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Cultivate Interactive Issue 2: Misc.

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Making your DIGICULT Web site Visually Appealing – An Introduction to using Graphics on the Web

By Marieke Napier - October 2000

The aim of this article is to allow those of you who are creating your own Web site, whether for a DIGICULT project or another initiative, to get familiar with computer graphics and how they work. Understanding graphics will teach you when and how to use certain formats, which will then allow you to create better images. Better images will make your Web site look slicker and bring more visitors back to your site. After all, it is a well known fact that we all prefer to look at things that are pleasant on the eye!

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A Quick Definition

Firstly let me explain that for the purpose of this article I will be using the words graphic and image synonymously. These words do have different meanings, but as these can vary depending on who is giving the definition is seems wiser to set our own interpretation. For this article an image or graphic is a picture that has been created or copied and stored in electronic form.

What are Graphics for?

'Old school' Internet users may say that graphics are unnecessary for the Web. However these are the type of people who would like us all to return to the days of DOS and command line interfaces! The rest of us can appreciate the value of displaying a map of how to get to your office, showing an organisation's logo, using screen dumps to demonstrate actions, publishing pictures of the people on the committee, giving a virtual tour of a building or using cartoons to liven up your magazine. This is not an excuse for us to all go clip art mad though. An image should only be employed on a page when it can proficiently convey meaning or contribute to the effectiveness of a page in some way.

Bitmap or Vector Graphics?

Before understanding how to use graphics it is worth getting to grips with what graphics consist of. Despite there being at least one hundred formats of images all available fall neatly into two categories:

1. Bitmap/Raster Images consist of rows and columns of equally sized dots called pixels. These image files store information about each individual pixel including its location and colour. The number of pixels in an image determines its quality, the more pixels there are the sharper the image is. This means that bitmapped graphics can become ragged when you shrink or enlarge them. Examples include MS Bitmap (BMP) and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF).

2. Vector files use geometrical formulas to represent images. Each file contains a description of the shapes and colours that make up the image. When opened the software converts the description to shapes and colours. Vector graphics are seen to be more flexible than bitmaps because they can be stretched and resized. Most output devices such as printers and monitors are raster devices but the vector image is not translated into a bitmap until the last possible moment after all sizes and resolutions have been specified. Vector-oriented images, because they are a representation of the image, tend to require less memory than bitmapped images. Examples include Windows Metafile Format (WMF) and Encapsulated PostScript (EPS).

Graphics Attributes

Each image file has certain attributes that define it.

  1. Dimension – This is the visual size of an image. It is measured using height by width e.g. 2" x 3" or 60 px x 100 px
  2. Resolution – This is the density of dots on an image. It is measures in dots/pixels per Inch (DPI). The higher DPI the better the image will look. The DPI of an image is decided on scanning. Most computer monitors can only display images at 72 DPI so it would be a waste to put an image on a Web page that is 150 DPI. However printers can normally produce at a higher DPI, usually form 300 – 600 DPI, so it may make sense if you are primarily interested in producing a good printed copy.
  3. Depth –The colour depth or bit resolution is the number of colours that are stored in a file. It can also be described as the amount of memory or Video RAM (VRAM) dedicated to each pixel. The more colours an image contains the bigger in size (memory) it is. The general rules are as follows:
    4 bit – each pixel can contain 16 colours
    8 bit - each pixel can contain 256 colours
    24 bit - each pixel can contain 16.77 million colours. This is also known as true colour and is almost of the same quality as photographic colour.

Colour Models

Red Green Blue (RGB) – All pixels are made up of red, green and blue phosphor dots. On a computer monitor electronic beams elicit light from the colours of this phosphorus This makes up the RGB system. Maximum brightness of a phosohor dot is 255 so pure red would be written as (255, 0, 0)

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black (CMYK) – CMYK is a common specification system often used on printers. A computer monitor can't display CMYK values.

Hue Saturation Brightness (HSB) – HSB is another specification system used on screen. Hue is a colour's position on the colour wheel and saturation is a measurement of how pure a colour is. Colours that are less pure become grey. Brightness is brightness.

