[14674] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Current Cites, January 2003
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (CITES Moderator)
Fri Jan 31 20:01:03 2003
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 16:24:24 -0800
From: CITES Moderator <citeschk@LIBRARY.BERKELEY.EDU>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-to: cites@LIBRARY.BERKELEY.EDU
Message-id: <Pine.OSF.4.10.10301301602530.449587-100000@library.berkeley.edu>
Current Cites
Volume 14, no. 1, January 2003
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2003/cc03.14.1.html
Contributors: [3]Margaret Gross, [4]Shirl Kennedy, [5]Leo Robert
Klein, Jim Ronningen, [6]Roy Tennant
[7]Syllabus - (January 2003) - This is a free online magazine
focusing on the use of new technology to enhance the delivery of
higher education. There are four feature articles in the January
2003 issue, all worth reading. Boettcher, Judith B. [8]Designing
for Learning- The Pursuit of Well-Structured Content
(http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7092) expounds the theme
that course design often concentrates on process-overhauling what
faculty and students are doing within the learning experience. The
organization of what is being taught, and its availability in
various formats -- the structure of the course content -- has
received much less attention. Well-structured content can make the
"jungle" of concepts, rules, and principles more readily learned by
students. Multimedia resources, such as animations, simulations,
encourage student involvement and increase sensory input, Woodell,
Jim; Garofoli, E. [9]Faculty Development and the Diffusion of
Innovations (http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7093)Why is it
that some faculty members are keen on implementing new technology,
while others remain resistant. Institutions attempting to establish
faculty development can benefit from work done forty years ago by
Everett Rogers on the Diffusion of Innovations. Referring to
Rogers's theory and related research, a professional development
framework is proposed, that is sensitive to the different needs and
capabilities of faculty.members. Popyack, J.L.; Hermann, N.
[10]Electronic Grading: When the Tablet is Mightier than the Pen
(http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7094) states that while
electronic submission of assignments has many advantages, there are
also certain inherent disadvantages. One of the latter is the
grader's inability to provide corrections and comments to the
electronic document without degrading it. Several solutions are
examined: An example of a pen-based interface is Adobe's Acrobat
software. It provides a means of marking up PDF documents with an
electronic pen, so the resulting document resembles the original
with the grader's notations overlaid, much like a graded paper
assignment. Hardware interfaces are presented such as the Wacom
Graphire 2 graphics tablet costing less than $100. Further, a case
is presented. Project DUPLEX (Drexel University Programming
Learning EXperience) investigates use of technological advances to
enhance the quality and delivery of large computer programming
classes, while reducing costs of course administration. The fourth
article, Thombs, Margaret M. [11]Accessible Web Pages: Advice for
Educators, (http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7095) addresses
the need for suitable accessibility in compliance with the
Americans with Disability Act.. Furthering the aims of Universal
Access to Technology, teachers must know how their students respond
to technology, and design educational pages that meet these needs.
Each article includes links for further reading. - [12]MG
[13]First Nordic Conference on Scholarly Communication - Lund,
Sweden: Lund University Libraries, October 2002.
(http://www.lub.lu.se/ncsc2002/presentations.html). - Looking at
PowerPoint presentations from a conference is a bit like looking
through a keyhole into a room full of objects -- you may be able to
get a little sense of the space and be able to see a few things
fairly well, but the rest is beyond your grasp. Nonetheless, the
few things you can see fairly well in this collection of
presentations ends up being worth it if you have an interest in
scholarly communication and where it may be heading. In particular,
pay attention to Ken Frazier's presentation, available in PDF form
as are most of the presentations. - [14]RT
Fifarek, Aimee. "Technology and Privacy in the Academic Library."
[15]Online Information Review (6) (2002) - Libraries collect data
about their patrons. It's unavoidable, the consequence of automated
systems and online services. This unfortunately puts libraries in
an extremely difficult position, the author stresses, as far as
privacy is concerned. As bearers of this information, libraries are
under a professional obligation to deal responsibly with it yet
outside groups whether from the same institution or from
law-enforcement are sure to weigh in with conflicting priorities.
