Infopeople - Archive June 1994 to June 1995: Current Cites 6, No. 5 (1995)

Current Cites 6, No. 5 (1995)

Cary Gordon (libsher2@cerf.net)
Sun, 28 May 1995 11:33:39 -0700

>Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 14:58:58 CDT
>Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
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>From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
>Subject: Current Cites 6, No. 5 (1995)
>To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
>
> _Current Cites_
> Volume 6, no. 5
> May 1995
>
> Information Systems Instruction & Support
> The Library
> University of California, Berkeley
> Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
> ISSN: 1060-2356
>
>
> URL:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/
>
> Contributors:
>
> Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips,
> David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
>
>
>
>
>Electronic Publishing
>
>Blumenstyk, Goldie. "Copyright Clearance Center" Chronicle of
>Higher Education 41(32) (April 21, 1995):A32-A33. -- The
>Copyright Clearance Center, the non-profit organization that
>facilitates permission to reprint portions of copyrighted
>materials, unveiled a Web-based service that will allow its
>users to read the catalog of rights and fees, report
>photocopying plans, and calculate the costs of reprinting
>materials. See [http://www.directory.net/copyright]. By going
>online, the Center hopes to streamline the process by which
>libraries, colleges and businesses obtain the rights to
>reproduce portions of books and journals for participating
>publishers. Furthermore, the Center hopes to encourage
>publishers to create "electronic books" that could be sold
>and delivered over the network. Right now, the service
>includes information on the rights to photocopy about 75,000
>titles which covers somewhere between 20 and 50 percent of the
>items requested. Members of the publishing industry are quoted
>as saying that they are still reluctant to hand over
>responsibility for managing reproduction rights until they
>better understand the market and the technology. -- MP
>
>Boeri, Robert J. and Martin Hensel. "What Good is SGML?"
>CD-ROM Professional 8(4) (April 1995):108-110. -- Citing the
>experiences of three publishing groups, Boeri and Hensel
>provide reasons for CD-ROM publishers to use Standard
>Generalized Markup Language (SGML). They found that using
>SGML is an economical way to publish, dramatically reducing
>both cost-per-page and time-to-market. Particularly appealing
>about SGML is its system independence, which assures data
>longevity, and that multiple, customizable products can be
>derived from one SGML-encoded source, reducing duplication of
>effort. The potential difficulties of using SGML (the transition
>of production, conversion of legacy documents) are easily and
>quickly outweighed by the rewards of increased data flexibility
>and reduced creation cost. -- CJC
>
>Caruso, Denise. "Digital Commerce" The New York Times 144
>(April 17, 1995). In this week's column, Caruso muses on the
>potential profits that publishers could make by going online.
>Rather than making electronic publications available through
>online services like America Online to which they must pay a
>fee, publishers are now realizing that they can publish directly
>on the World Wide Web. And, with electronic payment systems now
>being designed, publishers can charge for their services and
>reap their profits directly. Caruso celebrates the fact that
>there are believed to be 100 new Web sites created every day
>and that the Web allows anybody -- from Time-Warner to
>angst-ridden teenagers -- to produce a homepage. However, she
>does not question the lack of access to these sites and seems
>perfectly satisfied with the fact that her favorite Web site was
>discovered the way most "neat stuff on the Web" is found --
>someone sent her the address. -- MP
>
>Lewis, Peter H. "Big Newspapers to Help Locals on Internet"
>The New York Times 144 (April 20, 1995). -- This story in the
>Times business section reports on the establishment of the New
>Century Network, an alliance of eight major U.S. newspaper
>companies whose goal is to provide technical and consulting
>support that will allow more than 123 affiliated daily
>newspapers to develop online services on the World Wide Web.
>Though some major newspaper companies are not affiliated with
>the alliance, New Century Network hopes to create common standards
>and a unified, nationwide system to withstand competition from
>regional telephone companies and commercial information networks.
>--MP
>
>Reisman, Richard R. "CD-ROM/Online Hybrids: The Missing Link?"
>CD-ROM Professional 8(4) (April 1995):67-74. -- Reisman argues
>that since CD-ROM and online, the two most effective and popular
>technologies in electronic publishing, have complementary
>advantages and disadvantages (see Wiedemer and Boelio below),
>the two technologies should be combined into a hybrid system.
