Current Awareness

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://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites).

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

Catalogues / Cataloguing

Buckley-Owen, Tim. Cooler than your i-pod Information World Review 245 April 2008: 22 – An overview of library system suppliers attempts to wrestle with open systems and public domain content integration is given in this short account of the market. Comment is provided by various suppliers, including Bailey Solutions, Eos.Web, Talis, OCLC and Soutron – [RH]

Freeland, Chris, Martin Kalfatovic, and Jay Paige, et al. Geocoding LCSH in the Biodiversity Heritage Library Code4Lib Journal (24 March 2008) (http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/52 ) – This article is an interesting description of using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), geographical coordinates, and the Google Maps Application Program Interface (API) to create new methods of information discovery in the Biodiversity Heritage Library . Despite the "wow" factor of using a Google Maps interface to discover items in the library, there are several problems that surfaced during this project. One is the lack of data – not every item that refers to a geographic location has been coded as such. Also, it is not always helpful to plot something that refers to an entire continent as a point somewhere in the middle of that continent. But this is interesting work, and it demonstrates potentially useful directions for using our existing data in new ways to enhance retrieval – [* RT ]

Digitisation Projects / Preservation

Gillesse, Robert, Judith Rog, and Astrid Verheusen.  Alternative File Formats for Storing Master Images of Digitisation Projects Hague: Netherlands: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 2008. (http://www.kb.nl/hrd/dd/dd_links_en_publicaties/publicaties/Alternative%
20File%20Formats%20for%20Storing%20Masters%202%201.pdf ) – This in-depth study by the Research and Development Department of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands) found that the best alternatives for master digital images to uncompressed TIF files were JPEG 2000 lossless (53% storage savings) and PNG (40% storage savings). When the master digital image is also the distribution file, JPEG 2000 lossy and JPEG with greater compression were the best formats – [* CB ]

Hahn, Trudi Bellardo. Mass Digitization: Implication for Preserving the Scholarly Record Library Resources & Technical Services 52(1) (January 2008): 18-26 – "Digitization is not preservation." This is a sentence that I've heard countless times at digitization workshops over the years. Trudi Bellardo Hahn takes libraries to task for allowing Google and other for-profit vendors to make the rules for the mass digitization, and ultimately preservation, of our scholarly record. Based on a talk she did in 2006 at the Eighth Annual Symposium on Scholarly Communication, Hahn cautions us to pause and think a little more about five areas: pace of developments, risk versus vision, justification for digitizing books, trust, and leadership. She argues that libraries should look at who's driving the car of mass digitization, and to make sure that they are more involved in every step of the process, especially when it comes to digitization leadership – [*KC]

Rieger, Oya Y.  Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization: A White Paper Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2008. ( http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub141/pub141.pdf ) – In this white paper, Oya Y. Rieger , Interim Assistant University Librarian for Digital Library and Information Technologies at the Cornell University Library, takes a look at four mass digitization projects (Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project) with particular attention to the long-term access and preservation issues that they raise. She investigates the impact that mass digitization programs will have on library book collections, and she offers 13 recommendations for libraries engaged in such programs to consider. In the recommendation section, she says: "Formulating a joint action plan by the cultural institutions is desirable and will help clarify commonly debated aspects of LSDIs [Large-Scale Digitization Initiatives]. It will be important to bring Google and Microsoft, as well as other commercial leaders, into this conversation. Participating libraries should take advantage of the partners' meetings organized by Google and Microsoft to present and discuss the community's digital preservation concerns and plans. However, it is important to acknowledge that there are institutional differences in opinion, digital library infrastructures, funding models, and strategic goals." – [* CB ]

Schaffhauser, Dian.  Digital crisis: Motion pictures may fade to black Computerworld (8 February, 2008) (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=print
ArticleBasic&articleId=9061099) – Contrary to naive claims that since disk drives are inexpensive, digital archiving is cheap, this article in Computerworld explores the two most pressing issues affecting digital preservation of films created in Hollywood: a lack of standards during both the content creation and storage phases, and the high costs of on-going digital preservation. This article should be a wake-up call to those of us in the information professions that we face the same types of issues and need to move much more quickly in creating and adopting standards, as well as forming partnerships to spread the responsibility of digital preservation efforts, given the unsustainability, both technologically and monetarily, of many of our current models – [* FC ]

