Overview of content related to 'rtf'

eBooks: Tipping or Vanishing Point?

editor — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Emma Tonkin investigates ebooks and takes a look at recent technological and business developments in this area.

Due in large part to the appearance since mid-2006 of increasingly affordable devices making use of e-Ink technology (a monochrome display supporting a high-resolution image despite low battery use, since the screen consumes power only during page refreshes, which in the case of ebooks generally represent page turns), the ebook has gone from a somewhat limited market into a real, although presently still niche, contender. Amazon sold 500,000 Kindles in 2008 [1]; Sony sold 300,000 of its Reader Digital Book model between October 2006 and October 2009. In September 2009, ebooks represented between 1% and 3% of the total US publishing market [2].

Following the JISC National eBooks Observatory Study [3] in the UK, one participant, David Nicolas, was quoted as stating that ebooks have 'reached the tipping point' [4]. Keeping in mind Bohr's statement that, 'prediction is very difficult, especially about the future', it's nonetheless safe to say that publicity about these devices is currently at a high point. But for ebook readers, as Figure 1 shows, this is not their first time in the spotlight.

"A good book has no ending. ~R.D. Cumming"

This article marks the third time that Ariadne has discussed the subject of ebooks, namely "Ebooks in UK Libraries: Where are we now?" [5] and "e-Books for the Future: Here But Hiding?" [6]. There is something very beguiling about the idea of a book that has 'the marvelous chameleon-like quality that it can very quickly be made to substitute for a different printed work by simply loading different content' [7] - a book that can play the role of a library.

As Striphas [8] points out, the concept of the electronic book, and the exploration of the interaction between the size of a container and the quantity of knowledge held, has an extraordinarily long history. He traces the idea back to the creation of miniature manuscript books, composed of 'tiny handwriting, or micrographia', in the late 15th century, which were functional objects and could be read by means of a magnifying glass.

Striphas notes the development of microphotography techniques in the 19th century. This was initially pioneered by John Benjamin Dancer, an optical instrument-maker who combined microscope and camera in order to create the earliest example of microphotography on record [9]. Luther reports that 'the 21 May 1853 issue of Notes and Queries carried a letter from a Dublin scholar asking "May not photography be usefully applied to the making of catalogues of large libraries?' Microphotography led to the report in the British Photographic Journal of, 'A page of printing, from Quekett's "Treatise on the Microscope", reduced to such size that the whole of the volume of 560 pages could be contained in a space one inch long and half-an-inch broad ' [8].

The DARE Chronicle: Open Access to Research Results and Teaching Material in the Netherlands

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Leo Waaijers reflects on four years of progress and also looks ahead.

While Cream of Science (Keur der Wetenschap), Promise of Science and the HBO Knowledge Bank (HBO Kennisbank) are among the inspiring results of the DARE Programme for the period 2003-06, what is more important in the long run is the new infrastructure that enables Dutch Higher Education and research institutions to provide easy and reliable open access to research results and teaching material as quickly as possible. Such open access ought to be the standard in a knowledge-driven society, certainly if the material and data have been generated with public funding.

Looking for a Google Box?

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Sebastian Rahtz gives us his evaluation of the Google Search Appliance.

Most Web sites of any size want to offer a facility to perform a free-text search of their content. While we all at least claim to believe in the possibilities of the semantic web, and take care over our navigation aids and sitemaps, we know that sooner or later our readers want to type 'hedgehog' into a search box. Yes, even http://www.microsoft.com [1] returns plenty of hits if you try this.

News and Events

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Digital Cultural Content Forum 2005

11-13 February 2005, Oxford, UK

The Digital Cultural Content Forum (DCCF) is an annual international gathering of key stakeholders in the digitisation and delivery of our global cultural assets. The focus of the meeting is to explore how public institutions that steward cultural content, the agencies responsible for public policy, and organisations in the public broadcast sectors can collaborate to deliver services to public audiences.

News and Events

editor — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Hyper Clumps, Mini Clumps and National Catalogues...

The JISC-funded CC-interop Project completed its work during 2004 and now is holding an event to disseminate the key findings of the project. The project built on the work of the successful eLib Phase 3 "Clumps" projects and investigated three broad areas to inform about interoperability between physical and distributed union catalogues. Find out about:

News and Events

editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

The Joint Technical Symposium (JTS) - 24-26 June, Toronto

The Joint Technical Symposium (JTS) is the international meeting for organisations and individuals involved in the preservation and restoration of original image and sound materials. This year, JTS is scheduled to be held in Toronto, Canada, June 24-26, 2004.

