New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2005), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 22 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2005.23922hab.001

New & Noteworthy

Stanford ResearchersAnnounce Improved Password Security Tools

Researchers at Stanford University have developed extensions to web browsers that allow users to easily invoke software which will help defend against "phishing". The extension is called PwdHash and works in conjunction with Stanford-developed Spoofguard and SpyBlock.

PwdHash works behind the scenes to irreversibly encrypt a user's password in a way that is unique for every web site. SpoofGuard, another browser extension, can recognize illegitimate pages and warn users when they visit them. SpyBlock is meant to directly combat the keystroke reading software that phishers try to distribute.

Further information and free, prototype versions of both PwdHash and SpoofGuard are available online at http://crypto.stanford.edu/PwdHash/ and http://crypto.stanford.edu/SpoofGuard/

Full News announcement: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/july27/phish-072705.html

ETS and Academic ConsortiumDevelops an ICT Literacy Assessment Tool

ETS and a group of colleges and universities have collaborated to design a comprehensive assessment measures for the higher education environment. These tools make it possible to measure the extent to which students demonstrate higher order thinking skills and proficiencies through the use of digital technology, communication tools, and networks to solve information problems.

The ICT Literacy Assessment is a comprehensive test of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) proficiency specifically designed for the higher education environment. It uses scenario-based assignments to assess all the ICT skills required of today's higher education students – not just knowledge of technology, but the ability to use critical-thinking skills to solve problems within a technological environment:

ICT literacy proficiency is defined as the ability to use digital technology, communication tools and/or networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society. This includes the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information, and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information.

ETS's academic development partners include: California State University System, UCLA, University of Louisville, University of North Alabama, University of Texas System, and University of Washington. Students at Portland State University, Purdue University and California State University have already taken the ICT Literacy Assessment as part of assessment projects.

ICT Literacy Assessment web site with Free Demo: www.ets.org/ictliteracy

LSSIAnnounces New Donation Management Software

In July 2005, the Riverside County Library will be the first in a series of libraries to begin beta testing a brand new, experimental library donation program called 1stReads which has been in development for the past year. The software has been developed by LSSI.

The 1stReads program allows libraries to create online "wish list" specifying the exact titles and quantities of the books they would like to have donated. A public library might create wish lists for Forthcoming Fiction and Non-Fiction titles, Children's books, "Management, Home Schooling" or "Harry Potter". An academic library might create lists that would appeal to the reading interests of particular faculty, particular departments, or the alumni of particular schools, etc. The program is flexible so that libraries can make whatever kinds of lists might appeal to communities they are trying to serve, easily changing them and updating them. All that is required is a list of ISBNs and quantities of the books to be included on the lists and the discounts to be offered, and the software does the rest. 1stReads electronically forwards the order to the library along with the money collected from the donor so that the library can utilize its normal ordering and receiving process.

For more information, contact Steven Coffman at LSSI: stevec@lssi.com

Demo web site: www.booksite.com/texis/scripts/community?sid=5906

BASENew Version Available

Version 2 of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), offering a proof-of-concept integrated search of heterogeneous scientific resources worldwide, has been implemented. The updated version now discloses more than two million documents for 130 online – resources, including many scholarly full text archives, accessible through the international protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). Documents are mainly freely available and can be searched by bibliographic data or full text. BASE now offers new features within the search refinement ("restrict results to data source"), various result sorting options and a search history.

BASE is the multi-disciplinary search engine at Bielefeld University to scholarly internet resources, developed by Bielefeld University Library based on the technology of the Norwegian company FAST Search and Transfer (www.fastsearch.com). BASE is a strategic project of Bielefeld University Library and will be further developed with the perspective of replacing the current metasearch. In the meantime BASE has registered as an OAI service provider.

