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[CurrentCites] Current Cites, December 2005
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rafal Kasprowski (PACS-L moderator)
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From: "Rafal Kasprowski (PACS-L moderator)" <rkasprowski@UH.EDU>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Subject: [CurrentCites] Current Cites, December 2005
From: Roy Tennant <Roy.Tennant@ucop.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 13:49:36 -0800
To: currentcites@webjunction.org
Current Cites, December 2005
Edited by Roy Tennant
Contributors: Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Terry Huwe, Leo Robert Klein, Roy Tennant
Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources Dublin, OH: OCLC,
December 2005.(http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm). - This
report "summarizes findings of an international study on
information-seeking habits and preferences." The survey was an attempt to
learn more about library use, awareness of and use of library electronic
resources, and the library "brand", among other things. "The findings
indicate," states the report, "that information consumers view libraries as
places to borrow print books, but they are unaware of the rich electronic
content they can access through libraries." Although there are some bright
spots, the report finds a rather depressing set of opinions about
libraries. We clearly need to do better on a variety of fronts, but
certainly with customer service and the marketing of our services to our
users. - RT
IEEE Technical Committee on Digital Libraries Bulletin 2(1)(2005) - This
special issue of the IEEE TCDL Bulletin presents brief summaries of poster
sessions and demos from the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL
2005). Example articles include "aDORe, A Modular and Standards-Based
Digital Object Repository at the Los Alamos National Laboratory," "If You
Harvest arXiv.org, Will They Come?," "Metadata for Phonograph Records:
Facilitating New Forms of Use and Access to Analog Sound Recordings," "The
Musica Colonial Project," and "Video Recommendations for the Open Video
Project." This issue is a good way to get a quick look at current
developments in the digital library field. - CB
Coyle, Karen. "Descriptive Metadata for Copyright Status" First Monday
10(10)(3 October 2005)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/
issue10_10/coyle/). - The author, a well-known commentator on digital
library issues, has taken up a bite-sized topic: metadata for the copyright
status of items in digital libraries. She delivers a succinct, but complete
proposed strategy, complete with tables, grids and comparative information
that buttresses her arguments. She comments that the discussion of
intellectual property rights has heretofore focused on access and usage,
which lie in the hands of the rights holder. It would be useful, she
argues, to have a corresponding set of descriptive data that outline
copyright status. She proposes a manageably-sized set of descriptive data
elements that might accompany digital materials to inform potential users
of the copyright status of the item. She suggests that it is possible to
expand upon the well-articulated language of such sources as the Open
Digital Rights Language of the Open Mobile Alliance, and the Creative
Commons. The absence of well-articulated statements that define the full
parameters of access places a heavier burden on users who seek to know what
they can -- and cannot do. Digital rights management has focused a lot on
the copyright "don'ts" -- Coyle presents a modest, but powerful argument
for making the copyright "dos" easier to find and understand. - TH
Goedeken, Edward A. "The Serials Librarian: A Brief History and Assessment"
Serials Librarian 49 (4)(2005): 159-175. - Serious navel-gazing is going
on by the journal, The Serials Librarian, as it features this study of its
own articles from 1976 to the present day. The author of the study
tabulates subjects covered, authors, geographic areas, etc. Perennial
favorites as far as topics are concerned, include collection development
and cataloging. Other topics seem to come and go. In the beginning there
was much interest in bibliographic utilities like OCLC and RLIN; automation
was also popular though interest seemed to wane as "librarians became more
comfortable with computers and their role in libraries." Not surprisingly,
E-journals, once a "curiosity", now demand closer attention. This is a good
look at the continuity of serials librarianship from a statistical point of
view. - LRK
Kroski, Ellyssa. "The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging"
Infotangle [Blog] (7 December 2005)(http://
infotangle.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/the-hive-mind-folksonomies-and-
user-based-tagging/). - "Folksonomies" (loose taxonomies created by
uncoordinated individuals) have been getting a lot of press lately, what
with sites like Flickr.com, del.icio.us, and others allowing their users to
"tag" photos or bookmarks with whatever descriptive terms come into their
head. The idea is that this practice can lead to a taxonomy of sorts
generated simply through usage. In other words, it's an idiotic idea whose
time has apparently come. But setting aside my personal biases, this piece
is one of the best I've seen on both the good and the bad of folksonomies.
