_Current_Cites_ Volume 2, no. 10 October 1991 Library Technology Watch Program University of California, Berkeley Edited by David F.W. Robison Contributors: Teri Rinne, Vivienne Roumani, Lisa Rowlison, Mark Takaro, Roy Tennant Hyper- and Multimedia Herther, Nancy K. "Interactive Multimedia at Philips: CP Interviews Philips' Bert Gall About CD-ROM, XA, CD-I and Their Future." CD- ROM Professional 4(5) (September 1991):34-37. An up-to-date look at the settling of standards for Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I) and the development of the bridge between PCs and CD-I. This interview provides an insider's perspective on the market viability of the technology and the approach to its development for the future. With the MPEG standard in place, companies such as Philips can begin introducing their own units in a unified context within the industry, leading to a more cohesive future market for their products. -- MT Bajarin, Tim. "Everyone You Know Doesn't Use A Computer" Computer Currents 9(9) (September 24, 1991):16-19. A short column about future computing with pen-based and multimedia technologies. The increasingly digital world can become more accessible to those who do not now own a computer through developments like these. -- MT Information Transfer Ingebretsen, Dorothy and Steven Tice "Searching Los Angeles Times Dialog On Disc: The Times Editorial Library Experience" CD-ROM Professional (September 1991):86-90. Dialog provides the full text of the Los Angeles Times from 1986 to the present on CD-ROM. This article discusses searchable fields, Easy Menu interface geared to the end user, and the more sophisticated Dialog command search for experienced searchers. -- VR King, Alan. "Full Text & CD-Rom: Variations on a Theme." Online 15(5) (September 1991): 107-108. King describes the benefits of full text databases on CD-Rom albeit the limitations of this technology. -- VR Miller, Carmen. "End-Users: From Which Menu Should You Order?" Online 15(5) (September 1991): 26-33. This article reviews D-S Business Focus and Dialog Business Connection databases, two menu-driven approaches to business databases on competing systems. -- VR Williams, Robert F. "Is optical storage legal?" ASIS 17(5) (June/July 1991): 14-15. "Are optically stored records legally admissible in court and administrative hearings?" This article covers some of the legality issues of optically stored information, and the implications for the future. -- VR Networks and Networking Barlow, John Perry "The Law Comes to Cyberspace" BYTE (October 1991):332. Here Barlow recounts the events in May of 1990 that led he and Mitch Kapor to found the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). See the General section below. -- DR Cerf, Vinton "The Internet Society" reprinted through LISTSERV@BITNIC.BITNET (GET INTSOC CERF_V) from EDUCOM Review 26(3/4) (Fall/Winter 1991). Cerf explains why the Internet Society was founded, what it is, what its goals are, what its membership is and how one can get involved in this new organization that is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year. -- DR Kapor, Mitch "Building the Open Road: The NREN as Test-Bed for the National Public Network" Network Working Group RFC 1259 (September 1991). This paper is an excellent update on the NREN and NII. Kapor suggests first that the NREN will stimulate technological advances yet to be imagined, and the at the NREN should be thought of as a prototype for the National Publia Network. This is a must read. Available via anonymous ftp from nnsc.nsf.net (128.89.1.178) with pathname rfc/rfc1259.txt. Nielsen, Brian. "The Coalition for Networked Information: Realizing the Virtual Library." Online 15(5) (September 1991): 96-97. Nielsen enthusiastically describes a relatively new group, Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and its role in the development of NREN. -- VR Roberts, Michael M. "Positioning the National Research and Education Network" reprinted through LISTSERV@BITNIC.BITNET (GET POSNREN ROBERT_M) from EDUCOM Review 26(2) (Summer 1991). Roberts explains where he believes the NREN and National Information Infrastructure (NII) is heading as a cooperative venture between government, educators, and industry. He also points out that technological advances in the last decade have outpaced related political and legal advances. -- DR Thompson, Tom "Networking with System 7.0" BYTE (September 1991):337-340. Thompson has worked with the new Macintosh system for several months, and despite "some snags" he feels the benefits of changing over to the new systems are worth it in the networked environment. With the new system, file sharing becomes almost transparent, without the need for a server. The combination of interapplication communication (IAC) and the Mac's publish and subscribe application allows users to share data while operating different applications. And that's no mean feat! -- DR Optical Disc Technologies Bonime, Andrew "The Promise and the Challenge of CD-I" CD-ROM Professional 4(5) (September 1991):17-30. This article provides a fairly complete overview of CD-I, which is slated for release this fall, with its target audience being the mass consumer market. CD-I is a subset of CD-ROM which includes an international set of standards for encoding and integrating audio, video, still pictures, and text. Consumer players will be priced at $1,000 initially, with an anticipated drop to around $500 within two years. -- TR Brooks, Martin "Multimedia and the Future of CD-ROM" CD-ROM Professional 4(5) (September 1991):8-10. Martin Brooks, vice- president of electronic publishing at R. R. Bowker presents his concerns regarding the hype surrounding multimedia. He fears that hype generated might shift the interest from high-quality, extremely important research databases to any product that has sound and graphics in it. He poses the question: "For the researcher, should it not be more important to have a hypertext system that works intuitively than a database that plays back the mating calls of certain selected bullfrogs?" -- TR Brueggeman, Peter "Memory Management for CD-ROM Workstations, Part I" CD-ROM Professional 4(5) (September 1991):39-43. In this series of two articles, Brueggeman presents a "crash course" on memory management in the DOS environment. In the second part of the series, he will give readers specific tips and ideas on how to maximize your hardware/software investment and more effectively run your CD-ROMs. -- TR Harvey, David A. "CD-ROM Drives: How Good is the Third Generation?" BYTE 16(9) (September 1991):268-276. Harvey boldly suggests that "the winter of our discontent with CD-ROM may be over," citing the new "third generation" of CD-ROM drives with faster access times, improved data transfer rates, and lower prices than their predecessors. He reviews six external CD-ROM drives by Chinon, Hitachi, PLI, Texel, and Toshiba. -- TR Rizzo, John "Double Duty Drives: Multifunction Optical Storage" MacUser 7(11) (November 1991):108-114. This article features reviews of multifunction optical storage drives recently released by Hewlett-Packard, Pioneer, and Panasonic. These drives utilize both erasable optical and WORM (write once/read many) cartridges. A multifunction drive offers more flexibility than any other optical storage device. In erasable mode, a multifunction drive is slower than a hard-disk drive but offers nearly unlimited capacity and greater data security. In WORM mode, the drive can create permanent archives (up to 100 years) with the convenience of random access. - - TR General Kapor, Mitch "Current Legislative and Policy Efforts" Effector Online [eff-news@eff.org] 1(11) (September 20, 1991). Among other actions, the EFF is involved in the NREN and fiber optic planning activity on Capitol Hill, supporting communications privacy in the face of federal actions against secure encryption, joining with the ACLU, library organizations and IIA to oppose legislation that would allow the government to copyright software it produced in cooperation with a private firm, and the EFF also opposes legislation that would allow the government to charge royalty fees for "accessing a government electronic data base of public information." -- DR Special note: with this issue, Current Cites is now being published electronically on the Public Access Computer Systems list (PACS- L@UHUPVM1.BITNET)--Welcome to our new readers! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Cites 2(10)(October 1991) Copyright (C) 1991 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved. 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. This message must appear on copied material. All commercial use requires permission from the editor, who may be reached in the following ways: drobison@library.berkeley.edu // drobison@ucblibra // (510)642-7600 -------------------------------------------------------------------