New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2002), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 19 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2002.23919gab.001

New & Noteworthy

Internet Public Library

Appoints new director

The University of Michigan (USA) School of Information has appointed Sue Davidsen director of its Internet Public Library (IPL). Davidsen has extensive experience in librarianship on the Internet. For eight years she was director of the Michigan Electronic Library, the state's free online library service. Her virtual library design continues to be used as a model today throughout the world. She replaces David S. Carter, who has helped develop the IPL for the past seven years. He will remain at the University of Michigan as an associate librarian at the Media Union.

The Internet Public Library began as a course project at the School in 1995. The library has since developed into a unique learning laboratory staffed by professional librarians, students, and volunteers that attracts more than 1.5 million visitors a month from around the world.

Internet Public Library – http://www.ipl.org

ARL

Releases preservation statistics

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has announced the availability of the ARL Preservation Statistics 1998-1999, a compilation of data on levels of preservation efforts in 114 ARL libraries throughout North America.

Highlights from the report show that the fluctuation of preservation expenditures and staffing that ARL libraries have experienced over the past decade continued in 1998-1999. Expenditures for ARL libraries were $82,642,548 in 1998-1999, reflecting a 35 percent increase from 1997-1998, but only a 2 percent increase over expenditures reported in 1996-1997. Total preservation staff decreased to approximately 1,766 FTEs in 1998-1999, only the second time since 1991 that preservation departments reported fewer than 1,800 FTEs. After three consecutive years of decline, microfilming activity more than doubled from 1997-1998.

This publication provides much more detailed information about preservation expenditures (including external funds), conservation treatment and preservation reformatting, administration of preservation programs, and staffing patterns. The ARL preservation statistics data tables and text for 1993-1999 are available electronically.

ARL – http://www.arl.org/stats/pres

Derwent

To merge with Wila

Derwent Information and Wila Verlag GmbH are to combine to create a new force in intellectual property information. Wila Verlag GmbH, which is now part of The Thomson Corporation. Wila Verlag GmbH, Germany, supplies information services supporting the management of intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks and industrial designs), while Derwent Information provides patent and scientific information.

The merger is expected to add significant value for the customers of both companies. Many customers in Germany already work with both companies and the merger will create a fully integrated information solution – delivering value-added content and sophisticated tools directly to the company-wide desktop. The Wila expertise will be enhanced by Derwent's global outreach. Derwent's value-added information will benefit from Wila's technology know-how and complementary content.

Derwent Information – http://ww.derwent.com

National Manuscripts Conservation Trust

Offers grants for manuscript conservation

Following restructuring at the British Library the administration of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust will now be undertaken by the British Library Co-operation and Partnership Programme on behalf of the Trustees.

The National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT) was set up in 1990 by the British Library and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, with funding from the then Office of Arts and Libraries (now DCMS) and from private benefactors, to provide financial assistance to owners and custodians in the United Kingdom in preserving the nation's written heritage. Between 1999 and April 2002 the awards were administered by the National Preservation Office (NPO).

Papyri, parchment rolls, bound volumes, paper files, maps, plans and letters, and many other types of manuscripts and archives in a variety of formats can be preserved with the assistance of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. The Trust offers grants for 50 percent of the conservation costs of small to medium-sized projects (the minimum project cost is £1,000 and the largest recent grant has been £33,000). To date the trust has awarded grants of almost £1,250,000 towards the conservation of manuscript material held in repositories all around the UK.

For full details of how to apply, the types of award that can be made, and information regarding current projects see http://www.bl.uk/concord/nmct-about.html. The next closing date for applications to NMCT is 1 October 2002.

NISO

To survey serials community

NISO, the National Information Standards Organization, has been asked to undertake the development of a national standard to facilitate the exchange of serials subscription information. In evaluating this suggestion the Standards Development Committee concluded that further information is needed before NISO can launch standards development work. During April and May 2002, NISO will survey the leaders in the serials community, systems staff, and librarians to learn more about this issue with the goal of making an informed decision about the viability of a national standard on this topic. Funding from the Digital Library Federation will support this research.

