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Current Cities Volume 07 Number 03
_Current Cites_
Volume 7, no. 3
March 1996
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1996/cc96.7.3.html
Contributors:
Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips,
David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
Editor's Note: Check out the new and improved search
and retrieval capabilities on the Current Cites WWW
entry page. This new method of searching the Current
Cites archive retrieves individual citations, rather
than entire issues. This enhancement was made possible
thanks to Roy Tennant.
Electronic Publishing
Anderson, Greg, Rebecca Lasher, and Vicky Reich. "The
Computer Science Technical Report (CS-TR) Project:
A Pioneering Digital Library Project Viewed from a
Library Perspective" Public Access Computer Systems
Review 7(2) (1996).
[http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v7/n2/ande7n2.html]
-- Don't let the apparent focus of this article on
computer science technical reports prevent you from
reading this very informative description of a
cutting-edge digital library project. The down-to-earth
advice and information regarding production scanning,
copyright issues, and other topics make this much more
than simply another case history. Another thing that
makes this article a must read is that it describes a
*working* model for simultaneous searching of a
physically distributed archive -- a model that is an
essential one for creating digital libraries that
encompass many collections and yet appear as one to
the user. If you wish to know more, the article
references have a number of good pointers, to which
I would add the article in D-Lib Magazine "Creating a
Networked Computer Science Technical Report Library"
by James Davis
[http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september95/09davis.html],
which provides more technical detail. -- RT
Flohr, Udo. "Put the Space in CyberSpace" BYTE 21(3)
(March 1996): 61-64. VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling
Language) is an ascii language for describing space
and objects to a computer. VRML documents are beginning
to live on the Web alongside, and linked to HTML pages.
This article briefly describes VRML, gives a code sample
and lists addresses for VRML sites for obtaining the
available viewers and tools needed to create VRML.
Everything you need to start exploring the virtual
worlds on the Internet except the bandwidth and high-end
workstation. -- CJC
Multimedia and Hypermedia
Leary, Pippa. "Living in Sim" 21.C Scanning the Future: A
Magazine of Culture, Technology, and Science (January 1996):
20-25. [issn 1035-6754] -- Set apart from the host of
multimedia CD-ROM titles (mostly combat games) aimed at
teenagers, there exists a realm of titles in the multimedia
CD-ROM industry that is a combination of game, music CD, and
electronic novel. Pippa explores this niche, pioneered by
Inscape Inc. with their title, "The Residents Freak Show," as
most faithfully fulfilling the potential of this postmodern
media without resorting to shoveling Hollywood content or
vapid video games into it. This exploration into interactivity
and interface will be useful for designing an engaging
multimedia project of any type. The magazine also explores a
number of other intriguing topics, from the longevity of media
to the cultural nostalgia for rust in the face of ever-clean
electrons. -- RR
Salamone, Salvatore. "Make Multimedia Happen" BYTE 21(3)
(March 1996): 65-90. -- A trio of articles describe concerns
facing those planning multimedia projects. "What's the Story"
by Salvatore Salamone looks at content development and
traditional storyboarding techniques and evaluates multimedia
storyboarding tools. "Multimedia over the Network" by Nathan J.
Muller is a technical view of competing datalink and network
technologies for delivering time-sensitive multimedia content
over LANs, WANs and the Internet. "Learn the Lingo" by Robert
A. Delrossi describes the capabilities of and learning curves
associated with multimedia development tools. Not to be
overlooked in assessing the costs of undertaking a multimedia
project are content development and the use of copyrighted
materials, as well as the software. -- CJC
Weinman, Linda. "Video Effects Software" New Media 6(4) (March
11, 1996): 59-68. [issn 1060-7188] -- Many of the best video
effects seen in movies or television are not produced in
high-end analog systems, nor in Lucas Studios, but on mid-range
computer video editing workstations. While Hollywood still
employs the former for many of the most spectacular special
effects, the role is increasing for the small design house or
in-house developer. This article is a thorough exploration of
the possibilities, comparing current software packages for
video effects, with implications for producers of digital
content as well as those who re-print to film or video. -- RR
Networks and Networking
Halfhill, Tom R. "Inside the Web PC" Byte 21(3) (March 1996)
:44-56. [http://www.byte.com/art/9603/sec7/sec7.htm] -- The
idea of a "Web PC" is a relatively new concept. Yet in less
than a year it is one of the most talked about ideas in the
computing industry. These PC's promise to be inexpensive
($500 or so), flexible and powerful enough to compete with
today's established computing hardware. Four technologies--
fast and affordable network connections, fast and affordable
microprocessors, platform-independent programming languages
and lightweight operating systems--are key to the success of
the Web PC. If these technologies coalesce the Web PC will
likely become an attractive computing resource in markets
where online computing is increasingly important but current
hardware costs prohibit growth. -- DR
Kimmel, Stacey. "Robot-Generated Databases on the World
Wide Web" DATABASE 19(1) (February/March 1996): 41-49.
