D-Lib Magazine
April 1999

Volume 5 Number 4

ISSN 1082-9873

Clips & Pointers

Universal Preservation Format

Contributed by:
Thom Shepard
Project Archivists
WGBH Educational Foundation

The Universal Preservation Format initiative completed the research phase of its mission on March 31, 1999. The findings of this two-year project, which is funded by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (grant 97-029) are described in the UPF Recommended Practice documents, titled, "UPF User Requirements" and "UPF Technical Requirements." These documents, as well as an extensive bibliography, can be found on the UPF web site. (http://info.wgbh.org/upf/index.html) An implementation phase, which is being planned for next year, will use the UPF model to store a selection of WGBH digital objects. This article summarizes our project�s accomplishments and invites D-Lib readers to download our documents and to send feedback.

Over the past two years we have worked within the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers to build alliances between engineers and archivists to arrive at practical solutions to the problems of digital storage. SMPTE is an international technical society, founded in 1916, established to advance the theory and application of motion-imaging technology including film, television, video, computer imaging, and telecommunications. It has 8,500 members in 72 countries. On September 22, 1997, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers assigned the UPF an official Study Group (ST13.14). Titled �Requirements for a Universal Preservation Format� and chaired by Dave MacCarn, the group hashed out a statement of objectives. These include gathering input from the archival community through the surveys, listservs and meetings.

Many of the engineers who regularly attend these quarterly study group meetings are also deeply involved in other SMPTE standards-setting work and study groups, among them:

  • Task Force for Harmonized Standards for Exchange of Program Material as Bit Stream
  • Working Group on Metadata
  • Working Group on Extended-term Archival Storage, Use and Recovery of Magnetic Media
  • Universal Labels for Unique Identification of Digital Data
  • Functional Requirements for a Dynamic Arching System
  • User Requirements for Automated Storage and Retrieval

Archivists whom we invited had a unique opportunity to effect the direction of these emerging technical standards. They have also discovered that the broadcasting industry is concerned with many of the same issues that have troubled their own institutions.

The theme of reaching across domains runs throughout our User Requirements document. We found many academic papers suggested systems or architectures for storing metadata. We also discovered many proposed technical specifications that described complex file structures. If we imagine these two areas of research as independent relational databases, labeled "technical initiatives" and "strategic initiatives," we might be tempted to create a third linking database that would map shared concerns and concepts and reveal parallels between user needs and technological possibilities.

A goal of the UPF research initiative has been to serve as that linking database. In addition to getting engineers and archivists to discuss similar concerns, we have endeavored to map similar concepts across diverse domains. Our UPF cross-domain glossary makes use of dozens of resources to compare definitions of hundreds of key concepts in the digital realm.

As a measure of this project�s impact, the number of Web sites that have links to our documents increased dramatically over the past few months. Many of these links are from major digital initiatives. Our papers also appear as part of several college syllabi, among them an Electronic Records Management course at the University of Toronto, a film studies class at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Cinema Studies and a class at UCLA titled Strategic Management of Media Content in a Digital Age. In addition there are many online bibliographies, ranging from official sites of organizations to personal web pages.

The UPF has also received international recognition. Digital initiatives stemming from Hungary, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Australia, England and Canada contain links to our documents.

More than a proposal for new technical standards, the UPF has attempted to demonstrate that the problem of data and information integrity is too important and too faceted for any single discipline to solve. Our "Recommended Practice" is intended to stir debate. One of our greatest challenges was describing technical specifications and other concepts in a language that would be understood by a wide cross-section of individuals. Based on some of our early comments, we did not always succeed in these first drafts, but we feel that the current version has incorporated many of these complaints.

When this project was getting off the ground, the movie Titanic (1997) was released. Given the parallels between a shortage of lifeboats and the inadequacy of storage vehicles, archivists might consider the movie�s sequence of events as a collection of failed strategies, accentuated by a pressing time factor. They might then conclude that many more lives would have been preserved if only the officials on board had been a little more organized. Perhaps if strategists had met with those with the technical know-how, they might have constructed the tools, materials, and the means to overcome the limitations of their available resources. Lifeboats might have been filled to capacity, tables and chairs might have been uprooted, buoyed, and turned into life preservers.

The Universal Preservation Format initiative may not have all the answers, may not serve the needs of all institutions. More important than the specific components of the UPF is this project�s attempt to establish a dialogue between technicians and strategists, not to ensure that the boat stayed afloat but to prepare real solutions when we all get that sinking feeling.

