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Current Cities Volume 11 Number 07
Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
Volume 11, no. 7, July 2000
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2000/cc00.11.7.html
Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Leslie Myrick , Jim
Ronningen, Lisa Rowlison, Roy Tennant
Arms, William. "Automated Digital Libraries: How Effectively Can
Computers Be Used for the Skilled Tasks of Professional
Librarianship?" D-Lib Magazine 6(7/8)(July/August 2000)
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july00/arms/07arms.html). - In Current Cites
we don't just cite articles we agree with, we cite articles we think
you should read. This one falls into the latter category. In it Arms
(a computer scientist active in digital library development) posits a
question that he then forgets to answer. But what "answer" he does
provide is very disturbing. To begin with, he reduces the question to
one of cost. That is, can automated digital libraries provide an
"acceptable substitute" at a lower cost. Apparently they can, to
someone who thinks Google provides better service than Inspec, as Arms
claims. Unfortunately I do not have the space to refute Arms' opinion
and unsubstantiated arguments that appear to suggest that automated
digital libraries can perform most of the skilled tasks of
professional librarianship. At least he seems to acknowledge that
reference service is likely to remain too difficult for machines,
although he relies on personal anecdotes when scholarly evidence such
as that published by Bonnie Nardi is close at hand. For those of
you who are librarians, read this piece closely. It largely depicts
what computer scientists think of you, the libraries you have built
and are building, and the value of human-constructed and maintained
library collections and services. It is not a pretty sight. - RT
Baker, Nicholson. "Deadline: The Author's Desperate Bid to Save
America's Past" The New Yorker (July 24, 2000): 42-61. - Nicholson
Baker is well-known to the library community for his 1994 and 1996
articles in The New Yorker bemoaning the demise of the card catalog
and taking to task the San Francisco Public Library for discarding
books. He goes on the offensive once more with a quixotic attempt to
save long-runs of American newspapers from being discarded after the
process of microfilming. As with his other library pieces, Baker is no
detached observer but a fully-fledged participant, actually forming
his own non-profit organization, the American Newspaper Repository, in
an attempt to save numerous sets of historical newspaper from being
sold by the British Library. The piece highlights some important
issues regarding the process of microfilming for preservation and
archival purposes with Baker severely criticizing the library
community for not doing enough to ensure the preservation of at least
some hard copy runs of newspapers. He is particularly vexed at what he
sees as the poor quality of much microfilming and what he views,
rather unfairly, as the overblown claims of librarian administrators
concerning issues of space and the degradation of much newsprint,
especially from the 19th century. He correctly points out that with
the demise of paper collections that companies such as Bell & Howell,
which owns microfilm negatives for most large newspapers, has "a
near-monopoly on the reproduction rights for the chief primary sources
of twentieth-century history." As with all his articles the writing is
of top quality, especially his description of a company in New Jersey,
the Historic Newspaper archives, that sells newspapers to give as
gifts for particular birth-dates. This article is sure to cause much
debate in the library world. - ML
Borgman, Christine L. From Gutenberg to the Global Information
Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. - Despite a rather unsatisfying title,
Borgman has succeeded in writing the definitive text book for digital
library courses. Since the author is a professor at the UCLA library
school, and a visiting professor at Loughborough University in
England, this comes as no surprise. As one expects of a textbook, it
is an authoritative overview of the issues, with frequent references
to the supporting literature. Don't expect to be able to run out and
build digital library collections and services based on what you learn
here, but do expect to have a thorough grounding in the field from a
scholarly perspective. - RT
Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging. Council on Library
and Information Resources, 2000 (http://www.rlg.org/visguides/). -
Anyone digitizing visual resources owes it to their project to study
the information at this site. Collected together in one location is
some of the best advice on digital imaging from top-notch experts in
the field. Practical information is offered on planning a project,
selecting a scanner, factors affecting image quality, measuring
quality of digital masters, and file formats for master files. This is
not a static publication, but will be updated periodically to keep it
up-to-date with current standards and best practices. An excellent
resource from the Research Libraries Group, the
Digital Library Federation, and the Council on Library and
Information Resources. - RT
LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress Washington,
DC: National Academy Press, 2000
(http://www.nap.edu/books/0309071445/html/). - This report comprises
the findings of a committee of the National Research Council that
reviewed the Library of Congress' technology practices and
initiatives. Although the report focuses on the Library of Congress,
there is much here that can serve as useful advice for other
libraries. Skip over the sections and chapters that focus directly on
the LOC, and find the parts that deal more broadly with topics that
impact (or will) all libraries. Specific chapters to pay particular
attention to (at least in part) include the introductory chapter and
those on collection development, preservation, and organization for
access. - RT
Miller, Paul. "Interoperability: What is it and Why Should I Want
it?" Ariadne
(24) (June 2000) (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/).
