Current Awareness

Column editor: Jane Grogan (Jane.Grogan@gchq.gsi.gov.uk)

This column contains summaries of articles (print and electronic) about information access and retrieval, electronic publishing, preservation and virtual libraries etc. including, with permission, abstracts identified with an * next to the author initials, drawn from Current Cites, the monthly publication distributed electronically by a team of Librarians and Library Staff and edited by Roy Tennant: ( http://lists.webjunction.org/currentcites/ )

If you are interested in providing reviews for the column, please contact Jane Grogan for further details.

Catalogues / Cataloguing

Coyle, Karen, and Diane Hillmann. Resource Description and Access (RDA): Cataoging Rules for the 20th Century . D-Lib Magazine 13(1/2) January/February 2007. (http://dlib.org/dlib/january07/coyle/01coyle.html) – This prosaically titled essay is not the dispassionate exposition of the effort to remake the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR) that you might expect. Rather, it is an exposé of a process that appears, according to the authors, to be too concerned with an easy transition for libraries. Far better, they argue, to forge a new path that is more revolutionary (and probably more painful initially) and likely to be more effective in an Internet age. "Members of our profession," they assert, "who have embraced the present information technologies and are looking forward to what the future will bring are particularly dismayed at the creation of another set of cataloging rules based on technologies that are now decades past." If the future of bibliographic description – or even the future of libraries – is important to you, consider this piece to be your wake-up call. – [* RT ]

Markey, Karen. The Online Library Catalog: Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained? D-Lib Magazine 13(1/2) January/February 2007 ( http://dlib.org/dlib/january07/markey/01markey.html ) – Markey throws down the gauntlet and challenges libraries to remake library catalogs partly in the model of Google (embrace "post-Boolean" probabilistic searching), partly in the model of classic library strategies (embrace subject cataloging), and partly something entirely new (expand with qualification metadata). She precedes her proposed solution to library catalog woes with a brief litany of failure, and an examination of why people use Google. Even if you don't agree with all of her points, there is plenty to ponder and discuss and (hopefully) lead to experimentation and implementation. My only criticism is that our gaze needs to encompass more than library catalogs at this point or else we're toast before we begin. – [* RT ]

Rethlefsen, Melissa L. Chief Thingamabrarian . netConnect Winter 2007. (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6403633.html) – You probably would ave to have been living in a cave to not know about LibraryThing.com . So if you have only recently left your mountain domicile, stop reading this and go try it out. We'll meet you back here when you're done. Yes, that's right, who knew cataloging was fun? And that you could actually get just about anyone to do copy cataloging? Well, Tim Spaulding knew it, or at least he suspected it, and the success of LibraryThing is no small matter. This interview with him provides an interesting insight into not just the LibraryThing world, but also tagging, potential linkages with library catalogs, and more. – [* RT ]

Collaborative Tools

Dye, Jessica. Collaboration 2.0: make the Web your workspace. EContent 30(1) Jan/Feb 2007: 32-36 – What happens when you combine your content management system with Web 2.0 tools? “Wikis while you work” may yet replace e-mail and shared Word documents as the main forum for team collaboration. Corporate blogs may even interest a CEO and can be faster than reading through and replying to accumulated e-mails. Enterprise blogs and wikis can transform corporate communication into content with the help of tagging to flatten the typical corporate search hierarchy. Companies featured in this article: Ektron, Google, Koral, Socialtext and Web Crossing – [CP]

Guy , Marieke. Wikido: Exploiting the Potential of Wikis. Ariadne 50, January 2007. (http://www.Ariadne .ac.uk/issue50/wikido-rpt/) Reports on a one-day workshop , held in Birmingham in November 2006, which took a closer look at the potential of wikis for educational institutions. Papers at the workshop covered what wikis can provide and developing a deployment strategy – [CP]

Marks, P. Knowledge to the people. New Scientist , 3 Feb 2007: 44-45 – Interview with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Discusses the birth of Wikipedia, its ethics and his latest plan to develop a search engine. – [LF]

