LIS/KM Resource

For May 2006 we share highlights from the 7th Annual Virtual Reference Desk Conference, pointers to resources on instant messaging reference, and examples of virtual reference consortiums.

By recognizing the need to separate connectivity from applications we have the opportunity to unleash the power of the marketplace that has served so very well in computing and in the Intern

The U.S. Congress has network neutrality under scrutiny and perhaps under threat. Network neutrality is the concept that broadband carriers will neither interfere with nor inhibit the free flow of information over the Internet. A bill, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Efficiency Act of 2006, or COPE (aka the Barton-Rush Act), is making its way through the House of Representatives. It could empower commercial broadband carriers like Sprint and AT&T to manipulate Internet transactions by prohibiting or slowing access to and transmission of specific sites. In effect, the buzz is that the House proposes to cede control of the Internet to the telecoms and cable companies. By contrast, there are bills being introduced in the Senate that seek to protect network neutrality. First among these is S. 2360, the proposed Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006. 1, 2

A Seattle-based security researcher has devised a way to test for Net neutrality. Dan Kaminsky will share details of this technique, which will eventually be rolled into a free software tool, on Wednesday at the Black Hat USA security conference in Las Vegas. The software can tell if computers are treating some types of TCP/IP traffic better than others -- dropping data that is being used in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, for example, or treating encrypted data as second class.

When you contemplate the sheer artifice of the card, it's a wonder that library users have managed to adopt the library view of the bibliographic universe, and often without any formal training. And although we have progressed beyond the card catalog to online catalogs, we are still working within some of the constraints of that technology. For the sake of our users it would be a good idea to decide to leave the card behind us, once and for all.

Susan S. Lukesh discusses the long-term desire for scholars to have all the information on one subject — in this case prehistoric pottery — gathered together for easy access in relation to possibilities that are available today. The subject is far broader than pottery and directly relates to the critical issue of modern scholarship and access to raw data underlying all analyses presented in paper and digital publications today.

This annotated bibliography was commissioned to support the NSDL Evaluation Workshop (planned for October 2003) that will 1) explore the issues around evaluating the impact of digital libraries on education and that will 2) begin developing a strategy to evaluate the impact of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) on STEM education. The bibliography’s purpose, then, is to identify research to date on evaluating the impact of digital libraries on learning and teaching. It contains a Summary & Analysis section, which defines terms, makes observations about the literature, reviews the resources included, highlights issues, and suggests areas for further consideration.

This site contains the original manuscript of the book Digital Libraries by William Y. Arms, published by the MIT Press in January 2000.

The digital library in a box project was created to simplify and enable the creation of digital libraries.

Creating a digital library might seem like a task best left to a large research collection with a vast staff and generous budget. However, tools for successfully creating digital libraries are getting easier to use all the time.

The Spectator Project is an interactive hypermedia environment for the study of The Tatler (1709-1711), The Spectator (1711-14), and the eighteenth-century periodical in general.

This is an idea-sharing wiki for librarians who post to answer boards, like Answers.com's WikiAnswers (http:wiki.answers.com), Yahoo Answers or Amazon's Askville.

The goal of the Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse Project (DREW) is to create a large database of reference transactions so that researchers might better understand the process and then create tools for measurement and evaluation that managers of reference services could employ.

Get acquainted with Twitter, a social networking application that is finding traction in the online communication world.

Explore, discover, learn, dream and believe that Web 2.0 can help transform your learning and teaching to engage students in 21st century learning

New service eavesdrops on Internet callsSoftware monitors calls, displays computer ads based on subjects spoken