CIT INFOBITS April 2001 No. 34 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. ...................................................................... Online Debate on Scholarly Publishing Online Course on Online Courses New NISO Standard Aids in Locating Conference Proceedings Library in Alexandria Rebuilt Education Resource Organizations Directory New York Times' Education News Online Recommended Reading ...................................................................... ONLINE DEBATE ON SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING The journal NATURE has launched an online debate on the "most crucial and talked-about aspect of scientific publishing -- the impact of the web on the publication of original research." Current contributors include: Stevan Harnad, from the Intelligence/Agents/Multimedia Group at the University of Southampton, UK, describes how the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) can enhance access to e-print archives and increase the availability of scholarly communication. Robert Campbell, president of Blackwell Science Ltd., argues that Internet and market forces will themselves result in major improvements in scientific publishing. He warns that a proposed blanket boycott of journals may cut off the revenues that scientific societies and commercial publishers need if they are to invest in making this transformation happen. The debate is accessible at http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/ Nature, International Weekly Journal of Science, is published by Nature Publishing Group, Porters South, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK; tel: +44 (0)20 7833 4000; fax: +44 (0)20 7843 4596; email: nature@nature.com; Web: http://www.nature.com/ ...................................................................... ONLINE COURSE ON ONLINE COURSES Sally Kuhlenschmidt, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Western Kentucky University, uses the Internet to teach a course for faculty and administrators on teaching on the Internet. Her course, "Internet in Instruction" covers "how to use technology efficiently in instruction . . . [m]arketing an online course, protecting intellectual-property rights, and designing a course Web site. . . ." As a course requirement, students must either create a website for an online course or create online materials to use with a traditionally-taught course. The "Internet in Instruction" website is at http://edtech.tph.wku.edu/~internet/ For more information contact Sally L. Kuhlenschmidt, Center for Teaching and Learning, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101 USA; tel: 270-745-6508; fax: 270-745-6145; email: sally.kuhlenschmidt@wku.edu; Web: http://www.wku.edu/~kuhlenschmidt/ An interview with Kuhlenschmidt ("'Using the Internet in Instruction' Is the Topic of an Online Course," by Jessica Ludwig, THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, April 19, 2001) is available on the Web at http://chronicle.com/free/2001/04/2001041901u.htm ...................................................................... NEW NISO STANDARD AIDS IN LOCATING CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS "Because conference proceedings are important in research and scholarly communication, it is important to be able to locate the published proceedings of a particular conference. However, it is often difficult to retrieve these works because title pages . . . contain insufficient information to identify a particular conference, or the information is not clearly delineated in its layout." To remedy this problem, the National Standards Information Organization (NISO) has published a standard on "Title Pages for Conference Publications" (ANSI/NISO Z39.82-2001). The standard will enable publishers and editors to prepare title pages that will make it easier for users to find and cite conference proceedings. NISO's standard provides guidelines for a "uniform presentation of information on a title page, cover, title screen, title frame, or any other location serving as the chief source of information for preparation of the bibliographic description or citation for an item. The standard applies to all disciplines, to all conferences (e.g., meetings, symposia, institutes, colloquia, workshops), and to all formats (e.g., printed documents, videos, Web sites). The standard applies to published conference proceedings in various manifestations (e.g., papers, abstracts, summaries) and in all languages, subjects, and formats." A copy of the standard is available on the Web (in PDF format) at no cost at http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-bin/pdf/free/283165/Z39-82.pdf Information on ordering a hardcopy version is available at http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-bin/detail?product_id=863738 NISO is the only U.S. group accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop and promote technical standards for use in information delivery services, providing voluntary standards for libraries, publishers, and related information technology organizations. All NISO standards are developed by consensus under the guidance of experts and practitioners in the field to meet the needs of both the information user and the producer. For more information about NISO, contact NISO Headquarters, 4733 Bethesda Avenue, Suite 300, Bethesda, MD 20814 USA; tel: 301-654-2512; fax: 301-654-1721; email: nisohq@niso.org; Web: http://www.niso.org/ ...................................................................... LIBRARY IN ALEXANDRIA REBUILT