NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS SECTION
**************************
1. THE INFORMATION SOCIETY:Opportunities, Innovations and Challenges - Asserssment and Recommendations.
Council for Research, Technology and Innovation (Germany), December 1995
http://www.kp.dir.de/BMBF/rat/feststellungen/initiative/index_e.html
(posted Australian list 14 July 1996)
2. Library Agents(sm):
Library Applications of Intelligent Software Agents
For a planned review and clearinghouse, I am interested
in libraries and other information centers and services that
have applied intelligent software agents for library services.
While I am specifically interested in reference applications,
other types of library operations and services are also of
interest, including acquisitions, cataloging, or collection
development.
While I am particularly interested in Assistant Agents and
Information Integration Agents, Coordinated Agents and Mobile
Agents are also of interest.
For background information on Agents, users may wish to
review the _Intelligent Software Agents_ site maintained by
Sverker Janson at URL http://www.sics.se/isl/abc/survey.html ,
or review the key works or projects I've incorporated with
Project Aristotle(sm), my clearinghouse of projects, research,
products and services devoted to 'automated categorization'
of Web resources at URL:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Aristotle.htm
As sites and projects are identified, I will incorporate
these within a new site at:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Agents.htm
Regards,
Gerry McKiernan
Curator, CyberStacks(sm)
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011
gerrymck@iastate.edu
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/
"There are No Answers, Only Solutions"
(posted: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 10:45:08 -0500)
3. As you might know the European Commission have just published a Green
Paper entitled:
"Living and Working in the Information Society: People First"
You can find this paper at the following url:
http://www.ispo.cec.be/infosoc/legreg/docs/peopl1st.html
You might like to read our comments and suggestions in relation to the
Green Paper published on the "connected" web pages entitled:
"People First or Technology and Economy First?"
You can find this document at the following url:
http://www.access.ch/e-news/is/peopleFirst.html
As always at "connected" we are interested to have your reactions and
comments.
All the best. Alan.
PS If you still do not have access to the Web send us a message to
receive a copy of the comments by mail.
--
e-news presents:
* * * connected * * *
... news and views from the connected world ...
* the Information Society
* the re-connected individual
* Teleworking
* Learning
* Media
* Rights and Responsabilities
on http://www.access.ch/e-news
Alan McCluskey amccluskey@access.ch
phone: 41.38.63 03 44 fax: 41.38.63 03 48
New numbers from 9th November 1996
phone: 41.32.763 03 44 fax: 41.32.763 03 48
(posted: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 18:31:37 -0700)
4. Subject: House of Lords Report on the InfoSoc
HoL report on the Information Society
in the UKThe full report is quite a good overview of
online regulation and policy issues, so check it out if you get the
chance:
http://www.hmsoinfo.gov.uk/hmso/document/inforsoc/inforsoc.htm
(posted: Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 18:31:37 -0700
5. Subject: Hybrid Query Processor Beta Test Invitation
For anyone interested in testing text retrieval software:
The consortium is a collaboration between several software companies
prominent in text retrieval and the University of Waterloo. You can
learn more about the background on this project and the partners by
visiting the same website listed below, or contacting the person
named at the end of this message.
[cross posted on ASIS-L and FID listservers.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Canadian Strategic Software Consortium (CSSC) is pleased to
announce that the first of its three planned Hybrid Query Processor
(HQP) Demonstration Software Pilots is now available for public
viewing.
The Pilot site can be reached by using a WWW browser (preferably
Netscape 1.1 or greater) to reach http://www.cssc.ca. Once you are
there, choose the Beta Test Sites icon and then the UofW Pilot.
As you are aware the CSSC project is attempting to create software
technology that will permit the extension of database management
technology to text-intensive data; produce working prototypes that
are based on these new technologies; apply the working technology to
several large-scale real-world problems; and present the research and
the technology in forums that are appropriate to the establishment of
technical standards.
Please, take our demonstration software for a test drive and tell
your colleagues about it as well.
