China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has signed a contract with a US-funded venture to construct a Chinese Internet -- dubbed Chinanet, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Under the agreement signed on November 5, "Chinanet" is to be completed by June 1996 when it will be one of the world's largest and most advanced Internets, expanding access to existing operations and offering automatic national roaming for domestic clients, the agency said.
It is to be constructed by the MPT and CTC Communications Development Co., a US-funded computer networking enterprise affiliated with the Ministry and the Asiainfo Computer Network Inc.
Xinhua said Internet had been well received since being introduced to China two years ago, prompting the MPT to meet growing demand by establishing the Chinanet, which will cover the country's 30 provinces with 31 nodes on the backbone providing long-distance and high-speed Internet services.
Chinanet, with three highspeed international links connecting to the other parts of the world, is expected to solve the congestion between Chinese users and overseas networks, an MPT official was quoted as saying.
Between March and July, the number of computers in China linked up to the Internet jumped from 400 to 6,000.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Wednesday, 15 November 1995)
First ACM International Conference on Digital Libraries
ACM Digital Libraries '96 is an international conference devoted to advancing the state-of-the-art in digital libraries. The ACM DL series continues the sequence of Texas conference: DL'94 in College Station and DL'95 in Austin, Texas. The leaders of those events are helping with DL'96 organization and program efforts. The meeting will be co-located with Hypertext '96 in 1996 and with ACM SIGIR '97 the following year. DL '96 will immediately follow Hypertext '96 at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, Maryland. The site is located near the Washington, D.C. Metro and provides easy access to the many attractions in the Baltimore-Washington area.
The DL series is sponsored by ACM. Cooperating sponsors include: ASIS (American Society for Information Science), CNI (Coalition for Networked Information), IEEE CS (IEEE Computer Society), KSI (Knowledge Systems Inc.), LITA (Library and Information Technology Association), LoC (Library of Congress), NAL (National Agricultural Library), NLM (National Library of Medicine), SLA (Special Libraries Association).
The Conference will include approximately 20 research papers, several panels, two keynote addresses, posters, and three sessions devoted to the working groups of the Digital Library Forum. Short tutorials will be offered on Wednesday, March 20 and post-conference workshops will be held on Saturday, March 23. Conference attendees will receive the Conference Proceedings published by ACM Press
Topics include:
(Source: lis-fid@mailbase. ac.uk at INTERNET)
48th FID Conference and Congress to be held in Graz, Austria from 21-25 October 1996
The International Federation for Information and Documentation is pleased to announced that the dates for the 1996 Conference and Congress have been set for 21-25 October 1996.
The Congresses of the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) are held every two years. They constitute the most important international forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences on recent advances in the field. The 48th FID Conference and Congress will celebrate the closure of the 100th Anniversary celebrations of FID and will be the major forum for information professionals from around the globe.
Main Theme of the Conference:
GLOBALIZATION OF INFORMATION: THE NETWORKING INFORMATION SOCIETY
Subthemes and tracks:
Track 1: Innovative technologies and their applications in today's globally networked information society.
Track 2: Information & communication modeling.
Track 3: The role of information professionals in a globally networked society. Track 4: Business and industrial information in a globally networked society. Track 5: The impact of the networked information society.
The conference and congress will include these track sessions, an exhibition, the general assembly of FID and business meetings of committees and special interest groups.
The meeting will be co-organized by FID and the Austrian Documentation Society (OEGDI) - the National Member for FID in Austria - and Joanneum Research, the second largest independent research organization in Austria.
A test WWW Homepage has been set up where the latest news on the conference will be available URL: http:\\ima023.joanneum.ac. at/fid.htm
(Source: lis-fid@mailbase. ac.uk at INTERNET)
GLOBAL COMPLEXITY: INFORMATION, CHAOS AND CONTROL ASIS 1996 Annual
Meeting October 21-26 1996 Baltimore, Maryland
The ASIS 1996 Annual Meeting will consider the complexity of the working world of information professionals as well as theoretical perspectives involving the nature and use of information. Topics to be addressed will include:
Social implications of complex information systems: When anyone with a file server on the Internet can look a multinational conglomerate, will Davids slay Goliaths? What will promote innovation, and how will it be recognized? Who will own what, and how can information producers protect themselves? Will traditionally underserved groups find access to complex information resources?
To submit a contributed paper, send an intent consisting of the title and a 250 word abstract with complete addresses of author(s) to the Contributed Papers Coordinator, Linda C. Smith, at the address below by December 15, 1995. Preliminary approval will be made by January 15, 1996. Three copies of the complete paper will be due on February 15, 1996. Notification of acceptance will be made no later than April 1, 1996, and camera-ready copy for the Proceedings will be due June 1, 1996.
(Source: <<nettain@ubvm. cc.buffalo.edu>> at INTERNET)
Internet Who's Who Guide
The National Internet Directory is a quarterly publication of Internet related companies. The Directory includes advertising from many organizations offering FreeNet Access, WWW Sites, FTP Sites, Telnet Access, Usenet Groups and much more information and services. Within the Directory is a listing of all USENET groups plus hundreds of BBS numbers from all over the USA. The directory is free for all to download from our BBS and is also available on most major online services in the country. It is distributed electronically.
