LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research
Electronic Journal ISSN 1058-6768
1997 Volume 7 Issue 1; March.
Quarterly LIBRE7N1 NEWS

NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS SECTION

1. International Graduate Summer School(IGSS) on Electronic Libraries

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 11:52:00 -0800
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 09:05:04 CST
From: Lucy Tedd <lat@aber.ac.uk>)

The 1997 IGSS on Electronic Libraries will be held at the Department of
Information and Library Studies at the University of Wales Aberystwyth from
June 14th - July 5th 1997. Participants at the school will learn of recent
developments which enable the worldwide access of information via the
Internet, the impact on document delivery systems, electronic publishing
(including the emergence of electronic journals), the role of librarians in making
their users aware of all these developments and the impact on " traditional"
library services. Such developments are changing the pattern of information
provision worldwide. Librarians have to adjust their role as custodians of local
collections and encompass concepts of the virual electronic library.

IGSS aims to provide an opportunity for librarians and information
professionals from all over the world to discuss matters of common concern
and
learn of recent developments. The first IGSS was held in Aberystwyth, in
conjunction with the School of Library and Information Science at the
University of Pittsburgh in 1973, and so in 1997 will be celebrating its
Silver Jubilee.
Each year some 25-40 participants from almost as many countries attend IGSS.
IGSS 1997 will involve about 50 hours of class contact time comprising
lecture/discussion sessions, seminars and practicals as well as visits to
local relevant organisations. In addition there will be a study tour to
Oxford
( to visit Blackwell's and the Bodleian Library) and to Manchester to attend
the biennial conference of the UK Library Association.

The cost of 1850 pound sterling for IGSS 1997 will cover all tuition,
accommodation,meals and the study tour. The Director of IGSS will be Lucy
Tedd, of DILS who will be joined in teaching by others from Aberystwyth and
Ida
Flynn from Pittsburgh.

For further information please e-mail the IGSS Administrator, Joyce
Wallace on zyo@aber.ac.uk

Lucy Tedd
Lecturer
Department of Information and Library Studies
University of Wales Aberystwyth

**************************************************************************************
2. IAT INFOBITS -- October 1996

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 18:50:00 -0800)

IAT INFOBITS October 1996 No. 40 ISSN 1071-5223

About INFOBITS

INFOBITS is an electronic service of the Institute for Academic
Technology's Information Resources Group. Each month we monitor and
select from a number of information technology and instruction
technology sources that come to our attention and provide brief notes
for electronic dissemination to educators.

==========================================================

TEACHING AND LEARNING NEWSLETTER

THE NATIONAL TEACHING AND LEARNING FORUM, a newsletter on successful
teaching and learning practices in higher education, provides
non-subscribers with sample articles on the Web. Recent articles
available online include:

"Pages That Feel Like Home," a report on how faculty are using Web
pages to teach differently and more effectively
http://www.ntlf.com:80/html/ti/like_home.htm

"Urgings and Cautions in Student-Centered Teaching"
http://www.ntlf.com:80/html/pi/9605/article1.htm

"Some Teaching Web Sites," a suggested sampling of Web sites
http://www.ntlf.com:80/html/ti/teach_web.htm

The site hosts a discussion forum for educators to share information
and observations. Another feature on the site is the Interactive
Faculty Salary Database, which lets users compare salaries by
institution, rank, gender, and ethnic minority status.

The National Teaching and Learning Forum [ISSN 1057-2880] is published
six times a year for $39 by Oryx Press; tel: 800-279-6799; email:
info@oryxpress.com; Web: http://www.ntlf.com/

==========================================================

EVALUATING WEB RESOURCES

With millions of pages on the Web, how do you sort out the good from
the bad, the useful ones from the time-wasters? Those with the most
experience in evaluating information resources -- librarians and other
information specialists -- are ready to help you out with several
recent articles. Check out any of these resources for expert guidance
and helpful tips:

Alexander, Jan, and Marsha Tate. "Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills
for World Wide Web Resources."
Available online at http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/webeval.htm
An article with the same title will appear in Computers in Libraries,
vol. 16, no. 10, November/December 1996, pp. 49-55.
To contact the authors:
Jan Alexander (email: janet.e.alexander@widener.edu)
or
Marsha Tate (email: marsha.a.tate@widener.edu)
Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University, One University Place,
Chester, PA 19013 USA.

Descy, Don. "Evaluating Internet Resources." TechTrends, vol. 41, no.
4, September 1996, pp. 3-5.
To contact the author: Don E. Descy, Library Media Education
Department, Mankato State University, Mankato, MN 56002-8400 USA;
email: descy@vax1.mankato.msus.edu;
Web:http://www.lme.mankato.msus.edu/ded/don.html

Eades, Lynn. "Live from the Internet and Beyond...Teaching Patrons to
Evaluate Internet Sites." Librarians' Association Newsletter, no. 143,
October 1996, p. 4.
Available online at http://www.unc.edu/lib/launcch/oct96n.htm#internet
To contact the author: Lynn Eades, Health Sciences Library, CB# 7585,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA;
tel: 919-966-8012; email: beades@med.unc.edu

Rettig, James. "Beyond 'Cool' -- Analog Models for Reviewing Digital
Resources." Online, vol. 20, no. 6, September/October 1996, pp. 52-54,
56, 58-62, 64.
Available online at
http://www.onlineinc.com/online/online/onlinemag/SeptOL/rettig9.html
To contact the author: James Rettig, Swem Library, College of William
and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8794 USA; tel: 757-221-3058;
fax: 757-221-2635; email: jrettig@mail.swem.wm.edu

Tillman, Hope N. "Evaluating Quality on the Net." From a paper
presented at Computers in Libraries, Hyatt Regency Crystal City,
Arlington, Virginia, Monday, February 26, 1996.
Available online at http://www.tiac.net/users/hope/findqual.html
To contact the author: Hope N. Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson
College, Babson Park, MA 02157 USA; tel: 617-239-4259;
email: hope@tiac.net; Web:http://www.tiac.net/users/hope/

To subscribe to publications cited:

Computers in Libraries [ISSN 1041-7915] is published 10 times a year by
Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8750
USA; tel: 609-654-6266; fax: 609-654-4309; Web:
http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/ciltop.htm
Subscriptions are $87.95/year (U.S.), $97.95/year (Canada & Mexico), 68
Pounds/year (Europe); $105.95/year (outside Europe).

