ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ J a n u a ry 1 9 9 9 /1 7 A report on the Internet Librarian ’98 conference by M ichelle Mach M o re th a n 2,400 librarians a n d in fo rm a­ tion m anagers, including exhibitors an d m o re th a n 150 p re se n te rs, p a rtic ip a te d i s e c o n d a n n u a l In te rn e t L ibrarian co n fe re n c e in M onterey, California, from N o v em b er 1-5, 1998. D uring th e full co n feren ce, participants at­ te n d e d s e s s io n s fro m th r e e s im u lta n e o u s tracks. T h e se tracks c o v e re d b o th th e activi­ ties o f In te rn e t librarians (creating sites, learn ­ ing, searching, digitizing collections, a n d m an ­ aging) a n d th e tech n o lo g y th e y u se (m etadata a n d W eb tools, virtual services, tren d s, a n d intranets). In ad d itio n , m a n y p artic ip a te d in th e tw o days o f p re c o n fe re n c e w o rk s h o p s o r th e day-long “Internet@ School” session fo r K - 12 librarians, b ro w s e d m o re th a n 85 exhibits, a n d n e tw o rk e d w ith co lleag u es at th e “D ine A ro u n d T o w n ” e x p e d itio n s a n d at th e first In te rn e t L ibrarian G o lf Classic. It ta k e s te a m w o r k At th e o p e n in g sessio n , “In te rn e t Librarians in A ction,” D o ro th e a C occoli P alsho, p resi­ d e n t o f D o w J o n e s In teractiv e P ublishing, s p o k e a b o u t th e n e e d fo r librarians a n d v e n ­ d o rs to w o rk to g eth er, as w ell as th e n e e d for in c re a se d te a m w o rk w ith in a n d across d e ­ partm en ts. “P e o p le ’s jobs are to o sm all for th e ir sp irits,” said Palsho. T h e selectio n o f sp e a k e rs th ro u g h o u t th e co n fe re n c e u n d e rs c o re d this te a m effort w ith n ro u g h ly e q u a l co n trib u tio n s fro m b o th sides. D escribing th e “seism ic shift” in th e inform a­ thteio n w o rld , P alsh o ad v ised th e a u d ie n c e to “le a d th e ch a n g e , d o n ’t m a n a g e it.” She c o n ­ tin u e d , “S h u n th e in crem en tal a n d g o fo r the big le a p .” T h ro u g h o u t th e co n feren ce, p re ­ sen ters d e m o n s tra te d th a t th ey w e re alread y tak in g this ad v ice to h eart, h ighlighting fu­ tu r e tr e n d s w ith p ra c tic a l a d v ic e fo r th e p resen t. Legal to p ic s A sessio n titled “G et Real! Legalities a n d th e Realities o f W e b /N e t U se” p re s e n te d a n ov e r­ v iew o f re c e n t legislation, co u rt cases, an d licensing issues affecting libraries. S peakers B ob Sim ons, a fo rm er info rm atio n industry atto rn ey , S tep h an ie A rdito, o f A rdito Infor­ m a t i o n & R e s e a r c h , I n c . , a n d C a r o l E bbinghouse, o f W estern State University Col­ le g e o f Law, o u tlin e d sev e ra l e v e n ts to a p a c k e d ro o m , in clu d in g th e Ryan v. CARL C o rp o ra tio n case, th e “D igital M illennium C opyright A ct,” a n d “click -th ro u g h ” ( “click h e re if y o u a g re e to th e s e term s”) licenses. T h e leg islatio n th a t p ro v o k e d th e m o st co m m e n ts fro m th e a u d ie n c e w a s th e U ni­ form C om m ercial C ode, article 2, sectio n B (UCC2B), legislation p o ten tially m o re influ­ ential th a n c o p y rig h t law . Still in draft form at, UCC2B w o u ld h a rm o n iz e th e state law s for co m m ercial tran sactio n s a n d stream lin e th e C O N FE R E N C E C IR C U IT About the author M ic h e lle M a ch is re fe re n ce lib ra ria n a n d W eb sp ecia list a t C o lo ra d o S ta te U n ive rsity Libraries, e -m a il: m m ach@ m anta. Iibrary.colostate.edu Leading the change Iibrary.colostate.edu 18 / C8,RL News ■ January 1999 p ro cess o f licensing softw are. U nlike o th e r legislation, it g ro u p s librarians, freelance a u ­ thors, an d v e n d o rs to g e th e r as m erchants. In th e extrem e case, UCC2B co u ld req u ire ref­ e re n c e staff to offer a disclaim er w h e n an ­ sw ering a reference q u estio n a n d sign form al contracts w ith users to avoid litigation. T he latest draft o f UCC2B d a te d A ugust 1, 1998, is av ailab le o n th e W eb at h ttp ://w w w .la w . u h .e d u /u c c 2 b /. M e ta d a ta issues In th e session, “M etadata Issues in Digital Li­ b raries,” Roy T ennant, o f th e U niversity o f California, Berkeley, p re s e n te d a n overview o f m etadata, a structured d escription o f an object. In addition to deciding w h at elem ents to cap tu re a n d storage