Dave Dawson
-------------------------------------------------
David Dawson E-mail: ddawson@cssc.ca
Project Manager Ph.#: 613-238-8197
Canadian Strategic Software Consortium Fax#: 613-238-3770
785 Carling Avenue URL: http://www.cssc.ca
Ste. 900
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 5H4
(Posting-date: Thu, 05 Sep 1996 17:41:56 +0000 (GMT)
6. Subject: Updates on the FID Knowledge Forum
Dear LIS-FID readers,
As a regular service to the readers of LIS-FID we shall be giving regular
updates on what has changed on the FID Knowledge Forum and Website. We
hope that this will be a useful service to you.
Updates in September:
*FID Store - http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000/store1.htm
FID News Bulletin - http://fid.conicyt.cl/bulgen.htm
International forum on Information and Documentation -
http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000/ifidgen.htm
* FID/BFI Homepage - http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000/bfi.htm
* FID Programmes, Committees and SIGs -
http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000/cttees1.htm
* FID/ARM Homepage: Internet Resources -
http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000/armint.htm
ENJOY YOUR VISITS!
FID General Secretariat
(posted september 1996)
--
===================================================
Ben G. Goedegebuure
Executive Director
International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID)
P.O. Box 90402
2509 LK THE HAGUE
Netherlands
Tel.: +31 70 3140671
Fax.: +31 70 3140667
ben.goedegebuure@fid.nl; TEMPORARY PREFERRED E-MAIL ADDRESS:
fid@python.konbib.nl
FID WEBSITE: http://fid.conicyt.cl:8000
FID CONGRESS WEBSITE:: http://ima023.joanneum.ac.at/fid
=======================================================
7. ICSU Electronic Publishing in Science - Feb. Conference
Dear Colleagues,
The Proceedings of our February Conference on Electronic
Publishing in Science are now available on the World-wide Web.
There were 150 experts invited to the February Conference,
whose support of the Recommendations gives them considerable
weight amongst the international community of scientists.
However, the opportunity now presents itself to follow up with an
on-line conference by offering the proceedings on the network
with provision for questions and comments to speakers and
chairmen of the working groups. Please make use of this
opportunity before the ICSU General Assembly meeting to discuss
the follow-up action to be initiated by ICSU, ICSU Press and
UNESCO. Your comments and suggestions will be summarized during
that meeting.
Besides the version on the ICSU Home Pages at :
http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/icsu/ , Dr. Ivan Klimes, Executive
Vice-President of Thomson Science and Professional has generously
provided an interactive mirror site for us using the Thomson
network. This site provides an online threaded discussion service
which allows you to browse, post or respond to previous comments
via the World Wide Web. The method of access is as follows:-
Open the URL:- http://www.thomson.com:8866/icsu/
which gives the ICSU Home Pages banner for the Thomson mirror
site. (Please note: This site has been designed for use with
Netscape 2.0 browser software which is available from the URL:-
http://home.netscape.com)
Click on the yellow arrowhead to give you the Navigation index,
then on "Information - Meetings" to give you the Conference
title:- "ICSU Press - UNESCO Expert Conference on Electronic
Publishing in Science".
Thence you can access the contents or, by clicking on "Post or
read a comment on a paper" (immediately under the conference
date) you will be given access to the Comment Manager discussion
service. Anything posted as a comment is in the public domain.
Therefore, if you wish to comment on the working of the system,
or report an error, please address it by e-mail to;
epd@rapidcom.co.uk instead of using the Comment Manager. Your
request will then be dealt with privately by the system manager.
Please let me know if you need assistance to interact with the
system, or ask for help from epd@rapidcom.co.uk. There is a Help
button which should resolve most problems.
The hardcopy edition of the Proceedings is now with the printer
and it is expected that bound copies will be ready for despatch
from Paris on about 10 September. Kai-Inge Hillerud, Roger
Elliott, Howard Moore and I will report on the Conference
Recommendations to the ICSU General Assembly in Washington on 27
September. We have proposals for action which we hope the
General Assembly participants will accept.