Librarians' Association Newsletter is published nine times a year by
LAUNC-CH (Librarians' Association at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill). Subscriptions are $10/year. Contact: Anita Booth,
Editor, Davis Library, CB# 3914, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA; Web: http://www.unc.edu/lib/launcch/

TechTrends -- For Leaders in Education and Training [ISSN 8756-3894] is
published six times a year by the Association for Educational
Communications and Technology (AECT), 1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 820,
Washington, DC 20005 USA; tel: 202-347-7834; fax: 202-347-7839; email:
aect@aect.org; Web:http://www.aect.org/AECT.htm
Subscriptions to TechTrends are included in AECT membership dues.
Non-member subscriptions are available for $40/year (U.S.), $44/year
(other countries/surface mail), $64/year (other countries/air mail).

==========================================================

INTERNET II

Internet II, the next generation of the Internet, will be designed to
provide the higher education community with "new modes of interactive
collaboration and distance learning, the integration of distributed
multimedia digital library collections with academic programs, greater
access to expensive specialized research facilities such as
accelerators and supercomputers, and life long scholarly pursuits
facilitated through ready access to learning materials from homes,
offices, or anywhere convenient to the learner." In "Internet Too!"
David L. Wasley (Information Resources & Communications, Office of the
President, University of California; email: david.wasley@ucop.edu)
briefly explains what Internet II will mean to both the education and
commercial users of networked information. The paper is on the
University of Virginia's Document Conversion Server. Connect to
http://dce.acc.virginia.edu/cgi-uva/cgiwrap
/~csg-dcs/dcsfetch.cgi?19961029021911/0514
and select HTML as the desired file format. To view the file in your
Web browser, click on the "Preview this File" button.

==========================================================

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE -- NOT JUST FOR MBAS

A surprising amount of business and market research information is
available free of charge on the World Wide Web . . . if you know how to
look for it. Two articles in a recent issue of DATABASE can provide you
with a good start in searching for this type of information:

"Market Research: The World Wide Web Meets the Online Services," by
Michelle Bing (Database, vol. 19, no. 4, August/September 1996, pp.
34-36, 38-40). Bing provides a number of Web sites that you can link to
in the online version of the article at
http://www.onlineinc.com/online/online/database/AugDB/bing8.html

"Competitive Intelligence Primer," by Robert Schwarzwalder (Database,
vol. 19, no. 4, August/September 1996, pp. 89-91) (Not available
online.)

Database [ISSN 0162-4105] is published six times a year by Online,
Inc., 462 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897-2126 USA; tel: 203-761-1466;
Web:http://www.onlineinc.com/database
Subscriptions are $110/year (U.S. and Canada); $132/year (Mexico);
$145/year (other countries/airmail).

==========================================================

COMPUTER SCIENCE TECHNICAL REPORTS COLLECTION

The New Zealand Digital Library's Computer Science Technical Reports
collection is a publicly-accessible, searchable digital library that
provides a full-text index to over 27,000 technical reports (750,000
pages) culled from the archives of nearly 300 university and research
institutions around the world. The search engine supports either
Boolean or ranked queries. The reports are available in plain text and
postscript formats. The collection is available at
http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~nzdl

==========================================================

A DIARY OF THE PLANET

After a hiatus of several months, "Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet," a
weekly newspaper feature written by Steve Newman (earthweek@aol.com),
is again available on the Web. Earthweek uses information from the U.S.
Climate Analysis Center, the U.S. Earthquake Information Center, the
World Meteorological Organization, and other sources to highlight
environmental events around the world. Both the newspaper and Web
editions have a world map and descriptions of the week's events;
however, the Web version also includes photographs and links not
available in the print version. Read Earthweek at
http://www.slip.net/~earthenv/

==========================================================

LITERATURE AND VRML

Chad Kearsley, IAT Webmaster and instructor in the English Department
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been exploring
the use of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) in literature
studies. This summer, he presented a paper, "Re-Locating Literary
Teaching and Learning with VRML," at the 7th National Conference on
College Teaching and Learning sponsored by the Center for the
Advancement of Teaching and Learning. Kearsley's paper has been
reprinted as Issue 3 of THE MONITOR, the IAT's new Web column. One of
the features of this column is The Monitor Discussion Forum, where
readers can comment and discuss a column with the author and other
readers.

Kearsley's paper is located at
http://www.iat.unc.edu/publications/monitor/issue3/index.html

For more information on VRML, see "From Reality to Virtuality: Readings
and Resources in Virtual Reality" at
http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-32.html

==========================================================

ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT DREARY

This year's Halloween reading recommendations are the stories and poems
of Edgar Allan Poe. Most of Poe's works are available on the Web in
online text archives, along with other Poe-related materials such as
commentaries and criticism, course syllabuses, and student papers. Here
are some Web sites to get you in the mood for midnight reading.

Peter Forrest's "The House of Usher: Edgar Allan Poe" page
http://infoweb.magi.com/~forrest/index.html

Christoffer Nilsson's Poe page
http://www.cs.umu.se/~dpcnn/eapoe/ea_poe.html

Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
Poe archive
gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/11/134

The Wiretap Electronic Text Archive's Poe archive
http://wiretap.spies.com/Gopher/Library/Classic/Poe/
or
gopher://wiretap.spies.com/11/Library/Classic/Poe

Edward Bonver's Poe's poetry archive
http://www.rit.edu/~exb1874/mine/poe/poe_ind.html

==========================================================

LIBRARIAN'S LINKS

In October, Lynn Eades, Health Sciences Library Education Librarian at
UNC-Chapel Hill, updated her resource guide, "Selected Sites in the
Sciences." You can access it at
http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-26.html

Many new links have been added this month to the following IAT
Information Resource Guides:

"Intranets: Readings and Resources"
http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-34.html

"Java/HotJava: Readings and Resources"
http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-42.html

==========================================================

To Subscribe

INFOBITS is published by the Institute for Academic Technology. The IAT
is a national institute working to place higher education at the
forefront of academic technology development and implementation. A
partnership between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
IBM Corporation, the IAT strives to facilitate widespread use of
effective and affordable technologies in higher education.

To subscribe to INFOBITS, send email to listserv@unc.edu with the
following message:

SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS firstname lastname

substituting your own first and last names.

Example: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS Edgar Poe

INFOBITS is also available online on the IAT's World Wide Web site at
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http://www.iat.unc.edu/infobits/text/index.html (plain text format).

If you have problems subscribing or want to send suggestions for future
issues, contact the editor, Carolyn Kotlas, at carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu

=======================================================
Copyright 1996, Institute for Academic Technology. All rights reserved.
May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes.

**************************************************************************************
3. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 11:50:31 CST)

The University of Houston Libraries announce the publication
of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography by Charles
W. Bailey, Jr. <URL:http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html>.

