A Historical Overview of Internet Reference Services for Distance Learners

SUMMARY

The advent of library services and collections on the Internet revolutionized reference services to students enrolled in distance learning programs. Prior to the Internet, reference librarians who supported distance learning programs had few methods, and many of them costly, to provide the equivalent library services advocated by the ACRL Guidelines. Through the Internet, these librarians were able to approximate the services and resources that had always been available to students who came into the library. This article describes the development of reference services on the Internet in a variety of libraries that support distance learners.     

Developing a Chat Reference Training Program

ABSTRACT

In the last few years, chat reference services have been implemented by public, college and university libraries. One important aspect of the chat reference service is library staff training. Literature shows that this is a vital step in offering a chat reference service. Library staff need to be well-trained in areas of chatting, reference interviewing in a digital environment and using electronic resources, such as the Internet and databases. This article discusses the chat reference training program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The following text provides an outline for establishing a chat training program including planning, organization, implementation and assessment. Areas of discussion include the chat reference interview, chatting and patron management techniques.     

As I Sit Studying: WWW-Based Reference Services

Abstract

This article reports on the current state of reference services on the World Wide Web (WWW). It explains what a WWW-based reference service is, describes several models of handling requests, and explores the impact of these services on traditional reference services. Based upon anecdotal information the author concludes that, to date, Web-based reference services have had little impact upon traditional reference services.     

RealTracer—Tools for Measuring the Performance of RealVideo on the Internet

The increase in high-bandwidth connections and high-speed computers has spurred the growth of streaming media across the Internet. While there have been a number of studies measuring the performance of traditional Internet traffic, there have not been sufficient empirical measurements ofvideo performance especially for commercial videos across the Internet. The lack of empirical workthat measures streaming video traffic may arise from the lack of effective video performance measurement tools. In this paper, we present RealTracer, a set of tools for measuring the performance of RealNetworks Video. RealTracer includes RealTracker, a customized video playe that plays RealNetworks Video from pre-selected playlist and records user-centric video performance information. RealTracer also includes RealData, a data analysis tool that helps manage,parse and analyze data captured by RealTracker. We describe the software architecture and usage ofRealTracker and the usage of RealData, both publicly available for download. To illustrate the useof RealTracer, we present some results from a study that used RealTracker to measure RealVideo performance across the Internet. Using RealData, that study made several contributions to better understanding the performance of streaming video on the Internet. Typical RealVideos have high quality, achieving an average frame rate of 10 frames per second and very smooth playout, but very few videos achieve full-motion frame rates. Overall video performance is most influenced by the bandwidth of the end-user connection to the Internet, but high-bandwidth Internet connections are pushing the video performance bottleneck closer to the server. Yubing Wang earned M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Science and Technology of China in 1993 and M.S. in Computer Science from WPI in 2001. He is currently working in EMC Corp. as a principal software engineer, participating in the developments of several EMC NAS products. He is also a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science of WPI. His primary research interests include multimedia networking and distributed file system. Mark Claypool earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota in 1993 and 1997, respectively. Dr. Claypool joined the Computer Science department of WPI in 1997, receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2004. He is also the Director of the Interactive Media and Game Development major at WPI, a 4-year degree in the principles of interactive applications and computer-based game development. His primary research interests include multimedia networking, congestion control, and network games.     

From broadcast television to Internet audio/video: techniques and tools for VCR‐style interactivity

