaborative
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structures that MESL established." This is a significant study of the
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issues involved in creating and delivering digital archives of primary
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materials in an online environment. The study concentrates on the MESL
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project, and thus to images and delivery in a campus setting
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primarily, but many of the issues and findings extend well beyond
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that. Of particular interest is attention paid to the end-user and
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demand and use of such databaases. The Executive Summary
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(http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/Databases/1998mellon/finalreport/
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0-execsummary.html) provides a concise 9 page overview of this very
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detailed study. - RR
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Chapman, Stephen, Paul Conway and Anne R. Kenney "Digital Imaging and
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Preservation Microfilm: The Future of the Hybrid Approach for the
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Preservation of Brittle Books" RLG DigiNews 3(1) (February 15, 1999)
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-1.html#feature1). -
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This short piece is a useful summary of the main findings of the full
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report of the same name, published by the Council on Library and
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Information Resources (CLIR) at
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http://www.clir.org/programs/cpa/hybridintro.html in Microsft Word
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and Adobe Acrobat formats. The purpose of this report is to
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disseminate information on this hybrid approach to preserving brittle
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books, and to stimulate further discussion and research into this
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strategy. Topics covered include the characteristics of microfilm both
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as a source for, and end product of, digital conversion, the choice of
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a digital conversion path (film first or scan first), and proposed
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administrative and structural metadata for the page images. - RT
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Dale, Robin. "Lossy or Lossless? File Compression Strategies
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Discussion at ALA " RLG DigiNews 3(1) (February 15,
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1999)(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-1.html#technical1)
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. - The American Library Association Midwinter Conference in
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Philadelphia at the end of January 1999, was the site of a discussion
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by six experts about the pros and cons of "lossy" and "lossless"
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compression schemes. Lossless compression schemes can reduce the size
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of a file without losing any of the information contained within it;
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lossless schemes sacrifice some data to achieve greater file size
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savings. The six experts included some of the top people in the field:
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Carl Fleischhauer from the Library of Congress, Louis Sharpe, III of
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Picture Elements Inc., Howard Besser from UC Berkeley, Peter Hirtle
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from Cornell, Joy Paulson of the University of Michigan, and Steven
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Puglia from the National Archives and Records Administration. The
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common theme of the remarks are that "it depends". Given one set of
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circumstances and goals lossless compression is called for (for
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example, for the preservation of digital masters), while lossy
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compression is often perfectly acceptable for other situations (for
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example, for derivative versions to be delivered to the end-user over
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a computer network). Recommended reading for anyone facing file format
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decisions for digital images. - RT
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"Digital Libraries: Technological Advances and Social Impacts"
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Computer 32(2) (February 1999). - The focus of this issue of Computer
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is on digital libraries, with six articles including the introductory
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piece (from which the special section derives its name) by Bruce
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Schatz and Hsinchun Chen. Half of the articles are from three of the
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six NSF-funded Digital Library Initiative projects (Cornell, Stanford,
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and UIUC), with additional contributions from those working with the
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JSTOR (journal storage) and New Zealand Digital Library projects.
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Although most of what is described in these articles comes from the
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"big science" end of digital libraries, some useful nuggets for the
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rest of us can be mined. In particular, the JSTOR article -- being
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more focused on production than research -- is useful in terms of the
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technical decisions that were made while mounting a massive archive of
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digital material. - RT
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"Digital Library Using Next Generation Internet" IEEE Communications
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Magazine 37(1) (January 1999). - This special focus on digital
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libraries includes six articles from various research perspectives,
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mostly industry (IBM, NEC, etc.), edited by Chung-Sheng Li and Harold
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S. Stone. Although a few of the articles are somewhat cutting-edge
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(such as the one on software agents) and unlikely to be of practical
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use any time soon, others (such as the one focusing on IBM's digital
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library projects and the one on searching the Web) either relate to
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projects in production now or technologies that are on the near
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horizon. All things considered, if you are trying to soak up anything
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related to digital libraries, go for it. Otherwise, take a pass. - RT
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Gessner, Rick. "The Next-Generation Layout Engine: Netscape's Gecko"
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Web Techniques 4(3) (March 1999):63-70
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/features/1999/03/gessner/gessner.shtml).