This bibliography will be updated on a monthly basis. It
supersedes "Network-Based Electronic Publishing of Scholarly
Works: A Selective Bibliography," a PACS Review article by
the same author that will no longer be updated.

Table of Contents

1 Economic Issues
2 Electronic Books and Texts
2.1 Case Studies and History
2.2 General Works
2.3 Library Issues
2.4 Related Electronic Resources
3 Electronic Serials
3.1 Case Studies and History
3.2 Critiques
3.3 Electronic Distribution of Printed Journals
3.4 General Works
3.5 Library Issues
3.6 Related Electronic Resources
3.7 Research
4 General Works
4.1 Related Electronic Resources
5 Legal Issues
5.1 Intellectual Property Rights
5.2 Other Legal Issues
5.3 Related Electronic Resources
6 Library Issues
6.1 Cataloging, Classification, and URIs
6.2 Digital Libraries
6.3 General Works
6.4 Information Integrity and Preservation
6.5 Related Electronic Resources
7 New Publishing Models
8 Publisher Issues
8.1 Related Electronic Resources
Appendix A. Related Bibliographies
Appendix B. About the Author

*******

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 10:35:46 CST)

Version 2 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
is now available.

HTML: <URL:http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html>
Word: <URL:http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.doc>

The HTML distribution is designed for interactive use. Each
major section is a separate HTML file. There are live links to
sources available on the Internet. It is searchable.

The Word for Windows 95 distribution is designed for
printing. It has the same file format as Word 6.0
for Windows. It is over 140 KB. It includes URLs.
(An Acrobat distribution will be considered when the next
version of this program is released.)

**************************************************************************************
4. Electronic Government Information-UK and Europe

(posted: <Sue.Little@lib.monash.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 14:14:30 GMT+1000
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 1996 20:23:46 +0000
From: Ian Simmins <isimmins@eclipse.co.uk>)

The UK Government has published a Green Paper (consultation document),
"Government Direct: A prospectus for the Electronic Delivery of Government
Services".

Its online at:

http://www.open.gov.uk/citu/gdirect/ind1.htm

or on paper at GBP6.85 from HMSO

Mail: PO Box 276, London SW8 5DT
Phone: 0171 873 9090
Fax: 0171 873 8200

or on CD-ROM at GBP4.25 (including VAT) from CCTA

CCTA Library,
Rosebery Court,
St Andrews Business Park,
Norwich NR7 OHS

Phone 01603 704543

Information relating to Telework, Teletrade and Telecooperation can be
found at the website of European Telework Online:

http://www.eto.org.uk

Ian Simmins
European Telework Online
eto-info@eto.org.uk

*************************************************************************************

5. Government of Canada GILS Pilot Project

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 10:13:00 -0800)

Canadian GILS Pilot Project

<URL:http://gils.gc.ca >

The Government of Canada announces the
launch of a Canadian Government Information
Locator Service (GILS) Pilot Project.

Governments are increasingly recognizing the value of
metadata to improve access to government information
on the Internet, to help users gain access to information
resources which are not available on-line and to support
management of growing collections of electronic information.
The interdepartmental GILS Subgroup of the Canadian federal
government has assessed the Government Information Locator
Service and is proposing it as the standard for common content
and structure for the description of government information resources.

The Treasury Board Secretariat and the GILS Subgroup are
coordinating a GILS Pilot Project within the Canadian federal
government to determine if the GILS record is sufficient to
describe and provide access to government information
resources; to evaluate the Government Telecommunications
and Informatics Service's GILS record creation tool and central
GILS record repository; and to help departments and agencies
identify requirements for creating, maintaining and updating
GILS records. The Pilot Project began on November 1, 1996.

Please visit the Canadian GILS Pilot Project site at:

<URL:http://gils.gc.ca>

and send us your comments.

Nancy Brodie and Fay Turner
National Library of Canada

************************************************************
Nancy Brodie Phone: (613) 947-5887
Information Resource Management Fax: (613) 996-3573
National Library of Canada Internet:
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N4 Nancy.Brodie@nlc-bnc.ca
**************************************************************************************
6. Two new CIRCIT Policy Rearch Papers

(posted: <owner-link@charlotte.anu.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 96 10:28:32 EST)

**The Use of Information and Communication Technologies in the Home**
Policy Research Paper No. 40

by Dr Supriya Singh, Amanda Bow & Karen Wale

Dr Supriya Singh, together with Amanda Bow and Karen Wale, have conducted a
major study which reframes the study of information and communication
technologies and offers important insights to the providers of information
and communication technologies (ICTs) and services. The Policy Research
Paper highlights that:

-'Diversity of use' rather than centralisation characterises the use of ICS
in the home

-The user pattern is for a 'mix and match' of services and technologies
rather than convergence. The quality of this mix is influenced by cultural
meaning, user needs and information flow requirements

-People locate ICTs in specific spaces of the home, so that there is a 'fit'
between the cultural meaning of the space and the ICT

-The main reason for buying ICTs and services is the work and/or study needs
of persons in the home. This is followed by the security/connection needs of
dependants. Control of information is important, particularly for purchasing
online transaction services

-Those who use the Internet for email and information are most enthusiastic
about the future. Teenagers who spoke of the future see the increased role
of ICTs as inevitable, but they are also the ones who are most pessimistic
about its repercussions

Price: $35

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

**The Use of Electronic Money in the Home**
Policy Research Paper No. 41

by Dr Supriya Singh, Senior Research Fellow, CIRCIT

Dr Supriya Singh recently completed research on the Use of Electronic Money
in the Home that reframes the study of electronic money and policy for
electronic commerce. She shows that an understanding of the social and
cultural meanings of money from the users' perspective is essential for a
successful transformation of the payments system.

The paper presents these research findings showing how:

-Users 'mix and match' forms of money in increasingly diverse ways. They use
different forms of money to make different kinds of payments. Hence, the
policy and planning emphasis has to shift from convergence and substitution
to providing for greater diversity;

-The information yielded by 'forms of money' (eg. cheque, credit card, cash)
needs to match information required for the various payments. This
information differs in its timeliness, range, record and context;

-Given a stable and secure payments environment, when there are physical,
personal and/or familiar aspects to a form of money, it is more likely to be
trusted; and

-Electronic money makes access to, and information about money more readily
available and changes the way money is managed and controlled at home.

