[WEB4LIB] Re: Microsoft antitrust verdict released

[George Porter]

Responding to Dan Lester's curiosity factor:

No coverage of Columbine or the NASDAQ appeared on the library's web page.

As noted in the initial posting:

The rationale was that this is a very high profile current event and the
court decision is the kind of high quality, primary source information which
libraries are expected to deliver. It is expected that there will be some
significant amount of interest on campus due to the ubiquity of Microsoft
products. 

Neither Columbine nor the NASDAQ lend themselves to primary source
materials.  Neither supplies the operating systems or productivity software
found on a substantial number of computers throughout the campus.  Neither
underwrites research to the tune of millions of dollars a year throughout
academe.

It came down from the main page this morning, having aged out of its notable
period.

There are many sources of commentary and news coverage available.  I saw a
number of very interesting quotes on CNN.com, in the LA Times, etc.  None of
those quotes were easily verfiable from the news accounts.  CNN.com acquired
the pdfs and mounted them on their site.  The link we provided went to the
district court's website, offered a choice of document formats, and the
entire archive of motions and rulings pertaining to the case.  These are the
resources that would be of "research" interest.  They will remain citable
and authoritative long after CNN's links have gone away.

As Dan noted, the "news" portion was hardly unexpected.  The content of the
decision, on the other hand, could be of interest to economists and
political scientists immediately.

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science 
California Institute of Technology 
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA  91125 
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681