>Such a hybrid system would be formed by embedding a specialized
>software communications module into a conventional CD-ROM
>product, maintains all the features of the original CD-ROM while
>adding an easy to use, inexpensive communications facility to
>retrieve updated information from a remote service. This approach
>brings to CD-ROM products the immediacy of online access while
>retaining none of its disadvantages. -- TR
>
>Wiedemer, John David and David B. Boelio. "CD-ROM Versus Online:
>An Economic Analysis for Publishers" CD-ROM Professional 8(4)
>(April 1995):36-42. -- The authors compare the costs, advantages,
>and disadvantages of CD-ROM and online as an electronic publishing
>distribution medium. They predict that CD-ROM and online services
>will co-exist peacefully and even work together in some cases. One
>of the main selling points of online services is instant access to
>vast amounts of data that can be updated as frequently as desired.
>Less time-sensitive material can usually be provided more cheaply
>by CD-ROM, with its relatively high capacity and cost efficient
>storage capabilities. The article's accompanying graphic compares
>the cost of delivering one megabyte of information: online $17,
>print $3.50, 3.5 diskette $0.55 and CD-ROM $0.0024! -- TR
>
>
>Multimedia and Hypermedia
>
>Ardman, Harvey. "IBM Digital Library Manipulates Multimedia"
>Imaging World 4(5): 1, 66. -- With the number of "digital library"
>initiatives being announced recently, one can become confused as
>to where the libraries are in all this. IBM's announcement of
>their own company-wide "digital library" project can be seen as a
>booster-shot in the arm of digitizing library collections by
>drawing the interest and support of one of the leading computer
>companies, or conversely, as a movement that by-passes the
>professional leadership of actual librarians. A project that is
>the combination of both is, of course, ideal. IBM is not alone
>in this project; its interesting partners range from the Vatican
>and the L.A. Public Library to ViaCom and TelStar. -- RR
>
>Argoski, Jason. "Virtual Museums: The Web Experience"
>[http://mirror.wwa.com/mirror/rov-int/95/museums.htm]
>-- The author covers many salient points raised in getting a
>museum to create a presence on the Web. He points out that while
>much educational information on the 'net has tended to be rather
>rigorous and academic, museums are often both educational and
>entertaining - a winning combination with the Web's newer home
>audiences. Other issues raised are the flexibility of data,
>intelligent use of hyperlinks, easy navigation and more. This
>article would be an excellent companion piece to a more
>technical article for someone starting to plan for any
>educational institution's public face on the 'net. -- RR
>
>Bowen, Jonathan. "Museums and the Internet"
>["http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/other/museums/talk/]
>-- This is actually a set of slides from a talk the author
>gave on the Internet, with hyperlinks online, creating a
>brief reference piece. The slides/pages would be useful to
>anyone giving a persuasive presentation to a museum board
>about going "online"; the author has explicitly allowed
>duplication for non-commercial use. The author also maintains
>the extensive list of online museums on the WWW Virtual
>Library at Oxford University Computing Laboratory. See
>[http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/other/museums/"]. -- RR
>
>
>Networks and Networking
>
>"Do We Really Want to Be Wired?" Educom Review 30(3)
>(May/June 1995):12-23. -- The academic technos on the
>Educom Review mailing list are getting a surprise in
>their mailbox this month, in the form of a parody/imitation/
>critique of the publishing phenomenon known as _Wired_.
>Educom Review editor and publisher John Gehl is openly
>gleeful at being able to break the rules of readable
>typography and comprehensible page layout under the guise
>of mimicking the style of the magazine that the six pieces
>in this special section discuss. Some contributors argue
>that _Wired_ is much more than its eye-straining visual
>experimentation, while others assert it is mere technodazzle
>without content. But no matter which side of the fence you're
>sitting on, Gehl states, "_Wired_ has been doing something to
>pay attention to, if you're interested in information
>technology, contemporary education, or modern culture." Gehl's
>audience is likely interested in all three. -- RT
>
>Jacobson, Robert L. "Librarians Agree on Coordination of Digital
>Plans" Chronicle of Higher Education 41(35) (May 12, 1995) A28.
>-- The Commission on Preservation and Access of the National
>Digital Library Federation is a newly-established, non-profit
>group of leading academic and public libraries whose goal is to
>set policy on financing the development and access of digitized
>material. With so many projects that have sprung up recently,
>the federation hopes to adopt "common standards and best
>practices" for digitizing and retrieving information in order
>that electronic materials be as widely available as possible.