Price: $35

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

To purchase copies please contact Rachel Abrahams,
Centre for International Research on Communication and Information Technologies
Rachel Abrahams, Manager, Administration
CIRCIT, 14/300 Flinders St
Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
phone: + 61 3 9248-1178 fax: + 61 3 9248 1170
email: rabrahams@circit.vut.edu.au url: http://teloz.latrobe.edu.au/circit/

**************************************************************************************
7. Telematics for Libraries

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
X400-Originator: Ian.PIGOTT@LUX.DG13.cec.be
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 1996 10:00:38 +0100)

The European Commission is to publish a call for proposals on Telematics for Libraries on 17 December 1996. The call will remain open until 15 April 1997. Details of the recommended call topics are given at:
www.echo.lu/libraries/en/ct96.html.
An information day for those intending to make proposals or join partnerships is to be held in Luxembourg on 9 January 1997. Details and registration forms are available at:
www.echo.lu/libraries/en/ct96info.html.
Ian Pigott

**************************************************************************************
8. Distributed digital Library in Germany

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Approved-By: LOSSAU <lossau@MAIL.SUB.UNI-GOETTINGEN.DE>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 14:06:45 GMT-0100)

Dear Colleagues,

with beginning of 1997 the German Research Foundation (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft) wants to promote the access to research
materials via a new funding program, the retrospective digitisation of
library materials. The aim is the establishment of a distributed
digital library in Germany.

At the moment we are in the process of evaluating the state-of-the-art of digitisation technique.

You can find a brief description of the project "Distributed digital
Library" and a 'bookmark-list' as introduction in the subject of
'digital library' on the Homepage of the Niedersaechsische Staats- und
Universitaetsbibliothek Goettingen:

http://www.gwdg.de/~sub/homepage.htm ("Die Bibliothek stellt sich
vor", "Projekte").

If you have some detailed information in the field of digitisation
technique concerning topics like:

1) (Scanning: Bookscanner, graphic file formats (e.g. TIFF and
informations in the TIFF-Header and the 'comment-field'), OCR-Software
to read older books from the 18./19. century;

2) Administration and structuring of digital documents /image files/ with a Document-Management-System /e.g. IBM Digital
Library, Rank Xerox XDOD/DocuWeb/;

3) Metadata /e.g. the import of bibliographic data from the Online-Library-Catalogue into the
Document-Management-System/;

4) Distribution and Access (via Internet, CD-ROM);

5) Long-time Preservation;

please contact me (see under "signature").

Dr. Norbert Lossau
Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Goettingen
Platz der Goettinger Sieben 1
37073 Goettingen
Tel.: +551/39-5217 Fax. +551/39-5222
E-Mail: lossau@mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de

**************************************************************************************
9. The Scout Report

(posted: <helo-l@info.curtin.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:40:18 +0800 (WST))

~~ The Scout Report ~~
November 22, 1996

A Publication of Net Scout
Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin

A Project of the InterNIC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and
newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and
educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome
to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML).
Subscription instructions appear at the bottom of this report.

Your feedback on the format and content of the Scout Report is invited!

Send comments and contributions to scout@internic.net

Visit our web site for a fully linked and searchable HTML version of this
and all previous Scout Reports, and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) versions for
printing and distribution:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/pdf/

Beginning with this issue, contributors to the Scout Report are identified
by initials following each annotation; a staff listing appears at the end.
For more information on the Net Scout team, see our staff page:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/team.html

1. The Brain Atlas and Other Image Resources from Brigham and Women's Hospital
The Brain Atlas [JAVA]
Brain Surface:
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages/papers/umans/brain1.html
Deep Grey Matter:
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages/papers/umans/brain2.html
Ventricles:
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages/papers/umans/brain3.html
Explanatory Paper on Brain Atlas [HTML]
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages/papers/atlas/text.html
SPL Images and Animations [MPG]
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages/images_movies.html

The Surgical Planning Laboratory of the Department of Radiology at Brigham
and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School has made a virtual treasure
chest of visual anatomical information available at its web site.
Highlights of the site are recently released Brain Atlas datasets: complex
java applets that allow users to see parts of a schematic brain and heart.
Users can rotate the images, and either click on parts of the images or on
a listing of anatomical names and have those parts of the images labelled.
A paper on the development of the Brain Atlas is available at the site.
Note that these Brain Atlas datasets are extremely graphically intensive.
For those with less graphical capability, the SPL offers of series of over
60 MPEG movies on topics such as neurosurgery, multiple sclerosis, the
brain, abdominal surgery, flow analysis, and thoracic surgery, among
others. [JS]

2. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html

Charles Bailey's Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, version 2,
has recently been published (11/15/96). The bibliography is intended to
provide an "understanding [of] scholarly electronic publishing efforts on
the Internet and other networks" and includes sections on Economic Issues,
Electronic Books and Texts, Electronic Serials, General Works, Legal
Issues, Library Issues, New Publishing Models, and Publisher Issues. Access
is via a search engine that searches author(s), title, publisher, date of
publication and/or page numbers, or via a table of contents. Links are
provided from the bibliography to those articles that exist in electronic
format. Whether your interest is as an administrator, developer, or simply
for curiosity's sake, this site will help bring you up to speed quickly.
[ATW]
---------

16. Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
Information on Adobe Acrobat 3.0
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/details.html

Adobe has announced the availability of Acrobat Reader 3.0, now no longer a
beta product. Acrobat Reader (discussed in the June 7, 1996 issue of the
Scout Report) contains such features as integrated viewing of .pdf files
from within selected web browsers, page at a time downloading, progressive
anti-aliased rendering of pages, and embedded .pdf within html, among
others. [JS]

17. Apple's MCF format and HotSauce (Formerly Project X)
MCF Format
http://mcf.research.apple.com/
Sites with MCF X format
http://mcf.research.apple.com/hs/sites.html
HotSauce Plugin for Mac and Windows
http://mcf.research.apple.com/hs/download.html

In an effort to help users access the wealth of Web information more
intuitively, Apple Computer has developed a meta content format (MCF) for
Web content. The MCF file contains information about the entire contents of
a Web site. Over 200 sites, including Yahoo, currently support the MCF
format. Apple's HotSauce plug-in allows Mac and Windows users to "fly
through" sites that support the MCF standard. The plug-in provides an
innovative new way to browse sites, but it is just the start of what the
MCF technology is capable of. Apple has plans to further develop the MCF
format so that it can also describe a database's structure and content.
This will allow developers to create tools for searching several disparate
relational databases distributed across the Internet. [PJD]

________________________________________________________
Index of Scout Report selections for November 22, 1996

1. The Brain Atlas and Other Image Resources from Brigham and Women's Hospital
http://splweb.bwh.harvard.edu:8000/pages/papers/atlas/text.html

2. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html

16. Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

17. Apple's MCF format and HotSauce
MCF Format
http://mcf.research.apple.com/
HotSauce Plugin for Mac and Windows
http://mcf.research.apple.com/hs/download.html

_________________________________________________________________________
The Scout Report is brought to you by the Net Scout team:

Susan Calcari, Project Director
Jack Solock, Editor and Internet Librarian
Amy Wells, Internet Librarian
Peter Devries, Internet Tools Specialist
Eric Hazen, Internet Media Specialist

Matthew Livesey, Production Editor

_________________________________________________________________________
For information on subscribing to the Scout Report, send email to:
listserv@internic.net
In the body of the message type:
info scout-report

Or visit our web site and subscribe using a web form:
http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/lwgate/SCOUT-REPORT/
http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/lwgate/SCOUT-REPORT-HTML/

The Scout Report's Web page:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/
http://wwwscout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/
http://rs.internic.net/scout/report/

Adobe Acrobat version of the Scout Report:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/pdf/

FTP:
ftp://rs.internic.net/scout/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~
Copyright Susan Calcari, 1996. Permission is granted to make and
distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright
notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC
provides information about the Internet to the US research and education
community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science
Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this
material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the National
Science Foundation, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.
~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**************************************************************************************
10. The Web version of BL Res. and Innov. Report 10, Information
Behaviour

(posted: From: TOM WILSON <T.D.Wilson@SHEFFIELD.AC.UK> (by way of Andy Exon <andy@biblio.curtin.edu.au>)
Subject:

The Web version of BL Res. and Innov. Report 10, Information
Behaviour: an interdisciplinary perspective, is now available at
the URL:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~is/publications/prelims.html

Modifications are in hand to put the references at the end of each
chapter, as well as at the end of the text.

*******

The BL report on information behaviour at

http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/I-M/is/publications/prelims.html

has been corrected, etc. Colleagues should now find that Diagram 1
is reasonable and that the references load faster, because they are
now on the same pages as the chapters. If anyone has any further
problems with it, please let me know.

***************************************************
Professor Tom Wilson
Head of Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, U.K.
Tel. +44-114-282-5081 Fax. +44-114-278-0300
Email: T.D.Wilson@Sheffield.ac.uk
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/I-M/is/lecturer/tom1.html

**************************************************************************************
11. World list of departments...etc.

(posted: :From: TOM WILSON <T.D.Wilson@SHEFFIELD.AC.UK>
received 13.05, 26/11/96)

Colleagues who refer from time to time to my World List of
Departments and Schools of information studies,...etc will find a
major up-date and expansion going on at:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~is/lecturer/tom2a.html

The first signs of this are in the UK section, which I am
restructuring - you'll find that more courses from more departments
of, e.g., computer science and information systems, are now there. I
plan to extend this generally - given time. Anyone who things their
institution/department/course ought to be on the list, please let me
know.

Links to the list appear around the world - please add it to your
pages. You might also like to take a look at:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~is/lecturer/ircont.html

**************************************************************************************
12. U.S. RESEARCHERS: Major Research Instrumentation Program

(posted: <owner-asis-l@asis.org>
Approved-By: BRUSH@LIS.PITT.EDU
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 12:28:08 -0500)

NSF is announcing the Foundation-wide Major Research Instrumentation (MRI)
program to replace the instrumentation program of the Academic Research
Infrastructure Program.

Like its predecessor, the MRI Program assists in the acquisition or
development of major research instrumentation by U.S. institutions. The
maintenance and technical support associated with these instruments are
also supported. Proposals may be for a single instrument, a large system of
instruments, or multiple instruments that share a common research focus.
Computer systems, clusters of advanced workstations, networks, and other
information infrastructure components necessary for research are
encouraged. The MRI Program complements other NSF instrumentation programs
by supporting projects that are generally too costly for other programs to
support. Awards for instrumentation range from $100,000 to $2 million.
Lesser amounts are considered in proposals from non-Ph.D. granting
institutions or from the social, behavioral and economic science
communities.

The goals of the Major Research Instrumentation Program are to:

* Support the acquisition, through purchase, upgrade, or
development, of major state-of-the-art instrumentation for research and
research training at U.S. institutions;
* Improve access to and increase use of modern research and research
training instrumentation by scientists, engineers, and graduate and
undergraduate students;
* Foster the development of the next generation of instrumentation
for research and research training;
and
* Promote partnerships between academic researchers and private
sector instrument developers.

PROPOSAL DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 20, 1997

***************************************************
FOR MORE INFORMATION, SEE
http://www.nsf.gov/od/osti/mri/mriintro.htm

==================================================================

Barbara Blaustein Internet:
bblauste@nsf.gov
Database and Expert Systems Program Bitnet: bblauste@nsf
National Science Foundation Phone: 703-306-1926
4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1115 Fax: 703-306-0599
Arlington, VA 22230

URL: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iris/DBEShome.html
**************************************************************************************
13. InfoTrends IS Issue 60

(posted: <lis-fid-request@mailbase.ac.uk>
From: cicano@cis.qmced.ac.uk
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 11:44:53 +0100)

Information Society Trends Issue number: 60 - (1.11.96 - 12.11.96)
____________________________________________________
EDITORIAL
____________________________________________________

BT-MCI merger rocks world telecoms order

For the first time in telecoms history, a single operator looks set to have a strong
foothold in two of the world's leading economic regions: Europe and North America.
This would be the result of the decision by BT, the leading UK telecoms operator, to
spend over 16 billion Ecu on buying the second largest US long distance operator, MCI.
So far, leading telecoms operators have relied on global alliances to cover the world's
three main economic regions: Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. This includes BT
and MCI with Concert, Deutsche Telekom, France Tilicom and Sprint with Global
One, and AT&T, Unisource, KDD and Singapore Telecom with Worldpartners.
Alliances have so far mainly been transatlantic, thus reflecting the leadership taken by
the European Union and the USA in the global telecoms liberalisation process.
The BT-MCI venture, which would be called Concert, is a dramatic departure from
this corporate strategy in that it would create an integrated transatlantic telecoms giant.
By buying the 80% stake of MCI it doesn't yet own, BT would create a group with 32
billion Ecu in annual revenue, 183,000 employees and 43 million private and corporate
clients in 72 countries. It would also create strong synergy resulting in important savings.
There is little doubt that the creation of Concert, which would be the world's fourth
largest telecoms operator after Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT), AT&T and
Deutsche Telekom, will pose a serious challenge to other competitors, which could
respond by triggering a further consolidation of the global telecoms industry.
Indeed, a new wave of mergers or stake swaps could be required to acquire the critical
mass as well as the geographic and business coverage needed to compete with Concert.
To avoid the danger of seeing MCI merging with another telecoms company, BT has
already paid a 30% premium for a full merger. But the venture has yet to be cleared by
competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, a process that could take some time.
On the US side, the purchase of more than 25% of a US telecoms group by a foreign
group triggers a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) review to determine
whether the buyer's home telecoms market is sufficiently open. If not, the FCC may block
the deal. It may also do so for US foreign policy or national security reasons.
In Europe, the fact that MCI owns 15% of the US media giant News Corp., which
controls the UK broadcaster BSkyB, could contravene a ban on BT offering
entertainment services until 2001. Even though the stake would be diluted, the UK
telecoms watchdog Oftel could ask BT to sell it.
The merger must also be approved by the European Commission.
_______________________________________________________
EUROPE
_______________________________________________________

