378 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
378 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
_Current_Cites_
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Volume 4, no. 1
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January 1993
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Library Technology Watch Program
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University of California, Berkeley
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Edited by David F.W. Robison
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ISSN: 1060-2356
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Contributors:
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Teri Rinne, Vivienne Roumani, Lisa Rowlison, Mark Takaro, Roy Tennant
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Information Transfer
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Beaver, David. "Pushing Beyond Paper" MacUser 9(1) (January
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1993):215-221. Beaver foresees that "our struggles to give up
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paper will seem endearingly backward" as we move into the 90s,
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and document servers and electronic document management systems
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become more sophisticated, more affordable, and more
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commonplace functions of the future workstation. - VR
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Computers in Libraries 12(11) (December 1992) Special issue on
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document delivery. This entire issue is devoted to several
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aspects of electronic document delivery, including copyright
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issues of electronic publishing; the relationship of libraries,
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publishers, and authors in an electronic world; and
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developments and trends of document delivery systems. - VR
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Welch, Elisa M. "Can You Read This?: OCR Software" MacUser
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9(1) (January 1993):152-184. Welch provides us with a detailed
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comparative study of eight stand-alone optical character
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recognition (OCR) software packages for the Mac. Among these
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are OmniPage, WordScan, AccuText, Read-It, and TextPert. The
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business letters her group chose to test included italics,
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bold, underlined words, and other difficult character
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combinations. - VR
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Willett, Perry, and Diane Geraci. "Optical Scanning in an
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Academic Library" College & Research Libraries News 53(11)
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(December 1992):698-701. Libraries at SUNY Binghamton, Albany,
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Buffalo, and Stony Brook participated in a project to determine
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whether or not it was feasible for libraries to provide optical
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scanning technology services to their users. Users could either
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scan materials they needed themselves, or ask library staff for
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assistance. Project participants concluded that the library
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should continue to provide scanning technology services to
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their users. - VR
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Networks and Networking
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Calcari, Susan. "NSF Network Information Services Awards"
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posted on nis@cerf.net (January 5, 1993). Calcari describes
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the NSF award of a $12 million grant to three organizations
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(AT&T, General Atomics, and Network Solutions) to launch a
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cooperative project to provide seamless network address
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services (IP numbers, domain name services), white and yellow
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page services, as well as general network information assistance.
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The providers will be free to charge for their services to those
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outside the US research and education arena. - DR
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Dern, Daniel P. "Internet Consultants" Internet World 3(9)
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(November/December 1992):12-16. Dern conducts an e-mail
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roundtable with five network consultants to discuss some of the
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issues facing Internet service providers, users, and potential
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users, with a focus on the last group. They point out that
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users are now demanding full service from the providers and the
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service providers are responding appropriately. While many
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potential users may be ignorant of the possibilities and
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potential benefits of Internet access, more and more are
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recognizing its importance and value. Also included in this
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discussion are some of the commercialization/privatization
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issues facing users and service providers. - DR
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--. "Provider Spotlight: PANIX: Bringing the Internet to the
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Big Apple" Internet World 3(9) (November/December 1992):8-11.
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Dern's interview with Alexis Rosen President of New York's first
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public-access Internet provider, PANIX, provides an interesting
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view of an Internet pioneer (yes, there are still some pioneers
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out there!). Find out what it takes to offer public access
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service and whom to trust to get the work done. Rosen also
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describes some of the future plans for PANIX' expansion, as well
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as the contingency plan in the case of a common-carrier take-
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over. After the interview Dern has included an excerpt from
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PANIX' sales information as well as the address for the full
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text. - DR
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Hinnebusch, Mark. "The Z39.50 EXPLAIN Service" Academic and
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Library Computing 9(10) (November/December 1992):12-14.
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Hinnebusch, "Mr. Z39.50", describes the recent work on the
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development of the Z39.50 implementors on the much desired
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EXPLAIN service. This service will hopefully have its first
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implementation in the next revision of the standard (Z39.50-
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1993). EXPLAIN will allow a Z39.50 compliant client to query
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a server's EXPLAIN database (using a Type 1 Query) and find out
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crucial information about the use of the server. EXPLAIN
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database attributes will not only let the client know how to pay
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for a search, but it will also give information that can assist
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the client in optimizing a search. - DR
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Loen, Larry. "Hiding data in plain sight: Some Key Questions
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About Cryptography" EFFector Online 4(5) (January 7, 1993).
