_Current Cites_ Volume 6, no. 10 October 1995 The Library University of California, Berkeley Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne ISSN: 1060-2356 http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1995/cc95.6.10.html Contributors: Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant Editor's Note: The Current Cites web site has moved to the UC Berkeley Library's brand new SunSITE. Please change your bookmarks accordingly. Web manager and senior cites contributor Roy Tennant has taken this opportunity to enhance our web site with a new design and retrospective HTML mark-up for back issues. Check it out! Electronic Publishing Cronin, Blaise and Kara Overfelt. "E-Journals and Tenure" Journal of the American Society for Information Science 46(9) (October 1995):700-703. -- A brief discussion about the role of electronic publishing in the promotion and tenure process for university scholars. Though it is not yet clear whether the academic reward system is embracing e-journals as criteria for advancement, it is clear that a growing number of individual scholars and administrators believe e-journals to be worthy of inclusion in the review process. -- DR DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Copyright in Cyberspace" Chronicle of Higher Education 42(3) (September 15, 1995):A22, A24. -- A report issued by the Commerce Department's Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights [http://www.uspto.gov/web/ipnii/] has recommended certain changes to copyright law that would accommodate access to information on the Internet. Librarians and educators have expressed concern that the report is dominated by business concerns favoring the rights of copyright owners over the needs of academia. Many have also expressed concern over the recommendation that network operators be held responsible for copyright infringements; they fear that those responsible for running networks would be required to become "copyright police." -- MP DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Panel Urges Saving Digital Data for Posterity" Chronicle of Higher Education 42(2) (September 8, 1995):A31. -- The Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group has created a task force to investigate how best to insure continued access to records stored in digital form. The report issued by this task force calls on individuals and organizations interested in digital archives to work together on developing standards and mechanisms for moving digital materials into usable formats; it also calls for cooperation between copyright owners and archivists in determining who has access to the archived materials. The report, which is still considered by its authors to be in an interim stage is available at http://www-rlg.stanford.edu/ArchTF/. -- MP Multimedia and Hypermedia Bearman, David, ed. _Hands On Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums_ (ISBN:1-885626-12-6) Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics, 1995. -- This book is a publication of the papers and articles presented at the Third International Conference on Hypermedia & Interactivity in Museums. The diversity of issues covered is great: from audiences and new technology, new media in instruction and research, detailed case studies of multimedia projects, to intellectual property and more. This book and its companion volume, "Multimedia Computing and Museums" (ISBN: 1-885626-11-8), raise issues that are of interest even beyond museums, and will be fruitful reading for anyone in the cultural heritage community. -- RR Besser, Howard & Jennifer Trant. _Introduction to Imaging: Issues in Constructing an Image Database_ (ISBN: 0-89236-361-4) Los Angeles: Getty Art History Information Program, 1995. [available at http://www.ahip.getty.edu/intro_imaging/home.html] -- This booklet is a very readable and concise guide to the process of imaging with the end-goal of using the images in any type of image database for online display and delivery over networks. It covers image standards, quality control, techniques and more. The book will be of great use to the manager or technical staff beginning an imaging project, and contains a glossary of terms as well as a bibliography for further reading. -- RR Networks and Networking Bournellis, Cynthia. "Internet '95" Internet World 6(11) (November 1995):47-52. -- One of the most commonly asked questions on the Internet relates to the "vital statistics" of the net itself; that is, how many users, files, servers, etc., can be found on this world wide network. Whether this curiosity stems from a sense of awe at the phenomenal growth the Internet has seen, or a desire to justify capital outlays for Internet services, the urge to quantify is clearly not going away anytime soon. In this article Bournellis highlights some of the network surveys that have been done to try and quantify what seems to be nearly unquantifiable. URLs to key statistical sources are provided as well so readers can keep up with the rapidly changing statistical picture. -- RT Chrzastowski, Tina E. "Do Workstations Work Too Well?: An Investigation into Library Workstation Popularity and the Principle of Least Effort" Journal of the American Society for Information Science 46(8) (September 1995): 638-641.