Lenhart, Amanda, and Mary Madden. Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview Pew Internet & American Life Project 7 January 2007. (http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp) – This paper reports on the wide use of "social networks" such as MySpace or Facebook by teenagers. Based on survey results, over half of the respondents said they had a profile and slightly less than half (48%) said they frequented the sites every day. The vast majority of them use the sites to "manage their friendships" or in other words to communicate with friends. This communication, as the report makes clear, takes the form of everything from blog entries and comments to in-network e-mail. If ever there were a promising area for library outreach, it's this! – [* LRK ]

Content Management

Doyle, Bob. Compare and contrast CMS . EContent 30 (1) Jan/Feb 2007: 31 – Imagines what an ideal site to compare and contrast content management systems might include: standard features with standard names, website profiles or scenarios, total cost of ownership of a CMS for typical customers, and typical number of people at the vendor and the amount of time they will spend in support of the implementation, deployment and maintenance of the system. Key parameters are more useful than a long list of features – [CP]

Education

Cochrane, Lynn Scott. If the Academic Library Ceased to Exist, Would We Have to Invent It? EDUCAUSE Review 42(1) January/February 2007: 6-7. ( http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0714.asp ) – Nightmare scenarios concerning a make-believe College in 2010 that does away with its campus library only to find that obtaining research material any other way is less reliable and more expensive. While the author focuses on materials, thus leaving out such vital services as Reference, she still makes a good case that institutions get good value out of their libraries and ought to continue supporting them. – [* LRK ]

Drake, Miriam A. Academic libraries are alive and thriving. Searcher 15(1) 2007: 8-12 – Four academic library directors from the USA are interviewed about service developments and trends. The importance of the library as a social study space is emphasised and the benefits/drawbacks of purchasing large e-journals bundles are explored. Big deals are seen to be impacting upon society/not-for-profit publishers and The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers Learned Journals Collection is held up as a potential saviour for the not-for-profit sector ( http://www.alpsp.org ). The confusion many academics feel about “open access publishing” is highlighted, as is the hostility of many publishers towards it. The challenges of getting faculty members to deposit items in institutional repositories – IRs – are explored. Given the significant long term costs of IRs, the idea of developing broader disciplinary repositories is suggested. The article concludes that in order to survive and thrive, academic libraries are rapidly transforming themselves into vibrant social learning spaces where the needs of the user are paramount. – [MT]

Walk, Paul. JISC CETIS Conference , 2006. Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/jisc-cetis-2006-rpt/ ) – Report on the third annual Centre for Educational Technology & Interoperability Standards conference held in Salford in November 2006 – [CP]

General

Bates , Melanie, Sue Manuel and Charles Oppenheim. Models of Early Adoption of ICT Innovations in Higher Education . Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/oppenheim-et-al/ ) – First defining invention and innovation, the authors provide an overview of some considerations for change agents attempting to introduce an innovative new information communication technology service into Higher Education institutions. These are associated with early adopter characteristics, communication channels, features associated with the innovation, scale and source of the initiative, the time scale for introduction and a range of institutional characteristics and processes. Institutional factors include cultural values, communication and social networks, provision of suitable support, a safe environment for the exploration of new technologies and for creativity, as well as recognition and reward – [CP]

Biever, Celeste. Web 2.0 is all about the feel good factor. New Scientist 23/30 December 2007: 30 – Key factors in the success of websites such as YouTube and Flickr is ones increase in status and receiving rewards from fellow users in the form of comments or endorsements, according to a group of US researchers. Such persuasion strategies ultimately benefit the websites themselves by engaging the users to contribute and enhance the quality of the site. Following on from their initial studies the US researchers intend to investigate which other persuasion technologies work within the Web 2.o environment. – [LF]

Cave , Francis , Brian Green and David Martin . ONIX for Licensing Terms: Standards for the Electronic Communication of Usage Terms. Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www. Ariadne .ac.uk/issue50/green-et-al/ ) This paper describes the purpose, development and potential of standards for the electronic communication of licensing terms between publishers, libraries and other licensees – [CP]