Links to information about the Universal Preservation Format follow:

Additional comments regarding UPF:

Though solving technological obsolescence remains at the heart of the UPF, we are also committed to such ancillary matters as workflow, metadata sets for information integrity, and resource sharing.

Problems stem from the fact that the computer industry has focused almost entirely on disposable acquisition technologies at the expense of stable environments for long-term storage.

Advancing the Virtual Government
A Survey of National Digital Libraries in the Executive Branch

Contributed by:
Sharon Jordan
US Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

A number of U.S. Government Executive Branch agencies have begun to present their information to the public via the web, with public access to digital collections continuing to grow as more and more agencies create digital libraries or virtual sources of their information. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information surveyed the National Digital Libraries in the Executive Branch and the types of information they make available online.

The survey led to the observation that such National Digital Libraries could help the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) achieve its vision of a government that "works better and costs less and gets results that Americans care about."

Recently the Department of Energy was presented three NPR Hammer Awards: The DOE Information Bridge; Energy Files; and the DOE R&D Project Summaries.

The first, the DOE Information Bridge (http://www.doe.gov/bridge) captures and offers free access to the key deliverables of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) annual multi-billion dollar research and development program in such areas as physics, chemistry, materials, biology, environmental cleanup, and other energy-related disciplines. Making the full-text and bibliographic records of this information available on the Internet in an organized, searchable format is a significant benefit to the Department of Energy and, ultimately, to the U.S. taxpayer.

The DOE Information Bridge is a main component of EnergyFiles: Virtual Library of Energy Science and Technology (http://www.doe.gov/EnergyFiles/), the second Hammer Award recipient. EnergyFiles contains over 400 digital energy-related information sources in 14 energy-related subject categories.

The third Hammer Award recipient, the DOE R&D Project Summaries (http://www.doe.gov/rdprojects), is an online database of over 14,000 R&D projects currently ongoing within DOE R&D disciplines such as Energy Research, Fossil Energy, Environmental Management, and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Information Age technology offers the capability for each Executive Branch Agency to make available to the public a searchable and comprehensive collection of information on topics of concern to that agency.

Currently, each agency is driven by its individual needs. The authors point out that such collections -- essentially National Digital Libraries -- could serve as important building blocks and prerequisite resources for realizing Vice President Gore's vision of a Virtual Government.

Information Technology Strategy for the Library of Congress

Contributed by
Alan Inouye
National Research Council
Computer Science and Telecommunications Board

At the request of Dr. James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council has convened a study committee to provide advice on information technology strategy to the Library of Congress (LC). This study is chaired by James J. O'Donnell, Professor of Classics and Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing at the University of Pennsylvania. The study committee will deliver its final report by May 31, 2000.

The committee's final report will provide guidance to the Library of Congress (LC) in developing its strategic direction for information technology to support LC.

The project proposal may be found at the National Research Council web site. Go to < http://www4.nas.edu/cpsma/cstbweb.nsf >, select the link "Work in Progress", then select "Information Technology Strategy for the Library of Congress."

Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS)

 Contributed by
Richard Hill
American Society for Information Science
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
[email protected]

VOLUME 50, NUMBER 5 (May 1999)

To see the Table of Contents, click here.

The ASIS home page <http://www.asis.org> contains the Table of Contents and brief abstracts from January 1993 (Volume 44) to date.

The John Wiley Interscience site http://www.interscience.wiley.com includes issues from 1986 (Volume 37) to date. Guests have access only to tables of contents and abstracts. Registered users of the Interscience site have access to the full text of these issues and to preprints. We are still working on restoring access for ASIS members as "registered users."

American Society for Information Science
8720 Georgia Avenue, Suite 501
Silver Spring, MD 20910
(301) 495-0900 FAX (301) 495-0810
http://www.asis.org

In Print

  • iMP: The Magazine on Information Impacts.

    iMP: The Magazine on Information Impacts [http://www.cisp.org/ follow "visit imp"] is published in the public interest by the Center for Information Strategy and Policy (CISP) of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Its intent is to stimulate discussion and surface questions that arise at the nexus between public policy and the implications of the information technologies. The first issue, released on March 22, 1999, addresses funding of basic research with attention to the roles of government, industry, and academe. Contributors included Charles Herzfeld, Erich Bloch and Jerry Sheehan, Peter Denning, Robert Metcalfe, Alex Roland, and Irving Wladawsky-Berger. The April issue, scheduled for release on April 22, 1999, will address e-commerce/e-business. The May issue will focus on international relations, and the June issue will be themed on education. Y2K will be the topic of the combined July/August issue.