Information aggregators, publishers, third-party service providers, and libraries engage in a number of recurring business-to-business transactions requiring the exchange of serial subscription information. At this time there is no standard to facilitate this information exchange. This survey will explore the needs for serials subscription information exchange.

The study will examine the formats now being used and views on the need for and usefulness of a national standard for serials subscription information exchange; the study will also measure the need and support for a standard designation for subscribers and services.

NISO has engaged Ed Jones to conduct a telephone and e-mail survey. Based on the findings, Jones will draft a White Paper describing the current and potential applications for exchanging serials subscription information between libraries, publishers, aggregators, and third party services.

NISO – http://www.niso.org

Oxford Internet Institute

Appoints director

William Dutton, currently Professor at The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC), will be the first Director of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). He takes up this new role on 1 July this year when he also becomes Oxford's first Professor of Internet Studies and a Fellow of Balliol College.

The OII is the world's first truly multidisciplinary Internet Institute based in a major university. With initial funding of £15 million, it will carry out research and make policy recommendations about the effects on society of the Internet, with the goal of putting Oxford, the UK and Europe at the centre of debates about how the Internet could and should develop.

Professor Dutton said: "I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead and shape the Oxford Internet Institute, as it launches its ambitious and vitally important programme to increase our understanding of the way that new media influence our lives. The scale of the transformations that digital communications are enabling in every aspect of society is massive – and I believe that the work of the OII will help to ensure that we can all gain the maximum benefits from those changes over the years ahead."

British Library

Reports progress on voluntary deposit of electronic publications

The British Library has announced that over 100 publishers have signed up to a voluntary scheme for the deposit of electronic publications. More than 800 monographs and 850 journals have been archived as a result of the scheme.

Set up in January 2000, the voluntary code of practice between the publishing industry and the six legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland aims to ensure that electronic publications are preserved, and their content made accessible for the long term. Since that date, non-print publications in microform (e.g. microfilm) and offline electronic media (i.e. electronic publications issued on physically separate digital media, such as CD-ROMs, DVDs and magnetic disks) have been added to the national published archive. Publishers have also been encouraged to deposit publications in these media published before the end of 1999.

The need for legislation to ensure that UK non-print publications are included in the national archive has been recognized by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Before the introduction of legislation, the Department asked the legal deposit libraries and publishing industry bodies to agree and implement a voluntary scheme to ensure that material was not lost.

Clive Field, Director of Scholarship and Collections at the British Library, comments, "The voluntary scheme has given us the opportunity to work with publishers in identifying some of the challenges in the practical implementation of future legislation. Whilst continuing to press for legislation, we are now starting to discuss voluntary deposit and archiving of online publications with publishers, and working to address the difficult technical issues in preserving these for the future."

According to Anthony Watkinson, Publishers Association representative on the Joint Committee on Voluntary Deposit, "The Publishers Association is fully committed to the importance of secure archiving of our national heritage of published material in digital form. We are pleased to have found so many areas of consensus in working with the copyright libraries and other publishing bodies. A number of challenges remain, such as access to archived copies. These are being actively discussed by the joint committee and, once they have been addressed, we will welcome legislation."

British Library – http://www.bl.uk

London European Resource Centre

Enhances Web site

The London European Resource Centre Web site now has a new address, and the links sections has been restructured with new pages on citizenship, history, geography, business studies and general education added, as well as a more detailed index. This British Council Web site offers links to European resources suitable for teachers and students in schools and colleges.

The links are grouped on the site under the following headings: General Education (curriculum); European Union Member States; European Union Applicant States History; Geography; Citizenship; Business Studies and the Euro; Modern Foreign Languages; General European Information Sources; European Institutions; Education, Training and Employment Sites; and European Union Policy Areas.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/education/resource/europe/ercinfop.htm

British Library

Creating Web site for citizens of the future

The British Library, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Public Record Office (PRO) are collaborating in "21st Century Citizen", an online resource for Citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4 (11-16 year olds), which becomes a statutory part of the curriculum from September 2002.

