New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2006), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2006.23923dab.001

New & Noteworthy

OCLC

New OCLC Research Prototype Assesses Likely Audience for Library Resources

OCLC's Audience Level research project explores using library holdings data in WorldCat to calculate audience-level indicators for books represented in the WorldCat database, based on the types of libraries that hold the titles. The Audience Level prototype is available as a human interface, a web service, and as Greasemonkey scripts for use with the Firefox browser when viewing pages from Amazon and OpenWorldCat.

There are a variety of ways to characterize library materials. The type of reader believed to be interested in a particular item is one. Such an indicator, generally known as the audience level, is potentially useful for a variety of activities, including the development of new ways to improve information relevance for retrieval, reference services (including readers advisory) and collection development. Audience-level filters could be implemented in existing retrieval systems to assist users in finding content based on their information needs.

Determining a monograph's audience level is difficult because there is no bibliographic practice or standard requiring the inclusion of this information in the bibliographic record, except for the fixed field in the Machine Readable Code (MARC) record and the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) subdivision often used to identify juvenile literature and fiction. Thus, many bibliographic records have no direct indication of the target audience for the item represented.

Recognizing that different types of libraries typically serve different populations, OCLC researchers considered whether library types could be related to audience levels. They decided to explore whether the pattern of holdings of materials in WorldCat might be leveraged to provide an audience-level indicator. OCLC researchers hypothesized that audience level could be inferred from the types of library holding the material, if the holdings symbols were weighted by a numeric code for library type.

Using the Audience Level prototype, a user can input a WorldCat number or ISBN and the system will return an assessment of the likely audience (e.g. general academic, general public, child/young adult, graduate/professional research) for the item based on the holding patterns and bibliographic characteristics of the item described in the WorldCat record.

Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Edward T. O'Neill are the lead researchers of the Audience Level project. The prototype has been developed with the support of Clifton Snyder and Akeisha Heard.

Try out the Audience Level prototype: http://researchprojects.oclc.org/al/al.xml

More information: www.oclc.org/research/researchworks/audience/

RLG's ArchiveGrid

Makes Locating Hard-to-Find Historical Collection Descriptions Fast, Easy

RLG, an international, not-for-profit membership organization of over 150 research institutions, has announced ArchiveGridSM, its new historical archive web site. This online service offers new and improved features for archival search methods that appeal to a broad range of searchers, including those seeking primary source information on family and corporate histories, political papers and historical records, from a worldwide database. ArchiveGrid has amassed nearly a million collection descriptions from hundreds of libraries, museums and archives from around the world.

Scholars searching ArchiveGrid will have direct search access to dispersed collections, be able to locate relevant research institutions, and find it easy to get the information to arrange visits or request copies they want for their research. Those scholars wanting absolute thoroughness in their research now have a tool designed to provide them with meaningful and comprehensive collection descriptions written by archivists. ArchiveGrid virtually eliminates the plethora of unwanted and irrelevant results found on general search engines. Researchers will no longer have to weed through hundreds, even thousands, of random Web search pages trying to find the specific information needed – and once the information is located, researchers will know exactly where to find the material at the institution.

ArchiveGrid also opens up a new opportunity for genealogists. The web site has links to locations for birth and death records, ship logs and cemetery records, along with other historical documents that are the keys to unlocking family heritage. This simple yet comprehensive search approach allows both professional and amateur genealogists to research and discover family histories from a worldwide database quickly and easily. ArchiveGrid can pinpoint not only which library or archive has specific family information, but where it is located, on which shelf and which box. This rifle-shot approach eliminates non-essential travel and time-consuming web searching.

ArchiveGrid is available to both individuals and institutions free of charge through May 31. If additional grant funds or sponsorship are obtained, ArchiveGrid will remain free of charge; otherwise subscriptions will be available for institutions and individuals alike.

RLG has a long history of supporting the archival community in providing access to their collections. RLG helped create important archival standards, including Machine Readable Cataloging of Archival Manuscripts Control Format (MARC AMC) and pioneered in its implementation. RLG was involved in the development of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and helped design EAD training programs for archivists. In addition, RLG developed Best Practice Guidelines for EAD and the EAD Report Card. In 1998, RLG introduced Archival Resources to give unified access to archival collection descriptions of all kinds. Over the past eight years hundreds of archives, libraries and museums around the world have added descriptions of their holdings to this database. This content, greatly expanded, forms the core for ArchiveGrid.

ArchiveGrid is continuing to grow and expand access to archives worldwide. Institutions wishing to contribute to ArchiveGrid are invited to go to: archivegrid.org/contribute.