Preliminary program information is now available on the JTS 2004 website. See: http://www.jts2004.org/english/program.htm

WebWatch: How Accessible Are Australian University Web Sites?

editor — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Dey Alexander reports on a recent study of the accessibility of Australian university Web sites.

This article reports on a recent study of the accessibility of Australian university Web sites. A selection of key pages from all 45 Australian tertiary education Web sites were analysed to assess their compliance with basic accessibility standards, as required by Australian anti-discrimination legislation. The results--98% of sites failed to comply--suggest that Australian university Web sites are likely to present significant barriers to access for people with disabilities.

Web Focus: A Standards-Based Culture for Web Site Development

editor — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 23:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly outlines strategies for choosing appropriate standards for building Web sites.

In Ariadne issue 33 the Web Focus column encouraged Web developers to "get serious about HTML standards" [1]. The article advocated use of XHTML and highlighted reasons why this was an important standard for Web developers.

XHTML is just one of the standards which has been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C has also developed several standards for XML as well as standards in the area of hyperlinking, multimedia and graphics.

Windows Explorer: The Index Server Companion

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Brett Burridge describes the Index Server Companion, an application he has created that allows Microsoft Index Server to index content from remote websites and ODBC databases.

Microsoft's Index Server is a service supplied with the Windows NT 4.0 Server and Windows 2000 Server products. The service indexes HTML and other content residing on the file system. These indexed files may be queried using a number of techniques, but of particular relevance to web developers is the ability to build completely customised search facilities based on Active Server Pages (ASP) by making use of Index Server's Component Object Model (COM) objects.

Migration: A Camileon Discussion Paper

editor — Tue, 02 Oct 2001 23:00:00 +0000

Paul Wheatley explores migration issues for the long-term preservation of digital materials.

Aims

This paper is intended to continue the debate on the different uses of migration for the long-term preservation of digital materials.

Supporting Material for Database Training, or 'Here’s One I Prepared Earlier'

editor — Thu, 21 Jun 2001 23:00:00 +0000

Alison McNab looks at the wealth of resources available for trainers provided by the information service and content providers within JISC-supported services.

Subject librarians will recognise the following situation: you have spent years trying to persuade Department X to let you run some information skills training for their students, but they’ve always said No! Suddenly you get a phone call asking you to provide training next Tuesday afternoon. You know that you’re being asked to “babysit” and in an ideal world you would negotiate a more sensible time that suited the students’ learning experience. However, you also realise that if you turn this opportunity down you may never be asked again!

EPRESS

editor — Thu, 23 Mar 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Stuart Peters on EPRESS text management software tools, currently in development.

The Electronic Publishing Resource Service (EPRESS)^[1] is developing an online database system to aid the administration of electronic journals and make information available to a distributed Editorial team. Having identified labour as the greatest contributing cost toward electronic journal publication, EPRESS aims to reduce the burden by automating many of the functions of the Editorial Assistant and the publisher.

The Katharine Sharp Review

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Kevin Ward, the editor of the Katherine Sharp Review, gives an overview of the first two years of this major journal for Librarians, and looks to its future.

I would like to think that library and information science education is preparing students for employment as traditional librarians, information professionals, or even future LIS educators. In each of these areas there is a call for publication as a requirement for tenure or promotion, or perhaps even as a requirement for attaining the position. Thus it would be of some importance if the student has had some sort of experience with the procedures and expectations before arriving in the workplace or interview.

Wire: Brian Kelly

editor — Thu, 18 Jul 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly is put under the virtual spotlight to answer a few questions via email on his past, present, and thoughts on matters networking.

What do you do in the world of networking/libraries/WWW?

Meta Detectors

editor — Sat, 18 May 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Lorcan Dempsey talks about metadata and the development of resource discovery services in the UK.

How do you find out what is of interest on the network? The answer is with difficulty. What should libraries and the eLib subject services be doing about this? The answer is not clear. Let's postpone the question for a while, and look at the rapidly shifting service and technical environment in which they are operating.

Wire: Dave Beckett, Interviewed

editor — Sat, 18 May 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Dave Beckett is subjected to an interview via email.

What do you do in the world of networking/libraries/WWW

Wire: Email Interview with Chris Lilley

editor — Tue, 19 Mar 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Chris Lilley submits to an interview by email.

I represent JISC at the Advisory Council meetings of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Most of the delegates are representing commercial companies, wheras I am effectively representing the UK Higher Education sector! W3C member companies are given advance information in confidence, and I am currently working with W3C to see how I can involve UK HE in the work of W3C without violating that confidence.

Wire: Email Interview with Traugott Koch

editor — Fri, 19 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Traugott Koch submits to an interview by email.

In this 'Wire' interview Ariadne staff ask Traugott Koch for his views on how libraries can develop in response to the World Wide Web.