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Public-Access Computer Systems Review Volume 02 Number 02
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The Public-Access Computer Systems Review
Volume 2, Number 2 (1991) ISSN 1048-6542
Editor-In-Chief: Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
University of Houston
Associate Editors: Columns: Leslie Pearse, OCLC
Communications: Dana Rooks, University of
Houston
Reviews: Mike Ridley, University of Waterloo
Editorial Board: Walt Crawford, Research Libraries Group
Nancy Evans, Library and Information
Technology Association
David R. McDonald, Tufts University
R. Bruce Miller, University of California,
San Diego
Paul Evan Peters, Coalition for Networked
Information
Peter Stone, University of Sussex
Published on an irregular basis by the University Libraries,
University of Houston. Technical support is provided by the
Information Technology Division, University of Houston.
Circulation: 3,000 subscribers in 32 countries.
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Editor's Address: Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
University Libraries
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-2091
(713) 749-4241
LIB3@UHUPVM1
Articles are stored as files at LISTSERV@UHUPVM1. To retrieve a
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Back issues are also stored at LISTSERV@UHUPVM1. To obtain a
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Note that all of the above e-mail addresses are on BITNET. The
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CONTENTS
COMMUNICATIONS
Symposium on the Role of Network-Based Electronic Resources in
Scholarly Communication and Research
Charles W. Bailey, Jr. and Dana Rooks, eds. (pp. 4-60)
To retrieve this file: GET BAILEY1 PRV2N2 F=MAIL
Ralph Alberico, William Britten, Craig Summerhill, and Erwin
Welsch answer five questions about network-based electronic
resources:
QUESTION 1: What role should librarians play in providing
intellectual access to network-based electronic resources?
Should librarians mount a collective, nationwide effort or
should they primarily focus their efforts on meeting local
user needs?
QUESTION 2: Considering the dynamic nature of the network
information environment, what are the most promising
technological strategies for facilitating access to network-
based electronic resources? Catalog records in national
bibliographic utilities and local online catalogs?
Specialized resource directory databases, which would be
available on the network? Microcomputer-based front-ends,
possibly utilizing hypermedia or expert system technologies?
QUESTION 3: What kind of support services should libraries
provide to their users to help them utilize network-based
electronic resources? Special workstations in the library?
Bibliographic instruction? User documentation? Mediated
access?
QUESTION 4: Should libraries "collect," provide access to,
and preserve network-based electronic resources? If so,
what types of information (e.g., computer conference logs
and electronic serials) should be collected? How should
access to these locally housed electronic materials be
provided? What types of barriers do you see that will
hinder libraries in their attempts to accomplish this goal?
QUESTION 5: As one response to the deepening crisis in the
cost of library materials, colleges and universities could
become publishers of network-based electronic journals,
index and abstract databases, and scholarly electronic
books. Should they do this? If so, what role should
libraries play in this effort?
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COLUMNS
Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column
I Like It Like That
Walt Crawford (pp. 61-64)
To retrieve this file: GET CRAWFORD PRV2N2 F=MAIL
Walt Crawford examines the question of how online catalogs
can help users find more items "like that one."
EDITORIAL
You Say You Want an Evolution
Charles W. Bailey, Jr. (pp. 65-66)
To retrieve this file: GET BAILEY2 PRV2N2 F=MAIL
The Editor-in-Chief discusses changes in the distribution
format of the PACS Review.
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Bailey, Jr., Charles W., and Dana Rooks, eds. "Symposium on the
Role of Network-Based Electronic Resources in Scholarly
Communication and Research." The Public-Access Computer Systems
Review 2, no. 2 (1991): 4-60.
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Increasingly, BITNET, Internet, and other networks are being used
for scholarly communication and research purposes. Computer
conferences, electronic serials, online catalogs, and specialized
databases are examples of network-based electronic resources.
Given the decentralized nature of information provision on
networks, it can be challenging to identify and access
appropriate network-based electronic resources, and the long-term
availability of these resources is not assured.
What roles should libraries play in creating, collecting,
providing access to, and supporting network-based electronic
resources? In this symposium, the editors pose five questions
related to these issues.
The symposium participants are:
Ralph Alberico
Undergraduate Library
The University of Texas at Austin
ALBERICO@UTXVM
William Britten
John C. Hodges Library
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
BRITTEN@UTKLIB.LIB.UTK.EDU
Craig A. Summerhill
Coalition for Networked Information
SUMMERHI@UMDC
Erwin K. Welsch
European History Library
Memorial Library
University of Wisconsin - Madison
EWELSCH@MACC.WISC.EDU
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QUESTION 1: What role should librarians play in providing
intellectual access to network-based electronic resources?
Should librarians mount a collective, nationwide effort or
should they primarily focus their efforts on meeting local
user needs?
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| Alberico
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Networks right now are vast uncharted territories. Networks are
often compared to the wild west. Though the space of networks is
mostly psychological, the dominant metaphor is still that of the
new frontier. Roles for the players have yet to be defined. One
of the surprising characteristics of this computer technology is
its leveling influence--electronic communication is notorious for
subverting the traditional hierarchical chain of communication
within organizations. Therefore, it is not too late to choose
our own roles. As librarians, it is possible to have an impact
on several levels. Our most immediate impact will most likely
arise from our role as educators. Initially, the constituencies
most likely to be influenced by librarians will be friends,
colleagues, and clients within our own institutions.
The role of librarian as educator is certainly not new to us, but
it will become a much more critical role as we provide
intellectual access to network-based electronic resources. So
much information, in so many networks, is so interconnected that
there is truly an information space--Teilhard de Chardin's
"noosphere" made real. Information is becoming less bound to the
physical objects that carry it. And the only effective way to
find out about the rich and varied pools of data, information,
knowledge, and discourse on the networks is by using them. So
librarians must use the network and, once they have taught
themselves, they must pass on that knowledge to others. A
natural role involves making people aware of the value of
networks, teaching people to use networks, and providing
consultation services. In other words, librarians must provide
the same services they have always provided with the printed
word. Still other librarians will specify and design front-ends
and gateways for the networks, work toward integrating the use of
networks with other information resources, and develop knowledge-
based network access and awareness mechanisms.
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Involvement of librarians should be local, national, and even
international. At the local level, librarians are promoting the
use of networks, making networks available to local
constituencies, and teaching clients to take advantage of what's
out there. At the national and international levels, librarians
must be involved by establishing standards as a political lobby,
as a major provider of network resources, and as an advocate for
the free (but not in the "free lunch" sense of the word) and open
exchange of network information.
Locally, we can help to diffuse the technology within our
organizations. Nationally, we must become involved in the
political process. Legislation now working its way through
Congress will have a major impact not only on the technical
capabilities of networks, but also on network economics.
Economic factors, in turn, will dictate how the networks are used
and by whom. There is no doubt that there will eventually be a
National Research and Education Network (NREN). What the NREN
will look like and who will administer it are less certain.
Libraries have already played a major role in the democratization
of the Internet. Organized efforts like the Coalition for
Networked Information are essential to insure a continuing role
in determining the ultimate functions and capabilities of the
NREN.
If we don't become involved at all levels, there is a very real
possibility that resources will shift to other segments of the
economy that can deliver the electronic services that academic
and post-industrial organizations will need to survive. It is
already happening in some places.
But not to worry, libraries have always been participants on the
network and this involvement is intensifying. The fact that you
are reading these pearls of electronic wisdom because they came
to a machine in your home or office from a machine in Texas is
evidence of our collective involvement. Already within many
universities, it is library personnel who represent the greatest
reservoir of knowledge about electronic information resources.
And, in many cases, it is librarians who have the most experience
in managing the technology. After all, managing an online
library system is no trivial task. Library files and utilities
are already so integrated within networks that simply being
involved in their governance will insure an important role for
the library profession.
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But I'm afraid that until we have a national initiative of the
scope of the rural electrification program there will still be
many who won't be able to benefit from the networks because they
are not associated with a large or wealthy corporate, academic,
or government host. The current debate over NREN highlights the
fact that the full power of network potential isn't likely to
come to the neighborhood branch library in most places anytime in
the near future.
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| Britten
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There is a need for both local assistance to individuals as well
as coordinated profession-wide endeavors to facilitate access.
Information seekers traversing the web of local, regional, and
international networks today immediately discover that this is
frontier territory: roadways are undeveloped; the language is
obscure to most; support services are inadequate; and there are
few maps. Even for the network traveler who has knowledge of a
specific resource, a personal guide is often required to locate
and use the resource. On many college and university campuses, a
few librarians have become the guides to network information.
These few are reestablishing the librarian's traditional role in
an electronic environment as well as initiating relationships of
mutual benefit with the builders of the physical network and the
providers and consumers of electronic information. These
relationships are being established not only locally, but within
nationally-based efforts such as the Coalition for Networked
Information.
CNI was formed in the spring of 1990 through the mutual
sponsorship of the Association of Research Libraries, EDUCOM, and
CAUSE (The Association for the Management of Information
Technology in Higher Education). CNI's stated goal is to promote
"the creation of and access to information resources in networked
environments in order to enrich scholarship and to enhance
academic productivity" [1]. (See issues of EDUCOM Review for
CNI-related articles, or subscribe to the BITNET list CNIDIR-L at
LISTSERV@UNMB for discussion of CNI efforts to inventory Internet
resources.)
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Another national effort involves the development of the Z39.50
network protocol standard. Z39.50 exists within the overall OSI
protocol layers and will provide the standard network capability
for search and retrieval of information between remote computers.
Just as the "TELNET" and "FTP" commands of TCP/IP have enabled
network access, the Z39.50 standard will hopefully enable
sophisticated use of network-based information.
While national efforts such as CNI and Z39.50 seek to "tame the
frontier" through the establishment of standards and the design
of network access tools, individual librarians should continue to
claim the role of guide, interpreter, and manager of electronic
and network-based information. This will involve much
exploration and continuous self-education as the environment
evolves, but the endeavor is vital for our profession. As the
"virtual library" becomes a reality and as network access
competes with traditional ownership of information, librarians
must be perceived as managers of this environment. If we are
not, the "library without walls" may become the library without
librarians.
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| Summerhill
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Librarianship is based upon the principles that data should be:
(1) acquired for the good of the user community, (2) organized in
a manner that facilitates timely retrieval, (3) preserved for
future generations of users, and (4) provided to users. When
accessing network resources, the user is freed of the need for
physical proximity to the data. Thus, the provision of
intellectual access in a globally networked environment does not
hinge upon the library's ability to acquire material, but upon
the library's ability to direct users to material in the network.
As networks exist today, the identification and/or location of
scholarly material is sometimes difficult.
Sensible organization of network resources may be the most
important factor in assuring their long-term viability. It also
poses the greatest challenge to the library profession, and it
presents a crucial paradox: one cannot organize material that has
not been identified and located, but the location of material is
facilitated by, if not dependent upon, organization.
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We are viewing the dawn of a new age of communication. High-
speed data networks will ultimately change the way people think
about communicating with other individuals in much the same
manner that the book, telephone, radio, and television have
influenced preceding generations. At this time, global
networking is in its infancy. The Internet is growing rapidly.
However, only a fraction of the potential users in academic
institutions with Internet connections are actually using it, and
the majority of users simply employ the limited applications of
electronic mail. The true vision of a national network, such as
the proposed National Research and Education Network (NREN), is
one where many institutions that are currently locked out of
existing networks, such as public schools and public libraries,
become connected to a global data superhighway.
In reality, even with the creation of the NREN, central
administration of one global network is unlikely (and probably
undesirable) in the near future. However, there is ample
opportunity for organizational development of existing networks
at the regional, state, and national levels. Librarians,
especially academic librarians, should take leadership roles in
the development of organized network resources. Since ancient
times, scholars and librarians have focused on organizing data.
Librarians, in particular, have much to contribute toward the
organization of data in a global electronic network. A
collective, nationwide effort on the part of librarians to help
organize the network will ultimately serve the needs of local
library users.