Web site: http://base.ub.uni-bielefeld.de

CornellAnnounces Two New e-Resources Published Utilizing DPubS Software

Cornell University Library has announced two new electronic resources published online using the Digital Publishing System (DPubS) software, an open source publication delivery and management system Cornell developed collaboratively with Pennsylvania State University Libraries: Indonesia, http://e-publishing.library.cornell.edu/Indonesia, a semi-annual journal published by the Cornell Southeast Asia Program and "Pennsylvania History", a quarterly journal that publishes the best of current scholarship on the history of the Commonwealth and the region.

These new resources result from an initiative to generalize the DPubS software, supported by a $670,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Cornell University Library originally created the DPubS software for Project Euclid http://projecteuclid.org, a Mellon Foundation-supported initiative that utilizes mutually beneficial strategies to support both academic libraries and independent publishers of mathematics and statistics journals. Working together, the libraries at Cornell and Pennsylvania State are now enhancing and extending DPubS to create an open source, general purpose platform to facilitate the publishing of online scholarly literature in diverse disciplines. DPubS will support peer review, have extensive administrative functionality and will provide interoperability with other open source repository systems such as Fedora and DSpace. Several partner institutions will begin testing an alpha version of DPubS in fall 2005, with beta testing scheduled for early 2006 and final release in mid-2006.

For more information and to sign up for an email update list, please visit http://dpubs.org Institutions and organizations interested in DPubS should contact David Ruddy, the project's technical manager at Cornell University, (607) 255-6803 or dwr4@cornell.edu.

New OCLC Research ProjectsCuriouser, Data Mining and WikiD

Descriptions of three new projects are available on the OCLC Research web site.

"Curiouser": Curiouser is an approach to making the best use of data about items in WorldCat and a user interface for exploring and selecting works and items. To enhance the utility of Open WorldCat, the project integrates techniques for display and navigation of records in a FRBR context; exploits structured data in bibliographic, authority and holdings records; and explores the potential usefulness of web services and other data sources.

www.oclc.org/research/projects/curiouser/

"WikiD": A Wiki is an online database that enables browser-based, collective document writing with a simple markup. This project leverages open standards, open-source software and existing resources to extend the Wiki model to support the creation and maintenance of structured data. This provides powerful and flexible infrastructure for building new services such as the distributed maintenance of registries, and support for capturing user contributions to associate with Open WorldCat entries.

www.oclc.org/research/projects/wikid/

"Data mining": OCLC Research data-mining projects produce valuable intelligence, mined from WorldCat and other data sources, tailored to the needs of those who manage information resources and those who use them. Examples include knowing more about the characteristics of library collections, creating interesting and useful data displays, and generating information that can be used to support a range of library decision-making needs. By making data "work harder," we can create more value for libraries and users.

www.oclc.org/research/projects/mining/

More information about OCLC research projects: www.oclc.org/research/projects/

RLGReleases Results of Metasearch Survey

In May and June 2005, RLG surveyed a cross-section of RLG member institutions to learn more about their expectations and experiences of metasearch. RLG staff conducted guided discussions with ten institutions drawn from RLG's members. The selected respondents represented a mix of institutional types, metasearch tools, and services targeted. At the time, five described their metasearch implementations as in production, and five described them as tests.

Most of the respondents were very enthusiastic about metasearch, although their definitions varied. Most of their definitions shared a focus on undergraduate students, use of a simple search box, and full-text resources in the results.

While the survey was limited and informal, members gave RLG a valuable view of their concerns. The report addresses:

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  What do institutions and users expect from metasearch?

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  How are these members implementing metasearch now?

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  Do current implementations meet expectations?

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  Can we quantify the likely spread of various tools for types of information?

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  What might make existing metasearch implementations moot?

Survey Report: www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20750

Two New Pew Internet Project ReportsAvailable

Pew Internet Project Report on Spyware

Tens of millions of Americans have been struck by so-called spyware. Fully 91 percent of internet users have changed the way they behave online as they try to avoid unwanted and invasive software. A new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that:

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  81 percent of internet users say they have stopped opening e-mail attachments unless they are sure these documents are safe.

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  48 percent of internet users say they have stopped visiting particular web sites that they fear might deposit unwanted programs on their computers.

