These are some research notes and links on topics
relating to
libraries, humanities
computing, web tech
and databases (notably SQL and Foxpro) issues. Most of these
pages started as notes made to investigate or follow particular issues.
Not all pages are maintained. Links to pages within this site are in boldface.
A small number of selected links to library-profession or
conservation sites. See also the links on Data
Formats.
- Library
& Librarianship Links. Unrelated to data and web
research: books, and some other things. See also links relating to Rare Books.
(There's also the new (2004) ALB1876 the database of American Libraries before
1876 via the Davies Project at Princeton.)
- Preservation and
Conservation links . Links related to
Conservation in libraries, museums, etc. For now visit the Stanford
Conservation Online site. COoL is the website for
conservation. As an umbrella site, run by Walter Henry at Stanford, it
includes the Abbey Newsletter, Guild of Bookworkers, American Institute
for Conservation (AIC), and archives for a number of important mailing
lists including Exlibris (Rare Books), BookArts and ConsDist
(Conservation Distribution List).
- Research on Electronic Journals.
Some notes and links from October 1999 concerning electronic journals.
More of a sketch than an attempt at a comprehensive review. (I feel
that short, summarized e-newsletters with links to longer articles are
more effective; for example Ziff-Davis Anchordesk)
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Printing, Type &
Letterforms
Some links to sites about printing, type and letterforms.
My most current links on printing, letterpress and history of the book
are on the APHA website.
- Printing type: digital and metal
sources for type. Links to sites relating to metal type (an
increasingly scarce commodity) and digital type (whose foundries
proliferate like spring mushrooms).
- APHA's Links page (offsite, maintained
by me) on letterpress printing and type.
- Links and Notes on handwriting in C18 America. Forthcoming.
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- Web Site Accessibility and
Usability. Some notes and links on why you shouldn't muck
about with too much with purely decorative graphics or with the latest
technology (JavaScript, Java, etc.). Like a well-designed book, the web
is first about intellectual content and second about appearance. We
should not make a site unusable to users with disabilities.
- Meta tags. Embedded
content within HTML pages for improved indexing of Web pages. Now
includes discussion of Dublin Core,
which can be used to catalog anything from web pages to museum
artifacts.
- Digital imaging. Notes
on issues such as resolution, file format, description and
organization), especially for cultural institutions like libraries,
archives and museums. There are also tips of doing it personally (some
of pages in my photo gallery were
experiments with these techniques).
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Notes.
CSS is a means of getting a consistent and easy-to-modify style across
your entire site. (The <FONT> tag is now "frowned" upon.)
Old information: - Cheapo
Web site information. Where to host for cheap (but not
necessarily the best). Some notes that I've used in deciding upon
hosting for APHA and which I passed along to
colleagues (notably SHARP's
wonderfully dedicated Patrick Leary).
- Mailing List Perl scripts.
Quick research done in June 1999 on mailing lists, with an emphasis on
distribution lists (informational or moderated).
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Data Formats for Libraries,
Archives and Humanities: SGML and Tagged
Text
Libraries, archives and scholars create large bodies of
electronic documents and texts that don't always index well or, when
tied to a specific software or technology, risk being lost due to
obsolescence. These are projects meant to address some of these issues.
Information below on data formats is now somewhat outdated with the
advent of XML. However, links to meta sites here and under Dublin Core
are still quite current and useful. (See also selected links on library cataloging.)
- SGML, or Standard Generalized Markup
Language, a means of tagging text into discrete structured
text. One well-known SGML
"application" is HTML, the language of the web. Others linked here
include the TEI
(Text Encoding Initiative) and EAD (Enhanced
Archival Description, formerly Encoded Archival Description). Much
direct coding of SGML is being replaced by various forms of XML.
- EAD or Enhanced Archival Description,
an SGML
application for encoding archives, inventories and finding aids.
- METS or Metadata Encoding Transmission
Standard, intended as a sort of "structural metadata" (in fact,
data about the creation, structure and organization of electronic
data). Potentially quite powerful for documenting and administering
electronic "objects."