One of the new applications evolving in the Internet is streaming audio/video. A major reason for its growing popularity is interest in the compelling new services that become possible. Prototype services are being developed which are new to the Internet but offer the same look, feel, and functionality that have traditionally only been found in services delivered via other communication medium, e.g. broadcast television. In addition, the Internet is evolving to offer ‘value‐added’ services, like streaming audio/video with VCR‐style interactivity and embedded hyperlinks. We are poised both on seeing the development of new paradigms for interacting with audio/video, and on seeing the merging of broadcast television and Internet‐based broadcasts. Before this process can be considered successful, a number of technical challenges, derived from the various ways in which content is physically delivered, must be solved. In this paper, we focus on the value‐added service of VCR interactivity. VCR interactivity has long been a challenge for both broadcast television and streamed Internet audio/video. The challenge is how to provide individualized playout for content being streamed to a large group of users using one‐to‐many delivery. While some new companies are starting to offer devices which provide this kind of service for broadcast television, there are still numerous technical challenges for the Internet‐based version of a similar service. This paper has a three‐fold objective. First, we describe the types of services available in the traditional broadcast infrastructure and compare these to the types of services that are deployed or possible in Internet‐based services. Second, we describe our attempts to implement some of the more challenging and novel service types. In particular, we examine client‐based control of programs streamed over the Internet to tens, thousands, or even millions of users. Finally, we discuss the impact of these services on the protocols and applications used to support Internet‐based, multi‐party conferencing. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浅谈FLV视频格式

视频文件可以分成两大类:一是影音文件,比如说常见的VCD;二是流式视频文件,或称流媒体视频文件。随着多媒体与网络技术的发展,流媒体视频文件已占据视频文件的主要地位,而在众多的流式视频文件格式中,FLV已成为当今网络上最流行的一种流媒体视频格式,它的使用给互联网视频传播带来了极大便利。     

Page Us

ABSTRACT

When patron workstations are located far from the reference desk, service suffers because patrons can't easily contact staff. While in-house chat services offer a partial solution to this problem, these services fail to provide the face-to-face element that the literature shows is critical for effective reference service. This study analyzes NCSU Libraries' method for solving this problem, a hybrid service that combines features of in-person and virtual reference service.     

多媒体技术研究:2013——面向智能视频监控的视觉感知与处理

目的 随着视频监控技术的日益成熟和监控设备的普及,视频监控应用日益广泛,监控视频数据量呈现出爆炸性的增长,已经成为大数据时代的重要数据对象。然而由于视频数据本身的非结构化特性,使得监控视频数据的处理和分析相对困难。面对大量摄像头采集的监控视频大数据,如何有效地按照视频的内容和特性去传输、存储、分析和识别这些数据,已经成为一种迫切的需求。方法 本文面向智能视频监控中大规模视觉感知与智能处理问题,围绕监控视频编码、目标检测与跟踪、监控视频增强、视频运动与异常行为识别等4个主要研究方向,系统阐述2013年度的技术发展状况,并对未来的发展趋势进行展望。结果 中国最新制定的国家标准AVS2在对监控视频的编码效率上比最新国际标准H.265/HEVC高出一倍,标志着我国的视频编码技术和标准在视频监控领域已经实现跨越;视频运动目标检测跟踪的研究主要集中在有效特征提取和分类器训练等方面,机器学习等方法的引入,使得基于多实例学习、稀疏表示的运动目标检测跟踪成为研究的热点;监控视频质量增强主要包括去雾、去夜色、去雨雪、去模糊和超分辨率增强等多方面的内容,现有的算法均是对某类图像清晰化效果较好,而对其他类则相对较差,普适性不高;现有的智能动作分析与异常行为识别技术虽然得到了不断发展,算法的性能也在不断提高,但是从实用角度,除了简单的特定或可控场景外,还没有太多成熟的应用系统。结论 随着大数据时代的到来,智能视频监控的需求将日益迫切,面对众多挑战的同时,该研究领域将迎来前所未有的重大机遇,必将产生越来越多可以实用的研究成果。     

A Review of “Hiring,Training, and Supervising Library Shelvers”

Abstract

The emergence of the Internet has dramatically changed information access capabilities through computers. Tools and resources available on the Internet affect library services in various ways. Many health science librarians are using Internet resources to meet the information needs of health care providers and themselves. This study examines different applications of the Internet components in medical library settings with a special emphasis on reference services. It also discusses the role of the Internet in fulfilling National Network of Libraries of Medicine's (NN/LM) objectives and analyzes the merit and demerits of using the Internet as a reference tool in health sciences libraries.     

