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There is Somebody Out There
THE QUESTIONS ASKED in the last issue of LamitNews have
produced some interesting answers. They covered a range of issues relating to
electronic and print publications, and they led inevitably to more questions.
It is also good to know that both the journals are read by people other than
committee and editorial board members.
One of the key features was a
wish to retain an inclusive approach to the question of formats,and to protect
the interests of all members. It has to be said also that the replies,and some
of the follow-up questions,revealed that for one or two people there is a
genuine antipathy towards the web version of MmIT,mainly on the grounds
of a lack of user-friendliness and doubts about the effectiveness of the
communication. This is a position that will surely change over time. There was
a gentle reminder that the printed journals are more convenient to use,balanced
by other comments about an alleged lack of desire to engage with new
technology. More than one member offered the observation that the web is not a
panacea for everything. There is obviously a distrust of computer whizzkids and
website wizards,but looking around the editorial board I can 't see anybody
like this in any case - no disrespect to the board. It is also clear that for a
certain kind of member there is nothing that anybody could do to persuade them
to use the web version of MmIT,even if it was turned into an
all-singing,all-dancing,prizewinning example of electronic communication. The
relative importance of standards of presentation as opposed to quality of
content was also raised.
On the other hand,the inconsistency of
belonging to a multimedia group while hesitating over technological advance was
not overlooked. Others wrote about the increasing use of email newsletters as a
means of communicating some of the information we deal with,while some wrote of
the value they saw in the contents of LamitNews as it stands now.
The editorial board supports all the key points made by those members
who responded,but also has to consider the future viability of the journals.
An increase in the revenue earned by the publications is in the
interests of everyone. The journals have the potential to pay their own way,and
become net contributors to the finances of the group:but that will need a
larger readership base than is represented by the current subscriptions and the
hits on the website for each issue of MmIT.
The marketing advice
is that we should find a means of combining the strength of LamitNews
and MmIT to make better use of the former 's circulation of over 6000.
This would provide a useful starting point for an achievable business plan
designed to increase subscriptions,build an advertising base,win sponsorship
and pay for development.
Editorially,it is possible to do this without
diminishing either title,and at the same time continue to provide the same
coverage in the preferred formats for everyone. Other people have put forward
ideas for broadening the readership. It has been suggested that we should
increase our international subscription base,and seek alliances with
profession- al bodies abroad. "How much impact do we have in the museums
sector,where multimedia is a key element?" has also been asked.
There
is also a continuing commitment to developing the web version. While it is
clear that there are varying views about using the web,we also have to
acknowledge its growing significance,particularly for a group concerned with
multimedia. Use it,and tell us about it.
We are recommending the
merging of both titles for the four issues scheduled for 2002. The results will
then be brought back to the membership for further consideration.
Anne
Johnson rightly took me to task in the most polite way for asking readers to
email me. So,please feel free to write to me,fax or telephone me (details on
the back page)or,if you prefer, email me at
lyndon.pugh@virgin.net
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Diary 2001 -
2002| Library Association Training Courses | Winter 2001 London UK |
| Moving into management | 21 November |
| Preparing tenders | 22 November |
| Introduction to project management | 26 November |
| Giving a good answer | 27 November |
| Introduction to public speaking | 28 November |
| How to set up a library and/or information and resources centre | 5 -6 December |
| Fundraising for librarians | 11 December |
| Marc 21 for beginners | 12 December |
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Seen & heard - edited by
Chris LorimerA Napster Update
The previous issue of Multimedia Information and Technology carried an article by Nick Rose and Nicola Buchanan of Field Fisher Waterhouse,about the implications of the Napster case. This referred Napster 's future plans,including a relaunch during the Summer of 2001. This timescale has changed,and we have been asked to provide the following update:
The planned launch of the new Napster may take slightly longer than anticipated. Napster argued that it was only able to block 99% of the copyrighted material from its site. The Court required 100% compliance and,as a result,ordered that the site be shut down. Even though Napster was successful in overturning this order in the Court of Appeal,it remains out of action for the time being.
All references to AOL,Time Warner should read AOL Time Warner.
The Talking Newspaper Association
The Talking Newspaper Association has announced an increase in subscriptions,for the first time in three years. 1-3 titles now cost £45 (concession £30),4-6 titles are £60 (concession £40),7-9 titles are £75 (concession £50),and 10-15 titles are £105 (concession £70). More information from http://www.tnauk.org.uk or from Tim MacDonald,telephone 01435 866102.