More information about ArchiveGrid: http://archivegrid.org/

BASE

Latest Release of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

Bielefeld University Library has announced the latest release of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) (Release 3, 1 March 2006), now running at: www.base-search.net BASE searches over 2.7 million documents from 189 sources. Among them are numerous academic full text archives that are accessible through the international protocol of the Open Archive Initiative (OAI). Most of the documents are freely accessible and can be searched on the basis of metadata or full text.

A new feature of this release is integrated hit-related links to the academic search engine Google Scholar. An example: searching for "e-science infrastructure" produces 36 hits. Choose hit number 1 ("The Semantic Grid: A future e-Science infrastructure") and click on the link "Check this title in Google Scholar". The Google Scholar hit list is shown, and gives access to all functionalities provided by Google Scholar, e.g. view the articles citing the document, or view different versions of the article. In some cases, this search will produce no hits, as BASE indexes some of the sources more completely than Google Scholar does; moreover, some of the sources indexed by BASE are not available in Google Scholar.

Other features offered by BASE are different options to refine search results and to sort hits, and a search history function documenting the searcher's queries.

BASE is the multi-disciplinary search engine to scholarly internet resources at Bielefeld University, provided and developed by the Bielefeld University Library and based on technology by the Norwegian company FAST Search and Transfer (www.fastsearch.com).

www.base-search.net

Learn more about BASE: http://base.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/

TM4E

Topic Maps for e-Learning

Digital course libraries are educational web applications that contain instructional materials to assist students' learning in a specific discipline. They play a vital role in out-of-class learning, especially in project-based and problem-based learning, as well as in lifelong learning. Topic Maps 4 e-Learning (TM4L) is an e-learning environment developed at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, which enables the creation, maintenance, and use of ontology-aware learning repositories based on Topic Maps. The system provides support in designing and maintaining a conceptual structure of a collection of resources through its functionality for editing, browsing, and combining such structures, coupled with support for relating concepts, linking concepts to resources, merging ontologies, etc. The TM4L environment consists of an Editor and Viewer, available for download at the TM4L web site.

A number of individuals and projects including the National Institute of Informatics, Japan, the Library and Documentation Department, University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain, the Library and Information Department, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan have already expressed interest in using TM4L. Those users requested internationalization of the TM4L interface and helped translate it into their native languages. The new release of the TM4L Editor provides translations in Spanish, traditional and simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Nepalese.

TM4L home: http://compsci.wssu.edu/iis/nsdl/index.htm

Download: http://compsci.wssu.edu/iis/nsdl/download.html

Endeavor Information Systems

Changes at Endeavor and Expanded Functionality

Endeavor and TDNet expand partnership

Endeavor Information Systems announced recently that it has expanded its existing partnership agreement with TDNet, a leading provider of e-resource management solutions, to deliver a new technology offering, Discovery: Resolver, a system which delivers enhanced electronic access to OpenURL and non-OpenURL target resources. Like Discovery: Finder, Endeavor's federated searching product which was introduced in January, Discovery: Resolver also leverages TDNet technology. Together, these solutions represent the first products in a new suite of tools known as Endeavor Discovery, a family of utilities that enable users to easily manage, search, retrieve, view and access library resources. Both Discovery products are available as hosted or local solutions.

Discovery: Resolver, a replacement for Endeavors current LinkFinderPlus product, will utilize technology developed by TDNet to provide accurate context-sensitive linking from OpenURL enabled sources to full text sources. In particular, Endeavor customers will benefit from TDNet's enhanced linking functionality, as well as access to the company's multi-disciplinary Knowledge Base, which currently consists of more than 100,000 unique titles including eBooks that are updated weekly. Additional functionality includes the ability to repair partial citations and the creation of links to resources that are non-OpenURL compliant. Throughout the next year, current users of LinkFinderPlus will be migrated to Discovery: Resolver on an ongoing basis.

Discovery: Resolver offers a number of new features that have been requested by Endeavor customers. Improvements include the ability to handle moving walls and embargos, as well as more complex holdings; support for exposing holdings and link resolving in Google Scholar; dynamic A-Z listing of resources accessible through Resolver; the ability to export OpenURL citation-to-citation manager packages such as EndNote; enhanced statistics, including Counter-compliant reports; and the ability to perform basic customizations via a web interface, such as editing text on a linking screen and adding a local logo.