Kind regards, Yours sincerely, Dennis Shaw
(reposted: Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 15:08:05 +0800 (WST)
8. RESEARCH GRANT AWARDS - 1997
The Association for Library and Information Science
Education (ALISE) is now accepting proposals for its
1997 Research Grant Program. An Award of one or more
grants totaling $2,500 can be made to support research
broadly related to education for library and
information science. Please note that the Research
Grant award cannot be used to support a doctoral
dissertation. Applicants for Research Grants must be
personal members of ALISE as of deadline date October
1, 1996.
Proposals should be succinct and precise; no more than
20 double-spaced, typed pages. If necessary,
supporting information may be included in an appendix.
Proposals must include the following information to be
considered in the competition:
A. Abstract of the project (not greater than 200
words).
B. Problem Statement and Literature Review
(including justification and need for the
research).
C. Project objectives.
D. Project description.
E. Research design, methodology, and analysis
techniques.
F. Detailed budget (including institutions or
departmental contributions if any).
G. Expected benefits and impact from the research.
H. Vita of project investigators.
The proposals will be evaluated by the ALISE Research
Committee and other appropriate and knowledgeable ALISE
members as needed. They will be judged on:
A. Appropriateness of the proposed project to
issues in library/information science education
in its broadest context.
B. Significance of the problem.
C. Appropriateness of the proposed method to the
problem.
D. The investigator's qualifications: how likely
she/he is to be successful, based on previous
work and/or possession of the requisite skills.
E. The reasonableness of the schedule, that is, the
likelihood that the work will be accomplished on
time.
Recipients of the Award must:
A. Present a preliminary report at the 1997 ALISE
Annual Conference.
B. Submit written quarterly reports to the
Executive Director of ALISE, who will pay the
grant in periodic installments as the research
progresses.
C. Submit the results of the funded study to the
Association's Journal for possible publication
prior to submission to other publications; that
is, the Journal will have first option on
publication.
D. Acknowledge the support of ALISE in any
publicity or presentation based on the funded
study.
E. Inform the Executive Director if they receive
funding, in addition to that provided by ALISE.
Seven (7) copies of the proposal, postmarked no later
than 1 October 1996, should be sent to:
Dr. Robert V. Williams
Chair, ALISE Research Committee
College of Library and Information Science
University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C. 29208.
****************************************
RESEARCH PAPER COMPETITION - 1997
The Association for Library and Information Science
Education (ALISE) is now accepting proposals for its
1997 Research Paper competition. This award has been
inaugurated to further stimulate the communication of
research at ALISE annual meetings. Research papers
concerning any aspect of librarianship or information
science are eligible; particularly, this competition is
not limited to research regarding education for
librarianship and information studies. Any research
mode is acceptable. Up to two winning papers may be
selected; an honorarium of $500 will be awarded to the
author(s) of each paper. In cases of joint authorship,
one honorarium will be awarded for the paper.
Applicants must be personal members of ALISE as of the
deadline date of October 1, 1996.
Only one research paper per entrant will be considered;
multiple entries by the same author will not be
accepted. The same author may submit for both the
Research Grant Award and the Research Papers
Competition; however, the same work cannot be submitted
for both categories. Research papers prepared by joint
investigators are eligible for entry; at least one
author must be a member of ALISE.
A. All research papers submitted must represent
completed research not previously published.
The manuscript may be submitted and in process
for publication.
B. Papers must not exceed 50 double-spaced pages
and should include an abstract of not more than
200 words.
C. Research papers completed in the pursuit of
master's and doctoral studies (e.g.) theses,
seminar papers, and dissertations) are not
eligible for entry. Research utilizing data
gathered by a master's or doctoral student is
eligible unless the research report is taken
directly from a paper submitted for degree
requirements. Papers which are spinoffs of such
research are eligible for entry.
D. Papers generated as a result of a research grant
or other source of funding are eligible for the
competition.
