Volume 1 Number 5
July 14, 1995

Table of Contents

From the Editor

CM: Perspiration and the Internet

Book Reviews

Little Cats by Kalman, Bobbie and Everts, Tammy
Review by Harriet Zaidman
Grades K-4 / Ages 4-10

Without Shedding of Blood by Block, Kevin James
Review by Dave Jenkinson
Grades 10 and up/ Ages 15 and up

Video Review

Leonard Maltin's Animated Favourites from the National Film Board of Canada.
Review by Duncan Thornton
All ages

Article

The Internet and the Future of Organized Knowledge
``The Internet is fostering the growth of knowledge, yet at the same time it is generating unprecedented forms of ignorance..."

Article by Luciano Floridi

News

Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards

Shankar 1996 International Children's Art and Writing Competition

From the editor:

It's been very hot in Winnipeg this week.* On the one hand, that makes the people running an electronic publication like CM nervous because we worry about the computers overheating until sparks fly out of the consoles. On the other hand, we don't have to worry about the sweat dripping from our brows staining the pages before we send them off to the printer.

The Internet in general has that mixed feeling: boon to humanity, or just a colossal waste of time? I could go on, but instead this week we're starting a three-part series on the subject by someone who's actually thought about it: Professor Luciano Floridi's ``The Internet & the Future of Organized Knowledge." It's a big subject, and Floridi has considered it more clearly than anyone else I've read.

If you're new to the 'net (and who isn't?), give it a read. No one can predict the future, but Floridi's thoughts on ``The Human Encyclopedia," a project that all of us -- teachers, librarians, writers, and editors -- are part of, shine a bit of light on the road we're speeding along.

CM is printing Professor Floridi's article because we're trying to be more than be a source for reviews; we also want to be a resource for readers who are new to this medium. That's why our welcome page has a small guide to other Internet sites you might find friendly or useful. If you have suggestions for other resources we could link our readers with, or other kinds of help you'd like to see in CM, please let us know.

-- Duncan Thornton
editor@mbnet.mb.ca

* Winnipeg also gets very cold in the winter.

Little Cats
Kalman, Bobbie and Everts, Tammy
Niagara-on-the-Lake: Crabtree, 1994. 32pp, hardcover, $19.95.
ISBN 0-86505-611-0 (Paperback, $7.95 ISBN 0-86505-711-7)

Grades K-4 / Ages 4-10

Review by Harriet Zaidman

Different types of small cats, wild and domestic are depicted in this well-organized book that is most suitable for children in grades K - 4. Little Cats is part of author Kalman's new non-fiction series of ``starter" books called Crabapples. It includes a table of contents, a glossary and an index. The book discusses the cat family tree and the important issues in a cat's life: food, shelter, and physical features, and then gives basic information about unusual types of cats, such as the jagaurundi, the manul, and the serval. It also discusses the issue of preserving the wild cats and controlling the overpopulation of domestic breeds.

The book is illustrated with pleasing photographs and some drawings, as well as interesting touches such as paw prints for the page numbers and appealing type styles used for titles.

Books on cats are something a school library or classroom can never have enough of.

Recommended.

Harriet Zaidman is a Winnipeg teacher/librarian.

.

Without Shedding of Blood
Block, Kevin James
Winnipeg: Wildflower Communications, 1994. 185pp, paper, $12.99.
ISBN 1-895308-17-8. CIP.

Grades 10 and up/ Ages 15 and up.

Review by Dave Jenkinson

excerpt:

``Samuel Beamer, I will come right to the point. We have called you here to offer you a choice: either you abandon the militia or you will be dismissed from the brotherhood. But Samuel, before you make your decision, consider well. Consider what this will mean. Remember that the church has the keys to heaven and hell. Samuel, repent of your sin and return to the law of love. Think of Jesus who, though He could have called an army of mighty angels in His own defense, merely said to Peter: `put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword.' Think of your own situation. If you choose to live by the sword, you, Samuel, who have been one of us, will die spiritually because of the sword that you will not cast off. Think too of the example you are leaving your descendants. Think of their exclusion from the brotherhood if they decide to follow you. And do not think that we will be excluding them, but you yourself will be sending them out because you refuse to submit."

During the War of 1812-14, Samuel Beamer, a Mennonite Carpenter from Newark, a small ``Canadian" community on the shores of Lake Ontario, finds his religious values in conflict with what he perceives his duties as citizen to be. Having enlisted in the militia, Samuel must appear before a meeting of his fellow Mennonites where he is given an ultimatum: resign from the militia or be `shunned'.

