TWF: what's new: currents 15

A digest of cross sectoral information management events, issues and ideas in organisations, libraries, archives and museums, with special emphasis on arts and the humanities.

KNOWLEDGE & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Information format trends | The Internet | Libraries.

ARTS & CULTURE

Arts, humanities and the knowledge economy

A public forum, New Generation: Arts, Humanities and the Knowledge Economy, presented by the Hawke Institute, Australian Research Council Knowledge Economy Project and Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures, University of South Australia on 29 May 2003, will canvas some of the ways that arts and humanities faculties, and disciplines within them, might reconfigure themselves for the knowledge economy and will address the question of how the arts and humanities education and research might be preserved. Speakers include Professor Stuart Cunningham (Director of the Creative Industries Research and Applications Centre, Queensland University of Technology); Professor Stuart Macintyre (Dean of Faculty of Arts University of Melbourne, Ernest Scott Professor of History, Chair of the Humanities and Creative Arts panel of the Australian Research Council. [Source: Australian e-Humanities]. Web: http://www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au/institute/

Cataloguing cultural objects

The Visual Resources Association, with support from the Getty Grant Program, Digital Library Federation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and in cooperation with Rice University, is producing Cataloguing Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Objects and their Images (the CCO Guide) as a manual for describing, documenting, and cataloguing cultural objects and their visual surrogates. The project began in December 2001 and will continue in two phases through 2004. The guide will cover a broad range of cultural objects and their images, including museum objects - such as paintings, sculpture, prints, manuscripts, photographs, archeaological artefacts, and material culture objects - and architecture and other areas of the built environment. It will build on existing tools in the field – such as Categories for the Description of Works of Art, VRA Core Categories, version 3.0, Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Union List of Artist Names, and Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names. and Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2). Web: http://www.vraweb.org/

Cultural heritage information model

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) and International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) presented an international symposium on interoperability for cultural heritage information in museums, libraries and archives under the theme Sharing the Knowledge in March 2003. The symposium, held at the Smithsonian Institution, featured presentations on the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, which provides a formal structure for describing the concepts and relationships used in cultural heritage documentation. Web: http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/symposium_program.htm. [Source NINCH] Check for details

Cultural policy and arts data

The Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies and Princeton University Library, with an initial three-year US$1.9 million grant from Pew Charitable Trusts, have launched the Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA), a Web-accessible digital archive of policy-relevant data on culture and the arts. The initiative consists of a searchable data archive of numeric data sets, reports and documentation on the arts and culture, quick facts about the arts culled from surveys conducted by other organisations, research guides summarising information currently available in various research areas, and links. Web: http://www.cpanda.org. [Source: NINCH]

Harvard University Art Museums Online

Harvard University Art Museums (Fogg, Sackler and Busch-Reisinger) have announced the third upload to its searchable database, Collections Online, which now has basic information on about 76,000 objects. Deeper cataloguing data, such as bibliographies, marks and inscriptions, provenance and exhibition history, are available for about 10,000 of these objects. Approximately 12,500 object records are illustrated with images. Web: http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu. [Source: NINCH]

Information, technology, innovation and creativity

The National Research Council of the National Academies in the United States has published Beyond Productivity: Information, Technology, Innovation and Creativity, edited by William J. Mitchell, Alan S. Inouye and Marjory S. Blumenthal. The report examines the intersection of information technology with arts and design. Although this intersection has already yielded results of significant cultural and economic value - such as innovative architectural and product designs, computer animated films, computer music, computer games, interactive art installations, cross-cultural experimentation and Web-based texts - opportunities for new collaborative ventures remain to be explored. The report puts forward 16 recommendations for the development of information technology and creative practices (ITCP) by educators and academic administrators, foundations, government and other funding bodies, industry and national academies. Web: http://bob.nap.edu/html/beyond_productivity/ [Source: NINCH]

