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Dynix Institute - Word to the Wise Archive

The Dynix Institute Word to the Wise is a list of library technology words to help you stay up to date on the latest technology buzzwords surrounding the library industry.

The list below is the Word to the Wise archive sent out via the Word to the Wise newsletter. Sign up to receive the new Word to the Wise in your e-mail inbox every week. Visit the Dynix E-mail Subscription Center to subscribe to Word to the Wise.



OPEN SOURCE

(1)Generically, open source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge, i.e., open. Open source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon the code and share the changes within the community.

(2)A certification standard issued by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) that indicates that the source code of a computer program is made available free of charge to the general public. The concept relies on peer review to find and eliminate bugs in the program code. Programmers on the Internet read, redistribute and modify the source code, forcing an expedient evolution of the product.

OSI dictates that in order to be considered "OSI Certified" a product must meet the following criteria:
  • The author or holder of the license of the source code cannot collect royalties on the distribution of the program.
  • The distributed program must make the source code accessible to the user
  • The author must allow modifications and derivations of the work under the program's original name
  • No person, group or field of endeavor can be denied access to the program
  • The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution
  • The licensed software cannot place restrictions on other software that is distributed with it.

For more information on OPEN SOURCE, we suggest:

http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition_plain.php



CLEAN ROOM

A work area in which the air quality, temperature and humidity are highly regulated in order to protect sensitive equipment from contamination. Clean rooms are important features in the production of silicon chips, hard disk drives and other technologies such as satellites. The air in a clean room is repeatedly filtered to remove dust particles and other impurities that can damage the production of highly sensitive technologies.

The measure of the air quality of a clean room is described in Federal Standard 209. Clean rooms are rated as "Class 10,000," where there exists no more than 10,000 particles larger than 0.5 microns in any given cubic foot of air; "Class 1000," where there exists no more than 1000 particles; and "Class 100," where there exists no more than 100 particles. Hard disk drive fabrication requires a Class 100 clean room.

People who work in clean rooms must wear special protective clothing called "bunny suits" that do not give off lint particles and prevent human skin and hair particles from entering the room's atmosphere.

For more information on CLEAN ROOM, we suggest:

http://www.intel.com/education/cleanroom/

http://www.intel.com/education/cleanroom/index2.htm




Unique Visitor

When tracking the amount of traffic on a Web site, it refers to a person who visits a Web site more than once within a specified period of time. Software that tracks and counts Web site traffic can distinguish between visitors who only visit the site once and unique visitors who return to the site.

Different from a site's hits or page views—which are measured by the number of files that are requested from a site—unique visitors are measured according to their unique IP addresses, which are like online fingerprints, and unique visitors are counted only once no matter how many times they visit the site. There are some ISPs that use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, such as AOL and cable modem providers, which use different IPs for every file requested, making one visitor look like many. In this case, a single IP address does not indicate a unique visitor.

For more information on Unique Visitor, we suggest:

http://www.dynix.com/institute/seminar/index.asp?sem=0322058

http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/analyze_data/article.php/3492951




Kiosk Browser

A kiosk browser is a more secure and customizable Internet web browser. Kiosk browsers are of use to public Internet access sites such as schools, libraries, or even retail stores and Internet cafes. The kiosk browser easily allows an administrator to configure restricted access Web sites, limit or disallow file downloads, customize the toolbar with company logos, and or provide other additional features.

Many kiosk browsers also allow you to deny access to the desktop of a public computer, and include an integrated e-mail client. For Internet cafes and other pay-per-usage terminals, a kiosk browser may also include a time logger that will automatically limit the amount of time a user can spend online, determined by the amount they have pre-paid to use the system.

For more information on Kiosk Browser, we suggest:

http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/pro/phoenix/kiosk.htm




LSTA

The Library Services and Technology Act is a part of the Museum and Library Services Act, last authorized in 1996. The LSTA provides federal funding for libraries in several areas, including technology, interlibrary cooperation, and literacy. The act also provides significant funding for state library agencies.

