What's the worst thing that can happen to a computer? Worse than a hard disk crash, virus infection, spare assault, denial-of-service attack, hacker take-over, fire, flood or some other human, mechanical or natural disaster is a faulty backup when it is really needed. If the computer blows up, as long as the data is backed up securely, it can be…

Digital photographs can take up a lot of hard-drive space. In light of this fact, many people are choosing to store their photos online. There are several ways to store pictures on the Web, the most popular being online photo storage services. These services have many benefits. They offer a safe place for photos in the event that one's computer…

This paper reflects a collaborative effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the JISC Innovation Support Centres, CETIS and UKOLN. The research underpinning the report makes use of the NMC's Delphi-based process for bringing groups of experts to a consensus viewpoint, in this case around the impact of emerging technologies on teaching,…

As the song goes, "Don't know much about His -to-ry, don't know much about Tech-no-lo-gy!" But what we do know is that music technology now plays a crucial role in most schools. Fully integrating this technology requires much greater awareness. From Mozart to Madonna, technology has forever changed the field of music. Although accessing…

Identifies presenters' aversion to an Internet-assisted presentations for fear of failed Internet connectivity, and discusses options offered by "offline browsing" software that allows users to download information for later offline use. Lists features of an ideal offline browser. Illustrates problems with early backup methods. Reviews…

Discusses a photograph conservation seminar held in August 1996 and co-sponsored by the Rochester Institute of Technology and the George Eastman House (Rochester, New York). Highlights include assessing and improving storage conditions; possibilities of digital reconstruction; digital cameras; cataloging; and access, especially with CD-ROMs and…

Although Internet, a major computerized information network, makes massive quantities of information available free to users, there are concerns associated with it, including the lack of permanent storage of information and the need for colleges to recover costs incurred in making information available off-campus. (MSE)

Describes Extensible Markup Language (XML), a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that is designed to make it easy to interchange structured documents over the Internet. Topics include Document Type Definition (DTD), components of XML, the use of XML, text and non-text elements, and uses for XML-coded files. (LRW)

Discusses the loss of stored knowledge due to the continuous obsolescence of digital formats and platforms. Topics include digital storage versus digital preservation; the use of metadata and efforts to create standards for it; information on the Internet; and the need for long-term planning to solve digital degradation. (LRW)

Discusses the need to develop storage and preservation measures for Internet resources. Topics include Web site authorship versus Web space ownership; physical archives of Web sites; cyberarchives; collection development; acquiring Web sites; and adding Web sites to the collection. (LRW)

Examines changes in disciplinary identity demonstrated in the discourse of several Internet discussion groups and suggests the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address digital storage and retrieval problems. Highlights include the culture of intellectual disciplines and the organization of knowledge; the culture of the Internet; and…

Growing Book refers to an electronic textbook that is co-developed, and has the ability to be constantly maintained, by groups of independent authors, thus creating a rich and ever-growing learning environment that can be conveniently accessible from anywhere. This work designs and implements a Web Service-based Growing Book that has the merits of…

Scholarly publishers are experimenting with the "electronic monograph," a scholarly book offered on the Internet. Several converging trends (declining university subsidies, increasing research specialization, tightening library budgets) are putting pressure on academic publishing in the humanities and social sciences. Publishers are not convinced…

Discusses the current status of classification and its future possibilities based on the 1997 International ISKO Conference in London. Topics include its role in information storage and retrieval systems; new uses due to technological changes; term relationships and hierarchies; vocabularies; knowledge organization, hyperlinks, and…

"Web services" enable partners to exploit applications via the Internet. Individual services can be composed to build new and more complex ones with additional and more comprehensive functionality. In this paper, we apply the Web service paradigm to electronic learning, and show how to exchange and maintain learning objects is a…