Chillingworth, Mark. Trick or Treat, Information World Review 232, February 2007: 14-16 – A round table discussion is facilitated by IWR to ask whether 2.0 will revolutionise information tools and services or simply wipe-out the industry as we now know it. Contributors include Tom Coates (Yahoo), Paul Miller (Talis), Iain Tait (Poke – a Web 2.0 agency), Peter Lake (Sweet and Maxwell) David Worlock (EPS) and Victor Camlet (Thomson Scientific) – [RH]

Edwards, Cliff , and Moon, Ihlwan. Upward Mobility . BusinessWeek 4 December 2006: 68-82. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_49/b4012071.htm?
chan=top+news_ top+news+index_technology ) – If you think that the US is full of mobile communications junkies now, just wait. South Korea and Japan are leading the way to a new level of mobile service, and Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander has taken to calling handsets "the device formerly known as the cell phone." The technological keys to this new kingdom will be WiMAX, fuel cell batteries, OLED screens, and near-field communications. Say what? Read the article to find out what these terms mean. – [* CB ]

Fisher, Richard. Just can't get e-nough . From cyberchondria to Google-stalking, technology is turning us into obsessive wrecks. New Scientist 23/30 December 2007: 34-37 – Cheesepodder, Google-stalker, blog streaking, these are just some of the modern maladies and techno-addictions afflicting us in the Web world. But are these Web syndromes new versions of old afflictions or are we developing new mind bugs? Afflicted webbers confess their addictions alongside discussion over whether our online personality can spill over into our offline world. – [LF]

Garman, Nancy. That Was Then – This Is Now ONLINE 31(1) January/February 2007 ( http://www.infotoday.com/online/jan07/Garman.shtml ) – ONLINE celebrates its 30th Anniversary with this trip down Memory Lane by Nancy Garman. Important highlights featured in the magazine include the introduction of CD-ROMs (1984), expansion of the Internet (1993) and of course, the introduction of the World Wide Web (1995). This is just one of several articles looking at the magazine's past and the state of technology over the 30 years of its existence. – [* LRK ]

Griffin, Daniel. 2006 : Takeovers, Makeovers and Handovers. Information World Review 231, January 2007: 12-15 – IWR review of the information year presented as monthly highs and lows for the information industry; items covered include; IBM's announcement of a $1 billion investment in information management in March.; the appearance of Windows Live Academic Search in May; the Social Market Foundation's criticism of public sector bodies hiding behind Data Protection Act in data sharing work in September. A series of ‘sites with sizzle' are included as IWR pick of the year on the Web including Exact editions ( http://www.exactedtions.com ); Trexy ( http://www.trexy.com ) and Rollyo ( http://www.rollyo.com ) – [RH]

Miller, Paul. What Happens When We Mash the Library? Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www. Ariadne .ac.uk/issue50/miller/ ) – Miller looks at recent attempts to make library resources more appealing, including the Talis competition to build library ‘mashups'. Wikipedia defines a mashup as “a website or Web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service.” The Talis competition received 18 entries ranging from simple enhancements to existing library functions to a collaborative effort to provide library services inside the Second Life 3D online digital world. The competition website remains open to accept new entries on an ongoing basis and any piece of innovative work in this field may be registered in an Innovation Directory – [CP}

Norman, Don. Simplicity Is Highly Overrated JND.org 2007 ( http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html ) – This article has been making the rounds. It's by one of the great figures of design, Don Norman. His basic message is that cutting down on features is a losing proposition, that people want all the bells and whistles. I think the perspective is interesting and ought to be understood as a reaction to the "KISS" mantra made famous by everyone from usability guru Steve Krug to minimalist design firms like 37signals. That said, it's hard to say what impact this approach should have on design decisions, particularly on the Web. We're not buying products for ourselves after all but making them for others. If features in this context were so attractive, then 'Advanced Search' would be the first stop of even our most neophyte users. – [* LRK ]