For more information on LSTA, we suggest:

http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/federallibprog/lsta/lstahst.htm

http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/federallibprog/lsta/lsta03.pdf

http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/federallibprog/lsta/lstatalkpoints.pdf




RAID

Short for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, a category of disk drives that employ two or more drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are used frequently on servers but aren't generally necessary for personal computers.

For more information on RAID, we suggest:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/RAID.html

http://linas.org/linux/raid.html

http://www.acnc.com/04_00.html




PHP

Self-referentially short for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", an open source, server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. In an HTML document, PHP script (similar syntax to that of Perl or C ) is enclosed within special PHP tags. Because PHP is embedded within tags, the author can jump between HTML and PHP (similar to ASP and Cold Fusion) instead of having to rely on heavy amounts of code to output HTML. And, because PHP is executed on the server, the client cannot view the PHP code.

For more information on PHP, we suggest:

http://www.php.net/

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/PHP.html

http://www.phpbuilder.com/




Portlet

A portlet is a Web-based component that will process requests and generate dynamic content. The end-user would essentially see a portlet as being a specialized content area within a Web page that occupies a small window in the portal page. Depending on the content nature of the Web site providing the portlet you could use this area to receive different types of information such as travel information, business news, or even local weather. The portlet provides users with the capability to customize the content, appearance and position of the portlet.

To create a portlet application, you should be a J2EE developer with a background in JavaServer Pages (JSP), JavaScript and HTML, and have a knowledge of Enterprise Java Beans.

For more information on Portlet, we suggest:

http://www.jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/review/jsr168/

http://www.jroller.com/page/portletfaqs




RSS

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New" for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and many more). RSS solves myriad problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic and gathering and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution services.

For more information on RSS, we suggest:

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/




EDIFACT (ISO 9735)

Electronic data interchange (EDI) refers to any electronic commerce standard that defines a protocol for exchange of business data between software applications. EDIFACT (EDI for Administration, Commerce, and Transport) is the international standard for EDI.

For more information on EDIFACT, we suggest:

http://www.nls.fi/ptk/standardisation/2.html

http://www.unece.org/trade/untdid/download/r1242.doc

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueListPage.CatalogueList?COMMID=3827&scopelist=




EDI

Short for Electronic Data Interchange, the transfer of data between different companies using networks, such as the Internet. As more and more companies get connected to the Internet, EDI is becoming increasingly important as an easy mechanism for companies to buy, sell, and trade information. ANSI has approved a set of EDI standards known as the X12 standards.

For more information on EDI, we suggest:

http://www.x12.org/x12org/about/faqs.cfm#a1

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/EDIIntro.html




WEP

Short for Wired Equivalent Privacy, WEP is a security protocol for wireless local area networks defined in the 802.11b standard. WEP is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired LAN. LANs are inherently more secure than WLANs because LANs are somewhat protected by the physicalities of their structure, having some or all part of the network inside a building that can be protected from unauthorized access. WLANs, which are over radio waves, do not have the same physical structure and therefore are more vulnerable to tampering. WEP aims to provide security by encrypting data over radio waves so that it is protected as it is transmitted from one end point to another. However, it has been found that WEP is not as secure as once believed. WEP is used at the two lowest layers of the OSI model - the data link and physical layers; it therefore does not offer end-to-end security.


For more information on WEP, we suggest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEP
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1368661
http://developer.intel.com/technology/itj/q22000/articles/art_5.htm



Kernel

The essential center of a computer operating system, the core that provides basic services for all other parts of the operating system. A synonym is nucleus. A kernel can be contrasted with a shell, the outermost part of an operating system that interacts with user commands. Because the code that makes up the kernel is needed continuously, it is usually loaded into computer storage in an area that is protected so that it will not be overlaid with other less frequently used parts of the operating system.