One of the most comprehensive graphics guides freely available is the Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media Style Manual [1].

Image Editors

If you want to be able to develop or alter images you will need some graphics software. There are a large number available. Some are can be downloaded free off the Internet, some come free with other applications, others have to be bought. PC/Windows users can try Paintshop Pro [2], MS Photo Draw [3] and Adobe Photoshop [4]. Mac users have a wider selection to choose from including DeBabelizer Pro [5], Macromedia Fireworks [6], and Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator [7]. There are certain issues that need to be taken into consideration when choosing whether to use a Macintosh or PC to create images with. The Yale Style Guide deals with these in more depth [8].

In advance of talking about what Image editors can do it is worth mentioning that if you want to avoid tears later on you should always save a copy of your original graphics file in full-colour state before you start editing your image. This file should be in a large and adaptable format such as a photoshop file or TIFF.

There are several ways to create images from scratch. You could use one of the graphics programmes mentioned or, if you have one available, use a flatbed scanner to convert hardcopy images into digital form. It is also possible to copy or download images from the Internet by right clicking on them and selecting 'save picture as'. If you do this you should check out copyright issues and always credit the author of the image. Alternately you can purchase images from collections on the Web such as Corbis picture experience [9].

Although different graphics packages allow you to achieve different effects there is a standard number of editing actions that all should let you carry out. These include changing the physical size of your image, normally achieved by Image Resize, or Image Size. Resizing an image can have effects on both the quality and memory size of an image; because the number of pixels is fixed increasing the physical size of an image decreases its resolution, decreasing its size increases it's resolution. Changing the canvas size of an image does not change the actual dimensions of an image only the size of the background, this may create extra space or crop the image. Cropping an image to focus on a smaller area is normally achieved by selecting a certain area and cutting or entering. You may also want to adjust the colour of your image, this can be achieved in many ways such by adding filters, filling in colour areas, using the paintbrush or changing the colour mode. All scanned images are in Red Green Blue (RGB) colour mode by default. This mode is acceptable for all on screen graphics except GIFs, GIFs must be index mode. If you wish to add text to your image most image editors have a text facility. Text does not normally work well on JPEGs.

Figure 1: Toolbox showing standard 
graphics icons

Optimising your Graphics for the Web

When working on Web page graphics the number of formats available at your disposal decreases. While PowerPoint 97 [with filter] accepts 19 types of graphic format, Web pages only accept a few, only two of which are accepted on the majority of browsers. The GIF and JPEG have many similarities, for a start both are raster images. They are both cross-platform formats, allowing them to be viewed on Macs, PCs or Unix systems and both formats are built around a compression scheme that can greatly reduce file size. It is this compression element that has made these two formats the key players in Web graphics. Nobody likes to wait for anything these days, especially not large cumbersome graphics files.

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)

CompuServe designed the GIF in 1987 and it is the most widely supported format used on the Internet. All graphical browsers support it. It works best when used for line art and simple images such as logos because it only supports 8-bit colour. The GIF uses and stores a colour table or palette for each picture making it transportable. GIFs can be interlaced. This means that browsers that support interlaced files start by creating a low-resolution version of the image, which then sharpens up (see Figure 2). The interlaced GIF is not faster loading but works well at appeasing impatient users who are more willing to wait when they can see something appearing. GIFS can also be saved as transparent. This can have knock on effects though as usually one particular colour is specified as transparent and may be used in more than one place. Another effect available for use with GIFs is antialiasing. This evens out the jagged edges of a selection by softening the colour transition between the border pixels and background pixels.