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Loen provides a kind "Encryption 101," that originally appeared
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as an FAQ on the USENET group sci.crypt: what is encryption, how
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it works, how it is tested, attacked, who are the players, and
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who are those trying to thwart the system. This is the first of
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a series on encryption that will appear in EFFector Online. - DR
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The National Research and Education Network Program: A Report to
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Congress / submitted by the Director, Office of Science and
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Technology Policy. Washington, DC (20506): The Office, December
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1992. 57 p. [The report is available from the National
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Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and
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Communications, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bldg. 38-A, Room B1N30,
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Bethesda, MD 20894, 301-402-4100.] This report, required by the
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first NREN legislation, describes the government's proposal for
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the actual implementation of the legislation. The report
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addresses six major issues: funding of the Network and its
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continued development; the future operation and evolution of the
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Network; how commercial services can pay for usage of the Network
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and how users can be charged for such services; technical issues
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of allowing commercial use of the Network and its component
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networks; protection of copyright; and privacy and security.
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Included here are descriptions and charges (i.e.,
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responsibilities) of the myriad groups, committees, and
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consortia that constitute the organizational structure of the
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Network. Clearly this is an important document in the
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development of the NREN. - DR
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Nickerson, Gord. "World Wide Web: Hypertext from CERN" Computers
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in Libraries 12(11) (December 1992):75-77. Without going into
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too much detail, Nickerson provides a view of the underside of
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the operations of the World Wide Web (WWW). Readers learn how a
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networked hypertext link works and the relationship between the
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HyperText Transfer Protocol, the HyperText Markup Language and
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other developing standards such as SGML, Z39.50 and MIME. - DR
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Pengelly, Vicki L. and Barry N. Brown. "'King Kong Versus
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Godzilla': A Team Approach to Training on Internet Resources"
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Proceedings of the ACM SIGUCCS User Services Conference XX:
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Learning from the Past, Stepping into the Future, 1992, pp.181-
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186. Pengelly and Brown offer an interesting look at their
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Internet training program. The three part course covers WANs,
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library catalogs and databases, and computer conferences and
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electronic journals. In this article the authors relate their
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experiences teaching the course and include a course outline,
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as well as some of the problems that have come up. For those
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planning Internet training, this article should provide some
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useful guidance. The authors themselves are from the computing
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center and the library of their campus, respectively, and have
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found this combination to be complimentary. Beyond this, the
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collaboration on the class has fostered a better relationship
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between the two departments in general. - DR
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Smith, Jane D. "Clearinghouse for Networked Information
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Discovery and Retrieval" posted on PACS-L@UHUPVM1 (January 8,
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1993). Smith describes the mission of the Clearinghouse for
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Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR). CNIDR
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will work closely with the Coalition for Networked Information
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and the Internet Engineering Task Force and developers of
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resource discovery tools such as WAIS, Gopher, and WWW to
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provide developers with up-to-date information on standards and
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protocols. In this way CNIDR hopes to foster better
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interoperability, "compatibility and consistency, and, to the
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extent possible, convergence of the tools." - DR
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Smith, Richard J. "Report on Navigating the Internet: An
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Interactive Workshop" posted on NETTRAIN@UBVM and PACS-L@UHUPVM1
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(January 12, 1993). Smith describes his second online Internet
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course that provided training for 15,000 users and lasted over
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seven weeks. The students were an eclectic group from over 50
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countries and administration of the class became a full-time job
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for Smith. Plans are in the works for further such training as
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well as a published report on the workshops. - DR
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Steele, Shari. "BBS Legislative Watch: Legislation from Last
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Congress that May Affect Your Online Communications" EFFector
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Online 4(1) (December 17, 1992). Steele provides a round-up of
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recent legislative issues on the electronic frontier. In this
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issue: Threats to Privacy: FBI's Wiretapping Proposal Thwarted;
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Cellular Scanners Prohibited; Threats to Free Speech: Federal
