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Current Cities Volume 08 Number 08
_Current Cites_
Volume 8, no. 8
August 1997
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
Acting Editor: Roy Tennant
ISSN: 1060-2356
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/1997/cc97.8.8.html
Contributors:
Campbell Crabtree, Christof Galli, Kirk Hastings, Terry Huwe,
Margaret Phillips, David Rez, Richard Rinehart,
Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
DIGITAL LIBRARIES
Barnard, D.T. and Ide, I.D. "Text Encoding Initiative: Flexible and
Extensible Document Encoding" Journal of the American Society for
Information Science 48(7) (July 1997):622-628. - The Text Encoding
Initiative is an effort to produce a common encoding scheme for
complex texts. After three years of development, it seems well on its
way to becoming the standard, especially for texts from the
humanities. This article is an unusually clear description of the TEI
Document Type Definition (DTD), for those that want a better
understanding of its structure and features. The authors cover gross
structural elements, the reasoning behind TEI's development, and the
implications for future directions in structured document use and
presentation. Most useful for me was the way in which the authors step
through some of the decision-making processes that go into determining
how to mark up a particular text. - KH
Kenney, Anne R. "Digital to Microfilm Conversion: A Demonstration
Project, 1994-1996" Final Report to the National Endowment for the
Humanities, PS-20781-94. Cornell University Library, August 15, 1997.
(http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/com/comfin.html). - One
of the thorniest problems that librarians face is how to preserve
digital collections. There are currently no accepted digital
preservation *formats*, only *strategies*. One such strategy may be to
use the digital object to produce computer output microfilm (COM) that
meets national preservation standards for quality and permanence. This
report studied the feasibility of such a strategy by looking at such
issues as quality, expense, and process. It is formal studies such as
this one, and a related one by Yale University (see
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february96/yale/02conway.html), that will
provide much-needed data for evaluating digital preservation
strategies. - RT
Logan, Elisabeth and Pollard, Marvin, eds. "Special Topic Issue:
Structured Information/Standards for Document Architectures" Journal
of the American Society for Information Science 48(7) (July 1997). -
This special issue of JASIS covers the latest developments and
directions in structured document architectures. It consists of ten
articles covering everything from the history of SGML to
implementation issues and future trends. For those not very clear on
the uses of SGML and its relationship to the various Document Type
Definitions (DTDs), a number of the articles serve as good
introductions and overviews. What I found especially interesting,
however, were those covering ideas for the extension of the standards
to perform more sophisticated types of document analysis and
searching.- KH
Sengupta, A. and Dillon A. "Extending SGML to Accommodate Database
Functions: A Methodological Overview" Journal of the American Society
for Information Science 48(7) (July 1997):629-637. - While many
projects, over the last couple of years, have focused on the creation
of large SGML document repositories, very little has been done toward
providing more sophisticated methods of accessing and querying these
collections. In this article the authors propose extending SGML to
include database functionality through what they are calling a
Structured Document Database Management System. This is radically
different from the mapping of SGML documents into one of the prevalent
database models (relational, object-oriented, and object-relational),
which seems to be the direction of most researchers. According to the
authors their approach avoids the potential problems of data loss
during document reconstruction and allows for more sophisticated
search interfaces. While their arguments are not entirely convincing,
they certainly do explore some interesting new ground with regard to
improving access to large structured text collections.- KH
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY
"The Digital Frontier: The Best Ideas From the Hottest Research Labs."
Businessweek 3532 (June 23,1997). Special Feature. - Businessweek
profiles late-breaking, mind-bending research developments that are
popping up at research universities throughout the nation. This
lengthy feature's high points include succinct descriptions of some
really wild ideas that are coupled with analysis of their chances in
the marketplace. Products related to the research won't appear for a
few years in most cases, so this is a great article to read if you
enjoy the game of anticipation. Some of the trends covered in this
survey have been caught by Cites in the past. For example,
"Lifestreams", a Yale project, would reorganize computer file and
document management to mimic human memory patterns. The editors also
evaluate which research outfits and computer science departments are
moving up in prestige. - TH
"Global Library Strategies for the 21st Century: Summit of World
Library Leaders" Biblion: The Bulletin of the New York Public Library
5(2) (Spring 1997): 4-127. - As part of its centenary celebration, the
New York Public Library brought together a number of the library
leaders from around the world to consider the state of the art in
libraries and their future. Chief executive offices from over 50
libraries in twenty-seven countries were represented in the three-day
long forum. The transcription of the proceedings is interesting and
thought-provoking, as one would expect from such a stellar panel. But
since the proceedings were no doubt transcribed from a recording, the
reader experiences both the realism of chit-chat and the distraction
it brings. Errors have also crept in, such as Ameritech being
transcribed as "Meritec". But these small quibbles aside, anyone
interested in knowing what inspires and bothers those responsible for
the vast majority of the world's information heritage can get some
small insight by reading these proceedings. - RT
Goldhaber, Michael. "What's the right economics for cyberspace?" First
Monday 2 (7) (July 7, 1997)
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue2_7/goldhaber/). - In an online
continuation of a debate about the usefulness of classcial economics
as a measure of electronic commerce, Goldhaber replies to First Monday
editor Rishab Ayer Ghosh's June rebuttal of his May manifesto.
