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411 lines
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[1]Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
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Volume 11, no. 10, October 2000
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Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
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The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
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ISSN: 1060-2356 -
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.10.html
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Contributors: [3]Terry Huwe, [4]Michael Levy, [5]Leslie Myrick , Jim
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Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, [6]Roy Tennant
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Issue Spotlight: Peer-to-Peer Networking
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Not since the release of NCSA Mosaic, the networking application that
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spawned the phrase "killer app", have we seen the like. Once again it
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took a youngster (in this case an 18-year-old college dropout) to rock
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our world -- with a networking application that bears his nickname:
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"Napster". But as quickly became apparent, Napster was just the first
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salvo in a new battle over freedom, intellectual property rights, and
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the future of the Internet.
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Other clients using the same technology (called "peer-to-peer"
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networking since it is individual clients (peers) communicating
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directly with one another instead of through a central server),
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quickly appeared, with Gnutella and Freenet being among the most
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widely known. Developments have been happening so quickly that it's
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hard to believe that Napster isn't even two years old yet, but already
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the old guard very much has it's guard up. The music industry has
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hauled Napster, Inc. into court and the publishing industry surely
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isn't far behind, if they could only find some one or some
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organization to sue. But there's the rub. With anonymous applications
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like Gnutella and Freenet, there is no one to sue. We're in an
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entirely different ball game. But don't take my word for it. This
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month we've reviewed some of the best articles we could find on this
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new phenomenon. They speculate on the future of creativity,
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publishing, and access to information in the wake of an unstoppable
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technology that will change everything. Can I possibly be any clearer?
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-- The Editor
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Adar, Eytan, and Huberman, Bernardo A. [7]"Free Riding on Gnutella."
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[8]First Monday 5(10) (October 2, 2000)
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(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/adar/). - Two Xerox PARC
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researchers analyze use traffic on [9]Gnutella, the underground
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peer-to-peer file sharing service, and find that usage patterns aren't
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really all that egalitarian. Over a single 24 hour period, nearly 70
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percent of users shared no files; instead, they spent their time
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"free-riding" on the system. Of the overall traffic, 50 percent of
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responses were returned by only one percent of the total sharing host
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population. The authors determine that this does not bode well for
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community-based file sharing, since communities depend on broad
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participation, just as healthy democracies depend on a populace that
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actually takes the time to vote. Adar and Huberman suggest that
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copyright infringement fears may diminish if this trend predominates
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in similar communities. It will be interesting to follow the
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peer-to-peer underground movement's growth with this assertion in
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mind. - [10]TH
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Barlow, John Perry. [11]"The Next Economy of Ideas." [12]Wired
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(October 2000): 240-252
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(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/download.html). - Building on
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his famous article [13]The Economy of Ideas, John Perry Barlow looks
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at the issue of copyright in the [14]Napster era. As Barlow comments
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"no law can be successfully imposed on a huge population that does not
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morally support it and possesses easy means for its invisible
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evasion." Launching into a scathing criticism of the entertainment
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industry and their attempts to protect intellectual property using
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such means as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Barlow sees the
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media behemoths as fighting a losing battle. In his call to arms the
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future is one where "there will be no property in cyberspace." If
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there is no property how will those creating content be rewarded and
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given incentives? He believes that the interests of creators will be
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assured by practical values: "relationship, convenience,
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interactivity, service and ethics." Summing his stance up Barlow
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envisages artists entering into relationships with consumers who will
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be ethically inclined to pay for services. While some will still
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dismiss him as a hippy out of touch with the reality of the modern
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economy his ideas are thoughtful, provocative and he might just be
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right. - [15]ML
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Chudnov, Daniel. [16]Docster: The Future of Document Delivery?"
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[17]Library Journal 125(13) (August 2000): 60-62. - In this
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provocative piece, Chudnov proposes that libraries modify the Napster
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model of file sharing for use in interlibrary lending. The main change
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that Chudnov suggests is to add copyright compliance. For details on
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what he suggests and how it would work, see the article. But what I
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find most impressive about this article isn't so much the details as
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the idea itself. Libraries need imaginative ideas, and this is one.