The author, a aystems librarian at Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge, discusses how we got to this point and what we can do
about it. [Available through Emerald]. - [16]LRK
Jesdanun, Anick. "[17]When Files Survive, But Not the Technology to
Read Them" [18]Philadelphia Inquirer p. D9 (23 January 2003)
(http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/5009309.htm). - The
"digital dark age" would mean data forever lost: court transcripts,
research papers, even digital family photos. This short article
raises that familiar theme: how do we prevent the permanent loss of
data that is born digital. Several solutions are described, none of
which is a panacea. In recognition of the growing use of the
semi-proprietary .pdf format, an international group is
collaborating with Adobe to develop an archival version which could
become the standard. - [19]MG
Manasian, David. "[20]Digital Dilemmas: a Survey of the Internet
Society" [21]The Economist 366(8308) (25 January 2003)
(http://www.economist.com/surveys/showsurvey.cfm?issue=20030125). -
After starting with a standard Economist trick of quoting a rather
"fringe" person (in this case John Perry Barlow in the heat of the
moment seven years ago) then contrasting their own editorial tone
as the voice of reason, this survey presents essays on privacy,
copyright, direct democracy, repression and broad social change in
the context of the networked environment. The strengths are the
solid research and global scope one expects here, so the survey is
worth reading as an authoritative state-of-the-net and reasonable
predictor of future trends, but don't expect any revelations. The
section which most piqued my interest, claiming to describe how
repressive regimes might use the net to keep down dissent, really
focused on the unsurprising limitations being put on net access.
There were a few examples of how some governments use the net as a
propaganda tool to further cement what seems to be a part of the
culture anyway, but otherwise it's the usual sad tale of
censorship, data gathering and telecommunications monitoring.
Dissenters won't pick up any useful tools here, either - they
already know about pay telephones and sneakernet. Of greater
interest in the realm of political change is the essay about direct
democracy, which raises questions about the future of governance
when individuals can be quickly and easily polled. Do you leave
politics to the politicians? Do you trust a jury of your peers? Um
... is there a third option? - JR
Mitchell, Steven, Margaret Mooney, and Julie Mason, et. al.
"[22]iVia Open Source Virtual Library System" [23]D-Lib Magazine
9(1) (January 2003)
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/mitchell/01mitchell.html). -
Although the average "Joe" on the street probably uses [24]Yahoo!
rather than [25]Infomine, librarians are likely familiar with this
large collection of librarian-selected Internet resources. Well,
hang on to your hats, folks, because this isn't your bun-wearing
librarian's index anymore. The technology underlying Infomine
(dubbed "iVia") includes focused crawling, topic distillation,
inter-link analysis, automatic record creation, URL checking, and
much more. After receiving some major grant funding, the Infomine
team has apparently created a robust and full-featured set of tools
to create well-managed collections of records for Internet
resources. A similar open source tool kit is the [26]Scout Portal
Toolkit, but if forced for a thumbnail recommendation, I would
guess that the Scout Toolkit would be easier to install and run,
while iVia would be more full-featured and technically advanced. If
you're interested in trying out iVia, you can download it at
[27]http://infomine.ucr.edu/iVia/. - [28]RT
Olsen, Stefanie. "[29]Pop-Ups Add New Twist" [30]News.com (CNET)
(20 December 2002) (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978616.html). -
You may have already been assaulted by this latest "advance" in
pop-up advertising gimmickry. Normally, you have to actually click
on a pop-up window to be transported to the advertiser's website.