>-- MP
>
>Jacobson, Robert L. "Taming the Internet" Chronicle of Higher
>Education 41(32) (April 21, 1995):A29-A31. -- This article
>focuses on efforts by librarians to seek better subject
>indexing of the ever-growing yet unorganized mass of materials
>that now makes up the Internet. While some tools and guides to
>the Internet do exist, most of these resources were created by
>computer experts, not librarians. Librarians, it is argued, have
>the professional training and collection development expertise
>to provide authoritative subject access and analysis of Internet
>material in the same way that they evaluate and provide subject
>access to printed materials. The peer review process for printed
>journals along with collection development policies help users
>of traditional libraries know which resources are important or
>reputable; the Internet, however, does not have similar
>standards. As long as library administrators fail to make
>organizing the Internet a priority, argues Jacobson, the
>academic potential of the Internet will never be realized.
>The article profiles collaborative efforts by New York area
>librarians to index specific subjects in the Internet by
>creating subject-based gophers. Also discussed are efforts by
>the Research Libraries Group, OCLC Online Computer Library
>Center and the Association for Research Libraries to develop
>online catalogs to electronic resources as well as their efforts
>to develop a Web homepage that would provide links to electronic
>journals. -- MP
>
>Koster, Martijn. "Robots in the Web: Threat or Treat?,"
>ConneXions 9(4) (April 1995): 2-12. -- In this informative
>article, Koster reviews Web robots (or "spiders," "wanderers,"
>or "worms") which are used for dynamically gathering information
>on Web resources. He reviews the uses to which robots can be put,
>the operational costs or dangers of using them, issues relating
>to the quality of the resulting catalog of resources, ethical
>questions any prospective Web robot author should consider,
>and alternative strategies for resource discovery. This excellent
>overview of the Web robot phenomenon includes a thorough
>bibliography. -- RT
>
>Ober, John. "Challenges in Teaching and Learning Multimedia,"
>FID News Bulletin 45(4) (April 1995):116-120. -- Current
>Cites contributor John Ober enumerates the challenges
>facing those learning and teaching multimedia systems.
>Specific instructional problems discussed include the
>difficulty of creating useful metaphors to explain aspects
>of multimedia systems, the challenge of describing entirely
>new forms of interaction and work (hypermedia, for example),
>and the pitfall of being seduced by powerful presentation
>possibilities (color, sound, moving images) to the detriment
>of attention to actual content. -- RT
>
>Pountain, Dick. "The British Library's Catalog is On-Line"
>Byte 22(5) (May 1995): 62-70. -- This article describes the
>system that The British Library built to place their 18 million
>volume paper-based catalog online. One of their primary goals
>was to have full-text searching capabilities across the multiple
>languages and alphabets included in the paper catalog. The focus
>of this article is on the technology involved in building this
>system. The hardware (a two-level client/server system using DEC
>computers with touch-screens) and the software (BRS/Search for the
>full-text retrieval and Fontographer to handle special characters
>needed for the various languages and ancient scripts contained in
>the catalog) are at the heart of this informative piece. The
>illustrated side-bars and the list of product vendors make this
>a useful reference for others interested in undertaking a similar
>endeavor. -- DR
>
>Quarterman, John S. "The History of the Internet and the
>Matrix," ConneXions 9(4) (April 1995):13-25. -- The author of
>_The Matrix_ covers the high points of the development of
>the Internet, starting with Vannevar Bush's oft-cited article
>"As We May Think" (published in 1945) and ending with
>January 1995. While Quarterman occasionally interjects
>opinion and comment on the events he chronicles, it is largely
>a factual listing of milestones that is an excellent resource
>for authors and others who need to quickly check a fact. If
>a book-length Internet history is desired, see the Salus
>citation below. -- RT
>
>
>Pacific Bell. _ISDN: A User's Guide to Services, Applications &
>Resources in California_ 1994. (Also at
>[http://www.pacbell.com/Products/SDS-ISDN/Book/toc.html])
>-- Though the title of this document is accurate - it details the
>services and pricing of ISDN services in California - it also is
>a very readable introduction to ISDN (credit is given to a similar
>work produced at France Telecom, Inc.). Given that ISDN is likely
>to be a major strategy for access to the Internet for the home user
>and small business user alike, developing a clear understanding
>of what it is and how it might be priced and made available is a
>worthwhile activity for all Internet aficionados. Through clear
>text, inviting graphics, and explanatory sidebars, this small
>publication fits the bill. -- JLO
>
>Salus, Peter. _Casting the Net: From ARPANet to Internet
>and Beyond..._. Addison-Wesley: Reading, MA, 1995. -- In _Casting
>the Net_, Salus throws his wide and draws in an eclectic mix of
>dry network history, interesting characters, and selected RFCs
>(Requests for Comments) to tell the history of the Internet. Salus,
>author of the definitive (only?) history of UNIX (_A Quarter Century
>of UNIX_), benefits from being close enough to the subject to know
>the major players but remote enough not to be one. Each of five
>parts of the book is preceded by a timeline, and the collection of
>these provides a most useful summary history. "Diversions" are
>sprinkled throughout, and mainly consist of the more humorous and/or
>poetic RFCs. If a book-length Internet history is not what you seek,
>see the Quarterman article cited above. -- RT
>
>United States General Accounting Office. Report to Congress.
