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Current Cities Volume 12 Number 02
Current Cites (Digital Library SunSITE)
Volume 12, no. 2, February 2001
Edited by Roy Tennant
ISSN: 1060-2356 - http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2001/cc01.12.2.html
Contributors: Terry Huwe, Michael Levy, Jim Ronningen, Roy Tennant
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Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium:
Confronting the Challenges of Networked Resoures and the Web Washington, DC:
The Library of Congress (November 15-17, 2000) (http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/
bibcontrol/conference.html). - Anyone interested in library bibliographic
control may find this set of discussion papers, presentations, and responses
interesting. Participants included such cataloging and metadata luminaries as
Michael Gorman, Clifford Lynch, Priscilla Caplan, William Moen, Martin Dillon,
and Caroline Arms, among others. The complete proceedings are online, including
the reactions of assigned commentators to certain presentations.
Recommendations from "topical discussion groups" are also available, but are
somewhat disappointing in depth and scope -- no doubt because of the limited
time allowed to address the topics. Although overall I found it to be more
complacent ("search engines/dot coms need us" was one plaint -- no matter that
they couldn't care less) than is warranted in these times of bibliographic
upheaval, there are useful papers, presentations, and comments here. - RT
Grönlund, Åke, guest ed. "Democracy in an IT-Framed Society." Lance J. Hoffman
and Lorrie Cranor, guest eds. "Internet Voting for Public Officials."
Communications of the ACM 44(1) (January 2001). - First things first: you won't
find a remedy for the Florida electoral mess in either of these two special
sections of the January CACM, but the second of them presents well-defended pro
and con arguments about online voting, which has received increasing attention
as a way of avoiding chad-chasing, selective counting and the whole sorry
story. The pro side acknowledges implementation problems yet to be solved but
promises increased participation and accountability; the con side raises
serious questions about security and equity. The 'IT-Framed Society' section
targets policy makers who may consider the broadest applications of information
technology to social planning, governance and political organization. There are
nine articles on such topics as the European Union's newness being a logical
incubator for new public information systems, methods for rating IT's effects
on democratic participation, and roles computer professionals can play (using
the Seattle Community Network [www.scn.org] as an example). Readers who are
unfamiliar with the CACM and assume that the content is always technical in
nature would have their heads turned by issues like this one. - JR
Guernsey, Lisa. "Mining the 'Deep Web' With Sharper Shovels?" The New York
Times (January 25, 2001): Section D; Page 1; Column 2. - The 'deep' or
'invisible' web is becoming more of on an issue as the web grows and the
ability of search engines to index pages fails to keep pace. Information is
often hidden deep within pages not indexed or missed because it is a multimedia
or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file or contained within a database. According to some
analysts as little as a fraction of 1% of the web can be accessed by search
engines. In response, there is a new type of speciality or "boutique" search
engine that narrows the information universe to more manageable proportions. An
example, is MySimon that allows user to comparison shop across sites,
moreover.com that culls headlines from nearly 2000 news sites and Google's
"Uncle Sam" area that limits searching to governmental information. These
specialized search tools use sophisticated bots to filter and hone in on
information. Interestingly, it is probably users who may hinder their own
ability to become more efficient searchers as most people, as librarians know,
seem to prefer to do a broad search in the biggest database possible. - ML
Kenney, Anne R. and Oya Y. Rieger, editors. "The National Library of
Australia's Digital Preservation Agenda, an Interview with Colin Webb" RLG
DigiNews 5(1) (February 15, 2001) (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/
diginews5-1.html#feature1). - As the Director of Preservation of the National
Library of Australia, there are few persons as well-placed and as experienced
as Colin Webb when it comes to dealing with digital preservation issues on a
grand scale. Australia has established itself at the forefront of a number of
digital library initiatives, and digital preservation is clearly one. This
interview touches on a number of reasons why, but admittedly at the 30,000 foot
level. Anyone intrigued with the NLA digital preservation efforts discussed in
this interview would do well to investigate the provided URLs. - RT
Lake, David. ""Engines Idling Roughly" The Standard (February 9, 2001) (http://
www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,22065,00.html). - A brief
article, with good graphs and charts, that summarizes some recent studies of
search engine use. Only 7% of web pages are accessed via a search engine but
60% of web surfers using a search engine for at least one hour a week. Despite
a majority of users indicating they are frustrated with search engines within
15 minutes, 60% still rate their own searches as "often" successful. Of course,
if Google indexes only 42% of all searchable pages and they are ranked number
one in this category - who knows what users are missing. - ML
Mickey, Bill. "Open Source and Libraries: An Interview with Dan Chudnov" Online
25(1) (January 2001). - Current Cites readers and others will remember Dan
Chudnov from his Docster article in Library Journal, in which he had the
audacity to suggest a Napster-like model for interlibrary loan. His piece on
open source software in Library Journal did not escape our notice either. In
fact, the library community had better keep a close watch on this guy, since he
is out to change not just what we do, but how we do it. How? By getting
together and writing the software we need in an open, cooperative environment.
By using our imaginations instead of our checkbooks. And by not accepting
"we've never done it that way" as an adequate excuse. Yes, I would keep my eye
on him if I were you. And this interview is as good a place to start as any,
although at the time this piece was written he was still at Yale (he has since
quit to start his own venture). In this interview Chudnov makes a case for open
source software in libraries, in a way that makes it clear he is excited by
this. We should be too. - RT
Ockerbloom, John Mark. "Archiving and Preserving PDF Files" RLG DigiNews 5(1)
(February 15, 2001) (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews5-1.html#
feature2). - The Adobe Acrobat (Portable Document Format, PDF) format is not
generally considered to be the format of choice for long-term preservation of
digital documents. But, as Ockerbloom points out, neither should it be
considered to be a format completely unsuitable for preservation. Although
Adobe Systems, Inc. controls the format, the specification is freely published
and widely implemented. Third-party software (including open source
applications) are available that can manipulate the format in various ways,
including migrating it to a different format. This article is the best
explication I've seen of the format, the ways in which document in this format
can be "rescued" or migrated into another format, and pitfalls and
opportunities along the way. He includes specific steps institutions can take
to reduce their exposure to document disaster down the road. As Ockerbloom
says, "in summary, it is reasonable, given careful techniques..., for
institutions to collect documents in PDF format with the expectation that they
can be archived and preserved indefinitely, even as computer technology and
standards advance." Is this a defensible statement? Time will certainly tell,
but meanwhile, I'm much more convinced of it than I was before reading this
piece. - RT
Odlyzko, Andrew. "Content is Not King" First Monday 6(2) (February 5, 2001)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_2/odlyzko/). - The author studies
recent advances in "connectivity" and evaluates whether Bill Gates was right
when he famously stated that "content is king". He builds a strong case around
the argument that the Internet is really "about connectivity", and that vast
investments in content are misguided. The central point he makes is that newer
technologies (such as Wireless Application Protocol and Short Message System)
emphasize voice calls. This article is most interesting as an exercise in the
technology-based deconstruction of Internet myth making, with the content myth
as its subject. Essentially, the hazards of coining epithets at net-speed are
many, because the development stream may shift pathways in a matter of months.
- TH
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Current Cites 12(2) (February 2001) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright © 2001 by the Regents of the University of California All rights
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