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- If this were a puff piece about the latest Netscape technology, you
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would not be reading about it here in Current Cites. No, you're
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reading about it here because Gecko is potentially much more. Gecko is
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being developed under the Open Source model via Mozilla.org
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(http://www.mozilla.org/), which means pretty much anyone can help
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work on it, and the benefitd accrue to everyone. A "layout engine" is
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a piece (or many inter-related pieces) of software that can take an
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object instance and any associated files (such as style sheets,
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images, etc.) and render those objects on your screen. At the heart of
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every Web browser is a layout engine, for example. In fact,
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differences between layout engines in different Web browsers cause no
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end of grief for Web authors striving for minute control over the look
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of their Web pages. As a "next-generation" layout engine, Gecko is
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aiming to provide full and native support for HTML and XML, cascading
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style sheets (full CSS1 and partial CSS2), and the Resource
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Description Framework (RDF). Gessner (a Netscape employee) claims that
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when Gecko ships, it will be "the fastest, smallest, most
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standards-compliant HTML layout engine available." We'll see. But
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meanwhile, don't let the little reptile escape your notice. - RT
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Greenstein, Daniel. "Publishing Scholarly Information in a Digital
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Millenium" Computers and the Humanities (32) 4 (1998): 253-256. - This
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special issue of Computers and the Humanities features a collection of
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stories based on a variety of commercial and scholarly forays into
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electronic publishing. While these four case studies may not top your
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reading list, Greenstein's preface does provide a good introductory
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synopsis on the risks, rewards and future directions for electronic
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publishing. He also has a call to action for the scholarly community:
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it's time to better articulate requirements (both as consumers and
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producers) with regard to electronic publications. - LY
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Lossau, Norbert and Frank Klaproth, "Digitization Efforts at the
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Center for Retrospective Digitization, Gttingen University Library"
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RLG DigiNews 3(1) (February 15, 1999)
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-1.html#feature2). -
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Detailed technical descriptions of digital imaging projects are rare,
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which makes this short piece more interesting than it would be if they
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were not. Those libraries, museums, and archives that are setting up
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scanning operations are faced with an array of difficult decisions for
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which there are few guidelines. For anyone in such a position, it can
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be useful to discover what decisions others in similar situations have
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made. This piece describes some of those decisions made by the
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Gttingen University Library, with links to more complete descriptions
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(including, for example, a description of the metadata elements they
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insert into the TIFF file header). Anyone interested in the
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nuts-and-bolts side of digital libraries should take a look at this. -
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RT
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Withers, Rob and Jane F. Sharpe. "Incorporating Internet resources
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into bibliographic instruction." College & Research Libraries News 60
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(February 1999): 75-76. - Some practical tips on incorporating the
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Internet into bibliographic instruction: don't try to cover
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everything; instead, identify pertinent topics such as effective
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searching, evaluating resources, or resources in a particular
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discipline; have a back-up plan (the age-old "technical difficulties"
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problem); market your skills to the faculty who may not associate
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Internet training with the library. Teaching the Internet within the
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contraints of the traditional instruction section is a challenge and
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the authors have provided a short, practical checklist of how to do so
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effectively. - MP
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 10(2) (February 1999) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright © 1999 by the Library, University of California,
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Berkeley. _All rights reserved._
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1999/cc99.10.2.html
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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
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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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To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send the message
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"sub cites [your name]" to listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing
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"[your name]" with your name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub
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cites" to the same address.
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Editor: Teri Andrews Rinne, trinne@library.berkeley.edu, (510)
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642-8173
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