Normal GIF Interlaced GIF
Image 1 Normal GIF                            Image 2 Interlaced GIF
Figure 2: Comparing Normal and Interlaced GIFs
(Once the images have been loaded up they will be cached so you may not be able to see this effect fully)

GIFs use Lempel Zev Welch (LZW) compression. LZW is a 'lossless compression' and squeezes out the inefficiencies in data storage without loosing data. This works best on images with large areas of similar colour. However colour fidelity is not usually preserved intact and images whose size has been altered are often reduced in quality. LZW is actually patented and officially royalties should be paid by Web developers however this rarely happens. The GIF format itself costs vendors like Netscape and Microsoft a fair amount of money because it is owned by Unisys who charge royalties. Recently different varieties of GIF have become available such as GIF87a and GIF89a. These will work in any Web browsers that support basic GIF file format.

ukolnlogo.gif 3K     ukolnlogo.jpg 19K
Image 1 ukolnlogo.gif 3K      Image 2 ukolnlogo.jpg 19K
Figure 3: Comparing Diagramatic Images

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)

JPEGs were developed as an alternative to GIFs for photographers, graphic designers, artists and others for whom quality is the foremost driver. Unlike GIFs JPEGs set no limit on the number of colours that can be used and so works best when used for natural, complex, high resolution images such as photographs. In contrast to the GIF the JPEG is bad for lettering and does not support transparency.

JPEGs are created by using a lossy compression algorithm which removes information to which the human eye is less sensitive. This information removal makes it a bad format for intermediate storage. For more information on compressing GIFs and JPEGs see Siegel's Creating killer Web sites site [10]. The progressive JPEG is the equivalent of the interlaced GIF however it is still relatively new and many image editor programmes do not support it yet. The official site for document distribution and discussion by the international JPEG groups is a useful resource for information on more recent developments [11].

girl.gif 50K girl.jpg 26K
Image 1 girl.gif 50K                     Image 2 girl.jpg 26K
Figure 1: Comparing Photographic Images

Portable Network Graphics (PNG)

The PNG was developed as a patent-free alternative to the GIF. Like the GIF the PNG is an extensible file format that uses lossless compression but with the added bonus that it supports truecolour. This means that it can be used by indexed-colour and grayscale images. It also uses an optional alpha channel for transparency. PNG also has an automatic correction facility for different monitor settings, this is known as Gamma and chromaticity correction. Unfortunately some older versions of Web browsers do not support PNG images.

Some Advice for using Web images

  1. When designing your page bear in mind that some people have their graphics turned off and others cannot see them. A graphic should compliment the textual content of Web page, not replace it. If you are using a background image make sure your page works well enough without it.
  2. Try to use images that are no more 40K in size to avoid making your users wait.
  3. If you want to use lots of graphics try repeating images. Web browsers cache images after downloading them.
  4. Remember your users browser size and minimize the dimensions so the width is no more than 472 pixels. Small is always better with Web graphics.
  5. Use interlaced GIFs to give the appearance of a faster loading page.
  6. Always specify width and height dimensions in image tags. This allows the browser to fill out the text blocks first, then "pour" the graphics files into the spaces allotted which lets the user start to read your page while the graphics are downloading.
  7. Do not use the width and height dimensions to resize your images. If you do this you will be loading up an image with a large file size into a small space as your browser rescales your image on the fly. Resize your images in an Image editor programme.
  8. Make sure all your image tags contain an alt tag for text to speech browsers.
  9. Test your graphics on Macs and PCs, they may display differently.
  10. Go out and be creative!

For more advice on creating, storing and delivering digital images you can visit the Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) Web site [12]. TASI is based at the University of Bristol and funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

The Future

With the continuing exponential growth of the WWW it is inevitable that in the future there will be more Web graphic formats and that these will carry more functionality. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) continue to push PNG format along with the Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG). SVG is a new vector graphics format that has been written in XML and is stylable with cascading style sheets (CSS). This means that styles can be applied within the image. SVG files are created using a Document Object Model (DOM) which allows a certain amount of animation via scripting. Event handlers such as onmouseover and onclick can be assigned to any SVG image. Another significant development is that text in the image can be searchable. SVG is currently in it's eighth Working Draft, and has entered a second last call phase for more information on SVGs have a look at the W3C [13] site or Janus Boye's article [14].

References

  1. Yale Style Manual, Yale University
    URL: <http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/contents.html> Link to external resource
  2. Paintshop Pro, JASC Software
    URL: <http://www.jasc.com/>
  3. Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 Version 2
    URL: <http://www.microsoft.com/office/photodraw/> Link to external resource
  4. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe
    URL: <http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html> Link to external resource
  5. Equilibrium DeBabelizer
    URL: <http://www.equilibrium.com/> Link to external resource
  6. Macromedia Fireworks
    URL: <http://www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/> Link to external resource
  7. Adobe Illustrator, Adobe
    URL: <http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/main.html> Link to external resource
  8. Optimizing graphics, Yale Style Guide
    URL: <http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/graphics/optimizing_graphics.html> Link to external resource
  9. Corbis picture experience
    URL: <http://search.corbis.com/> Link to external resource
  10. Siegel, D. (1996) Creating killer Web sites. Indianapolis: Hayden Books. Available online
    URL: <http://www.killersites.com/1-design/GIF_compress.html> Link to external resource
  11. Home site of the JPEG and JBIG committees
    URL: <http://www.jpeg.org/> Link to external resource
  12. Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) Web site
    URL: <http://www.tasi.ac.uk/> Link to external resource
  13. W3C Graphics, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/Graphics/> Link to external resource
  14. SVG Brings Fast Vector Graphics to Web, Janus Boye, Web review.com, Aug. 13, 1999
    URL <http://Webreview.com/pub/1999/08/13/feature/index4.html> Link to external resource

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Author Details

Marieke NapierMarieke Napier
Information Officer
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
England
BA2 7AY

m.napier@ukoln.ac.uk Link to an email address
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk> Link to external resource

Marieke Napier is editor of Exploit Interactive and Cultivate Interactive Web magazines.

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For citation purposes:
Napier, M. "Making your DIGICULT Web site Visually Appealing: An Introduction to using Graphics on the Web", Cultivate Interactive, issue 2, 16 October 2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/graphics/>

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The Creation of the Renaissance Library Calendar

By Gunnel Stjernvall - October 2000

The Renaissance Library Calendar 2001 will be produced for the first time this year. It has been created and designed specifically for information professionals and culture lovers but has a beauty that will appeal to many others as well. This article explains how the idea for the calendar initially came about and details the various contributors involved.

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The Concept of the Calendar

The Renaissance Library Calendar is unique and beautiful calendar aimed at information users, librarians, academics, book lovers and anyone else who has a love of antiquities and architecture.

The Renaissance Library Calendar 
2001 Front Cover
The Renaissance Library Calendar 2001 Front Cover

It consists of 12 photographs of beautiful old libraries that range in age from 160 to 500 years old. The libraries shown are a mixture of academic, monastic, public, professional and national libraries and this year come from 11 different European countries. The full list of the featured libraries, in the order they appear in the calendar, is given at the end of this article.

The idea for the calendar came from myself, Gunnel Stjernvall. I have always worked in the field of libraries and information. I currently run my own information consultancy, Information Strategy & Information Management (ISIM), which is based in the south of Sweden. I am and have been involved in various projects to modernise libraries and information services in corporate and public organisations.

In these days of high tech domination of the library and information world, and at the start of a new millennium, it's sometimes useful to get a reminder of how things used to be. So I came up with the idea of the calendar, which takes us back to the days of the first information revolution in which the printing press and libraries played such a big part.

I am also a strong believer in internationalising the outlook of my fellow professionals working in the information industry and saw the calendar as a way of putting that vision into a more tangible form.

The idea for the Renaissance Library Calendar came to me originally as a result of an unsuccessful visit to the library of Cusanus (Cusanusstift) at the St. Nikolaus Hospital, whilst on holiday in Bernkastel-Kues in the Mosel Valley in 1991. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see the library, because it was closed for repairs when I got there. But I did buy a postcard. The idea stayed with me, and so did the postcard. Whilst giving presentations to other information professionals while working in the high tech world of Ericsson Radio Systems in Stockholm I would use a picture of the Cusanus library as a backdrop to part of my presentation. It was clear that members of the audience were impressed too. I knew that there were plenty of other beautiful libraries around the World, which would be of interest to many librarians and information specialists.

