Universal Dataflow and Telecommunications

Archive - Historical Material

Issue #24
Spring 1994

IFLA HQ and the Internet

It was concluded that priority should be given to establishing the necessary network infrastructure at IFLA HQ. Until 1992, IFLA HQ was virtually excluded from electronic mail. The secretariat used a commercial product to receive urgent messages, but it soon became clear that this would not be sufficient. Discussions were initiated with IFLA's host, the National Library of the Netherlands, that led to the implementation of a local area network and electronic mail for all IFLA staff members at their workstations.

IFLA will try to exploit the benefits of electronic mail wherever possible. Most of the Core Programmes are accessible through the Internet, as are many IFLA officers. The Regional Office in Thailand can now be reached through electronic mail and the possibility of linking the offices in Dakar and Sao Paulo to the Internet is being investigated. Electronic mail addresses for programmes, officers and members will also be included in the new IFLA directory for 1994-1995. IFLA Headquarters will continue to act as a clearinghouse for these addresses and will be pleased to answer members' queries on electronic addresses which might not have been received in time for listing in the directory. IFLA Headquarters can be reached at IFLA@ifla.org.

The priority for 1993 was to establish an electronic network infrastructure and facilitate electronic person-to-person correspondence. In 1994, the use of electronic mail applications, such as discussion lists, will be pursued. The meeting on 1994 trends will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss the prospect of electronic conferences.

In consultation with the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and the UDT Core Programme, the creation of an IFLA document server has also been investigated. It was decided to link IFLA HQ to the electronic document server developed by the KB to offer information to library and information professionals. This server (ALEXICON) will be accessible to the general public in the spring of 1994. Various IFLA documents will be available on this server and members are encouraged to access the server. To access IFLA information on the document server, the KB Gopher from the Netherlands menu should be selected. Information is also available by opening a Telnet session to python.konbib.nl. In addition, IFLA is considering making its newsletters and professional reports available by anonymous file transfer in the near future.

Plans are underway to the make recent issues of the UDT NEWSLETTER and other UDT publications available on the National Library of Canada's Gopher. Pointers will be established in IFLA's document server (Gopher) to direct interested users to the UDT publications.

It is hoped that these efforts will provide IFLA with an opportunity to enhance communications and information exchange among its members and provide access to IFLA materials.

The editor would like to thank Sophie Felfolfi and Theresa Stanton of IFLA Headquarters for their contribution to this article.

Report on Packet Radio Complete

The purpose of this study is to provide librarians with a non-technical overview of packet radio technology, and to describe the use of this technology for data communication. In particular, it assesses the suitability of terrestrial packet radio to support library services in developing countries that typically lack a telecommunications infrastructure. This study offers background in packet radio technology and provides examples of how it can be used to support library services in developing countries.

Packet radio applies packet communications to a broadband radio channel rather than wire-based media, enabling wireless data communications. This technology can be used to create local area networks that link terminals, microcomputers, and large mainframes, and provide gateways to other network systems and databases. Thus, packet radio provides an opportunity to extend the benefits of networking, computer connections and increased access to library services and resource sharing to developing nations.

Topics covered in the report include:

1. Problems in libraries in developing countries
Examining the role of information and barriers to its flow in developing countries is necessary to understand the need for potential computer networking in libraries in developing countries. Background material outlining the need for information in developing countries, its users and sources, and the general problems that afflict developing country libraries, are provided.

2. Overview of packet radio technology:
An overview of wireless data communications technologies, with particular focus on packet radio and examples of packet radio networks are presented as models for library applications in developing countries.

3. Packet radio in libraries in developing countries:
Packet radio has the potential to alleviate the problems encountered by libraries in developing countries as a result of a poorly developed telecommunications infrastructure. It assesses packet radio's suitability for library applications, and its appropriateness as a technology for use in developing countries. The needs assessment, a requirement for the successful implementation of any packet radio project, is also described. The description includes accounts of potential library applications of packet radio, focussing on broad classes of problems experienced by libraries in developing countries because of isolation. The description includes accounts of information retrieval, cooperative cataloguing, document supply and professional development. The ways in which packet radio technology can provide solutions to these problems are then described.