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  25 percent of internet users say they have stopped downloading music or video files from peer-to-peer networks to avoid getting unwanted software programs on their computers.

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  18 percent of internet users say they have started using a different web browser to avoid software intrusions.

The report shows that about 93 million US internet users (68 percent of them) have had computer trouble in the past year that is consistent with problems caused by spyware and viruses, though 60 percent of those who had problems were not sure where the problem originated. Some 25 percent of internet users have seen new programs on their computers that they did not install or new icons on their desktop that seemed to come out of nowhere. One in five internet users (18 percent) have had their homepage inexplicably changed.

Spyware report: www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/160/report_display.asp

Pew Internet Project Report on Teens and Technology

These are some of the highlights of a new report, "Teens and Technology," issued by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, based on a November 2004 survey of 1,100 youth between the ages of 12 and 17 and their parents:

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  About 21 million teens use the internet and half of them say they go online every day.

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  51 percent of online teens live in homes with broadband connections.

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  81 percent of wired teens play games online, which is 52 percent higher than four years ago.

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  76 percent of online teens get news online, which is 38 percent higher than four years ago.

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  43 percent have made purchases online, which is 71 percent higher than four years ago.

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  31 percent use the internet to get health information, which is 47 percent higher than four years ago.

Not only has the number of users increased, but also the variety of technologies that teens use to support their communication, research, and entertainment desires has grown. When asked about their individual ownership of networked devices such as desktop and laptop computers, cell phones, and blackberries, 84 percent of teens reported owning at least one of these devices. Some 45 percent of teens have their own cells phones and many own several devices that can connect to the internet.

These technologies enable a variety of methods and channels by which youth can communicate with one another as well as with their parents and other authorities. E-mail, once the cutting edge "killer app," is losing its privileged place among many teens as they express preferences for instant messaging (IM) and text messaging as ways to connect with their friends. Fully 75 percent of online teens use instant messaging and the average amount of time spent instant messaging in a day has increased over the last four years. One-third of all US teens have sent a text message. Nonetheless, the trusty telephone remains the most often cited communication technology used by teens. To teens, email is increasingly seen as a tool for communicating with "adults" such as teachers, institutions like schools, and as a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups.

Meanwhile, IM is used for everyday conversations with multiple friends that range from casual to more serious and private exchanges. It is also used as a place of personal expression. Through buddy icons or other customization of the look and feel of IM communications, teens can express and differentiate themselves. Other instant messaging tools allow for the posting of personal profiles, or even "away" messages, durable signals posted when a user is away from the computer but wishes to remain connected to their IM network. Teens, too, are accessing the internet from a variety of locations, including their homes, schools, community centers, libraries, and friends' and relatives' houses. It seems that teens may come to expect access to the virtual world from any physical world location.

Leading the way are older teenaged girls, who are putting burgeoning technologies to use to support their already honed communication styles. Girls ages 15-17-year-old are the power users of the online teen cohort. Older girls dominate in use of email, IM, text messaging, and selected information-seeking activities.

The full report may be accessed from: www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=162

Also the project recently released a short data memo on the US public's recognition of various "tech terms." You can read the Tech Term Awareness memo at: www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/161/report_display.asp

Pew Internet and American Life Project: www.pewinternet.org/

NSBReleases Report on Long-Lived Digital Data Collections

The US National Science Board has approved the release of a new report, Long-Lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century. The National Science Board (NSB) recognizes the growing importance of digital data collections for research and education, their potential for broadening participation in research at all levels, the ever increasing National Science Foundation (NSF) investment in creating and maintaining the collections, and the rapid multiplication of collections with a potential for decades of curation. In response the NSB formed the Long-lived Data Collections Task Force. The NSB and the task force undertook an analysis of the policy issues relevant to long-lived digital data collections. Their report provides the findings and recommendations arising from that analysis.