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NewsInternet/Computers
WEBLOGS ARE IT. Amateur web publishers, or "bloggers " are spreading like a rash. It is estimated that there are now over 10000 active self-publishers on the web (Guardian Online,27th September 2001). Services like Geocities or Blogger make it easy to mount web pages and keep them updated. They cover a huge variety of interests, ranging from personal diaries to pages set up by professional news services aim- ing to provide up-to-the-minute information on breaking news stories. Some of these have come into their own in recent weeks and might even be said to rival the coverage offered by the rolling news programmes on television. Setting aside the inevitable obscene ravings of the extremists,and the irrelevancy which we encounter even in our own professional lists and chatrooms,it seems that the value of the weblog as a means of exploring complex and many-sided issues has become obvious even to professional journalists. Geocities is at http://geocities.yahoo.com/home and you can visit Blogger at http://www.blogger.com
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Copyright
COPYRIGHT BILL SUPPORTERS PLAY FOR TIME. Supporters of a UK parliamentary private member's Bill to legalise the production of accessible versions of digital material on a non-profit basis recently met government ministers to secure the law's passage.
It is often necessary to create alternative versions of digital material for blind and visually impaired people,to allow them to listen to them by using screen readers (see also E-Access Bulletin August2001). PDF documents produced by Adobe and eBooks formats are particularly prone to needing such manipulation.
Those supporting the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons)Bill,as the draft legislation is known,are hoping it is sufficiently compatible with the government's plans to be given formal support. Failing that,supporters plan to find a "backdoor " route into the legislative process,with a first reading in the House of Lords,according to RNIB cam- paigns officer David Mann. Mann says that the Bill,which was laid down by Labour MP Rachel Squire,"leaves the onus on authors or publishers to take people to task - and ultimately to court - if they thought a particular activity did conflict with their legitimate interests. " Some fear government plans will be more cumbersome. Melanie Johnson, MP,parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Competition,Consumers and Markets at the Department of Trade and Industry,represented the government at the meeting. (E-Access Bulletin September 2001) http://www.welwyn-hatfield-labour.fsnet.co.uk
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IPAC will look at this area in its social and economic context. The committee will also give independent advice on identifying and responding to emerging and strategic issues. It will be chaired by Ian Harvey,Chief Executive of BTG plc, and Chairman of the Intellectual Property Institute. The remit will include the impact of new technology,issues of public concern,and the wider impact of policy in this area.
Websites
A PITTSBURGH-BASED NON-PROFIT INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER,ENVIROLINK, took offline two Web sites belonging to the animal-rights activist group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),Huntingdon,a British medical research firm,accused the activists of violating its copyright. Although no charges have yet been filed, Envirolink was forced to remove the sites to avoid potential legal liability under the terms of the DMCA.
http://www.huntingdon.com
http://www.envirolink.org
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Libraries
WEB COMPANIES BUILD ONLINE LIBRARY:online research start-up Ebrary and the Learning Network,an e-learning company owned by Pearson,are launching a beta version of a virtual library. Ebrary said the service,dubbed Ebrarian 1. 0, will be available on a co-branded Web site,enabling people to scour business and economic titles without charge. People will also have the option to buy materials in print form or photocopy the information for a fee. While the online research publishing market has yet to reach critical mass and faces copyright issues,analysts said the agreement between Ebrary and the Learning Network is a good move. Check it out at: http://www.ebrary.com
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Videotapes are available for viewing in Oxford Brookes University 's Headington Library,and complete transcripts are available for a number of interviews. To arrange a visit please contact Donald Marshall,Subject Team Leader. email:dmarshall@brookes.ac.uk Telephone:01865 483136
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PUBLISHERS AND LIBRARIES GO GLOBAL. Publishers and libraries are to build closer links in a new partnership between IFLA and IPA,the International Publishers Association. The partnership is intended to support alliances between publishing and library groups in individual countries,creating a global forum for the exchange of views. Issues discussed so far include the exchange of statistics,legal deposit,and e-publishing. Both IFLA and the IPA have also resolved to campaign for zero or low-rate tax on books. Ross Shimmon (IFLA)said the partnership would encourage libraries "to work closely with publishers rather than having the two opposing each other. " Bob McKee ((LA)said the LA was fully supportive of the steering group,adding that debate on such issues as intellectual property would benefit from discussion at a global level. (Bookseller 14/09/01).
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Gerry is also interested in other vendors of A-Books as well as references to articles, studies, reports, and other relevant literature on the topic. As always,any and all contributions,suggestions,critiques,debates,or cosmic insights are most welcome. Please reply directly to Gerry McKiernan Audacious Librarian Iowa State University Ames IA 50011 gerrymck@iastate.edu
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RECENTLY THE BBC AIRED A HALLOWEEN episode of The Simpsons (probably on the same day that Channel 4 showed a thanksgiving special of Friends and a festive Frasier). I did not catch the beginning but Homer had obviously (?)been dragged into a vortex behind the closet and now existed in a fifth dimension. Homer was no longer a two-dimensional cartoon character. Homer was now a virtual Homer. Virtual Homer was both scared and excited by his new environment.
