Blockchain Papers

PRAKHAR Kumar, Singh, Jagbeer

A decentralized system for academic credential verification using Ethereum blockchain and hybrid off-chain storage. The system replaces traditional manual verification by allowing institutions to issue digitally signed certificates whose cryptographic hashes are stored on-chain, ensuring immutability and tamper resistance. A dual-hashing approach (SHA-256 followed by Keccak-256) is used to enhance security and maintain compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem. Credential files are stored off-chain (e.g., Supabase/IPFS) to reduce cost, while verification is performed by comparing hashes, achieving fast (under a few seconds) and reliable authentication. Overall, the paper demonstrates a scalable, secure, and efficient solution for real-world use cases such as academic admissions and recruitment.

Dmitry M. Fedorov, Y. Kovalenko, Svetlana N. Kovalenko

The article is devoted to the study of the role of information technologies in improving the mechanisms for monitoring the results of scientific activity in the Russian Federation. The purpose of the article is to analyze existing information systems – EGISU R&D, eLibrary, RSCI and Antiplagiat, as well as to identify problems and limitations of their functioning. The methodological basis consists of a systematic analysis of regulatory legal acts, a comparative analysis of the functionality of systems and a review of publications on the problems of scientometry and digitalization of science. It has been established that, despite significant progress in the creation of digital infrastructure, Russian systems are characterized by insufficient integration, inefficient data verification and excessive focus on quantitative indicators. Recommendations on the implementation of distributed ledger technologies and ensuring a balance between quantitative and expert evaluation of the results are formulated. The practical significance of the work lies in the justification of measures to increase transparency and reliability of scientific activity control.

Louise de Bethune, Istvan L. Gyimes

The rapid development of digital infrastructures demands new approaches to managing born-digital data and enabling knowledge valorisation. Rather than constructing another digital Library of Alexandria, the SODHA-team is developing Project BLU, a framework for building a distributed information network. Drawing inspiration from Web3 principles—decentralisation, interoperability, and user-driven discovery—the project explores methods for metadata exchange between archives. This project engages with established metadata standards like the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), exploring how they can support or be extended to enable interoperability. Instead of centralising data, Project BLU enables a shared, federated catalogue based on metadata-exchange accessible from any entry point. Researchers will navigate this network to discover and link data across disciplines, reducing access barriers and opening new avenues for metadata specialists. These include promoting and, where needed, upgrading DDI standards, linking interdisciplinary data, and bridging vocabularies across scientific fields. The interconnected nature of the system reinforces adherence to FAIR principles, improves access to both open and restricted data, and enhances knowledge reuse at national and international levels (e.g. linking CESSDA and DDI partners). This presentation outlines the conceptual foundations of Project BLU and its vision for transforming metadata into dynamic, actionable links across the research landscape.

M. Mut-Puigserver, M. Magdalena Payeras-Capellà, Rosa Pericàs-Gornals, Jaume Ramis

This paper introduces FAIR (Federated Agreement for Independent Resolution), a cross-chain protocol designed to enhance scalability, transparency, and auditability in decentralized decision-making processes. Unlike traditional blockchainbased voting systems that rely on a single global chain, FAIR leverages a federated model in which local decisions are conducted on independent blockchains and subsequently aggregated into a global result through a secure cross-chain mechanism. The protocol employs Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) and Rejectable SBTs (RejSBTs) to ensure verifiability, immutability, and explicit acceptance of results, thereby strengthening both the integrity and security of cross-chain operations. We formalize the protocol, provide smart contract implementations, and illustrate its applicability in diverse contexts such as multinational corporations, district-based elections, and decentralized autonomous organizations. FAIR demonstrates that a federated and tokenized approach to decision-making enables efficient large-scale participation while maintaining strong guarantees of trust, transparency, and robustness.

Jamila Tileubaevna Arzieva, Ali Tileubaevich Arziev, Nawrızbay Baxtiyar ul Seytniyazov, Ilham Kongratbay ulı Tlemisov

THE ROLE OF ZERO-KNOWLEDGE PROOFS IN ENHANCING CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROTOCOLS // Universum: технические науки : электрон. научн. журн. Arzieva J.T. [и др.]. 2025. 10(139). URL: https://7universum.com/ru/tech/archive/item/21052

Anisoara-Niculina APETRI, Ancuța-Anisia Chelba, Petanaj MIGENA, Camelia-Catalina MIHALCIUC

The digital age has changed the way we communicate, work, learn and even spend our free time.Devices such as smartphones, computers or tablets have become indispensable, and access to information is now faster and easier than ever.In the context of the digital age, the purpose of this research paper is to carry out a bibliometric analysis based on a number of 2,454 scientific papers identified in the Web of Science (WoS) database.The first objective is to identify the concept of cryptocurrencies in the specialized literature by carrying out a brief literature review, and the second objective is to carry out the actual bibliometric analysis on the same topic.The results obtained consist in developing a research agenda, which captures the stages of evolution and consolidation of the concept of cryptocurrencies in the specialized literature.

