INFOBITS 008 (February 1999) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/infobits/infobits-cit-008.txt CIT INFOBITS February 1999 No. 8 ISSN 1521-9275 About INFOBITS INFOBITS is an electronic service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information technology and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators. ...................................................................... New Copyright Laws Impact Research and Education Resources for Digitization Projects Concordances of Great Books Islands in the Clickstream Tips for Microcomputer Trainers Web Design Issues ...................................................................... NEW COPYRIGHT LAWS IMPACT RESEARCH AND EDUCATION On February 25, 1999, the North Carolina State University Scholarly Communication Subcommittee sponsored a Scholarly Communication Colloquium, "Copyright in the Crosshairs: Who Will Own Your Scholarly Work?" Speaker Arnold Lutzker, an intellectual property attorney, concentrated on the recently-enacted Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The provides new rights to owners of works that could endanger the copyright doctrine of fair use. Prue Adler, Assistant Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries [ARL], addressed the proposed Database Fair Competition and Research Promotion Act of 1999, which could remove databases of facts, information, and government works from the public domain. Admittedly, this copyright legislation is complex and confusing, even for lawyers, so the speakers primarily focussed on how these measures could adversely affect distance education and access to scholarly research materials. For more detailed information, see the following ARL documents: "Primer on the Digital Millennium: What the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act Mean for the Library Community," by Arnold P. Lutzker http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/primer.html "Federal Relations and Information Policy Program" http://www.arl.org/info/index.html "Copyright and Intellectual Property" http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/copytoc.html Also see: "Intellectual Property: Database Protection and Access to Information," by William Gardner and Joseph Rosenbaum. SCIENCE MAGAZINE, vol. 281, no. 5378, August 7, 1998, pp. 786-87. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/281/5378/786 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998: U.S. Copyright Office Summary http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf [Requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader available at http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/download.html] Links on the Digital Future Coalition Website http://www.dfc.org/ ...................................................................... RESOURCES FOR DIGITIZATION PROJECTS Are you planning a large-scale digitization project? The Colorado Digitization Project (a collaborative initiative involving Colorado's archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums) has a "digital toolbox" of resources that can guide administrators of other digital projects. Topics include questions to ask in the initial planning stages, links to general information on digital projects, information on the technical aspects of digitization, and suggestions for funding sources. The digital toolbox is at http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org/toolbox.html For more information on the Colorado Digitization Project, see http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org/ ...................................................................... CONCORDANCES OF GREAT BOOKS The Concordances of Great Books is an online searchable index of eighty-six authors and 200 full texts. William A. Williams, Jr. began the project to make texts related to the Mormon religion more accessible for scholarly study. From there he branched out to include American, European, and classical literature texts that are no longer under copyright. Williams' collection includes works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Tacitus, Herman Melville, George Eliot, and the Bronte sisters. The Concordances of Great Books is located at http://www.concordance.com/ For more information, contact William A. Williams, Jr., email: willprog@sprintmail.com An article about the site ("Lover of Detail Serves Literary Searchers" by Tina Kelley, THE NEW YORK TIMES, January 21, 1999), includes links to other concordances on the Web. The article is available online at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/circuits/articles/21conc.html ...................................................................... ISLANDS IN THE CLICKSTREAM Richard Thieme's "Islands in the Clickstream" is a free, weekly column reflecting on the "impact of technology on individuals, organizations, and society." Thieme is a professional speaker, consultant, and writer. His presentations and writing focus on computer technology, the computer hacking culture, change management, and organizational effectiveness. "Islands in the Clickstream" is available by email or on the Web at http://www.thiemeworks.com/islands/islands1.htm Other papers by Thieme are available at http://www.thiemeworks.com/write/write1.htm For more information, contact Richard Thieme, ThiemeWorks, P.O. Box 17737, Milwaukee WI 53217-0737 USA; tel: 414.351.2321; email: rthieme@thiemeworks.com; Web: http://www.thiemeworks.com/ ...................................................................... TIPS FOR MICROCOMPUTER TRAINERS QUICK TRAINING TIPS is a free email newsletter that features short pieces of advice by and for microcomputer trainers. In addition to the short articles, the newsletter includes requests for assistance from subscribers. Responses from readers are then published in subsequent issues. To subscribe to Quick Training Tips, send an email message to loretta@panix.com with "subscribe tips" in the subject. THE MICROCOMPUTER TRAINER is a print publication from the same publisher. Topics in a recent issue included: tips for creating effective online training scripts, the most common online presentation errors and what to do about them, recommendations of free online training developer resources, and a list of associations and email discussion lists for trainers. The Microcomputer Trainer [ISSN 1055-3258] is published monthly by Loretta Weiss-Morris, Editor and Publisher, Systems Literacy, Inc., 6 Saint Lo Place, Hopatcong, NJ 07843 USA; tel: 973-770-7762; fax: 973-770-2205; email: loretta@panix.com Annual subscriptions are $265 (U.S.); $280 (Canada and Mexico); $290 (all other countries). Systems Literacy is offering a free sample of the December 1998 issue. To request the sample issue in PDF format (which is readable with a copy of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader), send email to loretta@panix.com with the message "sample issue pdf" To receive the printed version, send your postal mailing address, along with the message "sample issue printed" ...................................................................... WEB DESIGN ISSUES My colleague, Gail Darden, instructional designer here at the Center for Instructional Technology, led a discussion on Web page design issues for the UNC-CH Scholarly Communications Working Group's February meeting. Reference materials and page samples that she used in her talk, "The Not So Good, the Pretty Ugly, and the Useful," are available on the Web at http://ils.unc.edu/schol-com/webdesign.html ...................................................................... To Subscribe CIT INFOBITS is published by the Center for Instructional Technology. 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