IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 November 13, 1995 Volume XII, Number 44 Issue 281 ********************************************************** I. QUERIES 1. Information Brokering II. JOBS 1. Syracuse University: Assistant Professor, SLIS III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. Information Processing & Management: Special Issue on Electronic News B. Meetings 1. Electronic Document Imaging Seminars 2. NEASIS Advanced HTML Hands-on Workshop C. Miscellaneous 1. Glimpse 3.0 IV. PROJECTS D. Initiatives & Proposals 1. NSF Database & Expert Systems Program 2. Access to & Services for Federal Information in the Networked Environment E. Miscellaneous 1. WWW. Index Servers ********************************************************** I. QUERIES I.1. Fr: David C Valenzuela Re: Information Brokering I am a 1st semester graduate student in library school and have a particular interest in the information science field, rather than the library science per se. I have been lurking in this listserv for a while, and have decided to ask for some information. I for the most part understand what an information broker is and what they do, but my question involves the job prospects for someone fresh out of an MLS program. Are there firms out there taking on new people as they finish graduate programs, like a law firm almost, or is it basically, if I may use some cliches ofr a moment, a free-for-all and baptism by fire job outlook. Also, with the divisions of the information field becoming cloudier with the overlapping of information related degrees from Library, Business, or Computer Science graduate programs, what advice can any of you give about school or professional related issues. Please reply by e-mail to the below address, and thanks to those who will take the time to help a neophyte information scientist. David C Valenzuela State University at Buffalo - SILS dcv@acsu.buffalo.edu V070R6VW@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: "Claire M. Urfels" Re: Syracuse University: Ass't. Professor, SLIS The School of Information Studies at Syracuse University is seeking an individual for a full-time, tenure track, Assistant Professor position to begin Fall Semester, 1996 ( the position may be filled at the Associate Professor level depending on applicant qualifications). The IST faculty seeks a colleague who has a broad interest in and perspective on the information field, an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, and knowledge of information systems and information technology uses and applications. Preferred, but not required, is an individual who also has an MLS and/or knowledge/experience with libraries and information centers. The successful candidate will teach primarily in the core of required courses of the Master's degree program in Library and Information Science. He or she will also be expected to teach other MLS courses or courses in other programs at the Undergraduate, Master's and Doctoral levels. The School of Information Studies is a leading university center fostering the advancement of both the theory and practice of information resources/systems development and management from a user's perspective. The faculty have formal training in several cognate areas including: information science, computer science, management, library science, engineering, communication, linguistics, cognitive science, law, instructional design, information resources management, and telecommunications. The complete job announcement as well as additional information about the School of Information Studies can be obtained from its homepage . Further information may be requested from Charles R. McClure, Chair, Search Committee, at the following address or via e-mail at . Syracuse University School of Information Studies 4-116 Center for Science and Technology Syracuse, NY 13244-4100 (315)443-2911 FAX (315)443-5806 ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: Mike Shepherd Re: Information Processing & Management: Special Issue on Electronic News CALL FOR PAPERS Information Processing & Management Special Issue on Electronic News Broadcast news is information about recent events of general interest as reported by newspapers, radio, and television. Electronic news, however, has the potential to be interactive and personalized. While editors and algorithms may define the core content of electronic news, new communication technologies will enable users to have access to supplemental material from enormous archives in digital libraries and to continual streams of newly created data. Electronic news promises to deliver to the reader an "edited" collage of recent events from wide domains in a manner that is both comprehensive and personalized. The focus of this special issue will be on the research that is leading to the next generation of news systems, i.e., systems that draw current news stories from a wide variety of sources and media and integrate these stories into personalized multimedia "editions" of the news. These systems will be based on switched, high bandwidth, two-way communications networks. Suggested topics within the context of electronic news may include but are not limited to the following: - information filtering - digital libraries - multimedia - agents - human-computer interaction - content analysis - hypermedia - indexing - user modelling - categorization The guest editors for this special issue are Michael Shepherd (shepherd@cs.dal.ca), Carolyn Watters (cwatters@dragon.acadiau.ca), and Forbes J. Burkowski (fjburkow@plg.waterloo.edu). Authors should submit 3 copies of their manuscript, double spaced, following the style as described in the IP&M instructions to contributors to: Professor Michael Shepherd Department of Mathematics, Statistics & Computing Science Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 3J5 IMPORTANT DATES: Submission Date: March 15, 1996 Notification of Acceptance: June 15, 1996 Final Manuscript Due: September 15, 1996 ********** III.B.1. Fr: IMS@delphi.com Re: Electronic Document Imaging Seminars Information Management Seminars will conduct two professional development seminars on document imaging in New York City on December 