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Building on a technology that isn't even two years old yet, Chudnov
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has proposed a reasonable solution to a common library problem. We
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need more ideas like this, and more librarians with Chudnov's
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combination of imagination and technical savvy. - [18]RT
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Cohen, Adam. [19]"A Crisis of Content." [20]Time 156(14) (October 2,
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2000): 68-73
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(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,55700,00.html). -
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When Time magazine "gets it," you know the rest of the population
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can't be too far behind. And this article shows that they do. What
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they "get" is that where intellectual property rights are concerned,
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the cat is out of the bag, the cow has vacated the barn, and the
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bottle no longer holds the genie. Napster is just the tip of the file
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sharing iceberg. As new peer-to-peer clients like [21]Gnutella
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(http://gnutella.wego.com/) and [22]Freenet
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(http://freenet.sourceforge.net/) show, any intellectual content is at
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risk of being freely shared on the Internet. To demonstrate this,
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Cohen uses such examples as sewing patterns (about as non-Napster like
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as you can get), which are being freely (and illegally) swapped
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online. For a taste of what Cohen has to say about all this, here are
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a couple quotes from this piece: "There is no underestimating the
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threat that all this free file sharing poses to existing business
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models" and "The only thing that is certain in the content business is
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that everything is up for grabs." And if you think this only affects
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businesses, and not non-profit libraries, think again. - [23]RT
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Heilemann, John. [24]"David Boies: The Wired Interview." [25]Wired
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(October 2000): 253-259
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(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/boies.html). - At first
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glance, it appears to many onlookers that it is clearly illegal for
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users to record MP3 files from copyrighted CDs and make them available
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for dowloading by any Napster user on the planet. But as this
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interview with the lead defense attorney in the Napster case points
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out, this is far from an open-and-shut case of copyright infringement.
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He identifies four major arguments that the defense is making, any one
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of which will win their case if they prevail. Frankly, I couldn't care
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less if Napster gets shut down, but the legal defense of Napster
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involves issues that go much beyond whether a particular company can
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continue to do business or not. - [26]RT
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Kuptz, Jerome. [27]"Independence Array." [28]Wired (October 2000):
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236-237 (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/architecture.html). -
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The tagline to this overview of how Gnutella works is "Gnutella:
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Unstoppable by Design". And they aren't kidding. Smart people with
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nothing better to do have worked hard at making sure that files can be
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shared directly between individual network users in an undetectable
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and untraceable fashion. Sneaking through via the HTTP protocol
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(here's a hint, it's the protocol upon which the web runs), there are
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no central servers (like with Napster), no log files, and no central
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organization behind it. This two-page spread on how Gnutella actually
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works is available on the web, but the graphic version in the print
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copy of the magazine lays out the whole bloody mess in a much more
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entertaining fashion. - [29]RT
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Crane, Gregory, et. al. [30]"The Symbiosis Between Content and
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Technology in the Perseus Digital Library" [31]Cultivate Interactive
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(October 2000) (http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/perseus/). - The
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[32]Perseus Project is one of the most well-developed scholar-led
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digital library projects around. In this conceptual overview of the
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project and its many aspects and phases, Crane et. al. describe the
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motivations behind this eclectic set of collections. Maybe it was
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their enthusiasm or their "can-do" attitude, but by the end of the
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article it actually made sense to me that the project should be
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dabbling in Shakespeare and Arabic texts on mechanics at the same
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time. As they put it, "While all these projects differ substantially,
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they are united by our consistent effort to study the ways in which
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documents which are distinct in print libraries begin to merge with
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one another in a digital library, dissolving their individual
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structures and supporting new patterns of intellectual inquiry." Areas
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in which they remain interested include: 1) the development of new
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integrated collections, 2) the cognitive effects of digital libraries,
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3) integration of modern computational linguistic techniques, and 4)
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information extraction and visualization. Those wishing for more
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technical background on the project should refer to Crane's [33]recent
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piece in D-Lib Magazine. - [34]RT
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Crawford, Walt. [35]"Guest Editorial: Talking about Public Access --
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PACS-L's First Decade." [36]Information Technology and Libraries 19(3)
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(September 2000): 112-115
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(http://www.lita.org/ital/1903_editorial.html). - I distinctly
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remember returning from the 1989 American Library Association Annual
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Conference and rushing to sign on to a new electronic discussion that
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had just been announced at the conference: the [37]Public Access
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Computer Systems Forum, or PACS-L. Unfortunately, the instructions for
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signing up assumed you were on BITNET, and I was trying to sign on via
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the Internet. The ensuing days of digging around for documentation and
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discovering the way I had to send my message to sign on was one of my
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first trials by fire on the Internet. But PACS-L was well worth the
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effort, and was so for years. As Crawford documents so well, PACS-L
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was *the* library discussion list of most of the 90's, before becoming
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a victim of its own success. Although it has been resurrected, it will
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never be the same as it was when a profession was remaking itself in
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light of world-wide computer connectivity. If this sounds nostalgic,
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it is, as is Crawford's tribute. I guess you just had to be there. -
