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Current Cites
Volume 13, no. 2, February 2002
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2002/cc02.13.2.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr., [4]Margaret Gross, [5]Shirl
Kennedy, [6]Leo Robert Klein, Jim Ronningen, [7]Roy Tennant
Borden, Mark [8]"Rip-Resistant CDs Do Not Compute" [9]Business 2.0
(January 2002)
(http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,36644,FF.html) - They've
succeeded in strangling Napster, and they've sued MusicCity and KaZaA.
They're in the process of launching subscription music services that
severely limit what a customer may do with the music he or she has
paid to download. Well, now the recording industry "is testing what
could be the least popular copyright protection plan yet" -- digital
rights management schemes that keep an audio CD from being played in
the CD drive on a personal computer. Obviously, this is an attempt to
keep consumers from "ripping and burning." Universal Music, the
largest of the record labels, says it plans to put copy protection on
all its CDs within six months. Meanwhile, the other labels are quietly
testing copy-protected CDs in certain markets. Unfortunately, the copy
protection technology keeps some of these disks from playing in car CD
players, DVD players or videogame consoles. Complaints from users are
on the increase; people are returning what they perceive to be
defective disks, creating logistical headaches and bad publicity. (If
you're worried about ending up with one of these things, check out Fat
Chuck's Corrupt CDs -- [10]http://fatchucks.com/corruptcds/ -- before
you lay your money down.) Hackers, meanwhile, are ramping up to take
on this latest challenge to their technological prowess. - [11]SK
Brockman, William S., Laura Neumann, Carole L. Palmer, and Tonyia J.
Tidline. [12]"Scholarly Work in the Humanities and the Evolving
Information Environment" Council on Library and Information Resources,
December 2001 (http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub104abst.html). -
While we often say that we want to build library collections and
services that our clientele will find effective and easy to use, we
don't always know exactly what that may mean for particular segments
of our users. This document begins to answer some of those questions
for humanities scholars by looking at they approach their work and how
new technologies are changing it. This isn't always easy, as they
point out. "A blithe comment from one of our respondents is worth
reflection: "I want everything at my fingertips." This may seem like
an unattainable goal; nonetheless, it is the job of researchers and
information professionals to figure out the best ways to make progress
toward this end. "Everything," in this scholar's words, does not
really mean everything; it means those things that make a difference
in the scholar's ability to do work well. What it means to do work
well can be studied, understood, and responded to in the information
systems we develop." Their research, and this report on it, is good
beginning to this process. - [13]RT
[14]Budapest Open Access Initiative
(http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml). - The [15]Open Society
Institute (OSI) held a meeting on December first and second of last
year that resulted in the creation of the Budapest Open Access
Initiative (BOAI). The BOAI manifesto, which was written by Stevan
Harnad, Michael Eisen, Peter Suber, and other meeting participants,
vigorously advocates "open access" to peer-reviewed articles, which is
defined as follows: "By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its
free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to
read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full
texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to
software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial,
legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining
access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and
distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should
be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the
right to be properly acknowledged and cited." You'll note that it's
not just free access to scholarly articles that's proposed, but also
free reuse of these articles by any party for any purpose as long as
the integrity of the articles is preserved and they are properly
attributed and cited. The two main strategies recommended by the BOAI
are self-archiving and alternative journals. The [16]BOAI FAQ is
essential reading for fully understanding the BOAI. As of 2/14/02,
over 350 individuals and 30 organizations had [17]signed the BOAI, and
others are encouraged to [18]do so. The Open Society Institute
[19]will support open access projects with one million dollars per
year for a three-year period. Check out the BOAI [20]home page for
more information on this important initiative. - [21]CB
Charles, Susan K. "Knowledge Management Lessons from the Document
Trenches" [22]Online 26 (1) (January/February 2002). - A preliminary
version of the document is available at
[23]http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2001/HPL-2001-230.pdf; The
author, an Information/Research Analyst with Hewlett Packard, presents
a case study based on her own experience at HP. She describes the
trials, the pitfalls, the caveats, and the disappointment encountered
during an attempt to implement a comprehensive knowledge management
(KM) system within her organization. Covered are the typical steps
that need to be taken in order to launch such a program. Needs must be
evaluated and enunciated. Existing data and databases must be located
and integrated. The developers of a KM initiative should get to know
the perspective endusers, should elicit their recommendations, and
should familiarize them with the benefits of the planned system.