>_Information Superhighway: An Overview of Technology Challenges_.
>January 1995. -- While avoiding some of the critical issues still in
>debate, this "Report to Congress" does serve as a useful tutorial for
>three main technological issues including security (including privacy),
>interoperability of services and systems, and the reliability
>the network as more commerce and mission-critical data is carried
>on the "superhighway." -- JLO
>
>
>Optical Disc Technology
>
>Beiser, Karl. "Library of Congress Resources on CD-ROM" Online
>19(2) (March/April 1995):94-97. -- Beiser heralds the release of
>two Library of Congress products available on CD-ROM of special
>interest to technical services librarians. CDMARC Bibliographic
>is a multidisc collection of all machine-readable cataloging
>records distributed by the Library of Congress since 1969,
>regardless of language or form of materials. The Cataloger's
>Desktop is a Windows-based CD-ROM featuring sophisticated
>full-text access to a variety of reference materials helpful
>in cataloging materials (LC Rule Interpretations, Subject
>Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings, Subject Cataloging Manual:
>Classification, USMARC Concise Formats, USMARC Format for
>Authority Data, and USMARC code lists). -- TR
>
>Bennett, Hugh. "CD-R Growing Pains" CD-ROM Professional 8(4)
>(April 1995):29-35. -- When compared to the CD-R systems of two
>or three years ago, today's CD-R systems are considered
>relatively stable, refined and reliable. Bennett chronicles
>the technical growing pains of the CD-R industry: buggy firmware,
>questionable quality of CD-R discs, disc readability problems,
>and small memory buffers. Although many of these hurdles have
>been overcome, CD-R is not for everyone or every company--yet.
>One industry spokesperson advocates a conservative approach
>when implementing a CD-R system in the workplace: "If somebody
>wants to dedicate half of one person's full-time salary to use
>the equipment on a daily or weekly basis, and dedicate internal
>resources--meaning manpower--to understand the technology and
>use it on an everyday basis, CD-R is a very wise investment."
>If, however, a company's interest in CD-R has only one project
>for which they would only infrequently use the technology,
>relative cost savings would be marginal. -- TR
>
>Herther, Nancy. "CD-ROM at Ten Years: The Technology and the
>Industry Mature" Online 19(2) (March/April 1995):86-93. -- It's
>hard to believe that just ten years ago, CD-ROM drives cost
>$2000 each and only about a dozen title were available for
>sale. Today, drives can be purchased for $75 and a conservative
>estimate of the number of titles available would be in excess
>of 14,000! Herther celebrates the ten-year anniversary of CD-ROM
>by reviewing industry trends of the past decade and by looking
>forward into the next decade. Herther predicts future growth
>and penetration of CD-ROM technology, a further explosion of
>in-house CD-ROM production in corporations, and lower prices
>for better quality products at all market levels. -- TR
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>Current Cites 6(5) (May 1995) ISSN: 1060-2356
>Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of
>California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
>
>All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
>of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this
>publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the
>product.
>
>[URL:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/]
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>

Cary Gordon libsher2@cerf.net
Community Partner 72477.62@compuserve.com
Sherman Oaks Branch
Los Angeles Public Library