Shirky, Clay. Second Life : A Story Too Good to Check Valleywag 12 December 2006. ( http://www.valleywag.com/tech/second-life/a-story-too-good-to-check-221252.php ) – A less-than-enthusiastic appraisal of the virtual world known as Second Life . Clay Shirky has been writing about the Web for at least 10 years and he uses his experience to great effect as he challenges the greenhorns in his profession with lines like: "[T]he tech beat is an intake valve for the young. Most reporters don't remember that anyone has ever wrongly predicted a bright future for immersive worlds or flythrough 3D spaces in the past, so they have no skepticism triggered by the historical failure of things like LambdaMOO or VRML." This wealth of experience makes for an article that transcends a critique of a single phenomena, in this case Second Life, becoming instead an almost classic deconstruction of (in this case an Internet) mania. Having argued that participation in this online environment is far less than meets the eye, he concludes with one last eminently quotable line, "there's nothing wrong with a service that appeals to tens of thousands of people, but in a billion-person Internet, that population is also a rounding error." – [* LRK ]

Information Access

Ashmore, Beth & Grogg, Jill E. Google and OCLC open libraries on the open web. Searcher 14 (10) 2006: 44-52.

The open libraries of Google and Online Computer Library Catalog (OCLC) are examined in this article. OCLC's WorldCat.org has made its massive store of library holdings information freely available online and these 66 million records are argued to be a powerful resource bank. Google Scholar is said to be becoming one of the main search engines of choice for academics and information professionals alike. It is suggested that libraries now have a great opportunity to learn how to co-exist and complement these growing info giants. – [MT]

Chillingworth, Mark. Leaked plan to attack open access has science in uproar . Information World Review 232, February 2007: 1, 4 (Editorial) – Lead article and editorial focuses on the decision of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to hire a PR agency to make their case in the Open Access (OA) debate. Eric Dezenhall's services have been engaged who is described as having the reputation of a “PR pit-bull”. The problems facing the publishing industry and the views of those in favour of Open Access are noted in the lead article. The editorial extends an ‘open invitation' for those on both sides of the OA debate to contact IWR to air views. – [RH]

Coyle, Karen. Mass Digitization of Books The Journal of Academic Librarianship 32(6) November 2006: 641-645. ( http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W50-4M877GM-1/2/91673967ebebaf384a277c5579164041 ) – This is a good high-level overview article on mass digitization projects such as the Google Library project. Mass digitization is contrasted with "non-mass" digitization and "large-scale" digitization in addition to issues such as workflow, output and book structure, user interface, standards, preservation, and scoping. Readers interested in exploring the copyright implications of mass digitization should not look here, but rather to the many contributions on the topic that can be found almost anywhere you care to look. – [* RT ]

Holt, Glen E. Fitting Library Services Into the Lives of the Poor Bottom Line 19(4) 2006: 179-186. (http://ww.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?
contentType=Article&contentId=1576561) – As the title suggests, this relatively short article looks at delivering library services to the poor. This is the very definition of an underserved and underprivileged user group. For this reason, it's not enough to put library services on offer but rather to reach out and accommodate as much as possible the particular needs of low-income users. Hence the word "fitting" in the title. The author suggests a number of ways of doing this: convenient hours, points of service outside of the library, partnerships with other community organizations, spreading the word though PSAs and visibility at community events. There are limits to how far an institution can go but the author strongly suggests that more can be done. – [* LRK ]

Nixon, William and Millington, Peter. Take a Peek Beneath the EPrints v3 Wrappers . Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/eprints-v3-rpt/ ) – With v3 now officially launched at the Open Repositories Conference in San Antonio in January 2007, this is a detailed report on the EPrints 3 pre-launch briefing – [CP]

Thomas, Kim. MIT puts entire curriculum at disposal of e-learners . Information World Review 232, February 2007: 2 – The entire catalogue of 1800 course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( http://ocw.mit.edu ) is to be put online by the end of 2007. Free access to courses, said to transform the e-learning landscape will include lecture notes, podcasts and videocasts. Overseas visitors, particularly from China and India, are believed to dominate usage traffic. The international consortium of open courseware providers ( http://www.ocwconsortium.org ) is now said to have 120 members. – [RH]