With the new "kick-through" technology, all it takes is moving your
cursor over the ad window, and...voila! You're whisked away to
where you probably don't want go. This, of course, makes it more
difficult for people to shut down the annoying ad windows. The
online travel site Orbitz is one of the larger offenders. The
author blames the onslaught of pop-ups and other obnoxious online
advertising technologies on the "dotcom downfall." In response,
more consumers are using ad-blocking and pop-up killer software,
and the three largest ISPs -- [31]America Online, [32]EarthLink and
[33]MSN -- have stopped assaulting their members with pop-ups. -
[34]SK
Pace, Andrew K. "[35]The Usability Toolbox" [36]Computers in
Libraries 23(1) (January 2003)
(http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jan03/pace.htm). - Those of us who
manage web sites all want our sites to be used -- but do we always
know just how usable our sites are? Probably not, or at least as
well as we should. That's ok, help is on the way in the form of
this good overview of usability tools. Some methods can be
expensive and time consuming, but there are others that are easy
and inexpensive. So pick your tool(s) and get started -- your users
will love you for it, and you'll know since they'll stay longer and
come back more often. - [37]RT
Perrone, Jane. "[38]Weblogs Get Upwardly Mobile" [39]Guardian
Unlimited (12 December 2002)
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/webwatch/story/0,12455,858719,00.
html). - "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain," said
[40]Dale Carnegie. "And most do." Mr. Carnegie, alas, was long gone
by the time weblogs came along. But as this quote indicates, he
probably would have understood the phenomenon. Welogs are great --
I keep one for our library
([41]http://mba.vanderbilt.edu/walker/weblog/weblog.htm) -- but
maybe, just maybe, we are kinda sorta possibly in danger of being
crushed by the sheer weight of all this digital verbiage. If this
article is any indication of where weblogging is headed, things
could get worse very shortly. The latest trend, apparently, is
"moblogging - or posting thoughts to your weblog from wherever you
might be, via mobile phone or handheld device." Think of the other
implications here. Raise your virtual hand if you've ever been in
danger of getting run off the road or crushed by some clueless
idiot in a huge SUV, oblivious to the outside world as he/she
chatted on a cell phone. Now imagine drivers like this being able
to blog while behind the wheel. Folks, this is scary. But
"moblogging" has already taken hold with the early adopters. And
since there are now cell phones with embedded digital cameras,
people are posting pictures along with text. Take a look at
[42]Hiptop Nation ("Wireless blogging for the hiptop masses" --
e.g., owners of a [43]T-Mobile Sidekick). - [44]SK
Skrzycki, Cindy. "[45]U.S. Opens Online Portal to Rulemaking"
[46]The Washington Post p. E01 (23 January 2003)
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30469-2003Jan22.htm
l). - At first glance, this seems like a portal for people who have
way too much time on their hands. Its purpose "is to enable anyone
with a computer and Internet access to find every federal
regulation that is open for comment, read it and submit their
views." Hoo boy. But at second glance...well, why not? A law
professor quoted in the article says that special interest groups
have known how to do this for a long time, and now it's more
accessible and convenient for the rest of us. More input from
citizens outside the Beltway can only be a good thing. The site,
which can handle 2,000 simultaneous users and 16,000 comments per
hour, allows users to find agencies and regulations by keyword and
then enter comments of up to 4,000 characters. It also accepts
electronic attachments. Submitted comments will be automatically
forwarded to the agency involved in the rulemaking. Users cannot
see other people's comments or background information about the
rules. When the system is developed further, it may allow users to
be notified by e-mail when rules of interest are initially open for
comment. Cruise on over to [47]http://www.regulations.gov/ if you
want to add your two cents. - [48]SK
Smith, MacKenzie, Mary Barton, and Mick Bass, et. al.
