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July 1999 LibraryNet Monthly DIGITAL ACCESS GAP WIDENINGOn July 8, the U.S. Department of Commerce released "Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide". This report found that while the number of Americans connected to the nation's information infrastructure is soaring, a digital divide exists and is widening -- minorities, low-income persons, the less educated, and children of single parent households, especially in rural areas or inner cities, lack access to information resources. The report calls for public policies and private initiatives to expand affordable access to critical information resources. The report notes that community access centers such as libraries, schools and other public access points play an important role in surmounting the digital divide. The 1998 data demonstrate that community access centers are particularly well used by those groups who lack access at home or at work. Beverly Sheppard, Acting Director of the US Institute of Museum and Library Services noted, "This study affirms the outstanding job libraries are doing throughout the country. They are innovators providing access and know-how to bridge the digital divide." The full
report is available online at: RESTRICTIVE INTERNET REGULATIONS IN AUSTRALIAOn June 29, Australia's House of Representatives passed legislation to include the Net under the Australian Broadcasting Services Act (1992), which regulates radio, television, film and video. Under the legislation, scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2000, Internet service providers (ISPs) would be required to block adult content or face stiff penalties. Fines of up to 27,500 Australian dollars per day are proposed for ISPs that fail to properly block prohibited content. The Australian Broadcasting Authority would accept complaints, rate sites (as it does films), and call on ISPs to close X-rated sites. An R rating would mean the site could be accessed only by people over 18, although how this provision would be enforced is still unclear. Civil liberties groups registered strong criticism of what they say is the strictest Internet-content law to date. Electronic Frontier Australia executive director Darce Cassidy said, "It will quickly become obvious that national governments are powerless to effectively control information on a worldwide communication system, and that the legislation is incapable of protecting children." The Australian legislation contrasts with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission's (CRTC) decision, reported in the June LibraryNet Monthly, not to attempt to regulate Internet content. For more
information about Australia's legislation to regulate Internet content: For more
information about the CRTC's decision not to regulate Internet content: NOMINO LICENSED BY QUÉBECThe Search Engine module of Nomino just made its debut as a state of the art information retrieval feature on the Québec Government's Web Site, where it functions both in French and English. Developed at Télé-université's LICEF, Nomino is an information retrieval, categorization and notes system which structures and classifies information. The development of Nomino was funded in part by the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence. Try Nomino
through the "Recherche en texte libre" or "Free Word Search"
links at: HOME INTERNET ACCESS OVERTAKES WORK ACCESSInternet penetration is now higher at home than at work in nations with the highest overall access, according to a recent survey of users in 18 countries. The survey, conducted by the International Research Institutes (IriS), found that the traditional preference for usage at work has been overturned in Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and The Netherlands. Internet access as a whole continues to increase year after year across the globe according to the survey, rising sharply in some countries. According to IriS, approximately 30 percent of adults now have Internet access in Finland, Switzerland, Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands. The IriS survey also found that e-commerce is starting to take off, although penetration in the general population is still quite low. Denmark and Sweden lead in the e-commerce arena with 10 percent of adults having made online purchases. In the UK, online shopping is rising steadily from 2 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 1999. The survey is based on more than 18,000 interviews conducted in early 1999 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Uruguay. IriS is an association of 26 independent research companies around the world. ENGLISH REPORT RELEASEDThe results of a policy review of the National Libray and National Archives of Canada, conducted by Dr. John English of the University of Waterloo, were released on July 6, 1999. In March of last year, Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, asked Dr. English to consult stakeholders and to report on whether the two institutions were properly positioned to preserve, promote and provide access to Canada's heritage and confront the challenges of the information age in the next century while continuing to manage collections and records in traditional forms. The recommendations in the English report relevant to the digital environment include:
The National Library has already embarked on an ambitious program to provide electronic access to its services and collections. Through its web site the Library provides access to over 25 digitized collections, a catalogue of its own holdings and Access Amicus, its bibliographic database. The Library has also launched electronic services including web-based requests for inter-library loans and International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN). The full