E-Publishing

Caldwell, Tracey. The long march of the e-book Information World Review 245 April 2008: 12-14 – A three-page review of the state of e-book usage is undertaken in this article, posing the question why e-books have not even taken the education market by storm. Affordability, user patterns, including those in different countries, the development of appropriate business models and the specific facilities of e-books, such as social networking in learning, are all considered here. Comment from various industry experts is given, including Chris Armstrong, who contributes to the SuperBook project at University College London – [RH]

General

Buckley-Owen, Tim. In good company Information World Review 244 March 2008: 19 – The current financial and business information market is reviewed in this one-page article. The major players are assessed with user requirements reviewed. The need to balance provision of good content, workflow and integration with customers' technology is noted. Niche and new players such as Creditsafe, ISI Emerging Markets and Reidin are commented upon – [RH]

Caldwell, Tracey. Rise and Shine Information World Review 244 March 2008: 12-14 – In-depth analysis of the issues facing health information professionals is addressed in this three page article. Development in hardware and Web 2.0 technologies are referenced in conjunction with sector-specific issues such as the development of NHS electronic patient records. The role of the information professional in this sector is assessed with the move from a curator to a cross-disciplinary role predicted by one commentator. The developing single healthcare knowledge source Map of Medicine is also featured – [RH]

Gantz, John F., Christopher Chute, and Alex Manfrediz, et. al. The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe: An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth through 2011 Framingham, MA: International Data Corp, 2008. (http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/diverse-exploding-digital-universe.pdf) – In 2007, the digital universe held 281 billion gigabytes (281 Exabytes), which is about 45 gigabytes of digital information for every person on the planet. By 2011, the digital universe is projected to grow ten-fold to 1.8 Zettabytes (1,800 Exabytes). According to the report: "the number of digital 'atoms' in the digital universe is already bigger than the number of stars in the universe. And, because the digital universe is expanding by a factor of 10 every five years, in 15 years it will surpass Avogadro's number." (Avogadro's number is 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000.) – [* CB ]

Hahn, Karla L. Talk About Talking About New Models of Scholarly Communication The Journal of Electronic Publishing 11(1) (Winter 2008) (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3336451.0011.108 ) – "Research has effectively not happened until it has been communicated," Karla Hann writes at the beginning of this article. This sounds like a good scholarly communication advocate's unequivocal answer to the riddle "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" To look at the analogy another way, librarians have been hearing trees of the scholarly publishing forest falling all around them, but many faculty remain deaf to these changes – although the recent OA vote by Harvard's faculty (see elsewhere in this issue) suggests that may be changing. In any case, Hahn makes it clear that scholarly communication is not just a library issue, but one for the research and scholarly community as a whole. Broad change can only occur with the support of those who produce and use scholarship, and Hahn calls on the library community to accelerate its efforts to engage scholars in dialogue about scholarly communication issues. She discusses six "dangers in our current moment" and offers six suggested topics for campus dialogue. Part of the Winter 2008 special issue of JEP devoted of the theme of Communications, Scholarly Communications and the Advanced Research Infrastructure – [*BR]

Oppenheim, Richard. On the road again Searcher 16 (3) (2008): 20-62, 7p –The article describes telecommuting as the practice of working away from a traditional office setting, looks at its growth since the 1970s and outlines the various technologies that have made this possible. It is argued the laptop has become an essential tool for any would-be telecommuter, and that it is therefore important to assess your needs carefully before purchasing one. The article offers guidance to those considering purchasing a laptop in the form of a pre-purchase checklist, and offers a number of useful hints and tips for anyone new to the telecommuting lifestyle. To protect themselves against data loss, it is suggested that telecommuters protect their laptops with fingerprint login systems, and consider investing in a web-based data back-up service like http://www.idrive.com or http://www.jungledisk.com – [MT]

Smith, Laura. Reed Elsevier ditches print to embrace digital future Information World Review 244 March 2008: 1, 4 – Lead news item covers Reed Elsevier's announced intention to sell its business titles and concentrate on ‘information-driven services and products'. Editorial comment analyses this story in the context of its effect on the information industry as a whole. This is considered in light of Thomson's ongoing acquisition of Reuters and an overall economic slowdown seen here to encourage a ‘cost-cutting' mood across the information sector – [RH]