It was during 1999 that I conceived the idea of bringing a selection of them together in a published form. So was born the concept of the Renaissance Library Calendar.

The Value of the Internet

Interestingly, although the concept was to remind people of the beauty of libraries built hundreds of years ago, the project has been made much easier through the availability of the Internet. In fact, I can say that I would not have been able to produce or market the calendar without the Internet.

I had a number of ideas for specific libraries to be included in the calendar but decided very early on to seek the help and advice of my professional colleagues. They were kind enough to share their ideas of what they thought were beautiful old libraries.

To accumulate their suggestions I simply contacted them on a couple of listservs and asked members to nominate libraries they had seen, which fitted the specification - beautiful and old.

I wasn't quite sure what sort of response, if any, to expect. But the request clearly struck a chord, because I was swamped with replies and suggestions. This response helped convince me that there would also be a demand for the calendar when it was produced. Many of the people who responded also made it quite clear that they would be very interested in buying such a calendar when it was available.

A period of research was then needed to establish that the nominated libraries did indeed meet the requirements. Again, the Internet made this a much easier process than it would otherwise have been. Many of the libraries had Web sites, where it was possible to check out the relevant details and obtain a sample picture. I used this as a vital tool in the selection process. The goal was to create a product that was 100% photogenic.

The third stage was to contact the nominated libraries to see whether they would agree to appear in the calendar. The use of email made this a much simpler task than it would otherwise have been.

Even though this was an opportunity to get free publicity and to feature as one of the most beautiful old libraries in the world, there was a mixed reception to the idea. Some libraries were very enthusiastic, but others were surprisingly reticent to give their permission.

At last there was a short list to work with, and then came the task of deciding on the final 12. I'm very pleased with the way the calendar looks. Everybody who has had a preview thinks it is very beautiful.

I am very grateful for all the contributions made by people who had nominated libraries for inclusion, and for the positive attitude taken by most of the libraries I contacted. We will be giving a free copy of the calendar to all those who nominated the libraries that were eventually selected for the calendar.

The Design of the Calendar

Final decisions have had to be made about the individual photographs to be used for each library based on the quality and whether copyright permission was easily obtainable.

The shape of the calendar was designed to:

Discussions were needed to compare printers and mailing houses, and there were numerous conversations with potential sponsoring organisations. Again, the availability of email

was a great help, and it was really important to be able to include some of the photographs in the email. Eventually it was decided to create a wall calendar, in A4 size, the library pictures will appear landscape.

The Renaissance Library Calendar was designed both as a B2B and a B2C product. It is available for any individual to buy, but it is also available for sponsors to buy in larger quantities, for example as a beautiful gift for their information customers.

September - The University Library, Salamanca,
Spain
September - The University Library, Salamanca, Spain

Conclusion

We have pre-sold several thousand copies of the calendar already, even though the Summer period has only just finished.

Although the first edition features libraries only from Europe, we have so far had the greatest response from the USA. But there has been a great deal of interest from all over the World. In fact, the interest has been so strong that we have already decided to make the calendar a regular annual publication.

We will also be considering a few other themes, and we plan to extend this concept into a range of attractive gift ideas, which will be aimed specifically at the information industry. The helpful suggestions and comments from professional information colleagues have been invaluable, and we are very grateful to the individual libraries which feature in the calendar.

If you wish to learn more about the calendar you can visit the Web site [1].

The Libraries Featured in the Calendar

Here's a list of the libraries that will feature in the calendar, shown in the order in which they will appear:

January
The Abbey Library, St. Gallen, Switzerland
February
Joanina Library, General Library of the University of Coimbra, Portugal
March
Marsh's Library, Dublin, Ireland
April
Vatican Library, Vatican State
May
The Abbey Library, Waldsassen, Germany
June
Duke Humfrey's Library, Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
July
The Marciana National Library, Venice, Italy
August
The National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia
September
The University Library, Salamanca, Spain
October
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Library, Edinburgh, Scotland
November
Helsinki University Library, Helsinki, Finland
December
The Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, England

References

1. The Renaissance Library Calendar 2001 ISIM Web site
URL: <http://www.isim.org/> Link to external resource

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Author Details

Gunnel Stjernvall
Director
ISIM
Stora Vastergatan 45,
SE-271 35 Ystad, Sweden

gunnel.stjernvall@isim.org Link to external resource

Phone: +46 411 121 70
Fax: +46 411 121 10

Gunnel Stjernvall has worked in the information profession for 30 years. She currently owns and runs her own information consultancy, ISIM (Information Strategy and Information Management). She is based in Ystad in the South of Sweden.

