ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ February 2002 / 121 CONFERENCE CIRCUIT The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Reports from the task force meeting by Andrew R. Bonamici, Adrian W. Alexander, Charlene S. Hurt, Karyle Butcher, Sarah M. Pritchard, and Hannelore B. Rader Ed. note: The following are summaries of several of the project briefings at the CNI meet­ ing held November 29-30, 2001, in San Anto­ nio, Texas. Thanks to the authors for provid­ ing these reports. If you’d like more informa­ tion, many of the presentations from the task force meeting and the 2001-2002 CNI Program Plan are now available on the CNI Web site at http://www.cni.org. Partnership approaches to digital media creation at UT-Knoxville* A recent survey by the Association of Research Libraries revealed steady growth in the num­ ber and variety of instructional support ser­ vices offered by libraries to library and other instructional staff. Distance learning, Web course development, and instructional technol­ ogy are services that experience the most fre­ quent collaboration between the library and another institutional unit. This trend was evident at the Fall 2001 CNI meeting in San Antonio, where Barbara I. Dewey, dean of libraries at the University of Tennessee (UT) described the creation of two new media production services housed at Hodges Library. A collaborative project of the Office for Re­ search and Information Technology and the University Libraries, Digital Media Services (DMS) is a drop-off production facility offer­ ing comprehensive digitization of course ma­ terials for UT faculty. DMS is staffed primarily by technologists, with consultation by librar­ ians, and offers not only digitization, but also data storage and assistance in seeking and managing copyright permissions. DMS is a pilot project that will be evaluated after two years. The second new service, The Studio, is a hands-on digital media laboratory for students and faculty seeking to enrich course materi­ als with media. Full suites of media produc­ tion software are offered on both Macintosh and Windows computers. Scanners and au­ diovisual equipment are available for digiti­ zation of source material, and digital still and video cameras are available for checkout. Consulting staff is on hand to provide one- on-one assistance at the computers or by ap­ pointment. Ongoing issues for UT’s digital media fa­ cilities include: sustainability (the current bud­ get commitment is for three years); visibility on campus; convergence of partners’ service cultures; assessment (it is critical to know how the services contribute to student learning); and integration into library, IT, and campus About th e authors A n d re w R. Bonamici is associate university librarian, adm inistrative services, a t the University o f Oregon, e-mail: bonamici@oregon.uoregon.edu; Adrian W. Alexander is executive director o f the Greater Western Library Alliance, e-mail: AlexanderA@lindahall.org; Charlene S. Hurt is university librarian at Georgia State University, e-mail: churt@gsu.edu; Karyle Butcher is the Donald and Delpha Campbell university librarian at Oregon State University, e-mail: Karyle.Butcher@orst.edu; Sarah M. Pritchard is university librarian, University o f California-Santa Barbara, e-mail: pritchard@library.ucsb.edu; Hannelore B. Rader is university librarian and dean at the University o f Louisville, e-mail: h.rader@louisville.edu http://www.cni.org mailto:bonamici@oregon.uoregon.edu mailto:AlexanderA@lindahall.org mailto:churt@gsu.edu mailto:Karyle.Butcher@orst.edu mailto:pritchard@library.ucsb.edu mailto:h.rader@louisville.edu 122 / C&RL News ■ February 2002 activities (the p artn ers h o p e faculty will think o f DMS imm ediately w h en planning courses). It w as clear from D ew ey ’s p rese n tatio n th at th e UT Libraries an d th eir p artn e rs have successfully lau n ch ed an am bitious an d valu­ able ran g e o f instructional su p p o rt services. For m o re inform ation o n th e se projects, see h ttp ://d ig ita lm e d ia . u tk . e d u /in d e x . htm l an d h t t p : / / w w w . l i b . u t k . e d u / a v / s t u d i o . h t m l . — A nd rew R. B onαm ici *© Andrew R. Bonαmici Colorado Digitization Project's HERITAGE N ancy Allen, d e a n an d library director at the University o f D enver, p rese n ted an u p d ate of th e C olorado Digital Project’s (CDP) HERI­ TAGE