Despite best intentions, and best laid plans this KM project has
languished. Thus, to complete the article, the author presents an
overview of lessons learned. The tenets are based on the Oz and Sosik
article (Oz, Effy &; John J. Sosik, "Why Information Systems Projects
are Abandoned; A Leadership and Communication Theory and Exploratory
Study"; [24]Journal of Computer Information Systems, 41 (1), Fall
2000, pp 66-78). - [25]MG
Costello, Eric and Apple Developer Connection. [26]"Remote Scripting
with IFRAME" [27]O'Reilly Network (February 8, 2002)
(http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/02/08/iframe.html). -
Script kiddies are going to love this discussion by Eric Costello of
remote scripting through an IFRAME. Basically the idea is to
dynamically generate information coming quite possibly from a database
through a tiny window called an IFRAME. This obviates the need to keep
constantly going from one window to another just because a piece of
information changes. The web, and in this case, the web page, is
becoming a far more dynamic place with much of the action taking place
'under the hood' so to speak. This is just one in a number of articles
showing great creativity on the part of web developers in applying
standard's based approaches to mark-up and page layout. See
[28]alistapart.com and Costello's own [29]glish.com (just to name two)
for more examples. - [30]LRK
Debowski, Shelda "Wrong way: Go Back! An Exploration of Novice Search
Behaviours While Conducting an Information Search." [31]Electronic
Library 19(6) (2001): 371-382. - Detailed look at how 48
undergraduates from Western Australia navigated the SilverPlatter
version of ERIC on CD-ROM. This included what the students were typing
in the search boxes. Not surprisingly, results bordered on the
calamitous. Students were unable to pick up on promising avenues of
exploration at the same time as they repeated, perhaps as a sign of
exhaustion, previous failed strategies. The author is right to point
out that "good searching is not something that comes naturally to us
all", particularly where structured language is concerned. The need
for a "strong supportive structure" is clearly illustrated. - [32]LRK
Dekkers, Makx and Stuart L. Weibel. [33]"Dublin Core Metadata
Initiative Progress Report and Workplan for 2002" [34]D-Lib Magazine
8(2) (February 2002)
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february02/weibel/02weibel.html). -
Long-time readers of Current Cites are probably getting tired of us
citing articles on the [35]Dublin Core. A search of our database
brings up [36]21 citations since 1996. But there is a good reason for
this. The Dublin Core is probably our best hope for a common meeting
ground between a collection of metadata standards that is evocative of
the Tower of Babel. Although the DC is not large enough (it is a core,
after all), nor granular enough, or adequately qualified (yet) for
many metadata uses, we can all "dumb down" our metadata enough to
contribute records into a common pot. And sometimes that makes all the
difference in the world. So with this progress report we finally see
DC coming into its own. NISO passed it as ANSI Standard Z39.85 (albeit
by the skin of its teeth). But more importantly, the [37]Open Archives
initiative adopted it as the only required metadata element set
OAI-compliant archives must support. This development alone may be
enough to solidify the position of the DC at the center of disparate
communities with metadata to share. - [38]RT
Digital Library Forum. [39]A Framework of Guidance for Building Good
Digital Collections Institute of Museum and Library Services,
Washington, DC: 2002 (http://www.imls.gov/pubs/forumframework.htm). -
It wasn't all that long ago that any library wanting to embark on a
project to digitize a collection and put it online for all to see
would be making up a lot of the process from scratch. Thankfully,
those days are now over. No more evidence of this is required than
this online document, which not only makes good, clear statements
regarding best practices for doing this type of activity, but also
points to the growing literature on the topic. Principles are laid
down in the areas of collections, objects (creating and preserving
digital versions), metadata, and projects. The principles are good
ones and the pointers are invaluable. Although this document itself is
a quick read, the items it points you to can keep you busy for weeks.
Compared to the state of affairs not long ago, it is an embarrassment
of riches. If you find something you don't like, or are missing
something you'd like to see, the document is in draft form and
comments are solicited until at least May 1, 2002. - [40]RT
Guernsey, Lisa. [41]"You Can Surf, but You Can't Hide" [42]The New
York Times (February 7, 2002)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/07/technology/circuits/07HERE.html?pag
ewanted=all). - "Presence awareness" is an intriguing but somewhat
scary technology that could well put an end to phone tag -- at a cost
of upping the general paranoia level. This is something that can be
programmed into cell phones and other wireless devices so that users
will be able to tell, instantly, whether another person's gizmo is
turned on and in use. Some systems may incorporate a GPS element,
making it possible to track another user geographically. While this
may give some of us the willies, one assistant professor at NYU who
studies Internet relationships feels that presence technology can
provide reassurance to those who "are comforted when they can see the
distant movements of people from their inner circles, like family and
friends." Instant messaging applications are already giving us a taste
of this, as our "buddy lists" allow us to see who is online and how
long someone has been logged in. Some of the obvious privacy issues
can be addressed by building in "permission features or other blocking
tools." Then, of course, users would be faced with "the social dilemma
of managing privacy without appearing rude." - [43]SK
Johnson, Carey [44]"R?sum? Spamming Brings an Online Backlash" [45]The
Washington Post (January 25, 2002)
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conte
ntId=A34840-2002Jan24). - You have to figure this was inevitable; in
the face of rising unemployment among dot-com and technology workers,
unsolicited resumes "are beginning to clutter electronic inboxes
across the nation." Since it costs nothing to append additional e-mail
addresses to a message, many job-seekers are taking the chance.
