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Current Cities Volume 08 Number 02
_Current Cites_
Volume 8, no. 2
February 1997
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1997/cc97.8.2.html
Contributors:
Campbell Crabtree, Terry Huwe,
Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart,
Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
Electronic Publishing
Arms, William Y., Christophe Blanchi, and Edward A. Overly. "An
Architecture for Information in Digital Libraries" D-Lib Magazine
(February 1997) (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february97/cnri/02arms1.html)
-- Although it may not seem like it at first, it is well worth trying
to understand such terms as "key metadata," "structural metadata,"
"digital object," and "meta-object" that pepper this article. Arms and
company describes a digital library architecture that is based on
previous projects (at least one of which still exists as a production
service) and work with the U.S. Library of Congress National Digital
Library Program, which is digitizing content at a rapid pace. The
architecture outlined here is an intriguing one, and it will be
interesting to see the prototype system promised for early 1997. But
while the article is long on detail in some areas (such as the use of
"handles" to handle persistent naming), it is quite short on other
details, like what metadata scheme they propose to use and in what
container they will store it. But nonetheless, anyone building or
thinking of building digital collections must be familiar with the
work described in this paper. -- RT
Ester, Michael. Digital Image Collections: Issues and Practice The
Commission on Preservation & Access, December 1996. -- In this brief
(36 pages) report, Ester distills a great deal of information and
discussion of issues relating to creating, organizing, and managing
digital image collections. Anyone faced with such a project would do
well to spend $15 and learn a lot about what is involved, as well as
being forewarned about a general lack of standards and rules of thumb
related to digital imaging. Major sections include discussions of the
original object and its reproduction, assessing image quality, color
matching, integrating image and text information, building
collections, reproduction rights, and user access. One disappointment
is the lack of any substantive discussion of the metadata issue --
what information is kept about each image and how. Despite this minor
point Ester has put together a quite useful document for those of us
still laboring under the misconception that one needs only slap a
photo on a scanner to start building a digital image collection. -- RT
Kirriemuir, John. "The Professional Web-zine and Parallel Publishing"
D-Lib Magazine (February 1997)
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february97/ariadne/02kirriemuir.html) --
This article, and a related one by John McColl, describes the
experiences of the editors of a magazine that is published in both
print and Web versions. The freely available Web version has all the
content of the print version, along with additional content not
available in print. This article provides some history regarding the
creation of this dual publishing model. Of particular note in this
piece is the interesting and frank discussion about how to make it
pay, from someone faced with making the transition from a grant-funded
project to the cold fiscal realities of the real world. -- RT
MacColl, John. "The Professional Magazine and Parallel Publishing"
D-Lib Magazine (February 1997)
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february97/02maccoll.html) -- In this
companion piece to John Kirriemuir's article in the same issue of
D-Lib Magazine, MacColl waxes more philosophic than his compatriot in
looking at the issues behind the parallel publication of a journal in
both print and Web versions. He contends that parallel publishing, at
least for the type of professional literature of which Ariadne is a
part, is likely to be a useful publication model for some time into
the future. -- RT
Multimedia and Hypermedia
Sauer, Jeff. "New Tools Give QuickTime Muscle" New Media 7(1) (January
6, 1997):71-74. -- This is a bit of a hands-on article, and not very
theoretical, but it should prove very useful to all those who made an
investment in putting their digital video content into the QuickTime
format, and now want to make that content available on the web without
the expense of a server-side option for web-video. -- RR
Networks and Networking
Cortese, Amy. "A Way Out of the Web Maze" Businessweek (3515)
(February 24, 1997):95-108
(http://www.businessweek.com/1997/08/b35151.htm). Special Report. --
Suddenly everyone is reporting on rapidly emerging "push"
technologies, and Businessweek is no exception. The "push"
technologies are, simply put, new services that learn what you want to
receive via the Web and bring it to your desktop. Instead of
struggling with links, URLs, and "no DNS entry" messages, push
technologies do the searching for you. Corporate firms use push
technologies (also known as "webcasting") to bring news and
information to employee desktops. Both Microsoft and Netscape are
working on products that would provide "channels" on a personal
computer that would allow custom configurations and "productivity"
services (such as spreadsheets or word processors) on demand. Push
technology is estimated to grab up to one third of Internet
advertising revenue by the year 2000. This article provides a handy
overview of the key players (ranging from Berkeley Systems to
Microsoft), as well as likely development trends. -- TH
Guernsey, Lisa. "A Humanities Network Considers What Lies Beyond
E-mail: Debate at H-NET Reflects Ideas of Two Men Who Run the Popular
Project" Chronicle of Higher Education 43(20) (January 24, 1997):
A23-A24. -- H-NET, which won the American Historical Association's
award for contributions to the teaching of history, is a lively
community of over 51,000 humanities scholars. This article charts its
growth and future goals, which will increasingly involve Web
applications. Until now, the network has largely been a series of
email discussion lists. This is a relatively low-tech use of networked
communications, but clearly of interest and value to the participants
as a scholarly aid. The founders will retain a commitment to material
that can be accessible with slower machines and access times, in
recognition of the full range of technology available. -- TH
Hof, Robert D. "Netspeed at Netscape" Businessweek (3513) (February
10, 1997):78-86 [http://www.businessweek.com/1997/06/b35131.htm]. --
