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Current Cities Volume 05 Number 10
_Current_Cites_
Volume 5, no. 10
October 1994
Information Systems Instruction & Support
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
Contributors:
John Ober, Margaret Phillips, Dave Rez,
Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
Electronic Publishing
Cryan, Shelley. "Great Expectations" CD-ROM World 9(9) (October
1994):56-61. -- This article bills itself as "the ultimate guide
to electronic literature" on CD-ROM. The three distinct
approaches to electronic publishing on CD-ROM are outlined:
simple text dumps, collections of related literary works, and
single titles enhanced with multimedia elements. The straight
text dumps of the past are no longer acceptable to multimedia
saavy consumers, claims Cryan. Better publishers are adding
extra source material, sound, video and illustrations to offer
an experience different than one can get from the printed
page alone. Pegged as a particular standout of this genre is
the recently released _Halderman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White
House_ which contains 2,200 pages of complete and unedited
text, home movies, 700 photographs, and 2,000 pages of
additional text related to White House affairs. -- TR
Eglowstein, Howard. "Due Recognition for OCR" Byte 19(10)
(October 1994):145-148. -- Eglowstein presents a product review
of four Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs for Windows:
OmniPage Professional 5.0, Recognita Plus 2.0 International,
TextBridge 2.0 and WordScan Plus. Each product was tested for
accuracy and throughput (accuracy divided by speed) and compared
with price in mind. -- DR
Silverman, David. "SGML Takes on Database Management Responsibility"
ImageWorld 3(9) (September 19, 1994): 35,37. -- Imaging, by its
very nature, is one-sided. Textual information is not readily
searchable when simply digitally stored as an image. The result of
this structure creates 'chunks' of data which require indexes and
pointers to organize it into a searchable form. If one OCRs the
text, it does become searchable by keyword in addition to its
pointers. But what if you want to use large amounts of textual and
image data in a more strenuous manner? SGML offers one way to
structure data by 'tagging' text and images according to a logical
set of tags. Where HTML, a subset of SGML, structures data for
display (to WWW clients), other forms of SGML can similarly
organize data for searching, collecting and re-purposing in a
variety of ways. SGML is becoming the standard for many types of
information, and agreed upon by groups from the Coalition for the
Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) to the U.S. departments
of Defense, Energy, and the FDA. This article is extremely useful
in that it avoids hyping SGML, and simply offers the reader a
concise explanation of what it is. -- RR
Multimedia and Hypermedia
Jerram, Peter. "Who's Using Multimedia" New Media 4(10)
(October 1994):48-58. -- This article examines a recent
survey, conducted by Dataquest, of businesses about their
use of multimedia technology. Education and other non-profit
markets are not well-represented, as this is a business
survey, and neither is the market that is really fueling the
multimedia industry: the consumer market. However this survey
can be very useful in outlining the types of use multimedia
is often put to most (presentations) and by which business
type (manufacturing) and by what profession (engineers). The
article is more than a series of statistics though, as it
cites case studies of how six businesses have put multimedia to
use, as well as delving into future trends such as
video-conferencing and multimedia public kiosks. This article
is an informative snapshot of the current forces driving the
multimedia market; forces which can eventually affect everyone
who uses multimedia technology. -- RR
DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Museums Go High-Tech" Chronicle of Higher
Education. 40(3) (September 14, 1994):A47,A49. -- As an
introduction to the world of information technology in museums,
this article offers a brief, concise guide. It touches upon some
of the salient issues facing museums using new technology, from
the need to garner administrative commitment to improving services
with technology, to the changing nature of the traditional, quiet,
museum-going experience. A variety of approaches to using technology
are covered, from a WWW site at the Krannert Art Museum [http://www.
ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/UIUC/KrannertArtMuseum/KrannertArtHome.html]
to a kiosk at the Michael C. Carlos Museum which allows visitors to
"play" an ancient flute in the museum's collection by choosing
various finger positions via a multimedia kiosk and hearing the
resulting sound. One of the most useful parts of the article is the
sidebar listing addresses of several museum efforts on the Internet.
The article ends by making the point that new developments in the
'virtual museum' will not replace the traditional museum, but will
draw new types of visitors and increase interest in the museums of
the future. -- RR
Networks and Networking
Cage, Mary Crystal. "The Virtual Library" The Chronicle of Higher
Education 40(4) (September 21, 1994): A23, A27. -- There is a wide
range of challenges faced by institutions trying to establish fully
digitized libraries. Among them are the technical challenges of
providing optical-character-recognition of images that are scanned
from poor quality originals; the high cost of the supercomputers;
and the development of a system for protecting copyrighted material.
On the other hand, many digital library projects such as Chicago-Kent
College of Law and Project Janus out of Columbia University are
working on such innovations as natural language searching which will
allow users to browse and discover texts serendipidously. They are
also working cooperatively with business and industry to help offset
some of the costs associated with creating digitized library
collections. -- MP
DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Grant Provides $24-Million for 'Virtual
Libraries' Projects" The Chronicle of Higher Education 40(6)
(October 5, 1994): A26. -- The National Science Foundation, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Advanced
Research Projects Agency of the Defense Department will award a
total of $24-million to six universities to digitize materials in
their libraries so that the texts can be accessed through computer
networks. The six institutions receiving funds are: Carnegie-Mellon,
Stanford, University of California at Berkeley, University of
California at Santa Barbara, University of Illinois and the
University of Michigan. -- MP
Frappaolo, Carl. "The Emerging Text Retrieval Market Caters to
Client-Server Computing" ImageWorld 3(9) (September 19, 1994):
20,48. -- To deliver text to the user, this article poses three
models: stand-alone computers, host-based network computing, and
client-server computing. The model gaining most prominence of the
three is the client-server model. Within the client-server model,
three approaches are outlined. These approaches, which could also
be offered for other forms of information needing organized
access such as images, offer varying degrees of power, flexibility
and appropriateness. The range starts from one near to the
mainframe host-based model where the client merely connects the
user to the monolithic host which processes all commands,
searches, and displays records the mostly passive client machine.
