Presents a literature review that covers the following topics related to preservation of digital objects: practical examples; stakeholders; recordkeeping standards; genre-specific problems; trusted repository standards; preservation methods; preservation metadata standards; and future directions. (Contains 82 references.) (MES)

Discussion of the Internet 2 community, formed from partnerships involving universities, businesses, and the government, focuses on the K-20 Initiative that extends Internet 2 developments to other nonmember environments, including elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, universities, libraries, and museums. Discusses networking and…

Includes five articles that discuss digital library programs related to the National Science Foundation; software for building Web portals; metadata developed at Tsinghua University Library (China) for preserving digital resources; the Open Archives Initiative for metadata and the need for a common infrastructure; and interactivity in a digital…

Explores the concept and definition of best practice and how it relates to organizational concepts such as benchmarking, leadership, innovation, and managing change. Describes the six steps of best practice: (1) identifying areas of need; (2) assessing the need areas; (3) establishing profiles; (4) looking beyond the organization; (5) establishing…

Describes the GREEN digital library, part of the NSF (National Science Foundation) NSDL (National Science Digital Library), as a collaboration of materials developed with government agencies, universities, and industry to build a collection of digital resources in the area of Green's functions, used for modeling mechanical and thermal responses of…

Describes a study that reviewed MARC records and online policy documents of selected libraries to study the approaches taken by libraries worldwide to catalog electronic journals. Topics include priorities for cataloging; record types; online versus print versions; guidelines used; and best practices. (Author/LRW)

Defines knowledge management, particularly as it applies to government agencies, information centers, libraries, and non-governmental organizations. Topics include the dynamic nature of knowledge transfer; personal knowledge and organizational knowledge; identifying communities of practice; collaboration tools; and continuous organizational…

Suggests that historians of British public libraries may be restricted in their ability to pose certain questions about their subject matter because of the structure of the institutions of library history. Discusses problem patrons; critiques of public libraries; and library access and social exclusion. (Contains 95 references.) (Author/LRW)

Details NASA's (National Aeronautics & Space Administration (USA)) involvement in defining and testing the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and experience with adapting existing NASA distributed searching DLs (digital libraries) to use the OAI-PMH and metadata harvesting. Discusses some new digital…

Presents a brief survey of Open Archives Initiative (OAI) e-print repositories, and of services using metadata harvested from e-print repositories using the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). Discusses several situations where metadata harvesting may be used to further improve the utility of e-print archives as a component of the…

Describes the International Association of School Librarianship, including a historical background, global networks, publications, awards programs, public relations, and conferences. (LRW)

Discusses collaboration between school librarians and teachers and describes teacher inquiry groups, based on those at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The focus of the inquiry group is to examine individual lessons and use them as points of entry for understanding teaching methods and improving instructional practices.…

Describes the use of a customized business case model to evaluate a current awareness service offered by the library of the Ontario Ministry of Finance (Canada). The article provides a practical model of the business case approach that can be used by special librarians to evaluate a variety of services. (Author/LRW)

Apart from archival print collections, digital multimedia materials will be the primary form of library resources in the future. Argues that all published materials, print or electronic, are subject to analytical and critical examination. Describes art historian Erwin Panofsky's "Circulus Methodicus," a method of iconological analysis,…

Discusses minorities and diversity in the library and information profession. Highlights include comparisons of minority graduation rates from 1985 to 1995; library schools in rank order according to minority graduation rates; and efforts by the ALA (American Library Association) to improve diversity. (LRW)