New & noteworthy
NISOPublishes Guide to Standards for Library Systems
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the publication of The RFP Writer's Guide to Standards for Library Systems, a manual intended to aid library system Request for Proposal (RFP) writers and evaluators in understanding the relevant standards and determining a software product's compliance with standards.
The widespread use of Integrated Library Systems (ILS), global communications via the Internet, and growing numbers of digital library initiatives have made the need for compliance with standards more critical than ever. Implementing information products and systems that support standards can ensure that libraries will be able to:
integrate electronic content products from multiple vendors;
resource share on a wider geographic scale, even globally;
participate in more cooperative programs with other organizations, including ones outside the library community;
speed up the "time to market" of library materials, i.e. the time to acquire, catalog, process, and circulate an item;
provide remote access to library services;
reduce the need for user training;
operate successfully with their parent organization's computing infrastructure;
migrate cost effectively to newer systems; and
more easily adopt new technologies.
The RFP Writer's Guide to Standards for Library Systems identifies critical standards in the areas of Bibliographic Formats, Record Structure, Character Sets, Exchange Media, Serials Identifiers, Binding, Circulation Protocols,Barcodes, Interlibrary Loan (ILL), Electronic Documents, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Information Retrieval, Metadata, and Web Access. For each standard, the applicability to libraries is described, sample RFP language is provided, and compliance assessment issues are discussed. "Having recently participated in writing an RFP, I wish I'd had this Guide in hand," stated Priscilla Caplan, Assistant Director of Digital Library Services at the Florida Center for Library Automation. "It's easy to rattle off a list of standards to be supported, but another thing altogether to specify standards compliance in a way that discriminates between different vendor implementations."
Copies of the guide are available in print from NISO Press or for free download from NISO's Web site http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/RFP_Writers_Guide.pdf
JISCSponsors Online Plagiarism Detection Service
A new Plagiarism Advisory Service, funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and based in the Information Management Research Institute at Northumbria University, was inaugurated in September 2002. The service aims to raise awareness of plagiarism in the academic community by providing:
generic advice for institutions, academic staff and students;
educational tools for students in the area of plagiarism;
a portal to external online resources on the issue of plagiarism;
guidance on copyright and data protection issues relating to plagiarism;
a link to the electronic detection service and training on its use.
The JISC is an online service, which enables institutions and staff to carry out electronic comparison on students' work against electronic sources including other students' work. The service is based in the UK and accessed via standard Web browsers. JISC hopes that this service will be a valuable support tool for institutions and staff in their efforts to prevent and detect plagiarism. Both the advisory and detection services will be fully supported by JISC for the first two years (September 2002 to August 2004). During this time the services will be available to JISC sites at no cost.
The JISC detection service is based on the "turnitin.com" provided,developed and supplied by the US company iParadigms. This product was selected by JISC following EU procurement. To make use of the detection service, sites must first register via the JISC plagiarism advisory service. Once this process is completed, the institution contact will be provided with access details. Access can then be established for individual tutors wishing to make use of the service. Details are then passed to the students. Once the students have submitted their work, the service carries out a comparison of it against the following:
a database of previously submitted material (i.e. other students' essays and assignments);
over 800 million Web sites;
essays from cheat sites.
The tutor can then access the results. It is important to note that the software itself cannot identify plagiarism; it simply provides a color coded"originality report". This report highlights text within the assignment that has been found at another source and provides links to them. It does not make decisions about a piece of work or its author; it is just providing information on which a tutor can make a judgment about whether plagiarism has taken place.
DSpaceSuper Archive Launched at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced the worldwide launch of DSpace, a ground breaking digital repository system which will capture, store,distribute and preserve the intellectual output of MIT's faculty and research staff. Developed jointly by the MIT Libraries and the Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP),DSpace will transform how MIT distributes and archives the results of its research, and will serve as a model for other universities and institutions with similar needs.
DSpace, which the Chronicle of Higher Education recently called "the most ambitious and closely watched program of its kind", is designed to be a sustainable, scalable digital repository capable of holding more than the 10,000 pieces of digital content produced by MIT faculty and researchers each year. This would include articles, technical reports and conference papers from MIT labs and centers, and everything from data sets, databases and media clips to visualizations and simulations used in the classroom.