"[49]DSpace: An Open Source Dynamic Digital Repository"
[50]D-Lib Magazine 9(1) (January 2003)
(http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/smith/01smith.html). - One of
the more interesting developments in the emerging topic of
institutional repositories (see [51]The Case for Institutional
Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper which we cited in the [52]July
issue of Current Cites) has been the partnership between the MIT
Libraries and Hewlett-Packard Labs, which has created DSpace, an
open source repository package. This piece describes the DSpace
system, discusses its implementation at MIT and its dissemination
to other institutions, and sustainability issues. Anyone interested
in establishing an institutional repository should give DSpace
serious consideration. Those who are not, but are active in
developing digital libraries, would also do well to pay heed to
their technical architecture and implementation. - [53]RT
Suber, Peter. "[54]Removing Barriers to Research: An Introduction
to Open Access for Librarians" [55]College & Research Library News
64(1) p. 92-94, 113 (February 2003)
(http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/acrl.htm). - Suber is well
known as a vocal and articulate advocate of open access to
scholarly journal literature. His [56]Free Online Scholarship
Newsletter and accompanying web site are key resources for those
working to remove the barriers of high prices and over-restrictive
copyright control that increasingly prevent scholars from accessing
the literature that they require. In this blunt and direct article,
Suber touches on the serials pricing crisis and quickly moves on to
a crisis he terms the "permission crisis." The permission crisis is
caused, he asserts, by legal and technological barriers erected by
publishers to limit what readers and libraries may do with the
journals for which they have paid. These limits, he points out, are
more stringent than those for print journals. He then makes the
case for open access to scholarly journal literature, taking some
pains to make clear to the reader that he is not advocating changes
in copyright law, civil disobedience, or other actions that may be
time consuming or problematic. Rather, he favors the direct route
of scholars and libraries cooperating to create open repositories
(mainly for pre-peer-reviewed or non-peer-reviewed scholarship) and
open peer-reviewed journals. To many of us, Suber is preaching to
the choir. But by writing this piece he has put in our hands a
compelling argument with which to persuade those who may either not
understand the current crises in scholarly communication, or care.
- [57]RT
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites - ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright (c) 2003 by the Regents of the University of California 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. All product names are trademarks
or registered trade marks of their respective holders. Mention of a
product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of
the product. To subscribe to the Current Cites distribution list, send
the message "sub cites [your name]" to
[58]listserv@library.berkeley.edu, replacing "[your name]" with your
name. To unsubscribe, send the message "unsub cites" to the same
address.
References
Visible links
1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://sunsite/CurrentCites/2003/cc03.14.1.html#head
2. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
3. http://www.cam.org/~mgross/mgross.htm
4. http://hooboy.blogspot.com/
5. http://leoklein.com/
6. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
7. http://www.syllabus.com/
8. http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7092
9. http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7093
10. http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7094
11. http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7095
12. http://www.cam.org/~mgross/mgross.htm
13. http://www.lub.lu.se/ncsc2002/presentations.html
14. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
15. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/oir.htm
16. http://leoklein.com/
17. http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/5009309.htm
18. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
19. http://www.cam.org/~mgross/mgross.htm
20. http://www.economist.com/surveys/showsurvey.cfm?issue=20030125
21. http://www.economist.com/
22. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/mitchell/01mitchell.html
23. http://www.dlib.org/
24. http://www.yahoo.com/
25. http://infomine.ucr.edu/
26. http://scout.wisc.edu/research/SPT/
27. http://infomine.ucr.edu/iVia/
28. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
29. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978616.html
30. http://news.com.com/
31. http://www.aol.com/
32. http://www.earthlink.net/
33. http://www.msn.com/
34. http://hooboy.blogspot.com/
35. http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jan03/pace.htm
36. http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/ciltop.htm
37. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
38.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/webwatch/story/0%2C12455%2C858719%2C00.html
39. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
40. http://www.dale-carnegie.com/
41. http://mba.vanderbilt.edu/walker/weblog/weblog.htm
42. http://hiptop.bedope.com/
43. http://www.t-mobile.com/promos/sidekick.asp
44. http://hooboy.blogspot.com/
45. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30469-2003Jan22.html
46. http://www.washingtonpost.com/
47. http://www.regulations.gov/
48. http://hooboy.blogspot.com/
49. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/smith/01smith.html
50. http://www.dlib.org/
51. http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/ir.html
52. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2002/cc02.13.7.html
53. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
54. http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/writing/acrl.htm
55. http://www.ala.org/acrl/more.html
56. http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/
57. http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/
