[14508] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Current Cites, September 2002
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (CITES Moderator)
Tue Oct 1 08:59:12 2002
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 20:14:53 -0700
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Current Cites
Volume 13, no. 9, September 2002
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2002/cc02.13.9.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr., [4]Terry Huwe, [5]Shirl
Kennedy, [6]Leo Robert Klein, [7]Roy Tennant
"[8]When Internet Companies Morph: Understanding Organizational
Strategy Changes in the 'New' New Economy" [9]First Monday 7(7)
(1 July 2002)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_7/kauffman/). - The
authors analyze the life and times of 125 Internet companies,
attempting to chart several factors that will help academics make
head or tail of what happened in their lifespan. They also direct
their analysis at executives, who might benefit from knowing how
dot-coms "mutated", and why. 90 billion dollars in venture capital
was aimed at startups in just a few years, as we all know, and
getting it right next time will surely trump visionary rhetoric.
Some quantifiable data is not only in order, but overdue. The
authors construct a database of business articles to create a
snapshot of Internet firms, and then apply game theory methodology
to study behavior. They employ the jargon of evolution to advantage
("competitive genetics" is one of the terms used here), and
identify five firm categories. This article also links firm
performance with articulated business plans (which did a fair of
amount morphing themselves). Theories are well-articulated, as well
as well-illustrated with visually displayed data. In conclusion,
they urge both academics and managers to develop "new" new economy
firms by studying the firms of the not-so-distant past. - [10]TH
Bates, Marcia J.. "[11]After the dot-bomb: Getting Web Information
Retrieval Right This Time" [12]First Monday 7(7) (1 July 2002)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_7/bates/). - Anyone who
ever thought there was a slight problem with Internet search
engines developed by dot-com firms will, upon reading this article,
have two rewarding experiences. First, the sheer enjoyment of
reading a skillfully written piece that skewers first generation
web search engines is itself a treat. Second, Bates' article is
remarkably informative, terribly pithy, and wastes no words (all in
plain English) setting forth the vital importance of applying the
corpus of library-based knowledge to "new" information retrieval
challenges. Bates graciously avoids succumbing to the temptation to
say, "Wait! We were there first! We know best!" as so many
pundit-librarians have. Her arguments are so persuasive she doesn't
have to bother. But she does indulge in a bit of fun at the expense
of the circa-1997 Web visionary's manifesto, as we so frequently
witnessed in countless Powerpoint presentations. "I have watched as
hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested to re-invent the
wheel - often badly," she says. Regarding content: "Content" has
been treated like a kind of soup that "content providers" scoop out
of pots and dump wholesale into information systems. Don't miss
this one. - [13]TH
Besser, Howard. "[14]The next stage: Moving from isolated digital
collections tointeroperable digital libraries" [15]First Monday
7(6) (3 June 2002)
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_6/besser/). - Noted image
expert Howard Besser takes a closer look at the challenges that
beset true interoperability in digital collections -- an issue that
is likely to grow in complexity as we learn more about it. He
argues that online collections do not yet function like
conventional libraries, that many digital collections are
experimental and do not encompass vital features (like customer
service), not to mention genuinely trustworthy preservation
programs. Moreover, since many digital library developers work in
relative isolation, a lingua franca among all developers is more
elusive than it may seem. Besser presents a conceptual framework
that takes several factors into consideration. He assesses the
early, experimental history of digital libraries, the roles of
conventional libraries, and infrastructure elements like metadata.
After reviewing recently history, he suggests that the challenges
are not simply technical. "Conventional libraries have both
components and ethical traditions," he says. "The digital
collections we are constructing will not truly be 'digital
libraries' until they incorporate a significant number of the
components of conventional libraries, and adhere to many of the
important ethical traditions and values of libraries." - [16]TH
Breeding, Marshall. "[17]A Hard Look at Wireless Networks"
[18]netConnect (Summer 2002)
(http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&art
icleid=CA232339). - Wireless networking is far from new, but
recently it has become much more available and commonplace. If
you're not an expert on the technology, this overview piece has a
lot for you. In fact, Breeding does the best job I've seen so far
in both explaining the technologies and standards involved as well
as issues such as security and whether or not it may make sense for
your library to offer such a service to your users. Whether or not
you are currently contemplating wireless networking, spend ten
minutes with this piece and you'll at least be able to have an
intelligent conversation on the topic. A sidebar by Bill Drew
describes how one college library has implemented wireless
networking and some of the impacts it has had on related services.
