Editorial
This issue is another example of being truly global. Articles come from around the globe. Several international conferences are reported on. They include the annual meetings of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) held in Glasgow, International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) which was held in Berkeley,California and the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), which is a combined effort of the ACM (Association For Computing Machines) and the IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and that meeting was held in Portland, Oregon.
Clearly, libraries everywhere are experimenting with new technologies and challenging their staffs to apply new service parameters and meet their users'needs in different ways. From different sides of Europe, we have library snapshots of the Cracow University of Technology in Poland and Cranfield University of Technology in the UK. Both institutions have much to be proud of as they demonstrate commitment to global access of their unique content with digital library initiatives well underway and are looking at ways to meet the increasing needs of diverse users through distance education and other methods to extend service and share resources.
Following our earlier articles on personal digital assistants (PDAs) we have a very interesting article on Infrared Beaming or data transfer. Michelle Paolillo and her colleagues at Cornell University Science Libraries have been exploring new applications about how library users can beam the results of a bibliographic search into their PDAs.
Stuart Hannabuss writes a very thoughtful and stimulating column on forms of virtual learning environments and some of the challenges that electronic media pose. A perceived increase in plagiarism is a very real threat in the halls of higher education. This essay presents them in comparison to other practices of academic misconduct and explores how technology contributes to the ease in which to commit such "slips" and "omissions", instead of practicing attribution and providing proper citations and references. Even though this column focuses on UK experiences and responses, plagiarism committed by the all too easy cut and paste technique is a global concern and practice we must address in our role of librarian/teacher as we share our strategies for information seeking and manipulation.
As this issue goes to press we have just heard the oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in the Eldred v Ashcroft case which could alter the future course of US copyright. We will be tracking the outcomes of this important case where the court will consider whether to strike down the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
The information industry is examined carefully by Howard Falk in E-book Currents. Future issues will see wider coverage of "reading currents"than just the E-book as Falk explores other avenues of related interest. We are already planning for our next volume year and invite you to participate by submitting features and pieces of library technology applications and related interests you may have. We include Table I to remind you of upcoming publication deadlines.
We extend you best wishes for a peaceful and joyous holiday season and a very Happy New Year. We look forward to hearing your comments and receiving your submissions.
Julia Gelfand(jgelfand@uci.edu)Colby Riggs(cmriggs@uci.edu)Co-editors