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[38]RT
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Drost, Karen, and Jorna, Miriam. [39]"Empowering Women Through the
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Internet: Dutch Women Unite." [40]First Monday 5(10) (October 2, 2000)
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(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/drost/). - Drost and Jorna
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assess the experience of a Dutch collective known as
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[41]"Webgrrls-NL", an organization whose goal is to train Dutch women
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in the use of the Internet. Webgrrls creates a forum where Dutch women
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can learn about computers and the Internet "without the intervention
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of men or others who feel the need to show rather than to teach." That
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quote points out the feminist perspective of this organization, but it
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also opens the door to think about the ways in which different
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communities can best learn in the Internet era. A large body of
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research confirms that women and men approach technology differently,
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and this article is further grist for the mill. It's also interesting
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and very pragmatic in its approach. The conclusions that are offered
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could easily apply to other self-identifying groups who wish to take
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advantage of the Internet on their own terms. - [42]TH
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Evans, Fred. [43]"Cyberspace and the Concept of Democracy." [44]First
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Monday 5(10) (October 2, 2000)
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(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/evans/). - Social
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theorists and futurists will enjoy this well-researched inquiry into
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the nature of democracy in the Net era. Heavily footnoted and densely
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populated with ideas and questions, this article nonetheless raises
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some blunt questions that are on a lot of peoples' minds. For example,
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what are the characteristics of the body politic, if it's living in
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the "real" and the "virtual" worlds at the same time? What are the
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hazards of this new and uncharted domain for affecting hearts and
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minds in the political process? While the author has many optimistic
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analyses to share, he also finds a "dark" side to politics and the
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Net, which he categories as oracular in nature. - [45]TH
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Griffiths, Jose-Marie. "Deconstructing Earth's Largest Library"
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[46]Library Journal 125(13) (August 2000): 44-47. - Current Cites
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readers are familiar with [47]Steve Coffman's provocative thoughts on
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what librarians can learn from Amazon.com. This piece aims to "debunk"
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Coffman's ideas. Since Griffith does not make her points as clearly
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and forcefully as [48]Walt Crawford, they are somewhat difficult to
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extract, but they can be roughly summarized as "we can't cooperate
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enough to pull it off, our current automated systems are too limited,
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and it would be too difficult and costly." From there, Griffiths
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explores the issues of digital opportunities (formerly known as the
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Digital Divide), the library as place, and the value of the library
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'brand'. A sidebar highlights the [49]Internet Public Library,
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[50]Contentville.com, and [51]Fathom.com as "libraries in cyberspace."
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- [52]RT
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Hawkins, Donald T. "Electronic Books: a Major Publishing Revolution.
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Part 2: The Marketplace" [53]Online 24 (5) (September/October
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2000):18-36. - As the author himself acknowledges, "The marketplace is
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moving so rapidly that any list of players quickly becomes outdated."
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Some of the specifics relating to the vendors here have changed since
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the article's publication, with probably the biggest news being that
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Rocket eBooks and SoftBooks now have the same parent company and are
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sold through eBook-Gemstar. So, check the company websites listed for
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the latest word. As for Hawkins' more general take on how the market
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is shaping up, this is an excellent continuation of part 1, which was
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published in the July/August issue. He explores the many ways
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(including device-independent ways) in which e-books are being
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disseminated, including the system of interest to many libraries now,
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netLibrary. - JR
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Rutenbeck, Jeff. "The 5 Great Challenges of the Digital Age"
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[54]Library Journal NetConnect (Supplement to Library Journal and
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School Library Journal, Fall 2000): 30-33. - We've survived Y2K little
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the worse for wear, just in time to face the five "great challenges"
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Rutenbeck identifies in this provocative piece. What are they, you
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ask? 1) Malleability: "through digital technologies we're inclined to
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do much more than preserve or distribute information: we're prone to
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manipulate it, alter it, and enhance it in often profound ways", 2)
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Selectivity: selecting digital over print; selecting the small amount
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of print materials we're capable of digitizing, 3) Exclusivity: the
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digital divide, the dominance of English as the language of the
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Internet, the necessity to have typing skills, 4) Vulnerability: "we
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are only now beginning to realize that the benefits of
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interconnectedness via the global network also bring with them an
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unprecedented shared vulnerability", and 5) Superficiality: the
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shallowness of our interactions with information and others in a
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networked world. Whether or not you agree with Rutenbeck's assertions,
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or his elevation of them to "great challenges", these issues are
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important and may be increasingly so. - [55]RT
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"Special Issue: Digital Reference Services: Papers Based on the
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Virtual Reference Desk Conference" [56]Reference & User Services
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Quarterly 39(4) (Summer 2000) - We've come far from the notion that
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online reference service is a nice embellishment, to an expection from
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users that there will be a computer interface available for any
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library need, including that (potentially) most complex exchange, the
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reference session. The articles here address such issues as assessing
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the quality of online reference service, the "how-to" points to
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consider when creating such a service, what to expect in workload
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changes and how to manage them, how to create a successful reference
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interview environment when the face to face element is removed, and
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how the culture of library use for reference information is changing.