Endeavor web site: www.endinfosys.com

TDNet web site: www.tdnet.com

National Agriculture Library releases search form for use with AGRICOLA and Voyager

The National Agriculture Library (NAL) has announced the release of a generic version of its custom search form – BooleanCUBE (Boolean Canned URL-Based Experience). BooleanCUBE is an advanced search tool for the NAL Catalog (AGRICOLA), but can be adapted for use with other Voyager OPACs.

The generic version of BooleanCUBE can be configured for use with Endeavor WebVoyage databases as an advanced search facility applying Boolean phrasing and other syntax through a user-friendly form. The new tool was designed and developed by Rachel Maderik, with assistance from Stuart Gagnon, both with NAL's Water Quality Information Center (WQIC).

BooleanCUBE adds valuable functionality to searches of Endeavor WebVoyage databases. Once configured, BooleanCUBE provides the ability to perform complex searches using multi-level nesting, field specific searching, and add optional limits including date(s), language, media type, document type and location. Searches generate permanent URLs that can be saved and reused at a later time. Since the URLs run dynamically, searches will continue to provide access to any new items matching a strategy. BooleanCUBE includes a character counter and other helpful features. Over 560 characters are allowed in each search for building complex Boolean strategies while monitoring character limits. Buttons enter search parameters and tidy code automatically. The BooleanCUBE form is set to retain searches until cleared, so toggling between search results and the search form makes adjusting strategies and database-switching easy.

A working version of BooleanCUBE formats strategies for NAL's Endeavor Voyager (OPAC) system, AGRICOLA. The tool is available as the advanced search www.nal.usda.gov/booleancube/booleancube.html) from AGRICOLA's main page. BooleanCUBE should be compatible with most Endeavor Voyager systems with minor adjustments. BooleanCUBE is available for free download through the NAL web site www.nal.usda.gov/audience/booleancube.shtml.

Towards 2020 Science

Microsoft Releases New Report

Microsoft Research Cambridge, in association with 34 distinguished scientists, in March 2006 published a set of new findings that indicate advances in computing are set to radically transform science and play a critical role in tackling key global challenges, from the environment and energy to medicine and health. The report, "Towards 2020 Science", comprehensively analyzes the potential of computer science to transform the way science is conducted to the year 2020 and beyond. "Towards 2020 Science" calls on the science and computer science communities as well as policy-makers and education leaders to support this revolutionary shift.

Collectively known as the 2020 Science Group, the report's contributors find that new software tools developed in computer science will have the potential to profoundly transform science, particularly the life sciences, over the next decade and beyond. These advances can accelerate the ability of scientists to address some of the greatest challenges facing the world, such as climate change and global epidemics. Software tools that enable far more accurate and powerful modeling of complex systems, the report asserts, will allow potential epidemics such as avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and malaria to be mapped more clearly, helping to avert disaster and improve response to real-time outbreaks.

The report makes ten recommendations, stressing these needs: to put science and science-based innovation at the top of society's priorities; to reconsider how the scientists of tomorrow are inspired and educated at all age levels; and to find new ways to raise public awareness of the importance of scientific research and raise its profile on the political agenda. Microsoft Research Cambridge will be providing E2.5 million to the scientific community through a call for proposals to support new research that specifically addresses the areas outlined by the 2020 Science Group.

The report has also inspired the leading scientific journal Nature to dedicate a number of articles in its next issue to the future of computing in science. "Computer science and the natural sciences have much to gain from each other," said Dr Philip Campbell, editor in chief of Nature. "The 23 March edition of Nature examines some of these key concepts and issues."

The group's efforts began during a three-day workshop hosted by Microsoft Research Cambridge in July 2005 to consider the evolving role of computing in science. The "Towards 2020 Science" report and more information, including forthcoming details about the call for research proposals and further events where the group will be presenting, can be found at the group's web site: www.research.microsoft.com/towards2020science

Report (download): http://research.microsoft.com/towards2020science/downloads.htm

Nature related articles (open access): www.nature.com/nature/focus/futurecomputing/index.html

Best Practices for Digital Preservation of Sound

New CLIR/LC Report

A new report from the Library of Congress (LC) and Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) assesses current standards and best practices in capturing sound from analog discs and tapes. The report, Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes, is based on a meeting of audio experts hosted by LC in January 2004. It is the third in a series undertaken by the National Recording Preservation Board, under the auspices of the Library of Congress, to provide information for developing a national plan to preserve and assure access to recorded sound.

