D-Lib Magazine
November 1998

ISSN 1082-9873

Clips & Pointers

CIC Completes Assessment of Z39.50 within the Consortium

Barbara McFadden Allen
Assistant Director, Committee on Institutional Cooperation
Director, CIC Center for Library Initiatives
Bmallen@uiuc.edu

Thirteen major research libraries in the U.S. are demonstrating that the Z39.50 standard is effective in linking disparate library systems -- but there is more work to be done by vendors in aggressively developing robust Z39.50 system components. The CIC member university libraries have completed a large-scale study of the implementation, which was initiated in 1993 as the key element in the creation of the CIC Virtual Electronic Library (VEL). The study, conducted by Mark Hinnebusch, Associate Director of the Florida Center for Library Automation and Chair of the Z39.50 Implementers' Group, will provide the foundation for additional work in support of the CIC VEL.

The VEL -- a project supported by the United States Department of Education through a $1.2 million Title IIA grant -- links the separate online systems of the CIC libraries in a distributed search and retrieval environment using the Z39.50 protocol and OCLC’s WebZ client. Additional development has been initiated to create a document delivery and inter-university circulation system to complement the search and retrieval feature. For more information about the CIC VEL, visit http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/cli/accessvel.html.

The CIC initiated the Z39.50 study to improve the retrieval of information through the CIC VEL. The project assisted the consortium in understanding the various Z39.50 server and client configurations, the search engines underlying the servers, the indexing of MARC tags in the servers, and how these elements interoperate. The report provides detailed information on Z39.50 support in library systems developed by Ameritech, DRA, Endeavor, Geac, SIRSI, VTLS, and III.

The report identifies six general strategies for improving the search environment, including use of a specific subset of the Z39.50 bib-1 attributes and recommendations regarding indexing. The report also identifies needed development on the vendor side -- particularly the adoption of the "explain" function and support for the "scan" service. A complete copy of the report is available at http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/CIC/cli/z39-50report.htm.

Founded in 1958, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), with headquarters in Champaign, Illinois, is the academic consortium of the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago. Member institutions include: the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, Indiana University, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cooperative ventures at all levels have arisen, giving the CIC a forty year history of effective voluntary inter-institutional cooperation among these twelve independent universities. For more information about the CIC, consult their web site at http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/. For more information about OCLC’s WebZ product, consult their web site at http://www.oclc.org/oclc/promo/9275webz/webz.htm.

Report of the NSF SMETE Library Workshop, October 27, 1998

In July, the National Science Foundation sponsored a workshop to examine the concept of a digital library to support undergraduate education in the fields supported by the NSF. The working name of the proposed library is "the SMETE Library", an acronym for Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education. An earlier study examined the feasibility of such a library; this workshop emphasized the impact on education. The report of the workshop is now available on the D-Lib web site. It describes a broad consensus that a comprehensive SMETE Library would be a major resource for undergraduate education and urges the NSF to implement it.

Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS)

 Contributed by
Richard Hill
American Society for Information Science
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
rhill@asis.org

VOLUME 49, NUMBER 14 (DECEMBER 1998)

To see the Table of Contents, click here.

The ASIS home page <http://www.asis.org> contains the Table of Contents and abstracts (if available) from January 1992 (Volume 43) to date.

The full text of JASIS is available at <http://www.interscience.wiley.com> from 1986 (Volume 37) forward. You must register but there is no charge. This site includes the full text of JASIS and other Wiley journals. You may also set up a personal home page which allows you to:

  • Browse the Wiley InterScience collection
  • Search across the entire content of Wiley InterScience journals
  • Add your own notes and comments to individual articles
  • Store sets of search criteria for the searches you perform most often
  • Go directly to the home page of your favorite Wiley journal
  • Create and maintain your personal reading list

To view the JASIS articles full text, click on the "view articles" button at the top of the Title/Abstract page.

The complete sequence, after logging on and going to the JASIS page is:

  1. select issue to view;
  2. select title of article;
  3. select the "view article" button at the top of the page above the abstract. The article will then appear in Adobe Acrobat.

A Research Agenda for Digital Libraries, Summary Report of the Series of Joint NSF-EU Working Groups on Future Directions for Digital Libraries Research

The European Union and the National Science Foundation have been collaborating on a joint project to explore research agendas for digital libraries. For the DELOS Strategic Workshop held in Brussels, Belgium on October 12, 1998, a summary research agenda was published by five NSF-EU Working Groups which contained their recommendations and priorities for future digital library research and development activities, and which emphasizes the need for international cooperation.

The summary may be found at http://www.iei.pi.cnr.it/DELOS//NSF/Brussels.htm in both HTML and Word Document formats. It is also available at http://www.ercim.org/publication/workshop_reports.html. The latter web site additionally points to other reports from the European digital library community.

Also in Print

  • Reference Service in a Digital Age, Proceedings from a Library of Congress Institute, 29 - 30 June 1998.