DSpace is designed with a flexible storage and retrieval architecture adaptable to a multitude of data formats and distinct research disciplines. Different MIT communities can adapt and customize the DSpace system to meet their individual needs and manage the data submission process themselves. Furthermore, a customized user portal can be created for each community,promoting a user environment closely matching a community's own terminology and culture.
Ultimately, MIT hopes to extend the scope of DSpace by offering and encouraging its adoption at other research-intensive institutions. By making open-source DSpace software available to other universities, DSpace will enable even small colleges to run repositories with existing resources.
DSpace is closely tied to other significant MIT digital initiatives,including MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), which recently was launched with the goal of making all MIT course materials available online. Both OCW and DSpace have been recognized as a collective instrument for disseminating knowledge generated at MIT in an open environment, without barriers and in a manner that will persist into the future.
GalePartners with Océano Grupo Editorial to Provide Consulta
Gale has partnered with the premiere Spanish-language reference publisher, Océano Grupo Editorial to provide a new online resource: Consulta. Designed to serve the ever-increasing Spanish-speaking and bilingual patrons using US public,academic and school libraries, Consulta includes over 100 Gale and Océano reference titles, more than 60 full text journals and over 1,600 primary source documents. Consulta maintains the scope and functionality users have come to expect from Gale Resource Centers, providing Basic, Advanced, Name,Timeline/Chronology and Image Gallery search paths. In addition, Consulta includes several bilingual Spanish dictionaries, including English-Spanish and Spanish-English translations; French-Spanish and Spanish-French translations;Spanish definitions and Spanish synonyms and antonyms.
Consulta gathers reference material, primary sources and journal articles in one easy-to-navigate Web-based product for students and general researchers. Consulta also includes more than 6,200 full-color photographs, maps and artwork.
Copyright Clearance CenterAnnounces New Digital Transactional License
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) has launched a transactional licensing service to enable case-by-case permissions for digital reproduction and distribution of copyrighted materials. This transactional service complements CCC's digital repertory licensing and allows external uses.
Under this new service, customers request permission to e-mail or post material on their Internet or Extranet sites. Most common digital uses are covered, including PC-to-PC faxing and PDA transmissions. "This service provides the only centralized means for users to license digital use on an as needed basis," said David Dekker, chief operating officer of Marcel Dekker Inc., an international publisher of scientific, technical and medical journals.
Rights owners set their own royalty fees and terms and conditions, based on types of digital uses sought by customers. Using a secure section on CCC's copyright.com, rights owners can authorize usage on a request-by-request basis. Marcel Dekker, Thomson Media, AMACOM, American Lawyer Media and Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC are among the early publisher participants.
Classical.comOffers World's First Streaming Classical Music Service for Libraries
A new streaming classical music service for libraries from interactive music company Classical.com offers on-demand listening to library users. The service provides access to 10,000+ classical music recordings and an easy-to-access supplementary resource that includes hundreds of themed playlists, plus thousands of key composer and artist biographies and program notes on essential works and movements. The service is available to libraries on an annual subscription plan and the streaming content is served via each library's choice of direct or local service.
Classical.com's library service is unique, in that it provides an "always-on"classical music resource accessible 24/7 by any authenticated user, whether they are in the library building itself or logging on remotely from an audio-enabled Windows PC. This enables libraries to increase the availability and equality of access to the service, and to attract new users.
Following a successful trial in the UK's Westminster Libraries in London,Classical.com has publicly launched the new service, now available to libraries and institutions worldwide. The highly profiled Westminster Libraries' trial of the service, launched in July 2002, attracted enthusiastic response from librarians and end users and was described by the Sunday Times (London)as "a civilised piece of bait" to lure community members back to their local libraries.
EndeavorReleases LinkFinderPlus 3.0
Endeavor Information Systems has released enhanced software for libraries to extend their electronic database collections with the latest release for LinkFinderPlus. Endeavor's advanced linking system bridges the gap between citations and the online full-text of articles, providing maximum usage of the library's electronic journal subscriptions.
Library staff will find increased productivity in making resources available for researchers. LinkFinderPlus 3.0 includes batch activation of the LinkFinderPlus Knowledge Base and batch maintenance of the Knowledge Base post-implementation. Delivered with over 13,000 targets to link to full-text and abstracts for citations, the LinkFinderPlus Knowledge Base is designed for minimal staff maintenance once the library activates their localsubscriptions. Additionally, LinkFinderPlus 3.0 allows libraries to enable immediate access to electronic journals as they become available with a local option to add journal sites.