Domen Bajde

This chapter dives into the visions and the emergent imaginary of Web3. It shows how they operate as a response to a disillusionment with what the Web has become. Visioners of Web3 depict Web 2.0 as a corporate takeover of the Web and offer their vision of the Web as a way for users and creators to reclaim control and a fair share of the value they co-create. However, instead of resurrecting the idea of a post-ownership Commons unrestricted by the imperatives of commerce and property, Web3 seeks to erect a new kind of Commons that cannot be usurped and exploited by Big Tech. This requires a radical break with the economic innocence of the early Web. Instead of rejecting ownership and business it embraces them, with an eye to re-erecting the Web on the principles of tokenomics. Decentralized token ownership is meant to ensure more efficient and sustainable management of the shared Web infrastructures and resources while also ensuring genuine participation of Web users in the distribution of economic rewards and the governance of the Web Commons. This chapter concludes with a reflection on the (d)evolving imaginaries of the Web surveyed across this part of the book.

Agostino Capponi, Brian Zhu

No abstract is available for this record.

Е.А. АРАКЧЕЕВА

Коллекционирование искусства ведет историю еще с IV в. до н. э. Искусство изменялось вместе с научными открытиями, а коллекции - вместе с мотивацией коллекционеров. Большую роль в трансформации арт-рынка и формировании частных и музейных коллекций России XXI в. сыграла цифровизация изобразительного искусства, а также появление технологии невзаимозаменяемого токена (NFT). В статье рассмотрены факторы, влияющие на формирование коллекций изобразительного искусства, и описаны цифровые технологии создания предметов искусства. Кроме того, проанализированы предпосылки для создания виртуальных галерей и их роль в формировании коллекционера нового типа - инвестирующего в цифровое искусство. Fine art collecting dates from the 4th century BC. The art changed together with scientific discoveries, and collections - with the motivation of collectors. The main role in the transformation of the art market and the formation of private and museum collections in Russia in the 21 st century was played by both the digitalization of fine arts, and the emergence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The article deals with factors influencing the formation of fine art collections, and describes digital technologies of creating works of art. Besides, the presuppositions of creating virtual galleries and their role in forming a new kind of collector investing in digital art are analyzed.

Bo Zhang, Xufeng Ma, Shijie Guo

As blockchain and distributed ledger technologies continue to evolve, the management of digital identity ownership and its security have increasingly come under scrutiny. The advent of decentralized identity (DID) technologies aims to return control of identity to users. However, existing DID resolution schemes often rely on centralized management, which can lead to single points of failure, security vulnerabilities, insufficient scalability, and privacy concerns. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a novel solution named CMS. CMS leverages blockchain smart contracts and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) decentralized storage to implement a consortium management approach. It drives the management of a universal resolver through a voting mechanism of smart contracts and utilizes IPFS for distributed storage, thereby enhancing system transparency, stability, and the persistent security of data. Although this approach increases the technical complexity of the system and may impact performance, it significantly enhances management transparency and data security.

Hamza Salem, Hadi Salloum, Manuel Mazzara, Nursultan Askarbekuly · 6 authors

The rapid expansion of the non-fungible token (NFT) market has catalyzed new opportunities for artists, collectors, and investors, yet it has also unveiled critical challenges related to the storage and distribution of associated metadata. This paper examines the current landscape of NFT metadata storage, revealing a significant reliance on centralized platforms, which poses risks to the integrity, security, and decentralization of these digital assets. Through a detailed analysis of top-selling NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace, it was found that a substantial portion of metadata is hosted on centralized servers, making them susceptible to censorship, data breaches, and administrative alterations. Conversely, decentralized storage solutions, particularly the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), were identified as a more secure and resilient alternative, offering enhanced transparency, resistance to tampering, and greater control for creators and collectors. This study advocates for the widespread adoption of decentralized storage architectures, incorporating digital signatures to verify ownership, as a means to preserve the value and trustworthiness of NFTs in an increasingly digital world. The findings underscore the necessity for NFT platforms to prioritize decentralized methodologies to ensure the long-term sustainability and integrity of the NFT