- [19]RT
Chase, Nicholas. "[20]The Web's Future: XHTML 2.0: A Sneak Peek at
the Changes." [21]IBM developerWorks (September 2002)
(http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-xhtml/?loc=dw
main). - "Sneak peek" is right: The W3C released a working draft of
XHTML 2.0 in August and Nicholas Chase gives us a once-over-lightly
overview of some of its distinguishing features. Anyone used to
coding HTML in the traditional way might want to have a look at
what's in store. Of course recommendations are fine and these may
take years to implement (if ever), but some of the changes are
major. They include no backward compatibility for older
'deprecated' tags, a new way of creating hyperlinks, and the
replacement of the venerable 'img' tag. Hot stuff. - [22]LRK
Deegan, Marilyn, Emil Steinvel, and Edmund King. "[23]Digitizing
Historic Newspapers: Progress and Prospects" [24]RLG DigiNews
6(4) (15 August 2002)
(http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews6-4.html#feature2). -
Anyone who's had a look at the British Library's innovative
[25]'Online Newspaper Archive' pilot project will be interested in
this account of how the digitization is carried out. A number of
high-tech approaches are used. Where text is difficult to ocr
because of problems with the microfilm, fuzzy logic is used and
patterns of words are identified. This increases the
"searchability" of the text. Next, key elements of the newspaper's
page image (e.g. the headlines, articles, parts of articles,
illustrations, photographs and the like) are identified through an
automated process of "segmentation". The end result, as anyone
who's ever seen the pilot project knows, is a very fluid retrieval
method with exceptional ways to manipulate various parts of the
digitized newspaper page. - [26]LRK
Greenstein, Daniel, and Suzanne E. Thorin. [27]The Digital
Library: A Biography Washington, DC: Digital Library Federation,
Council on Library and Information Resources, 2002.
(http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub109/pub109.pdf). - This
fascinating report initially examines the three phases of digital
library evolution: (1) the young digital library that relies on a
"skunk works" approach; (2) the maturing digital library that moves
beyond experimental projects to operational collections and
services; and (3) the adult digital library that fully integrates
with the conventional library. The description of these phases
includes examples from existing digital library programs. Six
in-depth case studies are presented in the next section of the
report: California Digital Library, Harvard University, Indiana
University, New York University, the University of Michigan, and
the University of Virginia. Survey data from 21 institutions
concludes the report. This report is essential reading for anyone
interested in digital libraries. - [28]CB
Hauck, Roslin V., and Suzanne Weisband. "[29]When a Better
Interface and Easy Navigation Aren't Enough: Examining the
Information Architecture in a Law Enforcement Agency" [30]JASIST
53(10) p. 846-854 (2002)
(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/93520013/FILE?
TPL=ftx_start). - Humans are a conservative bunch. The moment they
learn a skill using a particular piece of software, they're loathe
to switch to a newer alternative no matter how attractive or easy
to learn it might be. That at least is the finding of this
interesting study on acceptance of a new crime information system
by members of the Southwest Police Department. The researchers
conducted usability studies while the new system, CopNet, was still
in development and then significantly, did a follow-up study a year
later when the thing was deployed. Interestingly enough, they found
that while users perceived the new system as being more effective,
they continued to use the old one. Reasons why this might be are
discussed. Part of a special issue devoted to Information
Architecture. - [31]LRK
Jones, Steve, et. al.[32]The Internet Goes to College Washington,
DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project, 15 September 2002.