Although this is a blog posting (the first by this author), it is written
much more like a journal article, and like such it has a rather awesome
list of references. - RT
Liu, Ziming. "Reading Behavior in the Digital Environment: Changes in
Reading Behavior Over the Past Ten Years" Journal of Documentation
61(6)(2005): 700-712. - Interesting study on the changes in reading
behavior due to increased use of digital information. People highlight less
but search more; people read linearly less but show intense concentration
once sections are found that interest them. While considerably more
research is needed, this article is a good introduction to the field. - LRK
Noveck, Beth Simone. "A Democracy of Groups" First Monday 10(11)(7
November 2005)(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_11/noveck/). -
Noveck argues that the critical mass of new display technologies and
collaborative software has reached a point where small groups of
like-minded persons can work together with much greater impact on work and
society. With these new visual display technologies, groups can now create
meaningful online community, and utilize much-improved self-governance
tools. While the mainstream of cultural and media researchers are
interested in the relationship between the individual and the state, there
is far less attention given to the rapidly evolving relationship of
collaborative, grass-roots democracy in the online sphere of public life.
Noveck makes two arguments, which fuel an interesting analysis of the state
of online community in 2005. First, she argues that technologies of
collaboration will increasingly fuel collective action (think of
moveon.org). But the pace of growth will accelerate because of emerging
tools for "collective visualization:" the ability to hold full-scale
meetings in cyberspace. Her second argument flows from the first, calling
for a legislative overhaul that empowers the process of decentralized,
group-based decision making. Groups can now have "body" as well as "soul"
-- in essence, following the principles of the law of corporations. - TH
Sale, Arthur. "Comparison of IR Content Policies in Australia"
(2005)(http://eprints.comp.utas.edu.au:81/archive/ 00000230/). - In this
e-print, Arthur Sale, Professor of Computing at the University of Tasmania,
analyzes e-print deposit activity at seven Australian universities for 2004
and 2005 publications (there is partial 2005 data through early December).
In brief, he found that mandating deposit resulted in much higher levels of
activity than either voluntary deposit without special support for authors
by repository staff or with such support. The one university with mandated
deposit (Queensland University of Technology) had four times the deposit
rate of the closest voluntary deposit university for 2005 publications. No
voluntary deposit university had a rate higher than 10% for 2005
publications; QUT's rate is about 40%, and it is projected to be near 60%
by the end of 2005. The author concludes: "It is well overdue for DEST to
rule that postprints of all research that Australian universities report to
DEST must be deposited in an institutional repository, to take effect say
for 2007. The costs to the universities are ridiculously small; the
benefits from increased global research impact, and enabling Australians to
access the research they fund through the public purse, are enormous."
(DEST is the Australian Department of Science Education and Technology.) - CB
Sandler, Mark. "Disruptive Beneficence: The Google Print Program and the
Future of Libraries " Internet Reference Services Quarterly 10
(3/4)(2005): 5-22. - One of several articles in this special issue looking
at the impact, for better or worse, both pro and contra, of Google on
Libraries. In this piece we have the Collection Development Officer of
UMich, a Google-Print Library, explaining the agreement between it and
Google as a "work in progress, not fully formed in anyone's mind".
Nevertheless, it's important, argues the author, to focus not on Google but
on libraries and what they want to do with digitized material, the goal
being at Michigan as elsewhere "to provide online access in perpetuity to
its collections". Google can't do everything anyway. This includes local
collections and other specialized material. "At best," the author observes,
"Google Print will be a massive collection of undifferentiated books."
Libraries will still be needed to fill in the gaps and to provide
innovative services online and in-person that the competition, including
Google, simply can't supply. - LRK
Current Cites - ISSN: 1060-2356 is hosted by the community at WebJunction.org.
© Copyright 2005 by Roy Tennant