4. Packet radio projects:
While very few projects that use packet radio technology for library applications in developing countries have been implemented, a wide array of packet radio networks have been developed for other purposes. In the industrialized world, amateur packet radio enthusiasts have created packet radio networks for experimentation with protocols and hardware, and for investigating their utility in library applications. In developing countries, packet radio networks have been set up to support many different types of development activities, such as the dissemination of health information. For information on how to obtain a copy of this and previous reports in this series, please refer to the order form in this issue.

Project to Improve Interlending and Document Delivery in Developing Countries

• to improve the competence of library personnel in handling interlibrary loan and document delivery systems;

• to establish regional, national and global network links;

• to support the negotiation of bulk treaties with major European document centres and libraries.

The UDT Core Programme will contribute to the networking aspects of the study, which will focus on the use of the Internet to support interlibrary loan communications and document delivery. The project also includes organizing and financing training courses for library personnel in the designated regions of Africa.

Other participants in the project include the IFLA Universal Availability of Publications (UAP) Core Programme, the Advancement for Librarianship in the Third World (ALP) Core Programme and interested libraries from Denmark and Germany. Neils Mark, Chair of the Section on Document Delivery and Interlending and Delivery, will lead the project group. With initial preparations and planning currently underway, it is hoped that training sessions will begin in January 1995. We will report on the status of this project in future issues of the UDT NEWSLETTER.

Professional Communications using the Internet

Electronic Conferences or Discussion Lists

Electronic conferences allow individuals to engage in discussions with a large number of widely dispersed colleagues. Participants can make comments, ask questions, request or provide information, announce new procedures or techniques, and generally keep up to date with a particular topic or field.

Electronic conferences are an extension of electronic mail. Standard electronic mail supports one-to-one communication where messages are sent between specific individuals. Discussion lists, in contrast, support one-to-many communication, where one message is relayed to a large number of colleagues through a central site (Figure 1). This one-to-many communication is accomplished through listserv or mailserver software, which maintains a list of all the names and addresses of participants at a given conference.

These programs act as central distribution nodes for all conference correspondence. A message sent once to a listserv or mailserver is automatically sent to all addresses on the mailing list. By receiving and replying to messages through these systems, continuous discussions are generated among members of special interest groups. There are currently hundreds of discussion lists active on the Internet on a wide variety of topics. There is also a growing number of discussion lists devoted to libraryrelated topics.

Basics for Using a Listserv

Joining a listserv and contributing to ongoing discussions are relatively simple and straightforward for anyone with access to Internet electronic mail. An important point to remember is that each listserv has two addresses. One is the address for the listserv manager, a program used to subscribe to a list or remove a name from it. The second address is the one to which contributions to the list are sent. Subscribers to a list automatically receive confirmation that their names have been added to the listserv.

The basic commands needed to join and use listservs are:

subscribe

join list

unsubscribe

leave list

set nomail

stop mail temporarily

INDEX listname

get a list of files

GET filename

get a file

set digest

compile messages

review

see who is on the list

list global

get a list of other lists

Sample discussion lists that may be of interest to librarians and information specialists are listed below. As the amount of traffic on these lists varies, it is useful to subscribe to a list to determine whether or not the discussions are of interest.

Library-Oriented Lists

AFAS-L

African American Studies and Librarianship

ALF-L

Academic Librarians' Forum

ARCHIVES

Archives and Archivists' List

ARIE-L

RLG ARIEL Document Transmission System

CDROM-L

CD-ROMs

CDS-ISIS

UNESCO's CDS/ISIS Text Retrieval Software

COLLDV-L

Library Collection Development List

CONSALD

Committee on South Asian Libraries and Documentation

COOPCAT

Cooperative Cataloging Discussion Group

GO4LIB-L

Library Gopher Developers

ILL-L

Interlibrary Loan

MEDLIB-L

Medical and Health Sciences Libraries

PACSL

Public-Access Computer Systems Forum

PACS-P

PACS-L Publications Only

News Groups

Another Internet tool that can be used to facilitate professional communications is news groups, the Internet equivalent of electronic bulletin boards, which function independently of the electronic mail system.