By approaching networked information resources with a passive,
wait-and-see attitude, our profession lends a certain credibility
to the viewpoint that networked resources are inherently inferior
in form and content to their tangible counterparts. If there is
validity in the perception that networked resources are in some
way intangible, it stems from an accurate perception of a network
in disarray. As reflected in current library collections that
routinely incorporate audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and videotapes,
librarians have already embraced data in formats other than the
book. Why should network resources be treated any differently?
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| Welsch
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Librarians daily face the obligation of balancing the needs of
their local constituencies with their responsibilities to the
development of information services in the profession as a whole.
The financial problems that many--most?--are now facing, in the
realms of technology, training, teaching the use of new
technologies, and materials acquisitions, are exacerbating this
dilemma. There exists an increasing likelihood that more
institutions will emphasize local needs and turn inward, either
exclusively or partially. Although no one can deny that our
immediate constituency takes priority, if that inward turning
does take place, this retreat from national and, through
networking, international commitments and obligations will work
to the detriment of libraries' emerging potential for affecting
network evolution and consequently information provision.
On the national level and on behalf of libraries of all sizes,
ALA needs to continue to support the concept of networking (NREN
or whatever emerges) with a dedicated commitment. ALA and our
other professional organizations must affirm that librarians
consider the importance of networking and resource access through
networks in the latter years of this century and into the next
comparable to the development of indexes during the last century,
the evolution of the MARC format in the recent past, and the
implementation of an ever increasing number of online catalogs.
Without the support of our national professional organizations
that serve clienteles of varying kinds and with varying degrees
of technological sophistication, it is hard to imagine that a
nationally sustainable network for libraries will emerge from any
budgeting process.
It is important that librarians recognize that networking is not
a topic just for the technological elite in automation
departments in research libraries. Although my perspectives are
colored by many years in an academic research library, references
to networks abound at all levels.
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Barbara Wittkopf enjoins librarians to:
follow developments of the NREN as they are reported in the
professional literature and the news media. BI librarians
may additionally want to consider ways in which they can
contribute directly to the work of the Coalition. The
overriding goal of every professional librarian should be to
enhance learning and ensure access to information for all
[2].
Thomas R. McAnge et al. demonstrate that concepts of access to
information at a distance through networking have penetrated the
K-12 curriculum and have helped break down barriers of academic
ability and provide a challenging and motivating curriculum [3].
An example of the spread of technology beyond the academic world
is the formation of the new Consortium for School Networking,
which is intended to meet K-12 needs [4]. Networking is for all;
it needs national-level support of all kinds.
On the local level, librarians could follow patterns extolled in
principle but infrequently followed in practice: to become
working partners in coalitions of interested faculty members,
computer center staff, and others concerned with the
implementation and use of network resources. This involvement is
intended to include staff from many library departments, not just
from a single domain. The perspectives of all librarians,
whether from user education, reference, or technical services,
are equally important since network technology, like death, will
eventually get us all.
Participation in local processes can mean significant changes in
the way librarians conduct business and their relationships with
information seekers. This ability to develop coalitions with new
groups that share concerns about technological innovations and to
evolve resource infrastructures to deal with new needs can have a
significant impact [5]. Affecting local computer center
personnel who participate in making national decisions makes it
possible for librarians' viewpoints to have national impact as
well. The formation of local alliances, following the former
Chicago Mayor's dictum that all politics are local, and the
ability to share in making decisions will be a crucial part of
the future. If non-librarians make library decisions--and all
networking decisions are becoming library concerns--they may be
ones that, as Richard W. McCoy stated, "would not serve higher
education or scholarship well" [6].
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This participation in evolving information structures on the
local level also might alter the psychology of librarianship as
we begin to recognize that we have the potential for being active
participants in the change process rather than passive observers.
With this acceptance of technology through participation, even as
the impetus for new directions continues to accelerate,
eventually the role of being active partners in the information
transfer process becomes clearer.
Librarians also can demonstrate that they have the collective
organizational skills to bring information order out of chaos.
Based on information currently available about network resources,
there is a significant role for librarians. I recently tried to
use instructions about obtaining a file that were evidently
written in some exasperation because this process was so "easy,"
only to discover that the instructions were wrong, only slightly
wrong, but enough to puzzle the inexperienced. This experience
parallels those of others who find data about information
resources on the networks to be random, incomplete, and
potentially misleading.
If we are willing to assume them, librarians can have other
potential organizational roles. Whether the resources are in
collections of electronic texts or in remote databases, which are
available either through anonymous FTP or searches of list
servers, mail servers, Comserve, or similar information sources
that use a variety of software packages with varying search
strategies, the situation is chaotic, disorganized, and wasteful
of an individual's resources and time.
As a librarian who is responsible for locating resources related
to specific disciplines as well as to libraries, I am faced with
an increasing number of library and disciplinary list server and
database resources that are difficult to find, acquire, and
manage. The dispersal of information has already resulted in
"cross-posting," about which so many have already complained, and
an inability to even guess where information might be that deters
all but the most dedicated librarian from exploring those
resources.
Despite the challenges of coping with diminished resources,
librarians have local and national roles to fulfill. They need
to continue to support national initiatives and developments as
well as participating in all kinds of local organizations
concerned with information. In networking, national, and local
perspectives are no longer mutually exclusive. They are, in
fact, the same thing. If we do not act, others will, and we
might not like the results.
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QUESTION 2: Considering the dynamic nature of the network
information environment, what are the most promising
technological strategies for facilitating access to network-
based electronic resources? Catalog records in national
bibliographic utilities and local online catalogs?
Specialized resource directory databases, which would be
available on the network? Microcomputer-based front-ends,
possibly utilizing hypermedia or expert system technologies?
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| Alberico
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Before examining strategies for facilitating access to network
resources, we first need to determine what people actually need
to know to use networks intelligently. It seems that there are
two problems to overcome in effectively using networks. The
first is the problem of information overload. The store of
digitally represented knowledge is growing exponentially. There
is already more electronic information than the typical scholar
can keep track of. Therefore, the first obstacle is that people
need to know that a given network resource exists before they can
take advantage of that resource.
Secondly, there is a cognitive overload problem. Information
systems are heterogeneous. There is no single search language or
data structure; it is not possible to move effortlessly from one
source of digitized knowledge to another. Therefore, people will
require assistance in exploiting specific network resources once
connections are made.
So what are the solutions to these two problems? Certainly
online directories are one way in which the network community can
respond to the problem of information overload. Just as the
yellow pages add value to your telephone and to the businesses
that are listed, network resource directories can add value to
the network itself and the resources available through it. The
Internet Resource Guide is an annotated list of databases,
library catalogs, and other network resources. It is available
through anonymous FTP as a group of compressed files that must be
decompressed once they arrive. CARL, the Colorado Alliance of
Research Libraries, has added value to the Internet guide by
indexing it by keyword and making it available online. This is
an example of a group of libraries taking a first step in the
right direction.
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There are a number of other library-based efforts to create
directories of Internet resources. However, the resources on the
Internet represent a moving target. As soon as a directory is
created, it is likely to be out of date. Eventually, there will
be servers for keeping track of the constantly changing resources
on the network and linking people to resources that meet their
needs. As network resources continue to proliferate, the problem
of identifying and accessing them will require creative
solutions. Directories are only the beginning.
Traditional catalog records are probably less useful as a way of
telling people about network resources. After all, catalog
records were originally designed for the purpose of generating
printed cards to describe printed works. Nevertheless,
cataloging and indexing will remain important activities in a
networked environment, but not necessarily in their current
forms. Organizationally, it will become necessary to separate
the search problem from the inventory control problem.
It also is becoming increasingly apparent that the processes for
describing intellectual works and for providing access to
knowledge resources must become more closely associated within
the organization. It also makes sense to associate all of the
tasks needed to acquire, maintain, transport, and keep track of
documents. Someday there may be a central repository of
electronic information with a common search language, data
structure, and communication protocol. On the other hand, we
might never see such an information utopia.
Another area in need of a solution is how to describe entire
collections. In the future, each OPAC will have gateways linking
it to other OPACs and to many other network resources. A subject
search might result in a network connection being established
that directs the scholar to a resource that has been tagged as
being particularly strong in the subject area under
investigation. The scientific resources that are already on the
network present intriguing possibilities for the near future. As
standardization evolves, searching across multiple files is
becoming a reality. There should be some interesting projects in
this area in the near future.
Currently, libraries are handling access to remote resources
through their online public access catalogs (OPACs) in a variety
of ways. Describing a remote electronic resource with a catalog
record in a local OPAC is the simplest approach. Explaining
access routes to these resources, through documentation or a
systematic instruction program, requires another level of
commitment. Still more commitment is required to provide
gateways to other resources. However, nothing is very permanent
in the world of networked information, including OPACs, which
presents yet another barrier to network access.
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The knowledge-based search engine is a potential next step in
accessing electronic resources. The network explorer will need a
craft that is equipped with the best navigation equipment. Maps
and charts will be needed. Built-in thesauri and data structures
will be required for the parts of the network on which the
explorer might care to roam. The navigator must incorporate a
system of notation, a way of keeping track of where one has been.
Rules, frames, objects, hypertext--just about every approach is
being tried. Explorers will need ways of finding islands of
electronic information scattered in vast seas of knowledge.
Programmable navigation instruments will make it possible to
store subject knowledge about specific domains on the network.
For example, upon approaching MEDLINE one would provide the
search engine with knowledge about the medical subject headings
and tree structures in order to set a course through the specific
area of medicine in which a researcher is interested.
The sheer volume of information on the network will inevitably
result in attempts to represent the semantic relationships within
stores of electronic text. Keyword searching will yield to
knowledge-based searching. Researchers will demand ways of
filtering out extraneous information. As people interact with
the network, they will develop profiles that will help to guide
the interaction. The ability to build the kind of links
exemplified in HyperCard stacks will become routine as
researchers build their personal electronic libraries.
Widespread use of the network-friendly UNIX operating system will
accelerate the commercial development of front-ends and expert
system shells for network access. Online catalogs and abstract
databases represent some of the most highly structured data
available anywhere on the networks. This contrasts with the
unruly mess one finds on the lists and NetNews. Information
retrieval software is almost always designed for highly
structured data. In order to take advantage of the network's
dynamism, reader software is designed more for interaction than
retrieval. Unlike software designed to retrieve neatly organized
chunks of information like as bibliographic records, reader
software has to augment the researcher's ability to move around
rapidly and efficiently in a complex information space. People
will need something to help them reduce the amount of corrupt,
spurious, and, in the case of viruses and worms, dangerous
information that is out there in certain regions of the network.
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Full text presents its own set of problems. How does one extract
meaning from text? Many institutions will develop their own
knowledge-based front-ends and navigation systems focusing on
local needs, preferences, and clientele. The incoming generation
of UNIX desktop computers will spawn micro-based toolkits.
Individual scholars will develop their own modes of interaction
with the networks. The library community will be involved in
these efforts from R&D at one end to consulting at the other.
Currently, the R&D community is faced with two essentially
different approaches to dealing with the large store of
electronic information on the Net. One approach--the
knowledge-based approach--seeks to represent the meaning of the
electronic documents on the Net. The other approach--the brute
force approach--seeks to use raw computer power to assist people
with searching large electronic files. Whether one or the other
will emerge as the best means of access to networked information
remains to be seen. Certainly the two approaches are not
mutually exclusive and, therefore, we are quite likely to see
hybrid systems combining elements of each.
The knowledge-based approach improves access by imposing
structure on the data. Elaborate indexes, thesauri, and expert
system knowledge bases are all examples of the knowledge-based
approach. This approach lends itself to domains where
information is subject to systematic, hierarchical organization.
Front-ends employing this approach work best with highly
structured, homogeneous, and relatively unambiguous data bases.
