British Library Website
More than 900,000 Internet users visited Portico, the British Library's website, during June 1998. The total of 919,262 visits or hits for the month is a reflection of the continual increase of material available on Portico, most recently the facility to access most of the Library's catalogues free of charge. Portico offers Internet users worldwide the opportunity to find out more about
The British Library, its collection and services, and have a virtual tour of the new Library at St. Pancras (London), all via their computer terminal. The URL of Porico is http://www.bl.uk/
— UNISIST Newsletter, Vol. 25, No 2, 1998
OCLC develops UNIMARC conversion capabilities
The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in Dublin Ohio, USA has developed software to convert bibliographic cataloging records created under the UNIMARC (Universal machine-Readable Cataloging) format to USMARC bibliographic records and vice-versa. UNIMARC is widely used, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. OCLC has been working to encourage international library cooperation and information exchange. UNIMARC approaches and organizes
bibliographic records from a different perspective than that of USMARC: Distinct Character Sets require translation of most diacritics and special characters; Main Entry is emphasized in UNIMARC; Notes Fields are tagged differently, and there are embedded fields in UNIMARC for linking records.
OCLC's UNIMARC conversion project will enable UNIMARC output through subscription and tape services, as well as cataloging system export; batchload capability for WorldCat; output from the OCLC CatCD for Windows software, OCLC Cataloging Micro Enhancer Software for Windows and other micro-cataloging products; and OCLC Conversion services. The National Library of the Czech Republic has contributed to the success of this project providing the majority of the records used to test conversion software and was the first to have records converted and loaded.
— UNISIST Newsletter, Vol. 25, No 2, 1998
Telematics for Libraries CD-ROM
The Telematics for Library sector of the European Commission's Telematics Applications Programme has produced a CD- ROM which gives an overview of sector activities since 1990. The CD-ROM includes general programme documentation, full descriptions of all funded projects and actions, and a range of other relevant documents-workshop proceedings, publications, abstracts, etc. The documents on the CD-ROM also contain links to Commission Websites and those of the projects, so that user with Internet connections can directly move to updated project information, results, downloadable prototypes and on-line services.
— UNISIST Newsletter, Vol. 25, No 2, 1998
The International Translations Center Closes
The not-for-profit foundation International Translation Center (ITC) was closed at the end of 1997 after 36 years of operation. In spite of strong support from ITC's participating centers, staff support, and an active marketing policy, subscriptions to ITC's principal product the World Translations Index (WTI), have, in common with primary and secondary journals in most disciplines, declined steadily over recent years to a point where production costs were no longer recoverable and all reserve funds exhausted. The fall in demand for WTI is s reflection of the changes that have taken place in the field of translation since the center's foundation in 1961. An increasing acceptance of English as the lingua franca for scholarly communication, and a reduction in funding for information services are just two factors that have resulted in a significant decline in translations made on an ad-hoc basis.
Every effort, however, is being made to sustain the availability of ITC's information resources beyond 1997. In the future, WTI users are advised to contact the following libraries for document delivery: The British Library Document Supply Center, Boston Spa, UK (Fax: +44 1937 54633); The Delft University of Technology Library, Delft, The Netherlands (Fax: +31 15 2159007); The Tecnische Informations-bibliothek, Hannover, Germany (Fax: +49 511 715936); The Institut de I'Information Scientifique et Technique, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France (Fax: +33 3 83504727). Furthermore, notifiers of European-originated ad-hoc translations are referred to EAGLE (Fax: +31 70 3140493) whcih has decided to include these translations in the SIGLE database as of 1998. As a consequence of ITC's closure, the World Translations Index and Journals in Translation will no longer reproduced. The complete WTI file (1979-97) is being offered on a CD-ROM as a final venture.
— UNISIST Newsletter, Vol. 25, No 2, 1998
Cleaner Production: A Guide to Sources to Information
This book is published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It covers a variety of information sources on cleaner production, including national centers that offer expertise on implementation, training and technical assistance, demonstration projects, sectoral approaches, outreach and awareness raising efforts, and policy studies. Relevant publications, databases, websites and videos are also provided, including a few section on cleaner production courses and training curricula offered worldwide.
UNEP has also launched a "Yellow Pages" diskette of environmentally sound technologies, a resource guide offering a listing of trade shows and directories providing information on cleaner manufacturing and end-of-pipe disposal and treatment technologies.
Contact:
UNEP Industry and Environment, Cleaner Production Programme,
39-43, Quai Andre Citroen,
75739 Paris Cedex 15, France
Tel: +33 1 44371450
— WISTA, Environment Audit, Vol. 4, No 6, 1998
UK Biotechnology Handbook 1997-98
The eighth edition of the handbook lists over 850 organisations involved in biotechnology and contains 3500 names. With 100 new entries, it now includes financial information, year of forming, staff, numbers, email addresses and www URLs. Issues and new developments in biotechnology, like bioinformatics, technology transfer, industrial liaison, agricultural biotech and waste management are forming part of the issue.
Contact:
Biocommerce Data Ltd.,
8-20 Hill Rise, Richmond,
Surrey TW 10 GUA
Tel: 0181 3324660
— WISTA, Innovation, Vol. 3, No 8, 1998
Kompass India 1998
Kompass India 1998 is a power house of business to business information, containing information on over 34000 products and services, and 58000 companies that deal in them. It comes in a set of two volumes. Products and Services (Volume I) contains 34000 category classification, status of dealing companies, whether manufacturer, wholesaler, agents, distributor, importer or exporter, size of the dealing companies — even number of employees is indicated. Company Information Section (Volume II) contains over 58000 companies with detailed information on them including compant size, turnover, area of operation, contact particulars with telephone and fax numbers.
Contact:
Corporate Marketing Department,
Reed Business Information,
C-71/A Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-110017.
— WISTA, Innovation, Vol. 3, No 8, 1998
Farewell The Telephone Book
A Queensland company has developed technology which it believes could revolutionalise database systems and one day make telephone books obsolete.
Zentroniz Private Limited had created a database miniaturisation and encoding system which would enable information to be packed on to electronic platforms as small as credit cards.
The implication of the technology on business will be far reaching due to the functionality of the data in its miniaturised format. The miniaturised data could be stored and accessed in any electronic platform. These could include the standard small credit card-sized Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (PCMCIA) cards that use solid state "flash" memory. Unlike the CD-ROM system, the PCMCIA card is cost-effective, portable, updateable, has a life span of 10 years and is environmental friendly.
— WISTA, Urbo-Tech, Vol 6, No 2, 1998
Language E-mail Software
The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a scientific society under the Department of Electronics, Government of India, recently launched a four day workshop-cum-seminar on the usage of computers with language software in Gujarati and introduced an Indian language e-mail software, called Ileap. C-DAC's programme coordinator Shashank Pujari said: with the development of graphics and an intelligence based script technology, sending an email in Indian language would be a reality. A Pune-based centre has developed the facility in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati so far.
— The Times of India, Education Times, September 28, 1998
Encyclopaedic Information on the Web
Internet and education are in a close nexus today. Major advancements are being made in the field of professional education and the Internet is bringing you the latest information available. The kind of colossal power that Internet gives you machine is mind-boggling. Add to the advantages of Internet, your accessibility to encyclopediac information and knowledge of super- specialised subjects.
http://www.ebig.com is the web address of Encylopedia Britannica's "Internet Guide". It offers you the latest in all the fields. Apart from theoretical matter — it provides photographsm explanatory cut-aways, diagrams, maps, and also reproductions of many famous paintings, expecially commissioned original illustrations.
At http://www.encyberpedia.com login to encyclopediac website whcih offers information on various subjects including science and technology, humanities and arts, sport and entertainment. At http://www.encyberpedia.com/jukebox.com listen to your favourite soundtracks and enjoy good music.
Main advantage of these educational sites is that it makes learning an interesting and an interactive process. Also one does not spend money on buying huge and expensive books. You read these encyclopaedic dictionariess sitting at home and free of cost! If you are pursuing medical studies, or are interested in biology and anatomy, do visit http://www.innerbody.com and http://www.med.harward.edu which provide detailed matter on specialised subjects. If you are interested in scientific studies and space-related subjects, then you must see the websites of "Spacestation" and "Newscientist" at http://www.spacestation. com and http://www.newscientist.com respectively.
Well-acclaimed and appreciated, "Discovery Channel" is also on the world wide web. Some educational institutions have already subscribed to this site and have accommodated its programmes in their curriculum. Getting authentic information is so much easier with the presence of these data store houses. Check out the site of the Discovery Channel at http://www.disco very.com. The web has the site of "National Geographic" a well known magazine, and now a satellite channel too. An award winning institution "National Geographic" appears at http://www.national-geographic.com. Happy Surfing!
— Mugdha Chaturvedi, The Times of India, Education Times, September 28, 1998
German PhD Theses on the Interent
Every year the German PhD theses alone amount to many hundreds of thousands of pages. making this wealth of knowledge available to other scientists and interested persons require time, money and sapce in university libraries. But if the theses are offered online, they cannot only be accessed within seconds but also searched for terms, headwords or citations. Since the beginning of this year, five scientific associations supported by the German Research Association DFG are working on the project Dissertation Online to work out the basics and the procedures necessary for setting up, archiving and searching digital PhD theses. In close cooperation with the German Library, the researchers have devised a program that provides so-called meta data to scientific texts, containing the structural information necessary for searching. A partial project deals with the development of specialised search engines.
— Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Counsellor (S&T), Embassy of India, Bonn, Germany
Survey of the Information Society
The Prognos AG has presented its final report on the competitiveness and the acceptance of information and communications technology in Germany, in contrast with the industrialized nations of Great Britain, France, Italy, the USA, and Japan. The assessment has been carried out in terms of information technology, telecommunications, and electronic media in order to find gaps in the the competitiveness of information and communications industry, where Germany ranks third. Germany is weak in application, e.g. its expenditures for IT services are comparatively low. As for industrial offers, a need for action has been identified in the turnover reached with standard software and the production and the export of semiconductor electronics. In telecommunications, the differences between the individual countries are relatively low.
The USA and Japan lead in terms of application and industrial offers, while Germany leads in telecommunication uses. The segment of electronic media shows stark contrasts. Japan clearly leads in consumer electronics and media industry, the USA in media uses. In Germany, applications show a need for action in the area of the distribution of digital TV as well as the number and the costs of Internet connections and the number of Internet hosts. Industrial deficits are found mainly in the production and the export of consumer electronics and TV programmes. Because of insufficient data, the effects of the deregulation of the German telecommunications market from 1 January 1998, have not been considered by this survey.
— Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Bonn, Germany
New Chemical Information Service on the Net
A new kind of information service on the Internet is supposed to help chemists and pharmocologists in research, teaching and industry to search for specific information in the World Wide Web. Such a comprehensive service to collect and structure all chemical information and serve as an expert information centre has been lacking. It is now being setup as part of the German Research Network (DFN) project "Chemie.DE: Foundation of an Internet information service for chemistry", which is supported by the BMBF. Since May 1997, this service, which is fully bilingual (English and German) is available at http://www.chemie.de/. The central components of "Chemie.DE" are a metaindex, that is, a collection of references to documents relevant for chemistry, which can be enquired, a commented collection of specific WWW servers, a calendar of events, several tools, software descriptions and a service for finding jobs.
— Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Bonn, Germany
Telecooperation in Spectroscopy
The enormous number of known chemical compounds and the speed by which new substances are discovered or synthesized results in a flood of spectral data, which are generated all over the world every day in order to elucidate their structures. For this reason knowledge transfer in spectroscopy is very important. The possibilities offered by the Internet for exchanging experience in interpreting spectra require a method that works largely independent of instrumental conditions. The German Research Network (DFN) project "TeleSpek", which is supported by the BMBF, offers interactive support for predicting and interpreting infra-red spectra on the Internet and is supposed to be the basis of a world-wide discussion forum for infra-red spectroscopists.
— Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Bonn, Germany
Multimedia Conference System on the Internet
On the rapidly expanding Internet, the demand for multimedia conferences is growing. The applications of such "virtual" meetings range from small business meetings up to university lectures. The German Research Network (DFN) project "Universal and scalable multimedia services on the Internet, USMInT", which is supported by the BMBF, is in existence since October 1996. It aims at setting up and testing multimedia applications, focussing on how they cater for the users and the flexibility of uses. In addition the aspects of ensuring the quality of services on the Internet are to be investigated. Under the name of MInT (Multimedia Internet Terminal), the conference system of the next generation with different mechanisms to secure acceptable services qualities is being developed. These works are supposed to contribute to shaping the Internet for the next generation.
— Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Bonn, Germany
New Material for Data Carriers
Bayer and IBM are going to develop jointly a data carrier for the future, the so-called holographic memory. A disc of the size of a conventional CD is supposed to take up 1000 gigabytes then. Bayer has developed a special polymer, which is applied in a thin layer to a conventional CD. Its numerous side chains, which are normally unaligned, can be aligned permanently by means of a high-energy laser. A weaker laser beam can then read out whether the side chains are chaotic or aligned. The new material does not allow to store one data pit at one point of the polymer layer, but different degrees of alignment can be created, depending on the intensity of the writing laser. Thus not only "0" and "1" are stored, but a number of digital data can be stored at one point on the same plane. Furthermore, the data can be stored in three dimensions.
Not only Bayer and IBM are developing new materials for memories, but also Canon Sony, Rockwell or the Norwegian Company Opticom. Scientists at Mannheim University even succeeded in storing and reading data on a common sellotape reel by means of a laser, with ten gigabyte capacity for a reel of 10m of sellotape.
— Dr. R Balasubramaniam, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Bonn, Germany
Interface Lets Gestures Control PC
Toshiba Corporation said it has developed a prototype interface enabling personal computer users to issue commands through hand gestures or other body movements. The company envisions use of the technology in educational equipment for infants, game machines and devices for elderly people and will move to commercialize it if sufficient demand emerges. The prototype, about the size of a paperback book, requires no special image processing and is capable of reacting to faster gestures than similar products now available. It is compatible with most operating systems.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
Digital Maps Moving in New Directions
Take a map, run it through a scanner,save the data on a hard drive and then view it on a computer screen. You could call this a digital map, but it really has little value beyond the piece of paper you started with. It is now possible to link the digital map to a database so one could call up information on every road, river, building and house and could search, link to other maps and smoothly scale up and down, zooming out to get the world city. That would be a truly functional, valuable digital map.Digital maps are a hot item now, and numerous CD-ROM products are coming out in step with the popularization of car navigation systems and personal computers in Japan. Some of these products are only as a regular folding map.
But new technologies are being developed that promise to make it far easier to produce value-added digital maps of the type outlined earlier. These are the kinds of technologies that are now being developed. For example, the Access Network Systems Laboratories of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation have developed software that largely automates the job of integrating various digital maps and printed maps into a lionked set,all in the same format. With this software, maps originally developed for all sorts of purposes and in all sorts of formats can be seamlessly combined to create digital maps that fit user needs. It plans to use his software to develop a 1 to 2,500 scale map of Japan with street-level resolution,showing every house. It aims to have this map completed by next March.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
Data Processing
Fujitsu Research Center has developed the technology to read headlines of newspapers or magazines by OCR and put into a personal computer automatically.
It was very difficult to read headlines because of the background design or colour print, but with the new technology, it is possible to abstract words only. It is also possible to store an article's scrap into the information in characters and read out headlines for handicapped peoples.
This new technology will group headlines by their size, position, and width of lines base on the OCR pictures. Then it will acknowledge watch group into words and conjecture thw arrangement of character from taking orders into considerations. When headlines are in color print, then they will distinct coloured and group same colored characters automatically.
In an experiment, they could identify headlines of newspapers/magazines at the accuracy of 90%.The research centre is planning to make into product within this year because the basic technology is nearly completed and it is not difficult to increase the accuracy.
Until now, it was necessary to input headlines unlike context of an article by hand. By using this new technology, it will be easy to search by a keyword or title an articles automatically.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
Method Trims Data to Store Colour Images
Tsukuba Software Laboratory Company has developed a more efficient way to store colour pictures in digital form. With the new method, the amount of data needed to store a colour still image is reduced by a factor of more than 1,000 because the outline and other elements of the picture are represented by a series of equations rather than by a mosaic or small squares. The research and development venture aims to have a practical version of the software ready within a year, anticipating the method will find use not only for storing colour pictures and illustrations, but also in colour facsimile systems. To store a colour image such as a scanned picture with the new method, the outline of the image is extracted and special functions are used to create equations that represent the outline as a series of straight and curved lines. Since the outlines within each small mosaic square of the picture are also inferred and converted into equations, the store image is less angular and more smooth than the original image.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
Image Retrieval System Based on Interaction of Colour Information
Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry has established a new coloured image retrieval system based on the interaction of colour information. The image is identified based on the dim colour memories of users or by using partial colour patterns of these images, and analogous images are retrieved from these rather ambigous images with a retrieval interface using colour palette. The newly established coloured image retrieval system is based on a colour designated retrieval and a similarity based image retrieval method, and a retrieval software has also been developed for using both these methods. The conventional type of analogous image retrieval method is generally based on the method of comparing the mage overall colour in conforma- nce with the frequency of the colour appearance, but with this method, if the image upper half is reddish and the lower half whitish, then with an image in which the red and white colours are fine and distributed in dispersion, the images appear analogous. The new method discriminates the colour charcterstistics in fine parts or boxes, so discrimination is performed rapidly and accurately to eliminate unnecessary loss of time and labour. The research team evaluated the new retrieval method propriety by using about 2000 landscape photographs available on the market and fully confirmed that the retrieval time is shortened by about 40%. Since this technique enaables images to be retrieved efficiently even from ambigous memries, it is anticipated to have a wide range of applications.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
Work Efficiency of Book Production Improved
Tokyo Shoseki Printing Company Ltd. jointly with Yamada Kikai Kogyo Company Ltd. and Yoshino Machinery Company Ltd. has developed an Inline KOAIBON (Keep Flat Book) Production Technique that improves the book production efficiency by 1.6 times compared with conventional processes. The company has started accepting orders for the new technique. The new technique integrates the book cover preparation process and book binding process which are performed independently. Compared with the conventional off line process, the number of revolutions of the bok binding machine is increased to 10000 rph (1.6 times faster), and whereas the off line machine had to be stopped each time the tape was changed, the in line process permits automatic tape tenson control and enables tape winding machine to be performed continuously without having to stop the machine. The book binding machine is also designed for smooth start up with stability and for producing quality books since the books are bound neatly into shape right after tape lining. The new technique is applicable to the binding of books of A6-B4 sizes.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
Prototype of Magnetic RAM Launched
MRAM stands for magnetic random-access memory. It works by storing the data bits "0" and "1" as differences in electrical resistance brought about by a change in electron spin in a special magnetic material. MRAMs are gaining increasing attention as promising next-generation, solid-state non-volatile electronic memory chips for portable information devices. They would be fast, consume very little power, retain their data when power is cut, endure repeated cycles of reading and writing and potentially store more than 1000 times more data bits than today's main line 64-megabits dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips. Toshiba Corporation having recently created a prototype of an MRAM element that demonstrates the fundamental memory device actions of reading an extremely small grain of a platinum-cobalt alloy sandwiched between insulating layers of aluminium oxide. Data is written to this memory cell by applying a current and causing the electrons in this magnetic grain to all spin in the same direction. A "0" bit has them spinning one way; a "1" bit has them spinning the othe. When a readout voltage is applied and a current passes acriss this depending on the direction of spin. According to Toshiba, data bits can be read from the prototype device in just 6 nanoseconds, faster than today's DRAMs. The next step is to integrate devices and make an MRAM prototype. Toshiba said that can be dne using conventional lothography techniques. Although cobalt is a precious metal, very little of the substance is required. Thus, as far as costs are concerned, volume production of MRAMs is a posibility, so DRAMs face yet another challenger to the memory-chip throne.