-- Chrzastowski looks at statistics taken from library workstations at the Chemistry Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that seem to show a trend among users away from the more exhaustive print indexes (in this case Chemical Abstracts) in favor of the less comprehensive electronic indexes available via the library workstation (Current Contents). -- DR Green, Tim. "Online Information Services: Caught in the Web?" Online 19(4) (July/August 1995):22-31. [available at http://www.research.ibm.com/xw-library] -- Green describes how online database providers such as Dialog, Lexis-Nexis, STN International and others are using the World Wide Web. Common uses include marketing, product testing and limited free services. Screen shots from most of the services mentioned are included. -- RT Heaney, Michael. "Object-Oriented Cataloging" Information Technology and Libraries 14(3) (September 1995):135-153. -- Amidst an outcry from librarians to "catalog the Internet" (as if that were possible), Heaney's article appears to indicate that such an activity would be like loading more people on the Titanic while it sinks beneath their feet. Certainly many of the limitations and problems with existing bibliographic standards like AACR2 and MARC are well-known among librarians conversant with them, but Heaney goes much farther than most would go in his attempt to bring cataloging practice into the networked age. He proposes an entirely new cataloging standard (AACR3 as it were) based upon object-oriented modeling. He freely acknowledges, however, that the sheer weight of existing standards presents a formidable barrier to the drastic changes that he proposes. Nonetheless it can be provocative and informative to consider his proposal. -- RT Lewis, Peter H. "Most Go On Line at Home, Study Finds" New York Times 145(50,224) (October 23, 1995):C6. -- An online survey conducted in mid-1995 by Yahoo, Inc. and Jupiter Communications concludes that computer networks have become a mass market medium faster than many insiders had expected and suggests that most people access the Web from home, not from the office or at school. A majority of participants in the Yahoo survey said that they had cut back on television watching in order to spend more time on the Internet and many said they visited the Web or another online service more than once a day. Meanwhile, other surveys have found that nearly 14,000 new commercial online service accounts are being opened each day with 9.9 million Americans now subscribing to an online service, a 78 percent increase from last year. -- MP McMillan, Gary A., Margaret R. Dittemore, Carol Ritzen Kem. "Internet Resources for Sociology" College & Research Libraries News 56(9) (October 1995):639-643. -- Another bibliography of selected Internet resources, this month's C&RL News guide is designed to be a resource for librarians introducing Internet resources in sociology to faculty and students. It includes a list of scholarly discussion lists and electronic conferences, electronic journals, subdiscipline-related sites and sources for finding information about grants and funding sources. -- MP Noack, David R. "Visiting Museums Virtually" Internet World 6(10) (October 1995):86-91. -- Noack gives a virtual tour through an incredible variety of online exhibits and displays, ranging from dinosaurs to modern art. The article includes pointers to Web servers, museum-related electronic discussions, FTP sites, Gopher servers, and Telnet-accessible databases. -- RT Rinehart, Richard. "The Museum Information Access Continuum" Spectra 23(1) (Fall 1995):28-29. [available at http://www.uampfa.berkeley.edu/continuum.html] -- Rinehart, a frequent contributor to Current Cites, places museum digital access projects somewhere on a continuum from stewardship to pedagogy. Stewardship leads to "detail-rich" records of collection items in order to better preserve and manage them, whereas pedagogy encourages "context-rich" records to place collection items within "an envelope of history or ideas." Rinehart asserts that neither end of the spectrum should be preferred over the other -- both are required to fulfill the mission of most museums. Rather he uses this context to help explain the complex problems of providing online access to information spanning the spectrum in a unified and easy to use way. -- RT Robertson, Neil. "WWW: The Next Generation" Internet World 6(11) (November 1995):32-34. -- Tired of plain HTML? Have you mastered forms and tables and are looking for the next thrill? This article gives a brief look at several cutting-edge Web technologies: Netscape server push and client pull, the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and