300 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
300 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
_Current Cites_
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Volume 11, no. 6, June 2000
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Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
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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/cc00.11.6.html
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Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick , Jim
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Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, Roy Tennant
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Adam, Nabil R., Vijayalakshmi Atluri, Igg Adiwijaya. "SI in Digital
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Libraries" Communications of the ACM 43(6) (June 2000): 64-72
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(http://www.acm.org/pubs/articles/journals/cacm/2000-43-6/p64-adam/p64
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-adam.pdf) . - Digital libraries today can be characterized as bundles
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of multiple, heterogeneous information sources, with differing schema
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for storage, organization and access. This article provides
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conceptualizing strategies for planners who must achieve system
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integration (SI) at the user interface. Specific issues addressed
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include the nature of data structure and quantity of data, frequent
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modification of data sources, multimedia and the variety of user
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patterns and capabilities. Three popular integration methods are
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described: Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA),
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mediators and agents, with the caveat given that "these three
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approaches are not orthogonal in the sense that a mediator may employ
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CORBA and an agent may use mediators." The application of solution
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schemes in the digital libraries of Stanford, University of Illinois
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and University of Michigan is described, and the authors also detail
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their own work on DigiTerra, an environmental digital library at
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Rutgers. - JR
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Arms, Caroline R. "Keeping Memory Alive: Practices for Preserving
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Digital Content at the National Digital Library Program of the Library
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of Congress" RLG DigiNews 4(3) (June 15, 2000)
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews4-3.html). - It is likely
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that the Library of Congress is overseeing the single largest library
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digitization effort on the planet (producing over 14GB of new digital
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files per workday). And what luck for the rest of us -- they
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frequently share what they learn, the processes they create, the best
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practices they set, and even their Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to
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digitization vendors (see http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftp
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files.html). In this article Caroline Arms continues her tradition of
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promulgating information vital to those attempting similar projects
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(for example, see other articles of hers cited in Current Cites).
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In this case she describes LC efforts at preserving the digital
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material that LC is creating while building a National Digital
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Library. Of particular use is a chart that briefly describes all the
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current accepted digital preservation methods, all of which may be
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logically employed in the course of preserving any particular item or
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to recover an item that hasn't been properly preserved by using these
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methods. - RT
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Baker, Angee. "The Impact of Consortia on Database Licensing"
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Computers in Libraries 20(6) (June 2000): 47-50. - The author is
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the director of electronic information services at the Southeastern
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Library Network (SOLINET), and as such has negotiated deals for
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consortia and individual libraries in a ten-state region. Confronted
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with the thicket of problems arising from difficult pricing models,
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the growing need for cost-recovery by libraries, cost-allocation
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between members and overlapping consortial interests, she still
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(amazingly enough) has faith that coordination is always possible and
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that consortia, libraries, publishers and aggregators can cooperate
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and make progress with interests in common. Her observations and
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strategies make worthwhile reading for anyone who is trying to keep up
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with the collection development of electronic sources. That's the
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theme of the June issue, so look for many valuable related articles as
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well. - JR
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Beebe, Linda and Barbara Myers. "Digital Workflow: Managing the
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Process Electronically" JEP: The Journal of Electronic Publishing
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5(4) (June 2000) (http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/05-05/sheridan.html).