视频摘要技术综述

目的 类似于文本摘要,视频摘要是对视频内容的总结。为了合理地评估视频摘要领域的研究进展,正确导向视频摘要的继续研究,本文归纳总结视频摘要技术的主要研究方法和显著性成果,对视频摘要技术进行综述。方法 依据视频摘要的两个主要生成步骤:视频内容分析和摘要生成分别介绍视频摘要的主要研究方法。同时,分析了近5年视频摘要领域的研究状况,对视频摘要发展的新趋势:实时视频摘要和多视角视频摘要进行了阐述。最后,还对视频摘要的评价系统进行了分类总结。结果 对视频摘要进行综述,对摘要中的语义获取难题提出了2种指导性建议。并依据分析结果,展望了视频摘要技术未来的发展方向。结论 视频摘要技术作为视频内容理解的重要组成部分,有较大研究价值。而目前,视频摘要在视频语义表达和摘要评价系统方面并不精确完善,还需进一步的深入研究。     

Internet Reference Services for Distance Education

SUMMARY

Published guidelines for distance learning library services provide a framework for distance education librarians to use in planning services for off-campus students. Other literature in the arena of distance education librarianship provides concrete examples of how reference services have been offered in real settings. This paper attempts to synthesize these two types of literature in order to offer models of reference service for distance learners.     

How May I Help Thee? Let Me Count the 2.0 Ways…

ABSTRACT

Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0 are terms that have been in the vernacular now for some time. There is an ever-increasing number of 2.0 applications that can be utilized as tools for information and reference service in the academic library. Using examples from experience, four such applications are discussed in the context of providing Internet reference service to undergraduate engineering students. It is impossible to incorporate all appropriate 2.0 technologies in Internet reference so it is recommended that the librarian choose a small number at first and determine which ones works best before trying other applications.     

A scalable solution for engineering streaming traffic in the future Internet

As traffic on the Internet continues to grow exponentially, there is a real need to solve scalability and traffic engineering simultaneously – specifically, without using over-provisioning in order to accommodate streaming media traffic. One of the threats to the current operation stability of the Internet comes from UDP-based streaming media applications, such as Skype (which is currently doubling every 6-month) today and video services in the near future. This paper shows how the Internet can benefit from pipeline forwarding in order to: (i) construct ultra-scalable IP switches, (ii) provide predictable quality of service for UDP-based streaming applications, while (iii) preserving elastic TCP-based traffic as is, i.e., without affecting any existing best-effort applications.     

Twenty Years of Virtual Reference

ABSTRACT

In observance of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the first journal article devoted to virtual reference, the author explores early e-mail and chat reference services.     

Design and implementation of a video browsing system for the Internet

Recent advances in multimedia processing technologies, internet‐working technologies, and the World Wide Web phenomenon have resulted in a vast creation and use of digital videos. Due to this reason, an efficient technique to locate and retrieve a desired video from a remote video archive is needed. A trial‐and‐error approach popularly used in current Web search engines is not applicable for searching for a desired video segment since the technique incurs intolerable delays. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a video browsing system that lets the user view a summary of a selected video and search within the video while being downloaded so that the user can determine the relevance of the video as early as possible. The system is inexpensive and scalable, making it suitable for large‐scale distributed systems such as the Internet. The browsing system consists of two major software components: a video server, and a video browser and player called VideoCenter implemented using Microsoft DirectShow multimedia development kit. The implementation of VideoCenter enables us to assess the ease of use of DirectShow as well as its drawbacks in developing multimedia applications. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