Before its destruction in 640 CE, the Library at Alexandria served the world's great scholars for over six hundred years. Now, centuries later, in its new Bibliotheca Alexandrina Egypt hopes to fill the place in scholarship held by the original library while embracing state-of-the-art digital technologies. Working in cooperation with UNESCO, Bibliotheca Alexandrina will provide both a physical meeting place for scholars and an archive for the world's store of knowledge. The library will be officially inaugurated in Autumn 2001. To learn more about Bibliotheca Alexandrina link to http://www.unesco.org/webworld/alexandria_new/ "Digital Renaissance: Information Cosmos," a brief article on the Bibliotheca Alexandrina by Henry Jenkins (director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT), is available in the April 2001 issue of TECHNOLOGY REVIEW. The article is available online at http://www.techreview.com/magazine/apr01/jenkins.asp Technology Review [ISSN 1099-274X] is published ten times a year by Technology Review, Inc., a Massachusetts Institute of Technology enterprise. To subscribe, contact Technology Review, 201 Vassar St., W59-200 Cambridge, MA 02139 USA; tel: 617-253-8250; fax 617-258-5850; Web: http://www.technologyreview.com/ ...................................................................... EDUCATION RESOURCE ORGANIZATIONS DIRECTORY Education Resource Organizations Directory (EROD) is a "metasite" provided by the U.S. Department of Education at no cost to users. The site indexes over 4,000 sites that offer information and assistance on a wide range of education-related topics. Resources are arranged and searchable by state and region, type of organization, title, subject, and description. The site also includes a form to submit suggestions for additions to the directory. EROD is available at http://www.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/ ...................................................................... NEW YORK TIMES' EDUCATION NEWS ONLINE The NEW YORK TIMES recently launched "College Times," a new section covering news aimed at both college students and faculty. The site includes classroom guides on using the Times in courses and profiles of faculty participating in The New York Times College Program, as well as news stories organized by academic disciplines. The site is available at no cost at http://www.nytimes.com/college/index.html ...................................................................... RECOMMENDED READING "Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column. Celestin Freinet by Victor Acker. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. ISBN: 0-313-30994-9. Infobits subscriber Victor Acker recommends his book Celestin Freinet, the first book written in English on the French educator. "Freinet was active in the first half of the 20th century in France, where he addressed the educational issues of the day: class size, lack of adequate pedagogical material, arbitrarily rotating the teachers from school to school without their consent, and forcing the teachers to abide by antiquated guidelines. He initiated and developed printing in the classroom and interscholastic exchanges as a means of giving students a greater voice in their education." For more information link to http://info.greenwood.com/books/0313309/0313309949.html Victor Acker currently teaches in the Modern Languages and Comparative Literature Department at Baruch College in New York City. To contact him: tel: 212-387-1570; email: victor_acker@baruch.cuny.edu ...................................................................... To Subscribe CIT INFOBITS is published by the Center for Instructional Technology. The CIT supports the interests of faculty members at UNC-Chapel Hill who are exploring the use of Internet and video projects. Services include both consultation on appropriate uses and technical support. To subscribe to INFOBITS, send email to listserv@unc.edu with the following message: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS firstname lastname substituting your own first and last names. Example: SUBSCRIBE INFOBITS Anne Fadiman or use the web subscription form at http://listserv.unc.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?join=infobits To UNsubscribe to INFOBITS, send email to listserv@unc.edu with the following message: UNSUBSCRIBE INFOBITS INFOBITS is also available online on the World Wide Web at http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/ (HTML format) and at http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/text/index.html (plain text format). If you have problems subscribing or want to send suggestions for future issues, contact the editor, Carolyn Kotlas, at carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu Article Suggestions Infobits always welcomes article suggestions from our readers, although we cannot promise to print everything submitted. Because of our publishing schedule, we are not able to announce time-sensitive events such as upcoming conferences and calls for papers or grant applications; however, we do include articles about online conference proceedings that are of interest to our readers. While we often mention commercial products, publications, and Web sites, Infobits does not accept or reprint unsolicited advertising copy. Send your article suggestions to the editor at carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2001, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Instructional Technology. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes.