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Current Cities Volume 07 Number 12
_Current Cites_
Volume 7, no. 12
December 1996
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1996/cc96.7.12.html
Contributors:
Campbell Crabtree, Terry Huwe,
Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart,
Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Journal Articles Dating Back as Far as
a Century are Being Put On Line" Chronicle of Higher Education
43(15) (December 6, 1996):A30-A32. -- This articles traces the
development of the ambitious JSTOR program for digitizing
journals from its earliest inception. As the brainchild of Mellon
Foundation president William G. Bowen, JSTOR enjoyed long-term
foundation support, and now has separate offices and its own
board of trustees. JSTOR utilizes a World Wide Web interface,
but allows scholars to view pages exactly as they appear in print.
Although startup costs for participants constitute another
financial challenge for research libraries, the release of "prime
space for prime journals" is a tempting and much-needed benefit of
the program. Moreover, JSTOR's information scientists believe that
the system will allow libraries to build stronger links with
faculty users and realize savings on costly microfilm and
microfiche collection programs. -- TH
Guha, R.V. "Meta Content Format"
(http://hotsauce.apple.com/text/mcf.html)
-- Meta Content Format (MCF) is a proposed language from Apple
Computer for representing meta content (see next cite). This white
paper on MCF specifically mentions that MCF might be one way of
implementing the Dublin Core in computer programs. MCF is also
being submitted to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
for adoption as a standard. A related
(http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-355.html#1nk3) article
on MCF was published in the electronic journal for Macs, Tidbits.
-- RR
Weibel, Stuart & Jean Godby, Eric Miller, Ron Daniel. "OCLC/NCSA
Metadata Workshop Report" (http://www.oclc.org:5046/conferences/
metadata/dublin_core_report.html) -- Meta content is information
_about_ content that might exist in a web page, web site,
unstructured text file or highly structured database. Meta
content has recently entered the world of HTML web pages in the
form of META tags, which can contain information about a web page,
such as it's creator, copyright info, or an index of keywords
representing the page's content. Also significant for the academic,
library, and cultural information sectors has been the development
of the Dublin Core, a proposed set of core elements for
representing meta-data about digital content that might exist as
an image file, database, individual record, etc. Meta-data will
allow these digital resources themselves to be cataloged and
searched (particularly across the Internet) more easily regardless
of their particular format or structure. This paper is the report
from the workshop sponsored by OCLC and NCSA to develop the Dublin
Core. The area of meta content and how it will be represented and
implemented with have far reaching implications for anyone involved
in the creation, management, or access of information in digital
forms, making this report a recommended read. -- RR
MULTIMEDIA AND HYPERMEDIA
"RTSP is a Proposed Standard for Delivery of Real-Time Media Over
the Internet and Intranets"
(http://home.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease263.html)
-- RSTP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) is a new proposed standard
for delivering audio, video, animation, and other time-based
multimedia over the Internet. This article is a short press
announcement of the new proposal, but contains enough detail to be
useful as an introduction. The proposal, which is supported by
40 industry players, is significant in two ways. First, it would
standardize and facilitate quick cross-platform development of
tools for delivering multimedia in real time across the Internet.
A major obstacle to this thus far has been the confusion and
proliferation of proprietary solutions, many platform bound.
Second, the proposal is being submitted to the IETF (Internet
Engineering Task Force) for review and adoption as an open
standard. The connectivity of the Internet (and probably fear
of Microsoft) is encouraging the computer industry to work
together to create open standards - which is encouraging news
indeed for the non-commercial sector since tools can be developed
as freeware or cheaper commercially, and there will be less
confusion about which formats are most accessible or archivable.
There is another short companion article about the relationship of
RTSP and Microsoft's strategy at the (http://www.inquiry.com/
publication/cmp/CWK/19961028/CWK1996102850121.html) Communications
Week website. -- RR
Ryer, Kelly. "Apple Charts QTML Future" MacWeek 10(45) (November
25, 1996):10, 12 -- QTML does not stand for QuickTime Markup
Language, thank goodness, but rather QuickTime Media Layer.
QuickTime is a popular format for the creation of multimedia on
and off the web. Even though it is possible to playback QuickTime
files on Windows machines, it was possible to author QT only on
Macs. Playback of QT variations (QT-VR, QT-3D, etc.) was
questionable. QTML purports to overcome that limitation to one
platform which made QT an appealing but limited choice for
non-commercial media authors who are concerned with maximum
accessibility and standards-based information. QTML is
incorporating MPEG and motion JPEG (two standards) as well as
creating an applications layer interface which will make it
possible to easily create QT programs for authoring and playback
on multiple platforms. Ease of use and ability to cross platforms
are major advantages for those in the information access sector
who need to deal with multimedia. -- RR
NETWORKS AND NETWORKING
Shrage, Michael. "Cultural Currency"
(http://www.packet.com/schrage) -- This article examines the role
of non-profit organizations in continuing development of the web,
using the case study of museums online. While the author is
perhaps over-hasty to judge that museums in general have made poor
use of the web, the particular museum web project mentioned as
worthy is indeed exciting (the Guggenheim sponsorship of
Internet-based artworks). Overall the article is an encouraging
argument that while the commercial sector has taken over much
development of the web, there is still a vital role to be played
by the non-profit and education sector. -- RR
GENERAL
"Books, Bricks and Bytes" Daedalus 125(4) (Fall 1996) Special
Issue: What is the role of the library in the context of a world
that is in the midst of making a giant leap from the industrial
age to the information age? -- In an issue devoted entirely to
libraries, Daedalus ponders the many implications of the digital
library. Whether you are a librarian, a scholar, a publisher or a
concerned citizen -- in other words if you are a member of a
community served by a library: that is, if are a member of the
public -- this special issue covers the entire scope of questions
confronting the library community of the late 20th century. Among
the topics covered are: the National Information Infrastructure
and all that it implies about intellectual property, fair use and
electronic publishing ("What is a Digital Library? Technology,
Intellectual Property, and the Public Interest" by Peter Lyman and
"Buy or Lease? Two Models for Scholarly Information at the End
(or the Beginning) of an Era" by Ann Okerson); the changing nature
of the library profession ("A Library Historian Looks at
Librarianship" by Kenneth Carpenter and "Librarianship: A Changing
Profession" by Peter Young); the role of libraries in shaping
communities both here in the United States ("Redefining Community
the Public Library" by Deanna Marcum) and abroad ("Problems of
Russian Libraries in an Age of Social Change" and "The Story of
Libraries in India"); libraries as buildings ("Bricks and Bytes:
Libraries in Flux"); the history of libraries ("The History of the
French National Library") and the future of libraries ("The
Centrality of Communities to the Future of Major Public Libraries"
by Kenneth Dowlin and Eleanor Shapiro and "American Public
Libraries: A Long Transformative Moment" by Susan Kent Goldberg).
There are nineteen articles in all, more than can be summarized in
this far-too-brief cite. -- MP
_Buildings, Books, and Bytes: Libraries and Communities in the
Digital Age_. Washington, DC: Benton Foundation, November 1996.
(http://www.benton.org/Kellogg/buildings.html) -- Anyone involved
with a library should read this report. Luckily, many of them
have already received it. The American Library Association teamed
up with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (which funded the report) to
mail it out to 20,000 ALA members in leadership positions. The rest
of us can simply visit the Web site to read it. The purpose of the
report is to discover "where the public supports -- or fails to
support -- libraries as they confront the digital world." We may
not always like what we read, but we need to read it. -- RT
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Current Cites 7(12) (December 1996) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (C) 1996 by the Library, University of
California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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