Numerous projects under way at the National Library of Medicine
exemplify this approach. The medical literature seems to lend
itself quite well to this approach. But the knowledge-based
approach is not without problems, especially when it comes to
networked information. It is less likely to work well with the
kinds of unstructured, heterogeneous, and ambiguous information
often found on the networks. And the knowledge-based approach,
because it does require human knowledge, is labor intensive and
expensive.
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The brute force approach on the other hand is not labor
intensive; it is computer intensive. Where the knowledge-based
approach is weak, the brute force approach is strong. The brute
force approach is especially suited for dealing with large
unstructured files like full-text databases. As computer
capabilities increase, the brute force approach is beginning to
look more promising and the ways in which it is being used extend
well beyond simple keyword searching. The best example of the
brute force approach in a network environment is the WAIS (Wide
Area Information Server) developed by Brewster Kahle and his
colleagues at Thinking Machines Corporation, a pioneer company in
the production of massively parallel supercomputers.
WAIS is designed to permit searching across multiple full-text
databases without requiring the searcher to understand the search
commands or data structures of any of them. Users of WAIS begin
by submitting English language queries from a local client to a
server on the network. Documents matching the query are then
displayed for the user's evaluation. Once the user has evaluated
the results of the initial query, the WAIS client reformulates
the query, incorporating words derived from documents identified
as relevant. The power of the computer is used to identify
documents that are statistically similar to documents identified
as relevant. No attempt is made to describe documents in terms
of their meaning; the computer simply uses its pattern marching
capabilities to identify new documents containing words found in
other documents identified as relevant by the searcher.
There are already many WAIS servers distributed throughout the
Net, each providing access to a different full-text file. A
single interface, known as the client, provides access to files
as diverse as the CIA World Factbook, the poetry of W. B. Yeats,
and Billy Barron's list of OPACs. A Directory of Servers helps
researchers identify and query servers located in different
places on the Internet. The directory itself is a server and
users interact with it by using the same client interface that is
used to interact with other servers. Interestingly enough the
protocol chosen by the developers of WAIS is a modified version
of the Z39.50 protocol, which is used by a growing number of
automated library systems.
+ Page 18 +
The choice of the Z39.50 protocol is significant for a number of
reasons. It is an open protocol and its adoption by WAIS is
likely to encourage others to adopt it as well, promoting the
standardization that is needed for the easy exchange of all
formats of electronic information. In the future, Z39.50 has the
potential to deal with audio, video, and image data in addition
to text. Libraries that already employ the Z39.50 protocol have
the potential to turn their OPACs into WAIS servers.
There is enough territory on the Net to warrant knowledge-based
and brute force approaches to network-based information
retrieval. Libraries are already playing an important role in
the development of new forms of access to networked information
in both areas. We don't know yet which strategy is likely to
yield the best results. Most likely each strategy will work
better in some situations than in others. Hybrid systems also
hold promise. Libraries can and should support research and
development along a number of different research fronts.
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| Britten
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Sophisticated network access tools that are implicit in the
technology of the networks, if not in existence yet, are largely
beyond the scope of development by local libraries. Again, this
is a problem that ultimately must defer to coordinated national
efforts, such as CNI, and cooperation with the computer science
community. The narrow conceptualizations that we have of words
like "catalog," "directory," "index," and "database" will not
accommodate what is required in the Internet environment.
The virtual library of our future will require a "virtual
catalog" or "logical index"--meaning that the information
contained in such a catalog or index will not be located in one
physical database. As network resources are mounted locally, a
standard network data element will be used to include that
resource in a logical database. If the resource is withdrawn
from the network, the pointer from the virtual database to it
will automatically disappear.
+ Page 19 +
The Internet's Domain Name System, which keeps track of Internet
addresses, is an example of a logically connected database.
Local computers maintain only local naming information, while
retrieving information about the rest of the Internet from other
computers. The Internet White Pages project is another example
of a distributed directory [7].
While the technical details of how a distributed database works
need not be apparent to all librarians, our profession must be
involved in the conceptual aspects of accessing network
information. In fact, as librarians and campus computing
professionals compare notes at national conferences such as
EDUCOM and National Net, it is apparent that it is the librarians
who have the conceptual vision and service experience to
understand what is required to provide network access to the
average user.
The announcement by Thinking Machines, Inc. of the test release
of the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) Internet software
represents an initial development of an advanced network access
tool based on the Z39.50 standards [8]. Thinking Machines is the
producer of the massively parallel computers that would be
required to manage enormous information servers such as what
might be created by the Library of Congress. Thinking Machines
is offering their test software free of charge to the Internet
community.
The money-making potential of information commerce is
substantial. It is not hard to foresee how WAIS software, a
proliferation of information servers, and ubiquitous connections
from personal computers to national networks could provide the
combination of technological capability and economy of scale to
launch full-blown information utilities far beyond the current
systems, such as CompuServe or Dow Jones. It is impossible to
predict how the traditional roles of libraries may change when
households are paying $25 per month for access to a vast
information network from the comfort and convenience of their
homes.
+ Page 20 +
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Catalog records for bibliographic materials located on the
network are needed. However, placing signposts pointing to the
existence of non-bibliographic resources within the databases of
national bibliographic utilities and/or local library catalogs
should be viewed as an interim solution to the larger issues
surrounding the provision of access to network resources.
Similarly, many of the problems associated with the location and
utilization of network resources are only compounded by
microcomputer front-ends that require frequent software revision
and periodic hardware maintenance. Additionally, providing user
support for numerous front-ends taxes the library's public
service staff. The development of easy to use, frequently
updated, and readily accessible network directories will most
effectively facilitate access to other network resources in the
foreseeable future.
It is ironic that technology currently exists to transport
gigabytes of digital data including full-motion video, sound, and
accompanying text to another user across the country, and, yet,
in order to transmit that data, the sender needs to place a
telephone call to a colleague in order to obtain his/her network
electronic mail address. Clearly, there is a need for the
establishment of centrally organized network directories
encompassing: (1) machines on the network, (2) network-accessible
applications residing on those machines, and (3) individual
users. Although a clear imperative exists for the development of
central network directories, there are several reasons why more
reliable directory data is not existent on the networks at this
time.
+ Page 21 +
Aside from a few pilot projects aimed at illustrating the scope
of networking technology, little attention has been given to the
development of network directories. One such pilot, the White
Pages Project based at Portland State University, focuses on the
development of a network directory of electronic mail addresses
for individual users. Utilizing a software package from the
United Kingdom named QUIPU and a X.500 directory implementation
running on top of the lower levels of the TCP/IP protocol suite,
this network directory solution has met with limited success due
to the memory requirements associated with searching it. Memory
caching in excess of one megabyte per user is required, and this
could quickly cripple some machines that serve numerous
simultaneous users.
While technological barriers inhibiting the implementation of
network directories will ultimately be overcome, other barriers
are more prohibitive. Despite the successes of Art St. George
and Billy Barron, who each maintain and distribute lists of
online public access catalogs accessible through the Internet,
the implementation and maintenance required for network
directories large enough to serve a global community is beyond
the ability of a single individual. As colleges and universities
rewire their campuses and create the local topologies needed to
accommodate the higher bandwidth associated with video, sound,
and graphics, network configurations change almost daily.
Therefore, when dealing with a volatile environment such as the
Internet, the tasks associated with the maintenance of a network
directory are particularly burdensome. The network is changing
too rapidly.
However, should an individual possess the eternal vigilance and
superhuman skill required to undertake such a task of
organization, there needs to be a common acceptance among the
user community of his or her authority to do so. This type of
authority is more appropriately vested in institutions than in
individuals. Currently, there is little incentive for any
academic institution to undertake the establishment and
maintenance of network directories. The costs associated with
establishing and maintaining a network directory are prohibitive
for most institutions, and tasks associated with supporting a
larger global community are understandably relegated a position
of lesser importance than those tasks associated with supporting
local needs.
+ Page 22 +
Issues surrounding the privacy of network users on the network
and copyright issues also may affect the development of network
directories. For example, is it a violation of Art St. George's
privacy to list his electronic mail address when citing his list
of Internet-accessible OPACs? In a more traditional paper, one
would not list the phone number of an individual who wrote a
paper being referenced. Guidelines concerning what is
required legally and ethically during the development of network
directories need to be established.
Finally, while the needs of a large community of network users
are better served by a distributed model of data processing, data
integrity is best guaranteed when the updated data is reviewed at
one central location. This model has been successfully used by
some existing networks for updating the host naming tables
associated with machines on the network. When changes are
imminent, they are submitted to an authorized individual at each
network host via a hierarchy of distribution lists.
If a central agency, or more likely a few agencies, are going to
take a role in the development of network directories, which
agencies will be involved? At present, three types of agencies,
none of which have exclusive rights to development of network
resources, seem likely. Government agencies at the state or
federal level may appear and take the lead on the development of
network directories. Corporations may be formed to oversee such
development [9]. Finally, special interest groups such as the
Coalition for Networked Information, CAUSE, and EDUCOM, may
undertake the challenges presented by network directory
development.
+ Page 23 +
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An analogy with observed information seeking behaviors for access
to printed resources at a distance, although lengthy, may help
understand strategies that could be followed in a network
context.
The decision to integrate the Center for Research Library's cards
into Wisconsin-Madison's card catalog from the start was
demonstrably and statistically proven to be one of the main
reasons why Wisconsin was one of the major borrowers from the
Center. Availability of information in one location, one file
drawer, one alphabet, even if it was only author/title
information and no subject cards where available, made a palpable
difference in user access to distant resources. Whether the
resources had been "owned" by Wisconsin and deposited in the
Center or whether they "belonged" to some other library, our
library users found them in one blended alphabetical catalog and
borrowed them even though they were located at a distance. The
resources were regarded as being extensions of the library's
collections; they only happened to be located somewhere else.
Conversely, those resources not specifically identified by
individual titles as being either here or at the Center, even
though vast (e.g., local government documents), were less
frequently used. Since they were not listed in the catalog, an
additional reference tool was required to identify and access
them. The same principle can be applied to local audiovisual,
database, or other specialized resources not represented in a
centralized card catalog. Without such listing they are
difficult to locate and are used only by those who know they
exist, usually through word of mouth or due to referrals from a
knowledgeable person. Without such assistance, users could
easily miss important resources.
With the implementation of an online catalog, but without full
retrospective conversion, we are seeing verification of "Mooer's
Law"--the most convenient information systems are those most
likely to be used. Students readily use the online catalog--the
library Nintendo as one student called it--but are forgetting
that there is a second source: the traditional card catalog. The
result is an increase in the number of interlibrary loan requests
for items that the library already holds, but that are
represented only in the card catalog.
+ Page 24 +
This demonstrated user preference for a single source of
information should guide our approach to information about
network resources. Patrons prefer one access tool and,
particularly if it is an electronic one, frequently assume that
source to be complete and comprehensive. Flowing from this
belief about user tendencies would be the "math fix" for network
access: don't "multiply" sources of information; don't "divide"
network or electronic information data from traditional sources;
rather "add" them to information sources that our users already
access, most typically online catalogs or information guides.
One far-reaching proposal, automated enhanced searching
capabilities, seems ideal, although distant. A device that would
automatically extend a local search of an online catalog to reach
appropriate databases or other information on the networks seems
to be a model for the future. (Some commercial vendors already
offer ways of extending a local search on a tool such as a CD-ROM
product into an online environment to search remote databases.)
Extending this concept to network resources, a user would enter a
search in an online catalog. If the query comes up empty, the
system would automatically search the networks, local and distant
databases, and other sources for related information, display it
on a local terminal, and make provision for document delivery.
But, given technological barriers, libraries' proclivity for
utilizing non-compatible systems, and other issues of funding and
cooperation, that solution seems far away.
