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Forwarded from the NINCH list.
Judy
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From: David Green, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
TO: Multiple recipients of list, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
DATE: 1/3/97 5:16 PM
RE: NINCH Newsletter #5
===============================================================================
N I N C H
Networked Cultural Heritage Newsletter
No. 5
January 3, 1997
www-ninch.cni.org/news/news.html
====================================================================
A news and information digest for those working to preserve and
provide access to cultural heritage resources through networked digital
technology.
====================================================================
This newsletter is published through the NINCH-Announce listserv of the
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage. You are welcome to
distribute it freely, with due acknowledgments. It is also available in a
hyperlinked version on the NINCH web site, within two days of publication.
S U M M A R Y
1. WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION PASSES TWO COPYRIGHT TREATIES
GOVERNING PROTECTION OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Of three copyright treaties considered by WIPO, a controversial database
treaty was rejected, while the other two passed, with some language
changes. Library and education delegates had mixed feelings about the
results while still strongly objecting to the U.S. Government's strategy of
bringing digital copyright issues before a world body before domestic
consensus on these issues has been reached.
2. PAUL EVAN PETERS MEMORIAL SERVICE
A memorial service for Paul Evan Peters will be held in Washington D.C. on
February 18, 1997. Details are forthcoming.
3. BODLEIAN LIBRARY/TOYOTA IMAGING PROJECT
Oxford University's Bodleian Library has released its first digital imaging
project, a collection of 8,000 images of transport and motoring material
from its John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera.
4. MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT ENCODING
A recent conference examined possible routes for developing a scheme to
successfully encode medieval manuscripts.
5. NEW STANDARDS FOR WEB-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL
Educom's new Instructional Management System will ensure that instructional
software developers will have a technical standard that allows modules to
be shared among institutions and across a wide range of technical
environments.
6. NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE AWARDS
The Winners of the 1996 NII Awards can be seen at the Awards Web Site. Next
year's awards will be global in scope.
7. MUSEUMS ON THE WEB
The January/February issue of Museum News, the magazine of the American
Association of Museums, has as its lead article a review by experts in the
field of the best Museum Web sites.
8. CONFERENCES
NINCH now has a community calendar listing conferences and other events at
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/calendar.html>. Two conferences recently noted:
* Digital Resources in the Humanities: Oxford, September 14-17.
* Fourth International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in
Museums (ICHIM97): Paris, September 1-5
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WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION PASSES TWO COPYRIGHT TREATIES
GOVERNING PROTECTION OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Library and other nonprofit cultural heritage representatives returned with
mixed feelings from the recent WIPO Meeting that concluded in Geneva on
December 20.
Most were immediately relieved that a proposed treaty for a new system of
database protection (beyond copyright) was defeated. This had an extremely
loose and broad definition of what a database was and was seen by many as a
potential major obstacle to future free access to public domain material.
The proposed protection was over and beyond copyright protection for
"compilations of data or other material, in any form, which by reason of
the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual
creations," included in the new Copyright Treaty under Article 5.
Although the two other treaties passed (for "the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works" and for the "Protection of The Rights of Performers and
Producers of Phonograms") there was sufficient emendation of the treaty
language to make library representatives feel there was an acceptable
movement towards a fair balance of interests. A press release issued
December 24 by the American Library Association cited legal counsel Adam
Eisgrau's sense that the treaties recognized the necessity of the extension
of limits on copyright, including fair use, into the digital environment.
Although Article 10 of the Copyright Treaty allows nations signing the
treaty to include limitations to copyright (e.g. the US "Fair Use"
understanding), this does not change the essential objection of many groups
to the strategy of considering international copyright protection of
digital material before there has been any widespread discussion and
successful domestic legislation of such protection.
The treaties now face ratification by the United States Senate before they
could be applied in the U.S. Meanwhile the domestic NII Copyright
Protection Act will also be under consideration.
Full text of the treaties is available on the NINCH Web site
<http://www-ninch.cni.org/NEWS/NEWS.HTML#WIPO>.
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PAUL EVAN PETERS MEMORIAL SERVICE
Plans are underway for a Washington D.C. memorial service for Paul Evan
Peters. The service will be held on February 18, 1997, during the period
when many in the field will be in Washington for the ALA Midwinter meeting.
The time and location have not yet been finalized, but this newsletter will
bring you details when available.
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BODLEIAN LIBRARY/TOYOTA IMAGING PROJECT
Oxford University's Bodleian Library has released its first digital imaging
project, a collection of 8,000 images of transport and motoring material
from its John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera. The Collection as a
whole is one of the largest and most important collections of printed
ephemera anywhere in the world, containing over a million items in 700
subject headings, from 1508 to the present.
The Bodleian Library/Toyota Imaging Project
<http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/toyota/> focuses on 15 boxes of Motor Car
material, but much other transportation imagery is included.
Bibliographic material has been encoded using SGML and is conformant to the
Text Encoding Initiative's scheme; the SGML records are converted to HTML
for display on the Web. Visitors can browse the material by topics as well
as search by key words.
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MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT ENCODING
Issues and problems surrounding the question of how to encode medieval
manuscripts (through the Text Encoding Initiative, the Encoding Archival
Description or a combination of both?) led Peter Robinson and Hope Mayo to
organize a conference this fall to consider what next to do.
