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June 2003 LibraryNet Monthly TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. FOLLOW THAT MAP TO THE SHELFOn June 12, Finnish company Ekahau, Inc. announced that it had launched the first interactive, location-aware library navigation system at the Main Library of Oulu University, Finland. A wireless system called SmartLibrary helps users locate books and other material from the library collections by displaying a map of the route to the target bookshelf on a PDA. Ekahau Positioning Engine software is used by the SmartLibrary system to pinpoint the mobile client's location. The guidance system is integrated with the online catalogue of the library, so that call numbers retrieved from the catalogue can be located on the PDA map. According to Ekahau, user testing with library patrons showed that all male users and 64% of female users preferred the SmartLibrary system over traditional shelf classification and signage. For more information: 2. PIANO-TO-PIANO HIGH SPEED NETWORKOn May 20, CANARIE (Canada's advanced Internet organization), together with Acadia University, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and Yamaha Canada Music, announced $365,000 in funding for MusicPath, a unique research initiative that will provide music students and educators across the country with a revolutionary innovation in music education. MusicPath will connect two digital acoustic pianos via CA*net 4, the national high speed research network, using a music industry standard protocol called MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface). All aspects of one pianist's musical performance are immediately saved in digital form and sent through the network to a remote location where the process is reversed; each musical note is reproduced through another acoustic piano using Yamaha's proprietary Disklavier technology. In effect, the remote pianist is moving all the piano keys in real time from another location. This technology has revolutionary potential for how piano is taught and students are examined across the country. For instance, a music student in Nova Scotia could play a network-connected Disklavier piano and be heard simultaneously on a Disklavier piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in Toronto. The student's musical expression would be accurately reproduced, allowing an expert musician in Toronto to provide real-time instruction via videoconferencing. The first objective of the MusicPath project is to interconnect two Yamaha Disklavier pianos at Acadia University in rural Nova Scotia and the RCM in Toronto. Eventually, the technology will be accessibleelsewhere across the country. The intent of the pilot project is to demonstrate how music students at Acadia University can receive piano-to-piano testing and private student instruction from an RCM instructor by September 2003. Upon the completion of the pilot in December 2003, the potential for classroom education, demonstration performances, and improvisation will have been explored. For more information: 3. NEW STUDY ON SEARCH ENGINE USEA panel presentation at "Building Trust on the Web," a recent American summit on online credibility, discussed pay-for-placement and Internet users' reactions to it. At the panel discussion, Leslie Marable of Consumer WebWatch briefly reported the key highlights of a new user study on the degree to which web users can recognize the presence of paid listings on a search site. (Some of the most popular search engines accept fees in exchange for listing some sites more prominently than others - usually referred to as pay-per-click or paid search results.) Many of the study participants said the terms "sponsored" or "featured," often used to distinguish paid search results, were confusing and potentially misleading. Participants were generally comfortable with pay-per-placement in commercial matters; in other words, when purchasing something online, they didn't mind getting paid results since they might save time and narrow the selection more quickly. However, they expressed negative opinions about paid results when looking for information for personal or healthcare needs. More results from the user study will be published online in late June 2003. Last year, an earlier study by Consumer WebWatch found that 60 percent of consumers surveyed "had no idea that some search engines charged fees in exchange for prominent placement of search results." After learning that, 80% of respondents wanted to see search engines disclose such business deals in search results, or in a prominent page on the site. Consumer WebWatch is the web watchdog arm of the non-profit Consumer Reports organization. To read an edited transcript of the panel session: http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/summit2003/transcript_searchengines.htm 4. WEBJUNCTION: ONLINE HELP FOR PUBLIC ACCESS COMPUTERSOn May 12, representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and OCLC announced the creation of WebJunction, a website developed by OCLC through a 3-year, $9 million grant from the foundation "to support anyone working to provide successful and sustainable public access to information and technology." The site is intended to provide "a community-centered online space to share that knowledge through conversations, online classes, and instructional documents." Richard Akeroyd, director of International Library Initiatives at the Gates Foundation, said that WebJunction is an extension of the Foundation's Public Access Computing Project. "By providing free, online technical assistance, the site will help libraries of all sizes maintain and even grow their public access workstations," he said. The site is intended to respond to libraries' critical need for support for computer services. The current content is based on a study of user needs, and it will continue to adapt to those changing needs. Users are also invited to submit their own tips, tutorials, and success stories - OCLC will sponsor an awards program for the best of those contributions. Current resources include a buying guide, a learning center, and an online community where librarians can draw on each other's experience to solve common problems. Free online courses, downloadable lessons, training tips, and other educational tools will surely be some of the most popular website content. To visit the site: 5. PRINT RETENTION ISSUESDump print? A decade ago it would have been inconceivable, now there is a special issue of Against the Grain that has a series of articles on this crucial topic. One thought-provoking contribution to the issue, "'No One Uses Them So Why Should We Keep Them?'