Internet Info 1997 December/Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso/nren/hpca.1991/arl.txt

Text File | 1991-04-15 | 19KB | 321 lines

  ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES

    1527 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W, Washington, DC. 20026
    [phone]    FAX [phone]


                  Statement of the Association of Research Libraries
                                        to the
                    Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space
               Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
                        for the Hearing Record of March 5, 1991
                on S. 272 - The High-Performance Computing Act of 1991


   The Association of Research Libraries is a non-profit Association of
 119 research libraries in North America. The membership of ARL is
 actively involved in the provision of information resources -
 including those that are unique, to the research and education
 communities of North America. Research libraries also are key
 participants in numerous experiments and pilot programs that
 demonstrate the utility of high capacity networks for the exchange
 and use of information. ARL supports the passage of legislation that
 will promote the development and use of expanded networking
 capacities and capabilities to advance education and research.

         The need for a high-speed computer communications network is
 a reflection of a number of changes underway in the academic and
 library communities. Three of these changes include the need to
 connect researchers with facilities such as supercomputers,
 databases, and library resources; the changing manner in which
 scholars and researchers communicate; and finally, the ability of
 these researchers to manipulate and combine large data sets or files
 in new ways only possible through connecting users with high-speed,
 high-capacity networks.

         The NREN, the vision of the next generation network designed to
 support -the work of the education and research communities -
 must reflect the changes noted above as well as those efforts already
 underway that address the new uses of information, while at the
 same time, address the national goals of improving our Nation's
 productivity and international competitive position. To realize these
 goals and to build upon existing efforts, ARL with others in the
 education community support the inclusion of the following points in
 NREN legislation. These points build upon existing successful federal,
 state, and local programs that facilitate access to information
 resources.

 NREN authorizing legislation should provide for:

         - Recognition of education in its broadest sense as a reason for
 development of the NREN;
         - Eligibility of all types of libraries to link to the NREN as
 resource providers and as access points for users;
         - A voice for involved constituencies, including libraries, in
 development of network policy and technical standards.

 NREN legislation should authorize support for:

         - High capacity network connections with all 50 states;
         - A percentage of network development funds should be
 allocated for education and training;
         - Direct connections to the NREN for at least 200 key libraries
 and library organizations and dial-up access for multi-type libraries
 within each state to those key libraries. Prime candidates for direct
 connections include:

               *The three national libraries (Library of Congress, National
 Agricultural Library, National Library of Medicine) and other federal
 agency libraries and
 information centers;

               *51 regional depository libraries (generally one per state)
 which have a responsibility to provide free public access to all
 publications (including in electronic formats) of U.S. government
 agencies;
               *51 state library agencies (or their designated resource
 libraries or library networks) which have responsibility for
 statewide library development and which administer federal funds;
               *Libraries in geographic areas which have a scarcity of
 NREN connections;
               *Libraries with specialized or unique resources of national
 or international significance;
               *Library networks and bibliographic utilities which act on
 behalf of libraries.

 The National Science Foundation, through its various programs,
 including science education, should provide for:

         - The inclusion of libraries both within and outside of higher
 education and elementary/secondary education as part of the
 research and education support structure;
        - Education and training in network use at all levels of
 education;
           Experimentation and demonstrations in network applications.

         The information infrastructure of the United States is a complex
 conglomeration of public and private networks, institutions,
 information resources, and users from educational, research, library,
 and industrial communities with extensive ties to international
 networks and infrastructures. Research libraries and the resources
 that they acquire, organize, maintain, and/or provide access to, are
 critical elements of this infrastructure. In support of their mission to
 advance scholarship and research, these same libraries have been at
 the forefront of the technological revolution that has made this
 robust and evolving information infrastructure possible.

         One of the most exciting and unanticipated results of the
 NSFNET has been the explosive growth of the network as a
 communications link. The enhanced connectivity permits scholars
 and researchers to communicate in new and different ways and
 stimulates innovation. Approximately one-quarter of the use of
 NSFNET is for E-mail, one-quarter for file exchange, 20% for
 interactive applications, and 30% for associated services. It is this
 latter category that is growing at an extraordinary rate and includes
 new and innovative library uses of networks. This growth rate
 demonstrates the value that researchers place on access to library
 and information resources in support of education and research. The
 following examples demonstrate the types of activities underway in
 academic and research libraries that utilize networks.

         In the past year, the number of library online catalogs available
 on the Internet has jumped from thirty to over 160, including those
 in Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Israel, and the
 United Kingdom. A single point of access to 100 online public access
 catalogs is possible today through a midwestern university. Access to
 resources identified in online public access catalogs are of increasing
 importance to researchers as they can access a greatly expanded
 array of information resources and in a more timely and efficient
 fashion. Needed information can be located at another institution,
 and depending upon the nature and format of the information,
 downloaded directly, and/or requested via interlibrary loan. Over
 time, this practice will likely change to the researcher obtaining the
 information directly online versus "ordering the information online."
 Typical use of an online catalog at a major research institution is that
 of LIAS at the Pennsylvania State University Library - there are
 approximately 33,000 searches each day of the LIAS system.

         The National Agricultural Library, NAL, is supporting a project
 with the North Carolina State University Libraries to provide
 Internet-based document delivery for library materials. Scanned
 images of documents generate machine readable texts which are
 transmitted via the NSFNET/Internet to libraries, researchers work
 stations, and agricultural research extension offices. Images of
 documents can be delivered directly to the researchers computer,
 placed on diskette, or printed. This program will be extended to the
 entire land- grant community of over 100 institutions as well as to
 other federal agencies and to the international agricultural research
 community.

         Another example of new library services that are possible with
 the use of the information technologies and networks, that meet a
 growing demand in the research community, and represent a
 network growth area are the licensing of commercial journal
 databases by libraries. Four of the last five years of the National
 Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database is accessible to the
 University of California community and there are approximately
 50,000 searches of the system each week. There are numerous
 benefits to researchers and libraries including enhanced access to
 journal literature, there are lower costs to the library than from use
 of commercial systems, and the lower costs encourages greater use of
 the files by researchers thus promoting innovation. As other research
 libraries mount files, similar use patterns have occurred.

         Although Internet access to proprietary files is not permitted,
 there are other services available such as UNCOVER that are more
 widely accessible. UNCOVER is a database with the tables of contents
 for approximately 10,000 multi-disciplinary journals developed by
 the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries. The increasing demand
 for UNCOVER demonstrates the need for such services in the
 academic community and one that is available at a low cost for those
 institutions unable to locally mount proprietary files.

         One area of networked services forecast to present new
 opportunities for dissemination and exchange of information in the
 scholarly and research communities and where a significant amount
 of experimentation and "rethinking" is anticipated, is in electronic
 publishing. Publishing electronically is in its infancy. Today, there are
 ten refereed journals on the Internet and it is anticipated that there
 will be many times this number in a short while. These journals,
 available via the Internet, range from Postmodern Culture, (North
 Carolina State University) to New Horizons in Adult Education,
 (Syracuse University) to PSYCOLOQUY, (American Psychological
 Association and Princeton University).

         The nature and format of the electronic journal is evolving. To
 some, the electronic journal is a substitute to the "printed" journal.
 There are an increasing number of "paper- replicating electronic
 journals" and the growing number of titles on CD-ROM and the rapid
 rate of acceptance of this format, is a testament to the value of the
 electronic format. It is anticipated that many of the paper publishers
 will offer an electronic version of their journals via intermediaries
 such as DIALOG and CARL as the use of and capabilities of networks
 expand. This model also presents new dissemination choices to
 government agencies. The National Agricultural Library has begun to
 negotiate agreements with scholarly societies for the optical scanning
 of agricultural titles and information.

         Another view of the electronic journal is one more of process,
 than product. Information or an idea is disseminated on the network
 for open critique, comment, dialog, and exchange. In this instance,
 publishing is an ongoing, interactive, non-static function, and one
 that encourages creativity, connectivity, and interactivity.
 Researchers experimenting in this camp are referred to as
 "skywriters" or "trailblazers." In fact, publishing in this arena takes
 on a new meaning due to the network's capabilities. The use of
 multi-media including sound, text, and graphics, the significantly
 expanded collaborative nature of the scholarly exchange not possible
 with a printed scholarly publication, and finally, the potential for a
 continuously changing information source, distinguishes this
 electronic journal from its counterpart, the paper-replicating
 electronic journal. An online publishing program on the Genome
 Project at the Welch Library at Johns Hopkins University is an
 example of this type of electronic publishing. Text is mounted on a
 database, accessed by geneticists, students, and critics who respond
 directly via electronic mail to the author. In this case, a computerized
 textbook is the end result but one which constantly changes to reflect
 new advances in the field. Funding from the National Library of
 Medicine has supported this project.

