Editorial

This issue has several good reads that demand special attention because they solicit different responses from a varied readership. Our conference reports include several pieces that highlight a range of global ideas as they represent a wide range of sophistication and involvement in library technologies. The first conference report is from a conference of law librarians in Nigeria and is poignant for several reasons. The main conclusion is that connectivity to’the Internet is so uneven and undependable and that law libraries have such a poor infrastructure for technology that many things that are normally expected such in academic and government law libraries are not rendered in the Nigerian experience. Poor resources do not suggest that law librarians are unaware of what could be possible but that they can not achieve higher levels of library technology with the normal resources with which they function. Thus, this piece illustrates digital divide in very strong examples even with a theme of the annual conference, "Standards for Law Libraries".

Italy, specifically Rome is the venue of the second conference report on Open Access adoption by the Italian academic community. A detailed two day report suggests how increasingly responsible the library community in Italy has become in order to plan and respond to how researchers can choose publishing alternatives that create and promote an increasingly open access environment. Leaders from around the world in the Open Access movement addressed this conference with serious new goals being adopted by the end of it.

A small conference held to support a local campus was held at the University of California, Irvine on book history. Most salient was the wide range of issues that were covered and the variety of participants and how conclusive the findings were that digital publishing would embrace such a spectrum of technologies and related issues as we consider how academic research and publishing outputs in tandem generate new thinking and products.

We also have an interview with one of our new contributing editors, Aimee Fifarek. Her specialization of oversight for library technology in public libraries provides insight and imagination as she suggests the transitions she experiences in her current position as director of library technologies for a medium-sized public library system. The possibilities are endless and we already look forward to new programs that she will describe in future issues of this publication.

Back to Africa another feature exposes the factors contributing to the weak cyberinfrastructure also in Nigeria. The challenges of developing a more widespread global information infrastructure building on an unfortunately weak ICT environment are daunting and great. One is not very positive about the overall achievements in global competitiveness and being able to train a new generation of information workers who have the sufficient and stable resources necessary to build a national program. Learning how a country tries to leverage itself is admirable and insightful but deeply problematic as the near future remains unquestionable in terms of how much progress can be made.

We are very pleased that we can offer an "Around the World" column to a Swedish institution's library and include a promotion for the next IATUL conference that will be hosted by the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

As we see firsthand with a half dozen clear examples what the outcomes are due to the kind of resources, infrastructure, educational and professional development training opportunities in different regions, it give us pause to reflect what the real emphases are in libraries that span this era of development and advancement. Customer service, access to information resources and ongoing training are all mentioned as goals regardless of the library environment and particulars and they translate into different challenges and experiences and we hope that you find this eclectic package of reports, articles and interviews engaging.

As we think of how real the digital divide is we are also reminded about a recent column that was released about the "Top Ten Technologies of All Time",and we can see how this is probably a worldwide consensus but can not be realized with the same ubiquity around the world. We encourage you to review the full list and descriptive notes at the eWeek website, www.eweek.com/slideshow/0,1206,pg=0&s=26705&a=202626,00.asp. Following is a summary of Jim Rapoza's picks and you can conclude whether you agree or not:

• 1.

  xml – core but also the present & future of the web–everything is based on it

• 2.

  html – simple protocol but provides the entire layer connection to web

• 3.

  netscape navigator – killer app

• 4.

  Apache – most successful open source

• 5.

  CERN httpd – first web server

• 6.

  Internet Explorer 3 – won the browser wars

• 7.

  NCSA httpd – web server that was platform for other web technologies

• 8.

  Firefox – descendant of original netscape brower – forces Microsoft to be aware of other developments

• 9.

  SSL – Secure Sockets Layer – makes eCommerce safe for credit card and other sensitive information to be sent over the net

• 10.

  Viola WWW – eclipsed by Mosaic but it was an instrumental and powerful original browser.

We look forward to a busy year of new contributions to Library Hi-Tech News and hope that you will participate not only as a reader but as a contributor.

Mitchell Brown(mcbrown@uci.edu)Julia Gelfand(jgelfand@uci.edu)Co-editors