--Scenarios for Print Issue Retention" overviews the key questions related to the print retention controversy, examines the pros and cons, and provides four possible scenarios for dealing with it: provide access to both formats, offer limited print access, provide electronic access with print being purchased for archival use only, and offer electronic access only. Other articles of note in the special issue include "Collaborative Print Retention Pilot Projects," "The Future of the Hardcopy Journal," "The Hybrid Environment: Electronic-Only Versus Print Retention," and "Libraries in Transition: Impact of Print and Electronic Journal Access." For more information: 6. CANADA'S BROADBAND BOOK CLUBOn May 1, the National Library of Canada (NLC) launched its new Broadband Book Club. First in a scheduled series of events, the Book Club linked over a hundred Grade Nine and Ten students from schools in Markham (Ontario), Ottawa, and St. John's (Newfoundland) over CA*Net4, the national optical Internet network. The book under discussion, Hana's Suitcase, is a true story of the efforts by Fumiko Ishioka, Director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre, to trace the origins of a suitcase belonging to a young girl named Hana Brady who died at Auschwitz. Inspired by the compelling subject matter, students shared their own artistic works and research with each other. Thought-provoking questions were also posed for the session's special guests: author, Karen Levine; Fumiko Ishioka, director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre; and Holocaust survivors David Shentow and Ada Wynston. On May 26, 2003, students and author/illustrator Barbara Reid experimented with plasticine art techniques. Schools in Iqaluit, Markham, and Ottawa participated, using a combination of CA*net4 and the Telesat broadband satellite network. A French-language Book Club event has been scheduled for September. Partners in the Broadband Book Club, the Communications Research Centre (CRC) and the National Research Council (NRC) have made invaluable contributions in bringing the Book Club to life. For more information: 7. RUNUP TO THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETYAs part of preparations for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva from December 10-12, 2003, IFLA is lobbying to stress the importance of libraries, archives, and other information services as key actors in providing access to essential resources. IFLA will hold a pre-conference in Geneva from November 3-4 at which librarians can promote the importance of content in the Information Society, and the role of libraries in delivering it, to WSIS delegates. To fulfill this aim, IFLA has launched an appeal to librarians worldwide for success stories of how libraries successfully apply information and communication technology. "We need to strengthen the perception of libraries in the WSIS - help us to do this by telling us about your achievements," the appeal begins. "What are you doing? How has it been received in the press? Send us your short descriptions and photos (or URLs) showing how your library is at the heart of the information society." Contributions should be sent by July 15, 2003 to: For more information: On June 10, the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum joined together in calling for policymakers attending the WSIS to safeguard online freedom of the press. The organizations want international policymakers to guarantee that online press freedoms will be protected, and not allow repressive governments to water down these freedoms in any decrees released at the summit. In a joint statement from the boards of both organizations, the groups said that policymakers must ensure that "freedom of expression and press freedom on the Internet is protected and not restricted in its recommendations and to strongly reject attempts by repressive governments to revive the discredited 'new world information order.'" The statement also called for the 2005 follow-up conference to WSIS - scheduled for Tunis, Tunisia - to be relocated due to Tunisia's repression of free speech. For more information: 8. TASK FORCE RELEASES PROPOSAL FOR TRAINING 21ST CENTURY CATALOGUERS"Libraries no longer need cataloguers, and library and information schools no longer need to teach cataloguing" has become an increasingly common notion. Yet the need to organize information resources of all kinds has become more pressing in the last ten years, and the options for organizing digital resources have expanded. The Library of Congress asked that the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) take a lead role in recommending appropriate training and education for bibliographic control of Web resources. As a first step, ALCTS appointed a joint task force together with the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). The task force hired a principal investigator to survey ALA-accredited programs and to recommend fresh approaches. The joint task force has proposed a five-part plan to help metadata and cataloguing educators and trainers:
The next step is to carry out the joint task force's plan. An implementation group has been appointed with members from ALCTS, ALISE, the Library of Congress, OCLC, and other organizations with a stake in supporting metadata and cataloguing educators and trainers. Meanwhile, a second ALCTS task force is preparing recommendations for changes and additions to continuing education programs for cataloguers. This task force expects to present its plan for approval at ALA/CLA 2003 in Toronto. To read the task force's report (in PDF format): 9. PLEDGE DRIVE @ YOUR LIBRARY?Steve Coffman, Product Development Manager for LSSI (Library Systems and Services, Inc.), is well-known in public library circles for his provocative and controversial suggestions on how libraries should improve their customer service and business models. In the May issue of American City & County, an article by Coffman entitled "Changing public library funding" proposes that public libraries should adopt the public radio and television funding model of corporate sponsorships, pledge drives, and direct mail. "If museums, orchestras, public broadcasting stations and other cultural institutions in the community can raise substantial portions of their budgets from non-tax revenues, why not the library?" This is an argument that Coffman has made