Toobin, Jeffrey. Google's Moon Shot. The New Yorker 5 February 2007. ( http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin ) – One of the most even-handed and informative articles on the Google Library (and Books) Project I've seen. You won't find any major new revelations here, but you will find a good overview of some of the issues and identification of some of the main players. Unlike many accounts that either swallow Google's kool-aid, or else provide knee-jerk style objections, Toobin cleaves to the middle in what might be considered a picture-perfect example of expository writing. One example: after quoting the Google engineer responsible for the scanning operation talking about a future where all the world's information is available online, Toobin states "Such messianism cannot obscure the central truth about Google Book Search: it's a business." Indeed. – [* RT ]

Weber, Jonathan. Evergreen: Your Homegrown ILS . Library Journal 15 December 2006 (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6396354.html ) – A quiet revolution occurred this past Labor Day. Well over 200 Georgia libraries, all part of the PINES regional consortium, began using an open source integrated library system for the first time. The new system, dubbed Evergreen, was built from scratch by PINES programmers. The numbers are impressive – the consortium has over 8 million items and over 1.5 million borrowers. Amazing enough, they can handle the load with approximately $250,000 of hardware – which by their calculation is only a fraction of what a typical commercial system would require. This article by a contributor to the project introduces the system, its history, and its potential future. Its future may even include you, since it is being released as open source. – [* RT ]

Information Retrieval

Bates, Mary Ellen. Does anyone RTFM? EContent 30(1) Jan/Feb 2007: 24 – Bates has lately come to realise that “it's all those stupid users out there, not the quality of the documentation, that's the issue.” Her review of the advanced search pages of the major search engines leads her to think that we have a long way to go in terms of intuitive search interfaces. Exalead is a favourite, as its advanced search page explains the search filters with examples and inserts the proper syntax into the box when a user clicks that filter. She looks forward to well-designed graphical interfaces for building search queries and analysing results – [CP]

Bradley, Phil . New Search Engines in 2006 . Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www. Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/search-engines/ ) – The author takes a look at search engines that he noticed in 2006 and provides brief assessments of: Collarity , Healia , Huckabuck , Hot Daddy , iBoogie , IncyWincy , Jatall , Kahzam , Kosmix , Mojeek , Opsdo , Quintura , Scandoo , Searchmedica , Search Stomper! , WebFetch , WebWobot , Whonu , WordIQ , Yurnet , Zepti and Zoo . For Bradley, Healia stands out for its flexibility and interesting variety of options, and Collarity is ‘very clever', though flawed in places. He suggests we try them out for ourselves, and make up our own minds – [CP]

Evans, Woody . Getting “Swicki” with it. Searcher 14(10) 2006: 59-61 – The article provides an insight into using and developing “swickis”. A swicki is a subject specific search engine that can learn from the behaviour of the community that uses it. Evans sees potential in this technology and encourages information professionals to begin using and building swickis via the Eurekster website http://swicki.eurekster.com – [MT]

Marks, Paul. Improving the search for intelligence. New Scientist 10 February 2007: 22-23 – An 18th century probability theory is the basis of a sophisticated search engine now being employed by UK police forces. IDOL, an Autonomy product, calculates the probabilistic relationship between different variables, which can, in the early stage of a police inquiry look for common ground in witness statements. One police force has reported a reduction in police search time from 15 to 2 minutes. However, even though intelligence can now be gathered much quicker and put officers onto the right track sooner, it is good old-fashioned human police methods that take over from there. – [LF]

Tebbutt, David. Our Web 2.0 freedoms can turn into IT chains. Information World Review 232, February 2007: 9 – The phenomenon of user-driven computing and software as a service (SaaS) is discussed in terms of how this may affect the user relationship with IT authority and control. However the increasing demands on the end-user in selecting and tweaking software may backfire and create a ‘Tower of Babel' whilst ‘IT' waits for the non-experts to filter the good from the bad – [RH]

Knowledge Management

Lervik , Jon E., Mark Easterby-Smith , Kathryn Fahy and Carole Elliott . Limits to Information Transfer: The Boundary Problem . Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/lervik-et-al/ ) – This paper discusses the challenges in integrating knowledge across boundaries between specialised knowledge communities within an organisation. Collaboration on the boundaries is not only about joint knowledge production, but also about identifying interdependencies and trade-off and negotiating interests. The authors present and develop a framework which elaborates on this problem and offers some guidance about how it might be tackled – [CP]