Bal Ram, Pratima Verma

Blockchain technology has revolutionised how data is stored, managed, and secured. Its decentralised, transparent, and immutable nature presents unique advantages for data security. This paper delves into the application of blockchain technology in enhancing data security, exploring its fundamental principles, mechanisms, real-world applications, benefits, and challenges. By examining case studies across various industries, this paper aims to demonstrate the transformative potential of blockchain technology in securing data and protecting against cyber threats.

Kostiantyn Ishchenko

The purpose of the article is to analyse the main stages of formation and features of NFT with a projection on their use in the cultural and artistic environment. The research methodology is based on the use of a number of methods and approaches, which, taking into account the interdisciplinary nature of the problem, are integrated from art history, history, information technology. In addition, general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, generalisation are applied. The scientific novelty consists in an attempt to substantiate the relevance of the use of NFT (non-fungible tokens) for the preservation of cultural values, the authorship of artistic works and creative industries. Conclusions. Technologies related to digitisation, virtual reality, artificial intelligence significantly affect changes in research and creative practices. The growing number of initiatives, services and applications arising at the intersection of the latest technologies and art motivates to study and discuss the creative potential of ICT in the context of culture and art. An important component of modern cultural, artistic, and economic processes is the implementation of NFT in the Metauniverse. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), which are mostly encoded on the blockchain, are a distributed ledger technology related not only to cryptocurrencies, but also to the rapidly growing field of artistic entrepreneurship. The complex of blockchains and the decentralisation of their potential activates questions of strategy and the opportunities they open up for artists and creative industries. NFT is primarily an opportunity for everyone to become a participant and manager of a new cultural and artistic reality, which is characterised by global trends and local features of the production, development, popularisation, and circulation of cultural values. NFT-marketplaces play an important role in the circulation of digital cultural assets and are of particular importance for the formation and functioning of the cultural and artistic space, in particular, of Ukraine. This raises important issues of managing a technology that requires expertise in cryptography, coding, and the creation of legislation for its implementation.

Kristof Lommers, Mohamed Baioumy

No abstract is available for this record.

Benedikt Putz, Günther Pernul

In 2021, enterprise distributed ledger technology has evolved beyond the proof-of-concept stage. It is now providing business value to large consortia in several successful and well documented case studies. Nevertheless, other consortia and initiatives are stuck in early stages of consortium formation or conceptualization. They stand to benefit from lessons learned by successful consortia, but an in-depth comparison has not yet been conducted. Thus, this study performs the first methodological comparison of large DLT consortia that have launched a product. Based on the temporal evolution of these consortia, a lifecycle with 4 stages and 12 sub-phases is developed to provide further guidance for early-stage consortia. The results show how 9 pioneer consortia have successfully integrated novel DLT into existing processes, but also point out challenges faced on the way.

Malenko Yana

The article is devoted to the main directions of formation in library establishments, especially regional, thematic bases on topics of organization of ecological activity. It is investigated that due to the decentralization reform, the concept of environmental policy in Ukraine is constantly evolving, revealing new solutions to environmental problems, using the main trends in the European Union. This reform should strengthen the organizational, material, financial and legal autonomy of local communities, ensure the separation of powers between local governments at different levels and transform the budget system in order for communities to have their own budgets, the opportunity to combine their efforts and finance, taking into account the combination of national, regional and local interests and specifics of socio-economic, ecological, political and cultural development. First of all, the successful development of this process should be ensured by its effective information and analytical support on the basis of an operational analysis of all problems and achievements. Therefore, information centers and library institutions: should establish permanent contacts with local authorities, find out their information needs and the most effective ways of cooperation; should form information bases for operational information for practical field assistance; must develop distant forms of information service; should develop inter-library cooperation in exchange of practical experience of decentralization, forecast-analytical materials.