In the interim, several solutions are possible. Continuously
updated online guides are viable--certainly the technology
exists--if someone assumes the responsibility for continuous
revision and has the commitment and resources to accomplish the
task. Efforts such as those of Laine Farley to provide guides to
the Internet should be applauded and supported.
+ Page 25 +
Centralized cataloging, such as OCLC, has proven to be effective;
the MARC format has the capabilities to handle network materials.
Even though cataloging may paradoxically seem to some to be a
secondary approach, a centralized, network-accessible catalog
with complete network "call numbers" is preferable to the non-
system that exists now. Yet with the difficulties most libraries
are having keeping up with cataloging printed materials and using
such devices as abbreviated records, one wonders about the source
of the added labor and technical expertise to accomplish these
tasks. The need for dynamic, or even batch, updating
capabilities of any guide or cataloging system is a question of
finances as much as it is of will or skill. Whatever system
evolves, it should be viewed as one that could handle advanced
information capabilities. For example, it could provide SDI
services that would update information to supplement an earlier
search when a user came online and, thus, becomes an active--
rather than passive--participant in the information process.
One important development that needs reinforcement is working
toward standards, whether in MARC or other formats, concerning
the description of network text files [10]. Work on defining
names and addresses for network files has been started, but based
on the incomplete and inaccurate references that still exist,
this area needs ongoing effort.
Some of the best efforts to organize network information have
been those of dedicated individuals. Not all of them are
librarians, but many of them are not affiliated with computer
centers either [11].
What is needed now is an accessible union list of "network
library information resources" that: (1) includes appropriate
subject as well as technical information; (2) is continuously
updated; and (3) is accessible to the uninitiated. Text files
that are zipped, stuffed, or that otherwise require a complicated
secondary step may help local computers store data more
efficiently and networks transmit them, but, as messages on
various servers show, they handicap beginning users, precisely
the audience we should be trying to reach. As these union lists
accumulate on local systems, they will themselves need to be
cataloged and included in online catalogs.
+ Page 26 +
Whatever eventually evolves, it should be a system that
integrates networking within the emerging comprehensive
definition of library information. The belief that somehow
networks and electronic information are "different," and,
therefore, require special treatment is antithetical to the
evolution of successful information systems. Technology and
technological resources need to be integrated as closely as
possible with traditional resources within a unified approach to
information founded on principles derived from studies of
information seeking and use. Users want to be able to identify
information through one access point and not through a series of
separate catalogs or information utilities with varying search
strategies and command structures that complicate as much as they
help. Until a search device, a dynamically updated online guide,
or satisfactory resource guides are created, we will have to
continue to depend on that hypermedia, intelligent (but not
artificial), semi-robotic system that is known as a "librarian."
+ Page 27 +
QUESTION 3: What kind of support services should libraries
provide to their users to help them utilize network-based
electronic resources? Special workstations in the library?
Bibliographic instruction? User documentation? Mediated
access?
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| Alberico
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All of the above, but most emphatically systematic instruction.
The ability to navigate on the networks will become a very
important aspect of "information literacy" in the coming decades.
It is within the purview and capability of libraries to teach
clients to use complex electronic information retrieval systems.
There is no reason why the same methods used to teach people to
use NOTIS or MELVYL cannot also be applied to systems like rn,
the software used to interact with international news networks.
Many libraries are already handling documentation for a wide
range of electronic resources, including ICPSR data files,
commercial online databases, and CD-ROMs from the Government
Printing Office. Electronic information space is largely
unmapped. Libraries should support network access by maintaining
and developing network documentation. At the very least,
libraries should provide access to public network information
centers like LISTSERV@BITNIC and NIC.DDN.MIL. The library should
evaluate, assemble, and maintain publicly available network
resources like the various Internet library guides, the many
useful help and FYI files from BITNIC and NIC, and "pointer"
messages culled from the newsgroups and list servers. When a
librarian sees something interesting described in a list message
or a news posting, the librarian should try it, and, if it works,
share it with colleagues who might be able to use it. The
technology will only be used when people validate its use.
+ Page 28 +
Another worthwhile endeavor involves developing front-ends for
access to network resources together with an instruction program
to teach people to use electronic information. A front-end might
be as simple as a communication script for connecting clients to
specific USENET interest groups. An instruction program might
center on individual consultation or group presentations.
Neither of these efforts is inconsistent with the activities of
libraries. Again, the best way to learn what is available from
the network is to use the network. It is not possible to teach
anyone to use the network unless you know how yourself.
Consultation and instructional support services have the goal of
requiring less mediation between the researcher and the network.
There will be more emphasis on the search problem, on training
clients to function independently, and on developing mechanisms
to support intuitive, browser-driven interfaces.
On a practical note, we need to provide technologies for
"transformation" of information from one format to another.
Workstations which support network delivery, in addition to local
on-demand publishing, will be needed to achieve maximum benefit
from the network, but substantial benefits are also available to
those working with standard microcomputers. The cost of hardware
will delay the widespread use of networks outside of larger
knowledge institutions. Until electronically displayed
information is comparable to the resolution and convenience of
the printed page, there will be a need to transform electronic
texts to paper texts. Nodes on the network will need to acquire
the ability to handle images and to transform information from
one medium to another.
On the other hand, electronic media are capable of simulations
and animations that were never possible on the printed page.
There are also many types of data that need never be transformed
from their digital form, but that require intensive processing
once they have been delivered. For example, providing access to
numeric databases implies the provision of consultation and post-
processing services. There must be support for people who want
to manipulate numeric data after it has been delivered from its
source on the network.
+ Page 29 +
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Traditional methods of support remain appropriate for network
resources. However, these methods are difficult to apply, since
the networks are chaotic and information access is primitive.
Patrons, faculty, and many librarians are unaware of network-
based information and uninitiated in its retrieval. It is
incumbent upon librarians to incorporate the network environment
into their professional activities. As a first step in providing
service to patrons, librarians must become network users. Also,
library schools should include this new context for information
provision in their curricula.
At The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, we have begun this
process. A public-access workstation in the Reference Room
provides connection to remote services, which are mostly OPACs.
A directory of Internet-accessible resources with a short
description of each service is located next to this workstation.
A shareware program called AutoMenu guides the patron, prompting
for the Internet address, which the patron obtains from the paper
directory. Some network resources are covered in library
bibliographic instruction classes, and the Graduate School of
Library and Information Science includes a component on accessing
network information in the "Information Technology" course.
Also, UTK reference librarians have been accessing the Harris
Poll database at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
[12]. This database provides an online index of more than 750
Harris Poll questions and results. As with any in-library
resource, librarians refer patrons to this resource or help them
utilize it.
+ Page 30 +
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Arguably, libraries have been providing a form of user support
ever since the first reader's advisory service began operation.
Unfortunately, in most libraries, providing user support for
technology tends to place an additional burden upon an already
overworked public services staff. Despite what some might
consider the inadequacies of our nation's public schools, a
reference librarian can safely assume that a patron knows the
alphabet, can read, and has leafed through the pages of a book
before. It is not safe to assume that s/he knows what a
programmed function key is, has ever used a mouse, or understands
the ramifications of searching a database using a title keyword
index.
An additional factor complicates the provision of user support
for technology. Technology changes! Not only is it difficult to
keep the public informed of new trends, keeping staff appraised
of new technologies is also difficult. Ongoing institutional
efforts to educate staff greatly contribute to the overhead
associated with user support services. Maintaining a well-
educated staff may be more realistic than demanding a well-
educated public. Therefore, it should be considered that some
types of mediated services may always be needed to fill the needs
of those unable or, in some cases, unwilling to utilize the
technology.
In order to minimize the havoc technological advances wreak upon
library users, libraries should seek to apply technology that
reduces the amount of user and
staff training required to utilize
it. Unfortunately, these user-friendly options are often not the
least expensive ones. The development of intelligent
workstations, which are intended for public use, holds great
promise for meeting some user support needs. The human/machine
interface provides an opportunity to automate repetitive
activities and minimize training needs. For example, instead of
repeatedly teaching users a series of steps required to connect
to a network resource, a workstation can be programmed to execute
those steps automatically. The cost associated with such
interface development is ultimately offset by the savings in the
provision of direct user support.
+ Page 31 +
When designing systems, achieving a balance between the differing
needs of advanced users and novice users is important. Standards
and network protocols play an important role in achieving this
balance. Ideally, the user interface should function
independently from the network. This separation of interface and
network will allow each user to develop their own "personal" or
"intimate" interface. The individual develops a tailor-built
interface that meets his/her own research needs and can be
modified to accommodate personal growth and changing research
needs. Each individual interface communicates with the network
via standard networking protocols. The intimate interface can
travel with the user, and it can be employed wherever a network
connection is possible.
Where does the final responsibility for user support services
fall among the library, the campus computing center, and the
agency administering the network? There may not be an ideal
answer to this question--it is probably best answered at an
institutional level. Generally speaking, if librarians fail to
meet the challenges associated with providing user support for
network resources, libraries may no longer continue to enjoy the
elite position that they currently hold within society as central
repositories of historical and cultural data. As data creation
and dissemination becomes more closely linked to the network, the
network information center (NIC), the network operations center
(NOC), and/or other network administrative agencies may step in
to fill this role.
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On the local level, librarians are, in many instances, on the
front lines in the technological war as they and their clientele
struggle to survive and thrive in an increasingly information
dominated age. A comparison of the number of subscribers to
PACS-L (over 3,000) and the long-established and prominent
humanities list server HUMANIST (over 1,200) reveals that
librarians are taking the lead in network information access and
provision. As leaders, librarians bear a profound responsibility
for providing access to networks through their local online
workstations and instructional computing facilities. In
addition, librarians must gather, organize, and offer
documentation that has, in some cases, been tailored to meet the
needs of users new to networking.
+ Page 32 +
The issue of "special workstations" should be solved through
combining network access with already existing workstations in
library computer labs or those used for online catalog access.
Creating yet another category of workstation is going to confuse
users. Networking should be integrated within present
information technologies, not considered as a special case to be
set apart from other sources.
Librarians bear an even greater responsibility for information
instruction, including networks. Coming from a state in which
one library is going to be renamed something like "Information
Technology Center," it is clear that recognition of librarians'
roles in technological partnership and, in particular, their role
in educating users in information access has arrived. How that
instruction takes shape and what its impact will be on the user
community is difficult to anticipate. Librarians are now
including networking instruction in an increasing number of
courses, programs, and other efforts to teach each other and
their users. These have taken the form of everything from
teaching classes together with computer center personnel to
providing one-on-one instruction.
Here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a group of
librarians successfully ran a program over the past academic year
dealing with the availability of library catalogs over the
Internet. Presented during lunch, a librarian demonstrated
access to a specific catalog and compared results to others using
a set script. In addition to providing data on the structure of
a particular online catalog, documentation about the catalog was
also distributed for future use. There have also been two state-
wide conferences in which issues related to telecommunications
have been the main focus. Librarians actively participated in
all the programs and conferences.
Libraries and librarians are extending training beyond the staff
to reach their intellectual communities as a whole.
Bibliographic instruction and other librarians at the University
of Wisconsin are teaching Internet access and, in a course taught
by Geri Laudati on the bibliography of music, general principles
of file access and transfer. It will soon be impossible to teach
BI without including network information access as part of the
course.
+ Page 33 +
In reaching out to a library's clientele, the issue of the
"teachable moment" arises. A continuing problem in doing
bibliographic or other library instruction is one of timing: the
library must provide programs when the users are ready for the
information and will therefore accept it. That is equally true
for teaching network access. Few users, outside libraries and
computer centers, are interested in networks unless they relate
to their information needs.
Charles Perrow's probably intentionally provocative chapter "On
Not Using Libraries," in Humanists at Work could be subtitled,
"On Not Using Networks Either" for it illustrates a common
problem in reaching users [13]. He describes his unwillingness
to use the library personally because he does not want additional
information other than the item requested at a specific time.