    Ten issues per year are presently envisioned. The magazine is made available on the web free-of-charge. A subscription list is maintained for purposes of notification. A mission statement, terms and conditions of use, copyright policy, and statement of privacy policy are all available from the contents page. For further information, please contact: [email protected]. To subscribe, please address e-mail to: [email protected] or use the forms provided at the site.

  • Guide to Best Practice: Dublin Core

    The Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) has announced that its Guide to Best Practice: Dublin Core is now available for peer review. The document focuses on the usability, simplicity, and technical feasibility of the Dublin Core within the cultural heritage community. Information about and instructions for participating in the peer review are available at the CIMI web site at < http://www.cimi.org/documents/meta_peerreview_announce.html >. The guide is available for downloading from the same site in HTML, PDF, and Word98.

  • Encoding Dublin Core Metadata in HTML, by John A. Kunze, an Internet-Draft (which is a working document of the Internet Engineering Task Force) published on 18 March 1999 and due to expire on 18 September 1999.

    This is the first Internet-Draft of Encoding Dublin Core Metadata in HTML. It is being made available for comments and was created to document current practice while work moves forward on data models and XML/RDF encodings. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) drafts are works in progress and are copyright protected. The draft and restrictions regarding its use, as well as information about how you may comment on this Internet-Draft, will be found at < http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-kunze-dchtml-00.txt >.

  • Identification, Location and Versioning of Web-resources, by Titia van der Werf-Davelaar, National Library of the Netherlands, 12 March 1999.

    The introduction to this document on Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) states:

    This document addresses the issues of identification, location and versioning of web-resources as a set of inter-related information management and retrieval aspects. The purpose of this document is to identify relevant emerging standards and best practices on the Internet as a basis for recommendations. It is expected that this document will contribute to a common understanding of the issues involved and a starting point for better management and improved retrievability of web-resources. It should provide a common framework for converging practices and thereby a more stable basis for enhancing resource discovery.
    The paper is considered by its author to be a first version to stimulate comment and discussion. Along with the paper is another with recommendations for consideration by academic website administrators. Both papers are presented in the English language in hopes of receiving comments from experts from around the world.

    The URL for the discussion paper is < http://www.konbib.nl/donor/rapporten/URI.html >, and the recommendations are at < http://www.konbib.nl/donor/index-en.html >. (Follow the hyperlinks from "Reports" and "DONOR requirements and recommendations on the use of URIs".)

  • New Ways to Serve the Library User: A Global Perspective, The Proceedings of the Annual Program of the International Relations Round Table and the International Relations Committee of the American Library Association, Washington, D.C., June 1998.

    The sponsors of the ALA program from which these proceedings were created wanted to publish not only the papers that were presented at the annual meeting, but also those relevant papers that were unable to be presented because of time or other constraints. The program itself was designed to encourage the scholarly exchange of ideas among librarians from around the world with regard to library service issues, and papers are organized by geographic location including: Europe and Eastern Europe; the Middle East and Africa; Asia and the Pacific; and Latin America. Papers are in the English language. The Proceedings are located at < http://www.ala.org/work/international/intlpprs/index.html >.

  • Is the Record of the 20th Century at Risk?, by Diane Vogt-O'Connor, published in CRM: Cultural Resource Management, Volume 22, Number 2, 1999.

    The author of this article, Diane Vogt-O'Connor, is a Senior Archivist, Museum Management Program at the National Park Service. She presents the problems and challenges of preserving digital information and discusses the currently available and proposed means of dealing with these problems. Also discussed are cost, legal, and selection issues as well as the need to form partnerships to deal with them. The article is available in PDF format at < http://tps.cr.nps.gov/crm/archive/22-2/22-02-9.pdf >.

  • Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-readable Cataloging, published by the Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Follett Software Company, 1998.

    The Library of Congress has made available in electronic format this resource originally written by Betty Furrie in conjunction with the Follett Software Company.

    Covered in Parts I through VI of Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-readable Cataloging is the explanation of what a MARC record is and why it is important. Parts VII through XI cover reference materials such as: commonly used USMARC fields; list of other fields often seen in MARC Records; a description of the 008 field for books; sample records in various formats; and AV records. Included also is a selected bibliography and a review of MARC content designators.

Point to Point

  • Brown University Women Writers Project

    This site contains a searchable textlist of bibliographic information about all Women Writer Project (WWP) texts, including those not yet available. Access to the Brown online texts is freely available until August 1999.