The last model is the fully distributed model, where there are
several local servers dynamically linked to an institution-wide
network. This article indicates yet another area of computing
affected by the move away from expensive centralized mainframe-type
systems to flexible, locally controlled, yet intelligently
connected servers. -- RR
Hancock, Lee. "Internet Resources for Health and Medicine" College &
Research Libraries News 55(9) (October 1994):564-465, 609. This article
provides an overview of Internet resources for health and medicine
including listservs, ftp sites, gophers and World Wide Web sites for
general health issues as well as disease-specific resources. -- MP
Kantor, Andrew and Michael Neubarth. "Internet Interfaces: The Next
Generation" Internet World 5(7) (October 1994):30-32. -- The authors'
article is the lead piece in a series of well-written, concise (four
to five page) articles discussing all-purpose Internet tools, the first
of which has been the Mosaic browser. In addition to describing the
history and future of Mosaic (there is an interview with Mosaic
developer Marc Andreessen), articles cover NetManage's Internet
Chameleon and O'Reilly's Internet in a Box products. Although Internet
World may not be the first place to hear about Internet developments,
their timely articles, especially the thematically grouped ones, are
are well-edited and well worth perusal. -- JLO
"Making the Internet Connection" PC Magazine 13(7) (October 11, 1994)
-- PC Magazine devotes the lion's share of this issue to its cover
story on the Internet. Included are product and service provider
reviews, introductory and how-to articles, and definitions of terms,
accompanied with color graphics that enhance understanding. -- RT
Morgan, Eric Lease. "The World-Wide Web and Mosaic: An
Overview for Librarians" Public Access Computer Systems
Review, 5(6) (1994):5-26. [available via World-Wide Web at
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/morgan/www-and-libraries.html,
or Gopher at gopher://info.lib.uh.edu:70/00/articles/e-journals/
uhlibrary/pacsreview/v5/n6/morgan.5n6 or via email by sending
the message "GET MORGAN PRV5N6 F-MAIL" to listserv@uhupvm1.uh.edu.
-- In this excellent and easy to understand overview of the
World-Wide Web, Morgan explains the basic technologies, protocols
and software of the World-Wide Web. However, as Morgan is known
for doing (ask him about "Mr. Serials," for example), he also gives
us much more by describing imaginative and effective ways in which
the technology can be used to create and manage library services.
For this, and for serving the article in HTML to enhance its
usefulness to his readers, Morgan gets high marks and the gratitude
of this reviewer. -- RT
Morgan, Keith and Deborah Kelly-Millburn. "Internet Resources
for Economics" College & Research Libraries News 55(8) (September
1994):475-478. -- Another in the regular series of articles in C&RL
News that lists essential Internet resources in specific academic
disciplines, this article provides a thorough yet selective list of
resources in economics. It includes references to Internet collections
of statistical data, private datasets, software libraries, biblio-
graphies of working papers as well as a related newsgroups. In addition
to a list of important sources, the article also discusses the Internet
tools that researchers can use to find other relevant resources. -- MP
"Special Training Issue," Internet Business Journal 2(3) (September
1994). -- This special issue on Internet training profiles several
Internet training providers, gives pointers to good online resources
for trainers, lists some books specific to Internet training, offers
some training tips, and highlights training in the K-12 environment.
-- RT
Wilson, David L. "A Death en Route to the Data Highway" The Chronicle
of Higher Education 40(6) (October 5, 1994): A21. -- Legislation that
would have removed many restrictions on the telecommunications
industry and would have therefore encouraged more development of the
information infrastructure has been declared dead in Congress. Among
the amendments added to the bill was a requirement that communications
companies provide network access to schools at "preferential rates;"
the bill would also have imposed price caps in order to provide
"universal service" on the Internet. Analysts believe that the
legislation died because the package contained too much regulation on
the one hand and not enough protection for consumers on the other.
-- MP
Optical Disc Technology
Sengstack, Jeff. "Fast Drives" CD-ROM World 9(9) (October 1994):39-45.
-- Sengstack presents both an excellent review of the latest
generation of double, triple, and quadruple-speed CD-ROM disc drives
and a frank and entertaining accompanying commentary. The speed demon
quad drives are not necessarily the best choice for some explains
Sengstack: "Quad-speed drives can push 386 PCs and slow Macs beyond
their processing limits, and putting a quad on a slow computer is like
putting a turbocharger on a lawn mower." Beyond that, most of today's
multimedia software is specifically designed to run on a single-speed
drive and does not appear to run any faster on a quad-speed. However,
the quad-speed drive definitely makes a difference if it being used
for text retrieval or business applications and they are absolutely
essential for achieving acceptable quality video output. Is there an
end in sight? Indeed, claims an industry expert. From a technological
point of view, it is thought that a six-speed is a possibility,
whereas an eight-speed is only a minor possibility. Reason being,
ironically enough, is that faster drives may have slower access rates.
What is looming on the horizon is a new blue-light laser technology
which will increase the storage capacity of a CD-ROM disc to 1.6
gigabytes compared to the 650 MB CD-ROM disc of today. -- TR
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Current Cites 5(10) (October 1994) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (C) 1994
by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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