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Zaytseva, Stella Iraklievna Gurtskaya

The paper proves the validity of studying cryptocurrency as a cultural phenomenon. According to the Fundamentals of State Cultural Policy, culture is a resource of the social and economic development of the country, therefore, examining the economic aspects of the society is of great importance to cultural scientists. The possibility of dealing with cryptocurrency as a cultural element is confirmed by the following statements. Cryptocurrency refers to the economic culture of a society. The cryptocurrency impact is covered in mass media which constitute the cultural institution. In addition, cryptocurrency is consolidated in culture through the specialized exhibitions supported by public cultural agencies. The paper defines the promising trends in researches identifying the capacity of the virtual reality in the field of cultural patterns development. The authors note that studying cryptocurrency as a part of virtual reality will allow one to determine the mechanisms, borders, and technologies of this type of reality.

Jane Cho

The institutional repositories of most university libraries in Korea are not activated due to the lack of finance, operation ability, technology, etc., and this phenomenon is especially noticeable in small–medium sized university libraries. Thus, as in other countries, a shared repository that multiple libraries share, based on a library network, is required. This study categorizes the typology of shared repositories, after analyzing the operational methods of managing roles, expenses and system sharing among participants in shared repositories in Japan, the UK and the USA. Based on the findings, two models that could be applied in Korea are suggested. The first is a centralized-operation model that involves a shared-system infrastructure in which the host institution takes full charge of the digitization and registration of contents, etc. This model has the potential to be developed into a regional archive center. The second model is a decentralized-operation model that also features a shared-system infrastructure but the participating institutions customize the system individually. Here, the individual institutions perform digitization of all content, daily registration, etc., which can be applied as a test bed for the creation of new technology, considering the potential for independent operation in the future.

Helen K. R. Williams

Helen Williams of the London School of Economics attended the recent Talis open day covering all things semantic and how to apply these tools and structures in a library setting. Helen has included links to all the presentations from the day that covered a wide range of topics from making library resources web3 ready and the frameworks and schemas used in the Linked Data movement.