The 21st Century Citizen will be launched at BETT (The Education Technology Show) at Olympia, London in January 2003. It will include text, images, manuscripts, mapping, statistics and sound recordings from the collections of the three partners. The style of the support materials and activities will encourage an enquiry-based approach to learning and introduce students to evidence to support debate about controversial contemporary issues.

Source material for one of the enquiries includes reports of children in prison from the Newgate Calendar in the 1820s and held at the British Library. These reports can be compared with the latest statistics on juvenile crime from ONS, data from the 2001 census and census data in the nineteenth century from the PRO. Such material will be supported by contextual information, narrative, online activities, research ideas and teaching notes.

http://www.bl.uk

COL

Launches Global Campus

Cambridge Online Learning (COL) Limited has launched Global Campus, a site for e-learning. Global Campus is built on the philosophy of action learning – the application of knowledge to work-based issues and problems. It will enable individuals from around the world to register for and receive two online management qualifications: the Executive Certificate and the Executive Diploma, both accredited by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES).

The new site features an integrated library with more than 1 million management articles, a Meeting Place for discussion forums and online chats, a student and faculty directory, actual and virtual events, a comprehensive title index, and fully searchable pages. COL students can access their own home pages and retrieve personalized information, such as course grades, from anywhere in the world.

Thomas Technology Solutions (UK) Ltd (ThomasTech) is providing the technology, design and hosting services for Global Campus.

http://www.cambridge-online-learning.co.uk

British Library

Introduces Mapping History

Mapping History, a new Web resource from the British Library, is an interactive exploration of maps through time. It allows access to a number of online versions of maps from the Library's collections, and the associated investigations and activities invite pupils and teachers to look more closely at what the maps show and what they represent.

The site allows students to zoom into maps to take a closer look or browse a variety of global perspectives from history using a Time Line feature. Mapping History contains such student topics as Europe before 1914, the Tudors, Britain 1750-1900, the Victorians and the Second World War.

http://www.education.bl.uk

TRIS

Showcases EU projects

As a result of the 4th call in 2000, under Action Line iii.1.5 (Trials on new access modes to cultural and scientific content), 25 new projects were launched across Europe. These projects stimulate the implementation of innovative products and services in the cultural heritage sector. Seventeen of the 25 projects were showcased at the EVA conference in Florence on 21-22 March 2002, during a presentation organized by TRIS, the TrIals Support measure.

The projects address a wide-range of user communities (specialist but also general such as children or tourists) and cultural heritage themes:

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  Museum systems and scientific heritage (CHOSA, DOMINICO, E-ISLAM, KIST, LAB-VR, MATAHARI, TREBIS, VIRMUS).

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  Information management, visualization and interfaces (CTIC, E-STAGE, HITITE, HYPERGUIDE, POUCE, VALHALLA, VIRTUAL, VRCHIP).

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  Digital libraries and digital documents (ARCHIVIEW, BOOKS2U!, EULER-TAKEUP, SANDALYA, SEAX-DAMAS).

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  Heritage and territory (ACTIVATE, BEASTS).

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  Education and publishing (TPHS, UHI-NMS).

These projects have the potential to create a European-wide momentum for innovation not only in the larger cultural institutions, as most of the projects are driven by cultural institutions run by local authorities or by SMEs with local interests. The projects will be interesting to many potential users, as in many cases they will be improving access to cultural assets in museums, archives and libraries, through their use of innovative technologies such as mobiles, digitization techniques, and Internet support. TRIS is an accompanying measure that facilitates communications and knowledge sharing among the TRIAL projects.

TRIS – http://www.trisweb.org

EBLIDA

Celebrates ten years

EBLIDA, the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations, has celebrated its tenth anniversary. It was established in 1992 as a non-governmental, non-profit umbrella organization representing libraries on a European level. Subjects on which EBLIDA concentrates are culture, copyright, information society related matters and information technology.