映射结合聚类的视频关键帧提取

目的 视频摘要技术在多媒体数据处理和计算机视觉中都扮演着重要的角色。基于聚类的摘要方法多结合图像全局或局部特征,对视频帧进行集群分类操作,再从各类中获取具有代表性的关键帧。然而这些方法多需要提前确定集群的数目,自适应的方法也不能高效的获取聚类的中心。为此,提出一种基于映射和聚类的图像密度值分析的关键帧选取方法。方法 首先利用各图像间存在的差异,提出将其映射至2维空间对应点的度量方法,再依据点对间的相对位置和邻域密度值进行集群的聚类,提出根据聚类的结果从视频中获取具有代表性的关键帧的提取方法。结果 分别使用提出的度量方法对Olivetti人脸库内图像和使用关键帧提取方法对Open Video库进行测试,本文关键帧提取方法的平均查准率达到66%、查全率达到74%,且F值较其他方法高出11%左右达到了69%。结论 本文提出的图像映射后聚类的方法可有效进行图像类别的识别,并可有效地获取视频中的关键帧,进而构成视频的摘要内容。     

Designing and Developing Internet Reference Services to Support Firefighter Distance Learners in Illinois

SUMMARY

This article discusses issues surrounding the development of a small special library's Internet reference services to support firefighter distance learners for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute's (IFSI) online Firefighter II Certification Program, the first of its kind in the nation. Planning for the Internet reference services involves consideration of user needs, funding, staff management, and collection development. In addition, this article explores how the IFSI Library has established a collaboration and partnership with the online course and Information Technology teams, and local public and community college libraries.     

丢包环境中H.264视频编码的快速模式判决

目的 视频编码中传统的快速模式判决算法通常基于对视频源特性的分析,但如果考虑到信道传输中的差错,编码模式的率失真特性就会随之改变,快速模式判决算法的性能也会随之下降,需要考虑丢包环境对快速模式判决算法进行优化。方法 为了解决这一问题,首先分析了丢包环境下各种编码模式的端到端率失真特性,在此基础上提出了一个分层结构的快速模式判决算法。通过快速估计出丢包环境下skip和intra模式的编码率失真代价,进而将模式判决的路径划分为non-intra和non-skip。结果 将本文算法与基于遍历算法的容错视频编码算法进行对比实验,本文算法平均可以降低50%左右的编码时间,同时几乎不会降低率失真性能。结论 实验结果表明,在对丢包环境下端到端率失真代价进行估计的基础上,所提出的分层结构快速模式判决的算法,可以在保证解码端图像质量的同时,显著节省编码时间,满足实时视频通信中对低复杂度和鲁棒性的要求。     

Metadata-driven interactive web video assembly

The recent expansion of broadband Internet access led to an exponential increase of potential consumers of video on the Web. The huge success of video upload websites shows that the online world, with its virtually unlimited possibilities of active user participation, is an ideal complement to traditional consumption-only media like TV and DVD. It is evident that users are willing to interact with content-providing systems in order to get the content they desire. In parallel to these developments, innovative tools for producing interactive, non-linear audio-visual content are being created. They support the authoring process alongside management of media and metadata, enabling on-demand assembly of videos based on the consumer’s wishes. The quality of such a dynamic video remixing system mainly depends on the expressiveness of associated metadata. Eliminating the need for manual input as far as possible, we aim at designing a system which is able to automatically enrich its own media and metadata repositories continuously. Currently, video content remixing is available on the Web mostly in very basic forms. Most platforms offer upload and simple modification of content. Although several implementations exist, to the best of our knowledge no solution uses metadata to its full extent to dynamically render a video stream based on consumers’ wishes. With the research presented in this paper, we propose a novel concept to interactive video assembly on the Web. In this approach, consumers may describe the desired content using a set of domain-specific parameters. Based on the metadata the video clips are annotated with, the system chooses clips fitting the user criteria. They are aligned in an aesthetically pleasing manner while the user furthermore is able to interactively influence content selection during playback at any time. We use a practical example to clarify the concept and further outline what it takes to implement a suchlike system.

Chat Reference

ABSTRACT

Internet Reference Services Quarterly is introducing a new column that will focus on current developments and practice concerns in chat reference. This first entry gives some background on the column's origins, and details the directions it will take.