Lunchtime Listens: Info Island Project on Second Life
A recent SirsiDynix Institute presentation by Michael Sauers and Rhonda Trueman titled The Info Island Project on Second Life is a hour long overview of Second Life in general and library/university activities in Second Life in particular. I was particularly surprised to find that the Kansas State Library has a Second Life branch. I'll try to check it out sometime this week and get back to you if there is a govdocs angle. This is a great presentation if you want to know what all the fuss is about. The talk even has a set of "reality checks" to help you decide whether you want to check out Second Life. If I haven't mentioned it before, I have to admit that I haven't been active in Second Life for quite awhile and only just recently reinstalled the software. But I'm glad to see people with more time than I exploring and using these kinds of technology. Continue reading
GPO LOCKSS Report: Mistakes and Irrelevancies
As I mentioned a few days ago, the final analysis report of the GPO LOCKSS Pilot Project is now available on GPO Access at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/lockss/index.html. The comments that follow are based on analysis by Jim A. Jacobs and Daniel Cornwall. The most disappointing thing about the report isn't so much that GPO rejects LOCKSS as a distribution mechanism, but its reasons for doing so. The 19 page report doesn't read as much like an evaluation of software than as a document defending a previously made decision on the basis of mere assertions, many of which have nothing to do with LOCKSS itself. We believe the biggest problems with this report fall into two categories; 1) statements about LOCKSS that appeared to be based on a lack of understanding about how LOCKSS works and 2) negative statements made that have little connection to LOCKSS. Under the second class of problems is one so big that Jim will provide a separate posting on this issue. This is the issue of IP authentication. GPO repeats the non-scalability of IP authentication as a major stumbling block to using LOCKSS as a distribution channel. The report never explains why IP authentication is so important to GPO and that will be the subject of Jim's posting. So, what else is wrong with this report? Let's start with some statements about LOCKSS that as a participant in LOCKSS both as publisher and library simply don't make sense. Page 12 - LOCKSS may have format migration issues similar to CD-ROMs and other tangible electronic media in depository libraries. I'm not positive I really know what this means, but if they're talking about LOCKSS hardware, that's no more of an issue than having computers in libraries at all. LOCKSS caches are just regular computers as the report itself says. Because content is duplicated on other LOCKSS caches, migrating hardware is as simple as buying a new computer, installing LOCKSS, picking your content and sitting back as content is reloaded from other caches. If GPO is referring to file format migration, LOCKSS researchers have been working on that issue since 2005 and have come up with a promising approach. Page 12 - Explore options for making content available from a single site that would allow LOCKSS libraries and non-LOCKSS libraries to access content from the same source. This would eliminate duplication of effort required to make content available to both groups of libraries. If you check out any of the nonrestricted materials available through LOCKSS, whether it is Alaska State Documents or BioMed Central Journals, all content available through LOCKSS is already available to non-LOCKSS users from the same interface. No duplication of effort is needed. Simply have the content available in some kind of human-intuitive archive units, and people and LOCKSS caches alike are happy. Unless GPO has plans for restricting public domain government information, this just isn't an issue. Page 12-13 - However, formatting the content to enable LOCKSS use could require more clicks than the current model for non-LOCKSS users to access the content. All LOCKSS needs are issue dates organized by year or some other suitable Archival Unit. Seems to me that is how most journals are laid out. No more clicks would be involved. GPO could have bolstered it's case by providing an example, but I just can't think of one. Page 11 - If LOCKSS were to become the only distribution method for e-journals distributed to the FDLP, all depositories would have to join the LOCKSS Alliance. No. Only libraries wishing to build local digital collections and pursuing preservation through multiple copies. Otherwise the model of access instead of custody will continue to operate. Making content available through LOCKSS is a matter of providing a publisher manifest page and writing a LOCKSS plugin. LOCKSS doesn't restrict your content any more than you already do. No library would be forced into LOCKSS unless GPO chose to make it a requirement. Finally, there is the unspoken issue that indicates a lack of understanding about LOCKSS. GPO consistently refers to LOCKSS as a system of distribution, but never mentions its preservation value. LOCKSS has proved itself since 1999 in the area of commercial journals. I would think that any evenhanded evaluation of LOCKSS would need to examine its a capability as a preservation system, which is has done for eight years longer than FDSys has. The second major problem area is that this purported evaluation of the LOCKSS technology is sprinkled with negative comments that have little to do with LOCKSS itself. In this category I'd put:
- Some libraries may want to “weed†publications from their caches in order to regain disk space at times. (page 11)
- It is unclear what percentage of FDLP libraries want to utilize LOCKSS for e-journal content. (page 11)
- It is not clear whether libraries that do want LOCKSS want it as an exclusive service to depositories, or whether they simply want to enable libraries to archive content locally. (page 11)
- Many agencies will complain if they believe GPO is taking business away from their Web sites by republishing content on GPO Web sites. (page 11)
- The depository library community has not been surveyed to determine whether there is wide enough support for LOCKSS to use it as the only e-journal delivery mechanism to justify requiring all libraries to receive e-journal content through LOCKSS. (page 12)
Two New Podcasts: Health Tips & Ag Econ
Today we added another two podcasts to our directory of government podcasts:
- Daily HealthBeat Tip - "Launched on July 11, 2005, this service provides health promotion and disease prevention tips 5 days a week in audio and text formats." Site encourages broadcasters to use tips with attribution. Probably good for podcasters.
