ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 124 / C&RL N ew s ■ January 2001 Fas A n n t V i Ie s I Facts N on p r¡n t d w a rfs printed in fo rm a tio n According to a study by the School o f Information Management and Systems at the University o f California at Berkeley, printed documents comprise only .003% o f the roughly 1.5 billion gigabytes o f print, film, optical, and magnetic informa­ tion produced yearly. Peter Lyman and Hal R. Varian, "H o w M uch In form a tion ?" University o f California at Berkeley, http;// www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info/. Dec. 1, 2000 Library so ftw a re in escrow Ex Libris has contracted with the State University o f New York to place the source code for the shared online catalog o f the 64 SUNY libraries in escrow. Should the contract cease for any reason, the source code and documentation will be available to the SUNY system. The five-year SUNYConnect project will produce a network catalog containing nearly 18 million records and providing system-wide access to nearly 50 percent o f the serials and journals in the SUNY virtual library. A planned document delivery arrangement will make most non­ electronic materials in the com bined catalog available to students and faculty on any SUNY campus within 48 hours. Florence Olsen, "SU N Y 's Library-Software Contract Includes 'Ultimate Protection’: Program Code," the Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 21, 2000. http://chronicle.com/daiiy/2000/11/2000112101t.htm, password required. Nov. 22, 2000 Library or Internet? Seventy-five percent o f adults w ho use the Internet also use public libraries according to an Urban Libraries Council study released on O ctober 18. Users of both libraries and the Internet gave libraries higher scores for “ease o f use, low cost (in monetary terms), availability o f paper copy (versus availability o f digital copy), accuracy o f information, helpfulness o f librarians (versus net helplines), and protection o f user privacy.” The Internet, on the other hand, was rated higher for “ease o f getting there, time to get there, availability (hours o f access), expectation o f finding what is sought, ability to act immediately on the informa­ tion obtained, up-to-dateness o f the information, fun, enjoyability of browsing, and the ability to work alone (versus being among people in the library).” Urban Libraries Council, The Impacts o f the Internet on Public Library Use: A n Analysis o f the Current Consumer M arket for Library and Internet Services, October, 2000. http://www.urbanlibraries.org/pdfs/finalulc.pdf. Dec. 1 , 2 0 0 0 E -b oo ks sta n d a rd s The Association o f American Publishers (AAP) defines an e-book as ⅛ Literary Work in the form o f a Digital O bject consisting o f one or more standard Unique Identifiers, Metadata, and a Monographic body o f content, intended to be pub­ lished and accessed electronically. ” The AAP working with Andersen Consult­ ing has released standards documents with recommendations for e-books in the areas o f numbering, metadata, and digital rights management. Association of American Publishers, " A A P O pen Ebook Publishing Standards Initiative." http://www. publishers.org/home/ebookstudy.htm. Dec. 1, 2000 Ann Viles is coordinator o f reference and instruction at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, e-mail: vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info/ http://chronicle.com/daily/2000/11/2000112101t.htm http://www.urbanlibraries.org/pdfs/finaluic.pdf http://www mailto:vilesea@conrad.appstate.edu