form at to use, librar­ ians n e e d to d ecid e w h e th e r to pro v id e ac­ cess at th e collection or individual object level. T he O n lin e A rchive o f California (h ttp :// su n site 2 .b e rk e le y .e d u /o a c /) pro v id es access at th e collection level, m eaning that w hile less m e ta d a ta is req u ire d , access to individual objects in th e collection is den ied . In co n ­ tra st, th e D ig ital Im a g e C a ta lo g ( h t t p : / / sunsite.berkeley.edu./Im ageC atalog/) perm its access at th e individual object level. In itiativ es w o rth w a tc h in g in c lu d e th e D ublin C ore (h ttp ://p u rl.o rg /m e ta d a ta /d c /), th e M aking o f America II ( h t t p : / / s u n s i t e . b e rk e le y .e d u /m o a 2 /), an d th e Library o f Con­ gress N ational Digital Library Program (h ttp :// w w w .loc.gov/). Access to all Librarians in terested in providing access to electronic materials for users outside th e physi­ cal library learn ed ab o u t th e latest tech n iq u es in th e p resen tatio n “A uthenticating a n d Au­ thorizing: P roviding Access to Inform ation to R em ote Library U sers” by Marshall B reeding o f V anderbilt University. B reeding d iscu ssed th e ad v an ta g es an d disadvantages o f th e th ree m ain au th en tica­ tio n m eth o d s currently in use: IP so u rce a d ­ dress filtering, pro x y servers, a n d credential- b a se d system s su c h as p assw o rd s an d digital certificates. W hile IP filtering is currently th e m o st w idely u sed m ethod, B reeding concluded that it is in a d e q u a te for th e n e x t g en eratio n o f W eb access an d an o th e r rapidly evolving in­ frastructure will replace it. The Y2K em erg e n c y T h e m u ch -h y p ed y e a r 2000 o r Y2K p ro b lem w as discussed in th e session “Y ear 2000: Are y o u ready?,” p re s e n te d b y H o p e Tillm an o f B abson College. Tillm an stressed th e u n iv er­ sal nature o f this problem stating, “If you d o n ’t k n o w w h eth er you have problem s ahead, you h a v e a p ro b lem .” W hile th e primary causes o f the Y2K p ro b ­ lem are dates ex p ressed in a six-digit form at (m m /d d /y y ) rath er th an a n eight-digital for­ m at (m m /dd/yyyy), Y2K is also problem atic as a leap year. This p ro b lem will n o t b e o v er o n D ecem b er 31, 1999, b u t it is o n e th at will last several years, as o th e r problem atic dates exist like 9/9/99 an d 2/29/00. Tillman advised librarians to fix “mission critical” applications, k e e p potential litigation in m ind, a n d ask for Y2K com pliance statem ents w h e n p u rc h a s­ ing item s— n ew p ro d u cts are n o t necessarily com pliant. Teaching th e N e t W hile m any sessions fo cu sed o n em erging technologies, the hu m an elem ent w as not for­ g otten. In th e learning track, th e au d ien c e o ften la u g h ed w ith recognition as th e p re ­ sen ters from academ ic a n d co rp o rate librar­ ies sh a re d som e universal truths ab o u t W eb instruction including students’ p o p u lar refrain: “It m u st b e there— it’s the Internet!” C orpo­ rate librarians offered tips o n “triage training” at th e p o in t an d time o f n eed , w hile academ ic librarians d em o n strated a n o n lin e inform a­ tio n literacy course an d sp o k e a b o u t th e s p e ­ cial n e e d s o f G eneration X students. Practical tips offered b y th e sp eak ers in clu d ed using tem p lates to m odify gen eral m aterials fo r re ­ u se an d using W eb p ag es like Search Engine W atch (http://w w w .searchenginew atch.com /) to k e e p u p w ith rapid changes in search e n ­ gines. Overall, the Internet Librarian C onference w as exhilarating w ith ideas so innovative that th e y d e m a n d e d n e w v o c a b u la ry — “b r e a d cru m b in g ” (finding y o u r p a th o n Internet), “sm o g d a ta ” (the am o u n t o f u se a particular article gets), an d “academ ic in fo tain m en t.” In fo rm a tio n Today p u b lish ed th e co nference p ro c e e d in g s a n d th e ir W e b site ( h t t p : / / w w w .infotoday.com ) contains links to m any p resentations. This co n feren ce confirm s that librarians are leading th e ch an g e in th e ever- e x p a n d in g w orld o f W eb. ■ http://www.law uh.edu/ucc2b/ sunsite2.berkeley.edu/oac/ http://purl.org/metadata/dc/ http://sunsite berkeley.edu/moa2/ http://www.loc.gov/ http://www.searchenginewatch.com/ http://www.infotoday.com C&RL News ■ Ja n u a ry 1999/ 19