    Also at the site is documentation of the project's encoding and editorial methods, information on current research, and suggested readings if you're interested in learning more about text encoding. Topics of particular interest or difficulty are documented in training tutorials which are accessible from the WWP training web site. These tutorials include: Introductory Tutorial for NEW ENCODERS; Title Pages (<titleBlock>) Tutorial; Encoding the <teiHeader>; Document Analysis; and others. The training page also provides quick "How To's" and links to SGML and HTML resources, vendors, and related sites. The WWP project website is located at < http://www.wwp.brown.edu/ >.

  • Version 24, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, by Charles W. Bailey, Jr., 1 April 1999.

    Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Assistant Dean for Systems, University Libraries, University of Houston, has announced the availability of Version 24 of his periodical bibliography, which is selective and is focussed on scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet and other networks. In the bibliography, he provides links to sources listed, where available. The bibliography is located at < http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html >.

Deadline Reminders

Goings On

  • EVA'99 - Beyond the Digital Archive: The Practical Use of Images, 19 - 21 May, New York, New York, USA.

    Organized by VASRI UK in cooperation with The Museum of Modern Art, New York and supported by the European Commission's EVA Cluster Project, this three day conference will focus on the following topics:

    • Investigating new Multi-media technology and applications (2D, 3D, and virtual reality)

    • Creating a multi-purpose digital archive for educational multimedia projects

    • Using digital technology for cultural publishing

    • Developing collaborative institutional partnerships (Europe, Japan, and North America)

    Please see the conference web site for further details. The web site is at < http://www.vasari.co.uk/eva/newy.htm >.

  • Evaluating and Using Networked Information Resources and Services: ASIS Mid-Year Meeting, 24 - 26 May 1999, Pasadena, California, USA.

    Access to and use of networked information resources and services over the Internet continues to explode with new and innovative applications as well as in new and unforeseen applications. The development and provision of innovative services is hindered by limited knowledge of users and uses of networks, as well as by the lack of ongoing evaluation and assessment of networked resources. The primary goals of the conference are to:

    • Identify what is known and what is not known about use and evaluation of networked resources and services.

    • Propose strategies to improve knowledge about use and evaluation of networked resources and services.

    • Provide a forum for attendees to share their knowledge, offer viewpoints, and debate different opinions regarding the use and evaluation of networked resources and services.

    Some of the session topics include:

    • CNRI's D-Lib Working Group on Digital Library Metrics & D-Lib Test Suite
    • Performance Measures
    • Authentication and Authorization
    • A Neural NET Method for Log Data Analysis
    • Using Electronic Surveys
    • Making Internet Information More Verifiable
    • Query Characteristics and Use Analysis
    • Quantitative User Studies
    • Web-based Course Delivery
    • Access to Visual Information
    • Visualization System for IR
    • Evaluating User Needs and Outcomes
    • Next Z39.50 Implementation
    • "Provider" Methods for Evaluating NET Interfaces
    • Evaluating Web Sites and Site Evaluation Tools
    • Measuring & Evaluating Federated Digital Libraries
    • Evaluation of a Common Command Language Gateway
      •

    Pre-conference Seminars include:

    • Digital Lib: Computer Concepts & Technologies
    • 2nd Generation Intranet Development
    • Metadata for Digital Libraries
    • XML
      •

    Please see the conference web site for complete conference information including registration instructions. The web site is located at < http://www.asis.org/Conferences/MY99/ >.

  • School for Scanning: Issues of Preservation and Access for Paper-based Collections, 2 - 4 June 1999, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

    This conference provides a rationale for the use of digital technology by managers of paper-based collections in cultural institutions. Specifically, it equips participants to discern the applicability of digital technology in their given circumstances and prepares them to make critical decisions regarding management of digital projects. Although technical issues will be addressed, this is not a technician training program.

    The conference is funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is co-sponsored by the Getty Information Institute, the Chicago Historical Society, and the National Park Service. It is presented by the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

    The registration deadline for this conference is 12 May 1999. Please see the conference web site for details: < http://www.nedcc.org/sfschic.htm >.

  • Third International Conference on VISual Information Systems '99, 2 - 4 June 1999, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

    The effective use of visual information for organizational applications has been limited and mostly confined to highly specialized applications. Visual information systems (VIS) will not only substantially enhance the value and usability of existing information, but will also open up a new horizon of previously untapped information sources. Future information systems in commercial and scientific applications will have a high visual content, and it is necessary to integrate the visual and image components into the architecture of organizational information systems. This conference will focus attention on the application and management of visual information.

    Please see the conference web site at < http://www.wins.uva.nl/events/VISual99/ > to see the full program and to obtain registration information.

