New and Noteworthy

Citation

(1999), "New and Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 16 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.1999.23916cab.001

New and Noteworthy

MCB University PressAcquires Pierian Press Journals

MCB University Press has acquired three library serials of Pierian Press: Reference Services Review, Library Hi Tech, and Library Hi Tech News. The sale was finalized in December 1998.

MCB University Press is an international publisher of 120 academic journals. The three Pierian Press titles will be seen as "flagship" and "cornerstone" publications in the area of library and information technology.

According to the release, MCB plans to vigorously promote the content of these resources around the world. Reference Services Review, Library Hi Tech, and Library Hi Tech News have been established, respected library publications for many years, but at Pierian Press marketing and distribution have been limited largely to the USA.

Ken Wachsberger, who has been managing editor of these serials for many years, will continue to manage them in an expanded role that will include managing editorship also of others from the MCB family as well as editorship of Library Hi Tech News.

Pierian Press remains responsible for all issues published through the close of the 1998 calendar/subscription year. All claims for 1998 issues and orders for back issues should be directed to Pierian Press, PO Box 1808, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106. Tel: (800) 678-2435; Fax: (734) 434-6409.

All new orders for 1999 and beyond, when placed directly with the publisher, should be sent to MCB.

MCB University Press: 60/62 Toller Lane, Bradford, W. Yorkshire, England BD8 9BY. Tel: (01274) 777700; Fax: (01274) 785200, http://www.mcb.co.uk

Institute of Museum and Library ServicesAwards $135 Million to State Library Agencies

Diane Frankel, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), has announced grants totaling $135,366,938 to library agencies in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the US territories. This marks the second time these annual awards have been made through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), part of the Museum and Library Services Act of 1996, promotes access to learning and information resources of all types of libraries. Through the legislation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services provides funds to state library agencies using a population-based formula. The state library agencies develop programs that address the unique needs of their states, sometimes through sub-grants to libraries and sometimes through statewide initiatives and services.

LSTA has two funding priorities. It funds activities using technology for information sharing between libraries and between libraries and other community services. It also supports programs making library resources more accessible to urban or rural residents or those who have difficulty using library services.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services was created by the Museum and Library Services Act of 1996. It is an independent federal grant-making agency that fosters leadership, innovation and lifetime learning by supporting museums and libraries. For more information, including grant guidelines and awards for specific states, contact IMLS.

Institute of Museum and Library Services: c/o Giuliana Bullard, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506. Tel: (202) 606-8339; E-mail: abullard@imls.fed.us; http://www.imls.fed.us/.

NPACITo Install IBM Teraflops Supercomputer at SDSC

The National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) has agreed with IBM to install the first computer dedicated to academic researchers that is capable of teraflops performance ­ one trillion calculations per second.

According to a NPACI release, the supercomputer, to be installed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), will help researchers tackle such demanding computing problems as determining chemical reaction rates, designing new materials, simulating the nervous system, modeling water and pollutant transport, modeling climate and predicting storms, and understanding the origins of the universe.

Delivery of the system, an IBM RS/6000 SP with next-generation nodes, is scheduled for the second half of 1999. Initially, a quarter teraflops system will be installed and tested, after which it will be upgraded to a full teraflops. When complete, the system will have more than 1,000 Power3 processors and be the largest constructed with IBM's next-generation hardware.

In conjunction with the agreement, SDSC and IBM have expanded their partnership currently involving data storage and digital libraries to include parallel programming environments and Web-based supercomputing.

SDSC and IBM will continue their collaboration to enhance the capability of the High-Performance Storage System (HPSS) to store and retrieve very large amounts of data. At 80 terabytes, the archive at SDSC is the largest in the world based on HPSS and is expected to grow to a petabyte (one quadrillion bytes) in the next few years, according to the release.

Coupling of digital library technology, data caching, and data storage will make possible information discovery in a variety of discipline-specific data collections, including macromolecular structures, brain images, and an atlas of two billion stars and galaxies.

New programming tools and techniques will be developed to support the two levels of parallelism inherent in the next-generation SP nodes: symmetric multiprocessing within individual nodes and message passing between nodes.

The emerging area of Web-based supercomputing will enable users from around the world to access powerful supercomputers via Web interfaces without needing to program a supercomputer or learn its operating system. For example, biologists using a remotely controlled electron microscope to study specimens could request 3-D reconstructions of the specimen interactively to direct their study. Environmental scientists could perform simulations of an oil spill in San Diego Bay by entering parameters into a Web form.