report is available online at: ENGLISH DOMINATION OF WEB TO END SOONComputer Economics, an independent American research firm, predicts that by 2002, Internet users will be predominantly non-English speaking and that by 2005, six out of ten Internet users will speak a language other than English. There will be a 60 percent increase in Internet use among English speakers during the next six years. At the same time, the non-English speaking market will grow by 150 percent. The language groups that will most significantly challenge the dominance of English on the Internet are Asian and Latin American. For more
information: CANADA'S DIGITAL COLLECTIONS TO PARTICIPATE IN INTERNATIONAL CONTENT DIGITIZATION CONFERENCE IN TAIWANCanada's Digital Collections initiative (CDC) of the federal government has been invited to participate in an international conference on digitization in Taipei, Taiwan, July 1999. The Digital Museum Seminar and AP Digital Library Consortium Joint Meeting will discuss key issues faced by national institutions in the digitization of historical and cultural material. Programme topics will include "Digital Media and Cultural Change," "Museum Informatics," and "Digital Library Architecture and Future Development." The Joint Meeting will draw upon the experience and experience of leaders in the field of digitization, such as Dr. Larry Carver (Alexandria Digital Library Project, Santa Barbara), Mr. Jack Lee (Hermitage Museum Project, Santa Teresa), Guy Parent (CDC, Ottawa), and Dr. Jerome Yen (Museum Informatics Project, Hong Kong). CDC is the major source of Canadian content on the Information Highway. This initiative awards contracts to Canadian libraries, museums, and other organizations to hire teams of people 15 to 30 years of age to digitize text, images, audio and video material and incorporate them into attractive web sites for the Information Highway. Since April 1996, some 2000 young Canadians have worked on more than 300 CDC projects. UPCOMING COMPETITION FOR CANADA'S DIGITAL COLLECTIONSIndustry Canada invites proposals from libraries and other prospective contractors under Canada's Digital Collections (CDC) program. Through the CDC program, Industry Canada is placing contracts of up to $25,000 each (including GST) to provide work experience for young Canadians (15 to 30 years of age) in multimedia projects in 1999-2000. The production of digital collections under this program is intended to stimulate employment opportunities for Canadian youth while providing access to Canadian material of public interest through the Information Highway. Libraries are excellent candidates for Canada's Digital Collections program. Examples of library digitization projects can be viewed from the LibraryNet website's Projects page. For full details regarding program description and competitions, visit Canada's Digital Collections' website. Model proposals, examples of digital collections projects and an on-line proposal form are available through the link to Program Information. The next closing date is for CDC proposals is October 1, 1999. For more
information: PRESERVATION OF DIGITAL WORKSAn article by Pamela Mendels in the July 5, 1999 edition of the New York Times reported on a recent two-day conference on virtual libraries in New York City, where representatives of major research libraries from the US, Canada and ten European countries gathered to discuss how to continue to fulfill their historical role despite changing technology. Conference participants said research libraries today are facing a variety of vexing problems that did not exist in a paper-only era. For one thing, ever-changing technology means swift obsolescence of both hardware and software. This change is happening so swiftly that already libraries are reporting that they have digital holdings they cannot read. Another problem facing the librarians has less to do with technology than money. Increasingly, publishers of electronic journals and other non-print publications lease, rather than sell, their wares. This means that a library that used to buy a magazine and then store it for perpetuity now loses access to the publication once its lease expires. The participants also reported on pilot preservation projects being carried out at their libraries. Swedish librarians are busy at work trying to take periodic snapshots of all Swedish pages on the World Wide Web. In the Netherlands, librarians are working with their counterparts in other European nations to try to develop a standard way to preserve scientific journals and other modern works that exist only in electronic form. And in France, a project is underway to digitize items including the complete works of Balzac and documents from the French Revolution, and to preserve them on highly durable compact disks. MORE ACCESS TO DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS FOR CANADIAN UNIVERSITIESThe Canada Foundation for Innovation will provide $20 million over three years to fund the Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP), spearheaded by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and administered by the University of Ottawa. The goal of the CNSLP is to dramatically increase the quantity, breadth and depth of the most current research literature available to Canadian academic researchers. A national consortium of 64 Canadian universities will negotiate with journal publishers and vendors to obtain pan-Canadian site licenses for electronic versions of scholarly journals, mostly in scientific disciplines. Because the Canadian academic market for electronic publications is relatively small, it is crucial to consolidate the negotiating and buying power of academic libraries to reduce costs. By uniting their efforts under the CNSLP, institutions will greatly increase their buying power and will be able to negotiate better contractual terms to gain access to a much larger body of published research. In addition, they will improve accessibility through electronic delivery of research material. CFI is a corporation established by the federal government to strengthen Canadian capability for research. Its mandate is to increase the capability of Canadian universities, colleges, hospitals, and other not-for-profit institutions to carry out important world-class scientific research and technology development. For more