    Much of the Institute proceedings are now available at this Library of Congress web site including the following panel discussions:

    • Panel presentation entitled "http://digiref.scenarios.issues/" moderated by Anne Lipow
    • "AskAs: Lessons Learned from K-12 Digital Reference Services" by R. David Lankes
    • "Reference Service, Human Nature, and Copyright -- In a 'Digital Age'?" by Thomas Mann
    • "Redefining Reference Services: Transitioning the Public Library" by Lynn Wheeler and Nancy Reger
    • "Working Towards some Suggested Guidelines" by Bernie Sloan

    Fuller papers are to appear in the Fall issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ). Bibliographies on the following topics at the LC web site include:

    • Professional Roles and Responsibilities
    • Reference Resources Online: Acquisitions, Evaluations, and Use
    • Electronic Give and Take: Variations on Face-to-Face and Real-Time Reference
    • Collaborative Reference Networks: How We Help Each Other
    • Intelligent Agents, Human-Computer Interaction, and Technology Trends

Deadline Reminders

Goings On

  • Amigos Imaging Workshop, 9 - 10 December 1998, Waco, TX, USA.

    This hands-on workshop provides an overview of digital imaging and will give participants a concrete demonstration of the technology and process of imaging and the effect these have on the creation of high quality digital images.

    Complete registration information for this class, as well as a complete listing of upcoming AMIGOS courses, may be found at the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council web site at http://www.amigos.org/training/schedule.html. Deadline for early bird fee for the imaging class is November 17, 1998.

  • Advances in Digital Libraries, IEEE ADL '99, 19 - 21 May 1999, Baltimore, MD, USA. Call for papers. Deadline for submission is 15 December 1998.

    Authors are invited to submit manuscripts, not to exceed 6,000 words to either of the Program Co-Chairs: Prof. Elke Rundensteiner, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, rundenst@cs.wpi.edu; or Prof. Erich Neuhold, GMD-IPSI, Germany, neuhold@darmstadt.gmd.de.

    A selected number of papers will be considered for publication in the International Journal of Digital Libraries. The proceedings of the conference will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Papers are solicited in ALL areas of digital library technology including, among others:
    Agent Technology Meta-information
    Authoring and Scripting Publishing
    Collaborative Research Resource Discovery and Management
    Data Mining Searching and Browsing
    Digital Library Testbed Systems Semantic and System Interoperability
    Document Models Standards and Protocols
    Economic Issues and Billing Mechanisms Telecommunications and Networking
    Human-Computer Interaction Transition from Traditional Libraries
    Knowledge Integration User Workspaces  

    In particular, ADL '99 will focus on issues in the areas of:

    • Digital Art
    • Digital Earth
    • Digital Law
    • Digital Music
    • Digital Sky
    • Geospatial Information
    • Health Applications
    • Integrating Digital Technology into Traditional Libraries
    • Social and Natural Sciences Applications
    • Socio-Economic Impact

  • ACM Digital Libraries '99, The Fourth ACM Conference on Digital Libraries, 11 - 14 August 1999, Berkeley, CA, USA. Deadline for papers: 8 January 1999.

    ACM SIGIR and ACM SIGLINK are sponsors of this upcoming conference which will feature an expanded program including demonstrations, reports on operational and prototype digital library systems, discussions of policy issues, technical research papers, and posters, panels, turorials and workshops. Submissions in all categories will be refereed.

    Three categories of papers are being solicited.

    • Research papers: Submissions are invited for reports of significant research results in all aspects of digital libraries. Such reports should include a substantial evaluative component.
    • Policy papers: Submissions are invited for discussions of significant policy issues related to the design and implementation of digital libraries. Example topics include: intellectual property; social, economic, political and cultural problems; international collaboration.
    • System reports: Submissions are invited for reports on the design, implementation, operation and evaluation of operational and prototype digital library systems. The emphasis in such submissions will be on reporting the experience of implementation of the systems, and of their use.

    See the conference web site for further information.

  • SIGIR '99, 22nd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development of Information Retrieval, 15 - 19 August 1999, Berkeley, CA, USA. Call for Participation. Deadline for papers: 12 January 1999.

    SIGIR'99 seeks original contributions in the broad field of information storage and retrieval, covering the handling of all types of information, user behavior in information systems, and theories, models, and implementations of IR systems. Topics traditionally relevant to SIGIR include but are not limited to the following General Topics:

    • IR Theory including statistical and logical IR models, data fusion.
    • Experimentation: test collections, evaluation measures, experimental design, testing methodology, scalability.
    • Systems and Implementation Issues: integration with database systems, networked systems and the internet, compression, efficient query evaluation.
    • Natural Language Processing: word sense disambiguation, discourse analysis, and summarization for the purposes of IR; cross-lingual IR systems, dialog management, use of linguistic resources for IR.
    • Filtering, Routing, and Text Classification.
    • Applications: task-embedded IR, electronic publishing, digital libraries, text data mining.

    For information about more specific topics and for other conference information see the web site at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/conferences/sigir99/

  • BOBCATSSS 99, 7th International Symposium, 25 - 27 January 1999, Bratislava, Slovakia.

    The 7th BOBCATSSS symposium has as its focus the Learning Society, Learning Organisation, and Lifelong Learning, and the symposium is arranged by a students' project of the Fachhochschule Darmstadt -- University of Applied Sciences, and University of Library and Information Studies. The local organiser is the Department of Library and Informaion Science at the Comenius University.