Believing his religious peers to be hypocrites for ``accepting protection but rejecting our duty to protect others," Samuel spurns their counter-argument that ``a soldier must obey another's absolute command to do anything he says, whereas our absolute allegiance belongs to God."

A participant in the May 27, 1813 Battle of Fort George, Samuel, still guided by his religious upbringing, initially aims high, but eventually, swept up in the heat of the battle, he kills a young American soldier during hand-to-hand combat. Throughout the remainder of the book, which concludes just prior to the December 18, 1813 Battle of Fort Niagara, author Block, himself a Mennonite pastor, has Samuel engaged in a spiritual search as he must continue to participate in the war's events. Block also offers another perspective on the book's theme through Samuel's wife Rachel who, originally opposed to her husband's decision, later wants vengeance when the Americans' burning of Newark leads to the death of their three-year-old daughter.

Written for adults, Without Shedding of Blood, with its numerous Biblical references, would find some audience among senior school readers, and could be used as an additional resource in ethics or Canadian/American history courses.

Dave Jenkinson teaches courses in Children's and Young Adult Literature at the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba.

Leonard Maltin's Animated Favourites from the National Film Board of Canada.
Written and hosted by Leonard Maltin.
National Film Board of Canada, in association with the Arts and Engertainment Network. 95 minutes, $34.95.
Order number: C 9194 096.

(Note: the NFB has a new educational pricing policy in effect; phone 1-800-267-7710 for details.)

Review by Duncan Thornton

All ages.

excerpt:

Over the years, animators working for the National Film Board of Canada have used every technique imaginable to make their films. And many, no one could have imagined before they gave it a try: coloured pencil, paper cut-outs, clay figures, moving pins -- the list of experiments, most of them successful, goes on and on...

Reading the title of this new compilation of NFB animated classics triggered a nationalistic knee-jerk: do we need a famous American telling us about Canada's best animated films? And as a reviewer, Maltin, famous from his annual Movie and Video Guide and spots on Entertainment Tonight, tends to be chirpy and banal.

But he does know an awful lot about animation, and his choices in this compilation are excellent. Even if you're familiar with the NFB catalogue, there are probably a few titles on the list you haven't seen before:

The films cover a lot of ground, and with Maltin's commentary between the selections added, they serve as a good overview of the history and range of the NFB's work. Techniques move from astonishing pin-animation (``Mindscape") to computer work that rivals Pixar's (``Anniversary"). And subject matter varies from the folksy and broadly comic (``The Cat Came Back") to the formally artistic (``Pas de Deux").

Along the way, Maltin makes good points about NFB animation in general -- that one of its hallmarks is innovation that is wedded to subject, rather than to mere technical experiment, and that work like this would never happen were it not for the support of an institution that doesn't have to worry about making popular hits.

But his commentary never goes on long enough to get tiresome, or to bore a younger audience, and he has great material. Probably the most impressive is still the first, ``Begone Dull Care," where Norman McLaren uses his famous technique of painting directly on film stock to make an jazzy, abstract interpretation of Oscar Peterson's music. But any of these shorts would deserve a review in itself.

The Film Board lists Animation Favorites as an "All Ages" title; truthfully, Maltin's commentary probably wouldn't interest most elementary students, though he keeps it brief enough that it doesn't matter much. Still, early year students might not find enough of the animation suficiently involving to keep their interest.

Otherwise, it's hard to fault this new collection. It's interesting as a study of the art of animation, and it's entertaining in wildly varying ways: by turns, or all at once, comic, moving, and fascinating.

Recommended.

Duncan Thornton is the editor of CM.

The Internet & the Future of Organized Knowledge:
Part I of III

by Luciano Floridi
mailto:floridi@vax.ox.ac.uk

[Note: we thank Professor Floridi for kind permission to reprint this material, which is a shortened version of a paper he gave at a UNESCO Conference in Paris, March 14-17, 1995. Parts II & III will appear in the next two issues.]

Part One: Understanding The Internet

The Internet: a population of several million people, interacting by means of a global network. It is the most educated intellectual community ever, a global academy constantly thinking.

Yet the Internet is also a completely new, hitherto unknown phenomenon. What is the Internet exactly? What can it be used for? And what will be the effects of such a radical revolution in the way we handle the world of information? These are the three fundamental questions that will determine the future of organized knowledge.