The papers will be judged by the Research Committee and
additional ALISE members in those cases where the
research topic or methodology warrants. All reviewing
is "blind;" therefore, the paper should include a title
page with author(s) name(s) followed by a title page
without author(s) names(s) so that the first page can
be removed prior to formal review. Research papers
will be judged on the following criteria:
A. Significance of the research problem.
B. Application of the appropriate research methods.
C. Clarity and organization of the presentation.
The committee reserves the right to select no winning
paper if in its judgement none of the papers is
considered satisfactory. The winners of the awards
will be expected to present the papers at the 1997
ALISE annual meeting.
Seven (7) copies of the research papers and an abstract
of no more than 200 words, postmarked no later than
October 1, 1996, should be sent to:
Dr. Robert V. Williams
Chair, ALISE Research Committee
College of Library and Information Science
University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C. 29208
***********************************
METHODOLOGY PAPER COMPETITION - 1997
The Association for Library and Information Science
Education (ALISE) is now accepting proposals for its
1997 Methodology Paper Competition. This award has
been created to stimulate the communication of research
methodology at ALISE annual meetings.
The competition is open to all types of methodology.
Papers may address a methodology, related issues,
and/or a particular technique. This includes but is
not limited to explaining topics in such general areas
as sampling, grounded theory, historical methods,
statistical methods, etc. It is expected that papers
will explain a particular method and will provide
appropriate examples in the use of that method. The
examples can come from published studies, proposed
studies, and work in progress. It is preferable that
some emphasis be given to applying the methods or
techniques to examples in library and information
science.
One winning paper will be selected; an honorarium of
$250 will be awarded to the author(s). In cases of
joint authorship, one honorarium will be awarded for
the paper. Applicants must be personal members of
ALISE as of the deadline date of 1 October 1996.
Only one methodology paper per entrant will be
considered; multiple entries from the same author will
not be accepted. The same author may submit for other
ALISE competitions; however, the same work cannot be
submitted for more than one category. Methodology
papers prepared by joint authors are eligible for
entry; at least one author must be a member of ALISE.
Papers submitted to this competition can originate from
a variety of different sources and applicants are
encouraged to develop such papers from their research.
Methodology papers completed in pursuit of master's and
doctoral studies (e.g. thesis, seminar
paper,dissertation, course work paper) are eligible, as
are papers generated as a result of a research grant or
other source of funding.
Papers must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages and
should include an abstract of not more than 200 words.
The papers will be judged by the Research Committee and
additional ALISE members in those cases where the
methodology warrants. All reviewing is "blind;"
therefore, the paper should include a title page with
author(s) name(s) and the name of the competition for
which the paper is being submitted, followed by a title
page without author(s) name(s) so that the first page
can be removed prior to formal review. Methodology
papers will be judged on the following criteria:
A. Description of the methodology or technique.
B. Relevance of the methodology or technique to
library and information science.
C. Examples of actual or potential applications to
library and information science research or
studies in related fields.
D. Clarity and organization of the presentation.
The committee reserves the right to select no winning
paper if in its judgment none of the papers is
considered satisfactory.
The winners of the awards will be expected to present
the papers at the 1997 ALISE annual meeting.
Seven (7) typewritten copies of your research paper,
including an abstract of no more than 200 words,
postmarked no later than October 1, 1996 to the Chair,
Methodology Paper Competition, ALISE Research
Committee:
Dr. Robert V. Williams
College of Library and Information Science
University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C. 29208.
***********************************
DOCTORAL STUDENTS' DISSERTATION COMPETITION - 1997
ALISE DOCTORAL FORUM
The Association for Library and Information science
Education (ALISE) is now accepting proposals for its
1996 Doctoral students' Dissertation Competition. The
ALISE Doctoral forum provides an opportunity for the
exchange of research ideas between doctoral students
who have recently graduated and established researchers
in the field of education for library and information
science. Up to two outstanding dissertations completed
between January 1996 and December 1996 will be
selected. As an honorarium, winners will receive $400
to defray travel expenses, plus 1997 conference
registration and personal membership in ALISE for
1996/97.
