Infobits is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.

Shneiderman on Information Visualization
Chinese Document Delivery Service
Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments
RAND Reports Available Online
Free Trials of Fee-Based Online Databases
Recommended Reading

SHNEIDERMAN ON INFORMATION VISUALIZATION

The School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently sponsored a public lecture, "The Eyes Have It: User Interfaces for Information Visualization," by Dr. Ben Shneiderman of the Department of Computer Science, Human-Computer-Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) at the University of Maryland. Shneiderman discussed the way in which human perceptual skills are currently underutilized by human-computer graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and what the future holds for this area. He presented his "Information Seeking Mantra": overview first (give the user the big picture), zoom and filter (allow the user to pinpoint area of interest and screen out extraneous information), then details-on-demand (provide more detailed data only when the user requests it). Shneiderman argues for more sophisticated information visualization interfaces which will enable users to comprehend and navigate through "information-abundant" Web sites without being overwhelmed by the vast quantities of data.

Shneiderman is author and editor of several books on user interface design, including Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction [3rd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1997, ISBN: 0201694972, http://www.aw.com/DTUI/] and Sparks of Innovation in Human-Computer Interaction [Ablex, 1993, ISBN: 1-56750-078-1, http://www.cs.umd.edu/projects/hcil/pubs/books/sparks-of-innovation.html]. He is a co-author of the forthcoming book, Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think, to be published January 1999 [Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 1999, ISBN: 1558605339].

For more information on Dr. Shneiderman and links to online copies of his recent papers: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben

Here are some of the Web resources that Shneiderman cited in his presentation:

The LUCID (Logical User Centered Interaction Design) Framework
a methodology framework for managing the design and testing of the software user interface
http://www.cognetics.com/lucid/

Sun Microsystems "Guide to Web Style"
http://www.sun.com/styleguide/

Spotfire
a supplier of data exploration and collaborative discovery solutions to the pharmaceutical, specialty chemical and biotechnology industries with the ability to immediately display large amounts of disparate data and to visually query that information for trends, anomalies, outliers and patterns
http://www.spotfire.com/

WestLaw Case Explorer Visualizing Legal Information
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/west-legal/
See especially the Dotfire prototype:
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/west-legal/dotfire/west.html

The current work of the University of Maryland Human-Computer-Interaction Laboratory includes "information visualization, interfaces for digital libraries, multimedia resources for learning communities, zooming user interfaces (ZUIs), technology design methods with and for children, and instruments for evaluating user interface technologies." For more information on HCIL and its projects link to http://www.cs.umd.edu/projects/hcil/

CHINESE DOCUMENT DELIVERY SERVICE

The Gateway Service Center of Chinese Academic Journal Publications, administered by the East Asian Library of the University of Pittsburgh Library System, is a digital document delivery center that provides free delivery of full-text copies of Chinese-language academic journal articles to any researcher in the United States. The Center focuses on the delivery of Chinese-language academic journal publications that are not available in the collections of U.S. research libraries. Six major Chinese research libraries are participating in the program: Peking University Library (Beijing University Library), Shanghai Jiaotong University Library, Chinese University of Hong Kong Library, Fu Ssu-nien Library of Academic Sinica, Tsinghua University Library, and Fudan University Library. Journal articles are transmitted electronically via the Internet from the Chinese library which holds the title to Pittsburgh, where they are printed and sent to researchers, free of charge, via U.S. mail. The Center's Web site also includes links to the online catalogs of several Chinese libraries.

For more information about the Gateway Service Center of Chinese Academic Journal Publications or to request a document, link to http://www.library.pitt.edu/gateway/

JOURNAL FOR TEACHERS OF WRITING IN WEBBED ENVIRONMENTS

Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments [ISSN: 1521-2300] is a free, peer-reviewed electronic journal for teachers, researchers, and tutors of writing at the college and university level. Sponsored by the Alliance for Computers and Writing, Kairos covers all areas of writing, including technical, business, and creative writing. Each issue centers around a theme: "Copyright, Plagiarism, and Intellectual Property;" "Gender and Electronic Discourse;" "Online Writing Labs;" and "Tenure and Technology: New Values, New Guidelines."
Current and back issues are available at http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/

For more information on the Alliance for Computers and Writing, link to http://english.ttu.edu/acw/

RAND REPORTS AVAILABLE ONLINE

The RAND Corporation marks its 50th anniversary in 1998. RAND (an acronym for research and development) is a nonprofit institution established after World War II to focus U.S. national security research. Today, RAND researchers analyze developments in many areas, including national defense, education and training, health care, criminal and civil justice, labor and population, science and technology, community development, international relations, and regional studies. Many RAND documents are posted in their entirety on the Web. Research areas covered include Education Studies, Information Technology and Science, Civil and Criminal Justice, Health, International Policy Studies, National Security and Military Studies, and Domestic Policy Studies are available online.
Reports are available on the RAND Web site at http://www.rand.org/PUBS/index.html

For more general information on RAND, go to http://www.rand.org/

FREE TRIALS OF FEE-BASED ONLINE DATABASES

Many providers of online databases offer short-term free trial periods to attract new users to their subscription services. In "Review of Online Information 98" (in Free Pint, No. 28, December 17, 1998), Dr. Anne L. Barker lists some of the database vendors offering free short-term access to their fee-based services. Included are Derwent's Drug File and World Drug Alerts, BIOSIS (biological data), H. W. Wilson Company's bibliographic databases, and Ovid Technologies (bibliographic, scientific, technical, and medical databases).
The article is available on the Web at http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/171298.htm#tips

Free Pint [ISSN 1460-7239] is published every two weeks in the U.K. by the information consultant Willco and is sent free of charge to subscribers via email. Articles written by information professionals tell where to find reliable Web sites and how to search effectively.
Subscription information and back issues are available on the Web at http://www.freepint.co.uk/

Information Technology Services at UNC-Chapel Hill

Teaching and Learning

CIT Infobits - December, 1998

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