News originates at sites across the Internet and is distributed throughout the Internet by news servers. Articles, questions and answers or commentary are organized under a set of broad headings called "news groups".

To access the news groups, a user must have news reader software, which interrogates a news server to receive menus of articles and requests the articles themselves as required. News groups are organized hierarchically, with the broadest grouping first, followed by an arbitary number of subgroupings. The name of each group is separated from its "parents" and its "subgroups" by a period. For example, computer science and related topics are discussed in the "comp" hierarchy. Within the comp hierarchy there is a subgroup for operating systems which is further subdivided into discussions of the different operating systems. This news group, "comp.os.ms-windows" contains information pertaining to the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Freeware and shareware news reader programs, available for every operating system and hardware platform, provide users with access to news servers. News reader programs allow users great flexibility in handling and monitoring messages. In general, news readers allow users to pick and choose from the news groups they wish to monitor and create customized lists of news groups from the thousands of news groups available.

Within the chosen news groups, the news-reader software may allow users to follow or delete topic "threads". For example, in the PACS-L news group there may be an interesting discussion on future OPACs. Facilities within news readers allow the users to follow only this thread while bypassing all other messages. News readers also allow users to post messages to particular newsgroups, to extract news in various ways, and they can have a high level of file management sophistication. This sophistication is one reason that news has become a popular medium for communication over the Internet.

Most of the news groups are part of Usenet, a set of news groups considered to be of global interest. Contributions to Usenet are controlled by a set of voluntary rules for passing and maintaining news groups. No person or group has authority over Usenet as a whole; it is maintained collectively by those who read and contribute to it. The seven main Usenet news groups are:

comp

computer science and related topics

news

groups concerned with the news network and news software

rec

groups discussing hobbies, recreational activities and the arts

sci

scientific and research applications (other than computer science)

soc

groups that discuss "social" issues

talk

groups that are a forum for debate on controversial topics

misc

anything that doesn't fit into the above categories or could fit into several

One of the difficulties of using news groups is the volume of material received daily by a news server. Maintaining a news server is expensive, and establishing and maintaining news reader software requires a degree of Internet expertise beyond the ability of most newcomers to the Internet.

Listservs, on the other hand, are accessible to anyone with Internet electronic mail, one of the basic Internet services. The difficulty with listservs is that there is no way to control the flow of incoming messages.

Both listservs and news groups contain a wealth of information which is freely available to those with the desire to tap these resources. They are also very useful as a quick and inexpensive way to communicate with colleagues worldwide.

References

1. Bailey, C.W. (1993) "Library Oriented Lists and Electronic Serials". Received from PACS-L discussion list.

2. Kehoe, Brendan P. (1993) ZEN AND THE ART OF THE INTERNET. (2nd edition) Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

3. Krol, Ed. (1992) THE WHOLE INTERNET USER'S GUIDE AND CATALOG. California: Reilly and Associates.

Introduction to Compact Disk Technologies

Audio CD

Compact disk technology was developed for audio recording and storage. The first compact disk standard, the "Red Book", specified the hardware and software requirements for the ubiquitous audio CDs.

CD-ROM (Compact Disk - Read Only Memory)

It was also apparent that the same technology could be used to store computer-generated data in digital form. The development of the "Yellow Book" standard for CD-ROM specified two different methods for the storage of data, one for computer data, another for compressed audio and video/picture data. An example of the first method is bibliographic CD-ROMs, while the second can be characterized by CD-ROM encyclopedias such as Groliers. Audio and video/picture CD-ROMs using this second method were called "multimedia" or "mixed mode" disk.

