Purpose: This paper explores the use of blogs as a platform for providing reference service, and discusses Lyceum, an open source software project from ibiblio.org, for this purpose. Design/methodology/approach: The following topics are explored: the evolution of libraries' uses of blogs, the advantages of conducting the reference transaction as a collaborative effort, and the use of blogs as an environment that fosters collaboration. The argument is made that blogs may be used to good effect in reference services Findings: It is argued that blogs may be used to good effect in reference services. Lyceum, an open source blogosphere application, is discussed as an environment for blog-based reference service. Originality/value: To date, blogs are not being used by a library reference services, and by few online reference service unaffiliated with libraries. This paper will be useful to libraries and other reference services interested in conducting the reference transaction as a community effort.

There has been in recent years a surge of interest about new software products that make it possible for libraries to offer assistance to online users via chat. Such software offers far more interactivity than instant messaging programs and allow for a richer experience for both librarian and user. Surveys chat reference services around the globe and analyzes trends in the provision of this new mode of assistance. Also presents discussion of why chat reference service is gathering attention as well as its limitations and drawbacks.

This is a preprint of an article published in Online Information Review 28(2004)6, 420-427. Search engines usually offer a date restricted search on their advanced search pages. But determining the actual update of a web page is not without problems. We conduct a study testing date restricted queries on the search engines Google, Teoma and Yahoo!. We find that these searches fail to work properly in the examined engines. We discuss implications of this for further research and search engine development.

The use of Pearsonâ s correlation coefficient in Author Cocitation Analysis was compared with Saltonâ s cosine measure in a number of recent contributions. Unlike the Pearson correlation, the cosine is insensitive to the number of zeros. However, one has the option of applying a logarithmic transformation in correlation analysis. Information calculus is based on both the logarithmic transformation and provides a non-parametric statistics. Using this methodology one can cluster a document set in a precise way and express the differences in terms of bits of information. The algorithm is explained and used on the data set which was made the subject of this discussion.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) encompasses the following general areas of research: (1) automatic programming, (2) computer vision, (3) expert systems, (4) intelligent computer-assisted instruction, (5) natural language processing, (6) planning and decision support, (7) robotics, and (8) speech recognition. Intelligent library systems utilize artificial intelligence technologies to provide knowledge-based services to library patrons and staff. This paper examines certain key aspects of AI that determine its potential utility as a tool for building library systems. It discusses the barriers that inhibit the development of intelligent library systems, and it suggests possible strategies for making progress in this important area. While all of the areas of AI research indicated previously may have some eventual application in the development of library systems, this paper primarily focuses on a few that the author judges to be of most immediate significance--expert systems, intelligent computer-assisted instruction, and natural language applications. This paper does not discuss the use of AI knowledge-bases in libraries as subject-oriented library materials.

Meaning can be communicated in addition to - and on top of - underlying processes of the information exchange. Meaning is provided to observations from the perspective of hindsight, while information processing follows the time axis. Simulations of anticipatory systems enable us to show how an observer can be generated within an information process, and how expectations can also be exchanged. Cellular automata will be used for the visualization. The exchange of observations among observers generates (a) uncertainty about the delineations in the observed system at each moment in time and (b) uncertainty about the dynamics of the interaction over time.

As the New York Public Library entered the post-war era in the late 1940s, its operations fell under the zealous scrutiny of self-styled ‘redhunters’ intent upon rooting out library materials and staffers deemed un-American and politically subversive. The high point of attacks upon the New York Public Library came during the years 1947-1954, a period that witnessed the Soviet atomic bomb, the Berlin airlift, and the Korean War. This article charts the narrow and carefully wrought trail blazed by the library’s leadership during that period. Through a reading of materials in the library archives, we see how political pressures were perceived and handled by library management and staff. We witness remarkable examples of brave defense of intellectual freedom alongside episodes of prudent equivocation. At the heart of the library’s situation stood the contradictions between the principled commitments of individual library leaders and the practical political considerations underlying the library’s viability. As a general rule, the New York Public Library did not hesitate to acquire materials considered subversive by pressure groups, but the library frequently struck a course that sought to avoid controversy when possible.