176 lines
9.9 KiB
Plaintext
176 lines
9.9 KiB
Plaintext
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_Current Cites_
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Volume 10, no. 4
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April 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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ISSN: 1060-2356
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1999/cc99.10.4.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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Bilal, Dania, Jeff Barry & W. David Penniman. "A Balancing Act"
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Library Journal 124(6) (April 1, 1999): 45-54. - This article is LJ's
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annual picture of the automated systems marketplace. 1998 is depicted
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as a year of partnerships, and the authors describe the ways in which
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vendors and customers are working together to address such problems as
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planning for new interfaces while living with old closed systems,
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checking for Y2K readiness, and creating Web-based services. After the
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overview, 27 vendors are profiled. Tables include microcomputer system
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sales, server-based system sales, academic, school and public library
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system sales and others. - JR
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Coffman, Steve. "Building Earth's Largest Library: Driving Into the
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Future" Searcher 7(3) (March 1999)
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(http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar/coffman.htm). - Every once in a
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while an article comes along that sparks your imagination, or provides
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the missing piece to a puzzle, or spurs a moment of "ah-ha!" insight.
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For me, this is just such a piece. In this article Coffman paints a
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compelling vision of a library catalog system that is accessible,
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convenient, personal, and _huge_. Using Amazon.com as his inspiration,
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Coffman wonders why libraries can't band together and do something
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similar, only better. I can't help thinking the same thing. Sorry,
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patient Current Cites readers, you're going to have to read this one
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yourself. I really can't do it justice in one paragraph, and frankly I
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can't think of any librarian who shouldn't read this. If you think you
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are such a person, drop me a line. I'd like to know why. - RT
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Hedstrom, Margaret and Sheon Montgomery. Digital Preservation Needs
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and Requirements in RLG Member Institutions Mountain View, CA:
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Research Libraries Group, December 1998
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/digpres.html). - This study commissioned
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by the Research Libraries Group (RLG) was to determine the status of
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digital archiving at its member institutions. Fifty-four libraries
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responded, and fifteen participated in supplementary interviews. While
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fully 98% of the responding libraries expect to be preserving digital
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material by 2001 if they are not doing so already, almost half lack
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"the capacity to mount, read, or access files on some of the storage
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media they hold." The service most libraries look to consortia to
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provide is the development of standards and best practices;
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third-party vendors, on the other hand, are expected to provide
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migration and conversion services. The report ends with
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recommendations based on the findings of the survey for RLG, member
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institutions, and service providers. - RT
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Kiernan, Vincent. "An Ambitious Plan to Sell Electronic Books:
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University Librarians and Press Officials See Promise and Possible
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Pitfalls in the Concept" Chronicle of Higher Education 65(32) (April
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16, 1999): A27. - A Colorado-based firm is embarking on a venture to
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sell electronic books to university libraries, and some university
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press officials say the new program is "the most promising experiment
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with e-books yet." The product is called netLibrary
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(http://www.netlibrary.com), and it already has 2,000 titles on its
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list. Library officials are quoted in more cautionary tones, but
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powerful agencies like CARL and OhioLink are charter customers. - TH
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Kiernan, Vincent. "Two Big Libraries Abandon Home-Grown Software for
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Commercial Products" Chronicle of Higher Education April 14, 1999. -
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This article describes recent developments at the Library of Congress
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and National Library of Medicine in cataloging policy. Both libraries
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are shifting their cataloging activity to commercial products, hoping
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to cut overhead and streamline work processes. Current arrangements at
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LC can involve searches in as many as three databases to confirm
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holdings and veracity, so the library is also trying to solve legacy
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system challenges at the same time it is updating work practices. - TH
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Seadle, Michael. "The Raw and the Cooked Among Librarians" Library
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HiTech 16 (3-4) (1998): 7-11. - In this introduction to Library Hi
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Tech's special issue on digital libraries, Seadle posits how
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librarians can use anthropological methods and theories to examine
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library systems in fresh, new ways. He notes that as our language has
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yet to catch up to modern technology, we tend to gravitate towards
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physical metaphors to describe digital artifacts, such as "electronic
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library." While helpful in their familiarity, these metaphors can skew
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user expectations and conceal new technology-based capabilities.
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Seadle's observations are insightful and foreshadow the organizational
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themes which dominate the electronic text and information technology
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center profiles in this article series. - LY
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Stokes, John R. "Imaging Pictorial Collections at the Library of
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Congress" RLG DigiNews 3(2) (April 15, 1999)
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews3-2.html). - The Library
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of Congress is one of the few institutions that has the resources to
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outsource the digitization of a quarter of a million images. But
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nonetheless, this account of such a project will likely be fascinating
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to anyone who digitizes pictorial material. Judging from the
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accompanying photographs, a phenomenal amount of work was accomplished
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in what appears to be a space not much larger than an elongated
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closet. But what is most fascinating are the decisions that were made
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along the way and the reasons for them. There is little enough of this
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kind of nitty-gritty information around, so digital librarians (and
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those who aspire) should take a good look. - RT
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Stubbs, Walter and Eric Wettstein. "U.S. GPO CD-ROMS: Blessing or
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Curse?" Journal of Government Information 26(2) (March/April 1999):
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131-163. - Federal legislators see it as a painless method of
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streamlining government, and librarians know what headaches it can
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cause: the push for a more electronic Depository Library System has
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resulted in a Tower of Babel of Government Printing Office CD-ROMs.
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The authors surveyed 205 federal depository libraries in 1996, with a
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lengthy questionnaire about 156 CD-ROM titles. The statistics derived
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can't be seen as overwhelmingly conclusive about much of anything,
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because only 70 usable responses were received, and a lot has changed
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in three years. However, this study sheds light on what librarians
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found useful, why some disks were avoided like the plague, and if and
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when the Web was preferred. Particular attention is paid to the
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advantages and disadvantages of the many varieties of enabling
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software required to run these disks. Comments from depository
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librarians are included. - JR
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Weibel, Stuart. "The State of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative,
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April 1999" D-Lib Magazine 5(4) (April 1999)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/04weibel.html). - The effort to
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define a basic set of metadata elements for Internet resource
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discovery has been ongoing for years. In this report, the leader of
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the Dublin Core effort describes the current state of affairs and
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identifies six areas where participants are currently focusing their
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efforts. The six areas are: formalization of a process for the Dublin
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Core, standardization, HTML encoding, qualification mechanisms, the
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role of RDF, and relationships to other metadata models. For those
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wanting to follow this effort, either as an observer or a participant,
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the references for this piece point to some essential current
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resources. - RT
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Young, Jeffrey R. "Three Research Libraries Plan Vast New Facility to
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Store Little-Used Books" Chronicle of Higher Education April 6, 1999.
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- Columbia, The New York Public Library and Princeton are pooling
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resources to build a single off-site storage facility in the Bronx,
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and it will be a big one. This article describes the project, which is
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cast as a defining moment in inter-university collaboration on a very
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large scale. Princeton's provost makes several insightful comments
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about library planning, to wit, "In the past, [collection development]
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has been an area where many universities sought to compete, rather
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than cooperate with each other to provide the very best service."
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Other joint initiatives, such as digitization of material, may follow
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in time. - TH
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 10(4) (April 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/cc99.10.4.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
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