         A final area where electronic publishing activities are underway
 is in the academic publishing community. Two examples of activities
 include efforts in the high energy physics and mathematics
 communities. A preprint database in high energy physics has been
 maintained for fifteen years by a university research facility with
 approximately 200 preprints added each week to the database of
 over 200,000 article citations. Instant Math Preprints (IMP), a new
 initiative that will maintain a searchable database of abstracts, will
 permit electronic file transfer of the full text of preprints. The project
 will be accessible via ten universities and "e-math," the American
 Mathematical Society's electronic service. The value to the research
 community of timely and effective exchange of research results will
 be enormous.

         There are two predominant reasons that pilot projects and
 experiments such as these have been possible, have flourished, and
 been successful. First, a high value has been placed and a significant
 investment has been made in carefully constructed cooperative
 programs in the library community to advance research through the
 sharing of resources. The creation and support of bibliographic
 utilities such as the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN)
 and the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) has resulted in access
 by scholars to enormous databases of bibliographic records and
 information. Cooperative programs have been supported and
 encouraged by federal programs such as the Library Services and
 Construction Act of 1964 and the Higher Education Act of 1965. The
 Higher Education Act and in particular Title II-C and Title II-D
 programs have emphasized the sharing of resources between all
 types of libraries and users, and provided needed funds for support
 of technological innovations and developments. These programs have
 also promoted equality of access to information, ensuring that those
 collections housed in major research institutions, be broadly
 accessible.

         The second reason that libraries have succeeded in advancing
 the exchange of information resources is the effective use of
 technologies to promote access. Most, if not all of these cooperative
 programs, are dependent upon networks in part, as the means to
 identify and share information resources. What will be required as
 more resources become available through the Internet will be the
 development of network directories. These directories will assist
 users in learning of what resources are available and how to access
 them. Provision of these electronic resources and the development of
 the ensuing access tools such as directories are already presenting
 many challenges to library and information science professionals and
 will require continuing attention if the NREN is to succeed.

         As a consequence, the needed infrastructure to connect a
 diversity of users to a wide array of information resources is in place
 today. Networks interconnecting information resources and users
 throughout all parts of the United States and internationally, have
 been operational and effective for a number of years. A key factor
 that will permit the NREN to be a success is that much of the
 infrastructure is already in place. There are networks that
 interconnect academic institutions - public and private, industrial
 users, and state consortiums, that include library networks and that
 do not distinguish between rural and urban, academic and K-12. The
 NREN vision must continue to encourage and demand enhanced
 interconnectivity between all users and all types of institutions.

         As Congress considers how to best design the NREN to meet the
 needs of the research and academic communities, it will be important
 more than ever to include the goals and objectives of ongoing
 programs. In a time when there are 1,000 books published
 internationally each day, 9,600 different journals are published
 annually in the United States, the total of all printed knowledge is
 doubling every eight years, electronic information is just beginning
 to be exploited, and financial and funding resources are shrinking, it
 is critical that the research and education communities with
 continued federal support, strive for increased connectivity between
 all types of libraries and users.  This connectivity will result in
 improved productivity and a strengthening of U.S. position in the
 international marketplace.

         S. 272 should provide the necessary framework to achieve this
 enhanced connectivity. S.272 should build upon existing programs
 and identify new means to permit information resources to be
 broadly available to the education and research communities.
 Ensuring connectivity through multiple types of libraries, throughout
 the United States, is a critical component to several existing statutes
 and should be included in NREN legislation. By so doing, the
 legislation would leverage existing federal, state, and local programs.

         As libraries and users alike employ information technologies to
 access information resources, new opportunities and applications will
 develop that exploit the wealth of information and knowledge
 available in research libraries. Network applications today primarily
 focus on the provision of access to resources such as books, journals,
 and online files. Electronic publishing ventures are just beginning. In
 the years ahead, scholars and researchers will be able to access and
 use those research materials and collections generally unaccessible
 but of extreme research value including photographs, satellite data,
 archival data, videos and movies, sound recordings, slides of
 paintings and other artifacts, and more. Access to and manipulation
 of these information resources advances scholarship and research,
 and scholars will expect a network with the capacity and capabilities
 to achieve effective access. Clearly, to be successful, effective, and of
 use to the academic and research communities, the NREN must be
 designed to nurture and accommodate both the current as well as
 future yet unknown uses of these valuable information resources.