This profile of working life at Netscape will be of interest to
librarians who are watching the development of Internet culture for
two reasons. First, it showcases the mindset and values (such as
speed, speed, speed in development cycles) that have helped Netscape
keep an edge on Microsoft. Second, it reveals how Netscape developers
and marketers have combined an understanding of desktop ease-of-use
with new ways handling "content." Fans of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a
New Machine will enjoy a peek at this one. -- TH
Johnston, Leslie and Katherine Jones-Garmil. "So You Want to Build a
Web Site" Museum News (Jan/Feb 1997):41-44 -- After you thought you'd
seen all you needed of introductory articles on how to make web
sites... this one is worth looking at. The authors cite URLs to back
up each section, but more importantly they give a good overview of
issues to consider when planning a website, including server options,
access issues, etc. This is an up-to-date, concise, and
well-considered introduction to being an information provider on the
web. -- RR
Wilson, David L. "Internet Managers are Poised to Change the System of
On-line Address" Chronicle of Higher Education 43(22) (February 7,
1997):A25-A26. -- Corporate vanity is not the only reason that the
Internet International Ad Hoc Committee is recommending the addition
of new "top level domain names" for Internet addresses, but you can
bet it has played a big role. "Internet domain names" (that's the part
on the right side of the final period, such as ".edu" and ".com") are
being assigned quickly and more capacity is needed; also, new
top-level names will give firms another chance to grab a vanity
address that's similar to their overall corporate identity. The final
recommendations aren't done yet, but look for new domain names like
"paramount.ent" that offer better top-level classification. The
committee will recommend at least seven new choices, but the final
recommendation may grow to 20. -- TH
Wilson, David. L. "With 98 Colleges Taking Part, Internet II May Start
within Six Months" Chronicle of Higher Education 43(22) (February 7,
1997):A25-A26. -- This article gives an interesting overview of the
new, high-speed alternative to the current Internet, "Internet II."
The new network will focus on the needs of research universities. This
initiative, which originally sought a mere dozen participants, now has
nearly 100 campus partners. A key element of the infrastructure of the
new network will be known as "gigabit points of presence," or
"gigapops." There may be as many as 50 gigapop locations (one per
state) that will enable local traffic to move at speeds many times
faster than is currently possible. Computer scientists forecast that
the new system may be on-line in six months. -- TH
Information Technology and Society
Anderson, Kurt. "The Age of Unreason" The New Yorker 72(45) (February
3, 1997):40-43. -- Anderson explores the impact of the "culture"
business, and dueling statistics in particular. He finds a growing
reluctance on the part of intellectuals to accept the existence of
indisputable facts; instead, facts are constantly disputed by parallel
survey research, number crunching and counter-claims that are made
against all viewpoints. He cites the Internet as a case study, because
quasi-factual web sites that look reliable may in fact be riddled with
half-baked reasoning. How do those in pursuit of critical thinking
navigate through all the half truths? A growing dilemma. Anderson also
analyzes the well-publicized claims about TWA Flight 800 that
journalist Pierre Salinger obtained from the Internet. Although
Anderson doesn't focus solely on Net culture, this article is
interesting for those who watch the digital Zeitgeist. -- TH
Druckery, Timothy, ed. Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual
Representation New York: Aperture Publishers, 1996. -- Comprehensive
and in-depth, this book contains essays by over 30 artists,
information scientists, designers and academics on the cultural impact
of extended visualization via computer imaging and networks in the
fields of art, the sciences and history. The first articles start with
an historical look at representation, then move through photographic
and para-photographic imaging technology. The authors then consider
theory and end by addressing media, identity and culture. It's a lot
of slippery material to cover, but it's done well, and helpful to step
back from the daily work and consider what we're doing. -- RR
General
Chepesiuk, Ron. "The Future is Here: America's Libraries Go Digital"
American Libraries 27(1) (January 1997):47-49. -- In this brief
overview article Chepesiuk identifies many of the higher-profile
digital library projects that are trying to reinvent the future of
libraries. He also describes some of the toughest issues such projects
are trying to resolve, including preservation, copyright, and
interoperability. Chepesiuk also acknowledges, as does probably
everyone involved with such projects, that print materials and library
collections of them will not be replaced by digital libraries.
Included are addresses (URLs) for some important digital library
projects and resources. -- RT
Verity, John M. "Coaxing Meaning Out of Raw Data: How Software Can Now
Find Patterns Never Seen Before" Businessweek (3512) (February 3,
1997):134-38 (http://www.businessweek.com/1997/05/b3512127.htm). --
This is a really interesting article that describes exactly what "data
mining" and "data warehousing" are all about. Data mining refers to a
class of software analysis tools that can parse very, very large
datasets and find "meaningful" patterns. For example, we're talking
combinations like US Census data, 10 years of product sales history in
50 states, every telephone call from millions of numbers, plus any
number of other factors. Data warehousing systems analyze datasets in
the trillions of bytes on ultra-fast servers, and can help managers
pinpoint trends and inventory levels almost instantly. This approach
is especially helpful at catching fraud like cell-phone theft, or
strategic planning like customer-retention. But it also has big
implications for qualitative information management of the sort that
happens in libraries. Keep an eye on this trend in programming! -- TH
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 8(2) (February 1997) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (C) 1997
by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. _All rights
reserved._
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