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Current Cities Volume 06 Number 11
_Current Cites_
Volume 6, no. 11
November 1995
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1995/cc95.6.11.html
Contributors:
Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips,
David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
Electronic Publishing
Jacobson, Robert L. "Research Universities Consider Plan to
Distribute Scholarly Work on Line" Chronicle of Higher
Education 42(10) (November 3, 1995):A32. -- The Association
of American Universities (AAU) and the Association for
Research Libraries (ARL) have come up with a proposal that
would create a computerized network for distributing
scholarly work. As a not-for-profit entity funded by member
universities, the proposed network would facilitate scholarly
publishing based on the cost of the information rather than
"cost-plus." As the cost of scholarly publishing continues to
rise, academic institutions have had to go outside higher
education to publish scholarly works while at the same time
having to pay commercial publishers for access to their own
material. The proposed AAU/ARL plan would be one way to avoid
this trend and would give scholarly publishing more autonomy.
-- MP
Lehman, Bruce. "Royalties, Fair Use & Copyright in the
Electronic Age" Educom Review 30(6)(November/December
1995):30-35. -- Anyone who is interested in the role of
copyright in a networked environment will likely appreciate
this interview with the Clinton administration's point man
for intellectual property rights. Lehman is the Commissioner
of Patents and Trademarks and chair of the Working Group on
Intellectual Property Rights within the Information
Infrastructure Task Force headed by Secretary of Commerce
Ronald Brown. His working group recently released their
report "Intellectual Property and the National Information
Infrastructure" [http://www.uspto.gov/web/ipnii/], which
makes this interview timely as well as informative. -- RT
Markoff, John. "With a Debut, a Test of On-Line Publishing"
The New York Times 145(50,244) (November 13, 1995): C7.
-- This article analyses the evolution of electronic
publishing as it profiles the upcoming debut of a new
electronic magazine, Salon [http://www.salon1999.com]. As
electronic journals emerge, they are starting to take
advantage of the new technological capabilities available
on the Web creating magazines that are interactive rather
than mere electronic versions of traditional print magazines.
In addition to creating a new model for electronic publishing
based on technological innovations, the magazine will generate
a more creative business model; Salon will be underwritten by
several big name financial backers and will also be financed
by advertisements.-- MP
O'Reilly, Tim. "Publishing Models for Internet Commerce"
OnTheInternet 1(4) (September/October 1995):29-35. -- Who
better to discuss the impact of the Internet on publishing
than a publisher who is helping define the market? O'Reilly
and Associates has long been known of pithy computer books,
including _The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog_
-- most likely the single most successful Internet title to
date. In this lengthy but highly readable article, O'Reilly
offers insights and predictions about the future of publishing
on the net. Those who are new to the game, or librarians who
must wrestle with a new paradigm for library "acquisition"
of electronic texts, would do well to pay attention. -- RT
Roselaren, Steve. "Publishing Beyond Paper" MacWorld
[http://www.macworld.com/] (December 1995) 12(12):96-102.
-- [http://www.macworld.com/pages/december.95/Feature.1630.html]
This article is a good introduction to digital publishing.
It compares many publishing and design issues compared across
three media; print, CD-ROM, and WWW. Sometimes it compares
apples to oranges, but for the most part this information
would be very useful for a museum or library gearing up their
publications unit to take on new media. It contains an
explanation of HTML (as a subset of SGML), image formats,
typeface (where it can be controlled; where it can't), and
delivery means (WWW servers for WWW, Macromind and the like
for CD-ROM). It also contains WWW URLs for further
exploration, and a list of products for digital publication,
including tools for text/HTML, images, and audio. The article
would also be useful for anyone considering how to best
re-purpose their digital information across these media. -- RR
Multimedia and Hypermedia
"1996 Multimedia Tool Guide" New Media Special 13th Annual
Issue (November 1995) -- [http://www.hyperstand.com/SITE/toolguide/1996.ToolGuide.html]
This entire issue of New Media magazine is a guide to software
and hardware for the authoring and delivery of multimedia.
The issue is broken down into six sections: authoring, online,
audio, video, storage, and display, with subsections on specifics
like sound cards, MPEG encoding systems, CD Recording Systems,
etc. The sections could have been re-thought, but a lot of
useful info is contained in this issue, along with product
specs, uses for the products, prices, and company phone
numbers. Useful for comparison shopping for any museum or
library deciding on tools for digital projects. New Media is
now available also on the Web at http://www.hyperstand.com.
-- RR
Fillmore, Laura. "Literacy's Last Best Hope" OnTheInternet
1(4) (September/October 1995):37-42. -- Laura Fillmore
founded the Online BookStore, which has since become Open
Book Systems [http://www.obs-us.com/]. In this article
adapted from a speech at EDMedia 1995 in Graz, Austria,
she takes us on a sojourn that both begins and ends in
Graz, but stops many places in between:
[http://www.obs-us.com/obs/english/papers/gr1.htm].
It is a journey well worth taking, and best taken online
so the side paths she offers as examples of her points can
be explored as well. She mainly talks of "hyperliteracy"
which she defines as "the capability to recognize, access,
and apply hypertext ideas and tools online," and which she
fervently hopes will be nurtured rather than controlled or
censored. -- RT
Heid, Jim. "The Mac Recording Studio" MacWorld
[http://www.macworld.com/] (December 1995) 12(12):112-118.