- Interoperability between digital libraries is essential if library
users are to be offered simple access to a wide variety of library
content and services. Without it, library users must first discover
where all the various digital library collections can be found, and
then go to each one and search them individually. In this excellent
overview, the interoperability expert for the United Kingdom's
eLib Programme defines interoperability and describes all of its
various dimensions in the digital library context. The web site that
the author manages, Interoperability Focus
(http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/) is also a good resource for
further information. - RT
The Secret Books
(http://www.thesecretbooks.com/). - Okay, secret or not-so-secret
digital bibliophiles: take a break from your monthly Current Cites
reading list to visit this stunning flash- or dhtml-enhanced
photographic interpretation of snippets of various of Borges' essays
on books and libraries, including the ubiquitous "Library of Babel."
Yes, on one plane this site serves as a glamorous advertisement to buy
the photographer's physical book. But provocative photographic
juxtapositions of old books with snakes, fruit, stone, voodoo candles,
inscribed skulls and mirrors offer up a gorgeous statement on books
and materiality in an ironically digital wrapper, as well as an
elegant conversation between Borges' texts and Kernan's images. -
LM
Tennant, Roy. "Beg, Buy, Borrow, License or Steal" LJ Digital
(July 15, 2000)
(http://www.ljdigital.com/articles/infotech/digitallibraries/20000615_
15167.asp) - For librarians building digital libraries in this age of
the digital incunabulum, juggling the market (should we buy? license?
scan an out-of-copyright version of? this or that very expensive
digital publication) can make one's head spin. Our Current Cites
colleague Roy Tennant offers some judicious advice stemming from his
experience and expertise as the SunSITE manager at UC Berkeley, and
now as eScholarship Web & Services Manager at the California Digital
Library. Knowing one's options -- and orchestrating the right mix --
are the key. Roy outlines the strengths of each of the means he
suggests in his title and provides a sidebar of useful links to help
to get your head on straight. - LM
Young, Jeffrey R. "A Historian Presents the Civil War, Online and
Unfiltered by Historians" NY Times Technology Circuits
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/circuits/articles/29ayer.ht
ml) - The Valley of the Shadow project
(http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu) has been on the web for nearly five
years, but as truly one of the most stunning digital archive success
stories going, it garners renewed mention by Young on the eve of the
release of the CD-ROM version. Under the aegis of the University of
Virginia and the leadership of history professor Edward L. Ayers, the
archive contains some 5000 pages of digitized photographs, newspaper
articles, records, wills, census figures, and diaries covering the
years 1857 to 1870 and issuing from two representative counties, one
in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia. In his article, Young
characterizes it as a "do-it-yourself history kit," where users can
let their own research into the sources lead them to their own
conclusions. With the boon of database searching, modern users can
find connections which might have taken pre-Valley researchers an
entire sabbatical to cobble together. And, as Young points out, the
sources themselves take a refreshingly wide cross-section, from a
slave woman's letter to her husband on her impending sale to traders,
to the insipid diary entries of an upper-class teenager. The CD-ROM
version, due out next month, is being touted as an interactive hybrid
of multimedia and scholarship, or an "interactive archive." - LM
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 11(7) (July 2000) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright © 2000 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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address. Editor: Teri Andrews Rinne, trinne@library. berkeley.edu.
