153 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
153 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
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Volume 12, no. 2, February 2001
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Edited by Roy Tennant
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ISSN: 1060-2356 - http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2001/cc01.12.2.html
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Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Jim Ronningen, Roy Tennant
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Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium:
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Confronting the Challenges of Networked Resoures and the Web Washington, DC:
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The Library of Congress (November 15-17, 2000) (http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/
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bibcontrol/conference.html). - Anyone interested in library bibliographic
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control may find this set of discussion papers, presentations, and responses
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interesting. Participants included such cataloging and metadata luminaries as
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Michael Gorman, Clifford Lynch, Priscilla Caplan, William Moen, Martin Dillon,
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and Caroline Arms, among others. The complete proceedings are online, including
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the reactions of assigned commentators to certain presentations.
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Recommendations from "topical discussion groups" are also available, but are
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somewhat disappointing in depth and scope -- no doubt because of the limited
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time allowed to address the topics. Although overall I found it to be more
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complacent ("search engines/dot coms need us" was one plaint -- no matter that
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they couldn't care less) than is warranted in these times of bibliographic
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upheaval, there are useful papers, presentations, and comments here. - RT
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Grönlund, Åke, guest ed. "Democracy in an IT-Framed Society." Lance J. Hoffman
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and Lorrie Cranor, guest eds. "Internet Voting for Public Officials."
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Communications of the ACM 44(1) (January 2001). - First things first: you won't
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find a remedy for the Florida electoral mess in either of these two special
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sections of the January CACM, but the second of them presents well-defended pro
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and con arguments about online voting, which has received increasing attention
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as a way of avoiding chad-chasing, selective counting and the whole sorry
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story. The pro side acknowledges implementation problems yet to be solved but
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promises increased participation and accountability; the con side raises
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serious questions about security and equity. The 'IT-Framed Society' section
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targets policy makers who may consider the broadest applications of information
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technology to social planning, governance and political organization. There are
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nine articles on such topics as the European Union's newness being a logical
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incubator for new public information systems, methods for rating IT's effects
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on democratic participation, and roles computer professionals can play (using
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the Seattle Community Network [www.scn.org] as an example). Readers who are
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unfamiliar with the CACM and assume that the content is always technical in
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nature would have their heads turned by issues like this one. - JR
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Guernsey, Lisa. "Mining the 'Deep Web' With Sharper Shovels?" The New York
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Times (January 25, 2001): Section D; Page 1; Column 2. - The 'deep' or
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'invisible' web is becoming more of on an issue as the web grows and the
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ability of search engines to index pages fails to keep pace. Information is
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often hidden deep within pages not indexed or missed because it is a multimedia
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or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file or contained within a database. According to some
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analysts as little as a fraction of 1% of the web can be accessed by search
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engines. In response, there is a new type of speciality or "boutique" search
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engine that narrows the information universe to more manageable proportions. An
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example, is MySimon that allows user to comparison shop across sites,
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moreover.com that culls headlines from nearly 2000 news sites and Google's
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"Uncle Sam" area that limits searching to governmental information. These
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specialized search tools use sophisticated bots to filter and hone in on
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information. Interestingly, it is probably users who may hinder their own
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ability to become more efficient searchers as most people, as librarians know,
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seem to prefer to do a broad search in the biggest database possible. - ML
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Kenney, Anne R. and Oya Y. Rieger, editors. "The National Library of
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Australia's Digital Preservation Agenda, an Interview with Colin Webb" RLG
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DigiNews 5(1) (February 15, 2001) (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/
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diginews5-1.html#feature1). - As the Director of Preservation of the National
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Library of Australia, there are few persons as well-placed and as experienced
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as Colin Webb when it comes to dealing with digital preservation issues on a
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grand scale. Australia has established itself at the forefront of a number of
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digital library initiatives, and digital preservation is clearly one. This
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interview touches on a number of reasons why, but admittedly at the 30,000 foot
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level. Anyone intrigued with the NLA digital preservation efforts discussed in
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this interview would do well to investigate the provided URLs. - RT
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Lake, David. ""Engines Idling Roughly" The Standard (February 9, 2001) (http://
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www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,22065,00.html). - A brief
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article, with good graphs and charts, that summarizes some recent studies of
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search engine use. Only 7% of web pages are accessed via a search engine but
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60% of web surfers using a search engine for at least one hour a week. Despite
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a majority of users indicating they are frustrated with search engines within
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15 minutes, 60% still rate their own searches as "often" successful. Of course,
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if Google indexes only 42% of all searchable pages — and they are ranked number
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one in this category - who knows what users are missing. - ML
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Mickey, Bill. "Open Source and Libraries: An Interview with Dan Chudnov" Online
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25(1) (January 2001). - Current Cites readers and others will remember Dan
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Chudnov from his Docster article in Library Journal, in which he had the
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audacity to suggest a Napster-like model for interlibrary loan. His piece on
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open source software in Library Journal did not escape our notice either. In
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fact, the library community had better keep a close watch on this guy, since he
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is out to change not just what we do, but how we do it. How? By getting
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together and writing the software we need in an open, cooperative environment.
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By using our imaginations instead of our checkbooks. And by not accepting
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"we've never done it that way" as an adequate excuse. Yes, I would keep my eye
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on him if I were you. And this interview is as good a place to start as any,
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although at the time this piece was written he was still at Yale (he has since
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quit to start his own venture). In this interview Chudnov makes a case for open
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source software in libraries, in a way that makes it clear he is excited by
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this. We should be too. - RT
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Ockerbloom, John Mark. "Archiving and Preserving PDF Files" RLG DigiNews 5(1)
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(February 15, 2001) (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews5-1.html#
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feature2). - The Adobe Acrobat (Portable Document Format, PDF) format is not
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generally considered to be the format of choice for long-term preservation of
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digital documents. But, as Ockerbloom points out, neither should it be
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considered to be a format completely unsuitable for preservation. Although
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Adobe Systems, Inc. controls the format, the specification is freely published
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and widely implemented. Third-party software (including open source
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applications) are available that can manipulate the format in various ways,
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including migrating it to a different format. This article is the best
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explication I've seen of the format, the ways in which document in this format
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can be "rescued" or migrated into another format, and pitfalls and
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opportunities along the way. He includes specific steps institutions can take
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to reduce their exposure to document disaster down the road. As Ockerbloom
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says, "in summary, it is reasonable, given careful techniques..., for
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institutions to collect documents in PDF format with the expectation that they
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can be archived and preserved indefinitely, even as computer technology and
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standards advance." Is this a defensible statement? Time will certainly tell,
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but meanwhile, I'm much more convinced of it than I was before reading this
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piece. - RT
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Odlyzko, Andrew. "Content is Not King" First Monday 6(2) (February 5, 2001)
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(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_2/odlyzko/). - The author studies
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recent advances in "connectivity" and evaluates whether Bill Gates was right
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when he famously stated that "content is king". He builds a strong case around
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the argument that the Internet is really "about connectivity", and that vast
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investments in content are misguided. The central point he makes is that newer
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technologies (such as Wireless Application Protocol and Short Message System)
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emphasize voice calls. This article is most interesting as an exercise in the
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technology-based deconstruction of Internet myth making, with the content myth
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as its subject. Essentially, the hazards of coining epithets at net-speed are
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many, because the development stream may shift pathways in a matter of months.
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- TH
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Current Cites 12(2) (February 2001) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright © 2001 by the Regents of the University of California All rights
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reserved.
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Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized bulletin board/
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authorized to add the journal to their collections at no cost. This message
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must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires permission from the
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editor. All product names are trademarks or registered trade marks 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. To subscribe to the Current Cites
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