Information Access

Guterman, Lila.  Celebrations and Tough Questions Follow Harvard's Move to Open Access The Chronicle of Higher Education (21 February 2008) – The adoption of an open access mandate by Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences has received worldwide notice, but it is likely to have an especially strong impact in the U.S. Here's an excerpt from the mandate : "The Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. In legal terms, the permission granted by each Faculty member is a non-exclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license to exercise any and all rights under copyright relating to each of his or her scholarly articles, in any medium, and to authorize others to do the same, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit. The policy will apply to all scholarly articles written while the person is a member of the Faculty except for any articles completed before the adoption of this policy and any articles for which the Faculty member entered into an incompatible licensing or assignment agreement before the adoption of this policy. The Dean or the Dean's designate will waive application of the policy for a particular article upon written request by a Faculty member explaining the need." Guterman reports on reactions to the mandate, noting that publishers' criticisms have been "muted." As you would expect, Open Access News has extensively covered this development, and it is the best place to get further information (especially see the February 10, 2008 and February 17, 2008 OAN archives) – [* CB ]

Quint, Barbara. The information industry emerges from the shadows…or does it? Information Today 25 (4) (April 2008): 7-8 – A thought-provoking article from Barbara Quint that draws on Chris Anderson's article in the March edition of Wired where he lays out his argument that giving away free content/services on the Web is the future for many businesses. Both Anderson's work and Quint's comments may be a little unsettling for some of the more established information vendors who have not always been at the forefront of innovation, but her suggestion for an open wiki platform where paid-for information offerings could be described and commented on seems like a good idea – [MDS]

Information Management

Corrado, Edward A., and Kathryn A. Frederick.  Free and Open Source Options for Creating Database-Driven Subject Guides Code4Lib Journal (2)(24 March 2008) (http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/47 ) – A common strategy to help library users find the information they seek is to create Web pages focused on library resources in broad topic areas. The most efficient way to create and maintain such pages is by using a database. This article provides a survey of free and open source software options for creating and maintaining database-driven subject pages. Applications highlighted include SubjectsPlus, LibData, Research Guide, and Library Course Builder. Social bookmarking sites, course management systems, blogs, and wikis are also mentioned as options – [* RT ]

Information Retrieval

Caldwell, Tracey. Microsoft moves to get back in game Information World Review 244 March 2008: 6 – Analysis of the repercussions of a mooted deal between Microsoft and Yahoo and its projected impact on search. The current market share and competitive environment is reviewed. Contributions from professionals included reflections on user requirements and possible changes in information professionals' approaches to search in the aftermath of any market consolidation – [RH]

DeRidder, Jody L. Googlizing a Digital library Code4Lib Journal (2)(24 March 2008) (http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/43 ) – This article describes how one institution dramatically increased access to their digital library materials by exposing information about these items to Web crawlers. Called the "deep Web" because of its opaque nature to Web crawlers, content hidden behind database walls can be exposed to crawlers in various ways. DeRidder discusses these options and describes their particular strategy. A lengthy bibliography and list of helpful links will assist those who wish to do the same – [* RT ]

Jacso, Peter. Google Scholar revisited Online Information Review 32 (1) (2008): 102-114 – The author presents a critical review of Google Scholar based on searches he has performed. This is a useful article because it points out some of the problems that Google Scholar still has in the basic indexing of documents. He observes that “F. Password” is the most productive and cited author while ISSN numbers are often interpreted as publication dates. However, despite these issues the author makes the point that Google Scholar provides a valuable service to researchers wanting to obtain academic papers without having to pay expensive subscription charges and its increasing coverage will make it a more compelling proposition in the future – [MDS]

Smith, Joan A., and Mike L. Nelson.  Site Design Impact on Robots: An Examination of Search Engine Crawler Behavior at Deep and Wide Websites D-Lib Magazine 14(3/4)(March/April 2008) ( http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/smith/03smith.html ) – Anyone with a website knows that a large proportion of the traffic they get tends to come from search engines – particularly Google. So knowing how well these search engines crawl your site can be important if you want more people to find you. This article studies how the design of a website can influence how it's crawled. For example, "wide" websites that don't have many levels of pages may be easier for crawlers to penetrate than "deep" sites that have many levels. To find out how the Google, MSN and Yahoo crawlers responded to these two kinds of sites, the authors set up some dummy sites and watched how they were crawled for a full year. They provide animations that depict how the crawls progressed over the year. After discussing how the MSN and Yahoo crawlers tended to not crawl as thoroughly as Google (falling as low as 3% coverage in the worst cases, whereas Google never fell below 99%), they conclude that "Digital library sites that want to maximize their exposure to search engine users should look to improve the crawler-friendliness of their site...site design does matter to the crawler and webmasters should consider implementing a crawler-friendly site design that includes index pages and/or a sitemap." – [* RT ]