For more information on Kernels, we suggest:

http://www.kernelnewbies.org/
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/k/kernel.html
http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~jansen/courses/unix_adm/study-guide/chap20/index.html



ISO

The International Standards Organization is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 100 countries, one from each country. Among the standards it fosters is Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), a universal reference model for communication protocols. Many countries have national standards organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) that participate in and contribute to ISO standards.


For more information on ISO, we suggest:

http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage



Fair Use

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered "fair," such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:
  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
  2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
  3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

For more information on Fair Use, we suggest:

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm



802.11

A family of specifications developed by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for wireless LAN technology. 802.11 specifies an over-the-air interface between a wireless client and a base station or between two wireless clients.


For more information on 802.11, we suggest:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/8/802_11.html
http://www.computer.org/students/looking/summer97/ieee802.htm
http://wifinetnews.com/



Z39.50

A standard communications protocol for the search and retrieval of bibliographic data in online databases. Z39.50 is used on the Internet to search the Online Public Access Catalogs (OPAC) of library holdings. It is also sometimes used to link disparate OPACs into a single "union" OPAC. Z39.50 is an American National Standards Institute and National Information Standards Agency (ANSI/NISO) standard.


For more information on Z39.50, we suggest:

http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/
http://www.niso.org/z39.50/z3950.html
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april97/04lynch.html



WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)

The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) commitment to lead the Web to its full potential includes promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. WAI, in coordination with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.


For more information on WAI, we suggest:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/



Kerberos

The Internet is an insecure place. Many of the protocols used in the Internet do not provide any security. Tools to "sniff" passwords off of the network are in common use by malicious hackers. Thus, applications which send an unencrypted password over the network are extremely vulnerable. Worse yet, other client/server applications rely on the client program to be "honest" about the identity of the user who is using it. Other applications rely on the client to restrict its activities to those which it is allowed to do, with no other enforcement by the server.

Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kerberos is a network authentication protocol designed to provide strong authentication for client/server applications by using secret-key cryptography. Kerberos is available from MIT and is found in an increasing number of commercial products, including upcoming releases of the Horizon Information Management System.


For more information on Kerberos, we suggest:

http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www/
http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/CCS/people/kenh/kerberos-faq.html
http://www.isi.edu/gost/brian/security/kerberos.html



W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

An industry consortium that seeks to promote standards for the evolution of the Web and interoperability between Web-based products by producing specifications and reference software. Although W3C is funded by industrial members, it is vendor-neutral, and its products are openly available to all.


For more information on W3C, we suggest:

http://www.w3.org/



Web Services

A W3C Internet standard that supports application-to-application communication over the Internet. Web Services are computing services offered through the Web that are accessible from any Web Service-enabled machine with Internet access. Web Services enable interoperability through a set of XML-based open standards. Organizations use the XML-based Web Services Description Language (WSDL) to describe their Web Services on the Internet and list them in an XML-based registry using the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) protocol. UDDI allows an application to find publicly available Web Services. A client sends a service request to the registry, which informs the client about the registered services that meet the criteria of the request. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is then used to communicate (using HTTP and XML as the exchange mechanism) between the applications running on different platforms.


For more information on Web Services, we suggest:

http://www.w3c.org/2002/ws/
http://www.w3c.org/2002/ws/desc/
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1634162,00.asp



NISO (National Information Standards Organization)

Accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), NISO is a non-profit association whose purpose is to identify, develop, maintain, and publish technical standards for managing information in a changing and increasingly digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to a full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation.


For more information on NISO, we suggest:

http://www.niso.org/
http://www.niso.org/standards/index.html
http://www.niso.org/committees/index.html



BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications)

BISAC is the main standards forum of the Book Industry Study Group, a North American organization that developed record syntaxes for the electronic ordering of books and other monographs.

BISAC standards allow purchase orders, invoices, and packing slips to be completely readable by any computer used by any bookseller using Electronic Data Interchange.