Lou Burnard, of the Oxford University's Computing Services, has posted an
interim, personal account of the weekend conference held at Studley Priory,
in the depths of the Oxfordshire countryside. His account is available at
<http://users.ox.ac.uk/~lou/reports/9611stud.htm>.
Briefly, the meeting moved from reports of current practices through
demonstrations of related digital projects and presentations on MARC, TEI,
EAD and the Dublin Core to a collaborative identification of a key set of
descriptive categories that could be used in an SGML markup of medieval
manuscripts. Next steps will involve considering whether to map these
categories against MARC, TEI and EAD, for example, or to produce a new set
of guidelines. Details about an official report on the meeting will be
forthcoming.
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NEW STANDARDS FOR WEB-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL
As part of its National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), Educom
recently announced a new project, the Instructional Management System
(IMS). It will provide a set of higher-order standards and tools to enable
software developers, teachers and learners, to create, manage and access
the use of Web-based instructional software. The project will ensure that
instructional software developers will have a technical standard that
allows modules to be shared among institutions and across a wide range of
technical environments. For more information see
<http://www.iat.unc.edu/nlii/dcms/techmtng>.
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NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE AWARDS
The National Information Infrastructure Awards for 1996 can be seen at
<http://www.gii-awards.com>.
The awards are sponsored by government, industry and community
organizations and leaders and recognize "superior accomplishment in
applications of the Internet and information highway."
The winning sites are:
* Arts & Entertainment: CitySpace: Network Social Space of the Future
<http://cityspace.org>
* Business: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition <http://wsj.com>
Children: Faces of Adoption: America's Waiting Children
<http://www.adopt.org/adopt>
* Community: Charlotte's Web <http://www.charweb.org>
* Education: The Jason VII Project Undersea Internet Site
<http://aquarius.eds.com>
* Government: NSF Fastlane Project <http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov>
* Health: Applied Informatics--Using the NII to Coordinate Healthcare
<http://www.cpmc.columbia.edu/appldinf
* Next Generation: Starbright World <http://starbright.org>
* ATT NII Telecollaboration: Electronic Cafe International
<http://www.ecafe.com>
* USPS NII Public Access: EPA.NET--East Palo Alto Gets Plugged In
In 1997 this awards program will go global to recognize achievements worldwi=
de.
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MUSEUMS ON THE WEB
In its January/February issue, Museum News, the magazine of the American
Association of Museums, gathers seven experts in the field to describe the
qualities that make for an outstanding museum Web site. Maxwell Anderson,
Ann Mintz, Diane Zorich, Stephen Borysewicz, Scott Sayre, Katherine
Jones-Garmil and Steve Dietz describe their top five choices that exemplify
those qualities.
The best first call for those interested in seeing Museums on the Web is
the Art Museum Network <http://www.amn.org> produced by the Association of
Art Museum Directors.
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CONFERENCES
Please note that NINCH now has a Calendar of relevant conferences available
on its web site <http://www-ninch.cni.org/calendar.html>. Please consult
the Calendar and email David Green ([log in to unmask]) with any additions.
These two conferences are of particular note:
1. DRH'97 (Oxford, England; Sept. 14-17, 1997)
Following the successful DRH'96, Digital Resources in the Humanities '97
<http://users.ox.ac.uk/~drh97> will be held at St. Anne's College, Oxford,
Sept.14-17, under the rubric of "bringing together the creators, users,
distributors and custodians of digital resources in the humanities."
This year it widens its catchment area by inviting not only scholars and
teachers but also publishers, archivists, librarians, curators, art
historians and others "wishing to improve both access to and conservation
of the digital information that characterizes contemporary culture and
scholarship."
Proposals are invited for papers, panels and reports on work in progress.
Abstracts (1500-2,000 words) are due April 7; final versions (2-4,000
words) will be required by July 7. Themes will include: the creation and
integration of digital resources; policies and strategies for commercial
and non-commercial electronic delivery; cataloging and metadata aspects of
resource discovery; pedagogic implications of digital resources and
electronic delivery; encoding standards; intellectual property rights;
funding, cost-recovery and charging mechanisms; digitization techniques and
problems.
The conference costs =A3225, which includes lunches and dinners. On-campus
accommodation will be available at =A345 for ensuite rooms and =A330 for
study/bedrooms with shared bathrooms. See the website for further details
and updates.
2. ICHIM97 @ LOUVRE.FR. Sept. 1-5, 1997
The Fourth International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in
Museums (ICHIM97) will be held at the Louvre in Paris, September 1-5, 1997.
The focus will be on ways in which hypermedia and interactive experiences
can enhance museum visits and museum publications as well as serve as the
foundation for enhanced curatorship and scientific research.
Proposals for papers, sessions (1.5 or 3 hours) are due January 30, 1997.
Final versions are due May 15, in either French or English. Papers will be
published in an edited trade paperback edition. Themes will include: Museum
Content; Hypermedia Design; Interactive Publications; Installations; Museum
Applications; Evaluation; Collaboration; Legal and Societal Impacts,
including copyright, visual literacy & mediacy, the concept of museums,
economic models, training, etc.
A web site with conference details will be available in January 1997 at
www.archimuse.com/ichim97. Contact David Bearman, Conference Organizer,
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