Knowledge Management / Social Networking

Arnold, Erik. Something for the rest of us Searcher 16 (4) (2008): 40-43 – This article looks at the trend amongst big search engines like Google of allowing developers to create Web gadgets/mashups using their application programming interfaces (API). The article goes on to review two really simple syndication (RSS) applications that can be used by developers, the Google Gadget Editor (GGE) http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/gs.html#GGE and Dapper.net http://www.dapper.net/ .– [MT]

Boué, Goetz. Don't say Web 2.0, say intranet 2.0 KM Review 11(1) (2008): 14-17 – SharePoint, or Microsoft Office SharePoint Service (MOSS), has the potential to revolutionise the way that company intranets are used and developed. This article briefly describes the features of SharePoint. Focusing on the Web 2.0 features in SharePoint; blogs, wikis, RSS, enterprise search and social networking, are highlighted to show how they can be used to build communities within an organisation. These features can also be used to develop high-impact portals that are easy to use and can be delivered at low cost. A case study looking at how the British Standards Institution (BSI) developed their intranet from a UK-centric, rarely used system to one that is designed to be useful to every employee, is detailed. [GC]

Cadas, Colin. Studying and mapping knowledge at Rolls-Royce KM Review 11(1) (2008): 10-13 – This case study looks at how knowledge gaps and needs are identified at Rolls-Royce. Using a system developed at Arki (Applied Knowledge Research and Innovation – http://www.arki.co.uk), the Rolls-Royce knowledge management team study and analyse knowledge resources and provide a knowledge risk assessment in the form of a knowledge structure map. This map, which looks like a complex organisational chart, contains expert opinion on the steps and details of the level of risk associated with that knowledge, covering what it takes to gain this knowledge and the impact of its loss. This mapping exercise can help with organisational decision making and can lead to the protection, development and deployment of knowledge. [GC]

Duggan, Mike. Mobilizing knowledge in an always-on world KM Review 11(1) (2008): 24-27 – Mobilizing knowledge is a term that is used to describe the capture and sharing of knowledge within individuals. This is also known as knowledge harvesting, and is usually applied when staff leave their jobs. This information needs to be accessed by the right people at the right time in the most appropriate format. In order for organisations to successfully utilise its business knowledge, four key steps need to be undertaken: understanding the people and the business; identifying the information that is actually needed; review data capture methods; and evaluate the system. A small case study of how knowledge mobilisation is used at Transport for London is given. [GC]

Edwards, Donna; Wolff, Jim. A look at the top 10 KM challenges KM Review 10(6) (2008): 24-27 – A research project at California State University looked at KM challenges within organisations. Ten points are described, with some suggestions on how to overcome the challenges detailed. The KM challenges include: new employees and employee development; information overload; the need for good records management and information management; ways to encourage collaboration; balancing tacit and explicit knowledge; the need to document critical processes; how KM can help facilitate working in a multi-national environment; how KM can help employees make better decisions; how to encourage staff to share their knowledge; and for KM to succeed, the need to have strong leaders and corporate support for KM – [GC]

Exploring online video as a way to share knowledge KM Review 11(1) (2008): 28-33 –Taken from Melcrum's report “Engaging employee with social media”, this article is based on an interview with the marketing and communications manager at Southampton University. It looks at the value of videocasts for sharing knowledge and providing information online. It demonstrates the power of multimedia, by being able to reach wider audiences than the traditional written word. Tips for creating videocasts are provided, including how to add YouTube videos to blogs. [GC]

Lengyel, David. Blending KM with risk management at NASA KM Review 10(6) (2008): 8-9 – This short review looks at how NASA is using KM tools to help mitigate risk and reduce knowledge gaps in current and future programmes. The article describes how the Exploration System Mission Directorate use Pause and Learn, a form of After-Action Review; how they translate lessons-learned events to mitigate risk; use a wiki to capture the corporate knowledge; encourage knowledge sharing forums, from lunches to conferences; and how they use case studies for training staff. Using these tools in combination, future programmes are able to reduce risk and can effectively apply knowledge learnt from previous programmes, to ensure future successes – [GC]

Martine, Cindy. Facebook for professionals Information Today 25 (4) (April 2008): 1-2 – This article outlines how Facebook is being used by journalists and librarians to keep in touch with each other and share information. It provides some statistics about how large some of the librarian groups on Facebook are, and some examples on how the site is being used in a practical sense – [MDS]