CD-ROM/XA (eXtended Architecture)

Limitations in the specifications of mixed mode CD-ROMs in the "Yellow Book" standard led to the development of CD ROM/XA. This standard is viewed as a "bridge" between the "Yellow Book" and the CD-I standard. CD-ROM/XA allows special CD-ROM drives to play interactive compact disks on standard personal computers. Neither CD-ROM nor CD-ROM/XA defines a standard for multimedia applications: they simply determine how data is stored and accessed on the disk.

CD-I (Compact Disc Interactive)

The new generation of compact disk technologies, CD-I, integrates audio, text, graphics, and video, to create a rich multimedia environment. In 1986, Sony and Philips corporations announced CD-I and prepared the official "Green Book" CD-I standard for compliant hardware and software. CDI is meant to provide a standardized hardware platform for mass consumer interactive multimedia applications. The standard also provides producers of titles with an internationally defined format for the production and playback of multimedia titles on any CD-I player.

Contrasting the Technologies

CD-ROM

CD-ROM multimedia and CD-I are similar technologies in that both strive to integrate a mixture of data formats. The technologies differ in the intended consumer audience, hardware requirements, and product availability.

CD-ROM products require:

• a personal computer
• CD-ROM drive
• appropriate software to run multimedia applications

However, multimedia CD-ROM development has been hindered by:

• the lack of standardization in operating systems;
• system-specific software such as fonts;
• differences in the capacities of hardware platforms;
• the diversity of data formats for graphics, sound, and text.

These problems still exist despite the dramatic increase in CD-ROM products and sales of drives that have made this technology one of the fastest-growing areas of personal computing. Hardware and software development is supported by all major software and hardware vendors. CD-ROM is viewed as a niche market among computer owners. Currently, the complex requirements of computing hardware, CD-ROM drives, and software required for multimedia personal computing, are creating problems relating to the compatibility of CD-I titles on CD-ROM workstations.

CD-I

CD-I, in contrast, is a stand-alone consumer electronics system similar to the VCR. A CD-I player can play all CD-I titles, CD audio, Kodak PhotoCD, and CD-ROM/XA disks. The CDI player looks like a conventional audio CD player and connects to any television through a simple VCR-type hookup. Players are now available for less than $500 (CAD) in many electronics and department stores. CD-I is comparatively low cost, since the delivery platform does not require a computer system. To date, interactive optical disks are used primarily for games and training applications. Developments in CD-I have been slow because the number of consumer players is small and the expense of creating multimedia titles is high.

Current competing technologies to CD-I and CD-ROM are videodisk, DVI (Digital Video Interactive), and CVD (Compact Disk Video). However, since CD-I is supported by Philips, Sony, and Matsushita, it is well positioned to become the de facto consumer multimedia standard.

Working Papers of the Information Technology Sub-committee of the HEFCs' Libraries Review: Libraries and IT

In 1992, the Higher Education Funding Councils of England, Scotland and Wales and the Department of Education for Northern Ireland set out to review library services with regard to the central role of libraries in the provision of higher education. Three sub-committees were subsequently established to carry out this evaluation and review. The sub committees were responsible for funding and resources, the management of libraries and information technology.

The Information Technology Sub-committee focussed on how developments in information technology could benefit the library sector over the next three to five years. Through a series of working papers, they identified how information technology could be used to alleviate some of the pressures facing library collections and resources.

Libraries and IT is a compilation of these working papers, published without extensive editing to make the information available to a wider audience as quickly as possible. The working papers vary greatly in length and style and cover a wide range of topics, including copyright, electronic journals, networking technologies, and document delivery. One working paper provides an excellent overview of standards and technologies required to support networked library services while another gives an excellent overview of the status of electronic publishing in the British publishing industry.

For those interested in the use of information technology for library services, the compilation provides a realistic outlook on the developments and initiatives expected in this area in the next five years.

For further information, contact: