Discussion of the influences of technology on the publishing industry focuses on locally loaded databases and database licensing to help integrate a variety of data into one system for libraries. Local online systems are described, and the responsibilities and roles of the library, the publisher, and the vendor are discussed. (LRW)

Reviews of Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia, New Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia, and World Book's Information Finder are based on the 1990 editions. It is noted that all three publishers have announced plans to release annual revisions to their discs. The description of each of the products includes critiques of the search program, the…

Describes the design of a prototype multiauthor multimedia document production (MAMMDP) system. Discusses the problems of finding an appropriate task analysis technique, and introduces background concepts. Examines how the system's tasks were analyzed and represented during the early stages of the design. (AEF)

Discusses the development of electronic books and considers marketing and distribution, rights management, and technical standards. Economic and institutional relationships, copyrights, Extensible Markup Language (XML), access to content, free access versus fees, preservation versus loss of control over long-term storage and access, and trusted…

Availability in electronic format of scholarly and scientific literatures and other forms of information has altered challenges faced by library collection managers. Drawing on ideas of the multi-library consortia, which have grown up partly in response to the advent of electronic resources, librarians have devised new criteria and means of…

Three attempts at consensus lists of evaluation criteria for the Web are compared with reviews in "Choice" magazine. There is little agreement on the most important/appropriate criteria for a Web site's value, and few of the criteria appear in the sample reviews, suggesting a continued lack of consensus. The extreme rapidity of change in the Web…

The National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS) is an organization of over 60 publishers and online service providers. Included is a formal white paper which was released in December 1997 to clarify the rights and responsibilities of each party in the electronic information delivery process: authors, publishers,…

The Institute of Physics Publishing (IPP), a subsidiary body of the Institute of Physics (IOP), has used electronic publishing on the Internet as a major means of improving the speed of dissemination of physics information. The development of the Comprehensive Electronic Journals service is described along with recent enhancements and other…

Discusses the various characteristics of print on paper and postulates the foreseeable changes to a more modular form of communication in an electronic environment. Discusses the functions of the present-day scientific article. Emphasizes the demands of readers in their various consumer roles. Outlines a new heuristic model for a modular…

Discusses how to build customized World Wide Web documents; uses examples from an Advanced Composition class at Lakeville High School (Minnesota). Highlights four steps: (1) assessing student needs; (2) developing instructional goals and activities; (3) deciding on content; and (4) organizing and arranging the information into Web pages. (AEF)

Examines issues surrounding the publication of electronic journals and describes publisher solutions to these issues. Topics include pricing, security, electronic page layout, copyright, backfile availability, and reliability and accessibility of data. Describes some electronic journal projects and lists electronic journal services available via…

Five-hundred twenty-seven full bibliographic records containing URLs were downloaded from SCISEARCH as part of an exploration of the extent of Web publication of electronic research-related information (E-RRI) in the sciences and classified as to resource type, subject area, and degree of intellectual property protection. (Contains 28 references.)…

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.…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This April 15, 2005 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "M.A. Students as Pledges" (Hengen, Nicholas); (2) "It's All An Illusion" (Schweber, Simone); (3)…

The Archives Departementales de la Cote-d'Or chose as a priority for its automation plan the acquisition of a search engine, to publish online archival descriptions and the library catalogue. The Archives deliberately opted for a practical approach, using for the encoding of the finding aids an automatic data export from an archival management…