According to experts, nearly all recorded sound is at risk of disappearing or becoming inaccessible within a few generations because the playback equipment will become obsolete. A solution to this problem depends on technologies that capture the audio signals on soon-to-be –obsolete formats and migrate or reformat those signals to current technologies while the older formats are still playable. Roundtable discussions focused on such issues as mitigating deterioration of the original sound recording, obtaining the most accurate transfer possible, best practices for digital conversion, sampling standards, manual versus automated transfer, and creating metadata for digital recordings. Discussions revealed agreement on most practices while also highlighting areas needing further research. There was unanimous concern that the pool of expertise in dealing with older recordings is shrinking and that key technical knowledge must be passed on.

Among the recommendations to improve the practice of analog audio transfer for preservation, the three highest priorities were to: develop core competencies in audio preservation engineering; develop arrangements among smaller institutions that allow for cooperative buying of esoteric materials and supplies; and pursue a research agenda for mitigating a variety of problems relating to magnetic tape. The report also includes an extensive workflow document that sets forth the transfer practices agreed on by roundtable participants.

Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation is available free of charge at www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub137abst.html

The first study, Survey of Reissues of US Recordings, which studied the accessibility of the US's historical sound recordings, is available free of charge at www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub133abst.html

The second report, Copyright Issues Relevant to Digital Preservation and Dissemination of Pre-1972 Commercial Sound Recordings by Libraries and Archives, also is available free of charge at www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub135abst.html

National Recordings Preservation Board: www.loc.gov/nrpb/

MyLibrary

Designing, Implementing, and Maintaining Digital Library Services

Eric Lease Morgan and the MyLibrary team have announced the availability of a digital library manual called Designing, Implementing, and Maintaining Digital Library Services and Collections with MyLibrary. The book is a manual, and its purpose is to outline the principles and processes necessary to implement digital library collections and services. It uses MyLibrary as an example but the principles and processes can be applied to just about any digital library system or application.

The manual is intended to be read by:

• •

  administrators who need to know what and how many resources to allocate to a digital library;

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  librarians who are responsible for collecting and organizing content as well as ensuring the library's usability;

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  systems administrators who are in charge of providing the technical infrastructure for the system; and

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  programmers who will use the underlying Perl API to provide services against the collection.

The book's 200+ pages are distributed in two volumes and freely available in HTML and PDF formats. Co-written by 17 excellent authors, the book elaborates on digital library topics including information architecture, content standards, user-centered design, fundamental computer technologies, techniques for initial implementation & ongoing maintenance, and of course the MyLibrary Perl application programmer's interface.

The book is licensed under the GNU Public License and is an example of open access publishing. Authors have retained copyrights to the things they have written. The manuscript was marked up in DocBook XML and transformed into HTML and PDF files using XSLT style sheets, xsltproc, and fop. Questions, comments, corrections, criticisms, and clarifications may be sent to mylib-doc@dewey.library.nd.edu

Manual: http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/manual/

MyLibrary Development site: http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary/

NCLIS

Archived Webcast of Mass Digitization Symposium Available

The US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and the University of Michigan announced that the archived Webcast of the Symposium on Scholarship and Libraries in Transition: A Dialogue about the Impacts of Mass Digitization Projects. The event took place at the Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan on March 10-11, 2006.

The goal of the symposium was to explore the impact of mass digitization projects, such as the Google partnership, on libraries, universities, government, information policy, publishing, and education. By investigating these topics, NCLIS and the University of Michigan hoped to stimulate thinking about this changing information environment and to identify the challenges and opportunities shaping future directions for libraries and scholarly communication – at both the local and national level.

Details about the schedule of events, speakers, conference blog and the archived webcasts are available at the Symposium web site: http://lib.umich.edu/mdp/symposium/

In addition, Eric Lease Morgan, Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department of the University Libraries of Notre Dame has written in detail in a travel log describing his experiences and observations at the Symposium, which is available at http://infomotions.com/musings/mass-digitization/

Liberating Scholarly Literature

Open Access Bibliography Now Available

An HTML version of the "Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals (OAB)" by Charles W. Bailey is now available. The HTML version of the book was created from the final draft using a complex set of digital transformations. Consequently, there may be minor variations between it and the print and Acrobat versions, which are the definitive versions of the book.

The OAB provides an overview of open access concepts, and it presents over 1,300 selected English-language books, conference papers (including some digital video presentations), debates, editorials, e-prints, journal and magazine articles, news articles, technical reports, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding the open access movement's efforts to provide free access to and unfettered use of scholarly literature. Most sources have been published between 1999 and August 31, 2004; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1999 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the internet (approximately 78 percent of the bibliography's references have such links). The book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 License. The book is also available in print and pdf formats and information for accessing those versions is provided at the web site below.

