FEATURED BOOKS:
Internet Blue Pages: The Guide to Federal Government Web Sites, 2001-2002 edition
Design Workshop
Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook
PC Hardware in a Nutshell
This month we look at some books that I can't categorize with any one theme, except perhaps expanding your knowledge base. The guide to government Web sites will help you learn what's available, while the other three books are great references for tangential facets of your working life.
Internet Blue Pages: The Guide to Federal
Government Web Sites, 2001-2001 edition researched and compiled by Laurie Andriot
ISBN: 0-910965-43-9 Published: 2000 Pages: 446; softcover Price: $34.95 Available from: CyberAge Book, Information Today Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055;
609/654-6266;
As we all know, the government is putting everything on the Web, without much noticeable thought to coordinating or organizing it all. Thus, a book like this can save a lot of time for those looking for government information.
The book is organized in the same fashion as the U.S. Government Manual, with chapters organized by government department. Each entry has a reference number, which you can use on the companion Web site, FedWeb.com, to access that particular government site. There is also an extensive index to help you find sites by subject. Some of the entries here are a bit odd, such as "Web Page Design" connects you to the Air Force Air Combat Command Site, but that site at least has a link to a beginner's guide to HTML.
For most sites, there is a short description of the content of the site, with a list of all the links to which the home page connects. I found the descriptions much more useful than the list of links. Just the linked phrase is listed, so it is often difficult to know what the link means. Plus the list is in paragraph form so it is very difficult to scan through it. I think a little more editorial effort to actually describe the major content sections of the Web site would make this book a lot more useful.
The last chapter covers gateways to government information and the Appendix links you directly to the search features of various government agencies, as well as search engines that focus just on government sites. As with any book of this type, some of the URLs are out-of-date, but at least you have a starting point. If you use government information often, this book may save you some time in finding the site you want.
Design Workshop by Robin Williams
ISBN: 0-201-70088-3 Published: 2001 Pages: 280; softcover Price: $39.99 Available from: Peachpit Press, 1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
800/283-9444; 510/524-2178; http://www.peachpit.com
In ecology, they talk about specialized feeders and generalists. Librarians need to be generalists, and at least know a little bit about lots of things. With the advent of desktop publishing and the Web, design is a skill with which we all need to be familiar. Even if you don't design things yourself, becoming a knowledgeable customer will help your designer create a better design for you.
So, it was a pleasant surprise to discover this eminently readable book. The authors clearly present design principles without the jargon, and use lots of examples of designs in progress, so you can easily see why they chose one layout or typeface or size or whatever over another. There are many color illustrations and examples of design projects to browse through, if you like.
The book is aimed at beginning designers, and covers all kinds of design projects, including logos, invoices and forms, brochures, flyers, table of contents and indices, advertising, and Web sites, but there is much you can learn from each section, even if you don't ever plan on creating whatever project they are using as an example. The first few chapters cover the design process and creating visual impact, and the last few chapters have different designers go through projects they have done to show the varying approaches to design.
Although everyone seems to agree that content is king, a good design will help in communicating that content in a more comprehensible and appealing manner. This book will definitely help improve your designs.
Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook by Stuart D. Lee
ISBN: 1-55570-405-0 Published: 2001 Pages: 194; softcover Price: $55.00 Available from: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
100 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013
212/925-8650; http://www.neal-schuman.com
If you think digitization is a simple project, read this book. There is more involved than most people think, and this book guides you through the various stages of a digitization project. The aim is to educate those in charge of such a project, as well as those new to the process but who need to participate.
The author uses a project-management approach, providing checklists of the decisions that will need to be made and the steps involved. He starts with assessing and selecting the material, and provides a sample questionnaire to help solicit input from interested parties as to what content should be digitized. He then goes on to preparing the material for digitization and the actual process. He wisely points out the many options one has in the types of scanners or digital cameras, and the dilemmas of resolution, file size, and use in choosing exactly how to capture the required digital images.
The last chapter covers the cataloging and delivery efforts, and points out the importance of making it easy for the user to find and use digital image. He covers metadata, SGML, and XML, and suggests items which should be documented for different images. He also covers the various delivery options available for serving high-quality images and searchable text files.
The author obviously has a lot of experience in digitization projects, and this book may help you avoid some problems if you are starting on a project of your own.
PC Hardware in a Nutshell by Robert Bruce Thompson &
Barbara Frichman Thompson
ISBN: 1-56592-599-8 Published: 2000 Pages: 501; softcover Price: $29.95 Available from: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
101 Morris St., Sebastopol, CA 05472
800/998-9938; http://www.oreilly.com
This is a great reference book to have on hand if you ever need to troubleshoot, upgrade, or just plain understand any component of a per- sonal computer. Like most O'Reilly books, this is stuffed full of the information you'd think would come in the manual to your PC (if you got one).
The book is aimed at people who want to build their own PC, or at least upgrade it themselves. It is not "PCs for Dummies," but rather a detailed and meticulously researched reference guide for those with at least moderate knowledge of the machine and its components. In other words, if you don't know the difference between a floppy drive and a hard drive, this book is not for you. However, if you think you are reasonably familiar with computers, but still can't figure the specifications for a new hard drive or CD-R, then this book will ease your frustration and improve your choices.
The book devotes a chapter to each of the major components of the systems, covering motherboards, processors, memory, floppy drives, CD drives, hard drives, video adapters, monitors, sound cards, speakers, keyboards, mice, cases, and power supplies. Each chapter stands alone, so you only have to read the parts you want at the moment. The authors include their picks for the best products in each category, while acknowledging that the choices could well be out of date when you read the book. They provide updates on the Web site (http://www.hardwareguys.com).
Even understanding the specifications on a new PC these days can be difficult. Use this book to interpret the data and make the best choice for your next PC or component purchase.
Deborah Lynne Wiley (deb@consultnw.com) is Principal of Next Wave Consulting, Inc. and HARDCOPY Editor.
THE DEPARTURE. Our travellers were not obliged to bargain for their conveyance, as they went ashore in the boat belonging to the hotel where they intended to stay. The runner of the hotel took charge of their baggage and placed it in the boat; and when all was ready, they shook hands with the captain and purser of the steamer, and wished them prosperous voyages in future. Several other passengers went ashore at the same time. Among them was Captain Spofford, who was anxious to compare the Yokohama of to-day with the one he had visited twenty years before. "Tell me," said the Doctor, without moving a muscle in his face, "was she satisfied with her tour of my premises?" The Doctor stabbed a finger wildly in the direction of the coal cellar. "If you had seen what I have seen to-night, you would understand. You would be feeling exactly as I am now." Meanwhile Balmayne had crept in downstairs. He crossed over and helped himself liberally to brandy. He took a second glass, and a third. 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The other had scarcely seen the German letters and German stamp when he nodded his head approvingly, and quickly I put the thing back, so that he might not notice that I was allowed only to go to Visé. The critical tendency just alluded to suggests one more reason why philosophy, from having been a method of discovery, should at last become a mere method of description and arrangement. The materials accumulated by nearly three centuries of observation and reasoning were so enormous that they began to stifle the imaginative faculty. If there was any opening for originality it lay in the task of carrying order into this chaos by reducing it to a few general heads, by mapping out the whole field of knowledge, and subjecting each particular branch to the new-found processes of definition325 and classification. 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