TechKnowledge
Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 12/1/2000
Who Owns e-Information?
Library users may soon pay for information that is now free
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What does this decision mean for school and public libraries? For one thing, students and parents may soon have to pay for information that is now theirs simply for the taking. The tradition of "fair use," acknowledged by copyright law, allows students to use portions of copyrighted works in classroom assignments without charge. According to the recent copyright decision, if a student wants to copy and paste an electronic image of Grant Wood's American Gothic from an online encyclopedia or an art history database into a research report, he may have to pay a licensing fee to the vendor who owns the painting's online rights. The student might be using the image in a context that is generally considered fair use, such as a school report. In the world of printed materials and free Web sites, this is no problem. But in a digital library of the future, in which many information sources are available only online, the new Copyright Office ruling forbids users of that content from doing anything that might "disable" any protections publishers put on their copyrighted content. In
effect, users must obey whatever limitations publishers put on their digital images or documents.
Publishers counter that when they prevent copying, pasting, or printing--as they do in many "mass-market" e-books--they are merely protecting their valuable intellectual property from Napster-style piracy as they test various business models to find one that is profitable. But the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) thinks the Copyright Office's ruling may be the death knell for fair use. OITP Director Rick Weingarten believes the decision "will have an enormous effect on school libraries and media centers," which depend on fair-use policies when students copy and paste pictures or quotations from online resources into their reports and classroom presentations. He says that the Copyright Office's decision endangers fair use of digital documents, and that it "removes a lot of users' rights, including archiving and fair use," that are accepted everywhere for paper books and magazines. Digital works, says Weingarten, may well in the near future "be locked up, and you'll pay for each access."
The OITP Copyright Web site (www.ala.org/oitp/copyright) has a revealing interview with copyright specialist Ray Patterson, a University of Georgia law professor. Patterson says that the Supreme Court "has said repeatedly that the copyright monopoly is primarily to benefit the public interest," rather than to benefit the copyright holder. Fair use, says Patterson, "is a right, not merely a privilege."--Walter Minkel
Your Computer Does the Walking...
Tired of shopping around for the best prices possible on books? Well, consider using the Web for all of your price comparisons. The following sites act as "agents" or "middlemen" for any number of booksellers, although their services don't cost you anything. All of them take into consideration prices being offered by online booksellers like Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com) and Amazon (www.amazon.com).
You can search for new, used, and out-of-print books at the following sites:
GeekSpeak: Words You Need to Know
Domain Name System (DNS): Everyone who uses the Web is familiar with domain names, such as www.slj.com for School Library Journal's Web site. Each domain name is an easier-to-remember "handle" or nickname for the site's actual server address. When you type www.slj.com into your browser, for example, it takes you to the actual address 209.67.253.216. The acronym DNS often appears in browser error messages that confuse the uninitiated, such as "No DNS entry."
We've Got (Lots of) Mail
If you think you get a lot of e-mail each day, consider this: in the year 2000, the Internet handled about 10 billion e-mails a day. A new report from International Data Corporation says even that gargantuan number is set to rise to a whopping 35 billion per day by 2005. If ever there was a time to put an end to spam and chain letters, this might just be it.
SiteoftheMonth
Supporting Reading Online
Erving (MA) Elementary School Library: www.erving.com/library/erving_library.htm
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What It's All About: Three years ago, Erving's technology coordinator, Mike Lipinski, taught Shtulman how to put up a site using Claris Home Page, and she was ready to go. She admits that her site initially was "pretty boring"--just a list of what was in the collection--so off she went in search of what she thought her students and parents wanted to see.
First on her mind was using the site to promote reading throughout the school, because, she says, "reading is what it's all about."
RAT Money: She set up a community-oriented promotion of the school's Read-a-thon, known affectionately as the RAT. For eight weeks, from January to March, students in the fifth and sixth grades read like crazy and raise "RAT money." Then the kids help Shtulman decide how to spend it. In the 2000-01 school year, for the first time, her students will be participating in the Massachusetts Children's Book Award, and her students are currently "enthusiastically reading and talking" about the nominees. She uses the site to point them and their parents to information about the award-winning novels, as well as Caldecott, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King Award-winning books.
Going Public: Her school library site also does one thing few of its peers do--it includes a directory of the addresses and hours of all the public libraries in the area. "I am a big fan of my local library, Wheeler Memorial Library in Orange, MA," Shtulman says. Her predecessor at Erving Elementary now works for the nearby Montague Public Library and does a lot to support Erving students' use of the public library.
TheLibrarian'sInternet
by GAIL JUNION-METZ
Waking the Dead: Reviving your library's technology plan
These days, technology updates itself faster than you can say "automation." Even if your library's technology plan is only two years old, you'll need to review it and consider updating it based on future technologies, library trends, Internet and demographic statistics, library survey results, and technology news. If you get a headache just thinking about the hours it'll take to locate all of this information, try using the sites below to jumpstart your new technology plan.
Top Technology Trends for Libraries 2000
www.lita.org/committe/toptech/mw2000.htm
Here you'll find an excellent list of projected library technology trends (with related links) created by well-known, tech-savvy librarians. A good place to start your technology plan review. Source: Library & Information Technology Association.
