ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries J u n e 1 9 9 2 / 3 9 9 Conference Circuit Network n aviga tin g and navigators B y N o r e e n S. A lld red ge a n d T h o m a s G. Kirk The spring meeting o f the Coalitionf o r Networked Inform ation T he them e of th e spring m eeting o f the Coa­lition for N etw orked Inform ation (CNI)— the first CNI m eeting after the passage an d si ing into law o f the High Perform ance an d Com­ puting Act o f 1991 w ith its NREN provisions— w as N etw ork Navigating an d Navigators. Ple­ nary session speakers w ere cited b y Paul Evan Peters, director o f CNI, as “true pathfinders an d pioneers w h o se w ork is breaking n e w g round in this area o f vital im portance to realizing the full prom ise o f netw orks to advance scholar­ ship an d intellectual productivity.” V inton Cerf, vice-president o f the C orpora­ tion for National Research Initiatives highlighted th e r o l e o f k n o w l e d g e r o b o t s , c a ll e d “kn o w b o ts,” in carrying out searches as they m o v e a r o u n d in n e tw o r k s . A p r o t o t y p e kno w b o t is u n d e r d evelopm ent to qu ery m ul­ tiple NLM d a ta b a se s in th e ABIDE project. B rew ster Kahle project leader, Thinking Ma­ chines C orporation discussed th e use o f a W ide Area Inform ation System (WAIS) w hich now has 25,000 users via Internet. T he goals o f the system are to m ake personal inform ation ac­ cessible; to have published inform ation find the users; to b e usable anyw here; an d to let others use w h at anyone else has learned. Key ele­ m ents o f the WAIS are that the protocol is based o n Z39.5O, and it utilizes native language queries and feedback (to date this includes English, French, Italian, and Latin). At the time of the meeting, 160 servers existed in several countries. Joyce Reynolds, Inform ation Services, Uni­ versity of S outhern California discussed direc­ tory services since the ability to interact is only N oreen S. A lldredge is d e a n o f libraries a t M o n ta n a State University; Thom as G. K irk is college librarian a t B erea College. Both represent A C R l a t CNI. gn useful if on e can locate the p e o p le w ith w hom yo u n e e d to w ork. Thus “effective use o f the netw ork will b e d eterm ined by th e quality and coverage o f available directory services.” George Strawn, program officer, N ational Science Foun­ dation review ed th e project solicitation b y the National Science Foundation (NSF) for N etw ork I­nform ation Services M a n a g e rs) for NSFNET an d NREN, a n d n o te d that NSF is particularly interested in creative responses an d an o p e n an d fair selection process. Pat Molholt, currently at R ensselaer Poly­ technic Institute, provided a vision statem ent that called for investm ent in th e hu m an capital o f o u r organizations so that the challenge of Share your networking stories The authors are looking for examples of various aspects of networking. They w ould ap­ preciate hearing from those of you who: • are involved in a d istance learning project that involves the use of networked in­ formation; • are providing instruction programs that teach faculty and/or students how to use net­ w orked information resources; • have developed planning documents for provision of netw orked information; • are involved in cooperative projects to share resources through the use of networks; • have reallocated budgets to provide sup­ port for networked information access and use. Write to: Tom Kirk, College Librarian, Berea College, Berea, KY 40404; phone (606) 986- 9341, x5266; fax (606) 986-9494; e-mail: bertgk@ ukpr.uky.edu; or N oreen Alldredge, Dean of Libraries, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717; phone (406) 994-5309; fa x (4 0 6 ) 994-2851; e-m ail: a ll d r e d g e / lib@renne .lib. montana. edu mailto:bertgk@ukpr.uky.edu 4 0 0 / C&RL N e w s “changing the cultural fabric, the norms, the expectations, the definition of our profession” can be met. She noted that while w e have in­ vested in system and netw ork R&D, w e have not m ade a matching commitment to hum an resources R&D. During the second plenary session panel­ ists com m ented on the opportunities and chal­ lenges of the current national networking scene. Michael Roberts, vice-president of EDUCOM, described the global environment and cautioned CNI projects • Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS): a supercomputer on every desk is a project which gives users simple interfaces for finding servers and accessing the information on them (reported by Brewster Kahle, Thinking Ma­ chines Corporation) • Knowbots: focused on architectural con­ siderations including the use of knowledge robot programs and distributed techniques (Vinton Cerf, Corporation for National Research Initiatives) • X.500 Protocol an d User Services Plan­ ning in the Internet: this protocol is designed to build a globally distributed directory for people, objects, and services (Chris Weider, Advanced Network and Services, Inc., and Joyce Reynolds, University of Southern California) • Gopher: a client/server system that gives clients seamless access to databases and docu­ ments, and gateways to services such as FTP, Archie, and WAIS (Mark McCahill, University of Minnesota) • Resource Discovery on the Internet—the Archie approach: provides an information in­ dexing and location service to Internet users by currently tracking over 1,000 archives which contain over 1,500,000 files (Peter Deutsch of McGill University) • Bibliographic Description an d Control for the Internet: (Martin Dillon, OCLC, and Sally McCallum, Library of Congress) • Two-Phase Discovery—Netfind: locates millions of people at thousands of sites world­ wide (Michael Schwartz, University of Colorado) • M ann Gateway: expansion of such a Gateway system to coordinate user access to locally developed systems and FTP resources and the implications of such enhancements (Howard Curtis, Cornell University) the audience to rem em ber that only a small percentage of the operating funds for NSFNET are federal, and that most of the fiscal resources are state and local funds. John Clement, director o f K-12 Networking at EDUCOM, noted that the needs o f this con­ stituency are access, appropriate content, and the opportunity for the user community to be actively involved in the policy process. Repre­ senting the Association o f Research Libraries (ARL), Susan Brynteson, director o f libraries at the University o f Delaware, stressed there is a n eed to articulate codes and practices in order to deal w ith anticipated tensions related to pri­ vacy and security o f information and also to protect freedom o f speech. Laura Isenstein, coordinator o f information services, Baltimore County Public Library, review ed the service roles o f public libraries in guaranteeing all citi­ zens access to netw orked information and in­ dicated that NREN will affect those roles. She cautioned that equitable access, costs, and ease o f connectivity are key concerns for public li­ braries. Representing ACRL, N oreen Alldredge, dean o f libraries at Montana State University, stated that the goal of NREN should be an informa­ tion infrastructure w hich enhances the intel­ lectual, cultural, and geographic diversities of the world. She em phasized the n eed for strong state and regional approaches to netw ork ac­ cess, as well as education and training for col­ lege and research libraries to avoid dividing into a nation of “have and have nots.” H oward McGinn, state librarian of North Carolina, rep­ resen ted the Chief Officers o f State Library Agencies. He noted that the information needs o f private citizens and local governm ents can be complex; any public information assets must be m ade accessible; state governm ent data is now available; and that politics and policy can be influenced from the local level. Wayne Kelley, assistant public printer and su­ perintendent of documents, presented the Govern­ ment Printing Office’s vision for access to govern­ ment information in the electronic era. The agency is “trying to move from a printer to a multi-media disseminator of information products.” What is n eeded most at this state of devel­ opm ent of netw orked information services are w orking exam ples from w hich institutions de­ veloping netw orked information resources and services can learn. Readers of this colum n are encouraged to share these examples. See the sidebar on page 399 for details. ■ The small customer. The small customer at Ballen. With some booksellers, a small answer all your questions. And an ongoing evaluation of library customer doesn’t rate quite the your very own shelf reserved needs so rigorous, it’s given us consideration that a large customer in our warehouse to guard the industry’s lowest overall might. 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