Sherry L. Vellucci

With the rapid growth in the number of electronic resources available via the Internet, a variety of methods have been developed to organize and access these objects. Librarians, scholars and computing engineers each have applied their own techniques to the process. Catalogers envision a "super-catalog"; scholars spawn encoded texts; computer engineers design robot-generated indexes. Each method has its strengths and its weaknesses, and each group casts a wary eye upon competing systems. In fact, it is unrealistic to believe that the organizational system of any one group will be adopted by all players in the electronic arena. While general principles of organization should apply to all approaches, cataloging the Internet is inherently different from cataloging a library. Libraries are systematically developing collections of primarily fixed objects usually under the control of one institution or agency. The Internet is more analogous to the ubiquitous ebb and flow of information and services appearing throughout society. The structure and content are not systematically developed and stable; there is no single user group or purpose for the Internet; and there is no single controlling agency. Thus, there is no one community, be it scholars, computing engineers or librarians, that is clearly vested with authority to decide upon the best means to bring control over this electronic chaos. Considering that the Internet has always been a decentralized initiative, it is not surprising that the efforts to organize it have been similarly independent and uncoordinated. Analogous to a loosely coupled communication system, each community working to organize the Internet is somewhat responsive but essentially autonomous. It is likely that each of these autonomous groups will continue to develop methods for description and access that best meet their own perceived needs. At best, cooperative efforts may result in some common understanding of a core set of descriptive data; but it is unlikely that the application, structure and use of that data will be identical within all communities. It is important, therefore, that each group recognize the contributions of the others and that together they provide bibliographic control methods that can be layered, interchanged and translated within a broad but loosely coupled system of organization. In this way, each community can continue to develop methods compatible with its own users' needs, while taking advantage of data and systems created by other groups. Remote electronic resources have engendered discussion of the catalog's scope and functions, the concept of a collection and the appropriateness of including bibliographic surrogates for remote resources in a local catalog. Traditionally, library catalogs have provided macro level access to whole items in the collection, relying on other bibliographic tools, such as indexes and bibliographies, to provide micro level access to bodies of literature and parts of items. One criticism of this distributed bibliographic system is its failure to provide access to everything in the library collection through one totally integrated catalog. More sophisticated computer technology offers new possibilities for correcting this problem. Electronic indexes and databases mounted on the local computer provide, if not a truly integrated catalog, a reasonably integrated interface that allows access to several bibliographic tools from one terminal. Work continues to develop more sophisticated layering systems that offer searchers the convenience of accessing simultaneously the OPAC and several other databases with a single search query. While providing the illusion of searching a single database, these systems could use both front-end interfaces that convert differing search commands into one common command language and multi-language thesauri that translate terms used by one database into those used in another. These techniques of layering, exchanging and translating data allow us to avoid the time, expense and proprietary problems involved with actually creating one large integrated catalog. This is another example of a loosely coupled organizational system and provides a model for the more complex goal of organizing the Internet. Due to the economic constraints of the past decade, most libraries have shifted their collection development focus from exclusive "ownership" to providing "access," a shift that has not only blurred the concept of "collection," but has caused many librarians and information specialists to lose sight of the beneficial service provided by the process of collection development. It is essential and desirable that the confining parameters that define a collection be expanded to accommodate documents that are not owned and physically housed within the library's walls; however, it is just as essential and desirable to continue the value-added concept of a collection as interrelated parts selected with a purpose. Remotely accessed electronic resources should not be excluded from the collection development scrutiny accorded documents in all other formats. In light of discussions on scholarly communication and the problems of electronic "publishing" without peer review, the inclusion of Internet resources in the library catalog based upon appropriate selection criteria may be even more necessary than in the past to assist users in finding relevant resources. The current organization of electronic resources can be described at two levels: the local agency's catalog and catalogs of Internet resources beyond the auspices of any one library. At level one, a description of the resource is contained in the local library catalog, along with bibliographic surrogates for all other materials for which that library provides access, artifactual and electronic. The Anglo-American Cataloging Rules have proved adaptable to new formats and have been modified, interpreted and supplemented to accommodate remote electronic resources. The existing MARC record also has been revised to provide special fields and coded data elements for the description and access of remote electronic resources. Specifically, field 856 has been added to convey information necessary to locate and access the electronic object. Thus, the current methods of cataloging continue to be used to describe resources that are in some ways fundamentally different from those currently owned by libraries. At present, however, only a portion of library catalogs are able to provide active links through the OPAC to access the electronic documents directly; but as libraries migrate to Web-based catalogs, these "hotlinks" will become more common. It is not surprising that the vanguard attempts to catalog Internet resources use current and familiar cataloging methods. But this AACR2/MARC-based cataloging system is not without problems. The MARC record is designed primarily for single object description and linear access. It cannot easily be adapted to describe adequately multi-level hypertext objects. In addition, these bibliographic records are designed to carry a large amount of carefully selected data and to allow access to much of that data. They are, therefore, detailed and complex structures which require much time to create and encode correctly. Recent efforts to save time and money by simplifying the cataloging process argue against traditional cataloging methods that create full MARC records for each electronic resource. As library administrators attempt to save money by purchasing cataloging data from outside sources, new ways of creating bibliographic records are being sought. While the library cataloging community was attempting to determine the feasibility of using traditional cataloging standards for Internet resources, scholars in the area of humanities computing concentrated on the electronic document itself and on a project to develop a text encoding scheme for complex electronic textual objects. The project became known as the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). The TEI guidelines give recommendations on what features of the text to encode and how to encode them. They also include a chapter on creating a header imbedded within the electronic document that precedes the electronic text. This TEI header consists primarily of four parts: file description, encoding description, text profile and text revision history. Designed for multipurpose use, the TEI header provides metadata needed by librarians who will catalog the text, scholars who will use the text, and software programs that will operate on the text. The file description portion of the header is intended to serve as the electronic equivalent of the title page of a printed work and is the only required part of the header. When data elements for all four components of the header are encoded, TEI header structures may be as lengthy and complex as MARC records. Several groups within the library community are now examining the possibility of using TEI header information as a source of data in the automated creation of MARC records for electronic documents. Computer programs have been produced that convert TEI-tagged bibliographic headers into MARC formatted records. As research develops in the area of metadata formats, the process of TEI header to MARC data conversion may become the copy cataloging of tomorrow. At level two, the goal is to organize Internet resources independently of any library agency. Several means of organization and access currently exist, including separate catalogs of selected Internet resources, subject browsing lists and robot-generated search tools. The common feature of all these "second level" access