HTML version of OAB: www.digital-scholarship.com/oab/oab.htm

GrayLIT Network

Portal to Federal Gray Literature

The US Interagency Gray Literature Working Group defines gray literature as "foreign or domestic open source material that usually is available through specialized channels and may not enter normal channels or systems of publication, distribution, bibliographic control, or acquisition by booksellers or subscription agents." The GrayLIT Network makes the gray literature of US Federal Agencies easily accessible over the Internet. It taps into the search engines of distributed gray literature collections, enabling the user to find information without first having to know the sponsoring agency.

The GrayLIT Network is the world's most comprehensive portal to Federal gray literature. By offering a mode of communication for this hard-to-find class of literature, the GrayLIT Network enables convenient access by the public to government information.

The Department of Energy (DOE) provides public access to this research tool through GPO Access in partnership with the Government Printing Office. Federal agencies participating in this project are the Department of Defense, Defense Technical Information Center (DOD/DTIC), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Participation will be expanding as the site develops.

www.osti.gov/graylit/

VoIP

More Drivers than Barriers to VoIP Adoption in UK Enterprise, Survey Finds

The market for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is finally set to take off according to a Vanson Bourne survey of 3,000 UK enterprise IT managers, commissioned by leading storage, voice and networking distributor, Zycko.

Of respondents, 54 percent felt there were more advantages than barriers to the adoption of VoIP this year. Of financial services companies, 57 percent stated that voice and data convergence, rather than cost cutting, was the most important reason for companies to rethink their voice and data strategy in 2006.

A total of 57 percent of IT managers across all industry sectors would consider reviewing existing systems in order to move to a converged voice and data solution this year. A total of 73 percent would be prompted to review their systems to cut costs but interestingly, whilst budget considerations were a top priority for IT managers in the retail, transport and distribution sector (73 percent), and the manufacturing industry (61 percent), only 44 percent of IT managers in the financial services sector felt that cutting costs was the most important factor and instead, selected convergence as the number one driver for a systems review in 2006.

Whilst a number of barriers to VoIP adoption clearly exist including lack of budget (40 percent), contentment with existing suppliers (38 percent), lack of in-house resource (33 percent) and lack of knowledge about the solutions available on the market (18 percent), the majority of respondents (54 percent) were resolute in declaring that this would not deter them from reviewing their voice and data procurement to consider a VoIP solution in 2006. The vast majority of IT managers have overwhelming embraced IT telephony in the form of audio conferencing with 63 percent of companies frequently using audio conferencing and only 9 percent of companies claiming they have never used it.

IT managers are also clearly educated about the business benefits that VoIP can deliver with 63 percent of respondents across all industry sectors stating they would move to a converged solution in order to cut business costs. 53 percent would migrate to VoIP if implementation were simple and 45 percent would be tempted to migrate if they were confident they would be dealing with a trusted supplier. Security was an issue for 36 percent who would only consider a VoIP solution if water tight security measures were in place.

Despite the lack of barriers to adoption and an obvious interest and understanding of the business benefits that VoIP can deliver, it appears that the UK industry is still in the early adoption stages. In 2006, deployment will be gradual. This is illustrated by the fact that only 23 percent have already deployed the technology; a further 26 percent intend to introduce a solution this year, whilst 51 percent will not be implementing a new solution this year.

www.zycko.com/company/press/directnews/zyckonews.asp?id=17065137

Adoption of Broadband in Rural America

New Pew Report Available

Rural America trails rest of nation in home broadband use, but gap has narrowed in past two years. A February 2006 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that rural Americans are less likely to log on to the internet at home with high-speed internet connections than people living in other parts of the country. By the end of 2005, 24 percent of adult rural Americans went online at home with high-speed internet connections compared with 39 percent of adults in urban and suburban areas.

Though the gap remains sizable, growth in rural broadband adoption has been fast relative to urban and suburban areas in the past two years.

Overall rural internet penetration has risen quickly in recent years, with 62 percent of adult rural Americans at the end of 2005 with internet access, compared with 70 percent of adults in urban and suburban locales. This 8 percentage point gap is about half the rural-non-rural gap at the end of 2003. Coupled with fast growth in broadband adoption, the internet profile of rural America is slowly becoming more like the rest of the nation.

In analysis of specific activities, there are several instances in which rural users are more likely than non-rural users to certain things online; for example, rural internet users are more likely to take classes for credit online.

Full report available at: www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=176