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For citation purposes:
Stjernvall, G. "The Creation of the Renaissance Library Calendar", Cultivate Interactive, issue 2, 16 October 2000
URL: <http://www.Cultivate-int.org/issue2/calendar/>

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Book Review: The Student's Guide to the Internet
By Ian Winship and Alison McNab

By Pete Cliff - October 2000

A third edition of The Student's Guide to the Internet has just hit the shops [1]. The guide, written specifically for university and college students, fully updates and expands on the previous edition. UKOLN's Pete Cliff reviews.

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The Student's Guide to the Internet has been around since 1996 and has received (judging by the quotations on the frontispiece) critical acclaim since its inception. Now in its third edition, does it still stand up to the test of an increasingly Net savvy student audience? We shall see.

The Student's Guide to the InternetThere are three things that make this book unique amongst the muddle of Internet literature. It has a British bias, is targeted specifically at students, and is realistic. This doesn't mean that Web sites are restricted to UK domains, though many of the recommendations are, but rather that the sites are selected with UK students in mind. Further, the book does not glorify the Web, but rather recognises it as a potential source of information. This is a refreshing angle to take.

The book begins, sensibly enough, with an introduction to the Internet, including a background, and what it might mean to the studious. The style is clear and precise, perhaps a little dry, and pitched at the right level for those with an interest in simply using the Internet as an academic resource.

The book continues with an overview of Internet technologies like e-mail, Usenet, telnet, FTP, etc. and is again pitched at an intelligent, but non-technical audience.

The largest portion of the book is taken up listing and describing a number of URLs from academic subscription services such as those at MIMAS [2] and EDINA [3], freely available 'commercial sites', like newspapers, to Subject Gateways and subject based resource guides. Links are not limited to traditional 'text based' services though, and the book emphasises the multimedia aspect of the Web with sections on image archives and sounds.

Many of the URLs are listed by 'type' rather than subject. For instance the EDINA services are listed alphabetically. While this generalist approach can make clear the diverse nature of Internet resources, it can sometimes make it hard to locate the URLs pertinent to a particular research area.

The final chapters consist of an essential discussion on search engine techniques, a taste of HTML, some recommendations on how to cite online resources, and some pointers of where to go next.

Interspersing URLs with text can be confusing and interrupt the flow of the otherwise interesting discussion. Perhaps this book would be better in two parts: The discursive prose followed by a separate URL catalogue?

The Student's Guide to the Internet manages to squeeze a broad coverage in its one hundred plus pages but in doing so perhaps covers too much. The chapter on self publication with HTML omits the basics of the structure of a HTML document, ignoring fundamentals like the <HTML> and <HEAD> tags. Other sections, like those on essential net skills, stop short of technical detail. That said, wherever the book stops there is always a relevant and useful URL if the reader wishes to know more.

We began by asking if The Student's Guide to the Internet could cut it in a Net savvy world and I am pleased to say it probably does. It may be that it lacks the technical detail for some, but by avoiding being overly technical while keeping at an intelligent level, it gets the balance just right. It works well as a springboard into the world of the Internet.

Just remember, not everything you read out there is worth including in an essay...

