Newsline: News You Can Use
The Bridgeman Art Library acquires photographic archive of the Hamburg Kunsthalle Museum, Germany
The Bridgeman Art Library announced today its acquisition of the photographic archive of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. All of the museum’s works will be available through Bridgeman on an exclusive basis, providing image users with a rich source of German art. Highlights from the museum’s four great galleries include a collection of magnificent mediaeval panel paintings, masterpieces by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich and important works by Paul Klee, Max Beckman and Edvard Munch. The giants of contemporary art are well represented by Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and George Baselitz.
Managing Director Harriet Bridgeman said: “The Hamburg Kunsthalle photographic archive is a significant addition to the Bridgeman Art Library collection. Virtually every work is exceptional in its quality and appeal, and - as a whole - the archive is a valuable document of German history and culture. We are honoured to represent this collection and continue to seek out the best of the world’s art so that image users have the widest choice of artists and subject matter.”
Images from the Hamburg Kunsthalle are accompanied by complete picture data listing the provenance, artist, title, medium, dates and dimension, and carefully selected key-words expand on the subject matter and style. This makes the archive uniquely accessible even for those with little art knowledge. Images can be viewed and ordered online from the Library’s website catalogue at www.bridgeman.co.uk
Libraries Without Walls 4 - Conference announcement and call for papers
The fourth Libraries Without Walls conference, to be held in Lesvos, Greece from September 14th - 18th 2001, continues the tradition of the LWW Conferences by bringing together international perspectives on the delivery of library services to users distant from the physical library.
When the first LWW Conference was held in 1995, the focus was primarily on distance learning and geographical dispersion. Since then, however, rapid advances in the development of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) based infrastructures and services have led to a situation where many library users now routinely access services remotely - even when ‘remotely’ means ‘within sight of the library building’. As a previous conference attendee observed, “we are all distance learners now”.
All enquiries should be addressed to the organisers:
Libraries Without Walls 4 Conference
Centre for Research in Library & Information Management (CERLIM)
Department of Information and Communications
Manchester Metropolitan University
Geoffrey Manton Building
Rosamond Street West
off Oxford Road
Manchester
M15 6LL
United Kingdom
Email: cerlim@mmu.ac.uk
Tel: ++44 (0)161 247 6142
Fax: ++44 (0) 161 247 6979
Critics blast BBC plan to play Net traffic cop
By Jane Wakefield
Special to CNET News.com
February 1, 2001
The British Broadcasting Corporation’s plan to block U.K. access to its international news site has been greeted with a mixture of criticism and derision from experts.
The corporation plans to launch an international news site - BBCNews.com - later this year, which it says is a response to government pressure to extend its World Service onto the Internet.
The BBC proposes to make the new international site accessible only to people outside the United Kingdom. This, it says, will maintain a distance between its publicly funded and commercial services.
Both the existing and proposed sites will carry the same news content, with the latter funded by and carrying advertisements for its international-only audience. At least that’s the plan. Technical experts dismiss the proposals as impossible, arguing that it is not feasible to control access by geography.
You can read the full report on: http://news.cent.com/news/0-1005-201-4688018-0.html?tag=st.ne.1005.saslnk.sa
XML - the “next revolution” in personal computing
By Charles Cooper
Special to CNET News.com
March 12, 2001
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday that the spread of the XML software standard will constitute the “next revolution” in personal computing.
Speaking before a gathering of scientists and technical professionals, Ballmer said the acceptance of XML (Extensible Markup Language) as the new “lingua franca” of cyberspace would effectively clear away lingering barriers blocking companies from exchanging information over the Internet.
“This will be a much bigger deal than Java”, Ballmer said. He added that the adoption of a common approach embodied by XML will provide a foundation “so that everyone’s work can leverage and build upon” the work of others.
“With the XML revolution in full swing,” he said “software has never been more important.”
You can read the full report on: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5112931.html?tag=st.ne.1003.saslnk.sase
Publishers’ spat highlights e-book debate
Wall Street Journal
February 28, 2001
Random House has filed suit against e-book startup RosettaBooks, accusing it of illegally selling electronic versions of books by Random House authors Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron and Robert B. Parker. RosettaBooks CEO Arthur Klebanoff countered that his company has contracts with the three authors to publish electronic versions of their works, and that Random House is “wrong” to think it automatically has rights to publish e-books just because it has the rights to the print versions.
The suit goes to the heart of a long-simmering debate between publishers and authors over whether publishers have an automatic right to publish electronic versions of books. Authors argue that the right must be specified in a contract, much like foreign rights.
Full report is available on: http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB983320054682172823.htm [subscription required]
3rd SCHEMAS Workshop: Managing schemas in a multilingual Semantic Web
http://www.schemas-forum.org/workshops/ws3
A two-day workshop, 10-11th May 2001, Budapest, Hungary - co-ordinated by UKOLN
Contact: Joy Fraser, Events Manager e-mail: j.v.fraser@ukoln.ac.uk
The SCHEMAS Project is an accompanying measure under the European Commission’s IST programme. Our aim is to support metadata schema implementers and designers by making available information about the proper use of new and emerging metadata standards and by providing guidance on adapting multiple standards for local use in customised schemas. For further information, see the SCHEMAS Web site at http://www.schemas-forum.org.
One of the major goals of the SCHEMAS Project is to promote harmonisation and co-ordination among designers and implementers of services and projects. To this end SCHEMAS is encouraging projects to publish their metadata vocabularies through a SCHEMAS Forum Registry which will be presented at the workshop.
Publication of standards-conformant metadata in an open and distributed Web environment is a key aspect of the Semantic Web. As of 2001, it seems likely that the infrastructure of the Semantic Web will build on the enabling technologies Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Resource Description Framework (RDF).
This, the third SCHEMAS workshop, aims to examine how projects can publish and manage their vocabularies using RDF schemas in a form that is readily harvestible and searchable. Participants will gain an understanding of how to go about creating and publishing application profiles for their own projects, as well as how these may be publicised and shared through the SCHEMAS Forum Registry.
The Web, by its very nature, is an international arena, requiring a publication environment that supports multiple languages. The workshop will therefore also explore issues relating to the internationalisation of schemas.
The SCHEMAS project provides a forum for those working in the area of metadata schemas and the workshop will draw upon the experiences of experts working in various domains. Ample opportunity will be provided for the exchange of ideas and discussion of issues through breakout sessions.
We encourage participation from implementers who are using metadata in varying domains such as digital preservation, rights management, e-commerce, collection description. Participants should be familiar with the concept of metadata and have an interest in the technologies related to management and use of metadata.
In addition to the particular issues covered by the workshop, this is an opportunity for metadata schema developers from a wide range of domains to meet and discuss common problems and interoperable solutions.
The workshop will be held at the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary, http://www.sztaki.hu/sztaki/. Booking details can be found on the SCHEMAS Web site, http://www.schemas-forum.org/workshops/ws3/.
*** Please note, places are limited, and we would like to involve articipants from a range of countries and sectors. Please do not make travel arrangements before you have received confirmation of your booking ***
BOOKING DEADLINE: Friday 20th April, 2001