Representing a network of over 90,000 public, academic and special libraries and archives throughout Europe, EBLIDA has been successful in actively promoting the interests of members to the European institutions and policy making bodies. Its goal is to ensure access and availability of information to European citizens in the digital age by providing global resources in a local setting. Topics include lifelong learning, freedom of expression, copyright, VAT on electronic resources, and promoting the role of libraries and archives in the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. In short: vital cornerstones that make the information society a reality for European citizens. EBLIDA celebrated its anniversary in the Hague on 3 May 2002 with a cake from Heerlijk & Heerlijk, the Dutch Guild of Master Bakers

EBLIDA – http://www.eblida.org

OCLC

To create computing portal for public libraries

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded OCLC Online Computer Library Center a three-year, $9 million grant to build a Web-based, public access computing portal for public libraries and other organizations that provide open access to information. The new portal will build on the foundation's five-year-old US Library Program, which is providing computers with Internet access to more than 10,000 libraries across the United States.

Jay Jordan, OCLC president and chief executive officer, commented, "We view the portal as a place of continuous online collaboration and learning for public libraries and other non-profit organizations whose mission includes open access to authoritative knowledge resources. It provides a wonderful opportunity to extend the OCLC library cooperative and continue the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's important mission of helping public libraries and their patrons use computers and navigate the Internet."

To help bring widespread public access to information technologies, the portal will be designed to serve the ongoing needs of public libraries in managing hardware and software, implementing advanced applications, training staff and patrons, and delivering digital library services. It will leverage the installed computing base and trained population already established by the foundation's US Library Program to develop a community of librarians who can share the resources and information necessary to provide ongoing public access computing. Content will serve five critical areas: continuing education, technical support, purchasing, capacity building and community building. The portal will host a range of services and tools, such as online tutorials, training modules, Web casting, message boards and expert assistance that will help libraries manage and enhance their programmes.

"This new interactive Web site will be an invaluable tool for the thousands of libraries working to sustain public access computing stations," said Richard Akeroyd, executive director of Libraries and Public Access to Information for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "By providing free, online technical assistance, the site will help libraries of all sizes maintain and even grow their public workstations."

OCLC will work with four partners that collectively bring the research, evaluation, governance, e-learning and technology skills needed to successfully design, develop and operate the portal:

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  The Colorado State Library (www.cde.state.co.us/index_library.htm), part of the Colorado Department of Education, encourages and supports the development of public, school, and college and university libraries to improve library services to the communities these libraries serve. CSL also develops and supports the Colorado Virtual Library, providing access to library resources and quality Web resources state wide. In addition, CSL serves as a state documents depository, conducts research and manages libraries at state institutions. The state library will participate in the development of the portal through its communications with other state libraries and assist in the evaluation of the portal's programme and initiatives.

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  The mission of the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org) is to advance a public interest vision for the digital age and to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Its focus is on accelerating digital opportunity for all people. The Benton Foundation will recommend governance and advisory structures for the portal. Benton will also bring to this project its extensive experience in Web site and portal development and implementation through such programmes as the Digital Divide Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org), and OneWorld US (www.oneworld.net/us).

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  Isoph (www.isoph.com) develops hosted database applications for growing, sharing and sustaining knowledge. Isoph will provide site design, e-learning course content and learning management systems and standards.

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  TechSoup (www.techsoup.org) is a comprehensive technology Web site just for non-profits, powered by CompuMentor. This well-respected resource will provide content evaluation, management and syndication, community building and portal maintenance.

Marilyn G. Mason, a consultant specializing in strategic planning and management for public libraries, will be programme director of the portal. Ms Mason served as director of the Cleveland Public Library from 1986 until 1999, and director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library from 1981 until 1985. In 1979, she was director of the White House Conference on Library and Information Services, the largest White House Conference ever held in one place. In 2000, President Clinton appointed her to the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

OCLC – www.oclc.org