NPACI was established in 1997 as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program to build the environment for tomorrow's scientific discovery. Led by SDSC, a research unit of University of California, San Diego, the partnership receives support from the NSF, the state of California, the University of California, and other agencies. NPACI activities are built upon the foundation established by SCSC, which since 1985 has served the country as a national laboratory for computational science and engineering.

NPACI: c/o David Hart. Tel: (619) 534-8314; E-mail: dhart@sdsc.edu, http://www.napci.edu, http://www.sdsc.edu

ScienceServer LLCSigns up Taiwan National Science Council

ScienceServer LLC has signed an extensive three-year contract with the National Science Council of Taiwan for the purchase of ScienceDirect OnSite and ScienceServer software. The software will establish the foundation upon which to develop a national digital library network. The arrangement will give more than 20 universities and colleges participating in the nationwide consortium electronic access to the full text of more than 1,000 Elsevier Science journals.

Among participating universities that already have signed licenses for ScienceDirect OnSite content from Elsevier are Chinese Culture University and Soochow University, both in Taipei, as well as Yuan Ze University in Chung Li and TungHai University in Taichung. The digital library will contain more than 300 gigabytes of data, with issues from 1995 to present of the covered journals.

Elsevier's ScienceDirect OnSite service offers local storage of all Elsevier journals in electronic format, and is supported by an extensive community involvement program. ScienceDirect OnSite, powered by ScienceServer software, provides unlimited access throughout the consortium for university students, faculty, and staff, with access to browsing, display, and printing capabilities, individually saved searches and automatic alerts, and full integration with other electronic library systems. An electronic version of each Elsevier journal will be stored on Academica Sinica host servers. Users will have access to the desired articles as needed from local workstations.

The contract was signed by Ching-Lung Liu, Director-General of Science and Technology Information Center, National Science Council of Taiwan, Todd Morris, President of ScienceServer LLC, and Roland Dietz, Elsevier's Senior Vice President responsible for global sales. Taiwan is the first country to sign a library consortium license for ScienceServer in the Asia Pacific Region.

According to Ching-Lung Liu, development of the digital library will strongly support academic research, which is the mission of the National Science Council.

The ScienceServer software is designed to help libraries and corporations manage their electronic journal collections and to deliver those data to students and researchers through a standard Web browser.

ScienceServer LLC: c/o Todd Morris, President, 8400 Westpark Dr., Ste 200, McLean, VA 22102. Tel: (703) 917-6243; Fax (703) 917-0394; E-mail: t.morris@scienceserver.com, http://www.scienceserver.com/

GEACAnnounces Availability of Enhanced Client/Server Solution

PLUS Release 2.6, an upgrade of Geac's Unix system-based library automation solution, is now available, according to a Geac release. Upgrades include enhancements to the Web-based public access catalog, the MARC Cataloging client, and the Circulation module.

Public access features include expanded functionality of GeoWeb, Geac's Web-based public access catalog. Other features include the ability to sort search results, expansion of the search limiting function, and improved support for multi-agency sites. Enhancements to the Circulation module include alerts for arrived holds, enhancements to the Circulation Accounting Cash Points function, and new capabilities available in the 3M Self-charge interface to support Checkin, Renewal, and Payments. Release 2.6 also incorporates enhancements to GeoCat, the graphical MARC Cataloging client, and GeoPac, the search and retrieval graphical client.

According to the release, the PLUS client/server library system incorporates a standard Unix platform, powerful relational database management system (RDBMS), open systems networking capabilities, industry standards, support for graphical client applications, and Web access to local and remote information sources.

Geac: c/o Penny Glassman, marketing manager, 9 Technology Dr., Box 5150, Westborough, MA 01532. Tel: (508) 871-6335; E-mail: p.glassman@geac.com, http://www.library.geac.com

Information TodayTitle Lists Government Web Sites

Internet Blue Pages: The Guide to Federal Web Sites is Information Today's (IT) new title from their CyberAge Book imprint. Internet Blue Pages is a ready-reference guide to the Web addresses of over 900 United States federal government Internet sites. It is organized by agency in government manual style and is updated regularly, according to an Information Today release. Annotated entries include agency name, URL, links from agency home pages, and function or purpose of selected agencies.

Each entry is numbered for easy reference through the index, and a complete alphabetical listing of agencies and their URLs is included. The companion Web site to Internet Blue Pages ­ http://www.fedweb.com ­ links users to every government Web site listed in the book.

Compiler/researcher Laurie Andriot is a professional indexer and editor with Documents Index. She has over 20 years of professional experience creating, editing, and indexing books on federal governments.

Information Today: c/o Tom Hogan, Jr, 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055-8750. Tel: (800) 300-9868, (609) 654-6266; Fax (609) 654-4309; http://www.infotoday.com.