What The Internet Is --

By the word ``Internet" we refer to the international system of digital communication, emerging from the agglomerate of thousands of networks that interact through a number of common protocols worldwide. It cannot be physically perceived, or meaningfully located in space and time, over and above the set of interacting networks that constitute it. It is a collaborative initiative of services and resources, each network being accountable only for its own proper functioning.

Thus, nobody is ultimately responsible for it as a single enterprise, nobody is earning money from the serviceas a whole, nobody is running the system, and nobody will be able to control it in the future.

What The Internet Can Be Used For --

This is not easy to determine. It isn't that we don't know how to use the system, but that the variety of things that one can do via Internet increases literally every single day. However, we can distinguish four rough categories of communication: e-mail, discussion groups, remote control, and file transfer.

Thus, we can exchange private messages with a friend, publish an electronic journal, set up a ``slow reading group" on Voltaire's Candide, and access data in all possible forms: software, bibliographic records, electronic texts, images of paintings, statistical graphs, musical sounds, whole data banks on an enormous variety of subjects. Any exchange and manipulation of symbols, images and sounds is already possible on Internet, or soon will be. In the future even television will probably be remembered as just another episode of the computer age.

How The Internet Will Affect Organized Knowledge --

This question is almost impossible to answer precisely. It is hard to give even an initial shape to our ignorance, since there may be much more we do not know than we could guess. After all, the Internet is already transforming some of our most fundamental conceptions and habits.

The Internet is fostering the growth of knowledge, yet at the same time it is generating unprecedented forms of ignorance. As always in the history of technology, whenever a radical change occurs, some individuals are left behind while the new technology makes those who do master it suddenly aware of other domains still to be explored.

The new model of ``spineless textuality" represented by hypertext, the virtual ubiquity of documents, the appearance of on-line services and electronic sources that need to be catalogued, have radically changed the discipline of librarianship. Even the library itself may disappear: no longer a building, a storehouse of knowledge physically recorded on paper, the new ``consulting" library will be a node in the virtual space of the digital encyclopedia, providing access to electronic information on the network. Instead of an object-oriented culture, producing multiple copies of physical books for each user, we will become a time-and-information culture, providing services charged per period of use.

Concepts of citizenship and privacy are changing too. In the new electronic marketplace of the global village, publicity has assumed an international scale, while privacy means electronic privacy in our e-mail conversations. Our good manners are evaluated on the basis of a social ``netiquette." Civil rights concern the way in which information about ourselves can be created and stored in databases, and then accessed and used through the network. Crimes range from electronic pornography to viruses, from the illegal reproduction of software to illicit intrusion into electronic systems, from infringement of copyright to electronic plagiarism.

Even the way we think may be affected. Relational and associative reasoning is nowadays becoming as important as linear and inferential analysis, while visual thinking is at least as vital as symbolic processing. And as the skill of remembering vast amounts of facts is gradually replaced by the capacity for retrieving information and discerning logical patterns in masses of data, the Renaissance conception of erudition is merging with the modern methods of information management.

Entire sectors of activity like communicating, writing, publishing and editing, advertising and selling, shopping and banking, teaching and learning are all being deeply affected. Such transformations are of the greatest importance, as they will determine our life-style in the coming decades.

We are now ready to explore what such an epochal change in our culture will mean in one special field: the future of the Human Encyclopedia.

What The Human Encyclopedia Is --

The Human Encyclopedia is the store of human knowledge. It is constantly increasing, although at different rates in different ages and cultures. The rate of increase depends on two things: the quantity of information stored up until that time and the current degree of accessibility of the ``memory" of the system.

The invention of printing has usually been considered a turning point in this increase, but its importance should not be misunderstood. The printed book represented a powerful new medium whereby a text could be reproduced more quickly, cheaply, and accurately, and hence be more safely stored and more widely diffused. It tremendously accelerated the recovery, conservation, and dissemination of knowledge among an increasingly large number of people. But this did very little to improve the degree to which an individual could take full advantage of the entire Encyclopedia, since the process of information retrieval remained largely unaffected by the printing of books.

Quite soon after Gutenberg, there were attempts to do for the processing of information what the printing press had done for the reproduction of knowledge (see Gulliver's Travels). But they all failed, because such an enterprise required something much more radical than a merely mechanical solution. Only the passage from printed paper to digital data made possible a thoroughly new way of managing information, and much more efficient control over the system of knowledge. This explains why Information Technology, as the long-awaited response to the invention of printing, has been much more pervasive than any previous technology. The press (mechanically) enlarged our intellectual space; only the computer has made it (electronically) manageable.