(http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=71). - This
report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project summarizes
findings from two surveys of college students at two-year and
four-year public and private colleges and universities in the
continental United States. A few of their findings include the fact
that one-fifth of today's college students began using computers
between the ages of 5 and 8; 85% of college students own their own
computer, and nearly three-quarters of respondents say they use the
Internet more than the library for information searching. The
report is available both in HTML and Adobe Acrobat formats. In a
refreshing departure from common practice, the [33]raw data is also
available for downloading, should you wish to come to your own
conlusions. - [34]RT
Kontzer, Tony. "[35]Who Goes There?" [36]Information Week
(904) p. 22-23 (2 September 2002)
(http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020830S0043). -
Corporate America has already been trekking in the footsteps of the
average teenager in deploying instant messaging (IM) as a
communications tool. But according to this article, businesses are
"finding more value in the technology that underlies it." That
would be "[37]presence awareness" -- the ability to see when other
users are online and whether they are available. And because this
is what businesses want, vendors are rushing to incorporate the
feature into their products. It is, however, a controversial
technology because of its privacy implications. Workers, for
example, fear that it will be used to monitor them. Some managers
see it as counterproductive, with the potential for frequent
unscheduled interruptions during the workday. It's not like IM
hasn't been used "on an ad hoc basis" in corporate environments up
till now; individual employees have been downloading and installing
it for several years. But corporate IT departments were not
supporting the consumer-oriented software, and they also had
security fears. Now there are IM products specifically for the
workplace, with added functionalities that allow for use in tandem
with other software tools. - [38]SK
Martin, Elisabeth. "[39]Historic Libraries and Their Enduring
Value" [40]New Library World 103(7/8) p. 259-266 (2002)
(http://lucia.emeraldinsight.com/vl=1849495/cl=17/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin
/linker?ini=emerald&reqidx=/cw/mcb/03074803/v103n7/s2/p259). - So
much of our attention is focused on the digital aspect of libraries
that often we ignore the continuing importance of the physical
plant. Not so for Elizabeth Martin, director of planning, design
and facilities at the Brooklyn Public Library. She's never met an
old library building that she didn't like. "In my years of
designing and renovating libraries," she tells us, "I have never
come across a historic library that, when approached intelligently
and sensitively, could not produce results that either met or
surpassed anyone's renovation and restoration expectations." She
goes on to describe the elements of a successful renovation process
using examples from various branches of the Brooklyn Public
Library. (Available through Emerald.) - [41]LRK
Merholz, Peter. "[42]Progress Paralysis" [43]New Archtiect
7(10) p. 28031 (October 2002)
(http://www.newarchitectmag.com/documents/s=2450/na1002b/index.html
). - In the movie [44]Annie Hall, Woody Allen's character compares
relationships to sharks -- if they don't keep moving forward, they
die. Well, websites are kinda like that. Have you taken an
objective look at yours lately? There's a pretty good chance your
organization's site was built piecemeal over time -- in a whole
series of separate smallish projects by an ever-changing cast of
developers. And so now you've got this amorphous mass of HTML code
that really doesn't work for anyone anymore -- not your staff, not
your customers. This article, by a "user experience consultant,"
lays out "eight steps to get your website moving again." In short,
these are: Build "an independent Web team that can rise above
politics." Involve your entire organization, and work to raise your
visibility within the organization. "Study your customers" until
you understand their "mental models." Inventory your current site
and see what you already have to offer. "Develop a flexible
structure" so you can accomodate various types of users. "Design a
useful style guide." Use a formal content management system.
Consider adding personalization features. - [45]SK
Minow, Mary. "[46]Library Records Post-Patriot Act (Federal Law)
" [47]LLRX.com (16 September 2002)
(http://www.llrx.com/features/libraryrecords.htm). - Everyone who
works in a library -- but especially library administrators -- will
want to bookmark this informative matrix that delineates key issues
of the [48]USA Patriot Act that affect libraries and library
records. Includes intercept orders, search warrants, pen/trap
orders, subpoenas, and notification for preservation of
information. If you don't know what these things are, this chart
will explain them to you and provide samples of each. You'll also
find links to relevant laws and statutes. - [49]SK
Tristam, Claire. "[50]Data Extinction" [51]Technology Review
(October 2002)
(http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/tristram1002.asp). - A
gentle introduction to the topic of digital preservation to those
new to it, including a concluding table that summarizes strategies
for preserving digital material: migration, emulation,
encapsulation, and a "universal virtual computer". Anyone following
the topic is unlikely to find anything new here, but it may be
useful as a means to introduce novices to the issue. - [52]RT
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites - ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (c) 2002 by the Regents of the University of California All
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