— Dr. V T Chitnis, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Tokyo, Japan
National Workshop on Advanced Scientific Computation
The National Workshop on Advanced Scientific Computation convened by the Department of Energy (DoE) and the National Science Foundation in July 1998 reached a broad agreement that the government should invest about $ 1 billion over the next 4 years to develop a national network of super computers for civilian use, together with supporting technology and cutting-edge software. The ultimate goal would be to construct two 40-teraflop machines by 2003, each of which would be 200 times more powerful than the best supercomputers in universities today (a teraflop is one trillion operations per second). The organisers have together a draft proposal for considerartion. If the proposal is approved, it would provide a civilian counterpart to the Accerlated Strategic Computing Initiative, a 2-year old DOE project to develop a 100-teraflop machine in the next decade that would be used to model the behaviour of nuclear weapons.
— Dr. A K Jain, Counsellor (S&T),
Embassy of India, Washington
Training Course on Nulcear Information Services
Bhabha Atomic Research Center is conducting a 4-week Interregional Training Course on Establishment of Nuclear Information Services starting on November 2,1998. The Course was inaugurared by Dr Anil Kakodkar. In his inaugural address Dr Kakodkar emphasised the importance of rapid and effective dissemination of information for sharing the experience of all the countries in the design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear reactors and in the different areas where isotopes can be used for the benefit of mankind. Mr. A K Anand, Director, Technical Co-ordination & International Relations Group, BARC, also emphasised the need to set up adequate infrastructure to share experiences among the community of nations. Dr. M R Balakrishnan, Head Library & Information Services Division, BARC, who is the Course Director, highlighted the fact that this is the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency is organising a Training Course for senior level information managers, with both lecture courses, visits to some of the major libraries in this region and with practical training in information services related activities. Mrs Janice Blanton of the Division of Scientific and Technical Information of the IAEA also gave an overview of the course in the inaugural function.
The course is being attended by 22 participants from different countries — Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Myanmar, Philippines, Poland, Sudan, Syria and Venezula. A number of BARC scientists also will deliver lectures and practical demonstrations of various aspects of information technology.
— BARC Newsletter, No. 178, November 1998
Asia Information Services in Finland
The Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration Library has set up the Asia Information Service. This service provides information about different kinds of references, news items and contact addresses about various East and South-East Asian countries. The Asian Information Service collects materials and references from printed publications, research institutes, periodical articles, newspapers and journals, WWW addresses and other information sources.
Countries included for surveying are: Burma, Cambodia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The information is made available free of charge and via World Wide Web only at http://www.hkkk.fi/libwww/asian/.
Contact: Helsinki School of Economics Library, Asia Project, Runeberginkatu 22-24; FIN-00100, Helsinki, Finland (Fax: +358 9 4313 8539, Email (Ms Leena Koho): Koho[at]hkk.fi
— APINESS Newsletter, July-December 1997
IFLANET
In February 1997, IFLANET announced its first mirror-website, hosted by the Institute de Information Scientifique et Technique (INIST), located in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France. It can be visited at http://ifla.inist.fr/. This mirror site is an exact replica of IFLA's website at the National Library of Canada. It is accessible to all of IFLA's partners worldwide and is designed to reach those outside North America, particularly the Francophone library community.
IFLA is planning to establish more mirror sites in the near future in order to increase the accessibility of FLANET. The present initiative has been praised by Ms. Christine Deschamps of the Bibliotheque de l'Universite' Paris V: Rene' Descartes and Members of IFLA's Executive Board. She argued that it will increase IFLA's visibility in France and that it should also involve the Francophone library community in IFLA's worldwide activities. The current host, INIST, is a leading French document supply company.
Launched in 1993, IFLANET has become an important information and communication tool for the library and information profession. In 1996, it handled 691408 information requests. Some 50-60 percent of the requests came from Noth America, 15 percent from Europe, and 5 percent from the Asia-Pacific region. The most popular section was that on Information Technology whose pages were delivered more than 18000 times. The most popular document was "The inventory of multimedia software" of which more than 14000 copies were downloaded.
Contact: National Library of Canada at ifla[at]nlcbnc.ca or IFLA HQ at ifla.hq[at]ifla.nl for more information about IFLANET.