I now know how Homer felt.
The LAMIT Committee has just embarked on its first virtual meeting. So why a virtual meeting?Why not just have a real meeting?Why go to the trouble of trying a new approach?
The Library Association - keen to make sure its Branches and Groups offer a full programme of events and on-going support for their members - has stipulated (in recent guidelines)that Committees should have at least four meetings each year to make certain that they effectively achieve their objectives.
The problem with this for national Group Committees is two-fold. First there is the issue of the time commitment. Meeting time, travelling time and planning time all mounts up. In this world of increased pressures and decreased resources it is,as we all know,becoming more and more difficult for busy professionals to get time away from their service environment.
The second issue is cost to the Group and hence to its members. Meetings cost money. With colleagues coming from all corners of the British Isles to a London gathering,the travel bill for national meetings can be quite substan- tial. Of course,the LAMIT Committee would rather be putting its capitation money into activities for its members than into the coffers of Virgin Trains or EasyJet.
In an attempt to save time and money we thought we would try a virtual meeting. A virtual agenda - containing reports and items for discussion - would be sent out on the Committee email discussion list at 09. 00 on Monday 10 th September. Members would then be encouraged to sign in and debate topics at any time until 17. 00 on Thursday 13 th September. On the Friday,Tina Theis, LAMIT Chair,and I would review the "Action Required " points to ensure all the relevant decisions had been made.
It is now Saturday 15 th and I am just putting the finishing touches to my (real) minutes.
So was it worth it?
As well as meeting our objectives of saving time and money and making all the decisions we needed to,I personally found other good reasons for recommending virtual meetings. The flexibility achieved by not having a whole day blocked off for a meeting was most welcome. I was able to fit a lot of duties around the time spent on the meeting, including tasks that I could not do on the usual train journey to London. I was also able to devote what felt like more time to discussions. A four-day meeting allows you to leave the proceedings,reflect and then come back to topics to give a more considered response. There are two tips,though,if you are thinking of having a virtual meeting: make sure you block off some time in your diary to take part in the meet- ing,and alert your col- leagues. A day out of the office does at least cut down on disturbances,but a virtual meeting can be interrupted by some very real distractions.
For the secretary in particular,a virtual meeting does present various opportunities. After eight years as LAMIT 's Hon. Secretary,I could probably plan a typical meeting in my sleep. The prospect of organising a virtual meeting was genuinely a fresh and invigorating challenge. There is also a shift in the secretary 's workload. For normal meetings,most of the work is involved in compiling minutes after the event. For virtual meetings,the bulk of the work is involved in compiling the extended agenda before the meet- ing. Writing minutes is far easier as the agenda includes most of the points that make it into the post-meeting report.
On the downside,chairing such an event is not easy. Despite all our planning, some features of running a virtual meeting did not occur to us before hand,and there was an element of making it up as we went along. The momentum of debate can easily be lost,and for complex issues,that are likely to elicit heat- ed discussion,it has to be said that you cannot really beat the cut and thrust of a live meeting. On top of this,the textbook problems of encouraging participation and ensuring decisions are made within fixed times can take on an extra dimension:the appropriate body language does not work in cyberspace! Committee members also have to be more organised and plan well in advance of the meeting. Putting together reports on the train is no longer an option.
Also missing is the social element of meetings. One of the reasons I became involved in committee work was for the joy of networking. Keeping abreast of professional developments,discussing practical problems and just catching up with colleagues over lunch are valuable aspects,for me and also for most of my colleagues,of LAMIT meetings.
Will we do this again?There are many things we learnt from this meeting. We may need to fine tune our approach to certain elements next time,but yes,we will be having virtual meetings again, with possibly one or two a year. Loth as I am to say I enjoy meetings,I would not wish to stop having real life meetings altogether (for most of the reasons out- lined above),but as a cost-effective means of keeping Committee business on track,this approach is virtually as good.
Antony Brewerton Hon Secretary,LAMIT (A fuller review of LAMIT 's approach to virtual meetings will appear shortly in the Library Association Record) 30
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T HE CURRENT ISSUE OF MmITreflects its usual diversity of content. Harold Thimbleby has written,in his expert mix of humour and seriousness, about our innocence and trust when it comes to computers. Most of the kit we use in multimedia applications has a chip in it somewhere,and we all suffer from the things he writes about. Computers are not as easy to use as they seem to be,and the constant need to upgrade is a problem. One of the results of this is "exponential wastage ". We will fill our landfill sites with unwanted gear in about five years.