For more information on BISAC, we suggest:

http://www.bisg.org/bisac/





DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. It provides a framework for managing intellectual content, linking customers with content suppliers, facilitating e-commerce, and enabling automated copyright management for all types of media. Using DOIs makes managing intellectual property in a networked environment much easier and more convenient, allowing the construction of automated services and transactions for e-commerce.


For more information on the Digital Object Identifiers, we suggest:

http://www.doi.org/

http://www.doi.org/tools.html

http://www.arl.org/newsltr/194/arms.html

http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/doi.html



BATH Profile

The Bath Profile is an ISO Internationally Registered Profile (IRP) of the Z39.50 Information Retrieval Protocol, intended as a basis for effective interoperability between library and cross-domain applications. Conformance to this profile's specifications will improve international or extranational search and retrieval among library catalogs, union catalogs, and other electronic resource discovery services worldwide.

The Bath Profile is comprised of those features of the Z39.50 standard that are required to allow effective use of Z39.50 software in a range of library applications, including:
  • Search and retrieval of bibliographic data from library catalogs
  • Transfer of holdings information
  • Cross-domain searches between libraries, museums, and archives
  • Search and retrieval of authority records from online catalogs
  • Updating union catalogs
  • Item ordering
  • Document delivery
This profile is the result of an ongoing process of international collaboration, and builds upon existing work in Europe, North America, and Australia. Initial development of the profile was undertaken with financial assistance from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

The National Library of Canada (NLC) is the maintenance agency for the profile and assumes overall responsibility for its development. NLC serves as editor of the profile. The Bath Profile Developer Group serves in an advisory capacity to the Editor. The profile will evolve in response to application needs and requirements of the international library communities and implementors of the Bath Profile.


For more information on The Bath Profile, we suggest:

"The Bath Profile - An International Z39.50 Specification for Library Applications and Resource Discovery": http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/bath/

"The Bath Profile" by National Library of Canada: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/bath/ap-bath-e.htm

"The Bath Profile - Release 2": http://www.collectionscanada.ca/bath/tp-bath2.1-e.htm



NACO (Name Authority Program Component)

The Name Authority Program Component (NACO) of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). Through this program, participants contribute authority records for names, uniform titles, and series to the national authority file. An individual institution may join this program, or a group of libraries with a common interest may form a funnel project to contribute records via a coordinator. Participants agree to follow a common set of standards and guidelines when creating or changing authority records in order to maintain the integrity of a large shared authority file.


For more information on NACO, we suggest:

Library of Congress - "NACO, The name authority program component of the PCC": http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/nacopara.html



Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is a project to create a digital "library card catalog" for the Web. Dublin Core is made up of 15 metadata elements that offer expanded cataloging information and improved document indexing for search engine programs.

While the Dublin Core targets electronic resources, it aims to be flexible enough to help in searches for more traditional formats of data, too. Web sites, however, are the most common users of Dublin Core.

The original workshop for the Initiative was held in Dublin, Ohio, in 1995. Hence the term "Dublin Core" in the name of the Initiative. Since that time there have been a total of nine workshops held in England, Australia, Finland, Germany, Canada, Japan and the United States.

The 15 metadata elements used by Dublin Core are:
  1. Title - the name given the resource
  2. Creator - the person or organization responsible for the content
  3. Subject - the topic covered
  4. Description - a textual outline of the content
  5. Publisher - those responsible for making the resource available
  6. Contributor - those who added to the content
  7. Date - when the resource was made available
  8. Type - a category for the content
  9. Format - how the resource is presented
  10. Identifier - numerical identifier for the content such as a URL
  11. Source - where the content originally derived from
  12. Language - in what language the content is written
  13. Relation - how the content relates to other resources, for instance, if it is a chapter in a book
  14. Coverage - where the resource is physically located
  15. Rights - a link to a copyright notice

For more information on Dublin Core, we suggest:

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Website: http://www.dublincore.org

"Using Dublin Core - The Elements": http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/elements.shtml

"A Grammar of Dublin Core", D-Lib Magazine: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october00/baker/10baker.html




SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a way for a program running in one kind of operating system (such as Windows 2000) to communicate with a program in the same or another kind of an operating system (such as Linux) by using the World Wide Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and its Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the mechanisms for information exchange.