— APINESS Newsletter, July-December 1997
ICSOPRU Database
ICSOPRU is the acronym of an UNESCO international research project on the management effectiveness and productivity of research teams and institutions to which they belong,conducted by the Organisation between 1971 and 1989. Seventeen countries took part in this project,namely:
* in Africa: Ghana, Nigeria
* in the Arab States: Egypt
* in Asia: China, India, Republic of Korea
* in Europe: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine
* in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico.
An approach from multiple perpective was adopted as theretical foundation of the project, taking advantage of recent development in a series of domains such as system analysis, organizational psychology, sociology of sciences, managerial sciences. From the methodological point of view, it was decided to collect (through direct interviews with research teams' heads and members, and with institutions heads) opinions and facts on a number of factors supposed to govern their scientific productivity and to influence the impact of their work. The same questionnaires,carefully translated into national languages,were administered in all countries participating in the same "round" of the study.
The common methodology (internationally developed for the ICSOPRU) was based on standard procedures: hypothesis formulation, construction of measuring instruments (i.e. questionnaries), sampling design, collection of data in standardized ways from large and hetrogeneous population of R & D units,data verification and correction, construction of standard data files, etc. These ICSOPRU procedures constituted a technical Guidebook, constantly kept updated.
The international comparability of the study results mainly from the respect on the part of each country of these procedures especially as regards:
* the use of a set of questionnaires internationally developed for the study
* the administration of the questionnaires using similar interview techniques
* the verification and correction of data, and the construction of computer files using the same techniques and programs.
Taking into account the scientific interest that the ICSOPRU data may present for other decades, an effort was made to deposit international ICSOPRU data and relevant documentation at UNESCO Archives, and in a number of external institutions. The complete set of ICSOPRU data prepared for archiving in 1990 consisted of four tapes containing international data files in IDAMS and SPSS formats. Because of continuous development of microcomputers, the international ICSOPRU data files in IDAMS formats were transferred to more popular media and are now available on diskettes.
Contact: Mr. J. Boel, UNESCO, Archives Records Management & Micro Division, 7, Place de Fontenoy, F 75352 PARIS 07 SP, France at j.boel[at]unesco.org for ICSOPRU data and corresponding documentation.
— IDAMS News, Issue No. 19, September 1998
Bill Gates' Generosity
What is common to Bill Gates and Andrew Carnegie? Both are Library benefactors. If Carengie donated all his life earnings for erecting library buildings,about hundred years ago, Bill Gates of the Microsoft recently donated $ 200 million to 41 public libraries in the USA to help them get wired to the internet. In recognition of this generous help, American Library Association (ALA) has decided to award its Honorary Life Membership to both Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, But only after a stormy debate in the Council. Gates' critics object to his "unfair" business practices. The story of Bill Gates benevolence began in 1995 in Brooklyn, when Microsoft launched along with ALA, a pilot version of connecting the public libraries to the information superhighway. The pilot was originally confined to 9 libraries. In the following year, the project, called 'Libraries on line!', was extended to 32 more libraries. This ambitious project is expected to bootsrap the public libraries into the Information Age, by giving the people "the tools" for "empowering them".
— MALA Newsletter, Vol 11, No. 2, April 1998
British Library's Picture Library
The British Library has recently improved access for researchers to pictures and photographs. Previously, it was necessary to search for pictures by book or manuscript. The BL's picture library which is constantly growing, includes their most popular images, with the majority being pre-20th century. Illustrations can be selected from the database of images held by the London Copy Service photograph section. A high quality photographic print is produced in just minutes. The output can be transparency, CD-ROM or a black and white reference print. The technique is based around the renowned 'Phase' camera from Denmark, linked to a powerful Apple Computer system. Once photographed and printed, an image is indexed and saved to a searchable digital database. The processing system allows images to be compared directly to the original before printing, thus ensuring accurate colour reproduction, or permitting the removal of stains or fading. The quality of the final copy will be at least as good as the film but the turnaround will be considerably quicker with potential for 'a same day' service.
Contact: bl-repro[at]bl.uk for further details.
