Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Current Cities Volume 06 Number 09
_Current Cites_
Volume 6, no. 9
September 1995
The Library
University of California, Berkeley
Edited by Teri Andrews Rinne
ISSN: 1060-2356
URL:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/cc95.6.9.html
Contributors:
Campbell Crabtree, John Ober, Margaret Phillips,
David Rez, Richard Rinehart, Teri Rinne, Roy Tennant
Electronic Publishing
Gasaway, Laura N. "Scholarly Publication and Copyright in Networked
Electronic Publishing" Library Trends 43(4) (Spring 1995): 679-700.
-- A very useful and informative article that surveys the current
and impending broad changes in the way scholars have, do and will
publish their works. The opening brief, yet detailed history of
scholarly publishing does a good job of providing a context for
the new role of electronic publishing in academics. As one might
expect, much of the article is a discussion of copyright basics as
it applies to the academic publishing world. This section provides
an excellent overview of this complex issue. -- DR
Hickey, Thomas B. "Present and Future Capabilities of the Online
Journal" Library Trends 43(4) (Spring 1995): 528-543. -- A sound,
even-handed discussion of some of the primary issues facing the
online journal. Hickey addresses his topic by providing lists of
the advantages and disadvantages for several of the challenges,
both general and specific, which surround the debate about the
online journal. The treatment of the subject is broad enough that
it addresses many of the same issues being debated concerning
electronic publishing in general. It would serve well as a primer
for anyone with a basic interest in the issues surrounding
electronic publishing and in the direction it may be headed.
-- DR
Ide, Nancy and Jean Veronis, ed. "The Text Encoding Initiative:
Background and Contexts" Computers and the Humanities 29(1)
(1995) -- In an effort to provide much needed 'background and
context for the contents of TEI Proposal 3', Computers and the
Humanities is dedicating three issues of Volume 29 to the Text
Encoding Initiative. Parts I and II, General Topics and
Document-wide Encoding Issues are covered in this first issue.
The second issue will contain Part III, Encoding Specific Text
Types, and the third, Part IV, Special Encoding Mechanisms. With
a preface by Charles Goldfarb, inventor of SGML, and introduction
by the editors of the triple issue, Ide and Veronis, this
collection of papers introduces the Text Encoding Initiative and
provides illuminating discussions of many topics essential to the
TEI-conformant encoding of electronic texts. C.M. Sperberg-McQueen
and Lou Bernard, the editors of the Guidelines for Electronic Text
Encoding and Interchange, provide a good introduction to the
guidelines, commonly referred to as TEI P3 (TEI Proposal number
3). This issue also contains the following papers: "The TEI:
History, Goals, and Future" by Nancy Ide and C.M. Sperberg-McQueen,
"What is SGML and How Does It Help?" by Lou Bernard, "Character
Representation" by Harry Gaylord, "The TEI Header and the
Documentation of Electronic Texts" by Richard Giordano and
"Practical Considerations in the Use of TEI Headers in Large
Corpora" by Dominic Dunlop. Taken as a whole, the triple issue
promises to be a rich and valuable reference work. -- CJC
Jacobson, Robert L. "'Fair Use' Impasse" Chronicle of Higher
Education 41(49) (September 18, 1995): A20, A22. -- In another
discussion about the conflict between copyright holders who want
to restrict access to electronic information and professionals
such as educators and librarians who seek to make information as
widely available as possible, this article presents the issues
associated with the concept of "fair use" in the electronic age.
The author predicts that unless professionals from the academic
community participate more actively in the debate, soon-to-be-issued
Clinton Administration guidelines on copyright will favor the
publishing industry thus threatening educational and scholarly
interests. -- MP
Lancaster, F.W. "The Evolution of Electronic Publishing" Library
Trends 43(4) (Spring 1995): 519-527. -- Offering a summary of the
development of electronic publishing over the last 30 years, this
article outlines four basic yet co-existent steps in the evolution
of electronic publishing: 1) Using computers to generate conventional
print-on-paper publications allowing new capabilities such as
printing on demand or producing customized publications tailored to
individual needs. 2) Distributing text electronically which is the
exact equivalent of the paper version; this includes full-text
articles available through commercial vendors such as DIALOG and
projects such as TULIP which provide electronic access to text and
graphics of journals which are also available in print form.
3) Distribution in electronic form of print publications providing
"value-added" features such as search capabilities and data
manipulation. 4) Generating publications that take advantage of such
electronic capabilities as hypertext, hypermedia, sound and motion.
In addition to outlining the history of electronic publishing,
Lancaster provides an in-depth analysis of electronic journals and
discusses sustainability of electronic journals and the role that
they play in scholarship. -- MP
Lancaster, F.W. "Attitudes in Academia Toward Feasibility and
Desirability of Networked Scholarly Publishing" Library Trends
43(4) (Spring 1995): 741-751. -- In a survey of university
library directors and academic administrators, the author sought
to determine attitudes toward the electronic distribution of
scholarly publications. While university administrators felt
that there were significant benefits associated with electronic
publishing, it was widely felt that there were many obstacles to
the academic community's ability to implement an electronic
publishing network. Benefits associated with electronic publishing
included the reduction of costs in disseminating electronic
information, the potential for more timely publication of research
articles, more effective current awareness through electronic
profile matching, and the idea that academia could have greater
control over its own research results therefore freeing itself from
commercial interests. However, these benefits were outweighed by
the fact that the administrators who were surveyed felt that
academia is not well-equipped financially or technologically to
support widespread networked scholarly publishing. -- MP
Weiss, Jiri. "Digital Copyright: Who Owns What?" New Media 5(9)
(September 1995): 38-43. -- Any library or museum involved in a
digital media project has become, perhaps unwittingly, a
developer and arbitrator, if not owner, of digital content. So,
whether you are adding value to information in the form of a
catalog, or creating primary source material in the form of an
educational CD-ROM you need to be informed about digital copyright
from all angles. This article is very helpful in that respect,
outlining the issues and some proposed solutions (such as a
copyright service bureaus as opposed to individual contracts).