digital library, focusing o n the results o f a tw o-year LSTA grant. T he grant en ab led CDP to m eet its goal o f providing th e p eo p le o f C olorado w ith access to th e w ritten an d visual reco rd o f C o lorado’s history, culture, governm ent, an d industry th ro u g h a collabo­ rative effort o f C o lorado’s archives, historical societies, libraries, an d m useum s. HERITAGE is th e Z39.50 com pliant cata­ log for the CDP digital library, w hich is linked to o th e r resources th ro u g h th e C olorado Vir­ tual Library. A lthough it is very m u ch a stan- d ard s-b ase d system , u sin g MARC, AACR2, XML, D ublin Core, EAD, RLG’s REACH ele­ m ents for m useum s, an d GILS, H eritage ac­ com m odates w hat Allen refers to as “m etadata w ith o u t m an d ates.” T h e system accepts b o th MARC d ata an d m etadata from various m u ­ se u m system s, c o n v e rtin g b o th to D ublin Core. Additionally, CDP offers a D ublin Core d ata entry tem p late to su p p o rt contributing organizations th at d o n o t have descriptive records for their resources. M etadata for th e digital library is sto red o n a central serv er h o ste d b y th e C olorado Alliance o f R esearch Libraries, h o w ev e r digi­ tal c o n te n t can b e s to red in a d ecen tralized fashion at local participating institutions. The CDP W eb site b ec o m e s a k ey to o l in this m odel, p ro v id in g a single p o in t o f access to all p articip atin g digital projects. The Colorado Digitization Project currently provides financial an d technical su p p o rt for m ore th an 30 digitization initiatives at 48 in­ stitutions a ro u n d Colorado. O n e o f th e major accom plishm ents o f CDP thus far has b e e n to m ove b e y o n d trad itio n al lib ra ry c o lle c ­ tio n s to c re a te a v irtu a l p r e s e n c e fo r m any local history m u seu m s in th e state. T he p ro ject’s n ex t steps include exploring a n ew phase o f access b ased o n the O p en Archives Initiative an d multistate collaborations w ith neighboring Wyoming, N ebraska, an d Kansas. CDP has also received an IMLS grant to develop m odels for reaching K-12 teachers an d librarians. The CDP library can b e accessed at h ttp :// colo rad o d ig ital.co allian ce.o rg /.— A drian W. Alexander Open borders: Northwestern's joint library/IT effort in faculty support In this session, Bob Taylor, IT director o f aca­ dem ic technologies, an d Diane Perushek, as­ sistant university librarian for collection m an­ agement, discussed an innovative joint use o f a library facility at Northwestern University. The facility, Tw o East: Bibliographic Resources and Technology o n Two, is shared by collection m anagem ent, the library’s digital m edia ser­ vices departm ent (w hich reports to public ser­ vices), and academ ic technologies— a d ep art­ ment of the university’s instructional technology division. Perushek proposed an analogy betw een the Tw o East arrangem ent an d a garden plot with three separate beds, w ith possible future sce­ narios o f m ore cross-fertilization b etw een the beds. Taylor discussed a series o f specific col­ laborative projects that have b e e n p ro p o sed a n d /o r im plem ented, including a repurposing o f the Video Encyclopedia o f the 20th Century‚ the Mellon International D unhuang Archive, an d th e O yez Project. He em phasized the im­ portance o f co-location, stating that it is “better to co-locate than m erge.” The slogan “N ew Neighbors Build N ew Partners” w as u sed to summ arize a series o f n ew partnerships b e ­ tw een digital m edia services an d the collec­ tion m anagem ent department. Projects include th e digitizing o f slides for Slavic art, Early En­ glish Books Online, an d links to bibliographers’ hom epages. D esp ite so m e initial ap p re h e n sio n , b o th th e library a n d acad em ic te ch n o lo g ies have fo u n d th e a rran g e m en t at T w o East to be v ery b en eficial. To facilitate a su ccessfu l w orking arrangem ent, the groups at T w o East h a v e g e t-to g e th e rs fo u r tim es e a c h year, jointly te ac h classes a n d o th e r w o rk sh o p s a n d se m in a rs, co lla b o ra te o n B lac k b o ard http://www.lib.utk.edu/av/studio.html C&RL News ■ February 2 0 0 2 I 123 pages, and publish 2Eαst: e Newsletter every two w eeks.