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Current Cities Volume 06 Number 04
_Current Cites_
Volume 6, no. 4
April 1995
Information Systems Instruction & Support
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
[URL:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/]
Contributors:
John Ober, Margaret Phillips, David Rez,
Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
Editor's Note: I am pleased to announce the official debut of the
Current Cites World-Wide Web home page. Point your web browser at
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/ to find and search
past issues of Current Cites. You can also establish a link to our
latest issue. We will strive to add as much value to our webbed
version of Current Cites, such as providing links to electronic
copies of articles cited, authors' web pages when we know about
them or can find them, and information on items mentioned in the
cites. A special thanks to Current Cites founder, Roy Tennant,
for his able management of this new resource.
Electronic Publishing
_Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Academic
Discussion Lists_ Washington, DC : Association of Research
Libraries, Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing, 1994.
-- This fourth edition of the ARL directory of electronic
journals has now become a standard reference source containing
a comprehensive list of academically created and oriented
serials on the Internet. From the 110 listings of journals and
newsletters in the original 1991 edition, the newest edition has
grown to include over 440 entries. The references to academic
discussion lists is, understandably, more selective containing
nearly 1800 listings; the editors have selected topics that are
of primary interest to scholars, researchers and students. Of
particular value in this volume are several reprinted articles
on electronic publishing including Geoffrey Nunberg's article on
"The Places of Books in the Age of Electronic Reproduction,"
Jean-Claude Guedon's "Why are Electronic Publications Difficult
to Classify?," Birdie MacLennan's "Electronic Serial Sites:
Collections, Resources, and Services on the Networks," Steve
Outing's "List of Newspaper Publishers with On-line Services in
Operation," and a bibliography by former Current Cites editor
David F.W. Robison, "Bibliography of Articles Related to
Electronic Journal Publications and Publishing." -- MP
Eaton, Flynnette. "Preservation Strategies for Electronic
Records" Spectra 22(3) (Winter 1994-95):22-24. -- Eaton
draws upon her experience at the U.S. National Archives
and Records Administration to outline strategies that will
be useful for any archivist or information systems manager
in ensuring the longevity of their digital legacy data.
Many aspects are covered in this useful article, from
data-migration and disaster planning to physical media
formats and software obsolescence. Spectra is a quarterly
publication of the Museum Computer Network; online information
is available at gopher://world.std.com -- RR
Multimedia and Hypermedia
Burger, Jeff. "The Making of Nightclub Earth" New Media 5(4)
(April 1995):84-85. -- This article covers the technical details
behind producing a video CD-ROM. Of primary interest however is
the use of AppleMedia Tool and the QuickTime video format for
Windows and Macintosh which was used to produce this cross-
platform multimedia CD-ROM. Some CD-ROMs duplicate both Mac and
Windows file formats on a CD-ROM, delivering a bi-platform
package, but using only half the disc for each. All the large
media-objects on this CD-ROM are recorded only once, in
QuickTime format, and only the retrieval tool is duplicated for
each platform. -- RR
Networks and Networking
Archee, Ray. "Freenets: Community Access for All" Online Access
10(4) (April 1995):43-49. -- In all of the excitement of World
Wide Web sites and technology leaps, the importance of truly
public access to locally useful information is sometimes lost.
This article relates the history and current vibrancy of
community-based freenets. The article is useful in large part
because of its list of 26 freenets. -- JLO
Bailey, Charles W., Jr. "Network-Based Electronic Publishing of
Scholarly Works: A Selective Bibliography" The Public-Access
Computer Systems Review 6(1) (1995). [URL:
http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v6/n1/bail6n1.html] -- Bailey has
long provided good bibliographies on electronic publishing --
first focusing on electronic serials, now on scholarly
electronic publishing. The Web version is recommended, as it
makes appropriate links to online sources when available. -- RT
Caruso, Denise. "Digital Commerce" The New York Times 144
(March 20, 1995):C9. -- A new biweekly feature in the New York
Times business section, Caruso's column provides commentary and
analysis of information technology. Her first column discusses
the implications of a recent ruling by the Federal Communications
Commission that could raise the cost of ISDN -- the relatively
low-cost digital network service provided by local telephone
companies that allows users to connect to the Internet. The
recent ruling means that anyone who needs to increase the
bandwidth provided through their ISDN lines in order to browse
the Web more efficiently could face significantly increased rates
for this service. The FCC's ruling will mean higher costs which
could, in turn, make access to the Internet out-of-reach for an
even greater segment of the population. -- MP
Cerf, Vinton. "Life in a New World," OnTheInternet 1(1)
(March 1995):22-27. -- Cerf has been living in the "new world"
of the Internet longer than just about anyone, and in this
thoughtful piece he offers useful advice for keeping it a
civil place. He identifies three types of behavioral constraints
on Internet users: technical, legal, and moral. After a brief
history of the Internet relating to behavior constraints, he
deals mainly with moral constraints as "users of the
Internet bear personal responsibility for their own actions."
[By the way, this is the first issue of a new publication by
the Internet Society] -- RT
"Digital Libraries," Communications of the ACM 38(4)
(April 1995):22-96. -- Virtually the entire issue is devoted
to this topic, with over 70 pages of text. Major sections
include general articles, supporting technologies,
projects, and initiatives. In the projects and initiatives
sections, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are provided
when appropriate. Some of the major articles include:
* Fox, Edward A., et al, "Digital Libraries: Introduction,"
p. 23-28.
* Levy, David M. and Catherine C. Marshall, "Going Digital:
A Look at Assumptions Underlying Digital Libraries,"
p. 77-84.
* Marchionini, Gary and Hermann Maurer, "The Roles of
Digital Libraries in Teaching and Learning," p. 67-75.
* Rao, Ramona, et al, "Rich Interaction in the Digital
Library," p. 29-39.
* Samuelson, Pamela, "Legally Speaking: Copyright and
Digital Libraries," p. 15-21;110.
* Wiederhold, Gio, "Digital Libraries, Value, and
Productivity," p. 85-96. -- RT
Dorcey, Tim. "The CU-SeeMe Desktop Videoconferencing
Software" ConneXions: The Interoperability Report 9(3)
(March 1995):42-45. -- Along with virtual reality,
interactive video technologies promise to produce the next
wave of hot Internet tools. CU-SeeMe is a tool for online
videoconferencing on the Internet that is available today.
This developer of CU-SeeMe describes the technology behind
it, and even (briefly) the compression algorithm that allows
the rapid transmission of such bandwith-intensive information.
Unfortunately the article does not include a screenshot of
a CU-SeeMe session. -- RT
Handley, Mark and Jon Crowcroft. "The World-Wide Web:
How Servers Work," ConneXions: The Interoperability Report
9(2) (February 1995):12-24. -- For those of us who wonder
exactly how the World-Wide Web works underneath what
we see, this is an enlightening article. In simple yet exact
language, such topics as proxy servers, the Common Gateway
Interface (CGI) forms processing, and server performance
are discussed. Examples and diagrams are also provided.
This article is not for the beginning Web user, but if you
feel ready to look under the hood you could do a lot worse
than this piece. [Article based on the forthcoming book
The World Wide Web: Beneath the Surf] -- RT
Kent, Peter. "Browser Shootout" Internet World 6(4)
(April 1995):46-59. [Also available at URL:
http://www.mecklerweb.com:80/mags/iw/v6n4/feat46.htm]
-- Another contribution to this issue's focus on the
World-Wide Web (a little too cutely titled "Webaganz"),
Kent contributes a very useful comparison among the
proliferation of Web browsers. His evaluative comparisons
lead him to suggest that the stand-alone browsers
InternetWorks and Netscape are front-runners. He helpfully
summarizes the incorporation of browsers into suites of
Internet tools as well as those incorporated into
proprietary systems like Netcom's Netcruiser and The
Pipelines Internaut. A sidebar explains Internet access
without SLIP software, as with Slipknot and The Internet
Adapter. -- JLO
Stoll, Clifford. _Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the
Information Highway_ New York: Doubleday, 1995. -- The
author of _The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze
of Computer Espionage_ takes on the hype and myth surrounding
the Internet. Since the Internet is often over-hyped, Stoll
has no problem finding targets, but he also makes up his own.
