_Current_Cites_ Volume 4, no. 1 January 1993 Library Technology Watch Program University of California, Berkeley Edited by David F.W. Robison ISSN: 1060-2356 Contributors: Teri Rinne, Vivienne Roumani, Lisa Rowlison, Mark Takaro, Roy Tennant --------------------------------------------------------------------- Information Transfer Beaver, David. "Pushing Beyond Paper" MacUser 9(1) (January 1993):215-221. Beaver foresees that "our struggles to give up paper will seem endearingly backward" as we move into the 90s, and document servers and electronic document management systems become more sophisticated, more affordable, and more commonplace functions of the future workstation. - VR Computers in Libraries 12(11) (December 1992) Special issue on document delivery. This entire issue is devoted to several aspects of electronic document delivery, including copyright issues of electronic publishing; the relationship of libraries, publishers, and authors in an electronic world; and developments and trends of document delivery systems. - VR Welch, Elisa M. "Can You Read This?: OCR Software" MacUser 9(1) (January 1993):152-184. Welch provides us with a detailed comparative study of eight stand-alone optical character recognition (OCR) software packages for the Mac. Among these are OmniPage, WordScan, AccuText, Read-It, and TextPert. The business letters her group chose to test included italics, bold, underlined words, and other difficult character combinations. - VR Willett, Perry, and Diane Geraci. "Optical Scanning in an Academic Library" College & Research Libraries News 53(11) (December 1992):698-701. Libraries at SUNY Binghamton, Albany, Buffalo, and Stony Brook participated in a project to determine whether or not it was feasible for libraries to provide optical scanning technology services to their users. Users could either scan materials they needed themselves, or ask library staff for assistance. Project participants concluded that the library should continue to provide scanning technology services to their users. - VR Networks and Networking Calcari, Susan. "NSF Network Information Services Awards" posted on nis@cerf.net (January 5, 1993). Calcari describes the NSF award of a $12 million grant to three organizations (AT&T, General Atomics, and Network Solutions) to launch a cooperative project to provide seamless network address services (IP numbers, domain name services), white and yellow page services, as well as general network information assistance. The providers will be free to charge for their services to those outside the US research and education arena. - DR Dern, Daniel P. "Internet Consultants" Internet World 3(9) (November/December 1992):12-16. Dern conducts an e-mail roundtable with five network consultants to discuss some of the issues facing Internet service providers, users, and potential users, with a focus on the last group. They point out that users are now demanding full service from the providers and the service providers are responding appropriately. While many potential users may be ignorant of the possibilities and potential benefits of Internet access, more and more are recognizing its importance and value. Also included in this discussion are some of the commercialization/privatization issues facing users and service providers. - DR --. "Provider Spotlight: PANIX: Bringing the Internet to the Big Apple" Internet World 3(9) (November/December 1992):8-11. Dern's interview with Alexis Rosen President of New York's first public-access Internet provider, PANIX, provides an interesting view of an Internet pioneer (yes, there are still some pioneers out there!). Find out what it takes to offer public access service and whom to trust to get the work done. Rosen also describes some of the future plans for PANIX' expansion, as well as the contingency plan in the case of a common-carrier take- over. After the interview Dern has included an excerpt from PANIX' sales information as well as the address for the full text. - DR Hinnebusch, Mark. "The Z39.50 EXPLAIN Service" Academic and Library Computing 9(10) (November/December 1992):12-14. Hinnebusch, "Mr. Z39.50", describes the recent work on the development of the Z39.50 implementors on the much desired EXPLAIN service. This service will hopefully have its first implementation in the next revision of the standard (Z39.50- 1993). EXPLAIN will allow a Z39.50 compliant client to query a server's EXPLAIN database (using a Type 1 Query) and find out crucial information about the use of the server. EXPLAIN database attributes will not only let the client know how to pay for a search, but it will also give information that can assist the client in optimizing a search. - DR Loen, Larry. "Hiding data in plain sight: Some Key Questions About Cryptography" EFFector Online 4(5) (January 7, 1993). Loen provides a kind "Encryption 101," that originally appeared as an FAQ on the USENET group sci.crypt: what is encryption, how it works, how it is tested, attacked, who are the players, and who are those trying to thwart the system. This is the first of a series on encryption that will appear in EFFector Online. - DR The National Research and Education Network Program: A Report to Congress / submitted by the Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy. Washington, DC (20506): The Office, December 1992. 