JSTOR Music Collection

JSTOR will launch its seventh major release, the Music Collection, in the third quarter of 2003. The collection will include back runs of 31 new titles dedicated to scholarly research and theory in the field of music – such as Archiv für Musikwissenschaft (1899-1999), Cambridge Opera Journal (1989-1997), Early Music History (1981-1997), Journal of the Royal Musical Association (1874-1997), Latin American Music Review, 19th-Century Music (1977-1998), Music Analysis (1982-1998), Music and Letters (1920-1997), The Musical Times (1844-1999), Musical Quarterly 1915-1997), Notes (1934-1997), Perspectives of New Music (1962-1995), Popular Music (1981-1997), Tempo (1939-1997) and Yearbook of Traditional Music (1949-1998). A full list, information on participation fees and other details are available at: http://www.jstor.org/. [Source: IAML-L]

Knowledge Services for Arts Management

KSAM is a new UK-based continuing professional development hub for arts professionals with a knowledge bank covering issues pertinent to artists and arts administrators. The service is a partnership of SAMS Books (a specialist arts management book retailer and mail order service), Arts Professional magazine, Arts Marketing Association, Independent Theatre Council, National Rural Touring Forum, Northumbria University’s Centre for Cultural Policy and Sussex University’s Arts and Cultural Studies Unit. Web: http://www.sam-arts.demon.co.uk/. [Source: Fuel4arts].

Measuring culture

Sara Selwood, in Measuring culture (Spiked Online 30 December 2002), looks at the rise of statistics in tandem with an extension of government control over the arts and the tendency to value culture for its impact rather than its intrinsic value. She concludes that much data produced is methodologically flawed and says more about policy intentions than about actual impact. Until the collection and analysis of data is carried out more objectively and evidence gathered used more constructively, it could be argued that collecting the data has been a relatively spurious exercise. Web: http://www.spiked-online.com

Information format trends

The OCLC Library & Information Center has published Five-Year Information Format Trends (Dublin, OH: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 2003) – an eight-page report that discusses information format trends during the next five years in four areas: traditional materials (audiovisual media, books, electronic books, journals and newspapers, and print-on-demand works), scholarly materials (articles, books, electronic course management materials, e-print archives, journals, and theses and dissertations), digitisation projects (commercial, national, and state and local projects), and Web resources. It analyses a wide range of facts and predictions, drawn from library serials to Weblogs, to give a concise overview of key trends in each area. A significant finding is that ‘the universe of materials that a library must assess, manage and disseminate is not simply shifting to a new set or type of materials, but rather building into a much more complex universe of new and old, commodity and unique, published and unpublished, physical and virtual.’ Source: Current Cites. Web: http://www5.oclc.org/downloads/community/informationtrends.pdf.

The Internet

According to the UCLA Internet Report 11 Feb 2003, more than 70% of Americans now use the Internet and nearly two-thirds of those consider online information to be their most important source of information, despite some increasing doubts about the credibility of such information. In 2002, 52.8% of users said that most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate - a decline from 58% in 2001 and 55% in 2000. [Source: Shelflife] Web: http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/admin_dept/media_rel/releases/2003/03internet.html.

Edward T. O’Neill, Brian F Lavoie and Rick Bennett, in Trends in the Evolution of the Public Web (D-Lib Magazine April 2003) identify three key trends and surprises that have emerged in relation to the Web, based on a review of five annual surveys conducted by the OCLC Office of Research. (1) growth - the growth of the public Web has slowed steadily for the past five years and, in the last year, actually shrank slightly in size; (2) globalisation – the bulk of Web content is published by entities originating in the United States, and the vast majority of the text is in English; (3) better access - little if any progress is being made to render the material that is on the Web more accessible. Although metadata usage is common, the metadata itself is created largely in an ad hoc fashion. Source: D-Lib Magazine Apr 2003. Web: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april03/lavoie/04lavoie.html.