13 and 14, 1995. The first seminar, entitled Electronic Document Imaging and Optical Disks will examine the current state of the art in electronic document imaging, emphasizing systems that utilize optical disks as storage media. It will provide practical advice for planning, evaluation, selection, and implementation of document imaging systems and services. The second seminar, entitled Optical Disks and Micrographics: Competition or Integration? will analyze the competitive and complementary relationship between optical disk and microfilm systems for document storage and retrieval. It is specifically intended for organizations that are considering optical disk systems as replacements for or supplements to source document microfilming or computer- output microfilm systems. The instructor for both seminars is Dr. William Saffady, Professor in the School of Information Science and Policy, State University of New York at Albany. Dr. Saffady is a well-known author and lecturer on information and document management topics. The enrollment fee is $199 per person per seminar. To receive a copy of the seminar brochure, contact Information Management Seminars at ims@delphi.com or by phone (518-439- 2746) or fax (518-439-0968). ********** III.B.2. Fr: David Suiter Re: NEASIS Advanced HTML Hands-on Workshop American Society for Information Science New England Chapter (NEASIS) presents Advanced HTML--Forms, Interactive Images And Scripting: A Hands-on Workshop Two Independent Sessions will be offered: Wednesday, 13 December 1995 and Friday, 15 December 1995 Lamont Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Workshop Leader: Michael Leach, Harvard University Physics Research Library Full-day workshop involving lecture presentations and hands-on instruction for building advanced features into a World Wide Web home page. The HTML and Web server topics will include: form creation and management; production of interactive graphics; and basic scripting techniques. We will also examine some of the technical considerations which affect the loading of a home page onto a server. Each participant will receive: 1) a workbook with detailed examples, a glossary, an annotated bibliography, and a listing of useful URLs, and 2) a diskette containing the home page created during this workshop, some sample scripts and graphics, and some useful shareware programs. Prerequisites: basic familiarity with an IBM/clone PC, DOS, Windows 3.1, Netscape and/or Mosaic, and simple HTML. Experience with scripting/programming is not necessary. The workshop will be conducted at the Electronic Training Center in Lamont Library. The Center is equipped with 12 workstations. The workshop will be limited to 24 people each session, with two people sharing a workstation. NEASIS wishes to acknowledge the gracious support of Harvard University and the Electronic Training Center in making this hands-on workshop possible. Registration is $15.00 and open to ASIS Members. Space is limited; registrations will be processed on a first come, first served basis. A check payable to "NEASIS" must accompany the registration (A Registrations Form is included with this message). Include a SASE if a receipt is required. Registrations must be received by 6 December 1995. Telephone or email registrations cannot be accepted. NEASIS reserves the right to cancel one or both of the sessions; the registration fee will be refunded in full if the workshop is canceled. Mail the registration form to: Shaoping Moss, 74 Hampton Avenue, Needham, MA 02194 (Phone: Home, 617-444-4546; Work 617-243-2207; Email: swu@ix.netcom.com). The workshop schedule will be as follows: 9:00 am Registration 9:30 am Review of HTML basics 10:15 am Form creation 12:00 noon Break for Lunch (your choice in Harvard Square or bring your own) 1:30 pm Scripting Techniques 3:00 pm Creating Interactive Graphics 4:00 pm Loading Home Pages on servers 4:45 pm Close ********** III.C.1. Fr: Udi Manber Re: Glimpse 3.0 (a "super-grep" for entire file systems) Glimpse is a very powerful UNIX indexing and query system that allows you to search through all your files very quickly. It can be used by individuals for their personal file systems (e.g., to find old mail messages), as well as by organizations for large data collections. Glimpse supports three types of indexes: a tiny one (2-3% of the size of all files), a small one (7-9%), and a medium one (20-30%). The larger the index the faster the search. Glimpse supports most of agrep's options (agrep is our powerful version of grep, and it is part of glimpse) including approximate matching (e.g., finding misspelled words), Boolean queries, and even some limited forms of regular expressions. Glimpse can also be used together with glimpseHTTP (see below) to provide search of WWW documents. Glimpse is the default search engine in Harvest (see http://harvest.cs.colorado.edu). Glimpse version 3.0 is now available. Glimpse is free for non-commercial use (but it is *not* in the public domain). The WWW home pages for glimpse are in http://glimpse.cs.arizona.edu/ The source as well as binaries for SunOS, Solaris, OSF/1 (for DEC Alpha), Linux, HP-UX, AIX, SGI, FreeBSD, NeXT, and RS/6000 are available at ftp://cs.arizona.edu/glimpse GlimpseHTTP home pages are in http://glimpse.cs.arizona.edu/ghttp/ Mail comments, questions, and suggestions to glimpse@cs.arizona.edu ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.D.1. Fr: Maria Zemankova Re: For US researchers: NSF Database & Expert Systems Program FYI: I have been asked to take a position of the Deputy Division Director (DDD) for Information, Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) for a year. While I am in the DDD position, the Database and Expert Systems (DBES) will be managed by: Dr. Barbara Blaustein Email: bblauste@nsf.gov Program Director Phone: 703-306-1926 Database and Expert Systems Program Fax: 703-306-0599 National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1115 Arlington, VA 22230 I hope you will send some interesting proposals to Barbara, and also be helpful in the review process. I would like to thank you for making my life interesting by your proposals, and also for your invaluable help