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- The digital revolution is altering publishing no less than it is
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altering libraries. What publishers do every day to add value to
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submitted content, package it, distribute it, market it, and archive
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it, is undergoing massive change. This article, which was originally
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written as a "white paper" for Sheridan Press, does an excellent job
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of describing the new digital workflow. The narrative is interspersed
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with boxes that define and describe each step in the digital
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publication process. A glossary is included. - RT
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Bolt, Nate. "The Binary Proletariat" First Monday 5(5) (May
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2000) (http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_5/bolt/). - Bolt
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deconstructs the glittering promise of a "dot.com" lifestyle and finds
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some familiar problems for the working class: longer hours, more
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stress, and other dirty little secrets. Taking familiar paths to
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analyze capitalism in the digital era, he has provided an interesting
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perspective on the essentially unreformed capitalism of the "new
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economy." Some of this material will be familiar to readers because of
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the great deal of attention that the "new economy" is receiving, but
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it's presented in readable and entertaining style. - TH
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Burnard, Lou. "Text Encoding for Interchange: A New Consortium"
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Ariadne 24 (June 2000) (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/tei/) -
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In this article, Burnard gives a brief history of the TEI
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Initiative and how it grew, specifically, how it has evolved into a
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full-fledged consortium under the collective aegis of Oxford, UVA,
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Brown University and the University of Bergen in Norway. To quote a
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bit of the mission statement: "The goal of the new TEI Consortium is
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to establish a permanent home for the TEI as a democratically
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constituted, academically and economically independent,
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self-sustaining, non-profit organization." The TEI standard has been
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adopted by a host of American, British and EU institutions such as the
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NEH, the MLA and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board, and has
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established itself as the standard of choice for the production of
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online scholarly texts, reference works, and editions in the
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humanities. The materials and tools (e.g. the handy Pizza Chef DTD
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generator), which have been served off the UIC website, will soon be
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moved to a new location (http://www.tei-c.org). At the time of
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writing he offered a preview at http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/TEI/ , but
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the tei-c.org site is already well under way. - LM
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"Content and Publishing" Webtechniques (July 2000)
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/07/). The feature topic of
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the July 2000 issue of Webtechniques is Content and Publishing, from
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which I am singling out two related articles on using XML to
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facilitate content creation, management and delivery. In
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"Separating Body from Soul: XML Makes Changing Easy"
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/07/floyd/), Michael Floyd
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offers an excellent primer on how to set up an XML document delivery
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system on an existing infrastructure that uses a web server as the
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delivery system, a database for storing some information, XML
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documents for storing other information, and seeks to serve up output
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to any sort of browser. He gives an ingredient list of the basic
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components: XML parser, XSL processor, document repository, a
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collection of document schema, and a collection of XSL stylesheets. He
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then launches into some detail in presenting three different gateways
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for serving up dynamic XML pages, whether through CGI, Java Servlets
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or ASP. As the title hints, by using ASP and the Rocket XML framework,
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Floyd claims to do the Cartesian split one better, with the separation
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of data from processing logic and HTML presentation. The article
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concludes with a discussion of some packaged solutions, including
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DataChannel, Vignette, StoryServer, and Poet's CMS (Content Management
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Suite). Once you've transformed your infrastructure, Peter Fischer
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explains how to convert all those HTML files into something that can
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be served up in an XML environment in "Migrating from HTML to XML"
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(http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2000/07/fischer/). Whether you
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decide to take the intermediary step of cleaning up your HTML to
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conform to the XHTML standard, or decide to take the leap right into
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XML, tools are becoming more readily available to help in the
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endeavor, from the freeware tools such as HTML Tidy or (the more
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user-friendly) HTML-Kit for XHTML conversion, to XSpLit from
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Percussion Software for XML. - LM
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Elliott, Laura, "How the Oxford English Dictionary Went Online"
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Ariadne 24 (June 2000)
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(http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/oed-tech/) - It seems I can't forego
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citing yet another interesting article in Ariadne on the online
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OED, this time: a technical look under the hood. Elliott shares a
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few more details about the markup history of the dictionary in its
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various avatars, and the java-enabled, Sybase-powered machinations of
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their partner Highwire Press. This article appears to be in some
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sense an apologia for the simplicity or economy of the final
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interface: there are no plugins, special fonts, or browser-tweaking,
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etc. required to render special characters; and behind the scenes lies
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a rather simple DTD. For those who still weigh the feasibility of the
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use of gifs for special characters over Unicode (and lean towards the
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former), she has a short success story. And for those who are
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wondering what the tab might have been for this glorious undertaking,
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you'll find the skinny on the cost. - LM
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Guernsey, Lisa. "The Library As the Latest Web Venture" New York
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Times (June 15, 2000): Section G, p.1. - Focusing on
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NetLibrary.com, Ebrary.com and Questia media this article
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looks at electronic library projects. Unlike the budding electronic
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book market which focuses on downloading to handheld devices these
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players are concentrating on the scholarly market represented by
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institutions such as libraries. At the moment there are a limited
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number of titles available, a mixture of titles from the public domain
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and those that are copyrighted. NetLibrary has around 18,000
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copyrighted books while Ebrary.com claims to have 130,000 in its
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demonstration database. The economic model for these vendors varies
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somewhat. Users can sometimes search the database and then only
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subscribers can view book's pages, or viewing online is free but the
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users is charged for printing or downloading. As the article points
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out this is mixing the traditional roles of libraries and bookstores.
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It therefore brings up issues of access to lower income users and the
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role of libraries in an increasingly commercialized information
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universe. - ML
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Hughes, Carol Ann. "Lessons Learned: Digitization of Special
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Collections at the University of Iowa Libraries" D-Lib Magazine
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6(6) (June 2000)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june00/hughes/06hughes.html"). - Creating
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digital library collections is still at an early enough stage that
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descriptions of projects and the lessons learned from them are
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important and useful for anyone else considering such a project.