  • 1999 Annual Conference Association of Canadian Archivists/Archives Association of Ontario -- Measuring Up: Standards in Archival Practice, 3 - 5 June 1999, London, Ontario, Canada.

    Preconference workshops include:

    • Appraisal of Audio-Visual Records
    • Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
    • Preservation Management in Archives: A Global Integrated Approach to Preservation in Archives
    • Aboriginal Archives - Carrying the Message from Wampum Belts to Digital Imaging

    Details about the conference program as well as registration information may be found at the conference web site at < http://www.archives.ca/aca/conferen/index.htm >.

  • Knowledge Leaders for the New Millennium: Creators of the Information Future, Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, 5 - 10 June 1999, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

    The SLA annual conference focusses on the information professionals' roles as leaders of the information future and will have four general tracks:

    • Leadership-Who we are
    • Evolving Roles-Where are we going?
    • Knowledge Management-What we do
    • Practitioner's Toolkit- the nuts and bolts

    Also available are continuing education courses such as: Intranet Case studies by Information Professionals; Strategic Planning Your Internet Presence; Planning the Law Library in the Next Millennium; Creating Your Own Home Page Using HTML; and many others.

    Please visit the conference web site for a full description of the conference as well as registration instructions. You will be asked to set up a login name and password to enter the conference web site, but it is free and you do not have to be a current member of SLA to access the conference site at < http://www.sla.org/conf/99conf/ >.

  • IEEE Multimedia Systems '99, 7 - 11 June 1999, Florence, Italy.

    Topic areas for tutorials which will be presented at this conference include:

    • Distributed Multimedia
    • Operating systems Support & Standards
    • Human Computer Interaction
    • Applications and Tools
    • Multimedia Databases

    Please see the conference web site for full information, < http://dsi.ing.unifi.it/~icmcs99/home1.html >.

  • EUNIS '99: Information Technology Shaping European Universities, 7 - 9 June 1999, Espoo, Finland.

    The European University Information Systems (EUNIS) Conference will have as keynote speakers:

    • Jorma Routti, Director General of DG XII, EU
      European Union Research and Education Programs,
      Impacts on European Universities

    • Dancing with the Devil: Information Technology and the
      New Competition in Higher Education.

    • Michael R. Zastrocky, Research Director/Academic Strategies, Gartner Group
      The Information- and Technology-Enabled University of 2004

    Of particular interest to librarians may be the sessions entitled "New Library Roles", "Electronic Publishing", and "Libraries in a Wider Perspective" in which the following papers will be presented:

    • Converged Library/Academic Roles in the "Wired" University
      Christine Dugdale
      ResIDe Electronic Reserve Project
      "University of the West of England", UK

    • DEDICATE: A Network Professional Development Project in Information Literacy and User Education
      Nancy Fjaellbrandt and Philippa Levy
      University of Sheffield, UK

    • Library Cooperation at the NOVA University - the Nordic University in Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
      Heli Myllys
      University of Helsinki, Finland

    • Electronic Libraries and Collaboration in the UK: The eLib Clump Projects
      V. Brack and P. Stubley
      University of Sheffield, UK

    • Viikki Virtual Infocenter - An Integrated Information Workstation
      Päivi Helminen and Tiina Äärilä
      University of Helsinki, Finland

    • The ELISE II Project, A Digital Image Library for Europe
      Bob Strunz and Mairead Waters
      University of Limerick, Ireland

    • Coupling of Research, Publishing of Results and Public Relations by Internet
      Wolfgang Adamczak
      Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel, Germany

      •

    Please see the conference web site at < http://www.hut.fi/Misc/EUNIS99/Ohjelma.html > for the entire list of papers on information technology in education.

  • CGI'99: Computer Graphics International, 7 - 11 June 1999, Canmore, Alberta, Canada.

    Papers to be presented include:

    • From Synthesis to Analysis: Fitting Human Animation Models to Image Data
    • Social and Industrial Impacts of Homotopy Modeling
    • Effective Volume Sampling of Solid Models using Distance Measures
    • Evolutionary Optimization of Functionally Defined Shapes: Case Study of Natural Optical Objects
    • A Field Interpolated Texture Mapping Algorithm for Skeletal Implicit Surfaces
    • Visualizing Knowledge about Virtual Reconstructions of Ancient Architecture
    • Behaviour Friendly Graphics
    • Time Warping of Audio Signals
    • Hidden Object Reconstruction from Acoustic Slices
    • Generating Motion Fields of Complex Scenes
    • Interactive Specification of 3D Displacement Vectors Using Arcball
    • Efficient Occlusion Culling for Z-Buffer Systems
    • Stereoscopic Display of Car Interior with High-precision Registration
    • A Hybrid, Hierarchical Data Structure for Real-Time Terrain Visualization
    • Virtual Laboratory: an Interactive Software Environment for Computer Graphics
    • Interactive 3D Landscape Visualization: Improved Realism through use of Remote Sensing Data and Geoinformation
    • Islamic Symmetric Pattern Generation Based on Group Theory
    • A Hashing Strategy for Efficient k-Nearest Neighbors Computation
    • Homotopy as World Modeling
    • Homotopy and Intellectual Property
    • Building a Virtual Planet
    • Rendering Optimal Solar Shadows Using Plural Sunlight Depth Buffers
    • Deformable Parametric Surface Models of the Human Heart from MRI Data
    • A Shape-Preserving Data Embedding Algorithm for NURBS Curves and Surfaces
    • Monotonic Cubic Spline Interpolation
    • Edge Extraction for Adaptive Mesh Construction
    • Near-Optimal Adaptive Polygonization
    • Using the implicit surface paradigm for smooth animation of triangle meshes
    • Volume Decimation of Irregular Tetrahedral Grids

  • NASIG 14th Annual Conference, 10 - 13 June 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

    Each year in June, the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) holds an annual conference on a college campus in a different part of North America. The setting is informal encouraging networking through communal meals and accommodations in dormitory settings. A variety of topics of interest to serialists are covered in the programs through plenary, concurrent and workshop sessions. The 1999 Annual Conference theme is "From Carnegie to Internet II: Forging the Serials Future,".

    Registration is limited to members until April 15, 1999, after which non-members may register. Please see the conference web site at < http://www.nasig.org/public/conferences.html > for details.

  • International Workshop on Integrated Spatial Databases: Digital Images and GIS, 14 - 16 June 1999, Portland, Maine, USA.

    The scope of this intensive workshop is to bring together specialists from a variety of overlapping but not always interacting scientific communities and provide a centralized, high-quality forum for the presentation and discussion of research advances and the establishment of a long-term communication channel between participants. It is sponsored in part by the Information and Data Management Program of the Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Support is also provided by the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA).

    During the workshop, quality contributions will be presented on a variety of issues related to the theme of the workshop. Example topics include the following:

    • Database-Driven Information Extraction from Digital Imagery
    • Automated Extraction of GIS Objects from Digital Imagery
    • Change Detection and Representation
    • Scale in GIS and Digital Image Processing
    • Queries and Content-Based Information Retrieval Methods
    • Spatio-Temporal Databases
    • Uncertainty Estimation and Modelling in GIS
    • Digital Images and GIS for Spatio-Temporal Reasoning 
    • Very Large Image Databases
    • Multimedia and Heterogeneity in Integrated GIS
    • Digital Libraries
    • Multiple Representations
      •

    For full details, please see the conference web site at < http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~peggy/nsfWS.html >.

  • INET'99: The Internet Global Summit, The Internet Society's 9th Annual Internetworking Conference 22 - 25 June 1999, San Jose, California, USA.

    The Internet Society Vice President for Conferences describes INET as follows:

    INET is the place where we all meet to understand the influence of the Internet on technical, social, and educational issues; to learn the new advances in IP technology; to meet new people with new ideas and to get in touch or involved in their projects; to meet the pioneers whose work we have followed since we first heard of the Internet; to hear the opinion of present industry... To be a part of it all. To be a part of the society of the Internet.

    This year’s conference program includes an exchange of ideas between a Californian community -- rich in technology and advanced in the use of the Net for social and educational purposes -- and the rest of the world. Attendees will spend the five days at INET’99 creating a synergy, sharing with attendees what they have done in the last year, and assimilating as much as they can of what others have done...bringing their strengths together to make the galaxy tighter and brighter. The timing of INET’99 is also key. This last Internet Global Summit of the century will provide a showcase for the new applications of Internet2, and a glimpse of what the Net will be in the next decade.

    Please see the INET web site at < http://www.isoc.org/inet99/ > for more information and directions on where to obtain a copy of the program as well as registration forms.

  • Making Sense of Digital Identifiers for Internet and Other Applications - 1999 LITA Preconference, 25 June 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

    A description of this preconference clipped from the LITA web site follows:

    "A practical and technical explanation of many of the more important identifiers and the issues surrounding their design and applications. This workshop will include information on the DOI, SICI, URN, URI, PII, ISWN and several other high profile identifiers. Design considerations will be described in detail, including pros and cons of components such as affordance, maximum length, mnemonics, persistence and other such features. Examples of a variety of applications that depend on identifiers will be illustrated and discussed, including a number that have already been implemented such as DOI's and the linking of records in various databases to online materials through the use of identifiers, as is being done by ISI. The value of identifiers in supporting commercial transactions and facilitating copyright control will also be considered."