— MALA Newsletter, Vol 11, No. 2, April 1998
Ask a Librarian
'Ask a Librarian' available at http://www.carl.org.uk/ask/, is an admirable recent initiative of the British public libraries, a new on-line reference service developed by the Public Librarians Consortium, called Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries, EARL for short. It was launched in November 1997, with 40 public libraries across Britain partcipating in it. Enquirers have to click on the Ask a Librarian web pages on the Earl server and type in the query, together with their name and E-mail address. This 24-hours a day service will try and answer back within the next two working days. The participating libraries collaborate freely and by means of a rota, one library takes up the responsibility to answer queries for one day in the month. Costs involved are incredibly minimal.
Most of the questions are simple, straight forward which can be answered from the standard reference texts, CD ROMs and the Internet. As it is, the service is not geared to handling in-depth research type of enquiries.
Although, as expected,the majority of enquiries come from UK, USA, Singapore and Australia; India also makes use of this service. Feedback from the users as well as the providers of the services is favourable.
Ask a Librarian is an example of providing traditional reference service through electronic media and illustrates how information professionals can creatively make use of the myriad opportunities offered by it. In effect, the service brings the resources of the UK public reference libraries to people's desktops. Long live networked public library!! if you wish to try, the web address is:
http://www.earl.org.uk/ask/
— MALA Newsletter, Vol 11, No. 3, July 1998
Directory Database of Japan Research and Development Activities
The Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST) founded the Directory Database of Research and Development Technology Activities (ReaD) for trial easy utilization of research information owned by national and public research institutes and began trial provision of the directory to the public by internet on August 1, 1998.
The directory data totals 87,500 items and is divided into the following four categories:
* Research Institutions Directory Database which describes a summary of each institute's activities, the purpose of their establishment, location maps and transportation facilities (1000 items);
* Reserch Subject Directory Database which describes research overviews, names of researchers, name of research institutusions, research systems and research results (47000 items);
* Resercher Directory Database to introduce reserchers' profiles and research details (39000 items);
* Research Resource Directory Database to show research institutions' facilities, equipment and databases which are open to the public.
The directory database employs a system which enables researchers (research institutes) to register or correct data by themselves. The Read's internet address is http://read.jst.go.jp/.
Contact: Research Information Transfer Division, Department of Advanced Database, JST; Tel: 03 5214 8471 for further information.
— STA TODAY, Vol 10, No 9, September 1998
OM Multimedia Database
OM Information Service version 1, a multimedia database, consisting of some 17000 extracts from the sayings, discourses, writings of over 800 scholars, saints, seers, mystics and religious leaders, spanning across faiths and cultures from vedic times to the present, together with selected life sketches and pictures, and list of source materials, is accessible on the Internet at http://144.16.72.175/~om/. An option to play devotional music while searching is available. Updating once every six months.
Contact: Mr. A Neelameghan at srels[at]blr.vsnl.net.in for more information.
— Email Communication
New Software Package for Library Management
A new software package PALMS (Prasad Automated Library Management Systems) has been launched by R.C. Prasad with more additinal facilities/utilities like data protection, report generation, mailing/spine label/catalogue printing, on-line calculator, library statistics, SDI/current awareness/bibiliographical services and prasad automatic book number system in addition to management of all the databases like books, members enrollment, purchase, budgetary control, suggestions, issue-return, reservation, journal, abstract and mailing. relational database management have been also included in the package to avoid duplication in data entry. Provision of data conversion from CLMS Version 1.0 is also available with the package. The main aim to develop this fully menu-driven, user friendly/fast speed/single/multi user(s) (networking) package (runs under DOS environment) is to help all library professionals in computerization of libraries and providing better services to the readers/users, without having any training or knowledge about the computer. Y2K (year 2000 AD) problem of date format has been solved in this package and data conversion utility is also available for CLMS users. Unique facility of maintaining records/information data-wise from 2nd century to 30th century is also provided in the package. Second version of CLMS (Computerise Library Management Systems - Single/Multi User Package) is also available. Demonstration trial diskettes are also available [at] Rs. 100.00 / US $ 10.00 and this amount will be refundable on the purchase of the package.
For more details contact:
R.C. Prasad, Scientist (Library & Documentation) G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development,
Kosi, Almora 263 643 (India)
e-mail: rcndprasad[at]hotmail.com
gbpihed[at]giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