Doctoral students who have recently graduated in any
field of study or are about to finish their
dissertations are invited to submit papers summarizing
their dissertation research in areas dealing with
substantive issues in library and information science.
A. The dissertation should be summarized in a paper
of no more than 25 double-spaced, typed pages.
B. As evidence that the dissertation has been
completed, either:
1. The summary accompanied by a letter from
the author's dissertation chairperson
stating that the dissertation is completed
or is expected to be completed by December
31, 1996; or
2. A copy of the signed title page of the
dissertation can be submitted.
The dissertation summaries will be judged by the
Research Committee and additional ALISE members in
those cases where the research topic or methodology
warrants. All reviewing is "blind;" therefore the
paper should include a title page with the author's
name followed by a title page without the author's name
so that the first page can be removed prior to formal
review. Summaries will be judged according to the
following criteria:
A. Significance of the research problem.
B. Application of the appropriate research methods.
C. Clarity and organization of the presentation.
Winners of the Dissertation Competition will present
their papers at the 1997 ALISE Annual Conference.
Seven (7) copies of the summary, plus an abstract of no
more than 200 words, and evidence of completion, should
be submitted by October 1, 1996, to:
Dr. Robert V. Williams
Chair, ALISE Research Committee
College of Library and Information Science
University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C. 29208
9. Subject: Proceedings SIGIR'96 - Workshop Networked IR
Following the SIGIR'96 Conference in Zurich, a Workshop on Networked
Information Retrieval took place on August 22, 1996. The electronic
proceedings of this workshop are now available at
http://ciir.cs.umass.edu/nir96/
Below, I have included the summary by Jamie Callan.
Norbert Fuhr
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SIGIR-96 Workshop on Networked Information Retrieval
August 22, 1996
Overview
The recent and rapid growth of the Internet and corporate intranets poses
new problems for Information Retrieval. There is now a need for tools that
help people navigate the network, select which collections to search, and
fuse the results returned from searching multiple collections. These
problems are being addressed by the international IR research community, a
number of digital library projects around the world, e.g., the U.S. Digital
Libraries projects, the ERCIM Digital Libraries projects, and the German
MEDOC project. The goal of this workshop was to bring together people from
each of these areas to discuss their varying approaches to common problems.
Researchers were invited to submit position papers or extended abstracts
discussing novel approaches to the following problems:
* Resource selection: selecting from among a set of collections or
databases;
* Data fusion: merging or fusing results from different collections or
databases;
* Archival retrieval methods for heterogeneous objects;
* Metaknowledge;
* Consistency;
* Multilingual environments;
* User interfaces; and
* Architectures for networked information retrieval.
Twelve papers/abstracts were submitted in response to the call for
participation. The program committee selected eight of them for talks in the
workshop. Fifty one people registered to attend the workshop.
Talks
Paul Francis, of NTT Japan, gave a talk entitled "A Global, Self-Configuring
Information Discovery Infrastructure" . His talk described the Ingrid
project, in which a document publisher "announces" the availability of a
document to web servers that it knows contain similar documents. A server
receiving the announcement may choose to create links from similar documents
of its own to the new document. Over time, documents on a given subject
become linked to other documents on that subject, making it easier for
people to browse the Web.
Marc Rittberger, of University of Konstanz, Germany, gave a talk entitled
"Information Retrieval in a Regional, Distributed Information Area" . The
talk described the Electronic Mall Bodensee, which is a set of Web pages
describing shopping, tourist attractions and other commercial activities in
the Lake Konstanz area of Europe. The Electronic Mall provides searching
capabilities, but the organization and display of results is based on an
on-the-fly analysis of hypertext links in retrieved pages. The intent is to
better orient the user within this electronic shopping space.