57 p. [The report is available from the National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bldg. 38-A, Room B1N30, Bethesda, MD 20894, 301-402-4100.] This report, required by the first NREN legislation, describes the government's proposal for the actual implementation of the legislation. The report addresses six major issues: funding of the Network and its continued development; the future operation and evolution of the Network; how commercial services can pay for usage of the Network and how users can be charged for such services; technical issues of allowing commercial use of the Network and its component networks; protection of copyright; and privacy and security. Included here are descriptions and charges (i.e., responsibilities) of the myriad groups, committees, and consortia that constitute the organizational structure of the Network. Clearly this is an important document in the development of the NREN. - DR Nickerson, Gord. "World Wide Web: Hypertext from CERN" Computers in Libraries 12(11) (December 1992):75-77. Without going into too much detail, Nickerson provides a view of the underside of the operations of the World Wide Web (WWW). Readers learn how a networked hypertext link works and the relationship between the HyperText Transfer Protocol, the HyperText Markup Language and other developing standards such as SGML, Z39.50 and MIME. - DR Pengelly, Vicki L. and Barry N. Brown. "'King Kong Versus Godzilla': A Team Approach to Training on Internet Resources" Proceedings of the ACM SIGUCCS User Services Conference XX: Learning from the Past, Stepping into the Future, 1992, pp.181- 186. Pengelly and Brown offer an interesting look at their Internet training program. The three part course covers WANs, library catalogs and databases, and computer conferences and electronic journals. In this article the authors relate their experiences teaching the course and include a course outline, as well as some of the problems that have come up. For those planning Internet training, this article should provide some useful guidance. The authors themselves are from the computing center and the library of their campus, respectively, and have found this combination to be complimentary. Beyond this, the collaboration on the class has fostered a better relationship between the two departments in general. - DR Smith, Jane D. "Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval" posted on PACS-L@UHUPVM1 (January 8, 1993). Smith describes the mission of the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR). CNIDR will work closely with the Coalition for Networked Information and the Internet Engineering Task Force and developers of resource discovery tools such as WAIS, Gopher, and WWW to provide developers with up-to-date information on standards and protocols. In this way CNIDR hopes to foster better interoperability, "compatibility and consistency, and, to the extent possible, convergence of the tools." - DR Smith, Richard J. "Report on Navigating the Internet: An Interactive Workshop" posted on NETTRAIN@UBVM and PACS-L@UHUPVM1 (January 12, 1993). Smith describes his second online Internet course that provided training for 15,000 users and lasted over seven weeks. The students were an eclectic group from over 50 countries and administration of the class became a full-time job for Smith. Plans are in the works for further such training as well as a published report on the workshops. - DR Steele, Shari. "BBS Legislative Watch: Legislation from Last Congress that May Affect Your Online Communications" EFFector Online 4(1) (December 17, 1992). Steele provides a round-up of recent legislative issues on the electronic frontier. In this issue: Threats to Privacy: FBI's Wiretapping Proposal Thwarted; Cellular Scanners Prohibited; Threats to Free Speech: Federal Agency to Study Hate Crimes on BBSs; Threats to the Public's Right to Government Information: Fees Charged for Use of Government BBS; Federal Employees Denied Copyrights for Government Software; Reproducing Copyrighted Software Now a Felony; Network Access for All: Commercial Users Given Internet Access. - DR Strauss, Howard Jay. "CWIS: What's in a Name?" Academic and Library Computing 9(10) (November/December 1992):14-17. Strauss describes the two most important features of the Campus-Wide Information System (CWIS) that will make it successful: that it really be campus-wide and that the information be interesting (and obviously so). He makes the point that like a newspaper, a CWIS should have something for everybody. In the interest of keeping the mounted information up-to-date and serving a wide range of interests, Strauss recommends that the CWIS should be administered by the campus public relations office (as the library's and computing center's foci would be too narrow). - DR Tomer, Christinger. "Anonymous FTP Resources" Academic and Library Computing 9(10) (November/December 1992):8-12. Tomer presents an analysis of the use of the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) at Washington University over a two year period. In addition to a four-fold increase in usage between 1990 and 1991, Tomer presents findings on the most popular types of files retrieved. Given the large number of files retrieved per year (7.5 million in 1991 from this site), and the fact that the large majority of the files are software, Tomer concludes that "anonymous FTP servers have materially altered the development and distribution of software." Also included is a description of the archie file index system and a helpful sample archie session. - DR Optical Disc Technologies Zarnosky, Margaret R. "Knowledge Served on a Silver Platter: Planning and Paying for CD-ROMs" RQ 31(1) (Fall 1992):75-84. Zarnosky explores the planning and budgetary considerations of building a CD-ROM collection. The article covers selection criteria, issues involving library personnel and users, and various costs associated with CD-ROMs. Zarnosky presents a number of alternatives to paying for CD-ROM databases, including grants, library budgetary allocations, fees, and cost savings. - TR General Communications of the ACM 35(12) (December 1992):26-81. Special section on Information Filtering. Information filtering is the solution to information overload we're all waiting for. The articles presented here cover both the theoretical and practical aspects of information filtering and its current development. o Baclace, Paul E. "Competitive Agents for Information Filtering," p.50. Baclace describes an agent system under development at Autodesk that literally