195 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
195 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
|
||
Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
|
||
|
||
Volume 11, no. 7, July 2000
|
||
|
||
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
|
||
|
||
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
|
||
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
|
||
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.7.html
|
||
|
||
Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick , Jim
|
||
Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, Roy Tennant
|
||
|
||
Arms, William. "Automated Digital Libraries: How Effectively Can
|
||
Computers Be Used for the Skilled Tasks of Professional
|
||
Librarianship?" D-Lib Magazine 6(7/8)(July/August 2000)
|
||
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july00/arms/07arms.html). - In Current Cites
|
||
we don't just cite articles we agree with, we cite articles we think
|
||
you should read. This one falls into the latter category. In it Arms
|
||
(a computer scientist active in digital library development) posits a
|
||
question that he then forgets to answer. But what "answer" he does
|
||
provide is very disturbing. To begin with, he reduces the question to
|
||
one of cost. That is, can automated digital libraries provide an
|
||
"acceptable substitute" at a lower cost. Apparently they can, to
|
||
someone who thinks Google provides better service than Inspec, as Arms
|
||
claims. Unfortunately I do not have the space to refute Arms' opinion
|
||
and unsubstantiated arguments that appear to suggest that automated
|
||
digital libraries can perform most of the skilled tasks of
|
||
professional librarianship. At least he seems to acknowledge that
|
||
reference service is likely to remain too difficult for machines,
|
||
although he relies on personal anecdotes when scholarly evidence such
|
||
as that published by Bonnie Nardi is close at hand. For those of
|
||
you who are librarians, read this piece closely. It largely depicts
|
||
what computer scientists think of you, the libraries you have built
|
||
and are building, and the value of human-constructed and maintained
|
||
library collections and services. It is not a pretty sight. - RT
|
||
|
||
Baker, Nicholson. "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save
|
||
America's Past" The New Yorker (July 24, 2000): 42-61. - Nicholson
|
||
Baker is well-known to the library community for his 1994 and 1996
|
||
articles in The New Yorker bemoaning the demise of the card catalog
|
||
and taking to task the San Francisco Public Library for discarding
|
||
books. He goes on the offensive once more with a quixotic attempt to
|
||
save long-runs of American newspapers from being discarded after the
|
||
process of microfilming. As with his other library pieces, Baker is no
|
||
detached observer but a fully-fledged participant, actually forming
|
||
his own non-profit organization, the American Newspaper Repository, in
|
||
an attempt to save numerous sets of historical newspaper from being
|
||
sold by the British Library. The piece highlights some important
|
||
issues regarding the process of microfilming for preservation and
|
||
archival purposes with Baker severely criticizing the library
|
||
community for not doing enough to ensure the preservation of at least
|
||
some hard copy runs of newspapers. He is particularly vexed at what he
|
||
sees as the poor quality of much microfilming and what he views,
|
||
rather unfairly, as the overblown claims of librarian administrators
|
||
concerning issues of space and the degradation of much newsprint,
|
||
especially from the 19th century. He correctly points out that with
|
||
the demise of paper collections that companies such as Bell & Howell,
|
||
which owns microfilm negatives for most large newspapers, has "a
|
||
near-monopoly on the reproduction rights for the chief primary sources
|
||
of twentieth-century history." As with all his articles the writing is
|
||
of top quality, especially his description of a company in New Jersey,
|
||
the Historic Newspaper archives, that sells newspapers to give as
|
||
gifts for particular birth-dates. This article is sure to cause much
|
||
debate in the library world. - ML
|
||
|
||
Borgman, Christine L. From Gutenberg to the Global Information
|
||
Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World
|
||
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. - Despite a rather unsatisfying title,
|
||
Borgman has succeeded in writing the definitive text book for digital
|
||
library courses. Since the author is a professor at the UCLA library
|
||
school, and a visiting professor at Loughborough University in
|
||
England, this comes as no surprise. As one expects of a textbook, it
|
||
is an authoritative overview of the issues, with frequent references
|
||
to the supporting literature. Don't expect to be able to run out and
|
||
build digital library collections and services based on what you learn
|
||
here, but do expect to have a thorough grounding in the field from a
|
||
scholarly perspective. - RT
|
||
|
||
Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging. Council on Library
|
||
and Information Resources, 2000 (http://www.rlg.org/visguides/). -
|
||
Anyone digitizing visual resources owes it to their project to study
|
||
the information at this site. Collected together in one location is
|
||
some of the best advice on digital imaging from top-notch experts in
|
||
the field. Practical information is offered on planning a project,
|
||
selecting a scanner, factors affecting image quality, measuring
|
||
quality of digital masters, and file formats for master files. This is
|
||
not a static publication, but will be updated periodically to keep it
|
||
up-to-date with current standards and best practices. An excellent
|
||
resource from the Research Libraries Group, the
|
||
Digital Library Federation, and the Council on Library and
|
||
Information Resources. - RT
|
||
|
||
LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress Washington,
|
||
DC: National Academy Press, 2000
|
||
(http://www.nap.edu/books/0309071445/html/). - This report comprises
|
||
the findings of a committee of the National Research Council that
|
||
reviewed the Library of Congress' technology practices and
|
||
initiatives. Although the report focuses on the Library of Congress,
|
||
there is much here that can serve as useful advice for other
|
||
libraries. Skip over the sections and chapters that focus directly on
|
||
the LOC, and find the parts that deal more broadly with topics that
|
||
impact (or will) all libraries. Specific chapters to pay particular
|
||
attention to (at least in part) include the introductory chapter and
|
||
those on collection development, preservation, and organization for
|
||
access. - RT
|
||
|
||
Miller, Paul. "Interoperability: What is it and Why Should I Want
|
||
it?" Ariadne
|
||
(24) (June 2000) (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/).