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New Section. The most widely used library standard
for indexing data is ANSI/NISO
Z39.50 (a.k.a. MARC),
a library-based standard for machine-to-machine retrieval of
information, usually cataloging data. (A good general document on
Z39.50, written by William Moen of Syracuse University, is here.)
I do not maintain notes on this area, since it is evolving in ways that
I no longer follow. But these are interesting times in cataloging. (And
it's inexplicable to me that someone hasn't tried to create more
software to link MARC
records to simple--or not so simple--software for book collectors.)
There are some excellent links from the sites below. See also my Procite Notes and Other Links on Bibliographic Software
in the same document. With XML, with Open Source, with Linuxheads all
pushing, I think we will see increasing convergence.
- Open
Source Software and Libraries Bibliography, maintained by Brenda
Chawner, a library Ph.D. at Victoria University of Wellington, New
Zealand.
- Open
standards and software for bibliographies and cataloging.
Maintained at SourceForge by Bruce D'Arcus and John J. Lee. Emphasis on
GNU, Perl, Unix, etc.
- Open Source Systems for
Libraries, a blog-style site (like slash-dot), run by Dan Chudnov.
- LITA
Guide no. 9 Open Source Software for Libraries (book description
only).
- OpenBiblio: A Library
System that's Free, an open source, automated library system
written in PHP containing OPAC, circulation, cataloging, and staff
administration functionality.
- Related: Bookwhere,
commercial service and software from WebClarity Software for searching
multiple library sites, which can be downloaded to a local library
system. (Procite, Endnote, etc. only search those catalogs that you
select, and must be updated manually.) Also has special offer to buy
with Mitinet MARC Magician for
original cataloging and MARC
Notepad for copying the formatted records to local system.
(Bookwhere can also integrate with the scholarly wordprocessor Notabene.)
- Vaporware (as of 7/2003): Open Office Bibliographic
is a project of the Open Office
consortium (based on StarOffice) which intends (among other things) "to
develop a function which would allow easy import and export of
bibliographic data between OpenOffice and bibliographic databases such
as BibTeX." (This function would work similarly to Procite's or
Endnote's ability to insert bib citations into Word Docs.) Promising
since it appears to be intended to be open source.
- LC's Gateway to Z39.50 Catalogs.
- Notes on Procite
Bibliographic Software. I've cataloged my book collection
using Procite. It's deficient for cataloging rare books, but great for
reference books which you might cite in a bibliography. (Procite
integrates with Microsoft Word.)
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Humanities & Miscellaneous
Links
Links that I use on occasion.
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- Databases on the
Web, SQL servers and database-backed sites. (Subsection on SQL and SQL
tutorials.)
- Foxpro links
Microsoft Foxpro links. Microsoft, O Microsoft, why have ye abandoned
the Fox!
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I've found these links useful for researching not for
profits and charitable organizations. Not online, but recommended: the
excellent book by Joseph Barbato and Danielle S. Furlich, Writing
for a Good Cause (Simon & Shuster, 2000).
Forbes magazine often has
interesting articles about charity and giving from the perspective of
the donor. It rewards careful reading. Forbes has helped
raise awareness among donors of limited foundations,
intended to spend themselves out of existence, rather than
self-perpetuating organisms. Forbes's constant drumbeat
about researching a charity's administrative costs has created bad
press for some organizations, like United Way or Hale House, before it
was reorganized. Many donors now want to see how much their money buys
and whether the charity fulfills its purpose at low-cost. Benjamin
Graham's value investing philosophy comes to charity? Maybe. Watch
especially for Forbes's year-end issues.
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- Links
on genealogy, genealogical software, and genealogical Tech Standards,
especially the GEDCOM standard for data interchange. (Hosted at
Rootsweb.)
4/21/2002: Dick Eastman noted that an XML implementation of GEDCOM has
been defined.
- My
Genealogy Pages at Rootsweb. Romaine family, plus picture galleries
on the Fort Greene Martyrs' Monument.
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These links don't seem to fit anywhere else, but are
useful, nevertheless.
If you want to use your computer to establish a direct
fax-to-fax connection, you will have to install a fax modem and connect
it to a phone line. A cable modem cannot send faxes directly to phone
lines.
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Contact Paul Romaine.