November 1997 No. 53

ISSN 1071-5223

About INFOBITS

Infobits is an electronic service of the Institute for Academic Technology's Information Resources Group. Each month we monitor and select from a number of information technology and instruction technology sources that come to our attention and provide brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Introductory Statistics Textbooks on the Web
Do Digital Libraries Need Librarians?
Technical Support Gap -- A Final Note
Standards Information Online
IAT Librarian's Links
Editor's Note: Changes at the IAT

ELECTRONIC THESES AND DISSERTATIONS

In 1994, as an early advocate of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), Virginia Polytechnic Institute began to accept student theses and dissertations in electronic format; other universities also provide access to ETDs, although on a somewhat more limited basis. In "Problems and Possibilities of Electronic Theses and Dissertations" (Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine, vol. 4, no. 11, November 1, 1997) Christian Weisser, John Baker, and Janice R. Walker discuss the current state of ETDs and the problems associated with moving theses and dissertations beyond the limits of text formats. The article is available on the Web at http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/nov/etds.html

For additional information on ETDs see
Virginia Tech's ETD Digital Library -- http://www.theses.org/

Matthew G. Kirschenbaum's "Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the Humanities: A Directory of Online References and Resources" -- http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ETD/ETD.html

Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine [ISSN 1076-027X] is published monthly electronically by December Communications, Inc., 154 Third Street; Troy, NY 12180-4039 USA; tel: 518-271-8469; email: john@december.com; Web: http://www.december.com/
CMC Magazine is available at no cost on the Web at http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/

Several introductory statistics textbooks are available on the Web for use in courses or for refreshing your knowledge of basic statistics. The following were mentioned in a recent issue of Search: A Newsletter for Graduate Students:

Hyperstat Online
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lane/hyperstat/contents.html
Author contact: David M. Lane, Associate Professor, Departments of Psychology and Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005 USA; tel: 713-527-8101 X3412; fax: 713-285-5221; email: lane@rice.edu; Web: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lane/index.html

Introductory Statistics: Concepts, Models, And Applications
http://www.psychstat.smsu.edu/sbk00.htm
Author contact: David W. Stockburger, Professor, Psychology Department, 202c Hill Hall, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65804 USA; tel: 417-836-5877; fax: 417-836-4884; email: dws148f@nic.smsu.edu; Web: http://www.psychstat.smsu.edu/dws148f.htm

SurfStat Australia
http://surfstat.newcastle.edu.au/surfstat/
Author contact: Keith Dear, Senior Lecturer in Statistics, Department of Statistics, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, N.S.W. Australia; tel: +61-49-215515; email: dear@mail.newcastle.edu.au; Web: http://u2.newcastle.edu.au/~stkd/

Search: A Newsletter for Graduate Students is a monthly publication edited by Robert Butters (former Professor, Research Advisor and Director of Field Placement at Northeastern University in Boston, MA) which "identifies and reports new Internet resources of interest to advanced graduate students who are conducting research on the Internet." It is available on the Web at http://www.problemfinder.com/
For more information contact Dr. Robert S. Butters, Director, Creative Learning Services, Post Office Box 1283, Naples, FL 34102 USA; email: rbutters@naplesnet.com; Web: http://www.problemfinder.com/Personal.htm

As we get accustomed to online access to textbooks, dissertations, and other materials traditionally available in hardcopy and shelved in libraries, what will become of the human information helper when the physical reference desk disappears? In "Do Digital Libraries Need Librarians?: An Experimental Dialog" (Online, vol. 20, no. 6, November/December 1997, pp. 87-92) Lisa Dallape Matson and David J. Bonski grapple with this question. They propose that librarians will have a role in the digital library if they reject the status of "bit players" and bring their wealth of experience into an "information partnership" with technologists. Some of the roles open to librarians in the digital library include enhanced information service providers, electronic copyright experts, and system interface designers. The complete article is available online at http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/NovOL97/matson11.html

Online [ISSN 0146-5422] is published bimonthly by Online, Inc., 462 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897-2126 USA; tel: 203-761-1466. Annual subscriptions are $110 (U.S. & Canada); $132 (Mexico); $145 (foreign airmail). Selected articles are available on the Web at http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/

Continuing the topic from the September and October issues, here is a final addition to your reading on this subject that has been suggested by Julia Rudy, Director of Research and Development at CAUSE. "The Crisis in Information Technology Support: Has Our Current Model Reached Its Limit?" (CAUSE Professional Paper #16, 1997) by Polley A. McClure, John W. Smith, and Toby D. Sitko "describes the current problems and ways in which they differ from those of the past, and suggests a new support model. The paper identifies three primary issues which characterize this crisis: overwhelming demands on central information technology (IT) organizations, deterioration of support quality, and the scapegoating of central IT organizations." The entire paper is available on the Web in HTML and PDF formats at http://www.cause.org/information-resources/ir-library/html/pub3016/16index.html

If you are not already familiar with the CAUSE Professional Paper series, you can access it at http://www.cause.org/pub/pubs.html along with all the other CAUSE publications. CAUSE is a non-profit association for managing and using information resources in higher education. For more information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; tel: 303-449-4430 ; fax: 303-440-0461; email: info@cause.org; Web: http://www.cause.org/

If your work or research involves compliance with national or international standards -- as a standards producer, user, or information professional -- you can find a wealth of information on the Web. Here is a list of some sites provided by standards organizations:

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ANSI Online -- information on the ANSI Federation and the latest national and international standards-related activities
http://www.ansi.org/

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO Online -- includes information on the ISO 9000 standard
http://www.iso.ch/

U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) -- includes online copies of several NIST publications and links to federal agencies and non-profit organizations concerned with standards
http://www.nist.gov/

U.S. Department of Defense's Index of Specifications and Standards (DODISS) -- lists the unclassified federal and military specifications, standards, and related standardization documents, and those non-government standards adopted for DoD use
http://www.dtic.dla.mil/stinet/htgi/dodiss/

ISO Online also provides a directory of international and national standards organizations and standardizing bodies at http://www.iso.ch/infoe/stbodies.html

Part of my duties at the IAT include running a one-professional information center for staff and visitors. In a recent article for the Special Libraries Association's monthly publication ("Don't Fly Solo Without a 'Net," Information Outlook, vol. 1, no. 11, November 1997, pp. 13-15), I shared some of the Internet resources that I find useful in running the center. The complete article, along with links to all the resources, is also available on the Web at http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/nov/novnet.html

For more information on the Special Libraries Association, see their Web site at http://www.sla.org/

Infobits subscribers may have read in the higher education press of some recent changes at the Institute for Academic Technology. Many of our staff, including the director, left in October to work for a private outsourcing company. A new director has been appointed to lead those staff who chose to remain with the IAT and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Your editor is one of the staff who chose to stay with the IAT. At this time there are no plans to discontinue publication of Infobits or to terminate other services such as our Information Resource Guides publication series. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.