    Presenters include:

    • William Arms, Vice President at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives

    • Helen Atkins, Director of Database Development at the Institute for Scientific Information

    • Leslie L. Daigle, Vice President for Research & Development at Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.

    • Brian Green, Executive Director, Book Industry Communication (BIC) and EDItEUR

    • Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of CNI

    • Dr. Norman Paskin, Director of the International DOI Foundation

    • Stuart Weibel, Senior Research Scientist for OCLC's Office of Research

    A more detailed description of this preconference is located at < http://www.lita.org/ac99/precon99.htm >.

  • Celebrating the Freedom to Read! Learn! Connect! - 1999 ALA Annual Conference, 16 - 29 June 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

    Please see the conference web site at < http://www.ala.org/events/ac99/index.html > for information about the ALA Annual Conference. Non-members will save $90.00 if registered before May 21, 1999 over the on-site registration fee.

  • 7th ACM International Symposium on Geographic Information Systems, 5 - 6 November 1999, Kansas City, MO, USA.

    The symposium is intended for people carrying out research in novel systems based on geo-spatial data and knowledge. It will take place in conjunction with the Eighth International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM). Papers are sought on the following topics, but are not limited by those listed. (This is a partial listing from the conference web site.)

    • Embarked GIS
    • Spatial aspects of mobile computing
    • Spatial Decision Support Systems and CSCW
    • CASE tools for geomatics
    • Real time GIS, especially based on GPS
    • Interactive mapping, visualization and interface design
    • Multidatabase spatial data structures and indexing
    • Animated cartography
    • Multi-source fusion
    • Quality control and re-engineering
    • Management of parallel and distributed GIS
    • Spatial knowledge discovery, knowledge engineering and data mining
    • GIS metadata
    • Multimedia GIS
    • Digital libraries for GIS
    • Virtual reality in GIS
    • Interoperability, heterogeneous GIS and geographic data interchange standards
    • GIS and the internet
    • Systems for spatial reasoning and negotiation
    • Spatial data warehousing and indexing
    • 3D GIS
    • Spatio-temporal databases
      •

    Please see the web site at < http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~cmbm/acmgis99 > for full descriptions of topics and other conference information.

Pointers in this Column

1999 Annual Conference Association of Canadian Archivists/Archives Association of Ontario -- Measuring Up: Standards in Archival Practice, 3 - 5 June 1999, London, Ontario, Canada.

http://www.archives.ca/aca/conferen/index.htm

1999 Information Resources Management Association International Conference: Managing Information Technology Resources in Organizations in the Next Millenium 16 - 19 May 1999, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.

http://www.irma-international.org/irma1999.html

7th ACM International Symposium on Geographic Information Systems, 5 - 6 November 1999, Kansas City, MO, USA.

http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~cmbm/acmgis99/

ACM CIKM '99: Eighth International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, 2 - 6 November 1999, Kansas City, MO, USA.

http://www.cs.umbc.edu/cikm/1999/cikm99cfp.html

Advancing the Virtual Government: A Survey of National Digital Libraries in the Executive Branch

http://www.osti.gov/adv_vg.html

American Society for Information Science

http://www.asis.org

Brown University Women Writers Project

http://www.wwp.brown.edu/

Brown University Women Writers Project: Documentation

http://www.wwp.brown.edu/encoding/DocOverview.html

Brown University Women Writers Project: Training

http://www.wwp.brown.edu/encoding/training/

Celebrating the Freedom to Read! Learn! Connect! - 1999 ALA Annual Conference, 16 - 29 June 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

http://www.ala.org/events/ac99/index.html

Center for Information Strategy and Policy (CISP) of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)

http://www.cisp.org/

CGI'99: Computer Graphics International, 7 - 11 June 1999, Canmore, Alberta, Canada.

http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~cgi99/

CoLIS 3 - Third International Conference on Concepts in Library and Information Science, 23 - 26 May 1999, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

http://www.colis3.hr/

DOE R&D Project Summaries

http://www.doe.gov/rdprojects

DOE Information Bridge

http://www.doe.gov/bridge

Eighth International World Wide Web Conference, 11 - 14 May 1999, Toronto, Canada.