Goldhaber holds firm to his belief that "attention", that is, how much
time you spend looking at web sites, cannot be quantified by classical
terms. Whether or not you agree, this discussion is an interesting
exploration of value and activity in digital realms. - TH
Miller, William. "Troubling Myths About Online Information." Chronicle
of Higher Education 63 (47) (August 1, 1997): A44. - The president of
the Association of College and Research Libraries debunks myths about
the economics and media "spin" on electronic solutions to library
funding and service issues. He's addressing a faculty readership, and
does an excellent job of walking the uninitiated through the maze of
crises that libraries face. The fact that electronic copies often cost
more than their print counterparts is but one of the many points he
makes, but he skillfully avoids sounding atavistic or resistant to
change. Quite the contrary. Miller's assessment of the challenges
facing research libraries and universities expertly challenges
non-librarian faculty members to look deeper than advertising and
promotional literature at the long-term health and success of their
campus libraries, and to join forces with librarians. - TH
Schwuchow, W., S. Graumann, and W. Bredemeier. "A study of the
European information market". Journal of Information Science 23(3)
1997: 249-259. - The article presents results of a study of the
electronic information services (EIS) markets in seventeen countries
of the European Economic Area (EEA, including the member countries of
the EU plus Norway and Iceland). The results include figures detailing
market size, worldwide revenues, imports and exports from or into EEA
countries, and breakdowns of revenues by type and subject orientation
of products on a country level. Real-time information services (eg
Reuters) are the leading product type and financial services the
dominant subject category. In absolute figures, the United Kingdom,
Germany, and France lead the pack. However, if compared by means of
two "relative development indicators", one a ratio between EIS
expenditures and the GDP of a country, and the other a ratio between
EIS expenditures and the number of inhabitants of a country,
Luxembourg, Iceland, Finland, and Norway emerge as the top ranking
countries. - CG
NETWORKS & NETWORKING
Fiore, Mark. "Colleges Ponder the Pros and Cons of Having Students
Design Web Sites". Chronicle of Higher Education 63 (47) (August 1,
1997): A22. - Ever wonder who does all those cool university sites? It
turns out that student skill and labor are the workhorse for many
colleges. On the up side, students are fairly likely to be surfing the
curls of the latest wave of technology (such as Java scripting), and
they can play the positive role of educating career staff and faculty
through example. Unfortunately, they graduate, and leave behind them
some very elegant, but complex web servers that can pose challenges
for those who remain. One solution is to recruit more career staff who
can provide continuity, but the temptation of exploiting relatively
cheap student labor is strong. - TH
Rothenberg, David. "How the Web Destroys Research Papers." Chronicle
of Higher Education 63 (49) (August 15, 1997): A44. Rothenberg is a
philosophy professor who argues that when students limit their term
paper research to web searching, they forfeit quality and intellectual
rigor. His examples of dicey scholarship include irrelevant graphics
and references to news stories that all appeared during a one year
time period. His main point is that Internet search engines make
research look too easy. In addition to taking potshots at student
research skills, he finds fault with college libraries for diverting
precious dollars to ephemeral technologies, that might be gone in two
years. Thankfully, he also admits to shortcomings in classroom
pedagogy. What starts out as a critque of the web's shortcomings ends
up as a Zen buddhist admonition: "Pay attention" -- to the basics,
like reading, thinking and verifying your sources. - TH
Young, Jeffrey R. "Searching for 'Killer Applications': Networking
Experts Meet to Discuss What They Will Be Able To Do With Internet 2."
Chronicle of Higher Education 63 (48) (August 8, 1997): A22. -
Delegates from universities participating in Internet 2 met at the
University of Michigan in July to talk about what they can do with all
that speed and bandwidth, and this article gives a tantalizing
overview. Video-conferencing is a really just a "low-end" capability;
scientists hope to control highly complex scientific instruments (like
magnetic fields and telescopes) from remote locations, eliminating
grueling travel schedules. Musicians would be able to "jam" online,
and advanced digital libraries could conceivably include detailed user
profiles and push technology that would send new acquisitions and news
to them automatically. The most challenging aspect of such ambitious
applications will be traffic-regulation on the network, and "quality
of service", is a key feature. Given the spontaneous potential of
networked users to invent their own "killer apps", perhaps most of the
fun to come cannot really be foretold at this early date. - TH
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 8(8) (August 1997) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (c) 1997
by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights
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