References

  1. Winship, I. & McNabb, A. (2000) The Student's Guide to the Internet 2000-2001, Library Association Publishing, August 2000.
    ISBN: 1 85604 381 9 - Cost: £8.50
    Available from bookshops or Bookpoint (01235 400 400)
  2. MIMAS
    URL: <http://www.mimas.ac.uk > Link to external resource
  3. EDINA
    URL: <http://edina.ed.ac.uk/> Link to external resource

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Author Details

UKOLN logoPete Cliff
Systems Developer, The Resource Discovery Network
UKOLN
University of Bath
BATH
BA2 7AY
United Kingdom

Phone: +44 1225 323218

p.d.cliff@ukoln.ac.uk Link to an email address
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/> Link to external resource

Pete Cliff is employed as Resource Discovery Network Link to external resource Systems Developer at UKOLN Link to external resource (the UK Office for Library and Information Networking).

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For citation purposes:
Cliff, P. "Book Review: The Student's Guide to the Internet", Cultivate Interactive, issue 2, 16 October 2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/review/>

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Cultivate Interactive Competition - Spot the European City

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Time again for a bit of light relief with the Cultivate Interactive Competition.

Below are two sets of four pictures. Each set of four represents a different European city. All you have to do is decide which cities are being shown.

City 1

City 2

The answers should be sent to cultivate-editor@ukoln.ac.uk Link to an email address before the closing date of 18th December 2000. Names will be drawn out of a hat and the winner will receive a book token. Good Luck!!

Issue 1 Winner

The winner from issue 1 was Christopher Chapman from Salford who correctly guessed both cities. A book token should have reached you by now.

The answers were:

Sorry to all of you who thought Paris was the answer to city 2!! Surely the Eiffel tower would have been in there somewhere if it was!

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Cultivate Interactive Issue 2: Jobs Section

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Position?: Public Record Office, London
Company?: JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
Closing Date?: December 2000

For R&D activities in the fields of:

we are offering job opportunities for young researchers. You should have knowledge of or interest in:

Some prior experience in computer graphics, image processing and enthusiasm for graphical design and video production are welcome.

We offer an attractive team oriented environment with a modern infrastructure and flexible working times. In our projects you will be challenged to solve interesting research tasks together with international partners, using the latest technologies. Our internal training programme will assist you in your personal career.

If you want to apply, please contact:

JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
Institut of Information Systems & Information Management
Dipl.-Ing. Werner Haas
Steyrergasse 17, A-8010 Graz, AUSTRIA

werner.haas@joanneum.ac.at Link to an email address
<http://www.joanneum.ac.at/iis> Link to external resource
Phone: +43 316 876 -1119
Fax: +43 316 876 -1191

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Cultivate Interactive Issue 2: Links Section

Who is linking to Cultivate Interactive Web magazine?

In this new section we will review some of the sites that have chosen to link to us. If you would like to be mentioned in the next issue then please Contact Us.

If you would like to see how many sites are linking to Cultivate Interactive have a look at Link Popularity Link to external resource

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Web Site Name?: Tietolinja News, Helsinki University Library
URL?: <http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/tietolinja/> Link to external resource
Description?: Tietolinja News is the Electronic Newsletter of Helsinki University Library. The mission of Tietolinja is to serve as an information channel to the research library world in Finland.

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Web Site Name?: El.pub
URL?: <http://inf2.pira.co.uk/> Link to external resource
Description?: The Information Engineering web site, El.pub, is a focus for information about R&D in large scale electronic publishing and Internet broadcasting. The idea that the creation and circulation of information content requires engineering skills is new, but the explosive expansion of the Internet and the growing digitisation of all forms of information is generating a need for agreement on "best practice" guidelines and standards.

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Web Site Name?: Academic Info
URL?: <http://www.academicinfo.net/> Link to external resource
Description?: Academic Info is an annotated subject directory of Internet sites tailored towards a university or college audience. In addition to subject indexes, the site includes a Placement Center, Reference Desk, and Student Center.

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Web Site Name?: ADLIB Information Systems
URL?: <http://www.uk.adlibsoft.com/news/> Link to external resource
Description?: ADLIB is an independent, employee-owned company, dedicated to the development, implementation and support of ADLIB and application systems derived from ADLIB. In addition to supplying 'off-the-shelf' packages for libraries and museums they develop bespoke applications, based on the ADLIB toolkit. Examples include archive and records management systems; document management and control systems; membership systems and image database applications.

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