Starting in January of 1996, DJSA Bulletin Board, Inc. will be releasing an annual WHO's WHO GUIDE. The guide will be in alphabetical order and will contain single listings of Internet related companies. The listings are FREE. To get a FREE listing included just send your FIVE LINE ascil listing to -- director@ djsa.com - (in the following format)
1st line name of company
2nd line e-mail address
3rd line www site address
4th line modem online <R>telephone number
5th line type of service.
If you have questions, you can e-mail djsabbs@djsa.com.
(Source: lis-fid@mailbase. ac.uk at INTERNET)
Course: Bibliographic information on development at the Institute of Development Studies,
Brighton, United Kingdom, 22 July - 16 August 1996
This four week study seminar is for professional library/information personnel from developing countries and institutions involved in development who deal with the management and administration of bibliographic information services. It is intended to help strengthen library/biliographic information science in developing countries and to assist in improving services and systems in relation to user needs. The seminar demonstrates just how important biliographic information is to development.
It aims at giving practical training on information systems for libraries based on micro CDS/ISIS with demonstrations of other systems for comparative purposes. Participants should, during the seminar, become more aware of the value of bibliographic information and the importance of its use.
The course will be structured along the following lines although IDS reserves the right to change the structure especially in response to users' feedback.
During the initial session Who We Are and What We Do, participants get to know the IDS, its Information Resource Unit staff and facilities. In addition participants also get to know each other and describe their own jobs, organizations, libraries and information systems/services. The session on Information Problems and Solutions looks at problems peculiar to bibliographic information, and to developing countries in particular, and some of the possible solutions using modern technology. This gives participants the opportunity to identify problems in their own library environment and, in conjunction with others, try to formulate solutions.
Nearly two weeks is devoted to the Use of Micro CDS/ISIS. The systems on which participants practise are available outside seminar hours.
Use of Computer-Based Systems introduces a range of alternatives to MINISIS and micro CDS/ISIS. Some are demonstrated and tours of the libraries in which they are working are included. Within this context, the use of external databases, CD-ROMs and networking are covered. The aim of this session is to give an indication of the large number of systems available in the bibliographic environment.
The final session covers Library Management including training, management of time, communications and resource management as well as donors' assistance to information activity in the Third World.
The seminar is designed as training for practising librarians in development fields. It is particularly useful for staff from multi-disciplined social science organizations. The course is limited to 20 participants. It is expected that most of the applicants will come from the Third World, and as wide as possible geographical spread is hoped for. However, the Seminar Director reserves the right of final selection.
Funding
i. You are strongly advised to seek funding as early as possible.
ii. Developing country applicants seeking British Government Technical Cooperation awards should approach their government department responsible for external technical cooperation; these awards are usually administered by the British Council on behalf of the Overseas Development Administration. British Council Fellowships may also be available. For Foreign and Commonwealth Office scholarships, approach the British Embassy or High Commission.
iii. Alternatively, applicants may apply for scholarships from United Nations agencies (e.g. UNDP; UNICEF); or funding bodies such as the Ford Foundation. Make enquiries direct to the organization concerned, through the local representative.
iv. Candidates from ACP countries may apply for EDF (European Development Fund) awards, all applications must be endorsed by the national authorities concerned. Obtain further information from the local European Commission Delegation.
v. Unfortunately IDS cannot fund participants.
Further information on IDS courses is available from: Teaching and Training Unit, Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9RE, United Kingdom Tel: (01273) 606261; Fax: (01273) 621202/691647; Telex: 877997 IDSBTN G; Email: j.grant@sussex.ac.uk
(Source: lis-fid@mailbase. ac.uk at INTERNET)
Desktop-recordable CD-ROM solution
With CD-Write Now, you can record your own CD-ROM discs, storing 650 MB of data on each disc. Multisession support lets you write to the disc incrementally, performing up to 99 writing sessions on each CD-ROM. An optional recording-simulation mode enables you to test applications by simulating CD performance without actually writing to a disc. The basic package ($2,495) includes a double-speed drive (a quad-speed drive is also available), authoring software for Windows or the Macintosh, and two discs.
Contact: Ten X Technology, Austin, TX, U.S.A., (800) 922-9050
(Source: Byte, October 1995)
Push a button to digitize paper
An input device that acts as the electronic equivalent of an inbox for your PC, PageOffice manages the input of documents and images with a direct link to E-mail, OCR, image-editing, faxing, and document management applications. After importing the designated text or graphics into your computer, it automatically activates the appropriate application and processes the document into digital form. The PageOffice engine can scan entries at up to 300 dpi; the proprietary PageManager software comprises integrated drag-and-drop modules and icons that work with the hardware for integrated processing. PageOffice costs $499.
(Source: Byte, March 1995)
Lightweight CD-ROM drive
A protable CD-ROM drive that weighs less than a pound, the Panasonic KXL-D720 ($399) connects to your notebook via the provided Type II PCMCIA card or your PC's SCSI-2 connection. The Panasonic drive has a 300-KBps transfer rate, a 250-ms access speed, and a 128-KB memory buffer. The unit operates on six AA batteries and provides up to 2 hours of data and 4 hours of audio.
(Source: Byte, March 1995)