Milton, Nick. Assigning roles and accountabilities in KM KM Review 11(1) (2008): 18-23 – This article looks at the roles and responsibilities needed within KM teams. Two scenarios are given: one where KM is at the early stages of being implemented in an organisation; the second where KM is already embedded within an organisation. At the initial stages of designing and implementing a KM strategy, a project team is required to ensure that the project delivers its objectives. There needs to be a sponsor, project leader, senior members of staff in a steering team and team members who have responsibilities for particular roles. When KM is established within the organisation, there needs to be a knowledge manager who ensures that KM activities are carried out – from ensuring appropriate use of technologies, to getting and applying the knowledge that is needed. Subject experts are also needed to help support in the provision of knowledge. Finally, KM roles are needed in the corporate centre to provide resources and training, while improving the KM framework – [GC]

Shamel, Cindy. Online information 2007 and the Web 2.0 mandate Searcher 16 (4) (2008): 26-62, 7p – This article provides a review of the major presentations/themes from the 2007 “Online Information: Applying Web 2.0 – Innovation Impact and Implementation” conference, held by Inclusive Media (from a North American perspective). The keynote speaker was Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, who outlined the advantages of using Wikis to share knowledge with your user community. When some librarians expressed scepticism about Wikipedia, Wales countered that it had real value as a starting point for information seekers that could point them at additional sources. Another session by Stephen Abram argued that librarians' reluctance to apply 2.0 technologies did their users a great disservice and that they should now bite the bullet and either innovate or support the innovators. One such innovative information service billed as ‘the library website of the future' was http://www.minabibliotek.se/ . It is worth bearing in mind that UK information professionals would be advised to be less cryptic when addressing their international colleagues; this article concludes by helpfully defining a number of ‘unfamiliar' information association acronyms for the reader and these include both CILIP and UKEIG – [MT]

Weil, Debbie. Getting the conversation started with a blog KM Review 10(6) (2008): 28-33 – This article is an edited excerpt from the author's book on corporate blogging. It discusses the need for organisations to start blogging, what makes a good corporate blog and highlights the risks to the organisation of not blogging. Some advice is given about writing style and some of the legal issues involved in blogging. Further discussion is given regarding the need for corporate blogging guidelines, as while the organisation may not be blogging, its employees are. This is supported with an example of a blogging guideline from the World Bank. A small case study from Nortel, provides some advice in setting up a corporate blog – [GC]

Legal Issues

Perry, Michelle. Data breaches systemic in public sector Information World Review 245 April 2008: 1 – Lead news item investigates claim from the government select committee on human rights that recent government lapses in data protection are symptomatic of government failure in implementing safeguards. The committees' recommendations are reported as including an expansion of the role of the justice minister who currently has responsibility for data protection – [RH]

Williams Peter. Industry's IP struggle in a digital age Information World Review 245 April 2008: 6 – A roundtable event organised by the British Library to discuss the intellectual property (IP) challenges facing writers and publishers in the digital age is reported upon here. Comment is provided by contributors including Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library – [RH]

Security

Braund, David. Business beguiled by collaboration Information World Review 245 April 2008: 9 – In an opinion piece, the trade-off between privacy and security for users is analysed in relation to a variety of Web 2.0 initiatives and tools. This includes social networking sites such as Facebook, but also social media sites like You Tube. The notion of 'six degrees of separation' in such phenomena is explored as the writer looks forward to the developments that might occur with the ‘semantic Web' (Web 3.0) – [RH]

Standards

Zemon, Candy.  Candy Zemon Talks With Talis About NCIP Panlibus (14 February 2008) (http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2008/02/candy_zemon_tal.php ) – Aside from the glancing interest of an acronym within an acronym, NCIP – the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol – may not seem exciting to those not involved in its implementation. But in this 47-minute podcast by the Talis software company (part of a series worth subscribing to), Candy Zemon of Polaris Library Systems, who also chairs the NCIP Implementors Group, gives us a friendly layman's stroll through not only this standard's history but the broader, complex, often frustrating yet important world of standards. Zemon talks about why NCIP, first proposed in 2002, has yet to achieve wide implementation and in doing so addresses why interoperability is important. Zemon also touches on the new Digital Library Federation (DLF) ILS and Discovery Systems group – [* KGS ]