Charles Nicolas, of the University of Maryland, USA, gave a talk about
"Resource Selection in CAFE: An Architecture for Networked Information
Retrieval" . CAFE is a large-scale information retrieval and filtering
system, intended to handle more than a terabyte of data per day, in multiple
languages. It is based on a set of processes that perform filtering and/or
retrieval, and a broker process that directs arriving queries and/or
documents to the appropriate agent. The architecture has been demonstrated
on a small-scale. It is now being scaled to large volumes of data.
Daan Velthausz, of the Telematics Research Centre, Netherlands, gave a talk
on "Multimedia Information Disclosure in a Distributed Environment" . The
talk described the ADMIRE project, which is intended to provide resource
selection in a multimedia environment. ADMIRE will handle both content-based
and attribute-based retrieval. The architecture enables a hierarchical
organization of attributes and content, which raises a number of difficult
questions about how to combine evidence for retrieval.
Norbert Fuhr, of the University of Dortmund, Germany, gave a talk about
"Optimum Database Selection in Networked IR" . The talk described a
decision-theoretic model of networked information retrieval that is based on
a probabilistic model. The model uses a location broker to direct queries to
the appropriate text database and to merge (fuse) the results returned from
different databases. It can be shown that the model minimizes search costs.
However, the model requires information that is rarely available in
practice. The research challenge is to develop an approximation that behaves
similarly with less information.
Kai Grossjohann, of the University of Dortmund, Germany, gave a talk
entitled "MeDoc Information Broker - Harnessing the Information in
Literature and Full Text Databases". The MeDoc Information Broker must
identify which text databases to search for a given query, transform and
normalize schemata, and merge results returned from each database. The
architecture includes multiple layers, for agents, clients, brokers, and
providers. A first prototype of the system supporting WAIS and Z39.50
protocols will be available the Fall of 1996.
J. Sairamesh, of ICS-Forth, Greece, gave a galk about "Architectures for QoS
Based Retrieval in Digital Libraries". The talk described Samos, a networked
European Computer Science technical report library. The project focus is on
the architectural, resource allocation, and quality of service requirements
in a large, scalable, decentralized Digital Library.
Martin Doerr, of ICS-Forth, Greece, gave a talk entitled "Authority Services
in Global Information Spaces - A Requirements Analysis and Feasability
Study". This talk argued that as the information available becomes more
heterogeneous, there is an increasing need for standard languages and access
mechanisms. Thesauri can serve that purpose initially, but the goal is to
evolve towards knowledge-bases that provide a relatively controlled, but
always growing, vocabulary for indexing and retrieval.
Discussion
The presentations were followed by a general discussion of the major
problems concerning networked information retrieval.
Future Workshops
Finally, the participants were polled on when it would be appropriate to
have another workshop on networked information retrieval. There was strong
agreement that another workshop should be held in conjunction with SIGIR-97,
in Philadelphia, PA, in the USA.
////////
Prof. Dr. Norbert Fuhr UU NN II DD/OO/// voice: (+49) 231/755-2045,
UU NN II /DD/OO// -2779
Lehrstuhl Informatik VI ________ //////// fax: (+49) 231/755-2405
Universitaet Dortmund \_\X\_\_\///////
D-44221 Dortmund \_\_\_\_\///// mail:
fuhr@ls6.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
Germany \_\_\_\_\///
\_\_\_\_\/ http://ls6.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
(posted: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:36:00 -0700)
10. Australia: Third draft: "Architecture for access to government information"
prepared by the Information Management Steering Committee - Technical Group is available at
http://www.adfa.oz.au/DOD/imsc/imsctg/imsctg1a.htm
The report includes recommendations on how government information can be made visibile on the Internet in a consistent and standard way.
(posted 4 July 1996)
This article was originally published in
_LIBRES: Library and Information Science
Electronic Journal_ (ISSN 1058-6768) September 1996
Volume 6 Issue 3
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: mailto:kerry@biblio.curtin.edu.au
To subscribe to LIBRES send e-mail message to
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