Libraries

Andrew K Pace, in The Ultimate Digital Library: Where the New Information Players Meet (Chicago: American Library Association, 2003), considers the pivotal relationship between libraries and vendors, competition from dot-coms, the changing face of public services, and the erosion of basic reader rights. [Source: Current Cites].

Megan Lane, in Is This the Library of the Future? (BBC News Online, 18 March 2003) says the word 'library' may eventually be replaced by the phrase 'idea store'. Books are being displaced by computers, multimedia content, playgrounds, thematic displays, and cafes. These are proving to be extremely popular. The client population is surging. [Source: Current Cites]. Web: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2859845.stm

Gregg Sapp and Ron Gilmour, in A Brief History of the Future of Academic Libraries: Predictions and Speculations from the Literature of the Profession, 1975 to 2000, part two, 1990 to 2000, (Portal vol 3, no 3, Jan 2003: pp 13-34) identify a growing feeling in the literature ‘that technology will not bring about the total rebirth and redefinition of the library that had so frequently been predicted’. [Source: Current Cites]. Web: http://mus,jhu.edu

SCHOLARLY INFORMATION

The future of the book

The [Australian] National Scholarly Communications Forum, at a meeting in Sydney during March 2003, considered whether there was a crisis in academic publishing. It predicted that, although the book appears to be dormant in terms of global distribution of Australian content, the book will rise again through the increasingly electronic creation of knowledge, but it will be produced, accessed and distributed in new ways that require synergies between authors, publishers, librarians and printers. Professor Malcolm Gillies, the Chair of the National Scholarly Communications Forum, said that new alliances need to be forged to ensure the effective distribution and branding of Australian research in a publishing arena, increasingly dominated by multi-national commercial publishers. Issues such as copyright, quality assurance, digital rights, and scholarly advocacy will all need to be addressed to ensure the effectiveness of Australia's ‘long distance thinkers’ who contribute valuable insights to the frameworks of a just and reasoning Australian society. [Source: FOS]. Presentations: http://www.humanities.org.au/NSCF/bookfuture/futureofbook.htm.

Innovations in Publishing

Gerry McKiernan’s article Scholar-based Innovations in Publishing. Part I: Individual and Institutional Initiatives appears in Library Hi Tech News Vol. 20 No. 2, March 2003, pp. 9-26. Among initiatives profiled are: individual initiatives like arXiv.org (http://xxx.arXiv.cornell.edu ); CogPrints (http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/), and RePEc (Research Papers in Economics- http://repec.org/) and institutional initiatives like the eScholarship Repository (University of California (http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/); Glasgow ePrints Service (http://eprints.lib.gla.ac.uk/); Knowledge Bank (Ohio State University - http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/Lib_Info/scholarcom/KBproposal.html). Part II in the series (LHTN Vol 20, no 3) will be devoted to library and professional initiatives. LHTN is available electronically for subscribers via Emerald: (http://www.emeraldinsight.com). [Source: FOS]

Institutional repositories

Clifford Lynch, in Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age (ARL February 2003 pp.1-7), provides an overview of institutional repositories, their strategic importance, key issues, and possible future developments. He defines an institutional repository as ‘a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members.’ He expresses three concerns: (1) institutional repositories should not become a tool for enforcing administrative control over faculty works; (2) they should not be unduly constrained by policies designed to promote other agendas such as creating virtual e-journals (although they may contribute to this effort by providing essential infrastructure that supports it); and (3) they should not be established without institutions making well-considered, long-term commitments to their operation. On this point, he notes that: ‘Stewardship is easy and inexpensive to claim; it is expensive and difficult to honour, and perhaps it will prove to be all too easy to later abdicate’. He feels that repositories will promote progress in the areas of preservation formats, identifiers, and digital rights management. Over time, most higher education institutions will have repositories, and other types of institutions may as well. A federation of repositories will become an increasingly important area for experimentation. Web http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html. [Source: Current Cites].