before, most notably in a January 2000 article in Searcher Magazine (available at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan00/coffman.htm). The twist is in the journal the new article appears in; American City & County is a local government and policy magazine aimed at an audience of U.S. city and county officials. The full text of the article is available at: 10. IRAQ LIBRARIES FOLLOW-UPThe British Library has carried out a preliminary assessment of the damage done to Iraqi library and archive collections, prepared by the Library's Head of Asian and African Collections, Graham Shaw and last updated May 1. Although some collections appear to have survived intact, the assessment includes reports of looting and burning in a number of libraries in Baghdad and other cities, and there are still many libraries about which nothing is known as yet. There is "a real urgency for this [information] to be collected on the ground," Shaw's report states. The library of the Iraqi Museum was completely protected, since collections were evacuated before the war started. In addition, the Qadiriya Library of over fifteen hundred manuscripts was apparently undamaged. However, the National Library of Iraq was not so lucky. Approximately half a million printed books and serials, including five thousand rare books, were looted and burned although a small number of items were saved. The Library of Bayt al-Hikma, a centre for research in the social sciences, law, economics and strategic studies, is believed to have been completely destroyed. Nothing is known about the Educational Documentation Library which housed about forty thousand printed books and serials. In May, Jean-Marie Arnoult, Inspecteur-Generale at the Bilbliotheque National de France, was denied a visa to enter Iraq, reportedly because of his French nationality. Arnoult was the only librarian member of the UNESCO team which visited Baghdad in mid-May to assess the extent of damage to cultural institutions. Ross Shimon, general secretary of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) condemned the decision and urged the global library and information community to expose "thism scandalous state of affairs." The move was also criticized by Britain's Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and by American Library Association President Mitch Freedman. The refusal to grant Arnoult a visa meant that, despite the widespread damage done to Iraq's library and information services during the war, there was no librarian on the UNESCO team. To read the brief Shaw report on Iraqi libraries: For more information on the Arnoult situation: 11. CALLS FOR NOMINATIONSVirtual Reference Desk Exemplary Services Award VRD is currently seeking nominations for the 2003 Exemplary Services Award, to be given out in November at the VRD 2003 Digital Reference Conference in San Antonio, Texas. To nominate a reference service, use the online nomination form available at: Those unable to use web-based forms can email the relevant information to Virtual Reference Desk staff at: "Why Librarians Make A Difference" Contest Both public and school librarians can apply, and the deadline for entries is September 30, 2003. For more information on how to enter: LibraryNet Best Practices 2003 Each year, innovative public library projects are evaluated based on the following criteria: innovation; community engagement; community enhancement; improved service; user friendly; and transferability. If you know of a library (yours or another) using the Internet in innovative ways to deliver information to assist patrons and/or staff, please email LibraryNet at ln-rb@schoolnet.ca with details of the project and its URL before July 4, 2003. For the criteria details: 12. CALL FOR PAPERSThe fourth annual Public Libraries theme issue, scheduled for January/February 2004, will focus on literacy. As part of PLA's goal of establishing a literate nation, this issue will explore the themes of emergent literacy and literacy initiatives of all types. Librarians and researchers with experience in this area are invited to submit manuscripts to be considered for the special issue. Manuscripts must be received by July 15, 2003 in order to be considered. For more information on submission guidelines: 13. CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTSWorld Library and Information Congress: 69th IFLA General Conference and Council This year's theme is "Access Point Library: Media - Information - Culture." Transforming media management and strengthening information contentwhile maintaining human culture and values. For more information or to register: WebSearch University The conference where smart searchers go "back to school" to learn effective search tactics, advanced search engine features, hidden Internet resources, alternative sources and tools. Sponsored by Information Today and featuring speakers such as Marydee Ojala and Gary Price. For more information or to register: 2003 LITA National Forum: "Putting Technology into Practice" The annual conference of the ALA's Library and Information Technology Association group, the LITA National Forum has become a highly regarded event for those whose work involves new and leading edge technologies in the library and information technology field. For more information or to register: LearningTimes Library Online Conference This completely online conference will feature live interactive presentations by library leaders and information professionals worldwide, online networking opportunities with colleagues, awards and more. The 2003 Online Conference is being held to launch the "LearningTimes Library Online Community," a year-round online collaboration space for and by librarians and information professionals. The Community features open live collaboration spaces for meetings with colleagues, frequent webcasts on timely topics, and ongoing dialogues with leaders in the field. For more information or to register: 14. CONTINUING EDUCATIONCreating Learner-Centered Instruction To view the course content: 15. USEFUL INTERNET RESOURCESThe Peter Winkworth Collection Cknow.com Canada Year Book Online Genetics: The Symphony of Life New York Times Movie Reviews Infoaging.org Cool Antarctica Just-In-Time Collect Britain Information Research Lists of Bests League of Nations Photo Archive BBC Audio Interviews with Writers EBSCO A-to-Z Service Tracks Journal Access Storyline/BookPALS If you have information you would like featured in the next issue of LibraryNet
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