Also useful is the contact info for further reading, current
projects, and groups mentioned in the article. -- RR
Multimedia and Hypermedia
Penn State Imaging Committee. "Imaging for Process Improvement: Report
of the Imaging Committee" [http://www.psu.edu/computing/imaging.html]
-- This report outlines the recommendations to Penn State University
administration on the use of imaging technology. The report covers
administrative and business use as well as archiving and educational
use of imaging. The report, laid out generally and with concise
recommendations and considerations, serves as a useful reference
as to how one university is planning for the long-range use of
imaging. -- RR
Platt, Charles. "Interactive Entertainment: Who Writes It? Who Reads
It? Who Needs It?" Wired 3(9) (September 1995): 145-149, 195-197.
-- As digital hypermedia (most notoriously as CD-ROMs and WWW sites
currently) is adapted from research use to entertainment, the
conundrum appears that hypermedia is well-suited to organizing
access to layers of discrete research facts, even context, but it
is less suited to storytelling or other linear forms of information
most used for entertainment, and often pedagogy as well. This article
explores the apparent rift between author and user control, asking
whether user-control really equals user-engagement. Hypermedia is not
trounced by any means, but rather implicit in the article is the
suggestion that digital hypermedia, like cinema before it, needs to
stop relying on previous-media modes of operation and invent its own.
This article will be useful to anyone developing hypermedia
interfaces for educational or entertainment use. -- RR
Schussler, Terry and Tim Tully. "Compression Tips for QuickTime
Video: Codecs" New Media 5(9) (September 1995): 79-80. -- An
intermediate level technical article about video compression codecs.
The advantages and drawbacks of each codec built into QuickTime are
outlined to help you decide which to select in your QuickTime editing
software for your purposes (archiving video, playback for delivery,
etc). -- RR
Networks and Networking
Lowry, Charles B., "Preparing for the Technological Future: A Journey
of Discovery" Library Hi Tech Issue 51 13(3) (1995):39-54. -- Lowry,
the university librarian at Carnegie Mellon University, examines
several steps which are crucial for building the "virtual library"
paradigm. Technologies which give users easy access to information
and provide for user privacy and royalty tracking must be assembled.
Bodies of substantive data must be digitized. Copyright laws need to
support distributed electronic libraries and networked access. The
success of the virtual library depends on the use of open systems and
standards such as Z39.50 to promote interoperability. Searching
results can be improved by moving from Boolean or keyword-based
retrieval to natural language processing (NLP) which yields more
precise results in searches of full-text databases. A subject-oriented
approach to indexing Internet resources should be implemented.
Libraries must migrate from traditional OPACs to GUI environments
capable of the multimedia available. Some examples of how Carnegie
Mellon is using information technology and NLP to build the
foundations of the virtual library round out this informative article.
-- CJC
Weibel, Stuart L. "The World Wide Web and Emerging Internet Resource
Discovery Standards for Scholarly Literature" Library Trends 43(4)
(Spring 1995): 627-634. -- Weibel has penned one of the best
overviews I've ever seen of the current benefits and future potential
of the Web for scholarly communication and publishing. He outlines a
set of problems relating to this technology and discusses ways of
addressing them. Weibel's insight into the issues is remarkable, and
is matched by a clear and engaging writing style. If you must limit
your reading to only essential pieces, this article should top the
list. If you are an information professional, you cannot afford to
be ignorant of the issues Weibel so clearly and insightfully
describes. -- RT
Weissinger, Nancy J. and John P. Edwards. "Online Resources for
Internet Trainers" College & Research Libraries News 56(8)
(September 1995): 535-539, 572. -- A bibliography of selected
Internet training materials available over the Internet, this
article provides a timely list of course materials that may be
helpful in planning and constructing Internet training sessions
or programs. It also lists references to online courses and
tutorials that have been developed and made available on the
Internet as well as a list of online reference sources and
subject guides. Also included is a list of newsgroups and
listservs of particular interest to Internet trainers. -- MP
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Current Cites 6(9) (September 1995) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (C) 1995 by the Library, University of
California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this
publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the
product.
[URL:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ISIS/current-cites/]
To subscribe, send the message "sub cites [your name]" to
listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]"
with your name. Copying is permitted for noncommercial use
by computerized bulletin board/conference systems, individual
scholars, and libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the
journal to their collections at no cost. An archive site is
maintained at ftp.lib.berkeley.edu in directory /pub/Current.Cites
[URL:ftp://ftp.lib.berkeley.edu/pub/Current.Cites]. This message
must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires
permission from the editor, who may be reached in the following
ways:
trinne@library.berkeley.edu // trinne@ucblibra // (510)642-8173
--------------------------------------------------------------------