in the review process, planning workshops, and conducting great research that makes NSF proud of supporting you. I will always appreciate hearing about your success. In particular, if you have some results that can be easily described to and understood by the public (that foots the bill for your research), please send such "nuggets" to me or Barbara. I would like to encourage you to share your research results with wide audience, ranging from other researchers in academia or industry, colleagues or students in other disciplines,..., and your community. Both Barbara and myself will welcome suggestions for new research directions for DBES and IRIS, respectively. Wishing you a successful year, Maria P.S. Currently, I have 433 email messages, so please do NOT respond to this message. Thanks. Maria Zemankova, Ph.D. Deputy Division Director Information, Robotics & Intelligent Systems National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1115 Arlington, VA 22230 email: mzemanko@nsf.gov Phone: 703-306-1926 Fax: 703-306-0599 ********** IV.D.2. Fr: Joan Cheverie Re: Access to & Services for Federal Information in the Networked Environment CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Access to and Services for Federal Information in the Networked Environment INTRODUCTION: During the period of September, 1995 to July, 1996, the Coalition for Networked Information is pursuing a new initiative that addresses its interest in federal government information in the networked environment. This initiative will result in a white paper that will guide higher education and other institutions, such as public and state libraries, in the development of strategies for providing access to and services for federal government information by their constituencies using the powerful, and rapidly expanding global information infrastructure. BASIC APPROACH: With the increasing use and availability of information technologies, there has been a significant change in how federal agencies produce and disseminate government information. This change is resulting in new dissemination mechanisms, as well as new and changing user needs and expectations. As a result, the responsibilities and capacities of institutions that facilitate the flow of federal information to academic and citizen communities need to be rethought in this shifting environment. The paper will primarily focus on issues and models for: collections; preservation; access; services; and, staffing and training. It will address these issues at the enterprise-wide or institutional level. The paper will also summarize policy and technical directions to provide a framework for understanding the issues involved. A CALL FOR INPUT: The Coalition is seeking input from individuals and institutions from a variety of sectors who have had experience in areas of preservation, collection management, staffing and training, and in offering new services in the networked environment, and who have ideas to contribute regarding the handling of federal information in this evolving field. We are also interested in receiving input from individuals who work with government information, either providing it, servicing it, or using it as a scholar or citizen. Individuals who are interested in contributing to, shaping, and/or providing feedback and critical comments are encouraged to contact (see below) Joan Cheverie (1) to state their interest in the project, and (2) to briefly describe the relevant experience that they have regarding the purposes and outcomes of the project. Ms. Cheverie will be following up on these statements to formulate appropriate ways and means for each respondent to participate in this initiative as it develops. CONTACT Joan Cheverie, Visiting Program Officer Coalition for Networked Information 21 Dupont Circle, Washington, DC 20036 Voice: (202) 296-5098 FAX: (202) 872-0884 Internet: jchev@cni.org ********** IV.E.1. Fr: LEIGHTON@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU Re: WWW Index servers: a study (repeat from PACS-L) I would like to announce the results of a study that I did in May and June of 1995. I compared the precision of four of the larger free World Wide Web indexing services: Infoseek (the service available for free), Lycos, Webcrawler and WWWWorm. For precision among the top ten hits (sites) returned, I used a two-way ANOVA to judge significance. I did this project for a graduate course in Computer Science. Although I did not get an outstanding grade on the project, I feel that there are real results and that they are important enough to post on the Internet. THE GIST OF THE RESULTS: Cutting to the chase, my basic finding was that Lycos and the free part of Infoseek have about the same precision, with Lycos just a nose ahead. I was surprised and pleased with the precision of both. Webcrawler gave me surprisingly bad precision, surprising because it is currently supported by America Online. WWWWorm turned out to be a bit of a downer. My initial searching indicated that it was big league, but more extensive efforts proved that my impression was wrong. There are many smaller indexing services with it in this minor league: Jumpstart, Nikos, etc. I suspect that they do not enjoy enough institutional support for hardware to develop rich databases. These services are fairly abysmal, often retrieving nothing for a subject unrelated to computer science. WWWWorm was good enough that it usually retrieved at least one or two hits, which for my queries had high precision. As far as response time between Infoseek and Lycos, Infoseek was better, especially during the workday when traffic is up. However, Infoseek would block the free users if the paid traffic was too high, which it occasionally was. Also, at that time, the free Infoseek only returned the top ten hits, whereas now, it will provide many more. I have the complete report available on the Web at: http://www.winona.msus.edu/services-f/library-f/webind.htm Please comment if you have problems with the methods or conclusions. I will try to make constructive criticism available on the Web too. You may email me at: Leighton@vax2.winona.msus.edu H. 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