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Agency to Study Hate Crimes on BBSs; Threats to the Public's
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Right to Government Information: Fees Charged for Use of
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Government BBS; Federal Employees Denied Copyrights for
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Government Software; Reproducing Copyrighted Software Now a
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Felony; Network Access for All: Commercial Users Given Internet
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Access. - DR
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Strauss, Howard Jay. "CWIS: What's in a Name?" Academic and
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Library Computing 9(10) (November/December 1992):14-17. Strauss
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describes the two most important features of the Campus-Wide
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Information System (CWIS) that will make it successful: that it
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really be campus-wide and that the information be interesting
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(and obviously so). He makes the point that like a newspaper,
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a CWIS should have something for everybody. In the interest of
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keeping the mounted information up-to-date and serving a wide
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range of interests, Strauss recommends that the CWIS should be
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administered by the campus public relations office (as the
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library's and computing center's foci would be too narrow). - DR
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Tomer, Christinger. "Anonymous FTP Resources" Academic and
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Library Computing 9(10) (November/December 1992):8-12. Tomer
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presents an analysis of the use of the File Transfer Protocol
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(FTP) at Washington University over a two year period. In
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addition to a four-fold increase in usage between 1990 and 1991,
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Tomer presents findings on the most popular types of files
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retrieved. Given the large number of files retrieved per year
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(7.5 million in 1991 from this site), and the fact that the
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large majority of the files are software, Tomer concludes that
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"anonymous FTP servers have materially altered the development
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and distribution of software." Also included is a description
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of the archie file index system and a helpful sample archie
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session. - DR
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Optical Disc Technologies
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Zarnosky, Margaret R. "Knowledge Served on a Silver Platter:
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Planning and Paying for CD-ROMs" RQ 31(1) (Fall 1992):75-84.
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Zarnosky explores the planning and budgetary considerations of
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building a CD-ROM collection. The article covers selection
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criteria, issues involving library personnel and users, and
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various costs associated with CD-ROMs. Zarnosky presents a
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number of alternatives to paying for CD-ROM databases, including
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grants, library budgetary allocations, fees, and cost savings.
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- TR
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General
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Communications of the ACM 35(12) (December 1992):26-81. Special
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section on Information Filtering. Information filtering is the
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solution to information overload we're all waiting for. The
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articles presented here cover both the theoretical and practical
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aspects of information filtering and its current development.
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o Baclace, Paul E. "Competitive Agents for Information
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Filtering," p.50. Baclace describes an agent system under
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development at Autodesk that literally employs multiple agents
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for a user in a competitive fashion. Each agent is paid, and
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must pay rent to keep its disk space!
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o Belkin, Nicholas J. and W. Bruce Croft. "Information
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Filtering and Information Retrieval: Two Sides of the Same
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Coin?" pp.29-38. Belkin and Croft analyze information filtering
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and retrieval in parallel in order to discover the relationship
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between the two. They find that the two operations have much in
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common, so much so, that they encourage researchers in
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information filtering to employ certain findings in IR research.
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They also point out where the two diverge, and must be treated
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differently.
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o Bowen, T. F., et al. "The Datacycle Architecture," pp.71-
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81. Bowen, et al. describe the Datacycle database system that
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provides flexible processing by eschewing indexing. Datacycle
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accomplishes its processing by filtering a complete copy of the
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database as it is broadcast to a parallel processing system. The
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database is continuously rebroadcast so that the data is kept up-
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to-date. This method allows for complex Boolean queries as well
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as the creation of fuzzy sets.
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o Foltz, Peter W. and Susan T. Dumais. "Personalized
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Information Delivery: An Analysis of Information Filtering
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Methods," pp.51-60. Foltz and Dumais describe their research
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into the application of information retrieval methods in n
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information filtering. Working with technical documents (less
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dynamic than news articles) as a sample, they found that Latent
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Semantic Indexing provides the best results.