Knowledge domains

The National Academy of Sciences in the United States examined the topic Mapping Knowledge Domains in a colloquium at Irvine, California, in May 2003. Using a database of publications in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, participants illustrated and compared the use of their techniques, algorithms, and approaches by identifying aggregates of research areas, experts, institutions, grants, publications, and journals, by finding the interconnections among these, by tracking the speed and growth of scientific sub-fields, and by exploring social networking that underlies scientific progress. [Source CNI]. Web: http://www.nationalacademies.org/nas/colloquia

New-Model Scholarship

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has published New-Model Scholarship: How Will It Survive?, a report that explores the following types of emerging scholarship: (1) experimental (designed to develop and model a methodology for generating recorded information about a historical event or an academic discipline that might otherwise go undocumented); (2) open-ended (generating digital objects that are intended to be added over time); (3) interactive (gathering content through dynamic interactions among the participants); and (4) software-intensive (stipulating that the tools for using the data are as important to preserve as is the content); (5) multimedia (creating information in a variety of genres-texts, time lines, images, audio, and video-and file formats); (6) unpublished (designed to be used and disseminated through the Web, yet not destined to be published formally or submitted for peer review). The report says that libraries face many challenges in ensuring long-term access to the ‘new-model scholarship’ that is born digital. Humanists have the problem of adopting digital technologies to create complex, often idiosyncratic digital objects that are in many ways more challenging to preserve than scientific literature. Libraries must determine which of this content has long-term value for teaching and research. They must work closely with creators to identify attributes of the resources that warrant preserving. Several models of stewardship, roughly divided into two organizational types, are emerging for resources that are worth preserving: (1) enterprise-based models – which take some responsibility for keeping information resources created by an institution or a discipline that are used primarily by that community and (2) community-based models – which offer third-party preservation services to digital creators. [Source: NINCH]. Web: http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub114abst.html

Open Archives and UK Institutions

Stephen Pinfield, in Open Archives and UK Institutions: An Overview (D-Lib Magazine March 2003 Volume 9 Number 3) provides an overview of open archives (particularly e-print repositories) within UK universities and similar institutions. The biggest challenge, he says, is getting content. Setting up an institutional repository and designing collection management policies are relatively straightforward; populating the repository is not. Content needs to come largely from researchers within the institution. Persuading them to submit content is a major challenge. Self-archiving requires a cultural change that can only be achieved through significant advocacy activity. [Source: FOS]. Web: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march03/pinfield/03pinfield.html.

SPARC

Rick Johnson, Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), in an interview in Library Journal Academic Newswire 13 February 2003, looks at SPARC’s activities since its inception in 1998. Both SPARC and the market have changed, he said, particularly as regards the growing focus on open access. SPARC is playing a key role in the development of business models for open access journals and in building support for deployment of institutional repositories. It is important that we not adopt a one-size-fits-all view of appropriate solutions at this point because scholarly communication is such a complex ecosystem, with differences in the traditions of various disciplines and deeply entrenched economic interests. SPARC places value on the value of bringing small players together on subscription-supported digital publishing platforms such as BioOne and Project Euclid. Open access journals are attracting energy, investment, and prestige. Alternative journals have become the leaders. Libraries are asserting an important role in scholarly communication as the instigators of and hosts for institutional repositories. Momentum is building. Change is underway. [Source: FOS].

SPARC’s Europe Director, David Prosser, in SPARC e-news February-March 2003, working from an idea introduced by Tom Walker (University of Florida), has circulated a proposal for conversion of subscription-based journals to open access, based on the idea of a hybrid journal that offers different pricing models at the article level. The article discusses the basic concept, its advantages and disadvantages, and possible scenarios arising from its development. Web: http://www.arl.org/sparc [Source: FOS]