|
||
- Interoperability between digital libraries is essential if library
|
||
users are to be offered simple access to a wide variety of library
|
||
content and services. Without it, library users must first discover
|
||
where all the various digital library collections can be found, and
|
||
then go to each one and search them individually. In this excellent
|
||
overview, the interoperability expert for the United Kingdom's
|
||
eLib Programme defines interoperability and describes all of its
|
||
various dimensions in the digital library context. The web site that
|
||
the author manages, Interoperability Focus
|
||
(http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/) is also a good resource for
|
||
further information. - RT
|
||
|
||
The Secret Books
|
||
(http://www.thesecretbooks.com/). - Okay, secret or not-so-secret
|
||
digital bibliophiles: take a break from your monthly Current Cites
|
||
reading list to visit this stunning flash- or dhtml-enhanced
|
||
photographic interpretation of snippets of various of Borges' essays
|
||
on books and libraries, including the ubiquitous "Library of Babel."
|
||
Yes, on one plane this site serves as a glamorous advertisement to buy
|
||
the photographer's physical book. But provocative photographic
|
||
juxtapositions of old books with snakes, fruit, stone, voodoo candles,
|
||
inscribed skulls and mirrors offer up a gorgeous statement on books
|
||
and materiality in an ironically digital wrapper, as well as an
|
||
elegant conversation between Borges' texts and Kernan's images. -
|
||
LM
|
||
|
||
Tennant, Roy. "Beg, Buy, Borrow, License or Steal" LJ Digital
|
||
(July 15, 2000)
|
||
(http://www.ljdigital.com/articles/infotech/digitallibraries/20000615_
|
||
15167.asp) - For librarians building digital libraries in this age of
|
||
the digital incunabulum, juggling the market (should we buy? license?
|
||
scan an out-of-copyright version of? this or that very expensive
|
||
digital publication) can make one's head spin. Our Current Cites
|
||
colleague Roy Tennant offers some judicious advice stemming from his
|
||
experience and expertise as the SunSITE manager at UC Berkeley, and
|
||
now as eScholarship Web & Services Manager at the California Digital
|
||
Library. Knowing one's options -- and orchestrating the right mix --
|
||
are the key. Roy outlines the strengths of each of the means he
|
||
suggests in his title and provides a sidebar of useful links to help
|
||
to get your head on straight. - LM
|
||
|
||
Young, Jeffrey R. "A Historian Presents the Civil War, Online and
|
||
Unfiltered by Historians" NY Times Technology Circuits
|
||
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/circuits/articles/29ayer.ht
|
||
ml) - The Valley of the Shadow project
|
||
(http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu) has been on the web for nearly five
|
||
years, but as truly one of the most stunning digital archive success
|
||
stories going, it garners renewed mention by Young on the eve of the
|
||
release of the CD-ROM version. Under the aegis of the University of
|
||
Virginia and the leadership of history professor Edward L. Ayers, the
|
||
archive contains some 5000 pages of digitized photographs, newspaper
|
||
articles, records, wills, census figures, and diaries covering the
|
||
years 1857 to 1870 and issuing from two representative counties, one
|
||
in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia. In his article, Young
|
||
characterizes it as a "do-it-yourself history kit," where users can
|
||
let their own research into the sources lead them to their own
|
||
conclusions. With the boon of database searching, modern users can
|
||
find connections which might have taken pre-Valley researchers an
|
||
entire sabbatical to cobble together. And, as Young points out, the
|
||
sources themselves take a refreshingly wide cross-section, from a
|
||
slave woman's letter to her husband on her impending sale to traders,
|
||
to the insipid diary entries of an upper-class teenager. The CD-ROM
|
||
version, due out next month, is being touted as an interactive hybrid
|
||
of multimedia and scholarship, or an "interactive archive." - LM
|
||
_________________________________________________________________
|
||
|
||
Current Cites 11(7) (July 2000) ISSN: 1060-2356
|
||
Copyright <20> 2000 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley.
|
||
All rights reserved.
|
||
|
||
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin
|
||
board/conference systems, individual scholars, and libraries.
|
||
Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their collections at no
|
||
cost. This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use
|
||
requires permission from the editor. All product names are trademarks
|
||
or registered trade marks of their respective holders. Mention of a
|
||
product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of
|
||
the product. To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send
|
||
the message "sub cites [your name]" to
|
||
listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your
|
||
name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same
|
||
address. Editor: Teri Andrews Rinne, trinne@library. berkeley.edu.
|
||
|