Nor does he advocate BITNET as an alternative medium because
"there is too much communication in the world" [14]. He is
going to join it, reluctantly, "Because It's There" or "Because
It's Time," as one could say, but he is not enthusiastic. He
does not want librarians to tell him how much he is missing
either.
Perrow's restrictive approach seems characteristic of many
successful scholars who focus on the job at hand, gather the
resources to meet its needs, publish the results, and then get on
with the next task. It relates to what could be called the
"information moment," the desire to have just the material needed
at the right time. In a recent debate on the HUMANIST list
server, a number of contributors, primarily faculty members,
could not see the value of using the Internet to access a distant
online catalog directly. They were satisfied with their local
interlibrary loan services.
Fortunately, librarians who participated in the HUMANIST debate
had a broader viewpoint, one that seems appropriate to our role.
Whether faculty members or members of the public want network
information now or not, we still have to be ahead of our
audience, not behind it, and be prepared in the future to provide
information on network access within a broader intellectual
context. Even as librarians need to be attentive to individual
learning levels and to the variance of receptivity among
individuals and groups, they also need to develop the skills,
sometimes with only a long-term payoff, to be ready to provide
the training when the "teachable" or "information" moment for
networks has arrived. Paraphrasing from a recent film: offer
network information and they will come.
+ Page 34 +
Whatever training is offered might work best on a disciplinary
level, avoiding a narrow "techno-librarianship" that pursues
technological paths to the exclusion of the development of
complementary subject and other expertise. The concept that
Clyde Hendrick, an academic dean, termed a "knowledge mediator"
within a disciplinary context, seems an approach that could be
applied to network information as well [15]. Whether an
institution or an individual, the mediator would combine
technological and subject skills--neither one in isolation will
be sufficient to cope with future information environments. His
call for an interdisciplinary terminal degree permeated by a
"research ethic" might strike some as simply trying to mimic
faculty structures, but the idea of the need for multiple, not
unitary, skills merits consideration as training for a new
generation of librarianship, permeated by networking, begins.
This type of knowledge mediator, who is attentive to individual
needs, can be seen in other efforts to provide information about
networks. Some librarians already scan the networks--which may
account for some overlap--and forward information to local non-
subscribers who may be colleagues or faculty members. Others
assume a formal responsibility for making a database of list
server or other network materials, organizing it by subject, and
distributing it. Yet, I have personally found this to be
successful only to a limited degree. For example, I sent the
same information about a new list server to two faculty members
in closely related fields: one rejected it, but the other was
enthusiastic. In looking for reasons why success was partial, I
can see that receptivity could be related to the users state of
technological development, interest in electronic information,
and access to equipment. All of these factors need to be
considered in trying to help users gain network access.
In these efforts to be all things to all people, to maintain
print collections while incorporating and teaching about
electronic data, librarians are showing the effects of battle
fatigue. This could be seen in the debate over the impact of
list server overload and technostress on PACS-L in January and
February 1991, as librarians wrote about being in departments
with individuals of widely varying skills who fear change or find
it stressful. Some are "still worried about being automated out
of their jobs (which could happen) while others have strong
reservations about their ability to master increasingly complex
systems" [16].
+ Page 35 +
Steve Cisler noted: "Librarians have a sense of mild guilt and
anxiety about not keeping up with new information sources (no,
there's not an ANGST-L group), but we can still rely on pointers
and messages from friends and colleagues" [17].
This support system is important, for as Linda Bills noted of
individuals: "Redefining their job and skills, eliminating the
usefulness and value of the skills they spent years (or months,
or weeks) developing, and--as is often the case--throwing out
physically the thing they built, can be a tremendous blow to
their self-image as a valuable part of the work force and a
knowledgeable expert in their own sphere" [18].
Librarians must deal with feelings of being out of control--
driven by forces that they have little power over and are unable
to cope with; however, they also need to recognize that they have
specialized talents, knowledge, and skills. They seem especially
suited to creating documentation and teaching about information,
whether in a traditional or network environment. Network
instruction, library workstations, and documentation are three
parts of the same information solution. Librarians are equipped
to provide all three.
+ Page 36 +
QUESTION 4: Should libraries "collect," provide access to,
and preserve network-based electronic resources? If so,
what types of information (e.g., computer conference logs
and electronic serials) should be collected? How should
access to these locally housed electronic materials be
provided? What types of barriers do you see that will
hinder libraries in their attempts to accomplish this goal?
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Alberico
+----------------------------------------------------------------
"Collecting" electronic information is more problematic than
collecting printed texts. And, as we all know, collecting
printed texts is not without its own problems. Much of the
information is ephemeral and not subject to any quality control.
For most scholars, the printed word is still somehow more
concrete than the electronic word. The publication process is an
act of validation. Tenure committees tend not to look at network
postings in the same way they look at publications in refereed
journals. Thus collection efforts might be limited to formal
efforts such as electronic journals. However, some news or list
postings are as well written as some of our best printed texts.
Others can be as useful for their reference value as anything in
Sheehy's Guide to Reference Books. However, you also can find
items like treatises on the effect of Grateful Dead music on
somebody's cats. Serious collection efforts involving items
beyond electronic journals are most likely to be limited to
moderated newsgroups at first. There is already a loose and
informal system of quality control. Eventually a more rigorous
method of refereeing will emerge.
Pool has written about the canonical text [19]. The ideas in a
mass publication can't be easily revised or changed once they
have been set in print and loosed upon the world. The electronic
word is different. Electrons are mutable. Ink on paper isn't.
So, another problem is the fluidity and volatility of information
itself.
+ Page 37 +
For the type of information found on the list servers and news
nets, access is more important than archiving. Of course, it is
desirable for someone to archive postings by individual
participants in network conversations and make those archives
searchable as well. Fortunately those tasks are already being
handled well by services such as PACS-L. When we need to find
out what people have been saying about networking CD-ROMs for
example, we have access to that information. But there is no
need to store much of that type of information locally. The
number of libraries building archival collections of postings
will remain limited. While an archive of postings may be useful,
the sense of the discourse, as people and ideas interact with one
another over a period of time, is difficult to capture in an
archive. The network is most useful for its dynamism.
On the other hand, if there is sufficient demand for a network
resource at an institution it may be computationally more
efficient to maintain it locally in one central location than to
encourage many separate individuals to use it on the network
itself. For example, PACS-L is kept as a locally maintained
bulletin board resource at the University of Texas. When they
arrive from the University of Houston, PACS-L messages are stored
on a local bulletin board that can be searched and browsed by
people at their leisure. Everybody who needs PACS-L can use it
when they want to, but some of us still insist on direct access
to PACS-L, receiving the messages in our accounts as they are
sent.
Archives of news group and list server postings are maintained at
numerous locations and are available through anonymous FTP and
from file servers. Other institutions keep a few months worth of
the most recent postings from selected groups or a few megabytes
worth. Right now, the problem is that it is hard to know what's
out there, where it is, and how to get it.
+ Page 38 +
There are all kinds of barriers to local collection of electronic
information. Hardware and software limitations are very real at
many institutions. There is often a lack of financial resources
to cover the additional expense of managing an electronic
collection alongside a paper collection. A critical mass of
skilled personnel is essential for any electronic project to
work. Think about how many people it takes to maintain an online
catalog. Another major impediment is the number and
incompatibility of integrated library system products. In the
future we will need to separate the data from the query language.
One day, extending the work done with the MARC record, that may
become possible. For other information packages (e.g., the
serial literature) the prospects are less rosy. Our information
system is heterogeneous and is likely to remain that way. But
this is healthy, and we will develop ways to deal with it by
using more intelligent and robust search software. Perhaps the
most serious barrier is the traditional print orientation of the
vast majority of educated people. The look and feel of the
printed page has yet to be matched by anything in electronic
format.
There are many barriers, but barriers can be overcome. In
academia, a strong cooperative relationship with one's campus
computing organization is essential. Cooperation is the key to
successful networking. One idea that holds great appeal is the
cooperative work group. One such example of a cooperative work
group is the HCI Bibliography Project, a no-cost electronic
bibliography on human-computer interaction maintained at Ohio
State. HCI is built and maintained by the people who use it.
Standards are being established along with a structure, but the
database is being built by many independent agents each taking
responsibility for a small part of the literature on human-
computer interaction. Access is already available through
anonymous FTP, with plans for an electronic mail server. Neat
idea.
+ Page 39 +
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Britten
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Libraries should not think primarily in terms of collecting
information stored on networks, but should instead pursue
strategies for teaching users how to locate and retrieve this
information. For example, the archives of PACS-L represent a
valuable source of information for library school students. It
would be an extravagant use of resources for libraries to
replicate this database as a computer file or on paper, when a
user only needs access to the network and the knowledge of how to
search the archive and retrieve the results. Libraries need to
be very careful about clinging to the traditional role of
repository when it is not appropriate. The networks exist to
provide direct electronic access around the globe. While the
preservation issue is relevant, in the network environment
electronic information needs to be preserved in one place only.
The issue of "collecting" and "preserving" the PACS-L archive,
for example, is primarily the concern of the University of
Houston Libraries.
Several network repositories for electronic texts are being
created. The Library of Congress' multi-million dollar American
Memory project includes a network-accessible archive as one of
its goals. Currently, Project Gutenberg and the Open Book
Initiative are two network servers known to readers of PACS-L,
and there are many of other projects underway [20]. The files
loaded on these servers are a departure from the computer science
files at most anonymous FTP sites, and are a harbinger of future
network use. I envision local file servers offering archives
that are locally unique, but of widespread value. At the
University of Tennessee Libraries, we have made a small
contribution to the universe of network resources by loading a
set of HyperCard stacks related to library orientation that were
produced with grant support from the U.S. Department of Education
[21].
+ Page 40 +
At ALA Midwinter 1991, Ann Kenny reported on a project at Cornell
University that utilizes the Xerox Docutech technology to
digitize a local collection of high-demand, high-research-value
monographs. Electronic image files of one thousand out-of-
copyright titles will reside on 12" optical disks. These disks
will be accessed through a "request server" which searches a
jukebox of disks. The server will eventually provide Internet
access to the collection. Although the files can be downloaded
and printed with more conventional hardware, the optimum method
would utilize another Docutech machine, which has a built-in
network connection and provides for high-speed, high-quality
printing.
The Cornell project alludes to an issue related to collections of
machine-readable information: print on demand. As archives of
electronic files proliferate and begin to supplant paper-based
collections, consumers of information may still demand a paper
alternative to reading text from a computer monitor. Coupling
instantaneous network access to files with the capacity to
generate high quality paper output rapidly may seem at first to
be paradoxical. However, joining the two technologies resolves
the long-standing criticism of the delay inherent in receiving
interlibrary loan requests.
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Summerhill
+----------------------------------------------------------------
In the traditional sense, the librarian strives through
acquisition to establish a central repository of similar
materials by "collecting" those materials and storing them in a
common location. Aided by a classification system, this process
focuses on housing like materials in a single physical location.
Ideal access occurs when the user is present in this same
location.
This organizational model is dramatically different from the
decentralized model of access that electronic data networks
provide. The physical location of the material loses importance
in the networked environment. Instead, the provision of access
in a networked environment centers on issues such as connectivity
to the network, authorized use of network resources, and network
bandwidth.
+ Page 41 +
However, the advent of networked resources does not eliminate the
need for a formal policy governing the acquisition of electronic
resources. A single central machine, no matter how powerful,
serving all the information needs of network users worldwide is
more of an hallucination than a vision. Clearly, groups of local
users will have an ongoing need for the proximate location of
heavily used data. Thus, achieving a balance between local
"collections" of heavily used electronic resources and the
provision of network access to less frequently used resources
should be the goal of the library acquisition process in a
networked environment.