SPARC, the Open Society Institute (OSI) Information Program, and Lund University Libraries in Sweden have begun a project to create a Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ, http://www.doaj.org). The Directory aims to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific journals and will comprehensively cover all open access scientific journals that use an appropriate quality control system. It will not be limited to particular languages or subject areas. To ensure wide dissemination, the OSI will work with the eIFL Network (http://www.eifl.net), an umbrella organization for national library consortia in nearly 50 countries. To include an open-access journal in the Directory of Open Access Journals, contact Sara Kjellberg, sara.kjellberg@lub.lu.se. [Source: FOS]

SPARC and OSI have published two new business guides for developers of open access journals: Guide to Business Planning for Launching a New Open Access Journal and the Guide to Business Planning for Converting a Subscription-based Journal to Open Access. The first focuses on how to plan for the launch, ongoing operation, and long-term sustainability of a new scholarly journal under a business model that provides for free access to research on an ongoing basis. The second addresses the interests of those contemplating or in the process of converting an existing fee-based journal to an open access model, providing resources that help ensure planning is complete. Typically, open access alternatives to subscription-based journals are published by educational and non-profit entities such as universities, libraries, learned and professional societies and associations, consortia, and independent non-profit corporations. Increasingly, however, for-profit publishers are recognising the potential role of integrating open access models into their businesses, and the new Guides may serve their interests as well. Additionally, they may also be useful to potential grantors or other financial supporters when evaluating proposals or grant requests and business plans for Open Access journal initiatives. [Source: FOS. Publications: http://www.soros.org/openaccess. SPARC: http://www.arl.org/sparc.

STANDARDS & SYSTEMS

Archival Resource Information System

The International Council on Archives and UNESCO are undertaking a feasibility study to develop an Open Source Archival Resource Information System (OSARIS) with the aim of providing such software free of charge to archives worldwide, particularly in developing countries. The feasibility study, expected to completed in June 2003, will assess and validate functional requirements and make recommendations on the feasibility or otherwise of either developing and supporting the software from scratch or redeveloping existing software products for this purpose. An earlier report, completed by a committee in 2001, includes the functional requirements, mapped to relevant standards, a data model, preliminary information on available software tools and an assessment of each. [Source: Aus-Archivists]. Web: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/public_domain/projects/eafa.shtml

Auto categorisation

Knowledge management consultant Tom Reamy discusses automatic categorisation in EContent Magazine November 2002. Automatic categorisation – software, originating in the news and content provider arena, that assigns documents into subject matter categories had its start - replaces human judgment with a wide variety of classification techniques that include statistical Bayesian analysis of word patterns, document clustering based on content similarities, word frequency vectoring, neural networks, sophisticated linguistic inferences, the use of pre-existing sets of categories, and seeding categories with keywords. Reamy puts the number of companies offering versions of this new software at nearly 50 with more and more search and content management companies scrambling to incorporate auto-categorisation capabilities into their products. This profusion of products makes it difficult for the information professional to evaluate the promise and pitfalls of auto-categorization. Reamy also warns that auto categorisation cannot completely replace a librarian or information architect although it can make them more productive, save them time, and produce a better product. While auto categorisation is much faster than a human categoriser and doesn't require vacation days and medical benefits, it is still simply not as good as a human categorizer. It can't understand the subtleties of meaning like a human can, and it can't summarise like a human, because it doesn't understand things like implicit meaning in a document and because it doesn't bring the meaningful contexts that humans bring to the task of categorisation. Source: ShelfLife, No. 100]. Web: http://www.econtentmag.com/r5/2002/reamy11_02.html

Dublin Core for eprints

The ePrints UK project is developing a series of national, subject-focused services through which the UK education community and others can gain access to the collective output of eprints available from OAI-compliant eprint archives, particularly those provided by UK universities and colleges. The Project has published Using simple Dublin Core to describe eprints by Andy Powell, Michael Day and Peter Cliff to encourage consistent usage of simple Dublin Core metadata within eprint archives. Web: http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/docs/simpledc-guidelines/ Web: http://www.rdn.ac.uk/projects/eprints-uk/ [Source: FOS]