information: NEW INVENTORY OF CANADIAN DIGITAL CONTENTThe Inventory of Canadian Digital Initiatives, a web-accessible database of Canadian digital information resources created for the Internet, is now available. The Inventory was developed by the National Library of Canada to make information about Canadian digital projects centrally available in order to help avoid duplication and to foster resource and information sharing. The Inventory allows full text searching by keyword as well as the ability to limit searches by specific elements such as language, project status and province. Browsable access is also provided to a number of key elements including project name, institution and subject. The Inventory is dependent on submissions by institutions and individuals; there is very little moderation of submissions, although all will be verified for suitability before being posted to the database. All institutions or individuals are encouraged to submit entries about digital information projects being undertaken in Canada, or about Canada, that they are currently creating, planning or have completed. Entries can be submitted in English, French, or both. To access
the inventory: For more
information: LIBRARIES CRITICAL TO SUCCESS OF ON-LINE EDUCATION"Online Post-Secondary Education: A Competitive Analysis" by Christine Massey and Joanne Curry delivers a comprehensive look at leading providers of post-secondary online education and outlines the factors that have contributed to their success. Prepared for Industry Canada by the TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence, the report is intended to inform Canadian post-secondary institutions about opportunities in on-line education. One of the critical success factors identified was a strong educational infrastructure, including access to academic libraries. Some of the leading providers profiled in this report are the University of Phoenix Online, Western Governors University, California Virtual University, Open University UK, Nova Southeastern University, Stanford University, Indiana University, University of Illinois, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Athabasca University, and the Technical University of BC. The full
report is available in PDF format at: THE INTERNET GUIDE ON LIBRARYNET: UPDATEAs of the beginning of July, 1999, TIG subscriptions through LibraryNet stood at 991, representing 339 libraries. The largest increases have been in British Columbia and Ontario with about 50 new subscriptions each. The Internet Guide is a self-paced Web course on basic Internet skills produced by the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto. The instructors, Gwen Harris and Sandra Wood, have been the principal Internet instructors in the FIS Continuing Education Program since 1994. Intended for library staff eager to become adept online searchers, TIG provides step-by-step instruction in using browsers, doing research on the Net, e-mailing, participating in chat and discussion groups, downloading software, and much more. LibraryNet has signed a contract with the Faculty of Information Studies to allow public libraries across Canada free access to TIG. Full TIG access is now available to all Canadian public library staff. Sign up for
The Internet Guide at: SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTThe International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) recently released "Publisher/Library Relationships in the Digital Environment," a discussion paper prepared for its Library Relations Committee. The paper was written to stimulate dialogue with libraries and other members of the research and scholarly communities in order to meet the challenges, opportunities and expectations created by the digital environment. According to STM, "the interests of publishers and librarians need to be re-balanced in order to seize the benefits of digital information flow ... Neither publishers nor librarians should shy away from the issues that divide them, especially the scope of fair use and the exchange of copyright information between libraries." STM represents 250 publishing companies and learned societies. To download
the complete paper in DOC format: E-COMMERCE WORKSHOP TO BE HELD IN TORONTOE-Commerce Workshop for Governments, Libraries, Archives and Museums ("GLAMS") Sponsored
by the Canadian Library Association Workshop
fee: $100.00 CLA Members; $125 Non-Members In this half-day seminar, participants will learn how governments, libraries, archives and museums are selling content and services on the Net, assess and establish digital goals, and develop an e-commerce strategy. The instructor, Lesley Ellen Harris, is a copyright and new media lawyer/consultant. She is the author of Canadian Copyright Law and Digital Property: Currency of the 21st Century, and editor of The Copyright and New Media Law Newsletter for Librarians and Information Specialists. For more
information or to register: If
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