-- This article serves as a good introduction to robot-built
Web databases as well as a source of more detailed information
about specific search tools. But its usefulness is marred
slightly by some currency problems (No mention of the current
best search tool Alta Vista at http://altavista.digital.com,
old addresses for some tools, etc.) that no doubt are the
fault of a long publishing timeline for this print publication
(publishers take note!). I also would have preferred leaving
out some of the less useful tools entirely, which seem to be
more of a waste of time these days than anything. But the
in-depth information about tools such as Lycos and Open Text,
as well as the excellent bibliography (including pointers to
some of Martijn Koster's essential resources on Web robots)
make this article a good read for Web searchers. -- RT
Kunze, John A. and Brian N. Warling. "Recent Developments
in GALEN II: Evolution of a Digital Library for the Health
Sciences" D-Lib Magazine (March 1996)
[http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march96/03galen2.html] -- A brief
but interesting report on using the Web Common Gateway
Interface (CGI) to provide Web client access to a Z39.50
database. Other programs create HTML response pages
on-the-fly and convert MARC records retrieved from the
database into HTML suitable for display or text for
downloading. The article left me wanting much more,
especially the source code for the programs to which
they refer, but I imagine that personal contact would be
a better way to request such things anyway. -- RT
Merrill, Deane W., et al. "1990 U.S. Census LOOKUP: Mining a
Mountain of Data" D-Lib Magazine (March 1996)
[http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march96/merrill/03merrill.html]
-- The subtitle is descriptive of what this article is about.
There is a "mother lode" of information deeply buried within
a mountain of U.S. Census data. What this article presents
and discusses is an important project to make this resource
easily available to World Wide Web users through an easy to
use interface. -- RT
Notess, Greg R. "News Resources on the World Wide Web"
DATABASE 19(1)(February/March 1996): 12-20. -- A good
overview of Web news resources, with all the appropriate
pointers and liberally sprinkled with screenshots. Notess
also gives some good advice regarding the best sources to
use for different types of news. The one unfortunate aspect
to this article is that the publication delay of print
articles has already dated this piece. The announcement of
the PointCast Network [http://www.pointcast.com/] has
introduced a new paradigm for getting news from the Web,
and Notess' article does not mention it (through no fault of
his own). -- RT
Robinson, Kara L. "People Talking to People: Making the Most
of Internet Discussion Groups" Online 20(1) (January/February
1996): 26-32. -- For anyone that has ever been confused about
how to deal with e-conferences (known to many as listservs)
this piece is a wonderful resource for information and
reference. Robinson provides an overview of e-conferencing
and then offers strategies for discovering and choosing
e-conferences that fit your interests. She details protocols
that drive the e-conference software and proposes tactics for
coping with the escalation of e-mail that follows. -- DR
Strom, David. "Top Ten Interesting Trends on and Around the
World-Wide Web" ConneXions 10(2) (February 1996): 9-13.
[http://www.strom.com/pubwork/webtrends.html] -- An amusing
piece that also has the added benefit of being insightful
and informative. Throw in the pointers in the references
(to both digital and wood pulp sources) and you have a
winner. -- RT
Optical Disc Technology
Beiser, Karl. "A CD-ROM Spin on the World Wide Web"
DATABASE 19(1) (February/March 1996): 97-100.
-- Predicting that the Web may be more significant as
a medium of information, promotion, and user support
for CD-ROM technology than as a replacement, Beiser
outlines a variety of Web sites likely to be useful
to library and information professionals who work with
the technology. Check out Beiser's "Libraries & CD-ROM"
web site [http://www.state.me.us/msl/cdrom.htm] to link
to the most valuable CD-ROM sites on the web. Among the
categories covered: hardware, user groups, conferences,
publications, vendors, standards, compression
technologies, CD-R and PhotoCD, and search engines and
strategies. -- TR
General
Shapiro, Jeremy J. and Shelley K. Hughes. "Information
Technology as a Liberal Art: Enlightenment Proposals
for a New Curriculum" EDUCOM Review 31(2) (March/April
1996): 31-35. [http://www.educom.edu/educom.review/
review.96/mar.apr/shapiro.html] -- Shapiro and Hughes
argue for a broad definition of information literacy, to
encompass not just the ability to use information
technology (which they call tool literacy) but also
another six types of information literacy: resource
literacy, social-structural literacy, research literacy,
publishing literacy, emerging technology literacy, and
critical literacy. This broad view of information literacy
forms the foundation from which they promote the
development of an information literacy curriculum that is
thoughtful and multi-dimensional. -- RT
Brook, James & Ian Boal, editors. _Resisting the Virtual
Life: The Culture and Politics of Information_ San
Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995. [ISBN 0-87286-299-2]
-- This collection of essays examines the effect of
technology on culture and on the human mind. It is critical
in the sense of inquiry, not of judgment (though informed
judgment is often be the conclusion), and many of the writers
you may recognize as harbingers of new technology in the
areas of library science, the arts, and, of course literary
theory. The book is divided into sections discussing
technology as it relates to the community, the body, work,
and daily life. -- RR
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Current Cites 7(3) (March 1996) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (C) 1996 by the Library, University of
California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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