E-learning specifications

IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) and the Coalition of Networked Information (CNI) have formed an alliance to explore the development of common architectural and functional models leading to joint specifications and improved technical interoperability in the evolving areas of digital libraries and learning object repositories. The project is being led by Professor Neil McLean, Director of IMS Australia. The recently released IMS Digital Repository Interoperability Specification version 1.0 will serve as a framework for the consultation exercise and as a platform for further technical specifications. IMS and CNI are developing a joint white paper, with assistance from Lorcan Dempsey, (OCLC) and David Seaman (Digital Library Federation). While the initial focus of the alliance will be specifically on the requirements of higher education institutions around the world, the group aims to provide technical advice and specifications for all education and training communities wishing to develop and use interoperable digital library and learning object repositories. Web: www.imsglobal.org. [Source: CNI]

Information Environment Architecture Standards Framework

An IE Architecture Standards Framework is now available from the Joint Information Systems Committee in the UK. This updates the older Standards and Guidelines to Build a National Resource and aims to provide developers with a single point of reference to the main technologies that they should be using when working in the context of the JISC information environment. [Source: FOS Newsletter]. Web: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/arch/standards/.

Knowledge Mapping

Groxis, a US software company, offers an application called Grokker, a plug-in data visualisation tool that sits on top of a search engine, draws on raw masses of data and sorts them into themed silos. The software reads XML tags written into the data, then arranges the results of a search into either a ring of spheres or an array of squares labelled to show each one's relationship (with each sphere or square then being further subdivided into finer categories), thus facilitating drill-down via the spheres or squares. Grokker sells for US$99. Web: http://www.groxis.com. [Source ShelfLife].

Metasearching

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has launched a project to develop guidelines and standards for the metasearching environment, The initiative emerged from an American Library Association meeting in January 2003. Specific topics to be examined include: authentication/certification mechanisms and the impact on search targets; sorting, ranking and ordering of search results from multiple sources and multiple protocols; display of complete content including branding information and copyright notices; statistics and use measurement. Web: http://www.niso.org/committees/MetaSearch-info.html

Searching Blogs

The FuzzyGroup has released Feedster, a search engine designed to monitor and index RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. RSS is a Web content syndication format, based on XML, used for weblog feeds. Other search engines focussing on RSS feeds include RSS Search and Snarf. Unlike search engines like Google, which index Web page content, RSS-targeted search engines index the RSS feeds more frequently and do so at a finer level of granularity. Feedster is currently developing a customisation feature to facilitate personalised aggregated searching. Web: http://www.feedster.com. Source: [InfoWorld]

Thesauruses

NISO is revising the standard for thesaurus construction Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Thesauri (ANSI/NISO Z39.19). This will: (1) reflect the ways that users search or browse, the types of content they will find, and the new technologies they are using; (2) address the needs of a variety of information organizations and content - beyond the traditional abstracting and indexing services- and add explicit examples that are relevant to business and industry; (3) introduce more user-friendly language; and (4) include the why and how behind the key concepts and principles. Web: http://www.niso.org/committees/MT-info.html. [Source: AHDS]

Technology reports

DigiCULT, has published the first of its technology watch reports, The XML Family of Technologies, which identifies and describes technologies that are not currently used in the heritage sector or are under-utilised by it, provides accessible descriptions of new technologies, suggests how these might be employed, and indicates the implications and risks. Technologies examined include: Customer Relationship Management; Digital Asset Management Systems; Smart Labels and Smart Tags; Virtual Reality and Display Technologies; Human Interfaces; Games Technologies. Web: http://www.digicult.info/. [Source: NINCH]

FEEDBACK

The Wolanski Foundation would be grateful for feedback on the scope, format and content of this bulletin..

	The Wolanski Foundation Project
What's new	15 May 2003

Cross Currents No 15 May 2003

ARTS & CULTURE