Libraries can now easily customize the LinkFinderPlus 3.0 display to match the libraries' local look and feel; ensuring researchers find a smooth transition to full-text of articles.
Interoperability with CrossRef (www.crossref.org),a not-for-profit network founded on publisher collaboration, is now available. This makes reference linking efficient and reliable, and enables LinkFinderPlus users to link with CrossRef for the resolution of DOIs sent using the OpenURL proposed standard. This allows the LinkFinderPlus software to consider the local library's subscriptions and preferences before generating links to full text.
NCACNational File Format Initiative to Develop
The US Department of Education has awarded $199,911 to the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC) at CAST to develop a voluntary national file format for the electronic transmission of instructional materials for students who are blind and students with other disabilities.
The creation of a standard file format is of significant importance to students, educators, publishers, technology specialists and advocacy groups,according to Robert H. Pasternack, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services.
"It is critical for a uniform format to be established in order to coordinate the efforts of various groups interested in providing accessible instructional materials to states, schools, educators, and students,"Pasternack said. "Since there is not yet agreement regarding the optimal file format standard for all students, a national voluntary standard would provide a baseline for future development and enhancements."
CAST, in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) at the Department of Commerce, will convene an advisory panel of publishers, disability advocates, assistive technology developers, producers of curriculum materials for students with disabilities, data transformation experts and state representatives.
The panel will develop recommendations for a set of technical specifications for accessible instructional materials, a timeline for the implementation of the proposed standard, and a process for assessing the success of standards implementation. The secretary will provide an opportunity for public comment on the proposed standard through a notice in the Federal Register.
The project is intended to improve access to the general education curriculum in a timely manner for students with disabilities. It is particularly important to students who are blind or print disabled and in need of textbooks in Braille or other alternative formats.
Readers' GuideRetrospective Now Available Online
H.W. Wilson has announced that the entire retrospective content of Readers'Guide to Periodical Literature (back to its 1901 debut) is now searchable online via WilsonWeb. The two-phase release of Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 makes nearly a century of Readers' Guide content available. When combined with Readers' Guide Full Text (or other current Readers' Guide databases), more than 110 years of article citations are accessible for fast electronic searching.
Readers' Guide Retrospective is the online equivalent of 43 Readers' Guide annuals in print. Users can search by keyword, subject heading, dates, journal,author, article title, ISSN, article type, and more. Updated subject headings allow searching using familiar, contemporary terms, while original subject headings, also provided, offer a revealing and historically valuable look at the way issues of the day were framed.
The database also makes acquiring articles easy. A library holdings indicator, linked to the library's OPAC, lets users know if they will find cited articles on the shelves. WilsonLink SFX-powered technology links citations with full text from other open-URL compatible databases. Users can also acquire articles through built-in interlibrary loan and document-delivery links.
Open UniversityPowers Educational Software Library
Staff across the higher education sector now have access to an online database of resources that focus on reusing educational software – thanks to the Open University. The Reusable Educational Software Library (RESL)database gives access to shared case studies, reports, software and other resources.
The site is powered by the Open University's Knowledge Network, a Web-based system for exploring, sharing and building knowledge and experience of teaching and learning. The university's RESL team hopes that the library will lead to an increased sharing of ideas about software reuse across the higher education sector. RESL is among public sites that are underpinned by the Knowledge Network's flexible technology, which is also used extensively in sharing expertise about teaching and learning among the OU's own community.
Dr Doug Clow, lecturer in interactive media development, is a member of the RESL and Knowledge Network team. He said: "We hope that our technology will be used to its full potential by the higher education community. RESL provides an opportunity for collaborative sharing of ideas about software reuse and that is something that I think can benefit the whole community."
The network was developed for the Open University and the wider education community by the Institute of Educational Technology (http://iet.open.ac.uk). The institute is a center of international excellence for teaching, research and development of educational technologies in the service of effective learning. It runs a program of postgraduate courses in open and distance education. A public version of the Knowledge Network can be accessed at http://www.open.ac.uk/kn.