— Charlene S. Hurt Broadband connectivity in wireless country Representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and OnSAT Network Communi­ cations described their collaborative Native American Access to Technology Project dur­ ing this briefing. The G ates F o u n d atio n partnered with OnSat to provide an innova­ tive, cost-effective combination of satellite and local loop wireless solutions for Native Ameri­ can tribes in the Four Comers area. Solar Elec­ tric Light Fund, whose executive director also spoke at the session, came on board to donate solar power, enabling the off-grid sites to receive high-speed connections through satellites. Many of the 165 sites receiving public ac­ cess computers through the grant program previously had no access to basic wire service, and in some cases no pow er was available. By providing wireless connections, the collabora­ tion has not only introduced current technol­ ogy to the area but has also provided for rea­ sonably inexpensive ongoing maintenance. By bringing in both wireless and solar energy, this project has made it possible for the people of Four Corners to make connections beyond their boundaries that were previously impossible. The placement of equipment alone, without enough energy capacity to keep it viable, would have fallen short of the mark. The Native American Access to Technology Project offers a model that could be replicated in other remote areas whose most feasible options include going wireless.—Karyle Butcher NINCH: The next five years David Green, executive director of the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH), updated attendees on the directions and activities of NINCH at this session of CNI. Founded in 1993 jointly by CNI, American Council of Learned Societies, and Getty Infor­ mation Institute, NINCH focuses on digital is­ sues in the humanities and cultural heritage world related to both the creation of innova­ tive “born digital” works and to the preserva­ tion of historic materials held in libraries, mu­ seums, and historical organizations. NINCH has more than 100 institutional mem­ bers and a broad agenda focusing on intellectual property, cooperation and communication about digital initiatives in the humanities, document­ ing economic models and best practices for digitization projects, and other strategies to address both practical and policy concerns. NINCH membership is international and cuts across libraries, museums, academic faculty, information technology groups, performing arts organizations, and scholarly societies. NINCH has been developing a guide to best practices, a series o f copyright “town meetings,” and a database of digital humanities projects, all linked from its Web site at http://www.ninch.org. NINCH’s hope for the future is to serve as a catalyst, for example, to bring together librar­ ians, faculty, museums, foundation, and groups outside academia, to develop large-scale col­ laborative projects to digitize and preserve cul­ tural heritage.— Sarah M. Pritchard Integrity of "publications" on the Web and demands for post- publication revision This session, which featured Thomas Clifford Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information, provided several in­ triguing insights into new issues related to how information placed on the Web increasingly inspires others to find relationships to owner­ ship and thus dem and payment. Many Web sites are now making available large numbers of archival materials, such as documents, mailing list archives, and other materials. Search engines index these materi­ als, making them more visible than ever. How­ ever, such materials are becoming more vulner­ able to continuing challenges from corporations. Many companies now scan the Web for sites w hose text perceivably contains phrases hav­ ing some status as trademarks. When these so- called trademarks are located, the companies send threatening letters demanding that the text be removed or altered and, if that does not occur, license fees are demanded. Generally, organizations are trying to use the Web to dis­ seminate “fixed” editions, but these challenges and pressures from corporations do not respect this fixity. During a breakout session, participants had an opportunity to discuss and compare expe­ riences regarding the current situation, to share strategies for responding to these demands for revision, and to explore the implications of such demands for the integrity of documentation. — Hannelore B. Rader ■ http://www.ninch.org