tools is the exclusive focus on Internet resources. OCLC's InterCat Catalog is one example of a second level bibliographic tool designed through a cooperative library endeavor. Consisting of MARC records created by individual catalogers from many libraries, the database, with its Web interface, represents the beginnings of an Internet Union Catalog (IUC) that is not tied to any one library as information access provider. The database still relies, however, on individual catalogers creating and entering MARC records. The IUC, while one level above the local library OPAC, still contains many of the local OPAC's useful characteristics. The documents included have been selected by librarians for their quality and appropriateness; and bibliographic surrogates in the database contain the kinds of data and authority controlled access points that have proven useful in information retrieval. When the level two organizational goal extends beyond the library selection process to the entire corpus of information on the Internet, the task of providing description and access for these electronic resources and services becomes monumental. The amount of information requiring organization is beyond the existing methods and systems of individual professional catalogers, indexers and abstractors to manage either efficiently or effectively. Several communities have wrestled with the problem and developed different ways to provide access to these resources. Over the last few years, a dramatic increase in the amount of information on the Internet heightened the need for improved access methods. Savvy computer engineers realized they had to develop retrieval systems that could be mastered easily by the non-scientific community that now used the Internet so heavily. Their efforts resulted in three primary access methods: direct address, directory browsing lists and robot-generated searchable indexes. Direct address, i.e., entering the specific pathname, directory and filename (e.g., the URL), is a known object search and requires no organizational tools to locate the site. The two remaining methods, directory browsing lists and robot-generated searchable indexes, are organizational tools that are used heavily across all Internet user communities. Directory browsing lists help people find Internet resources by arranging those resources by subject. The most commonly used lists, such as Yahoo!, use an alphabetico-classed arrangement with verbal subject topics hierarchically ordered. This arrangement is especially useful for browsing, where the user can move from the general subject to the more specific topic and then connect directly to the resources assigned to that topic. Although easy to use, this subject arrangement presents several problems: there are few cross references; many users may find difficulty identifying the hierarchy under which their narrower topic might be found; and these lists soon become lengthy and unwieldy. Other browsing tools, created outside but influenced by the library community, such as Patrick's Subject Catalog and Mundie's CyberDewey, are arranged by classification number. This affords a more logical hierarchical subject approach that is not dependent on the vagaries of the alphabet for its arrangement. While remaining less tied to semantic content than the verbally based subject systems, some type of verbal clarification is required to interpret the notation correctly. The Dewey Decimal Classification appears to be the system of choice for most of these classification-based browsing tools and has the advantage of being familiar to many users, both within the United States and internationally. As with the other subject lists, however, classification lists also need a system of cross-referencing, and the subject lists can become lengthy and unwieldy. Directory browsing lists also have other limitations. Most require a great deal of human effort to collect, arrange, encode and annotate the list of resources. When the vast number of Internet resources to be organized is considered, this could be viewed as a serious handicap. The second type of search tool, the robot-generated searchable index, attempts to overcome many of the limitations of the browsing lists. Robot-generated indexes, such as Lycos and Alta Vista, rely on computer power to collect and index electronic resources and provide an interactive interface that allows the user to enter searches for specific terms or phrases. Many allow the user to perform very sophisticated searches employing Boolean operators, adjacency and proximity operators and imbedded truncation. As a result of the automated collecting and indexing process, these search engines provide access to a much larger volume of electronic resources than the browsing lists. These computer generated search tools also have their own weaknesses. One problem is that they frequently produce extensive lists of search results, requiring users to spend time examining a great number of irrelevant and often incomprehensible citations in order to find a few pertinent hits. Searchers familiar with library catalogs and bibliographic databases may well wonder at the bewildering content of many retrieved citations. Many confusing citations are caused by extracting data directly from the document without human review and by the lack of standardized descriptions and authority control for names and subjects. Thus, while directory browsing lists and robot-generated indexes have the advantage of providing immediate access to a vast array of Internet resources and are often easy to use, they lack many features, such as selectivity, descriptive citation data and authority control, that have made the more traditional bibliographic tools most useful. If robot-generated indexes provide too little descriptive information for effective and efficient document retrieval and manually created MARC and TEI headers contain too much information for rapid and inexpensive document description, is there some method of describing Internet resources that mediates between these two extremes? With this in mind, the Dublin Core data set was developed to perform this function by defining a core data set that could describe a wide range of electronic objects. If such a core data set were adopted as an established standard and incorporated into the electronic object at the time of creation, it would increase the amount and quality of available resource descriptions with a minimal amount of human intervention. These descriptions would improve the quality of index citations created by automated tools, while enabling MARC or TEI header based records to be developed with much less expense. The Dublin Core development workshop focused on data elements necessary for the discovery of document-like objects, with consideration given to mechanisms for extending the elements to meet specialized needs. The syntax of the Dublin Core was left deliberately unspecified so that the data elements could be mapped into a variety of more complex structures from the MARC format and TEI headers to some as yet undefined structure. It is this aspect of sharing and translating descriptive data that holds the most promise, for by creating a minimum standard for descriptive data that can be used as desired by each community, we have the basis for an umbrella organizational structure based on a loosely coupled system. Then each stakeholder can continue to develop and improve its own system and structures, while overarching structures can be created to exchange, translate and layer common data. While level two provides access to a much wider range of Internet resources than any level one catalog, most information about nonelectronic resources that is provided at level one is lost with level two access tools. Although it is possible to locate and search library OPACs on the Internet via telnet or a Web interface, OPAC searches must be performed as a separate activity. A single query will not access information found at-large on the Internet and in the library OPAC, because library OPAC databases are not included in searches performed by current Internet search engines. As we move forward with efforts to create minimum standards for descriptive data, develop ways for creators of electronic resources to provide descriptive information at the time of document creation and refine search engines to enable simultaneous searches of multiple databases, we should have as our goal the creation of a third level access tool — the metacatalog. We must develop search tools whereby a user can identify specific library catalogs to include in a search query of other Internet databases, much as some existing search engines allow a user to select Web, gopher, ftp, newsgroups or commercial databases for searching. The metacatalog should be able to translate and interpret MARC records, TEI headers, SGML, HTML and any future coding. There should be language translators built in, so that searchers can use search commands and view data labels in their language of choice and translate terms in subject browsers. Multiple thesauri could be employed to assist with vocabulary control across communities, and a high-level authority control component could transparently identify and link variant forms of names. In other words, the next generation metacatalogs should be able to access all relevant information seamlessly, no matter what format or language. In order to accomplish this each stakeholder community must stop trying to recast the tools created by others into ones of their own structure, but rather concentrate on developing ways to layer, exchange and translate data within a loosely-coupled organizational system.

