Deborah Lynne Wiley Next Wave Consulting

hardcopy Recommended Reading on Intellectual Property, Internet Forecasting, and Web Indexing ONLINE, November 2001 Copyright © 2001 Information Today, Inc.

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FEATURED BOOKS: New Trajectories of the Internet: Umbrellas, Traction, Lift and Other Phenomena Copyright in Cyberspace: Questions and Answers for Librarians Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets Website Indexing: Enhancing Access to Information Within Websites

What a whirlwind of ideas and companies swirl throughout this book, which should surprise no one who has had any contact with the author or his writings, either through his presentations at Online, Inc. conferences such as WebSearch University or his articles in ONLINE and EContent. The goal is to put the current Internet environment into context, providing the author's view of what is likely to happen over the next year or so.

The title, using jargon from the Internet venture capitalists and management consulting communities, sums up the major change vectors likely in the Internet world. Umbrellas indicate "a strategy that provides numerous options in the event one tactic goes wrong." Traction indicates the capacity of a seller to "dig into a market and gain share." Lift is "the business model that allows revenue to be expanded over time." These and other fancy names show the growing concern that Internet businesses are, indeed, businesses first and need to pay attention to the bottom line, generate a profit, and keep evolving with the changing technologies and customer perceptions.

Nine new trajectories are discussed–most of which are not new technologies, but rather new strategies or repositioning of existing products and services. These include search technologies, data mining, and peer-to-peer computing, as well as new ideas for content, pricing, privacy, and other issues rambling about the Internet space. For each, the author discusses the issues, tries to give a historical context, and then bombards the reader with company examples. There are too many companies with funny names and not enough details for the reader to even understand why they are all being mentioned. However, you can always look them up on the Web to see what the companies are all about.

For a roller coaster ride through today's Internet environment, read this book. Tomorrow, it may all be different.

Is everyone as weary of copyright discussions as I am? Yes, I agree that copyright is extremely important, but I just wish that someone would sort it all out and simply tell me the rules. So, it was with a bit of dread that I picked up this book. Surprise, I actually found it interesting and enlightening. The author, a former reference librarian and coordinator of library instruction–now a lawyer with the intellectual property and technology section of Fulbright & Jaworski in Austin, Texas–does a great job of explaining the issues without delving too much into the legal jargon and intricacies.

Nearly half the book is reference material, including excerpts from copyright law, guidelines on using digital images, electronic reserves, and explanations of the fair use policy for libraries. The other half of the book is divided into three parts. The first gives the history of copyright and an overview of copyright law specifically as it applies to and affects libraries. Part Two then discusses the application of existing copyright law to cyberspace. The big issues include linking to other resources, use of Web pages, and the temporary storage or caching of copies of Web pages. Part Three covers copyright in specific library applications, such as electronic reserves, ILL, and the issues involved with libraries as content providers.

Copyright is a very complex issue that affects libraries in a number of ways. I thank the author for taking a lot of the complexity out of the equation. Don't rely on this book as your only guide to copyright law, but do use it to provide a clear, concise overview of the issues that need to be addressed.

If you want a good overview of intellectual property and its impact on your business or organization, this clearly written book is the one to grab. It is obviously written for managers, and gives nice descriptions and examples of the different types of intellectual property and why a business should care about such things. The author, an attorney who teaches at Georgetown University, also goes to great lengths to explain how to get protection for each type of IP, and how to identify what you have.

The book starts with a chapter on recognizing your intellectual property and then heads right into trademarks. Each topic listed in the title is covered with multiple chapters, explaining the basics, and then how to register and protect your IP. The discussion of trademarks includes Internet domain names and the issues inherent with global system regulating by state and federal laws.

Copyright is covered with a slant that publishers will like. It is much more business-oriented and protectionist in attitude than Hoffman's book, and of course goes into different aspects than just those that affect libraries. Patents are given a little less coverage, perhaps due to the complicated nature of the topic, and the reader is advised to have a lawyer's help with patent applications and infringement suits.

This practical book covers all the topics managers need to identify, utilize, and protect the intellectual property within their organizations. It doesn't (and couldn't) cover all the topics in complete detail, but does provide the basics. After all, in many organizations just getting the management thinking about IP is a huge step forward. This book is a good place to start.

As librarians, we appreciate the value of good indexing, and have often wished for the same principles that apply to nicely indexed books to be applied to the Web–so we can find things. Well, if you are ready to put your money where your mouth is, this book will help you to create a "back-of-book-style" index for your own Web site.

The first part of the book discusses the different ways you can organize the content on your site and then the aids for navigating the site, including categorization, classification, searching, and browsing. The pluses and minuses of each type of navigation system are briefly discussed, and examples from Australian Web sites are provided.

Part Two discusses indexing principles and gives examples of the many decisions and rules needed–do you capitalize index entries, how do you enter author names, do you invert index entries, etc. The authors emphasize a need for standards and planning. The third section of the book focuses on software to help with indexing, and highlights the HTML-Indexer software in particular. The authors suggest downloading the demo software and then provide two exercises for indexing material for the Web.

If you are at all interested in creating a back-of-the-book-style index for your Web site, then you should read this book. It provides tips and tricks and enough basics to get you started on your project.

Deborah Lynne Wiley (deb@consultnw.com) is Principal of Next Wave Consulting, Inc. and HARDCOPY Editor.

Comments? Email letters to the Editor to marydee@infotoday.com.