employs multiple agents for a user in a competitive fashion. Each agent is paid, and must pay rent to keep its disk space! o Belkin, Nicholas J. and W. Bruce Croft. "Information Filtering and Information Retrieval: Two Sides of the Same Coin?" pp.29-38. Belkin and Croft analyze information filtering and retrieval in parallel in order to discover the relationship between the two. They find that the two operations have much in common, so much so, that they encourage researchers in information filtering to employ certain findings in IR research. They also point out where the two diverge, and must be treated differently. o Bowen, T. F., et al. "The Datacycle Architecture," pp.71- 81. Bowen, et al. describe the Datacycle database system that provides flexible processing by eschewing indexing. Datacycle accomplishes its processing by filtering a complete copy of the database as it is broadcast to a parallel processing system. The database is continuously rebroadcast so that the data is kept up- to-date. This method allows for complex Boolean queries as well as the creation of fuzzy sets. o Foltz, Peter W. and Susan T. Dumais. "Personalized Information Delivery: An Analysis of Information Filtering Methods," pp.51-60. Foltz and Dumais describe their research into the application of information retrieval methods in n information filtering. Working with technical documents (less dynamic than news articles) as a sample, they found that Latent Semantic Indexing provides the best results. o Goldberg, David, et. al. "Using Collaborative Filtering to Weave an Information Tapestry," pp.61-70. Goldberg and company describe their information filter designed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center called Tapestry. This client/server system allows users to select e-mail and other objects through preset profiles as well as ad hoc search queries on the server's archive using Tapestry Query Language. The advantage of this specific filter is that it allows users to specify in the profile or query attributes of an object such as whether or not the object has received a response or comment from other readers, hence a collaborative approach. o Loeb, Shoshana. "Architecting Personalized Delivery of Multimedia Information," pp.39-48. Loeb helps expand the bounds of information filtering by approaching multi-type objects. She also notes that two types of users must be satisfied, the casual user and the proactive user. A detailed description of a music information filter is included as an example of a filter for primarily non-textual objects. o Ram, Ashwin. "Natural Language Understanding for Information-Filtering Systems," pp.80-81. In this sidebar, Ram describes, in simple terms and a short example, how natural language processing can be used to in information filtering. He describes two systems in use or development now, as well as the long term development goals of natural language systems in information filtering. o Stadnyk, Irene and Robert Kass. "Modelling Users' Interests in Information Filters," pp.49-50. In a preliminary study of Usenet News, the authors found that users were able to describe with some regularity the reason(s) a message was or was not interesting to them. o Stevens, Curt. "Automating the Creation of Information Filters," p.48. Stevens describes the INFOSCOPE system which "employs rule-based agents that recognize a user's usage patterns and make suggestions based on them." - DR Computers in Libraries 12(10) (November 1992). "Special Section: Library Equipment and Furniture," pp.8-34. The five articles in this section cover design and purchase issues for library technology and furniture with emphasis on ergonomic concerns as well as ADA compliance. Included here are guides to electronic information resources and a directory of vendors and distributors of technological devices for the disabled. - DR Forester, Tom. "Megatrends Or Megamistakes?: What Ever Happened to the Information Society?" EFFector Online 4(1-2) (December 17, 1992). In this first part Forester looks at the effects or lack of effect that information technology (IT) has had on society. He finds that despite the dire and utopian predictions, IT has not had the transforming effect as predicted. Forester also looks at some of the reasons why the microchip has not made humans obsolete or given us endless leisure time. In the second part, Forester examines some of the unintended effects of IT, including privacy breaches, information overload, electronic crimes. - DR Rogers, Michael. "Mile-High Technology: LITA Does Denver" Library Journal 117(18) (November 1, 1992):30-32. Rogers provides an entertaining synopsis of LITA's Third National Conference held in September 1992. "The nexus of all the speakers' messages," writes Rogers, "was that the library without walls, or virtual library, is no longer a dream but a cold, hard fact. With networking, and especially via Internet, there is no piece of recorded information that isn't accessible to anyone anywhere at any time." - TR NewsBits "Information and Technology" Chronicle of Higher Education 39(15) (December 9, 1992):A17. o Wilson, David L. "Network Will Link 17 Universities and the Library of Ohio." o --. "Project Aims to Save Records of a Black Community in Virginia." Personal papers and other records, including those from churches and civil rights groups from Richmond's black community, are being converted to optical disks and made available to scholars. o --. "System Catalogues Faculty members by Topics of Interests." Kansas State University has developed a system using library classification techniques and software, to provide profiles of faculty and their particular expertise. - VR ------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Cites 4(1) (January 1992) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (C) 1993 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. 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------