Library Research Service
www.lrs.org/index.html
This is an outstanding source for all sorts of technology, demographic, and library statistics. Be sure to check out the "Fast Facts," "Library Data," and "Technology Statistics" sections. Source: Colorado State Library, University of Denver. Don't miss: "More Planning Resources on the WWW" for a list of up-to-date surveys, technology, and news resources.
Nua Internet Surveys
www.nua.net/surveys/index.cgi
Often overlooked, these Net-based, Net-focused surveys contain current information that libraries can use. Be sure to check out the data found in the "Society" and "Demographics" sections and the subsections on children, teens, seniors, and Internet use. Source: Nua Internet Surveys, Inc., New York, NY.
Survey of Internet Access Management in Public Libraries
www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/research/internet.pdf
The most recent study of public library Internet use contains lots of useful statistics on how patrons use the Net, how libraries use filters, the number of computers available, IUPs, and more. Source: Library Research Center, University of Illinois. Required: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Library and Information Science News
www.lisnews.com
This is a good source for current news of special interest to librarians and library educators. Visit the "School" and "Public Library" sections, but don't miss the "Knowledge Management" and "E-Publication" sections, since they both cover trends you'll want to learn more about. Source: Blake Carver, librarian, Buffalo, NY.
Adaptive Technology for the Internet
www.ala.org/editions/openstacks/insidethecovers/mates/mates_toc.html
If your current technology plan doesn't adequately address how to provide Internet access to patrons with disabilities, check out this useful online resource. It contains lots of valuable information, tips, and ideas you might want to incorporate into you next technology plan. Source: Barbara T. Mates, American Library Association Online Editions.
Americans in the Information Age: Falling Through the Net
www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide
This is a must-read on the "digital divide." It's an outstanding series of authoritative resources for anyone reviewing and revising a library technology plan. Source: National Telecommunications & Information Administration.
Gail Junion-Metz (Gail@iage.com) is a librarian and president of Information Age Consultants.
TestDrive
AlphaSmart300IR
Wireless, portable notepad, or keyboard
AlphaSmart, Inc. 20400 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Suite 300, Cupertino, CA 95014, (888) 274-0680. PC and Macintosh. www.alphasmart.com. $224, with volume discount.
The AlphaSmart, like the QuickPad (see "Test Drive," October 2000), is a portable keyboard with a small LCD screen. Students can use the AlphaSmart to take notes or type in manuscripts, and later transfer their work to a word processing program on a Mac or PC for final formatting.
The AlphaSmart is simple to use. Just turn it on, press one of the eight file keys, and type in your project. Your files are automatically saved. Transferring your files from the AlphaSmart to your desktop computer is straightforward: using the included cable, connect the AlphaSmart to your desktop computer, open a file on the AlphaSmart, and press the Send key. You can also send files using the wireless infrared module, although that's a little more complicated. You must first install a software utility (included on a CD-ROM that comes with the AlphaSmart) on your desktop computer. Once the infrared module, called the AlphaBeam, is connected to the desktop computer and the utility is installed and running, you open a file on the AlphaSmart and press the Send key to transfer a file. The software utility installed easily on a PowerMac 5400 and a Windows 95 PC. However, I had some initial trouble getting either desktop computer to recognize the infrared AlphaSmart. On the Mac, the default transfer speed needed to be adjusted downward, while on the Windows 95 machine there was some port confusion. Neither problem was addressed in the manual, but a call to AlphaSmart's technical support solved both problems. (The QuickPad does not require any additional software for wireless transmission.)
But the AlphaSmart has one potentially significant advantage over the QuickPad. You can download, via the Internet, updates of its applications, like the AlphaBeam software and the AlphaWord word processing program.
The AlphaSmart measures roughly 9" x 12" and weighs in at only two pounds, so its size isn't even a consideration. It's a flexible electronic notepad that manages to be rugged and dependable, and runs for hundreds of hours on three AA batteries. It may help stretch your word processing or keyboarding budgets.Reviewed by David McQuin
Mankato (MN) East High School
dmcqui1@isd77.k12.mn.us
Getting Kids to Think
A push to increase educational content on the World Wide Web has given rise to over 50,000 students participating in ThinkQuest's Internet Challenge 2000. The contest, which is four years old,
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Applications for the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge 2001, which is open to students ages 12-19, and ThinkQuest Junior, open to students in the fourth through sixth grades, are now available online at ThinkQuest's Web site (www.thinkquest.org).
Schools Love the Net
Internet usage in K-12 public schools is rising rapidly, according to the latest edition of an annual study by Quality Education Data (QED). The study shows that a whopping 95 percent of schools are wired for Internet use, and that 81 percent of teachers use the Internet to evaluate course material. Nearly 79 percent of teachers who use the Internet use it for research purposes; about 53 percent use it as a presentation tool. The study, a telephone survey of 400 public school core-curriculum teachers, also reports that most survey respondents believe that the Internet has played a positive role in educating children. Copies of the report are available directly from QED by calling (800) 525-5811. Each copy costs $299.