Striking the delicate balance between local ownership and network
access will be aided by, if not achieved by, a formal acquisition
process that accounts for network access. Librarians must shift
the focus of their acquisition policies from the collection of
materials by and for an individual library to policies that weigh
the merit of acquiring the same resource by consortia of local
libraries, regional library cooperatives, and/or state library
networks. The funding agencies that back libraries must come to
accept this type of cooperative venture. At the same time,
vendors of commercial data products must understand the
imperative facing libraries to enter cooperative collection
development agreements. Accordingly, they must develop fee
structures that accommodate such ventures.
This is not to say the information needs of the local user
community will cease to influence decisions about the local
acquisition of machine-readable data files. In much the same
manner that those information needs have driven decisions
regarding the appropriation of materials in more traditional
formats, the librarian must continue to select electronic
resources that will meet the needs of the local user community.
Computer conference logs, electronic serials, even archived
exchanges of electronic mail transmissions may all be appropriate
for a library to acquire and preserve, given sufficient interest
on the part of the user community.
+ Page 42 +
Those who doubt the suitability of personal exchanges of
electronic mail might consider what value such materials would be
to a historian of the twenty-first or twenty-second century faced
with the task of reconstructing the correspondence of an
individual (or organization) who ceased writing letters on paper
late in the twentieth century. In 1989, the National Security
Archives and several other organizations won a lawsuit preventing
the destruction of such electronic files that were generated
using an IBM Professional Office System (PROFS) during the Iran-
Contra fiasco. The government is appealing the ruling, which
would permit public examination of those files.
The logistics associated with establishing and operating such a
centralized computing facility prove to be the greatest barrier
in the cooperative collection development of electronic
resources. The needs of all libraries participating in any such
venture must be realistically met. The appropriation of the
hardware associated with data storage and processing must occur.
Staff to operate such facilities also must be considered as well
as the location of such a facility. An infrastructure which can
accommodate rapid changes in technology must be maintained. And
all of these factors must be met at a cost that is palatable to
those providing the funding.
Given the current network landscape, the logical place for such
facilities to emerge is large public universities. Universities,
and their libraries, typically have the facilities already in
place to begin administering these shared network resources.
Again, there is an imperative for network leadership on the part
of academic librarians.
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Welsch
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Within a network context the issues of collecting versus
providing access to information resources are not necessarily
incompatible, but these issues should be separated from the idea
of preservation of network resources. In considering this
question, I will draw on models of information access that are
derived from what I know of the activities of libraries of social
science and other data archives, my perceptions as a collection
development librarian, and the concept of a librarian as an
information broker.
+ Page 43 +
For libraries to obtain and replicate, on their local computers,
much, or even large parts, of the information already available
on networks seems to me to be a paradox. Although I am a
collection development librarian who is primarily concerned with
the need to provide adequate collections for local use and who
tries to obtain what can be afforded, I am also fully conscious
that collecting everything is an impossible goal. Every library,
ours included, will always have to depend upon access to other
collections for additional materials.
I would apply the same standards to collecting network
information; however, I would be even more selective about
acquisition because much of the information is temporal and is
already managed by some computer somewhere. Although some
network searching protocols are primitive by modern access
standards, information can be accessed and retrieved as needed
with accurate guides. In this sense, access is the same as
ownership.
To some librarians, this might seem an abandonment of traditional
library functions--the triad of obtaining, maintaining, and
providing information. In looking for a model that could be used
to justify this position, I turned to an article by Robert B.
Reich in the Atlantic Monthly that is excerpted from his book on
the world economy [22]. He notes that the distinction between
goods and services--in library terms, between the housing of
books and periodicals and the provision of information in
digitized formats--has become meaningless. Reich divides work
into slightly different categories that librarians might ponder.
He recognizes the importance of "problem-identifying skills," for
the development of customized products to meet individual needs
[23]. In a different context that also could be applied to
librarians, he sees the value of "strategic brokers," who, in
business terms, bring the right pieces together to solve
problems. He believes that "high-value enterprises are in the
business of providing such services" as the ability to identify
and solve problems and the strategic capabilities to broker the
two [24].
+ Page 44 +
This is where librarians should find their niche: identifying
resources regardless of format and encouraging suppliers of
network information to make their products readily and easily
available. Focusing their future role not on being a warehouse
of electronic or printed information, but on becoming an
information utility that locates data in diverse sources seems
more appropriate. Simply duplicating the collection practices we
evolved for print materials in the network environment does not
seem responsive to current needs or capabilities. Given high
materials costs, our current collection development practices are
not even working in the print environment.
There are specific areas in which libraries could profitably
collect network information as a service to their users. The
documentation and other files that enhance access or provide data
about networks need to be locally available in the library and
listed in online or other finding tools. They should be regarded
in the same way as reference works, with new editions being
acquired as they are produced and made accessible to the public
as a whole. In a sense, this is analogous to the policies that
we have pursued for online access to commercial databases. We do
not, nor could we for copyright reasons, obtain all available
files, but we have the documentation and can provide expert
mediated assistance in accessing them. Just as online services
have been integrated into traditional reference services, so
should network access and resources be as well.
I would separate provision of network access to users and
maintenance of documentation collections from issues of long-term
network archival retention and preservation. Fortunately, there
is already ample experience and context to guide decisions in the
policies and procedures of machine-readable data archives in
various institutions.
+ Page 45 +
For example, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has maintained,
apart from the library, a Data and Program Library since 1966.
It contains a rich collection of social science and other data
archives, but it neither has, nor tries to retain, all available
data files. Extrapolating from the experiences of such archives
and casting them within a library framework, it is possible to
see that libraries could acquire, catalog, and maintain some
distinctive and important network materials, particularly those
that are created locally or that have local interest or
importance. A library could follow the pattern of data archives
in providing both technical (programming) and other reference
services specific to network materials, particularly those that
originated from within its institution. In order to fulfill that
function, it would need funding, expertise, computers, and other
resources to manage the data as well as perform back up and other
procedures to ensure that the data will be available when
requested.
But most data archives depend upon a decentralized system akin to
the membership in the Center for Research Libraries. An archive
assists in identifying materials held elsewhere, obtains
materials as needed, and, if they are retained elsewhere, does
not permanently preserve them. Other data centers, in turn, have
data acquisition, processing, dissemination, and other
responsibilities that make it possible for a local archive to
obtain data through this information network.
Perhaps we should aim for a similar model for network
information, one based on successive local and interrelated
state/regional libraries or centers that will assume retention
and preservation responsibilities for locally produced or unique
materials. Such a decentralized system, that parallels state and
regional organizations already in existence, seems sensible and
might avoid burdening any single institution.
+ Page 46 +
Librarians responsible for deteriorating print collections have
learned many lessons about the need to do preservation properly.
Although preserving the historical network record is important,
we should be careful before assuming another preservation task
that is even more complicated than the one we have now. Reading
a title page, understanding the relative importance of the book,
and finding a means to preserve a title on microfilm are less
complicated than making the same decisions about machine-readable
data. We can learn much about storing and managing various
bibliographic, non-bibliographic, or other data in electronic
formats from our colleagues in data archives and benefit from
their years of experience. Assuming the burden of preserving
network information is a national dilemma. It requires
cooperative rather than individual efforts. It raises questions
that most libraries, particularly in these times, are ill-
equipped to handle alone.
+ Page 47 +
QUESTION 5: As one response to the deepening crisis in the
cost of library materials, colleges and universities could
become publishers of network-based electronic journals,
index and abstract databases, and scholarly electronic
books. Should they do this? If so, what role should
libraries play in this effort?
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Alberico
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Is it begging the question to ask if we really know what
electronic publishing is? Does electronic publishing require the
same set of activities required of print publishing? The ways in
which electronic publications are used differ greatly from the
ways books are used. Still there are similarities in the
concerns of both types of publishers.
Quality control is a key issue. For any electronic publisher, it
will be important to acquire worthwhile materials for publication
and to assure the integrity of the electronic publication,
whether it is an abstract database or an electronic book.
Production is not as great a problem for the electronic publisher
as it is for print publishers. Editing will be easier because it
is possible to exchange drafts directly with the author(s) of an
electronic publication. But editing will still be necessary.
Distribution will be a piece of cake for the electronic publisher
compared to the expense of distributing printed items. The trick
will be identifying markets for the electronic publication--
determining the channels of distribution. Marketing may or may
not be easier in an electronic environment. Finance and
accounting will be more difficult. The traditional publishing
industry provides us with no point of reference here. For
example, how does one factor the cost of maintaining the network
into the cost of electronic publishing? We also must recognize
that it is possible to vary the size of electronic units of
information. Is our unit of accounting the volume, the issue,
the article, the citation, or the word?
+ Page 48 +
There are a number of players in a position to influence the
future of electronic publishing. Almost all of them, including
libraries, have some stake in the traditional publishing
industry. Universities, the government, computer companies,
phone companies, utilities like OCLC, even cable companies join
the library community as major players in the nascent electronic
publishing industry. The number of old line publishing
houses joining the electronic game has increased dramatically of
late. The industry is far from maturity; it is in its infancy at
best.
What you are reading right now is an example of electronic
publishing in its infancy, and the fact that it is published by a
library is evidence that libraries can become electronic
publishers. So yes, libraries should become electronic
publishers, but this is not something to be considered lightly.
Managing an electronic publishing enterprise of any substance
would require a strong administrative commitment over the long
term and a willingness to subsidize the service in some way.
Participation in a cooperative publishing enterprise would
require a lesser commitment and is more feasible for all but the
most ambitious libraries. No matter who publishes something,
somebody has to pay for it, although the costs of electronic
publishing are lower than the cost of traditional publishing and
distribution. Putting an OPAC on the network is less costly than
publishing and distributing printed catalogs.
Republishing texts in electronic formats is one area where we're
already seeing a lot of activity. The Freedom Shrine collection
of historic documents on the Cleveland Free-Net and Shakespeare
on Dartmouth's OPAC are two of many examples of this activity.
Project Gutenberg is another example of a concerted effort to
republish texts in electronic form. Public file directories on
the network are also a useful form of publishing. It's possible
to FTP just about anything today. I was pleasantly surprised by
the number and quality of bibliographies I have found on the
network and also by the many thought provoking essays on the
network's potential and future.
Cornell and Xerox are conducting an experiment that may add a new
dimension to the idea of libraries as publishers. Images of
brittle books are scanned, sent across a network, and printed in
high resolution on a Xerox Docutech machine. With the proper
infrastructure in place one could use the network to deliver
images of brittle books across the world almost as easily as they
are delivered across Cornell's campus.
+ Page 49 +
Others are sending graphic images across the networks in addition
to images of text. However, graphics require large amounts of
network bandwidth. Yet, as network capacity increases, video
will become more common. As it becomes easier to combine
different types of information, libraries may publish new forms
of information. Beyond text-based "electronic books" there will
be multimedia electronic documents. The "electronic book" of the
future is as likely to be a composite as it is to be a single
coherent entity. Scholars will compile their own electronic
books by gathering separate pieces of information from different
parts of the network. Libraries may become publishers simply by
using the network to build customized multimedia documents for
clients or by providing the technology, training, and facilities
to allow clients to build their own composite documents.
Libraries have been publishers of printed works for centuries and
have achieved a reputation for high quality. When it comes to
publishing original material, whether it is a bibliographic file,
a numeric database, or an electronic journal, quality control is
definitely the major challenge of electronic publishing.
Indiscriminately making files available on the network is not
publishing. The quality control system for the printed word is
much more firmly established and highly evolved than that for the
electronic word and image. Technology has advanced to the point
where we need to start considering how to develop a system of
quality control. There is no doubt that we are on the verge of
profound changes in the way we produce and communicate knowledge.
Postscript
When I set out to write this piece, I wondered whether it would
be possible to explore the ideas I was being asked to treat by
doing all of the research from the computers in my office and my
home, without connecting to any commercial services. In other
words, I wondered if the network would reveal its secrets to me
without my having to consult any printed works or commercial
online sources. I can now say that it is possible to use the
network to find out about the network. In fact much of the
subject matter now being carried by the network is about the
network.