Tebbutt, David. 2006 : Breathing new life into KM. Information World Review 231, January 2007: 18-20 – This article looks at the current position of Knowledge Management (KM) against the assertion that this field may be dead in terms of common conception. Starting from the question of whether there are a number of meanings to the term the writer investigates social software as a way of bringing KM “closer to the object of its ambitions”. The practice of sharing that Blogs and Wikis encourage, a site for sharing bookmarks ( http://del.icio.us/ ) and culture changes at IBM are all examined as examples of the way in which the knowledge environments can be managed. – [RH]

Legal Issues

Caldwell, Tracy. Common Touch on Rights. Information World Review 232, February 2007: 10-12 – The battle between advocates of Digital Rights Management and the creation of protections for creators and publishers against freedoms for scientific development is discussed in the context of development in copyright and Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Such developments including Creative Archives, Copyleft, the incorporation of CC licensing into Windows Vista and Science Commons are referenced. The different forms, trends and mechanisms governing CC licences are covered including versions, usage in academic publishing and practical benefits extolled, in particular in this article, by Biomed Central. Google and Yahoo's advanced search pages are noted as having added filtering to include only CC licensed content. Article includes a summary of the six main types of CC licences – [RH]

Chillingworth, Mark. Information experts back Gowers' copyright review . Information World Review 231, January 2007: 1, 10 – The Gowers review into intellectual property and copyright is reported as being welcomed by the information industry. Andrew Gowers, former Financial Times editor, was commissioned by Gordon Brown to give the government a better understanding of how intellectual property and copy right regulations could promote economic growth and protect creators. Comments on the report from the British Library and the Open Rights Group are included in the report. Suggestions to develop comments on ‘fair dealing' and make a closer look at the enforcement criteria in terms of distinguishing between large and small-scale counterfeiting are made. The challenge of Digital Rights Management and technology is commented on. Orphaned works and libraries rights to copy in separate formats for preservation are also covered. (Full analysis of the report is provided on page 10 of this issue). – [RH]

Metadata

Allinson , Julie, Johnston, P and Powell, A . A Dublin Core Application Profile for Scholarly Works. Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www. Ariadne .ac.uk/issue50/allinson-et-al/ ) – The authors describe a Dublin Core application profile for the description of eprints that makes use of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Abstract Model. Community acceptance and dissemination activities are generating momentum for uptake of the profile – [CP]

Preservation

Ball, Alexander and Manjula Patel . 2nd International DCC Conference 2006: Digital Data Curation in Practice. Ariadne 50, January 2007 ( http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/2-dcc-conf-rpt/ ) –Provides an overview of the second annual conference of the Digital Curation Centre, which brings together researchers in the field to promote discussion of policy and strategy. Themes were disciplines and data, life cycles, open science and practical approaches – [CP]

Beresford, Philip . Web Curator Tool . Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www. Ariadne .ac.uk/issue50/beresford/ ) – The Web Curator Tool has been developed by The National Library of New Zealand, The British Library and Sytec to assist curators of digital archives in collecting web-published material for storage and preservation. Beresford tells the story of its development from The British Library's perspective. The project has quickly produced usable software and is in use already at the NLNZ and will be rolled out to UK Web Archiving Consortium partners in 2007. The tool includes workflows to identity content for archiving and then to manage it, including permissions, selection, description, scoping, harvesting and quality review. Web Curator Tool is available as open source software. – [CP]

Dunning, Alastair. Cultural Heritage Online: The Challenge of Accessibility and Preservation . Ariadne 50, January 2007. ( http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/rinascimento-digitale-rpt/ ) – Report on a conference in Florence about the preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage material. The general tenor of the presentations was less about the technical issues than the strategic ones. The understanding is quickly growing that just as the Web is distributed, so are the expertise, approaches and practices that manage cultural material on the Web – [CP]

Hilton, Chris and Dave Thompson. Collecting Born Digital Archives at the Wellcome Library . Ariadne 50, January 2007. (http://www.Ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/hilton-thompson/ ) – This paper discusses plans for work with born digital archival material at the Wellcome Library. The authors conclude that engaging with digital material means business as usual: sound archival practice, policies, documented workflow, and training – [CP]