"There's no penalty for trying," says a San Francisco State University
professor. "Ants will find a hole in the wall to get the bread." Alas,
employers tend not to look favorably on "job-related spam," and there
have already been instances of severe backlash against candidates
trying this scattershot approach. Those who send their resumes as
attachments to messages are even less likely to get noticed, as
corporate e-mail users commonly shun attachments due to fear of
viruses. - [46]SK
Jones, Trevor and Beth Sandore. [47]"'We don't know the first thing
about digitization:' Assessing the Need for Digitization Training in
Illinois" [48]RLG DigiNews 6(1) (February 15, 2002)
(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews6-1.html). - Results and
implications of a survey that assessed the level of expertise in
digitization at a number of Illinois libraries, museums and archives.
Of those responding (32%), most reported having the tools of
digitization (namely a scanner) but lacking the knowledge, as the
authors put it, to "effectively digitize cultural heritage
collections". Efforts to remedy this situation through appropriate
outreach and training are also covered. - [49]LRK
Large, Andrew, Jamshid Beheshti, and Tarjin Rahman. "Design Criteria
for Children's Web Portals : The Users Speak Out." [50]Journal of the
American Society for Information Science and Technology 53(2) (2002):
79-94. - 'Out of the mouths of babes' is just as good a title for this
article. The authors poll children on the relative merits of four
different portal sites. The kiddies' verdict: give us more colors,
graphics and "fun stuff"! Can't wait for this crowd to hit grade 13!
In any case, the article is just one of several looking at user
evaluation of material on the web in this special issue devoted to web
research. - [51]LRK
Newman, David V. "Impersonal interactions and ethics on the
World-Wide-Web" Ethics and Information Technology 3(4) 2001, p.
239-246 - Since anyone who has browsed the Web has been confronted
with unwanted Web content, readers may glance at this article and
wonder why a guy would publish what appear to be his first baby steps
toward understanding a common experience. However, like any good
philosopher, the author is getting down to the fundamental elements of
what is occurring: in this case, the interaction between the Web user
and the Web authors who are imposing popup windows and attack pages on
his browser. His thesis is that "any situation involving personal
interaction that takes control of a person's computer without informed
consent brings about a species of moral problem that is only possible
with computers." Newman analyzes what separates this from other
conduits for unsolicited advertising, and defines the basic conflict
as being between free speech rights (the Web authors) and property
rights (the computer user). His rather naive proposal for the
development of an advance-warning system to help users fend off
browser-ambush sounds like a type of metadata which the unscrupulous
could easily work around. Still, this short piece is a useful poke in
the ribs to stop monkeying with details for awhile and step back to
ponder basic principles. - JR
Pyle, Ransford C. and Charles D. Dzuiban. "Technology: Servant or
Master of the Online Teacher?" [52]Library Trends 50(1) (Summer 2001):
130-144. - The voice of experience is what speaks though this article
which Library Trend thoughtfully reprints as part of its special issue
devoted to computer-assisted instruction. The message here is not to
get carried away with the technology. Indeed, the author admits from
the outset that he is concerned with the "more fundamental problem of
teaching and learning". He then goes on to examine where online
instruction can do the most good and at what level in the intellectual
development of the student. He concludes, "if we think of the World
Wide Web as a medium for teaching, we necessarily move to questions of
the nature of this medium, what it can do, what it can do well, how we
develop teaching styles consonant with the Web and with our personal
styles and pedagogies and how we integrate it, or not, with existent
educational institutions. And all these questions must somehow fit the
learning strategies of our students." - [53]LRK
Spring, Tom. [54]"The Price of Free E-Mail Rises" [55]PCWorld.com
(January 24, 2002)
(http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,81324,00.asp) - "Free" is
an increasingly scarce commodity on the Internet, and Web-based e-mail
accounts are being squeezed. Two of the largest providers -- Yahoo!
and MSN's Hotmail -- have quietly added fee services, and are cutting
back on perks to free users. While free e-mail is unlikely to
disappear entirely, you can increasingly count on being hit up for
popular features such as forwarding and extra storage above a minimal
level. Providers are also merging or outright disappearing, so users
are left with fewer choices. IDC researchers estimate that there are
currently more than 150 million free Web-based e-mail accounts in
existence. - [56]SK
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 13(2) (February 2002) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright ? 2002 by the Regents of the University of California All
rights reserved.
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