Three Steps to The Internet --

Thus began in the 1950s a process of converting the entire domain of organized knowledge into a new, digital macrocosm. This conversion has engendered three fundamental changes in how we access information: extension, visualization, and integration.

The Internet Again --

We can now see that the Internet is just the most recent form adopted by the organization of the system of knowledge, a mere stage in the endless self-regulating process through which the Human Encyclopedia constantly strives to respond to its own growth. Through the combination of the three processes of extension, integration, and visualization, the Internet has made possible management of knowledge that is faster, wider in scope, and easier to exercise than ever before.

As a stage in the life cycle of the Encyclopedia, the network has already given rise to unprecedented innovations and to new fundamental problems, some of which are especially relevant to the future of scholarship and organized knowledge. These will be explored in detail in the next parts of this article.

Reprinted with permission from the electronic journal TidBITS, #281. Email info@tidbits.com for more information.

Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award

The following is taken from the 1995 Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award brochure. After the listing of the 1996 nominees is a form allowing young people to vote for next year's winner.

The 1995 Award Winner is:

The Mystery of the Missing Will
by
Jeni Mayer

Jeni Mayer will be presented with her award at a ceremony during I Love to Read Month, February, 1996. The 1996 award-winner will be announced in next year's Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award brochure.

Previous Winners:

Books nominated for the 1996 Manitoba Young Reader's Choice Award:

Jim spends the summer in the Queen Charlotte Islands and becomes embroiled in a dangerous fight to stop Abalone hunting. Book two in a trilogy of environmental thrillers.

In diary form, Daniel relates his Jewish family's struggle to survive World War II. No longer able to practise their own religion, vote, own property, or even work, Daniel's family is forced from their home in Frankfurt and sent on a long and dangerous journey to Auschwitz.

It is 1942 and fifteen-year-old Jay Smith's quiet life in the Alaskan Wilderness is disrupted when his uncle arrives with news of war. Suddenly Jay's life is filled with Adventure as he works on the construction of the Alaska Highway.

A drummer named Mike meets Dariana, the girl of his dreams. Feeling dissatisfied with his life, Mike joins Dariana's band in which, through their music, they fight racism and other forms of intolerance.

Stevie Diamond has a robber to catch. The Garbage Buster's money has been stolen from the Diamonds' apartment, and there aren't many clues as to who the culprit is. This fast-paced, exciting novel is the first in the Steve Diamond Mystery Series.

Caught between the mystical dream-like world of Faërie and modern Ireland, Gwen must rely on the guidance of fairy-folk, leprechauns, and a few red-headed friends to help rescue her cousin Findabhair, who has been kidnapped by the Faërie king.

In this hilarious spoof of epic tales, Ogo, a young knight, is given the ``safe" job of protecting the infant princess Illia. But this turns out to be a challenging task when Ogo takes the wrong path and has to rescue the Princess from some pretty scary stuff, including the laughing Giant.

This last book in the trilogy provides a satisfying end to the experiences of two young ``war guests" from England. In this story, the focus shifts from Norah to Gavin and the difficult choices he must make as World War II draws to a close. (The Sky is Falling and Looking at the Moon.

Nicholas Sparks was a normal fourteen-year-old boy. What would cause him to murder a nationally known musician and songwriter? An answer is revealed via the contents of letters, faxes, transcribed interview notes, and doctor's case notes.

Taking his father's car without permission and wrecking it lands sixteen-year-old Kevin on a ranch working as a hired hand for the summer. Kevin manages to stave off boredom by turning his work experience into a series of hilarious newspaper articles.

JB's friends from his writing club -- alias the JAWS Mob -- investigate a mystery that lands JB smack in the middle of his worst phobia. A wonderfully strange cast of characters turns this tale of friendship into a hilarious story of nail-biting suspense.

In this gripping science fiction, three teenagers stranded on an empty planet find themselves in danger when it turns out to be inhabited after all.

Ursula is a young woman with unusual healing abilities living in 1096 A.D. Her knowledge, gleaned from her apothecary father and a monk's secret book, leads her into trouble and the first Crusade, where her life is changed forever by the sights she sees.

With a catcher who's afraid of the ball, and a right fielder who falls asleep during games, it looks like the Feather-Soft Tigers are about to become the laughing stock of the little-league world. Enter feisty Kristy Pendergast, who, as coach, helps pull the team out its slump.

RanVan is a dynamic and totally original teenager. Although he doesn't cope well with his conformist high school, with the aid of a sympathetic and wise vice-principal, he manages to come to the defense of his new girlfriend and learn some valuable lessons about himself.

