This essay argues for the importance of the study of production, distribution, and the cultural impact of texts for digital librarianship. An argument is made for integrating historical viewpoints in coursework that can prepare master's library and information science (MLIS) students for the curatorial aspects of digital librarianship. Several components of that approach are discussed in this essay. Their application in the classroom using a course on American bestsellers which involved collaborative teaching using the Internet as a case study, is presented as well. This paper reveals how book historians may find new roles as interpreters of the transformation of the library, from a logocentric library, which traditionally provides a fixed physical framework within which texts are accessible to users, to a soft library delivered on distributed servers - as a knowledge continuum. The emergence of new modes of textual transmission, the changing concept of the text, and the need to create new social spaces in which texts are collected and used can benefit from an awareness of the production, distribution, and use of text in traditional media environments.

A synopsis of database searching commands for the Ovid and Ovid Web Platforms

No description available.

Presented June 3, 2004, at the Third International Conference on eLiteracy, St. John's University, New York. / There is a significant segment of the population which was virtually bypassed by the electronic revolution. These people are primarily retired or close to retirement, and are finding it increasingly necessary to have computer skills to interact with the world around them. However, due to the aging process, learning those computer skills is more difficult for them. This case study details how the staff of the North County Regional Library Computer Center addressed those issues and developed a series of classes for first time computer users. Based on research into issues in gerontology, such as cognitive and motor declines, as well as automaticity and semantic memory, the staff modified materials and techniques to make computer training achievable for many older citizens who were "falling through the cracks." The staff at the North County Regional Library developed a short, beginning-level computer course consisting of four lessons, which has been offered by the Library since early 2003. Results have been very positive. Participants have ranged in age from middle-age to elderly (80+ years). Since participants must go through the instructors to register, classes have been limited to those who were total novices, with virtually no exposure to computers. Sample materials and outlines will be provided, as well as statistical summaries from evaluation instruments.

The collections of art museums have been assembled over hundreds of years and described, organized and classified according to traditions of art historical research and discourse. Art museums, in their role as curators and interpreters of the cultural record, have developed standards for the description of works of art (such as the Categories for the Description of Works of Art, CDWA) that emphasize the physical nature of art as artefact, the authorial role of the creator, the temporal and cultural context of creation and ownership, and the scholarly significance of the work over time. Collections managers have recorded conservation, exhibition, loan and publication history, along with significant volumes of internal documentation of acquisition and storage, that support the custody and care of artefacts of significant cultural value. But the systems of documentation and classification that support the professional discourse of art history and the management of museum collections have failed to represent the interests, perspectives or passions of those who visit [use?] museum collections, both on-site and online. As museums move to reflect the breadth of their audiences and the diversity of their perspectives, so must museum documentation change to reflect concerns other than the traditionally art historical and museological. Social tagging offers a direct way for museums to learn what museum-goers see in works of art, what they judge as significant and where they find or make meaning. Wi thin the steve collaboration(http://www.steve.museum), a group of art museums is collectively exploring the role of social tagging and studying the resulting folksonomy (Bearman & Trant, 2005; Chun, Cherry, Hiwiller, Trant, & Wyman, 2006; Trant & Wyman, 2006). Analysis of terms collected in the prototype steve tagger suggests that social tagging of art museum objects can in fact augment museum documentation with unique access points not found in traditional cataloguing. Terms collected through social tagging tools are being compared to museum documentation, to establish the actual contributions made by naïve users to the accessibility of art museum collections and to see if social classification provides a way to bridge the semantic gap between art historians and art museumsâ publics.

Poster paper / The concept of lifelong learning is much broader than formal education and goes beyond just keeping up; it encompasses all learning on all levels. In order to keep up with new resources, new technology, new publishing trends, new business and educational models, new modes of communication, and our library users, today's LIS professionals need to engage in some form of continuing education - and make lifelong learning an important aspect of their careers.

This version of the report contains a hyperlinked table of contents to improve navigation. / This report describes the results of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded study to investigate the use of technological or policy tools to control patron access to or use of digital collections of cultural materials created by U.S. archives, libraries and museums. The technological and policy tools serve primarily to control copying or other reuses of digital materials. The study had the following goals: 1. Assess what technical and policy tools cultural institutions are employing to control access to and use of online digital collections. 2. Investigate motivations for controlling access to or use of collections (e.g., copyright, privacy, protecting traditional restrictions, income generation etc.). 3. Investigate discouragers to the implementation of access and use control systems (e.g., preference for open collections, lack of resources, institutional mission, etc.). 4. Gauge interest in implementing technical systems to control access to and use of collections. 5. Determine what types of assistance IMLS could provide. 6. Identify institutions with innovative controlled online collections for follow up case studies on policy, technical and managerial details.

This report describes the results of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded study to investigate the use of technological or policy tools to control patron access to or use of digital collections of cultural materials created by U.S. archives, libraries and museums. The technological and policy tools serve primarily to control copying or other reuses of digital materials. The study had the following goals: 1. Assess what technical and policy tools cultural institutions are employing to control access to and use of online digital collections. 2. Investigate motivations for controlling access to or use of collections (e.g., copyright, privacy, protecting traditional restrictions, income generation etc.). 3. Investigate discouragers to the implementation of access and use control systems (e.g., preference for open collections, lack of resources, institutional mission, etc.). 4. Gauge interest in implementing technical systems to control access to and use of collections. 5. Determine what types of assistance IMLS could provide. 6. Identify institutions with innovative controlled online collections for follow up case studies on policy, technical and managerial details.

This paper was presented as invited plenary keynote address. / This article surveys the cultural record in the digital environments and the current efforts to capture this record and circulate it as knowledge, documents, and collections in memory institutions, and provide a basis for the creation of new knowledge. The goals of digital preservation are interpreted in the light of recent arguments about the role of the humanities in providing access to the complete human experience, of the changing idea of the archive representing that experience, and of the roles of memory institutions in supporting the humanities project. Two sets of current preservation activities are identified and surveyed - web archiving (of national web spaces, web spheres) and curated collections of primary sources from the history web. The emerging forms of interpretive and point-of-view history, invented archives, and digital libraries capturing local history, everyday experience and community memory illustrate how digital media can support interpretive and multi-perspective historiography.

Mainz, Universiẗat, Diss., 2005.