-- [http://www.macworld.com/pages/december.95/Feature.1632.html]
This article explores the range of tools one can use
to capture, edit, and output digital audio for a variety
of uses. The author covers very effective low-cost
solutions, using the hardware built into any newer Mac
with software-only audio programs, to high-end hardware/
software combination packages for editing/authoring audio
for professional output. This would be a useful article for
someone already introduced to basic digital audio issues,
such as standard file formats (AIFF, WAV, AU), and quality
(kilohertz), and who is now looking for solutions for
producing audio for a specific use (online delivery,
background music for an educational CD-ROM, etc). -- RR
Networks and Networking
Flohr, Udo. "Hyper-G Organizes the Web" BYTE 20(11)
(November 1995):59-64. -- The overnight explosion of the
World Wide Web following the introduction of NCSA Mosaic
for personal computers may tend to blind us to the fact
that it may not be the best tool for the job. In this
overview article on a Web competitor called Hyper-G, Flohr
identifies flaws in current Web technology and how Hyper-G
solves them. Some of the Hyper-G features include the
ability to attach links to read-only files such as those
stored on CD-ROM, or within objects such as Postscript files
or video clips. This and more comes at little cost, as
Hyper-G servers can support standard Web clients (albeit
without the full Hyper-G functionality), while offering
these advanced features to Hyper-G clients. This is
definitely a technology worth checking out, which you can do
at the Hyper-G site at http://hgiicm.tu-graz.ac.at/. -- RT
Hoffman, Irene M. "Fundraising: A Selected List of Internet
Resources" College & Research Libraries News 56(10) (November
1995): 692-693, 717. -- This month's C&RL News feature on
Internet resources focuses on online sources in fundraising,
highlighting those sources of particular interest to those in
library development. -- MP
Jacobson, Robert L. "Researchers Temper Their Ambitions for
Digital Libraries" Chronicle of Higher Education 42(13)
(November 24, 1995):A19. -- In tackling the issue of
interoperability of electronic material available in a
network of interconnected digital libraries, librarians
and computer scientists concluded at a recent conference in
Santa Barbara that it may not be practical to seek one
overarching plan for cataloging, searching and retrieving
data from network collections. Computer users are so varied
in terms of age, background and information needs while at
the same time digital materials vary so widely in type (text,
graphic, sound, video) that creating a single, all-purpose
method for creating material or for retrieving it would not
only be impossible but impractical. -- MP
McLeod, Jennifer and Michael White. "Building the Virtual
Campus Bit by Bit: World Wide Web Development at the
University of Maine" Computers in Libraries 15(10)
(November/December 1995): 45-49. -- Startled by what
seemed to be a real lack of central organization at many
academic Web sites, the University of Maine set out to
develop a well organized and unified Web site for their
campus. This article, and its companion sidebars ("Top-
Quality Web Presence Offers Appeal, Consistency, and
Current Information" and "Seven Guidelines for Building
Campus Web Systems"), summarize the research and experience
involved in implementing a Web cite at the University of
Maine. Visit the Maine site at http://www.ume.maine.edu/
-- DR
Markoff, John. "If Medium is the Message, the Message is the
Web" The New York Times 145(50,244) (November 20, 1995): A1,
C5. -- The World Wide Web seems to be the official media
darling of business and technology sections in daily
newspapers throughout the nation as evidenced by this front
page story in the New York Times. Technology reporter John
Markoff discusses the role of the Web within the larger
historical context of mass media and analyses how and why it
has become such a popular means of communication. The Web has
skyrocketed in popularity, Markoff reports, because it is a
medium that is technologically innovative and at the same time
has support of corporate backers who see its profit potential.
The fact that individuals can create Web sites so easily has
led to a democratization of the medium with social implications
for new kind of technology-based community. -- MP
Young, Jeffrey R. "Classes on the Web" Chronicle of Higher
Education 42(10) (November 3, 1995):A27, A32-A33. -- In
describing the experiences of several college professors who
have taken advantage of network technology by making course
materials available on the World Wide Web or by having their
students submit their papers online, this article illustrates
some of the practical, educational applications of new network
technologies. These technologies enable professors to offer
more current information and allow them to be more flexible
since they can alter materials throughout the term. Professors
have noticed that many of their students are more engaged with
the new medium and therefore are more likely to explore the
Internet beyond just the immediate coursework. On the other hand,
there are other students who prefer hard copies and, of course,
there are still many unresolved copyright issues. Despite the
obvious advantages of using the network in teaching, there seems
to be little administrative support for network technologies
which means that those incorporating the net in their teaching
must learn how to create Web sites and digitize course materials
on their own time. -- MP
General
Stigliani, Joan. _The Computer User's Survival Guide_
Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1995. -- If you are
a computer user and have ever wondered why your back hurts,
or your arm tingles, or your eyes sting this is the book for
you. Not so much for how it explains these consequences
(although the explanations are clear and the diagrams are
excellent), but more for the tips on how to prevent yourself
from experiencing those consequences or worse. This book is a
good and concise guide to all the various health problems
associated with computer use and how to avoid them. Few
organizations can afford to be without such information, as an
ounce of prevention is (as they say) worth a pound of cure.
-- RT
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Current Cites 6(11) (November 1995) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of
California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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