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o Goldberg, David, et. al. "Using Collaborative Filtering
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to Weave an Information Tapestry," pp.61-70. Goldberg and
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company describe their information filter designed at the Xerox
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Palo Alto Research Center called Tapestry. This client/server
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system allows users to select e-mail and other objects through
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preset profiles as well as ad hoc search queries on the server's
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archive using Tapestry Query Language. The advantage of this
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specific filter is that it allows users to specify in the profile
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or query attributes of an object such as whether or not the
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object has received a response or comment from other readers,
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hence a collaborative approach.
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o Loeb, Shoshana. "Architecting Personalized Delivery of
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Multimedia Information," pp.39-48. Loeb helps expand the bounds
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of information filtering by approaching multi-type objects. She
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also notes that two types of users must be satisfied, the casual
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user and the proactive user. A detailed description of a music
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information filter is included as an example of a filter for
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primarily non-textual objects.
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o Ram, Ashwin. "Natural Language Understanding for
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Information-Filtering Systems," pp.80-81. In this sidebar, Ram
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describes, in simple terms and a short example, how natural
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language processing can be used to in information filtering. He
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describes two systems in use or development now, as well as the
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long term development goals of natural language systems in
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information filtering.
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o Stadnyk, Irene and Robert Kass. "Modelling Users'
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Interests in Information Filters," pp.49-50. In a preliminary
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study of Usenet News, the authors found that users were able to
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describe with some regularity the reason(s) a message was or
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was not interesting to them.
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o Stevens, Curt. "Automating the Creation of Information
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Filters," p.48. Stevens describes the INFOSCOPE system which
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"employs rule-based agents that recognize a user's usage patterns
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and make suggestions based on them." - DR
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Computers in Libraries 12(10) (November 1992). "Special Section:
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Library Equipment and Furniture," pp.8-34. The five articles in
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this section cover design and purchase issues for library
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technology and furniture with emphasis on ergonomic concerns as
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well as ADA compliance. Included here are guides to electronic
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information resources and a directory of vendors and distributors
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of technological devices for the disabled. - DR
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Forester, Tom. "Megatrends Or Megamistakes?: What Ever Happened
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to the Information Society?" EFFector Online 4(1-2) (December 17,
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1992). In this first part Forester looks at the effects or lack
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of effect that information technology (IT) has had on society.
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He finds that despite the dire and utopian predictions, IT has
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not had the transforming effect as predicted. Forester also
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looks at some of the reasons why the microchip has not made
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humans obsolete or given us endless leisure time. In the second
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part, Forester examines some of the unintended effects of IT,
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including privacy breaches, information overload, electronic
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crimes. - DR
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Rogers, Michael. "Mile-High Technology: LITA Does Denver"
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Library Journal 117(18) (November 1, 1992):30-32. Rogers
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provides an entertaining synopsis of LITA's Third National
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Conference held in September 1992. "The nexus of all the
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speakers' messages," writes Rogers, "was that the library
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without walls, or virtual library, is no longer a dream but a
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cold, hard fact. With networking, and especially via Internet,
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there is no piece of recorded information that isn't accessible
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to anyone anywhere at any time." - TR
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NewsBits
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"Information and Technology" Chronicle of Higher Education
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39(15) (December 9, 1992):A17.
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o Wilson, David L. "Network Will Link 17 Universities and
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the Library of Ohio."
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o --. "Project Aims to Save Records of a Black Community
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in Virginia." Personal papers and other records, including
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those from churches and civil rights groups from Richmond's
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black community, are being converted to optical disks and made
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available to scholars.
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o --. "System Catalogues Faculty members by Topics of
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Interests." Kansas State University has developed a system
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using library classification techniques and software, to provide
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profiles of faculty and their particular expertise. - VR
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Current Cites 4(1) (January 1992) ISSN: 1060-2356
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Copyright (C) 1993 by the Library, University of
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California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of
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their respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication
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does not necessarily imply endorsement of the product.
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Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computerized
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bulletin board/conference systems, individual scholars, and
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libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their
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collections at no cost. This message must appear on copied
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material. All commercial use requires permission from the editor,
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who may be reached in the following ways:
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drobison@library.berkeley.edu // drobison@ucblibra // (510)642-7600
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