The answer is that we begin to refuse below-standard products. Other products are not treated in the same way as computers - cars are not replaced with new ones becauase a tyre is flat,other things are repaired,but problems with computers are solved by upgrades and more memory. We need to lose some of our gullibility,and stop taking the word of the salesman as gospel. Make a fuss about manuals,and don 't accept a demonstration - try it for yourself, are also good pieces of advice.
Officialdom and government also come under the lash. Thimbleby 's argument is that there should be a legal standard of usability,not simply a requirement of "fitness for use ". This article should be compulsory reading:
making things better for people is going to happen not when we ask for more magic, but when we ask for a proper computer science of everyday things.
MmIT,27(4)November 2001 pp 328-31
GAIL CAMERON AND ANNETTE DAY have written an account of the building and exploitation of the Festival of Britain website maintained by the Museum of London. This is a site which is well worth a visit,as the article demonstrates. A user-centred approach is struck from the start,with a comment from a visitor to the South Bank for the Festival:
This was the first time I saw a Henry Moore and hens in battery cages. (John Freiyer,Festival visitor)
Memories of the Festival are combined with the richness of the collections in a website which weaves together the material,stories,curatorial expertise and the knowledge,interpretations and experiences of the users. Yet very often this latter component remains in the minds of those users or,in the case of group sessions,may be discussed within the group. The Museum of London 's ofFestival of Britain project overtly aimed to include all these elements in the online exhibition.
The contribution of the users played a central part in the creation of the Festival website from the beginning. Because of this the users enjoyed a role in actually shaping the project. Potential web users were also involved in develop- ing the online catalogue. The core of the material came from a donation by Peter Kneebone,and was organised in a way which made it a useful tool for experts while still retaining ease of use for the interested visitor to the site. The needs of the end user were kept firmly in view.
Curatorial and technical expertise also played their parts in creating an accessible collection of material which might not have been readily associated with the Museum. The result has been the recruitment of a group of new,virtual visitors.
MmIT,27(4)November 2001 pp 322- 27
A BRIEF SURVEY OF DVDSINACADEMIC LIBRARIES works on a more practical level. It is a primer for anyone considering this development,and judging by the small scale survey Nadine Edwards has included in her article, there might not yet be many university libraries with extensive DVD collections. Nadine goes through the process which was adopted by London Guildhall while setting up their DVD collection,and covers both the advantages and the disad- vantages of the technology. She also collected some details of available players, and looked at the options for playback. The article ends with a bibliography.
MmIT,27(4)November 2001 pp 316-21
CLUMPS AND LUMPS give Gordon Dunsire an opportunity to use an extended metaphor in his paper delivered at UmbreLA. He defines the two terms and also gives a clear explanation of Z39. 50 technology,and draws on experience with CAIRNS to set out a methodology for eliminating some of the lumps that get in the way of the proper development of the clumps.
Dunsire sees the continued develop- ment of clumps in an optimistic light, depending on the collective adoption of standards,the ability to think globally while acting locally and the capacity to deal with the technical issues of bibliographic retrieval, semantic variability and variations in local cataloguing. The benefits to be won are in the improvement in services to users over a wide area.
MmIT,27(4)November 2001 pp 332-6
Elsewhere,Bibliolinks and Technology, and Seen and Heard,cover a wide area. The Reports section carries Elisabeth Lawes ' account of the content-based image retrieval seminar at Manchester. It raises some interesting questions,and realistically covers the strengths and the weaknesses of the technology.
This issue 's reviews are lively. Chris Lorimer admitted to enjoying reading Alison Cooke 's book on information quality on the internet,John MacColl 's review of an internet dictionary taught him,and me,a great deal (what is a "craplet "?), and Tony Thompson reviews Pasolini 's Trilogy of Life (recommendation:buy!). Molly Magee offered a student view. Smiley five for them all,the highest.
LamitNews (now MmIT News)is the newsletter of the Library Association (now cilip) Multimedia Information and Technology Group (LA Charity No. 313014). It is published quarterly and contains news specific to the Group,plus excerpts from the Group 's journal Multimedia Information and Technology. This is also available on the Internet,free to all Group members,at http://www.catchword.com/mmit.htm
Managing Editor:Lyndon Pugh,5 Mabws Fawr,Mathri, Haverfordwest,Pembrokeshire,Wales,SA62 5LL tel/fax 01348 837681 email lyndon.pugh@virgin.net
LAMIT (now MmIT) Officers
MmIT (Journal) - Contents, Latest Issue
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