Trends: New steps to bring interactive services to consumers have been taken by BT
and CGE. UK telecoms competition is gaining further momentum with the decision by
C&W and three cable operators to join forces. In Spain, the mutation of the audiovisual
landscape is continuing with the decision by Telefonica and Sogecable to drop their joint
cable TV plans and launch rival DSB services. Meanwhile, Alcatel's ADSL technology is
emerging as a cheap alternative for the supply of new interactive services.

MULTIMEDIA SERVICES AND PRODUCTS

The leading UK telecoms operator BT said it would invest 65 million Ecu over four
years to build Europe's largest network of up to 10,000 multimedia touch-screen kiosks,
the Touchpoint terminals, installed in public locations such as shopping centres, hotels
and universities. As a pilot step, 200 kiosks would be installed in London before year
end.
The terminals would aim to bring new interactive services such as flight and cinema
booking and on-line shopping to the general public. Users would have to pay small fees,
but BT's main revenue would come from fees of 5% to 40% on sold goods.

CGV, the cable TV arm of the French water utility CGE, said it would launch in
January 1997 an interactive digital TV experiment involving 1,000 households.
The service offer would range from the digital satellite bouquet of France's
CanaSatelllite and a local TV channel to on-demand multimedia services in the
following domains: news, weather forecast, games, banking, culture and Internet access.

MARKET AND COMPANIES

The UK telecoms group Cable & Wireless (C&W) has agreed to merge its telecoms
subsidiary Mercury with three North American-owned British cable operators into a new
company, Cable & Wireless Communications, in a move to step up pressure on the
leading operator BT in the British residential telecoms market.
The move would be the largest consolidation of the UK cable industry to date. The
merger between Mercury, Bell Cablemedia, Nynex CableComms and Videotron would
give C&W Communications access to six millions British homes.

The Spanish national telecoms operator Telefonica has said it would withdraw from
Cablevision, a Spanish cable TV joint venture set in July 1995 with Sogecable, the
broadcasting unit of the largest Spanish media group, Grupo Prisa.
As a result, Cablevision would be entirely owned by Sogecable. Telefonica and
Sogecable are also getting set to launch rival digital satellite broadcasting (DSB) systems.
Sogecable, which is backed by the French pay-TV group Canal+, would launch in
January 1996 a 20-channel service jointly operated with the Venezuelan and US TV
groups Divtel and DirecTV and based on the Astra satellite system. As for Telefonica, it
would launch DSB in March 1997 based on the Hispasat satellite, which it partly owns.
The two groups are likely to compete with the Mexican and Spanish TV groups
Grupo Televisa and Television Espanola, which also intend to launch DSB in Spain.

According to the Council of Europe's European Audiovisual Observatory, the
audiovisual trade imbalance between the European Union and the USA has deteriorated
by a further 16% between 1994 and 1995, reaching 4.9 billion Ecu from 4.2 billion Ecu.
Since 1990, the deficit has doubled from 3.2 billion to 6.3 billion. The figures cover
movies, TV series and video tapes. This trend is linked to massive purchase by European
broadcasters of US programmes in view of the launch of digital satellite TV channels.

TECHNOLOGY

The Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology developed by the
French telecoms group Alcatel is gaining momentum with the decision by the Austrian
national telecoms operator (OPT) and four US regional telecoms operators to use it.
OPT and the Joint Procurement Consortium, which comprises the Baby Bells
Ameritech, BellSouth, Pacific Bell and SBC Communications, have signed contracts
with Alcatel for the supply of ADSL equipment to offer interactive multimedia services.
ADSL is a technology that allows for the high-speed transmission of digitised
information over regular twisted copper pair telecoms networks in parallel to analogue
voice telephony. It could become a cheap alternative to optical fibre and switching
technologies such as ATM for the provision of advanced services or fast Internet access.
According to Alcatel, the Baby Bells would equip 1 million lines by the year 2001 at a
price of less than 400 Ecu per line plus 400 to 500 Ecu for the reception equipment.
The leading UK operator BT too is experimenting ASDL with 3,000 subscribers.

_______________________________________________________
NORTH AMERICA
_______________________________________________________

Trends: Consolidation of the US telecoms landscape is gaining momentum with the
Justice Department's green light to the SBC-Pacific Telesis and US West-Continental
Cablevision mergers. At market level, DVDs are now set to take off thanks to the deal
struck between Hollywood studios and electronics manufacturers.

MULTIMEDIA SERVICES AND PRODUCTS

The US business and education publisher McGraw-Hill Companies said it would
launch a Internet service, McGraw-Hill Science Online, to supply electronic journals.
Trials would begin in early 1997 with up to five scientific publications, while full
service is due to begin in the second half of 1997. The move is part of McGraw-Hill's
strategy to rival other science publishers such as the Anglo-Dutch group Reed Elsevier,
which already offers electronic versions of its own publications.

LEGISLATION AND POLICIES

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has blocked plans by the US
leading cable TV operator TCI to launch a 200-channel digital satellite broadcasting
(DSB) in the USA based on Canadian satellites due to a shortage of US orbital slots.
While TCI was hoping to rival DirecTV, the successful DSB service of General
Motors' Hughes Electronics, it said it would settle for a less ambitious service based on
its own satellite to be launched in February, but which only has a 77-channel capacity.

The US Justice Department has cleared two major US telecoms mergers, a $17
billion venture between the regional telecoms operators, or Baby Bells, SBC
Communications and Pacific Telesis, and a $10.8 billion merger between the Baby Bell
US West and the US cable TV operator Continental Cablevision.
While some conditions have been imposed on the US West-Continental merger, the
two mergers have yet to be cleared by the US Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) and state regulators. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is pursuing its review of a
third merger worth $22 billion between the Baby Bells Nynex and Bell Atlantic.

MARKET AND COMPANIES

After months of negotiations, Hollywood studios and world leading electronics
groups have finally sealed a copyright protection accord for Digital Video Discs (DVDs).
Under the provisional agreement, DVD piracy would be prevented by licensing a
technology that will unscramble information stored on DVDs.
Hollywood fears that the possibility to make perfect copies from DVDs could damage
its interests and therefore seeks a high-level protection of copyrights.
In fact, the risk of pirating DVDs is limited in the short term as DVD players won't
have a recording facility for another few years. The copyright issue might arise again in
1997 with the launch of DVD-ROMs, which would allow for computer-based copying.
The launch of DVD players, planned after the summer of 1996, has been seriously
delayed by the negotiations. Matsushita has launched DVD players in Japan this month,
but other manufacturers will only follow suit in the course of 1997.

Competition is heating up in the emerging US market for network computers (NCs),
cheap and easy-to-use computers stripped down of their hard-drive and relying on
network intelligence, with proponents of the new devices as well as companies which
originally played-down their market potential taking steps to enter this new market.
But while NCs were originally foreseen as being of interest to both residential and
corporate users and costing no more than $500, all the machines unveiled so far are
specifically targeted at business users and would cost between $700 and $1000.
This reflect the fact that firms wishing to cut maintenance costs of PCs are the most
promising outlet, while the take-off of the residential market is likely to depend upon the
generalisation of high-speed links needed for the optimal use of network-relying devices.
The computer groups Sun Microsystems has unveiled its JavaStation, a $750 NC
mainly designed for use with its Java network programming language, while Oracle will
launch its own machines in the first semester of 1997. As for IBM, it recently unveiled a
$700 worth NC whose maintenance cost would be half that of a PC over five years.
As for Microsoft and Intel, whose control of the PC software and chip markets are
threatened by NCs, they announced the launch of a NetPC, a simplified and low
maintenance cost PC relying on Windows and Intel chips, priced less than $1,000.

Oracle and Netscape, the world leaders in databases and Internet navigation
software, have sealed an accord to exclusively promote their respective products.
Oracle would integrate Nestcape's Navigator software in its network computers to be
launched in 1997 while Nestcape's commercial applications would integrate Oracle
databases. The partnership also covers the two companies' future products.

Plans by the eighth Hollywood studio, DreamWorks, to build $8 billion worth major
new state-of-the-art studio facilities, the Playa Vista project, in partnership with the
leading US computer groups IBM and Silicon Graphics, are threatened by financial
difficulties encountered by the project developer, Maguire Thomas Partners.
With Playa Vista already one year behind schedule, DreamWorks is now looking at
other options, while IBM and Silicon Graphics are reconsidering their involvement.
DreamWorks was created in 1994 by film director Steven Spielberg, ex-Walt Disney
chief Jeffrey Katzenberg and billionaire David Geffen. In 1995, it received the baking
of the software giant Microsoft and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. IBM was to set up
a digital film library allowing for instant storage and retrieval, while Silicon Graphics
was to create a digital studio for the production of cartoons, movies and TV series.

America OnLine (AOL), the world's leading commercial on-line service with six
million subscribers, has introduced a flat-rate price providing unlimited use for $19.95 a
month in a move to counterattack against rival on-line services such as the Microsoft
Network (MSN) with 1.6 million subscribers as well as Internet access providers.

SOCIAL, SOCIETAL AND CULTURAL

US entertainment software, video game and game stations producers have started
developing new products specifically designed to appeal to girls as sale figures suggest
that close to 90% of customers in this $12.5 billion worth market are boys.
This includes for instance Mattel with its new 'Barbie' software, Walt Disney with
its "Madeline Thinking Games" and Her Interactive with its "Vampire Diaries". The
European electronics giant Philips is following suit with a "Baby Sitters Club" game.

_______________________________________________________
AFRICA AND MIDDLE-EAST
_______________________________________________________

LEGISLATION AND POLICIES

The Israeli government has awarded overseas telecoms licenses to two foreign-led
consortia, the Golden Lines Group and the Barak Group, in a move to break up the
monopoly of the national overseas carrier Bezeq, in which Britain's C&W owns 10%.
Golden Lines comprises the US and Italian operator SBC Communications and
STET, and three Israeli groups, while Barak includes the French, German and US
operators France Tilicom, Deutsche Telekom and Sprint, and two Israeli groups.

___________________________________________________________________________
DG XIII - The content of "Information Society Trends"
does not necessarily reflect the European Commission's views.

Also available electronically: http://www.ispo.cec.be/ispo/press.html

E-mail subscription: Majordomo@www.ispo.cec.be;

enter SUBSCRIBE ISTRENDS + your e-mail address
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Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:13:58 +0100
From: ISPO Administrator <root@www.ispo.cec.be>
Message-Id: <199611251613.RAA08553@www.ispo.cec.be>
To: istrends@www.ispo.cec.be
Subject: InfoTrends IS Trends Issue 60
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**************************************************************************************
14. Text Retrieval Conference (January 1997 - November 1997)

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 12:17:46 -0500)

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
TEXT RETRIEVAL CONFERENCE
January 1997 - November 1997

The Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) workshop series encourages
research in information retrieval from large text applications by
providing a large test collection, uniform scoring procedures,
and a forum for organizations interested in comparing their
results. Now in its sixth year, the conference has become the
major experimental effort in the field. Participants in the
first five TREC conferences have examined a wide variety of
retrieval techniques, including methods using automatic thesauri,
sophisticated term weighting, natural language techniques,
relevance feedback, and advanced pattern matching. You are
invited to submit a proposal for participation in TREC-6.

TREC has two main tasks, ad hoc and routing retrieval. The ad hoc
task investigates the performance of systems that search a static
set of documents using new user need statements ("topics"); the
routing task investigates the performance of systems that use
standing queries to search new streams of documents. In addition,
TREC has smaller "tracks" that allow participants to focus on
particular subproblems of the retrieval task. Participants will
be expected to work with approximately a million documents (2
gigabytes of data), retrieving lists of ranked documents in
response to the topics. NIST will distribute the data and will
collect and analyze the results.

Dissemination of TREC work and results other than in the
(publically available) conference proceedings is welcomed, but
the conditions of participation preclude specific advertising
claims based on TREC results. As before, the WORKSHOP IN
NOVEMBER WILL BE OPEN ONLY TO PARTICIPATING GROUPS THAT SUBMIT
RESULTS and to government sponsors.