http://www8.org/

Encoding Dublin Core Metadata in HTML

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-kunze-dchtml-00.txt

EnergyFiles: Virtual Library of Energy Science and Technology

http://www.doe.gov/EnergyFiles

EUNIS '99: Information Technology Shaping European Universities, 7 - 9 June 1999, Espoo, Finland.

http://www.hut.fi/Misc/EUNIS99/Ohjelma.html

EVA'99 - Beyond the Digital Archive: The Practical Use of Images, 19 - 21 May, New York, New York, USA.

http://www.vasari.co.uk/eva/newy.htm

Evaluating and Using Networked Information Resources and Services: ASIS Mid-Year Meeting, 24 - 26 1999, Pasadena, California, USA.

http://www.asis.org/Conferences/MY99/

Guide to Best Practice: Dublin Core

http://www.cimi.org/documents/meta_peerreview_announce.html

HCI International'99: 8th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 22 - 27 August 1999, Munich, Germany. Substantial savings if registration received by 30 April 1999.

http://hci99.iao.fhg.de/hci99/

ICCC/IFIP Third Conference on Electronic Publishing '99 - Redefining the Information Chain - New Ways and Voices, 10 - 12 May, Ronneby, Sweden. Deadline for Conference Registration has been extended to 23 April 1999.

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

Identification, Location and Versioning of Web-resources

http://www.konbib.nl/donor/rapporten/URI.html

IEEE Advances in Digital Libraries Conference '99, 19 - 21 May 1999, Baltimore, MD, USA.

http://128.6.42.25/~adl/main.html

IEEE Multimedia Systems '99, 7 - 11 June 1999, Florence, Italy

http://dsi.ing.unifi.it/~icmcs99/home1.html

INET'99: The Internet Global Summit, The Internet Society's 9th Annual Internetworking Conference, 22 - 25 June 1999, San Jose, California, USA.

http://www.isoc.org/inet99/

International Workshop on Integrated Spatial Databases: Digital Images and GIS, 14 - 16 June 1999, Portland, Maine, USA.

http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~peggy/nsfWS.html

Is the Record of the 20th Century at Risk?

http://tps.cr.nps.gov/crm/archive/22-2/22-02-9.pdf

John Wiley Interscience site

http://www.interscience.wiley.com

Knowledge Access Management for Reference Librarians, 10 - 12 May 1999, OCLC Campus, Dubin, Ohio, USA.

http://www.oclc.org/institute/seminar2ref.htm

Knowledge Leaders for the New Millennium: Creators of the Information Future, Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, 5 - 10 June 1999, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

http://www.sla.org/conf/99conf/

Making Sense of Digital Identifiers for Internet and Other Applications - 1999 LITA Preconference, 25 June 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

http://www.lita.org/ac99/precon99.htm

NASIG 14th Annual Conference, 10 - 13 June 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

http://www.nasig.org/public/conferences.html

National Research Council Web site

http://www4.nas.edu/cpsma/cstbweb.nsf

New Ways to Serve the Library User: A Global Perspective, The Proceedings of the Annual Program of the International Relations Round Table and the International Relations Committee of the American Library Association, Washington, D.C., June 1998.

http://www.ala.org/work/international/intlpprs/index.html

School for Scanning: Issues of Preservation and Access for Paper-based Collections, 2 - 4 June 1999, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

http://www.nedcc.org/sfschic.htm

Tenth DELOS Workshop on Audio-Visual Digital Libraries, 24 - 25 June 1999, Santorini, Greece.

http://www.iei.pi.cnr.it/DELOS/WORKSHOP/workshop.htm

Third International Conference on VISual Information Systems '99, 2 - 4 June 1999, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

http://www.wins.uva.nl/events/VISual99/

Understanding MARC Bibliographic: Machine-readable Cataloging

http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb/

Universal Preservation Format User Requirements

http://info.wgbh.org/upf/pdfs/strawman1.pdf

Universal Preservation Format Bibliography

http://info.wgbh.org/upf/UPF_bib.html

Universal Preservation Format Technical Requirements

http://info.wgbh.org/upf/pdfs/strawman2.pdf

Universal Preservation Format Web site

http://info.wgbh.org/upf/index.html

VALA 2000 - Books and bytes: technologies for the hybrid library, 10th VALA Biennial Conference and Exhibition, 16 - 18 February 2000, Melbourne, Australia.

http://www.vicnet.net.au/~vala/conf2000.htm

Version 24, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography

http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html

Copyright (c) 1999 Corporation for National Research Initiatives

Extraneous title removed from beneath the report on "Information Technology Strategy for the Library of Congress", The Editor, 4/29/99.

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DOI: 10.1045/april99-clips