Virtual Libraries

Stormont, Sam.  Looking to Connect: Technical Challenges that Impede the Growth of Virtual Reference Reference & User Services Quarterly 47(2)(Winter 2007): 114-119. (http://rusq.org/2008/01/06/looking-to-connect-technical-challenges-that-
impede-the-growth-of-virtual-reference-2/ ) – Sam Stormont, co-author of Starting and Operating Live Virtual Reference Services, is the guest columnist for the Accidental Technologist in the most recent issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly . Although virtual reference services have been around in one form or another for over twenty years, libraries are still finding that usage by patrons is lower than expected. If millions of teenagers are using instant messaging everyday, why aren't they knocking down our virtual door at the reference desk? Stormont believes that overly complicated virtual reference interfaces might be part of the problem. Many systems with co-browsing features are unreliable, since every user's workstation is set up differently. Convenience is key with our audience, and expanding our options with collaborating through instant messaging software might be the answer to our popularity problem – [*KC]

Web/Intranet Design

Allard, Ken. The new investment cycle in Internet commerce: Web 2.0 goes mainstream Information Today 25 (4) (April 2008): 20 – The author makes the point that many B2B Websites appear clunky and offer much less functionality than consumer-facing sites where innovation has been more prevalent. Allard is optimistic that much of the hype about the Web over the last few years will soon come to fruition as more B2B companies invest in their online offerings – [MDS]

Cook, Aidan. Making your intranet a top destination for employees KM Review 10(6) (2008): 14-17 – A light-hearted look at how to make intranets more useful for employees. The author discusses typical pitfalls in the design and content of intranets and provides examples of how to make intranets more appealing to its users. The main focus is to enable the user to customise the home-page, and to ensure that the intranet is easy to use and contains content that helps the user in their work – [GC]

Gustafson, Aaron.  Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8 A List Apart Magazine (251) (21 January 2008) (http://alistapart.com/articles/beyonddoctype/) – Nothing like a "tag fight" among Web developers to start off the year right. In this case, it's about a tag that Microsoft wants people to add to their Web pages so that IE8, Microsoft's new up-and-coming browser, will know whether to render a page in "standards mode" or in "quirks mode". The article discusses the rationale behind this "version targeting" in a relatively favorable light. It's in the 200 or so comments that follow that you can savor some of the less-than-favorable reaction. Digital Web kindly provides links to further heated discussion – [* LRK ]

Mellinger, Margaret, and Kim Griggs.  The ICAP (Interactive Course Assignment Pages) Publishing System Code4Lib Journal (2)(24 March 2008) (http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/63) – Many academic librarians create and maintain course Web pages that identify library resources useful for a particular course. In this article, the authors describe a project to develop open source software to make it easy for librarians to create and maintain these kinds of pages with no HTML coding. The resulting ICAP Publishing System is now available for anyone to download, install and use. Since this article is in a technical journal, their software decisions are explained and code examples are included – [* RT ]

Robertson, James. Promote the successes notched up by your intranet team KM Review 10(6) (2008): 3 – This brief article encourages intranet teams to be more proactive in communicating their successes, and provides four practical ways to help them do this. These include tracking intranet changes and new functionality, while maintaining a portfolio to demonstrate what the team have been doing; measuring customer satisfaction and ensuring that their success stories are communicated widely, using business, not technical, language. Intranet teams are advised to plan their work according to tangible and visible activities – [GC]

Wisniewski, Jeff.  The New Rules of Web Design Online 32(2)(March-April 2008) – More on the "Simplicity is Dead" movement, this time from the Web Services Librarian at Univ. of Pittsburgh. The focus is on how Web design has changed over the years, how screens have become bigger, and the requirements of users have grown. A simple Google interface isn't enough because it only does one thing, while library websites must do many. Meeting the needs and expectations of current users requires more than utilitarian values like usability and accessibility. There must also be "visceral attributes" such as "desirability, usefulness, and value." While the author calls these "new rules of design", I think some of them have been around for a while. Probably the best lesson we can draw from the mounting volume of evidence in this field is not to go too far in one direction or the other, neither be too sour or too sweet – [* LRK ]

Contributors to Current Cites * :

Charles W. Bailey, Jr. , Keri Cascio, Frank Cervone , Susan Gibbons , Leo Robert Klein , Jim Ronningen, Brian Rosenblum, Karen G. Schneider , Roy Tennant

Contributors:

Andrew Brown, Gina Cybulska, Martin de Saulles, Catherine Ebenezer, Linda Fawcett, Virginia Havergal, Rob Hughes, Ida Kwan, Shirley Parker-Munn, Claire Pillar, Ann Smith, Matt Treadwell, Ian Walker.