The 131st meeting of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) focused on preservation of digital information. The ARL Preservation Committee convened three panels of experts to highlight major issues raised by the archiving of digital resources, and to encourage discussion about options for operating models and criteria for digital archives.…

This summary of the literature on document image processing from 1988-90 focuses on WORM (write once read many) technology and on rewritable (i.e., erasable) optical discs, and excludes CD-ROM. Highlights include vendors and products, standards, comparisons of storage media, software, legal issues, records management, indexing, and computer…

Discusses challenges to recordkeeping in a networked environment and describes emerging models. Suggests these principles that inform recordkeeping policies for National Information Infrastructure (NII) applications: move recordkeeping issues onto the agendas for planning and system design; understand recordkeeping requirements before systems are…

Argues that without reform and adaptation to contemporary technology, paper libraries will become little more than book museums. Outlines four major problems with contemporary library practice. Discusses benefits of database-management systems for organization of libraries' paper resources. Lists requirements libraries should demand of any new…

Describes how recent technological developments have changed the way that information is stored, managed, and accessed and suggests that the impact of the Internet has created a need for public libraries to realign their position in the information marketplace. Addresses challenges facing public library directors in marketing, fund-raising, and…

This paper seeks to provide an intellectual rationale for maintaining the centrality of preservation concepts and ethics in an increasingly digital information environment; in other words, while some long-held principles of preservation management may no longer apply, many others are still viable in high-tech situations. Libraries are rearranging…

This document describes the Syracuse University Kellogg Project's efforts to initiate a documentation strategy for the field of adult education and also includes a summary of the project's 1988 symposium on that subject. Following an introduction, the first section explains the university's interest in documentation strategy for adult education.…

Dual Coding Theory has quite specific predictions about how information in different media is stored, manipulated and recalled. Different combinations of media are expected to have significant effects upon the recall and retention of information. This obviously may have important consequences in the design of computer-based programs. The paper…

Archivists need to apply traditional principles of records management to electronic documents if these records are to survive for research by future scholars. Additionally, archivists must ensure that the electronic records preserved remain accessible as hardware and software change over time. (Author/AEF)

The scholarly communication system is in a critical stage, due to a number of factors. The Open Access movement is perhaps the most interesting response that the scientific community has tried to give to this problem. The paper examines strengths and weaknesses of the Open Access strategy in general and, more specifically, of the Open Archives…

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an infrastructure that enables the encoding, exchange and reuse of structured metadata. RDF additionally provides a means for publishing both human-readable and machine-readable vocabularies designed to encourage the reuse and extension of metadata semantics among disparate information communities.…

A survey at the University of Kansas Libraries was conducted to provide statistical information on the physical condition of the Slavic materials collection. Results revealed the condition of these collections should be cause for serious concern; however, the problems could be overcome through careful preservation planning and interlibrary…

Knowledge of electronic media includes recognizing different needs for information, understanding and using different measures of value, and understanding ethical issues. Skills relate to retrieving, managing, organizing, using, preserving, and communicating information. These complex abilities are explored, earlier work is described, and…

The National Library of Medicine is supporting a research project on full-text search and retrieval. The project includes a fully deployed system, HSTAT, to provide access to government-supported health information. The retrieval system is an object-oriented client-server model and the data is stored in an object-oriented database management…

This textbook is designed for a one-semester introductory course in which the goal is to give students a foundation in the basics of information technology (IT). It focuses on how the technology works, issues relating to its use and development, how it can lend personal and business advantages, and how it is creating a globally networked society.…