NCSA Mosaic's Common Client Interface. Essential URLs are included. -- RT Seabrook, John. "Home on the Net" The New Yorker (October 16, 1995):66-76. -- In this year's "home issue," the New Yorker's technology writer John Seabrook [http://www.levity.com/seabrook/] recounts the adventures and mis-adventures of creating his own home page (get it?). He provides a clear, simple description of the Web for network novices while at the same time offering seasoned Webmasters thought-provoking analysis of Internet culture and how individual identity is manifested there. The readability of Seabrook's insights make up for the credibility he loses for not actually doing the mark up for his own home page! -- MP "Special Issue of Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and Academic Libraries" The Journal of Academic Librarianship 21(4) (July 1995). -- Academic libraries are increasingly facing the challenges relating to making geographic information systems available to their clientele. This set of articles explains GISs and the role that libraries can play, and gives working examples of libraries that have integrated such systems into their mix of services. The articles provide many good citations and URLs for further reading and exploration. -- RT Optical Disc Technology Herther, Nancy. "CD-ROM Publishing Today: What's Hot & What's Not" Database 18(4) (August/September 1995): 27-41. -- Herther asserts that CD-ROM publishers have "passed from the 'bleeding edge' of design to clearly leading edge products that compete well against their online and print counterparts. Beyond this, whole new works by 'electronic artists' are establishing CD-ROM as a legitimate medium for creating what may be tomorrow's masterpieces." While prices for CD-ROM drives and discs continues to fall, overall quality continues to rise. Herther uncovers the hottest trends in CD-ROM design in the following categories: reference/ information titles, computer software on CD-ROM, books with enhanced text, art and images on discs, government CD-ROMs, games, software tutorials, education and training, newspapers, magazines and catalogs on CD-ROM, and musical CDs. -- TR General BYTE Magazine's 20th Anniversary Special Issue 20(9) (September 1995). [available at http://www.byte.com/art/9509/sec7/sec7.htm] -- One of the most authoritative magazines devoted to small systems is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special issue looking both backward and forward. BYTE editorial staff select the top 20 in a number of categories, from essential (Top 20 Technologies) to hilarious (20 Spectacular Failures). Besides bringing back a lot of recent memories that seem ancient (anyone remember the Commodore PET?), it dramatically demonstrates how far computing has come in so little time. -- RT "Found! The Best Books of 1995: A Roundup of Books That Can Make a Difference" Computer Currents (Bay Area Edition) 13(11) (October 17, 1995):37-53. [available at http://www.ccurrents.com/covr] -- 28 computer-related tomes are abstracted and reviewed in five different categories: Inside Computing, Hands-on Help, Windows Saviors, Internet for the Rest of Us, and For Web-Meisters Only. As the subject headings suggest, coverage is broad, with the latest from Cliff Stoll and Scott Adams alongside Windows 95 survival kits. If you are looking to fill in the gaps of your info tech library, this would be a good place to start. -- TR Gorman, Michael. "Five New Laws of Librarianship" American Libraries 26(8) (September 1995):784-785. -- In this article adapted from his recently released book ("Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness and Reality"), Gorman humbly offers his revision of S.R. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science, which were promulgated more than sixty years ago. They are: 1) Libraries serve humanity, 2) Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated, 3) Use technology intelligently to enhance service, 4) Protect free access to knowledge, and 5) Honor the past and create the future. -- RT Swerdlow, Joel. "Information Revolution" National Geographic 188(4) (October 1995):5-36. -- Although this article on the "information revolution" (aren't we tired of that yet?) is relatively superficial and fairly brief, yet it is the illustrations that make it well worth the price of admission. The opening photo brings an oft-quoted phrase into reality with a force that only an image could provide, as a lone person sits in a darkened room surrounded by 500 (yes, count them) television screens to depict the hundreds of television channels that will supposedly be our daily fare in the not-too-distant future. Then check out the "photo" of the monkees in the library reading room. Don't say I didn't warn you. -- RT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Cites 6(10) (October 1995) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved. 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