+ Page 50 +
However, it does help to start with a good printed guide. If I
hadn't been introduced to the secrets of the network by a few
good articles and books and by reading PACS-L every day, I'm sure
my task would have been much more difficult. Beginners on BITNET
are advised to get some of the files available from the server
LISTSERV@BITNIC. The file BITNET USERHELP is a good one to start
with. Internet novices face a more formidable task, but the FYI
series of RFC's that are available from NIC.DDN.MIL are a good
start. RFC 1175 is an excellent bibliography that can lead the
network beginner to many valuable sources. The many other
network sources I consulted via BITNET and the Internet are too
numerous to even mention, much less describe, in the amount of
space allotted for this contribution. Maybe that is the point.
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Britten
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Virtually every college and university requires publication as
evidence of scholarly achievement and the advancement of
knowledge. Sustaining the publishing process is not only in the
self-interest of academic institutions, but is also their
obligation. In the current publish-or-perish model, the academic
community has hired the commercial sector to provide editorial
review, indexing and abstracting, printing, and distribution of
faculty publications. However, the continuing trend toward
cancellation of journal subscriptions indicates that the costs of
the publishing process are too high. Many have commented that
the practice of paying scholars to produce knowledge and then
paying a second time to acquire it from publishers needs
reevaluation.
If the current paradigm for scholarly publication continues to
break down, the university community will likely examine options
for self-publication. It is also likely that the computing and
network infrastructure in place on most university and college
campuses would be an attractive option for the storage and
distribution of scholarly information, especially since most
publications are now created initially in machine-readable form.
The implications for such a change are beyond the scope of this
question, but electronic publishing should and will continue to
expand.
+ Page 51 +
Other probable partners in this scenario are the university
presses, professional associations, and libraries. Librarians
offer an obvious pool of expertise for the indexing, abstracting,
and cataloging needs of self-publishing. Also, libraries are a
natural location for a locate-and-print-on-demand service from
network files. Of course, this scenario assumes that buying
electronic articles on demand, even for multiple users, would be
less costly than current subscriptions to paper journals.
There continues to be great pressure on libraries to develop
collections. This is in part due to the tangible security of
ranges of books and periodicals and the need to purchase before a
title goes out of print, but it also reflects dissatisfaction
with the time it currently takes libraries to deliver a remotely
held item through interlibrary loan. However, the advances
taking place in high-speed network file transfer and print-on-
demand technology might make requesting a remotely held
electronic file more attractive than physically searching for it
in the stacks and photocopying the needed information.
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Summerhill
+----------------------------------------------------------------
"History is on our side. We will bury you."
Nikita Khrushchev to Western ambassadors
at a reception in the Kremlin, November 17, 1956.
It will take more than the rhetoric of a few academic librarians
and computing administrators pounding their shoes on a table to
displace the foothold a journal such as the Journal of the
American Medical Association has within the medical community.
There needs to be an acceptance among a wider audience that a
fundamental change in the nature of scholarly publishing,
namely--a headlong charge toward electronic publishing led by
academic librarians--is worthwhile before even journals of lesser
stature than JAMA will be widely replaced by electronic
counterparts. Whether this widespread acceptance currently
exists in the academic community is uncertain, although it is
clearly growing.
+ Page 52 +
Should colleges and universities become publishers? There is a
clear precedent for such an activity in the many university
presses that already operate. Although these small presses
account for only a tiny fraction of all published material, it is
an important fraction when the quality of scholarship is
considered. The extension of these publishing activities into a
networked environment is a logical step in network evolution.
However, it is one that will not be achieved without the
investment of considerable resources by academic institutions.
Certainly, the enabling technology exists. Electronic publishing
can occur in academia, but on what scale? Can one reasonably
expect home-grown publications to supplant the entire book-trade
industry overnight? Visions of a paperless society are hardly
new. The barriers that have prevented the achievement of such a
vision are many and varied. While some are vanishing, others
linger. Providing academic libraries and, ultimately, the users
of academic libraries with the enabling technology remains one
such barrier. This barrier can be overcome only with the
investment of sufficient fiscal resources to provide the needed
hardware and to develop the appropriate software.
Meeting user expectations and achieving user acceptance may prove
the more difficult tasks. People are reluctant to change. In
order to satisfy user expectations, reading electronic materials
must be a pleasant experience, more pleasant than the experience
offered by the commonplace 25 x 80 character monochrome terminal.
The user will expect utility from an electronic publication
similar to that found in the print counterpart. The
incorporation of graphic images and photographs similar to those
already found in print publications will be mandatory in order to
meet this challenge. The user will want the ability to vary a
display to suit individual needs, to manipulate the text, to
download the text, and to print the text.
+ Page 53 +
Rather than attempt to undermine the financial viability of
existing publishers, the academic community should cooperate with
publishers to develop alternative network solutions for access
and ownership problems. Publishers surely recognize that the
nature of scholarly communication is changing, and they will not
jeopardize their businesses by resisting that change. Dialog
between the academic community and publishers does not obviate
the need for continued development of electronic publications
within the academic community. Colleges and universities should,
by whatever means possible, strive to publish electronic
publications that meet high standards of scholarship. However,
such dialog does reflect a deeper understanding among those in
the academic community of an intricate set of intertwined
problems that permeate scholarly publishing and a recognition
that the current publication practices are not likely to be
displaced overnight even if such an occurrence was beneficial to
the academic community.
Until libraries and computing centers have proven the scope of
networking technology to the satisfaction of the user community,
they can expect some stiff resistance to electronic publications.
Similar resistance in the user community has already been
experienced as libraries began facing massive cuts in serials
acquisition budgets. Pilot publications, particularly within
disciplines outside the realm of library science, need to
demonstrate the feasibility of electronic publication to the
satisfaction of the user community. But it is probably a little
premature to cancel all your journal subscriptions.
+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Welsch
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, the image that emerges for me when I think of
scholarly societies, universities, and libraries and their roles
in the creation of information systems of all kinds is, with rare
exception, one of passivity. Few organizations have assumed
responsibilities for adequately providing access to the
information they produce; few institutions adequately index what
they acquire.
+ Page 54 +
Librarians have perceived themselves as passive observers of the
information development process, as opposed to active shapers of
an information future. Although we can point with pride to our
achievements in managing and providing existing information, we
have been secondary players in many other respects and did not
participate, except as consumers, in the explosion of information
management systems that characterized the mid-1970s. We do not
index our periodical collections, but count on others to do it
for us. We do not buy information from other libraries, but from
vendors. We do not publish, we purchase.
The issue now is whether there are other options that networks
make possible. In reviewing those choices, the barriers to
implementing any of them need to be considered. First among them
is the issue of information ownership. The privatization of
information and publishers' recognition of its extraordinary
commercial value have led to significant price increases.
Libraries have limited potential now to convince publishers to
surrender rights to information of whose value they have just
recently become aware. If they did, libraries would become
competitors with a private sector that has proven its ability to
pay for access to technology, to provide rapid information
dissemination (even if it is at a substantial price), and to
influence political leaders at all strata of government that
interference with the private sector is inimicable to quality
information access and provision.
There are also limiting factors among libraries themselves, which
are rooted in tradition and relate to political and social
factors. Cooperation, or the lack of it, is one. Morten Hein's
comment that "Even if everyone agrees on the benefits of
cooperation, we have little practical experience in cooperating
with one another" has broad applicability to libraries everywhere
[25]. Although there are encouraging signs that this situation
is changing both in Europe (through activities of the European
Economic Community) and in the United States (through agreements
among member institutions of the Research Libraries Group, the
Committee for Institutional Cooperation, and other associations),
the surrender of local autonomy and privilege for the sake of
regional or national benefit is still a rarity. The failure of
the Farmington Plan to gather all foreign publications was one
proof of that incapability. The idea that an institution would
cooperate in a joint venture to publish an index of some kind, if
it had to spend staff time on titles of little interest to the
local community, might be foreign to those agencies that provide
library funding.
+ Page 55 +
Yet, the concept of individuals and organizations, including
libraries, as self-publishers of new information, who would then
make it available through networks, is so tantalizing that I am
reluctant, despite obstacles, to surrender it. I can see the
potential in library list servers as well as discipline-oriented
titles such as the Bryn Mawr Classical Review [26]. The Review,
an example of what can be done in providing scholarly analyses of
the literature, has been going through a period of experimental
"e-distribution" with a table of contents and other features that
make it resemble a printed work. Its editor is learning to cope
with the problems inherent in publishing a journal of classical
studies when our systems cannot display Greek adequately. (The
editor offers "e-readers" the opportunity to get a hard copy
through "snail-mail.") His experiences can serve as a guide to
future information provision in fields with similar difficulties.
This example encourages me to believe that there are similar
opportunities for other individuals and organizations, including
libraries, to provide similar tools and aids not now being
provided by current systems.
Libraries collecting and making available to their patrons
network publications and electronic journals of this kind will
find that it may require a commitment of additional equipment and
storage space, which means that long-term provision of access may
be difficult. Two issues of the Review, which were delivered in
April, take about 400 KB. Adding other titles to this one will
soon fill up even the largest hard drive. Since indexing to
various network e-journals is not common, libraries also will
have to address this issue as these journals proliferate. Still,
the Review is a worthwhile example of what can be accomplished in
adding network knowledge tools at little cost, despite subsequent
problems for library information management.
+ Page 56 +
Perhaps libraries have the opportunity to fulfill other
information needs while still serving their local communities.
Entering the complex scientific or technological information
scene, even though this would be the area that would presumably
attract many users, seems difficult. There are simply too many
well-funded players eager to serve a private sector able to pay.
Yet, this may be an area where libraries could function as
publishers of indexes, because costs are so high for basic tools.
As the Review shows, unmet needs for the humanities are also
prevalent. Considering the collective store of technical and
subject expertise that is available, libraries could consider
creating and sharing network humanities indexes or other
information access tools. Variants of desktop publishing and the
adoption of a standard page mark-up language could lead to
publications such as library bibliographies and finding aids
being distributed electronically as well as in a printed format.
Networks are an ideal way to disseminate this information.
In order to remain in the game, libraries may have to become
information producers and mediators as well as consumers. Demand
for immediacy of information access in an increasingly
competitive world means that individuals will access the fastest
form of information and bypass the library if it does not meet
their needs. Yet this new information environment also creates a
role for libraries in creating and disseminating, at the least,
indexes and other aids for accessing network information.
Indexes to e-journals are one example; if libraries don't provide
them, someone else will. There are already good examples of
guides being created: a list of electronic journals has been
compiled by Michael Strangelove of the University of Ottawa and
a HyperCard-based Internet Tour has been developed [27]. While
Elizabeth Lane admired such efforts in a PACS-L message, she
correctly noted that "this is happening in such a scattered way,"
and she saw the "need for libraries to take an institutional role
in seeking out, and even creating, these resources" [28]. Dewey
Bayer has noted that libraries should work to facilitate the
potentials of network technologies and help the beginners who
otherwise have to "search for months in order to haphazardly
build a knowledge base" [29].
+ Page 57 +
The intensification of the struggle for resources that has
characterized the first two periods of Daniel Bell's vision of
the post-industrial society may be extended to disputes about
information access in traditional, electronic, or network
formats. The development of international multimedia giants that
dominate knowledge fields imperils access at reasonable cost. As
information in electronic formats exists and is propagated now,
those that have the funding get the information, whether on a
campus or among nations. Whether--and how--that issue is
resolved will have long-term impacts on even those libraries that
consider themselves to be information rich now. Networks and new
methods of information distribution through networks have the
capacity for smoothing out issues of equitable and free access to
information. Unlike the mid-1970s when many of the currently
used commercial systems evolved, libraries have enhanced
technological capabilities that make it possible for them to use
networks to take advantage of publishing and other information
dissemination capabilities. Joining with scholarly organizations
and institutions, they should do so--now.
Notes
1. Richard P. West and Richard N. Katz, "Implementing the Vision:
A Framework and Agenda for Investing in Academic Computing,"
EDUCOM Review 25 (Winter 1990): 33.
2. Barbara Wittkopf, "BI Librarian Involvement in the NREN,"
Research Strategies 9 (Winter 1991): 2-3.
3. Thomas R. McAnge, Marcia Harrington, and Mary Ellen Pierson,
Survey of Educational Computer Networks (Blacksburg, VA: Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990).
4. Dr. Art St. George, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 21 July
1991.
5. Robert M Rosenzweig, "Research Universities in the Next
Decade," College and Research Libraries 43 (March 1982): 102-109.
6. Richard W. McCoy, "The Electronic Scholar: Essential Tasks for
the Scholarly Community," Library Journal 110, no. 16 (1 October
1985): 39.
+ Page 58 +
7. Send the message "GET WHITEPAG KNOPPE_M" to LISTSERV@BITNIC to
receive an article discussing the Internet White Pages project.
8. To subscribe to the WAIS-DISCUSSION list, send the message
"ADD your e-mail address WAIS-DISCUSSION" to LISTSERV@THINK.COM.
To subscribe to the WAIS-INTEREST list, send the message "ADD
your e-mail address WAIS-INTEREST" to LISTSERV@THINK.COM. If you
have trouble, send the message "HELP" to the above address.
9. John Markoff, "High-Speed Data System is Discussed," New York
Times, 16 July 1990, section D, 1.
10. A electronic document by Sue A. Dodd provides information
about formatting bibliographic references to computer files. To
obtain this document, send the message "SEND COMPFILE BIBREF" to
COMSERVE@RPIECS.
11. Diane Kovacs has produced a good directory of academic lists.
This multiple-file directory can be obtained via FTP from
KSUVXA.KENT.EDU. Dr. Art St. George has produced a list of
network-accessible library catalogs. To obtain this list, send
the following message to LISTSERV@UNMVM: GET LIBRARY PACKAGE. A
useful bibliography on computer networking by Elliott Parker
illustrates the evolving type of information needed to identify
and obtain network resources that are not typically included in
bibliographic references. To obtain this bibliography, send the
message "SEND COMPUNET BIBLIO" to COMSERVE@RPIECS. K. L. Bowers
et al. have produced another useful bibliography on networks. To
obtain this bibliography, send an e-mail message to
SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL that says "RFC 1175" in the subject line of
the message.
12. To access the Harris Poll database, TELNET
UNCVM1.ACS.UNC.EDU. At the user prompt, type "IRSS1"; at the
password prompt, type "IRSS."
13. Charles Perrow, "On Not Using Libraries," in Humanists at
Work: Disciplinary Perspectives and Personal Reflections
(Chicago: University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago,
1989), 29-42.
+ Page 59 +
14. Ibid, 37.
15. Clyde Hendrick, "The University Library in the Twenty-First
Century," College and Research Libraries 47 (March 1986): 127-31.
16. Thomas Sanders, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 10 February
1991.
17. Steve Cisler, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 7 February
1991.
18. Linda Bills, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 20 February
1991.
19. Ithiel De Sola Pool, "The Culture of Electronic Print,"
Daedalus 111 (Fall 1982): 17-31.
20. The FTP address for Project Gutenberg is
MRCNEXT.CSO.UIUC.EDU (look in directory /etext). The FTP address
for the Open Book Initiative is WORLD.STD.COM.
21. The FTP address for the University of Tennessee Libraries
HyperCard stacks is UTKLIB.LIB.UTK.EDU.
22. Robert B. Reich, "The Real Economy", Atlantic Monthly 267
(February 1991): 35-52.
23. Ibid, 37.
24. Ibid.
25. Morten Hein, "Library Cooperation Based on Information
Technology Networks--A Vision for a European Library Future,"
IFLA Journal 17, no. 1 (1991): 39-44.
26. To subscribe to the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, send the
message "SUB BMCR-L first name last name" to
MAILSERV@BRYNMAWR.EDU. The editor's e-mail address is
JODONNEL@PENNSAS.
+ Page 60 +
27. Steve Cavrak, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 25 April
1991.
28. Elizabeth Lane, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 25 April
1991.
29. Dewey J. Bayer, e-mail message to PACS-L@UHUPVM1, 25 April
1991.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
journal. It is sent free of charge to participants of the
Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (PACS-L@UHUPVM1), a
computer conference on BITNET. To join PACS-L, send an
electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 that says:
SUBSCRIBE PACS-L First Name Last Name.
This article is Copyright (C) 1991 by the University Libraries,
University of Houston. All Rights Reserved.
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C) 1991
by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All Rights
Reserved.
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computer
conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are
authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic
or printed form, at no charge. This message must appear on all
copied material. All commercial use requires permission.
----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Page 65 +
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 2, no. 2 (1991):
65-66.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"You Say You Want an Evolution"
By Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
You may have noticed that this issue of The Public-Access
Computer Systems Review looks different from past issues--it only
has one major article and one column. No, we didn't forget the
rest. We have changed our distribution strategy to take better
advantage of our electronic format.
Currently, e-journals are distributed in three major ways. The
first method is our old strategy: a multiple-article issue is
announced by an e-mail table of contents message, and users
retrieve article files of interest. The second method is for a
multiple-article issue to be sent out as an e-mail message. The
third method is for a single-article issue to be sent out as an
e-mail message. Archival issue files are usually available.
After our last issue on e-serials, we were inspired to take a
fresh look at the PACS Review. We wanted a distribution format
that would allow us to turn articles around faster. The single-
article distribution method was attractive, but it seemed too
limiting. We felt that there would be times when a thematic
multiple-article issue would be appropriate.
We decided to utilize a different distribution format. From now
on, the PACS Revi
ew will publish issues that will vary
considerably in size. Depending on circumstances, issues may
have one article, several articles, or numerous articles. They
will usually have columns and reviews, but not always. We will
continue to announce issues by an e-mail table of contents
message and let users retrieve article files of interest. This
new distribution format, combined with an irregular publication
cycle (we changed that last issue), will give us considerable
publication flexibility.
+ Page 66 +
We hope that this new distribution format will provide you with
more timely access to information. Let us know what you think.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
journal. It is sent free of charge to participants of the
Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (PACS-L@UHUPVM1), a
computer conference on BITNET. To join PACS-L, send an
electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 that says:
SUBSCRIBE PACS-L First Name Last Name.
This article is Copyright (C) 1991 by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. All
Rights Reserved.
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C) 1991
by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All Rights
Reserved.
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computer
conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are
authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic
or printed form, at no charge. This message must appear on all
copied material. All commercial use requires permission.
----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Page 61 +
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 2, no. 2 (1991):
61-64.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Public-Access Provocations: An Informal Column
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"I Like It Like That"
By Walt Crawford
I walk up to the librarian, book or videocassette in hand, and
say "This is great. I'd like something else like this one." Or,
just to make it interesting, "I'd like more along these lines."
What does the librarian do?
Unless I'm very old or very young, or the library has
extraordinary public services librarians, chances are I'm better
off with this alternative strategy: I walk up to the next-
generation library catalog and find a record, possibly a known
record. Perhaps the catalog asks me if I'd like "more items like
this one"--or perhaps I pose one of the challenges above. What
does the catalog do?
One Answer: Related-Record Searching
If it's CARL--and if I know what "<X> for EXPRESS" means in the
set of prompts--it brings up a screen with the call number and
searchable fields in the record, organized by type and with brief
comments, for example: "AUTHOR(s): (Materials by or about the
same author)."
All I need to do is enter a line number to get a shelf-list
browse or search for one of the authors or subjects. One
subject choice is "Alphabetical List of Entries," which breaks
all the subjects down into words and lets me formulate a new
search.
+ Page 62 +
Dynix has the prompt "RW = Related Works," which brings up a
somewhat similar screen, although without call number. The
prompt's clearer though, and as with CARL, if the first record
was Norman Mailer's Of a Fire on the Moon, the system offers the
possibility that I want other books by Norman Mailer, not
necessarily other books about "Astronauts--United States" or (to
get really specific) "United States--Civilization--1945-."
INNOPAC always offers "Show Items Nearby on Shelf" (shelflist
browse), but only offers "SHOW Items With the Same SUBJECT" if
this was a subject search. It wasn't, so I'm out of luck.
Sirsi's UNICORN has the prompt "LIKE" when you're looking at a
single record. Selecting that prompt gives you the heading
"CATALOG LOOKUP BASED ON ITEM" and a numbered list of every
searchable field in the record, labeled by type of field and with
author-title added entries split into authors and titles.
In many cases, one of those options will do just what I want, and
some other catalogs such as LIAS offer similar facilities.
Personally, I'd take the CARL approach, but with the UNICORN
prompt. But that's taking one feature in isolation, always a
rotten way to judge a catalog. In a perfect world with perfect
single-subject items, the "more about" question could always lead
to a shelflist browse--but we don't live in a perfect world!
Note that all of these catalogs give me a list of possibilities
and let me decide what "like" means in this case. That may be a
long list of possibilities--for example, there were 17 numbers in
the UNICORN example I saw. Should the catalog just go off and
find me "another one that's just like the other one"? What would
that mean?
Likeness Depends on the User
Think of the videocassette Blaze, starring Paul Newman as Earl
K. Long. If I want "likeness" or "aboutness," I could be looking
for A.J. Liebling's The Earl of Louisiana and Michael L.
Kurtz's Earl K. Long. But I could also be looking for The
Color of Money or, for that matter, The Big Easy (you figure
the connections). Then again, I could be looking for Blaze
Starr's autobiography in book form. Related-record searching may
help with the first and last cases, but it won't usually help me
find those other films.
+ Page 63 +
If I really want "aboutness," I might also want Randy Newman's
sound recording Good Old Boys; perhaps some specific recordings
by Hank Williams, Sr. and Dr. John the Night Tripper; maps of
Louisiana and Maryland from the late 1950s; articles on the Long
dynasty from Time Almanac on CD-ROM; an Earl Long press
conference that was recorded and is held on tape in a
particular archive (but can be digitized and sent to me); and a
current work on the sociology and art of exotic dancing. Can I
get that from any catalog, now or in the future?
It gets worse. If I read the A.J. Liebling book, I may find I
want "another one just like it"--but in this case, what I'm after
is a twentieth century political biography written by a masterful
writer. You say people don't make jumps like that? Certainly
they do, at least for leisure reading.
You Can't Always Get What You Want
I don't expect any current or future online catalog to give me
all of the results discussed in the preceding section. How could
it, unless it could read my mind and had enormous amounts of
information on every item in the collection?
But, as a group of aging British would-be librarians once sang,
"If you try sometimes, you just might get what you need." Good
related-record searching will get the patron part of the way
there with relatively little effort. At least it will if
"likeness" is something that ordinary retrieval techniques can
identify.
But it isn't always, as in the last example above. For that
matter, I'll bet at least one patron has gone into a Los Angeles
library looking for "fifty more books just like this one"--where
"like" means "the same color binding and about the same size."
There are limits--aren't there?
+ Page 64 +
About the Author
Walt Crawford is a Senior Analyst in the Development Division of
The Research Libraries Group, Inc., and is
Vice-President/President-Elect of the Library and Information
Technology Association (LITA). His BITNET address is BR.WCC@RLG
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
journal. It is sent free of charge to participants of the
Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (PACS-L@UHUPVM1), a
computer conference on BITNET. To join PACS-L, send an
electronic mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 that says: SUBSCRIBE
PACS-L First Name Last Name.
This article is Copyright (C) 1991 by Walt Crawford. All Rights
Reserved.
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C) 1991
by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All Rights
Reserved.
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by computer
conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. Libraries are
authorized to add the journal to their collection, in electronic
or printed form, at no charge. This message must appear on all
copied material. All commercial use requires permission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
