The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web

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Reading Books in the Digital Age subsequent to Amazon, Google and the long tail

From the First Monday website

This article explores the state of art in book research, paying particular attention to John B. Thompson’s interpretation of digital transformations within the book industry, as depicted in 'Books in the Digital Age' (2005). Claiming that Thompson’s analyses are one–sided, the article applies alternative perspectives and a model of a text cycle, contending that the diminishing role of paper in text production and text distribution makes the dominant position of printed books particularly vulnerable to advances in digital reading technologies.


Reading Revisited: Evaluating the Usability of Digital Display Surfaces for Active Reading Tasks (Note: PDF)

From the Microsoft Research website

A number of studies have shown that paper holds several advantages over computers for reading tasks. However, over the past few years, computerized reading technology has advanced in many areas. We studied how knowledge workers perform reading tasks in four conditions: (1) using paper, (2) using a dual-monitor desktop system, (3) using a pen-enabled horizontal display surface, and (4) using multiple tablet computers. We discuss our findings and propose design guidelines for hybrid horizontal + vertical systems that support active reading tasks.


The aesthetics of networks: A conceptual approach toward visualizing the composition of the Internet

From the First Monday website

Hierarchy is an entrenched social concept. The Internet however, presents the possibility of envisioning social relations as a level or ‘flat’ configuration. The Internet fosters relationships that are networked, heterogeneous and horizontally distributed. This article contemplates the surface features of networked structures like the Internet by using topographic imagery.


Identifying the Identifiers (Note: PDF)

From the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications website

Identifying and labeling things is what we all do every day; it is how we communicate about the things in the world around us, e.g. “please pass the salt” or “my ticket is for seat D3”. This paper looks at how we identify things by comparing the sameness of their characteristics, how we associate symbols with things to simplify identifying them, and concludes there are six aspects that make up an identifier: a thing, a symbol, an association, a context, an agent, and a remembrance. It then considers some of the qualities of identifiers in more detail: scope, uniqueness, granularity, intelligence, actionability, persistence, extensibility, and context. It finally provides a simple checklist for designing identifiers.


Application Profiles: Exposing and Enforcing Metadata Quality (Note: PDF)

From the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications website

This paper explores a range of issues yet to be addressed in the large-scale use of application profiles. There is a growing need for machine-readable application profiles that can support quality control mechanisms including, but not limited to, data validation. We examine these issues in the context of the evolving Semantic Web and the DCMI commitment to RDF and the challenges presented.



Can a System Make Novice Users Experts? Important Factors for Automatic Metadata Generation Systems (Note: PDF)

From the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications website

This work is focused on suggesting four classes of descriptive elements – bibliographic, semantic, keywords, structure – in designing an automated metadata generation system. In addition, the study tries to assess how the level of knowledge or skill impacts the quality of the metadata generated and based on the results it suggests factors that automatic metadata generation tools should suggest to users.