While some of his criticisms are as simplistic as 'if you
are in front of a computer you are not doing something
else' (with the 'something else' assumed to be of more value),
some are not as easy to criticize. His polemic can be redundant
and ill-informed at times, but it is also funny, entertaining,
and certainly controversial. This is the kind of book that
has already incited arguments, sometimes heated, and will
continue to do so for some time to come. Whether you agree
or disagree with what he has to say, if you are going to
argue about it -- read it. -- RT
Tennant, Roy. "The Virtual Library Foundation: Staff Training
and Support" Information Technology and Libraries 14(1)
(March 1995):46-49. [Also available at URL:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/ITAL.html] -- Current Cites'
own Roy Tennant has penned a straightforward summary of the
basic strategies for staff training and support of digital
library initiatives. Along the way he makes a strong case
for the necessity of staff development for the kinds of
imaginative innovation that all information service agencies
must seek. -- JLO
Tropiano, Lenny and Dinah McNutt. "How to Implement ISDN"
Byte 20(4) (April 1995):67-74. -- More and more Internet
trainers are acknowledging that Integrated Services Digital
Network (ISDN) access through the local phone company is
close-at-hand in most of the U.S. This article explains the
availability and complexity of ISDN access, including a
checklist of questions to ask an ISDN provider. A side-bar
compares ISDN access with the fastest modems. All in all
this is a valuable read for those considering ISDN as
another alternative to providing personal or organizational
network access. -- JLO
Vacca, John. "The Net's Next Big Thing: Virtual Reality"
Byte 20(4) (April 1995):28. -- Vacca briefly explains the
philosophy behind presenting Virtual Reality through the
Internet via the emerging standard called Virtual Reality
Markup Language (VRML). This may well be the next logical
extension of Internet functionality and complements the
announcement (at the Spring Internet World conference in
San Jose, California) of Silicon Graphics VRML browser
development. [URL:http://www.sgi.com/]. -- JLO
Weiss, Aaron. "Hop, Skip, and Jump: Navigating the
World-Wide Web" Internet World 6(4) (April 1995):41-44.
[Also available at URL:
http://www.mecklerweb.com:80/mags/iw/v6n4/feat41.htm]
-- In typical Internet World style, Weiss provides a
whirlwind tour of the major sources of well-organized
directories of Web sites and of Web search tools. The
search tools summary, which mentions the Jumpstation,
the Webcrawler, LYCOS, WWW Worm, RBSE, and CUIs W3,
is useful for its brief descriptions of the tool's
embedded strategies and comparisons among tools. -- JLO
Wilson, David L. "Senate Bill Takes Broom to Internet"
Chronicle of Higher Education 41(30) (April 7, 1995), A21.
-- New legislation intended to spur growth on the National
Information Infrastructure by deregulating the telecommuni-
cations industry has met with criticism from many Internet
users because it includes restrictions on the distribution
of obscene or indecent material. Both the Office of
Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association as
well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have expressed
their opposition to the legislation and questioned the
constitutionality of restricting free speech on the Internet.
Those who otherwise support the legislation are hoping that
the anti-pornography provisions will be altered by the time
it comes up for vote later this year. -- MP
Optical Disc Technology
Desmarais, Norman. "How Fast is Fast?" CD-ROM Professional
8(3) (March 1995):119-121. -- Desmarais cautions librarians
against throwing their older CD-ROM drives onto the trash
heap. Since most library and information applications use
text almost exclusively (indexes, abstracts, and full-text)
rather than multimedia applications, single-speed CD-ROM
drives, which are now dirt cheap, should suffice. However,
since the increasingly popular multimedia titles require
double-speed to quadruple-speed drives for satisfactory
playback, few if any manufacturers will be producing
single-speed drives. As librarians replace existing
equipment with only multispeed drives to choose from,
they should opt to put heavily-used and multimedia
applications in the newer, faster drives while loading
the text-only CD-ROM applications in the slower drives.
-- TR
Hudson, Barry J. "CD-ROM Network Access: Problems, Pitfalls
and Perils" CD-ROM Professional 8(3) (March 1995):98-108.
-- Although there are often many potential benefits assoc-
iated with shared access to CD-ROMs over a network, Hudson
argues quite convincingly, as the title suggests, that
shared access is not necessarily the best course to take
for every organization. Foremost reasons are the technical
and administrative obstacles associated with the successful
sharing of CD-ROMs. Quite simply, many CD-ROMs are just not
suited for LAN access. Hudson provides many examples and
offers practical tips on how to determine the likely costs
and benefits of shared access. Useful sidebars include
"(14) Questions to Ask Before Establishing a CD-ROM Server"
and "A Technical Compliance Checklist" which Hudson
designed to assist server administrators in determining
a CD-ROM's fitness for use. If a title scores more than
40 penalty points on the checklist, it should not be
considered for centralized support. -- TR
Lieberman, Paula. "Multiple Disc CD-ROM Systems" CD-ROM
Professional 8(3) (March 1995):60-74. -- Lieberman provides
a concise overview of the plethora of multiple disc
CD-ROM systems: CD-ROM towers, CD-ROM arrays, CD-ROM
servers, six-disc and 18-disc changer/jukeboxes, and
jukeboxes that can access anywhere from 100 to more than
1400 discs. A comprehensive multidisc vendor directory
accompanies the article. -- TR
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Current Cites 6(4) (April 1995) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of
California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
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publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the
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[URL:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/]
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trinne@library.berkeley.edu // trinne@ucblibra // (510)642-8173
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