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The gatekeeper function of reference librarians is changing, some
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would say radically, and these articles are very helpful for
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information providers adapting to the new patterns of
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information-seeking behavior. - JR
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Taylor, Mary K. [57]"Library Webmasters: Satisfactions,
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Dissatisfactions, and Expectations." [58]Information Technology and
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Libraries 19(3) (September 2000): 116-123
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(http://www.lita.org/ital/1903_taylor.html). - This article reports on
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the findings of a 1998 survey of library web managers of institutions
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that are members of the Association of Research Libraries. From the
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survey data one can glean such interesting nuggets as the fact that of
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the respondents, less than a third have attended an HTML workshop or
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seminar, and 83% of respondents were self-taught to a greater or
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lesser degree. A finding I found surprising was that more than 50% of
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the respondents shared their position with another person or
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committee. The vast majority find satisfaction in their work, and what
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the largest number liked the least was not having enough time to spend
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on the web site and to learn new skills. Taylor ends the review of
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survey results with a list of recommendations based on her findings. -
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[59]RT
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West, Darrell M. [60]"Assessing E-Government: The Internet, Democracy,
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and Service Delivery by State and Federal Governments." (September
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2000) (http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovtreport00.html). - Some of
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the most far reaching and effective delivery of information services
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via the Internet has been by Federal and State governments. In this
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study of "E-Government" the author surveyed over 1800 websites during
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the Summer, 2000. Unsurprisingly, states with smaller populations and
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therefore fewer resources performed poorly compared to larger states,
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and federal government provided better services compared to state
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governments. Overall the websites were weakest in areas of security,
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privacy, disability access, offering specific online services such as
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purchasing a license, filing a complaint or requesting a publication,
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and democratic outreach such as email, message boards and the ability
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for citizens to receive periodic updates on specific issues. The
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conclusion of the study is that the "e-government revolution has
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fallen short of its true potential." - [61]ML
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 11(10 (October 2000) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright <20> 2000 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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All rights reserved.
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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. All product names are trademarks
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or registered trade marks of their respective holders. Mention of a
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product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of
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the product. To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send
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the message "sub cites [your name]" to
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[62]listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your
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name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same
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address.
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[63]Copyright <20> 2000 UC Regents. All rights reserved.
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Document maintained at
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http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.10.html by
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[64]Roy Tennant.
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Last update September 23, 2000. SunSITE Manager:
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[65]manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu
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References
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1. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/imagemap/cc
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2. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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3. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
|
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4. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/staff/levy/
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5. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/~scanmgr/LESLIE/citescv.html
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6. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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7. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/adar/
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8. http://www.firstmonday.dk/
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9. http://gnutella.wego.com/
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10. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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11. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/download.html
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12. http://www.wired.com/wired/
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13. http://www.wirednews.com/wired/archive/2.03/economy.ideas.html
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14. http://www.napster.com/
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15. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/staff/levy/
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16. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.10.html
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17. http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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18. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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19. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,55700,00.html
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20. http://www.time.com/
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21. http://gnutella.wego.com/
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22. http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
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23. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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24. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/boies.html
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||
25. http://www.wired.com/wired/
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||
26. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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27. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.10/architecture.html
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28. http://www.wired.com/wired/
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||
29. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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30. http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/perseus/
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31. http://www.cultivate-int.org/
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32. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
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33. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july00/crane/07crane.html
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34. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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35. http://www.lita.org/ital/1903_editorial.html
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36. http://www.lita.org/ital/index.htm
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37. http://info.lib.uh.edu/pacsl.html
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38. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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39. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/drost/
|
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40. http://www.firstmonday.dk/
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41. http://www.webgrrls.nl/
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42. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
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43. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/evans/
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44. http://www.firstmonday.dk/
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45. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/autobiography/thuwe/
|
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46. http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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47. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/bibondemand.cgi?query=steve+coffman
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48. http://home.att.net/~wcc.libmedx/gutting.htm
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49. http://www.ipl.org/
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50. http://contentville.com/
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51. http://fathom.com/
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52. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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53. http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/
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54. http://www.libraryjournal.com/netconnect.asp
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55. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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56. http://www.ala.org/rusa/rusq
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57. http://www.lita.org/ital/1903_taylor.html
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58. http://www.lita.org/ital/index.htm
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59. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
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60. http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovtreport00.html
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61. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/staff/levy/
|
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62. mailto:listserv@library.berkeley.edu
|
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63. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Admin/copyright.html
|
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64. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
|
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65. mailto:manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu
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