Karen A. Schmidt

Lives of Noisy Desperation: A Year's Work in Collection Development, 1989 development literature of 1989 shows how well the profession is coping with declining budgets, spiraling costs, and new technologies. A selective number of articles and books on the following topics are reviewed: general works on development; financing; serials; new technology; evaluation and measurement; automation; cooperative arrangements; selection and review; preservation, storage and size; vendors and acquisitions; and education and training. literature suggests that librarians in charge of development must continue to deal with financial burdens and an expanding list of demands for new materials in all formats. The mass of men, wrote Henry Thoreau, lives of quiet desperation.[1] For those involved in development and management activities these days, there is little time for the luxury of quiet. Collection managers have fallen on desperate times, their work a reflection of a dizzying display of declining budgets, spiraling costs, and new technologies. development literature of 1989 shows how well the profession is coping with these trends after the whiplash of 1987 and 1988. Included in this literature review are a selective number of articles and books produced during 1989, listed under a dozen topics of general concern to the manager. Two topics, preservation and matters relating to acquisitions as an adjunct to development, are touched on only briefly. A number of substantial works appeared this year, including full-length texts and a reprise of important pieces published years before. range of publications shows the growth of this sector of librarianship and the positive responses to the problems facing our collections. General Works Two important texts appeared, providing comprehensive overviews of the work of management. Wortman's Collection Management: Background and Principles treats all aspects of management in a way that is beneficial to both the student and the practitioner. Shoemaker's Collection Management: Current Issues is a of in-depth essays that document the state of the art of development as we understand it today. A shorter treatment of this general area is found in the Association of College & Research Libraries' CLIP note Collection Development Policies for College Libraries, which details policies for college libraries. need to shift our focus from documents to content and from collections to individuals is the focus of Drake's article, while Schwartz provides an extensive review of the decision-making process of book selection. Atkinson puts the role of development in a historical setting to develop a systemized approach to the problems in the field, similar in some respects to the arguments posed by Buckland, who examines the scope of development and suggests that we begin regarding development much as we regard file organization with a computer system. This approach allows the development librarian to see how files are used, as opposed to looking solely at the substance of the file. Bucknall discusses the problems and promises of organizing activities in one centralized area as opposed to a coordinated but decentralized approach. often-unspoken politics of development are the theme of Bullard's editorial, in which he discusses the political overtones of writing a policy statement and engaging teaching faculty and administrators in the process. An overview of collection development in action is provided in the lead essay by Fiste from a day-long workshop at the University of Toledo. Atkinson provides a scholarly essay on referential abstraction in bibliography and the ways in which bibliography is used in library selection. …