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Hughes' description of a Library of Congress/Ameritech funded project
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to digitize a variety of materials relating to the Chatauqua Movement
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of the early 20th century is one such useful account. The
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straightforward description of the project is peppered with "lessons
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learned" that document the ups-and-downs of a project that, as is the
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case with many first projects, entailed a good deal of learning as you
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go. The more of these accounts we have, the less lessons the rest of
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us will have to learn the hard way. - RT
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Kresh, Diane Nester. "Offering High-Quality Reference Service on
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the Web: The Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS)" D-Lib
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Magazine 6(6) (June 2000)
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(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june00/kresh/06kresh.html). - Online digital
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reference service has been the topic of a lot of recent online
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discussion, meetings at the American Library Association, and
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proposals of various kinds -- regional, national, and transnational.
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One of the projects with the most promise is being led and coordinated
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by the Library of Congress, which this article outlines. The basic
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idea is to coordinate a global digital reference network that would
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allow libraries to provide 24x7 online reference service to their
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clientele. The Library of Congress and a small group of collaborating
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libraries began testing this model in March 2000. Countries
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represented in this initial pilot included the United States,
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Australia, and Canada. The types of libraries involved included public
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libraries, academic libraries, national libraries, an art museum
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library, and a regional library cooperative. The second pilot began
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June 19 and will run for a month, with the third pilot beginning in
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August. Following this pilot period, the project will officially
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launch on October 1, 2000. Anyone interested in providing online
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reference service would do well to follow this project closely. -
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RT
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Miller, Brent I. "Recent Lessons from the Courts: The Changing
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Landscape of Copyright in a Digital Age" RLG DigiNews 4 (2) (April
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15, 2000)
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(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews4-2.html#feature) -
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Miller highlights and clearly explains two recent cases, The Bridgeman
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Art Library LTD v. Corel Corp and Kelly v Arriba Soft that have
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important implications for managing digital collections. In Bridgeman
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the court considered whether color transparencies of public domain art
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work has a sufficient level of originality to be copyrightable. The
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court decided that they do not have the requisite degree of
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originality and that the unauthorized use of the reproductions does
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not violate copyright law. This obviously has implications for
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libraries who have digital collections, but the Bridgeman decision
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concerns two dimensional works as opposed to three dimensional
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objects, which may involve greater "originality." In addition the
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court did not address issues of copyright protection for compilations,
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in other words an institution's copyright interest in the selection,
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arrangement and coordination of a digital collection. In the Arriba
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Soft case the issue revolved around whether a "visual search engine"
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was fair use. The search engine allowed users to retrieve thumbnail
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images as well as a full-size version of images by providing a link to
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the site where the image resided. The court held that Arriba Soft's
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actions constituted fair use of the images. For those managing digital
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image collections it would seem to reinforce the presumption that
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reproduction and distribution of images constitute fair use. On the
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other hand it would "arguably insulate those who use the contents of
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digital image collections for clearly 'commercial' purposes from
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infringement liability." While this is still an unsettled area of
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copyright law it is indicative of a gradual direction or trend. -
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ML
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Nardi, Bonnie A., Steve Whittaker, and Heinrich Schwarz. "It's Not
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What You Know, It's Who You Know: Work in the Information Age"
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First Monday 5 (5) (May, 2000)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_5/nardi/). - The authors
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describe their ethnographic research on personal social networks in
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the workplace. They argue that traditional institutional resources are
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being replaced by resources that workers mine from their own networks.
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They conclude that while "lean" and "flexible" organizations bring
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many benefits, there are unexpected influences at play -- namely,
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throwing employees on their own to find the "real" way things get
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done. Less institutional stability and fewer corporate resources have
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made workers more self-reliant, and they are responding by cultivating
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their own networks of contacts instead of consulting the
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"organizational chart." - TH
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Zick, Laura. "The Work of Information Mediators: A Comparison of
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Librarians and Intelligent Software Agents" First Monday 5(5)
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(May, 2000) (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_5/zick/). - The
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author evaluates the characteristics of information agency, the work
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of librarians and of intelligent agents as information mediators. Her
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objective is to determine whether it is possible, or even advisable,
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to replace the analytical role of information specialists with
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automated routines. A particularly bright spot in this outstanding
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analysis is the author's call for a reasoned, well-substantiated
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debate over the relative merits of person-to-person interaction --
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reference -- versus person-to-software interaction. She finds that all
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too often, the discussion of new technologies and their impact on
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library work disregards the fundamental value and vitality of the
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culture of reference. - TH
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_________________________________________________________________
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Current Cites 11(6) (June 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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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. Editor: Teri Andrews Rinne, trinne@library. berkeley.edu.
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