    The symposium opens Monday, 25 January 1999 with registration, opening addresses, and a reception. Plenum session topics from the programme include:

    • Tuesday, 26 January

      • Information Technology for the Learning Society
      • Qualification for Information Professionals
      • Electronic Market
      • Learning Society in Africa
      • Professional Training
      • Learning Society
      • Self-directed Learning
      • Webdesign for Distance Learning
      • Library Education
      • Lifelong Learning
      • Educational System Design
      • Information Broking
      • Professional Training
      • Learning Organisation

    • Wednesday, 27 January

      • New Media for Schools
      • Lifelong Learning via Libraries
      • Target Groups for Lifelong Learning
      • Learning and Knowledge Management
      • Information Technology Application in Science and Culture
      • Learning and Knowledge Management
      • Information and Documentation in Slovakia
      • New Media for Schools
      • Strategies for a Learning Society
      • Learning Organisation

    Registration information, including an online registration form, may be found at http://coba.iud.fh-darmstadt.de/bobcatsss99/reg.htm.

  • Thirteenth Annual IFIP WG 11.3 Working Conference on Database Security 26 - 28 July 1999, Seattle, WA, USA. Call for Papers. Deadline for submission: 15 February 1999.

    This conference is limited to forty participants. Preliminary proceedings will be distributed to all participants to allow for discussion and interaction at the conference. Revised papers and an account of discussions will be published in the next volume in the "Database Security: Status and Prospects" series. Selected papers will be invited for publication in the Journal of Computer Security.

    Topics for papers may include those listed, or other topics related to Database Security:

    • Data/System Integrity
    • Information Warfare
    • Privacy and Anonymity
    • Security in Workflow Systems
    • Authorization and Access Control
    • WWW and Internet Security
    • Intrusion Detection
    • Security for Digital Libraries

Pointers in this Column

ACH-ALLC 99 Call for Papers. Deadline for papers and panels: 1 December 1998. Deadline for poster and demo proposals: 7 January 1999.

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/ach-allc.99/cfp.html

ACM Digital Libraries '99, The Fourth ACM Conference on Digital Libraries, 11 - 14 August 1999, Berkeley, CA, USA. Deadline for papers: 8 January 1999.

http://www.acm.org/sigir/DL99-call.html

Advances in Digital Libraries Conference, IEEE ADL '99 May19-21 1999, Baltimore MD, USA. Deadline for manuscripts or proposals for panels or workshops, December 15, 1998.

http://cimic.rutgers.edu/adl99/

American Society for Information Science (ASIS) Table of contents for JASIS

http://www.asis.org

Amigos Imaging Workshop, December 9-10, 1998, Waco, TX, USA.

http://www.amigos.org/training/courses.html#Early

ASIS 1999 Annual Conference, 1 - 4 November 1999,Washington, DC, USA. Deadline for proposals for panels, technical sessions, poster sessions, presentations, and intents to submit contributed papers is 15 December 1998.

http://www.asis.org/Conferences/am99call.html

BOBCATSSS 99, 7th International Symposium, 25 - 27 January 1999, Bratislava, Slovakia.

http://coba.iud.fh-darmstadt.de/bobcatsss99/

http://coba.iud.fh-darmstadt.de/bobcatsss99/programme.htm

http://coba.iud.fh-darmstadt.de/bobcatsss99/reg.htm

CIC Virtual Electronic Library (VEL)

http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/cli/accessvel.html.

Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)

http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/

International Digital Libraries Collaborative Research NSF 99-6, Deadline for Letters of Intent 15 December, 1998, Proposal deadline: 15 January 1999.

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1999/nsf996/nsf996.htm

OCLC’s WebZ

http://www.oclc.org/oclc/promo/9275webz/webz.htm

Reference Service in a Digital Age, Proceedings from a Library of Congress Institute, 29 - 30 June 1998.

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/digiref/

Report of the SMETE Library Workshop

http://www.dlib.org/smete/public/report.html

Report to the CIC on the State of Z39.50 Within the Consortium, Prepared by Mark Hinebusch, May 19, 1998, Final Revision, August 29, 1998.

http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/cli/z39-50report.htm

SIGIR '99, 22nd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development of Information Retrieval, 15 - 19 August 1999, Berkeley, CA, USA. Call for Participation. Deadline for papers: 12 January 1999.

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/conferences/sigir99/

The Third ICCC/IFIP Conference on Electronic Publishing. Deadline for abstract submission is 7 December 1998.

http://www5.hk-r.se/elpub99.nsf

Thirteenth Annual IFIP WG 11.3 Working Conference on Database Security 26 - 28 July 1999, Seattle, WA, USA. Call for Papers. Deadline for submission: 15 February 1999.

http://cimic.rutgers.edu/~kimdh/ifip99/cfp99.html

Wiley Interscience

http://www.interscience.wiley.com

Copyright (c) 1998 Corporation for National Research Initiatives

Correction made to html code, The Editor, November 23, 1998 11:20 AM.

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