The primary purpose of the report is to frame the issues and to begin a broad discourse. The task force's general recommendations call for the NSF to develop a clear technical and financial strategy, and to create policy for key issues consistent with the technical and financial strategy. Specific recommendations include: ensuring that education and training in the use of digital collections are available and effectively delivered to broaden participation in digitally enabled research; and that the NSF, working in partnership with collection managers and the community at large, should act to develop and mature the career path for data scientists and to ensure that the research enterprise includes a sufficient number of high-quality data scientists. Full text of the report is available at: www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents/2005/LLDDC_report.pdf

JISCAnnounces First installment of Digital Curation Manual Now Available

Scientists and researchers across the UK generate increasingly vast amounts of digital data. The Digital Curation Centre (DDC), funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the e-science core programme, was set up in 2004 in order to support them and to provide a national focus for research and development into digital curation issues.

One of the key objectives of the DCC is the creation and maintenance of a world-class "Digital Curation Manual". The "DCC Digital Curation Manual" is a community-driven resource–from the selection of installment topics through to authorship and peer review. Individual installments authored by leading experts in the field of digital curation will cover a range of issues relating to digital curation. The "Digital Curation Manual" is designed to assist data creators, curators and re-users to better understand the challenges they face and the roles they play in creating, managing and preserving their digital information over time.

Each installment will place the topic in the context of digital curation by providing an introduction to the subject, an explanation of terminology used, suggestions for best practice and by providing real-life examples of the topic in action. To ensure that the "Digital Curation Manual" is as current as possible, authors will be required to review and update their individual installments on an annual basis reflecting any major developments.

To ensure that the highest possible quality is achieved, the DCC has assembled a peer review panel and an editorial board consisting of international experts in the field of digital curation to review each installment that is produced for the "Digital Curation Manual".

The first installment of the DCC "Digital Curation Manual" is now available for download. Entitled "Open Source for Digital Curation" and written by DCC Advisory Services Manager Andrew McHugh, the first installment aims to:

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  describe a range of explicit digital curation application areas for open source;

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  offer some examples of existing uses of open source software;

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  highlight a selection of open source applications of interest to digital creators, curators and re-users;

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  deliver quantitative insights into the value of open source software; and

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  offer guidelines for institutions planning to introduce these technologies.

Two more installments, on Metadata and Curation of Dynamic Data, will be published within the next two months. Approximately 45 installments have already been commissioned and these will be released throughout the duration of the DCC project.

To download the first installment: www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/curation-manual/chapters/open-source/

Digital Curation Centre: www.dcc.ac.uk/

COinSSpecification for Publishing OpenURL References in HTML Available

Starting from a paper by Dan Chudnov and others (www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue43/chudnov/) an ad hoc group has put together a specification for publishing OpenURL references in HTML. Version 1.0 of this specification has been dubbed: ContextObjects in Spans (COinS) and has been deemed "stable enough for implementation".

The goal of the specification is to embed citation metadata into html in such a way that processing agents can discover, process and make use of the metadata. Since an important use of this metadata will be to allow processing agents to make OpenURL hyperlinks for users in libraries (latent OpenURL), the method must allow the metadata to be placed any where in HTML that a link might appear. In the absence of some metadata-aware agent, the embedded metadata must be invisible to the user and innocuous with respect to HTML markup. To meet these requirements, the span element was selected. The NISO OpenURL ContextObject is selected as the specific metadata package.

Version 2.0 of the OpenURL Referrer Firefox plugin adds support for OpenURL COinS. So far there is an open-access journal, the Wikipedia Book sources page, Peter Binkley's Blog and a few static web pages demonstrating how it may be used.

COinS web site: http://ocoins.info/

Interesting BlogFor Technology Gadgets

Engadget is self-described as a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics. Their goals is to provide news of the goings on in the world of gadgets and consumer electronics, as well as serve as a resource for readers to find out about the products and services out there that they never knew existed. Engadget was launched in March of 2004 in partnership with The Weblogs, Inc. Network (WIN).

Web site: www.engadget.com/