oct06ff.indd


G a r y  P a t t i l l o  

Gary Pattillo is reference librarian at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, e-mail: pattillo@refstaff. 
lib.unc.edu 

European digital library initiative 
A new European digital library initiative aims at making Europe’s diverse cultural 
and scientific heritage accessible to the world. The initiative, a project of the 
European Commission, will focus on online accessibility, digitization of analogue 
collections, and preservation of the digital material. Two million books, fi lms, 
photographs, manuscripts, and other works will be accessible through the Eu­
ropean Digital Library by 2008. This will grow to at least six million by 2010. 
“Europe’s Cultural and Scientific Heritage at a Click of a Mouse,” European Commission, i2010: Digital Libraries Initiative. 
europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/what_is_dli/index_en.htm. September 13, 2006 

Access vs. ownership 
A Canadian study presents the results of a survey that investigated whether 
university libraries have been able to stay abreast of changes that affect their 
access to electronic content. The average library had correct holdings information 
in their catalogs for just over one half of their electronic titles. Factors affecting 
perpetual access to e­content include licenses, transfer of ownership between 
publishers, publishers going out of business, bundled journal packages with 
fluid title lists, and consortial deals. 
Andrew Waller and Bird Gwen (2006), “’We own it’: dealing with ‘perpetual access’ in big deals,” Serials librarian 50(1/2): 
179–96. eprints.rclis.org/archive/00007182/. September 13, 2006 

NASA World Wind 
NASA World Wind is free open­source Windows software that lets you zoom 
from satellite altitude into any place on Earth in 3D. It is similar to Google 
Earth, but the two programs feature different elements. The capabilities of World 
Wind can be extended with user­authored add­ons. It provides direct access to 
the downloaded satellite images, and the open­source nature of the program 
guarantees that anyone can get the source code and create their own version 
of the program. World Wind covers Earth, Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and 
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Through add­ons it is possible to add additional 
worlds to World Wind. 
NASA World Wind. worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/. September 1, 2006 

Government secrecy 
The Department of Justice reported that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Court approved 2,072 orders to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals in the 
United States in 2005. It rejected zero orders. Another Justice Department report 
on secret wiretap warrants indicated that the government issued 9,254 National 
Security Letters during 2005. These letters can be used to obtain information about 
individuals without the government applying for a court­reviewed warrant. The 
number of Freedom of Information Act requests has increased by 65,543 requests 
since 2004. Agencies overall have been unable to keep up with the number of 
requests, with 43 percent more pending requests this year than in 2002. 
“Secrecy Report Card 2006: Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government,” OpenTheGovernment.org. www. 
openthegovernment.org/otg/SRC2006.pdf. September 13, 2006 

C&RL News October 2006  598