Sale, A. The patchwork mandate . D-Lib Magazine 13 (1/2) Jan/Feb 2007. http://www.dlib.org//dlib/january07/sale/01sale.html – Having trouble convincing management that your organisation would benefit from an Institutional Repository? In this brief opinion piece Sale, a Professor of Computing at the University of Tasmania, suggests employing a new tactic, which he terms The Patchwork Mandate. Due to the relatively poor uptake of voluntary deposition schemes (Sale estimates that only 15% of researchers take part) and the reluctance by management to mandate deposition, many Institutional Repositories find it hard to get off the ground. The Patchwork mandate advocates a piece-meal approach to the problem, through the conversion of researchers at a departmental rather than an institutional level. Sale cites the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton as an example where a departmental mandate has borne fruit. While the success of the patchwork mandate is debateable, Sale's enthusiasm for IRs is certainly encouraging. – [IW]

Suber, Peter. Predictions for 2007 SPARC Open Access Newsletter (104) 2006. (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/12-02-06.htm#predictions) – Peter Suber has issued his 2007 open access predictions, and, as usual, they are well worth a read. Among his predictions: OA archiving policies by funding agencies and universities as well as institutional repositories will be unstoppable trends, reluctant publishers will be pushed to allow self-archiving at the same time that publishers who already permit it may try to dampen self-archiving activity with fees and/or embargoes, and new copyright problems will emerge (e.g., "Do machine-generated paraphrases of copyrighted texts infringe copyright?"). – [* CB ]

Security

Miller, Ron. Plugging information leaks . EContent 30(1) Jan/Feb 2007: 26,28-30 – Overview of the types of content leaks and products available from the growing content security industry to plug those leaks. These invoke rules to automatically block leaked information; the advice is to involve human resources, legal and IT departments in drawing up the policies to drive these rules – [CP]

Web Design

Bedord, Jean. Findability factors found: leading customers to content. EContent 30(1) Jan/Feb 2007: 38-43 – Tips on how to make your pages findable in the major search engines without paying for advertising. This is worth doing as click-through rates on individual pay-per-click ads are usually well under 5% while users will click on at least one of the top ten results on the search results page. 1) Check the number of pages actually indexed in each search engine. 2) Display a meaningful text excerpt from your Web page that is relevant to the user's search query. 3) Use the customer's own words. 4) Use metadata and editorial guidelines wisely; for example, a product page should have a succinct description and events should have a date in the URL. A sidebar describes the success story of Vanderbilt University's Television News Archive which faced closure until it created static pages to be picked up by search engines. These replaced the abstracts previously hidden in the invisible Web, and led to a 13% increase in income in five months – [CP]

Entlich, Richard. The Missing Dimension in Web-based Museum Exhibitions: Obstacles to Adding Depth to Digital Data RLG DigiNews 10(6) 15 December 2006. ( http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20999#article5 ) – This "FAQ" feature in RLG DigiNews "provides a brief discussion about the development of 3D technology on the World Wide Web, its adoption by museums, and the obstacles that continue to keep the creation, dissemination, and management of 3D imagery via the Web from becoming a fully mainstreamed activity." It provides a useful summary of 3D technologies such as VRML, QuickTime-VR, Shockwave3D, and others, along with examples of them in use. Although there have been various obstacles to the wide adoption of 3D technologies, the piece ends on a hopeful note with standards being solidified, high-capacity networks more widespread, and end-user computers gaining in capability for graphic rendering. – [* RT ]

Contributors to Current Cites * :

Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Terry Huwe, Shirl Kennedy, Leo Robert Klein, Jim Ronningen, Roy Tennant

Contributors:

Peter Chapman, Ann Dixon, Catherine Ebenezer, Linda Fawcett, Ina Fourie, Rob Hughes, Linda Kerr, Ida Kwan, Shirley Parker-Munn, Claire Pillar, Liz Reiner, Ann Smith, Matt Treadwell, Christine Urquhart, Ian Walker, Jennifer Wilkinson.

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