When Kevin Ashworth's buddy, Bobby Spezzanctena -- a.k.a. Spazz -- is hired to spend the weekend at the Ritz Plaza Hotel impersonating famous rock star Bill T. Bank, the two find more danger and excitement than they bargained for. A rollicking, funny romp.

How Manitoba Young Readers Can Vote!

All young people in grades 4 through 8 who have read (or have heard read) at least three titles from the list are eligible to vote for their favourite book. Teachers and librarians can copy the voting ballot below; young readers select their favourite titles and return the copy to their teacher or librarian, who will then add the votes for each book and forward the totals to the address at the bottom of the ballot by April 12, 1996.

Participating Organizations

This award has been developed by the Manitoba School Library Association with the cooperation of the following organisations:

1996 Ballot 

Title              Number of Votes


Abalone Summer               __________

Daniel's Story               __________

Flying Ghosts                __________

Good Idea Gone Bad           __________

How Come the Best Clues
Are Always in the Garbage?   __________

Hunter's Moon                __________

Knights of Endless Day       __________

The Lights Go on Again       __________

Looking for a Hero           __________

The McIntyre Liar            __________

Meet You in the Sewer        __________

Spaceship Down               __________

There Will Be Wolves         __________

The Toilet Paper Tigers      __________

RanVan the Defender          __________

Weekend at the Ritz          __________


Teacher or Librarian:

_______________________________


School or Library:

_______________________________


Division Name and Number:

_______________________________


Address:

_______________________________


Telephone Number:

_______________________________
Send this ballot by Friday, April 12, 1996, to:

Sheila Duprey
Grant Park High School Library
450 Nathaniel Street
Winnipeg, MB R3M 3E3

Shankar's International Children's Competition 1996

Rules

  1. The competition is open to children all over the world. They should have been born on or after January 1, 1980.
  2. There is no entry fee.
  3. Competitors are free to choose the theme/subject they are interested in, or like most, for their paintings/drawings/writings.
  4. Each entry should be certified by the parent/guardian/teacher that it is the original, unaided work of the competitor done during 1995. Entries should be an individual effort and NOT a combined work.
  5. Every entry should carry the following information in English and in BLOCK LETTERS, at the back of the painting/drawing or at the end of the written work:
    • First Name
    • Surname
    • Boy or Girl
    • Date of Birth
    • Nationality
    • Full Postal Address
    • Subject/title of the entry
  6. No entry will be returned. The copyright of all entries will rest with Shankar's International Children's competition.
  7. All packets should be pre-paid/adequately stamped and mailed directly to reach:

    Shankar's Internal Children's Competition
    Nehru House
    4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
    New Delhi-110 002

  8. Entries sent by air cargo will not be accepted.
  9. The last date for receipt of entries is DECEMBER 31, 1995.

    PAINTINGS/DRAWINGS

  10. Black and white pencil drawings will not be accepted.
  11. The size of each entry should NOT be less than 30 x 40 cm in size.
  12. A competitor may submit up to 6 entries. They should NOT be mounted/framed

    WRITTEN WORK

  13. Only entries in ENGLISH will be considered. Translations from other languages do not qualify for the competition.
  14. Entries may be in the form of poems, plays, short stories, essays, descriptive writing, and the like.
  15. A competitor may submit up to six entries. They should be in a neat handwriting or typed.

    PRIZES

  16. The entries will be judged by the organizers with the help of a jury.
  17. The following prizes are offered:
    1. The President of India's Gold Medal
    2. The Shankar's Award for the best written work
    3. 24 Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Gold Medals for the next-best paintings/drawings/written work.
    4. About 400 Silver Medals and 400 prizes.
    5. Certificates of Merit to deserving entries.
  18. Results will be announced in July 1996. Prize-winners will be informed individually by post.
  19. The best entries will be published in Shankar's Children's Art Number, Volume 47. Selected entries will also appear in the monthly magazine for children, Children's World.
  20. All competitors are entitled to a copy of the Art Number (Vol. 47) at half-price. They can reserve their copy by mailing this coupon:

SHANKAR'S INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S COMPETITION
NEHRU HOUSE
4 BAHADUR SHAH ZAFAR MARG
NEW DELHI-110 002

I wish to reserve a copy of Shankar's Children's Art Number Vol. 47 at the concessional rate. I am remitting U.S. $10.00 by cheque/draft/money order.

(WRITE IN BLOCK LETTERS)

Name:..........................................................
Address:.......................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................
...............................................................

Remittance to be made in the name of ``Shankar's International Children's Competition." Copyright © 1995 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

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