The New York Times Magazine The Library as the Latest Web Venture
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"When Carrie Larkworthy, a student at Harvard University, is faced with a research project, getting a book out of the library is the last thing on her mind. Instead she sits in her dormitory room and logs onto the Web, starting with Harvard's online system for searching and retrieving journal articles. "I hate the library, so I try to avoid it," Ms. Larkworthy said. "It's such a big facility that you have to search through.""

""...But new efforts are afoot to change that. Several companies are racing to put the full texts of hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books, old and new, on the Web."

"These electronic library projects are not attempts to compete with the budding electronic book industry, which offers books for downloading to handheld devices and is focused on popular fiction, like Stephen King's recent Web-only novella, "Riding the Bullet," and on other newly published trade books. The library projects have very little to do with the debate over the promise or pitfalls of gadgets that let people read novels electronically from the comfort of their beds.

In fact, the new effort to build an electronic library is not about reading at all. It is about the power of electronic searching."

Digital LIbrary Magazine Who Is Going to Mine Digital Library Resources? And How?
To partially answer the questions raised in the title of this paper -- "Who is going to mine digital library resources? And how?" -- today’s end-users are not capable of mining today’s digital libraries, let alone the more comprehensive digital libraries of the foreseeable future."

"Today’s attention to database creation and better search engines fails to address a critical consumer need. Better digital libraries and more powerful search engines will not get quality materials into the hands of the end-user. Developers of digital libraries must work with content experts to develop an array of information products that help users identify and understand the available resources."

First Monday Web-Wise Conference: A Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World
"The conference demonstrated that there is a great deal of interest and activity in digitization within the museum and library communities. Of the approximately 100 participants who completed conference evaluations, 75 percent said they are currently engaged in digitization activities and another 15 percent are planning such activities. Over 80 percent found the conference "very relevant" to their needs and virtually all of the attendees who responded to the follow-up evaluation stated that they had made contacts that will be valuable to them in their future endeavors concerning digital libraries. Comments included phrases such as "consciousness-raising," "a hotbed of inspiration," "it gave us our first 'sophisticated' project idea" and "[my colleagues have not] grasped the enormity of what is going on in the realm of digital libraries. With the background provided by the substance of Web-Wise, I have improved my chances of influencing policy decisions at my museum." Many participants encouraged IMLS to convene more conferences on this topic."

redux [04.09.00]
The Seattle Times Mike Eisenberg teaches UW's doctors of data overload how to recognize what's valuable
"For years, colleges cranked out the people who create information or create machines that spew it. But where are the guides? Who can weed through this stuff to decide what's valuable?

Eisenberg has this vision of Lucy and Ethel in a famous "I Love Lucy" episode. But instead of chocolate candy coming at them faster and faster on the conveyor belt, it's information."

"Eisenberg trains his students to see information as soon as they open their eyes. Traffic. Weather. News. Instead of being overwhelmed, they think: How can I organize it? How does the information flow? How can I pull out what's valuable and leave the rest behind?

Some of The Information School's graduates will be librarians. The need is growing and the prestige rising.

But others will go into business with titles such as "information architect" and "business intelligence manager." They'll tackle Web site content and complex database systems. They won't all be librarians, but they will all have a librarian's "helper-sharer gene""

SiliconValley.com Librarians are heroes of Net censorship fight
"HEROES OF FREEDOM: They are champions of some vital principles, "the unsung heroes of the fight for free expression, intellectual freedom and access to the Internet.''

"Librarians help us find things. They help us read. They help us learn. And lately they've been fighting the good fight for their patrons' right to have access to the unfiltered resources of the newest information resource -- the Internet.”