New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2001), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918iab.002

New & Noteworthy

OCLCCollaborates to Develop Digital Archive of Web Documents

OCLC, with input from several organizations, is developing a digital archive to track and preserve Web-based documents that exist solely in electronic format. The goal of the Web Document Digital Archive project is to create a sustainable service to provide long-term access to Web documents. The service will fill libraries' basic needs for identification, selection, capture, description, preservation, and access to documents that would not be accessible in the future otherwise.

OCLC is seeking direct input on the project from a variety of institutions already focused on the issue: The US Government Printing Office (GPO); The Connecticut State Library; and the Joint Electronic Records Repository Initiative (JERRI), a partnership of the State Library of Ohio, the Ohio Historical Society's State Archives, the Ohio Supercomputer Center and the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.

"Participants will be collaborating with OCLC on system user requirements, evaluating working prototypes through 'hands-on' experience, and developing policies and practices for long-term retention in concert with current best practices established through other digital archive projects internationally", said Taylor Surface, director of OCLC Content Management Services. "Long-term retention and access to documents published on the World Wide Web have universal appeal to libraries and people seeking the information in them".

This pilot will be tested in several phases during the next 18 months using the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model to develop a working digital archive. Building on this soon-to-be international standard, the Web Document Digital Archive will provide a unique integration of workflow to assist library staff in the management of these electronic-only publications. OAIS defines the framework of functions and features of a basic digital archive. "GPO is excited to be part of OCLC's Web Document Digital Archive project to develop a system to provide the same stability of access to digital publications that can be achieved with print publications", said Gil Baldwin, director of the Library Program Service, GPO. "I believe that this metadata and archiving toolkit will help GPO further its mission to provide permanent public access to the electronic government resources in the Federal Depository Library Program".

OCLC ­ www.oclc.org/

Electronic Literature OrganizationMoves Its Offices to UCLA

The Electronic Literature Organization will move its headquarters from an independent office in Chicago to the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles. Supporters of the Organization hope that the new location will give electronic literature prestige and a higher public profile.

The Organization promotes the writing, publication, and reading of fiction and poetry produced primarily for electronic media. Its board voted last Wednesday to move the Organization's offices to UCLA, which has offered both space and a budget. The University will also pay the salary of some staff members.

The Electronic Literature Organization supports only literature that is produced for electronic media, rather than, for instance, traditional literature that migrates to an e-book. The group offers symposia every year to discuss electronic media and the future of electronic literature. It maintains a Web site that offers news about the genre and a long list of electronic literature. And the group annually gives two $10,000 awards for outstanding electronic literature.

Electronic Literature Organization ­ http://www.eliterature.org/index2.html

ARL, ALA, AALL and MLASupport National Geographic Society's Supreme Court Appeal

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), and the Medical Library Association (MLA) have jointly filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the National Geographic Society's appeal to the US Supreme Court. The National Geographic Society is seeking to overturn the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in the case of Greenberg v. National Geographic Society. The appeals court, in overturning a lower court decision, ruled that National Geographic's CD-ROM version of the past 100 years of the Society's magazine was not permissible under the Copyright Act.

The library associations filed an amicus brief before the Court due to concerns that the 11th Circuit decision could hinder the use of digital technologies. The 11th Circuit appeals court held that National Geographic was not permitted to reproduce and distribute, through the CD-ROM compilation, the copyrighted photographs of free-lance photographers that had appeared in the original issues of the magazine. The Copyright Act is "media-neutral", and libraries believe that it should allow publishers to take advantage of new technologies to preserve and distribute creative works to the public.

ARL, ALA, AALL, and MLA view the CD-ROM of the National Geographic magazine as no different than if a microfilm version of the magazine had been made. Copyright protection extends to works in any tangible medium of expression. The original collective works that are reproduced in digital facsimiles constitute a permissible revision and are not themselves changed by the transformation from paper to the CD-ROM version. In this case, the photographs at issue appear in the CD-ROM version in the exact positions (along with text and advertising) in which they appeared in the original print version of the magazine.

Libraries also support the right of scholars and researchers to combine pre-existing works with the necessary software to provide a searching capability. Under the 11th Circuit's decision, no CD-ROM or digital technology that requires the addition of such software could arguably ever qualify as a permissible revision.

Association of Research Libraries ­ http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/ngspress.html

DMCALibraries Criticize Federal Report

Advocates for libraries are criticizing a US Copyright Office report that recommends against revising copyright law to assure that libraries and consumers can lend and archive software and other electronic material they purchase.

The report concludes that the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which updated copyright law for a digital environment, has not significantly undermined what is known as the first-sale doctrine. The doctrine allows purchasers of books, CDs and software to give them away or sell them.

"Given the relative infancy of digital rights management, it is premature to consider any legislative change at this time," the report states. The Copyright Office is required to issue the report to Congress, so that law-makers can decide whether there are holes or flaws in the digital-copyright law that need to be fixed.

Library groups and scholars have long argued that the Act's anticircumvention provision and non-negotiable license contracts with software vendors have been undermining the first-sale principle. The anticircumvention provision forbids breaking the encryption on digital material. Decrypting the data would allow consumers to make a copy that could be lent out or sold.

Many library groups said that they were still digesting the report and declined to comment on it. But the American Library Association offered a comment through Frederick W. Weingarten, director of the office for information-technology policy. "We're disappointed", he said. "I can't say we're terribly surprised. It's consistent with things the Copyright Office has said in the past".

ALA ­ Office for Information Technology Policy ­ http://www.ala.org/oitp/index.html

Innovative InterfacesIntroduces AirPAC

Innovative Interfaces introduces AirPAC, a catalog interface designed for wireless devices. With AirPAC, the hand-held device becomes a searching tool with which users can issue OPAC searches from anywhere. Patrons with Internet-enabled cell phones or PDAs can search the OPAC, browse titles, and peruse bib records or item lists.

AirPAC leverages the power of XML technology to deliver the next generation of OPAC access: from virtually anywhere at any time. Innovative's XML server outputs catalog data in response to HTTP requests issued from Web browsing software on the handheld device. XML documents are then transformed into HTML pages specially formatted for display on Palm-powered devices or cellular phones. AirPAC supports both Web clipping applications such as the OmniSky browser and wireless Web browsers such as EudoraWeb running on devices which use the Palm Operating System.

"AirPAC puts the interactive library OPAC into the palm of the patron's hand. As users are moving through the library stacks or through their daily routine, they can browse live catalog data, check item availability in real time, or look up call numbers", said John McCullough, Product Manager at Innovative.

Innovative Interfaces ­ http://www.iii.com/

OpenBookOpen Source Library Automation System

OpenBook is a full-feature Open Source library automation system developed for use by small public and school libraries in the USA and the rest of the world. The Technology Resource Foundation will make this system available free to libraries that because of cost have been unable to achieve the benefit of automation.

OpenBook consists of three modules: the patron or user module (OPAC), the cataloging module, and the circulation module. All modules are Web-interface based and are multi-lingual user-capable. OpenBook supports MARC21 bibliographic fields for importing into its database, including basic series support and authority control for author and subject.

OpenBook ­ http://www.trfoundation.org/index.html