Copyright complicance in the electronic age: Conceptual issues

This article focuses on several conceptual and structural issues that are central to copyright compliance in the electronic age. It presumes the development of a national electronic network for storing, organizing, accessing, managing, and charging for information. The article first discusses the implications of constructing a comprehensive electronic “highway,” or Digital Library System (DLS), which would link information to the widespread community of users. It then presents the ramifications of a highly decentralized set of subsystems serving rights holders and users, linked by protocols established by the DLS. A discussion of the implications of digital interchangeability for copyright follows. The article ends with an analysis of alternatives to existing intellectual property rights conveyance systems, and concludes that current ownership structures, and systems for conveying rights and royalties, will remain the foundation for copyright in the electronic world. This article appeared in a slightly different form in theProceedings of the Twelfth National Online Meeting—1991, and is published here with the permission of Learned Information, Inc., Medford, N.J.     

Book reviews

Association of Research Libraries     

E-mail in government: Not post-bureaucratic but late-bureaucratic organizations

Empirical research provides evidence that electronic communication does not change government agencies into post-bureaucratic organizations. Structuration Theory is used to explore the interaction between e-mail use, communication patterns of civil servants, and two bureaucratic characteristics: formalization and hierarchy. Previous research suggested that the use of e-mail leads to less formalization and less hierarchy, but empirical research in three bureaucratic organizations in the Netherlands leads to different conclusions. First, the use of e-mail leads to informal formalization: the style of communication is more informal but the content focuses less on personal issues and emphasizes efficient recordings of agreements. Second, the use of e-mail leads to hierarchical horizontalization: horizontal contacts take a more central position in bureaucratic organizations but these horizontal contacts are tightly linked to vertical structures. The result of the interaction between e-mail and government bureaucracy is horizontal communication directly linked to vertical structures. Electronic communication turns government agencies into late-bureaucratic organizations.     

UnCover on the Web: search hints and applications in library environments

Among the huge maze of resources available on the Internet, UnCoverWeb stands out as a valuable tool for medical libraries. This up-to-date, free-access, multidisciplinary database of periodical references is searched through an easy-to-learn graphical user interface that is a welcome improvement over the telnet version. This article reviews the basic and advanced search techniques for UnCoverWeb, as well as providing information on the document delivery functions and table of contents alerting service called Reveal. UnCover's currency is evaluated and compared with other current awareness resources. System deficiencies are discussed, with the conclusion that although UnCoverWeb lacks the sophisticated features of many commercial database search services, it is nonetheless a useful addition to the repertoire of information sources available in a library.     

Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekte

Zusammenfassung. Information ist der wichtigste Grundbegriff der Informatik. Ein semantischer Ansatz erklärt Information als Bedeutung einer Nachricht für ihren Empfänger. Als Folge davon hängt der Informationsgehalt einer Datei, einer Datenbank, eines Buches oder eines Filmes von der Interpretation ab, die ein Nutzer vornehmen kann oder gerade vornimmt. Informationsmaße werden sowohl von der Lesbarkeit einer Nachricht als auch von der Qualität des Interpreten bestimmt. Information kann neu entstehen, verloren gehen oder verändert werden.CR Subject Classification: E.4, H.1     

The Motivations of Book Publishers in Germany and Australia: An Empirical Comparison

Our study compares the motivations of Australian and German book publishers. The results demonstrate remarkable similarities, but also a significant difference regarding the effects of the publishers’ self-concept. In the German case the publishers with a dominant economic orientation are more proactive than the publishers with a dominant cultural orientation. In the Australian case, this correlation does not exist. The same difference holds for the relationship between the economic orientation and extrinsic motivation. We discuss these results and examine empirical evidence and theoretical suggestions to explain the differing findings. The data stem from surveys conducted in the two countries with responses of 196 (Germany) and 54 publishers (Australia).     

Stepping stones in learning

This article is an analysis of data drawn from semi-structured, taperecorded interviews with five female primary school headteachers. The research focused on their perceptions of their management role. One significant and unexpected finding was that these women not only denied feeling stressed but were deriving immense satisfaction from their work. It is suggested that much of their enjoyment comes from the high degree of emotional intelligence they display in managing people, time and resources and which also partly accounts for their success and managerial confidence. The degree of power, control and choice which these women exercise in their work lends support to the claim that there is an emerging group of managers in primary education who may represent the ‘new women of power’.