Since Web protocols are installed and available for use by all major operating system platforms, HTTP and XML provide an already at-hand solution to the problem of how programs running under different operating systems in a network can communicate with each other. SOAP specifies exactly how to encode an HTTP header and an XML file so that a program in one computer can call a program in another computer and pass it information. It also specifies how the called program can return a response.

SOAP was developed by Microsoft, DevelopMentor, and Userland Software, and has been proposed as a standard interface to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It is somewhat similar to the Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP), a protocol that is part of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). Sun Microsystems' Remote Method Invocation (RMI) is a similar client/server interprogram protocol between programs written in Java.

An advantage of SOAP is that program calls are much more likely to get through firewall servers that screen out requests other than those for known applications (through the designated port mechanism). Since HTTP requests are usually allowed through firewalls, programs using SOAP to communicate can be sure that they can communicate with programs anywhere.


For more information on SOAP, we suggest:

Microsoft MSDN Web Seminars on SOAP:
Microsoft Whitepapers on SOAP:
Sun Whitepapers on SOAP:




SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a commonly used protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting secure information via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:.

Another protocol for transmitting data securely over the World Wide Web is Secure HTTP (S-HTTP). Whereas SSL creates a secure connection between a client and a server, over which any amount of data can be sent securely, S-HTTP is designed to transmit individual messages securely. SSL and S-HTTP, therefore, can be seen as complementary, rather than competing technologies. Both protocols have been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard.

SSL has recently been succeeded by Transport Layer Security (TLS). TLS is a standard closely related to SSL 3.0, and is sometimes referred to as "SSL 3.1". TLS supersedes SSL 2.0 and should be used in new development. Applications that require a high level of interoperability should support SSL 3.0 and TLS.


For more information on SSL, we suggest:

Netscape Whitepapers on SSL:
Microsoft Whitepapers on SSL:




LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an open network protocol standard designed to provide access to distributed directories. LDAP provides a mechanism for querying and modifying information that resides in a directory information tree (DIT). A directory information tree typically contains a broad range of information about different types of network objects including users, printers, applications, and other network resources.

Organized development of LDAP occurred on several fronts. However, the most notable work, and the first freely available implementation, was completed by the University of Michigan in 1993. The University focused efforts on developing a simpler TCP/IP version of X.500's DAP. DAP was considered cumbersome as it pushed much of its workload to the client. Although LDAP is well rooted as a simplified component of the X.500 directory, it has become the de facto directory protocol on the Internet today.

Netscape includes it in its latest Communicator suite of products. Microsoft includes it as part of what it calls Active Directory in a number of products. It is expected that LDAP will provide a common method for searching e-mail addresses on the Internet, eventually leading to a global white pages.


For more information on LDAP, we suggest:

"Microsoft® Windows ServerTM 2003 Active Directory LDAP Compliance": http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/ldapcomp.mspx

Microsoft Whitepaper - "Understanding LDAP": http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/howitworks/activedirectory/ldap.asp

"Implementing LDAP in the SolarisTM Operating Environment": http://www.sun.com/solutions/blueprints/1000/ldap-sol8.pdf

OpenLDAP®: http://www.openldap.org



FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records)

Proposed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 1998, Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) recommends restructuring catalog databases to reflect the conceptual structure of information resources.

As described by OCLC, "FRBR uses an entity-relationship model of metadata for information objects, instead of the single flat record concept underlying current cataloging standards. The FRBR model includes four levels of representation: work, expression, manifestation, and item. If fully implemented, FRBR would produce the biggest change cataloging has seen in the last century."


For more information on FRBR, we suggest:

"OCLC Research Activities and IFLA's Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records": http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/frbr

"IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records": http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.pdf



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