- Economic Research Service (ERS) Podcast - Audio items on a number of agricultural economic topics.
GPO LOCKSS Report Released
If you haven't seen it already, the final analysis report of the GPO LOCKSS Pilot Project is now available on GPO Access at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/lockss/index.html. I strongly advise you read both the executive summary and the full 19 page report. When you finish reading, come back and leave us a comment or three. I'll have more to say about this report later, but I wanted to give you a chance to look the report over before I start examining the problems with it. Continue reading
Historic Fort Huachuca Army Library Closed
ALA's Washington Office's newsletter District Dispatch reports that the Fort Huachuca Army Library in Arizona has been closed down. According to the report, servicemembers and their dependents are being directed to the city library. According to Ft. Huachuca's Newcomer's Guide, the nearest city to the base is Sierra Vista, Arizona, so I'm guessing the library they're being sent to is the Sierra Vista Public Library. They look like they have reasonable hours and a decent list of online databases. But I'm still sad to see this library close for several reasons, all linked to my experience as an Air Force librarian management trainee in the late 1990s. What I'm about to say is based on my experience at working at two AF bases and may not be applicable to the Army library system. Base libraries often support college education. At the two bases I worked there were at least three institutions that taught classes on base leading to bachelor and advanced degree programs. They worked with us so that our collections would support their curriculum. This made your average Air Force library of the late 1990s a split between a public and academic library. Unless you're lucky enough to be next to a large public library, I think the academic piece would be missing, and it is unlikely that the universities offering classes on base would provide resources to the local public library. Base libraries usually offered some kind of very military-speficic collection that public libraries shouldn't be expected to carry. For example, on both the bases I worked at, we carried all the reading materials needed for the Noncommissioned Officers (NCO) Academy. This academy was a career ladder for enlisted personnel. Where will NCOs go for research now? Perhaps arrangements have been made, but I wouldn't bet on it. I'd welcome comments from people in a position to know. Aside from the NCO Academy, we also carried all the books from the AF Chief of Staff Reading List, which was considered good preparation for officers. I know there are similar reading lists for Army officers and I think the Army would spend more money providing each individual officer with books than by having one or two copies available at the post library. Off-base facilities are often difficult for dependents, especially children to get to. This might be less true of Army bases, which don't require huge runways. But while the post library and other recreational facilities are often within walking distance of base housing on the AF bases I worked at, just walking to the gate was a long haul. Then there's the check points. Military bases rationally have checkpoints where a guard needs to check your ID and assess your possible threat to base security. During times of heightened alert, guards may need to search your vehicle or verify the identities of everyone in your car. In pre-9/11 days I sometimes had to wait 45 minutes to get on base. I imagine it has to be worse now, though I don't know. That's a big barrier to someone who just wants to pop out for some children's books. Sometimes alerts go on for days. If there is a post library, your dependents can go to the library and take their minds off of whatever is causing the alert, but getting off base and back on is hassle city. Finally, this just feels like another way that our government is disrespecting the troops and not supporting them. I have to agree with ALA staff when they say:
Closing this historic library, especially during a time of war, deprives soldiers and their families of an important resource for education, information and technology. ALA is deeply concerned because the stakeholders -- the soldiers and their families -- were left out of the process, and the decision-makers have little understanding of the staff and services that are integral to a library and the community it serves.I'm open to someone from Ft. Huachuca stopping by and explaining why my experience in the 1990s isn't relavant to the current situation and how the troops and their dependents are being taken care of. It has been nearly ten years after all. Continue reading
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