The full call for participation including submission details can
be found at the trec home page:

http://potomac.ncsl.nist.gov/trec

All responses should be submitted by Jan. 6, 1997 to Ellen
Voorhees, TREC project leader, at

ellen.voorhees@nist.gov

Any questions about conference participation, response format,
etc. should be sent to the same address.

**************************************************************************************
15 New realese - book and CD-ROM

(posted: At 06:46 PM 20/12/96 +0000, you wrote:
>For: Moderator of LIBRES list.
(snip)
>However I'm not a subscriber of the LIBRES, I hope that the following
>information can be interesting to its participants.
>Please, allow postage of this message to the discussion, if it is in
>coverage of your list.
>
>Sincerely Yours,
>
>Tatiana Moshkovskaya (taniy@aie.msk.su)
>Head of the Library, Association for International Education
>Moscow, Russia)
>

>Dear colleagues,
>
>Let me inform you that the Association for International Education
>(Russia) published the proceedings of the Second International Conference
>on Distance Education in Russia (ICDED'96).
>
>Proceedings were published as a book (ISBN 5-86532-013-0, soft cover,
>2 volumes, 633 pages total, English) so as a CD-ROM. This is the first
>time for ICDED conference, and, as we know, the first time in Russia,
>when conference proceedings are published at CD-ROM.
>The CD-ROM also contains materials of the previous ICDED'94 conference
>and the catalogue of the Trade Fair of the Second UNESCO Congress on
>Education and Informatics (EdIT'96).
>
>Looking for a best way to create the digital interface for such a
>significant amount of educational data, we decided to use Adobe Acrobat
>(PDF) format. Among a variety of possibly equal choices, Adobe Acrobat
>software let us organize the book as hypertext, indexed and searchable
>material.
>
>Digital publishing is still at the experimental stage in Russia.
>We considered publishing the materials of the truly international
>conference, that gathered the experience of academicians from all the
>continents, to be the "must" first step of us.
>
>Please look for more information about the book, CD-ROM and the
>conference at:
>
>http://www.russianstory.com/cdrom/icded96/icded96.htm
>
>or e-mail me. Does digital publishing of such materials have a future?
>We are very much interested in knowing your opinion. Any comments,
>suggestions and reviews are welcome.
>
>Kind regards,
>
>Tatiana Moshkovskaya (taniy@aie.msk.su)
>Head of the Library, Association for International Education.
>Moscow, Russia.
>
>
**************************************************************************************
16 eLib supporting study call: collection description

(posted: <owner-diglib@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA>
X-Sender: lisrr@lamin.bath.ac.uk
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 16:24:26 +0000)

UKOLN invites proposals for a supporting study under the Electronic
Libraries Programme (eLib). Information about eLib is available at:
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/elib/>

This study results from issues raised at the third MODELS workshop in July
1996. Information is available at:
<http://ukoln.ac.uk/models/models3.html>

Apologies for cross-posting. This call has been sent to the following
lists: lis-elib-managers@mailbase.ac.uk, lis-elib@mailbase.ac.uk,
lis-bailer@mailbase.ac.uk,lis-link@mailbase.ac.uk, lis-sconul@mailbase.ac.uk

Collection description study
----------------------------

Information resources exist at different levels of granularity and
aggregation. Library systems typically describe resources at the book
level or at the serial title level.

However, experiences in emerging distributed environments suggest that
descriptions at other levels would be useful. In particular, 'collection
description' has been identified as central.

Such descriptions would facilitate navigation, selection of resources to
search and other operations.

The concept of 'collection' is current in the library, archival, museum
and other sectors. In each, it has particular senses.

A collection description might be based on characteristics of the
collection itself or on characteristics of some representation of the
collection (e.g. a catalogue).

This study will clarify the concept of a collection and explicate current
approaches to their description. It will concentrate on approaches
relevant to the library, museum and archival communities. It will:

* outline the concept of a collection
* examine current descriptive practices and schemes
* compare and contrast approaches in each sector
* examine database representations (e.g. centroids)
* briefly relate the discussion to relevant protocol developments (e.g.
Z39.50 profile for access to digital collections)
* liaise with relevant MODELS 'clump' initiatives
* highlight development and implementation issues and make
recommendations for useful further work.

Funding

The total cost of the study is expected to be under 9,000 pounds,
including VAT if applicable.

Proposals should:

* outline methodologies, timescales and deliverables
* itemise resources required to carry out the study, with costs
* indicate skills and expertise of the applicant.

Evaluation

Proposals will be evaluated by referees; the following criteria will be
used for evaluation purposes:

* demonstration of understanding of the issues (including technical)
* demonstration of ability to carry out the work required by the required
deadline
* proposer's experience and track record in carrying out similar work
* sound methodology
* appropriate use of resources.

Publication

It is intended that the final reports should be printed/published in
conjunction with eLib/JISC. Reports should be delivered in an
appropriate electronic format, to be agreed with UKOLN. Proposers should
be prepared to assign publication rights (including electronic) for the
study to JISC, or its nominee.

Timescale

Proposals should be submitted by midday on Thursday 27 March 1997. Four
hard copies of the proposal are required and should be sent to Rosemary
Russell at UKOLN at the address below. The successful applicant will be
notified by 11 April.

The final report will be required no later than Monday 30 June 1997.

Contact

Queries should be directed to Rosemary Russell at UKOLN.

------------------------------------------------------------
Rosemary Russell, UKOLN (UK Office for Library & Information
Networking), University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1225 826547; Fax: +44 (0)1225 826838
<URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/~lisrr/>
**************************************************************************************
17 National Library of Australia (NLA) SCOAP Guidelines

(paper copy of email message held by kerry@biblio.curtin.edu.au)

At the beginning of 1996, as one of its strategies to manage Australian online publications, the NLA established a Selection Committee on Online Australian Publications (SCOAP). Guidelines are now available at:

http://www.nla.gov.au/1/scoap/scoapgui.html

They welcome comment and discussion.

Contact: Margaret Phillips, Manager, Australian Electronic Unit, NLA
mphillips@nla.gov.au

**************************************************************************************

END

___________________________________________________

This document may be circulated freely
with the following statement included in its entirety:

This article was originally published in
_LIBRES: Library and Information Science
Electronic Journal_ (ISSN 1058-6768)
March 1997 Issue 1

For any commercial use, or publication
(including electronic journals), you must obtain
the permission of the Editor-In-Chief:
Kerry Smith
Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia
E-mail: kerry@biblio.curtin.edu.au

To subscribe to LIBRES send e-mail message to
listproc@info.curtin.edu.au
with the text:
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