Technologies to support (RE: Dertouzos on future libraries)

[Eric Miller]

Jul,Erik writes:
> 
> >with the important proviso that
> >they, the libraries, control the quality of these virtual
> >bookshelves,
> 
> Bingo.  Another dead-center description of a value-adding service that 
> libraries have long provided.  Any library that today is identifying, 
> selecting, and cataloging electronic resources can attest to the role of 
> selection and collection development in (1) providing accesss to information 
> that meets some objective criteria, (2) meeting or anticipating the needs of 
> a community of users, however defined, and (3) creating a body of work (a 
> collection) the sum of which is greater than its parts.
> 
> It's not futuristic to imagine that these same value-adding services pertain 
> to digital resources.

And to complement Erik's point...  the W3C PICS Platform for Internet
Content Selection <http://www.w3.org/PICS> and PICS Next-Generation
<http://www.w3.org/PICS/NG> working groups are designed to provide an
infrastructure for associating labels (metadata) with Internet
resources.  These capabilities provide a foundation for exactly the
value-added services that are described above for digital resources.  

These (and other) issues along with updates from these W3C working
groups will be discussed at the free ALA pre-conference forum "Content
Selection, PICS and the Internet" <http://purl.oclc.org/net/ala-pics-forum>.

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eric j. miller                OCLC Online Computer Library Center
mailto:emiller at oclc.org       Office of Research 
http://purl.oclc.org/net/eric