Washington, D.C.
October 16-18, 1996

Redefining Higher Education

APPENDIX V

Association of Research Libraries

Report on Association Activities

Highlights Table of Contents

Highlights of ARL program activities since the May membership meeting include:

OSC Partners with CNI to Track Consortia

Directory of E-Journals Tracks Explosive Growth in Internet Publishing

Strategy Adopted to Address Government Information in E-Formats

ARL Board Encourages Ongoing Discussions on Intellectual Property with the Higher Education and Scholarly Society Communities

ARL Publishes Copyright & NII, Resources for the Library and Education Community

AAU/ARL Rethink Strategy to Promote Electronic Scholarly Publishing

NAILDD Implementation of ILL Protocol Expands to Europe, Australia

ARL, CNI Support NINCH

Deborah Jakubs Appointed VPO to Develop Global Resources Program

ARL Collaborates with MLA, AHA on Preservation Issues

Diversity Program Redefined; DeEtta Jones Appointed Program Officer

OMS Launches New Information Service: Transforming Libraries

Developing Indicators for Academic Library Performance, 2nd edition Issued

Timothy Jewell Appointed VPO to Assess Measures of Library Spending on E-Resources

ARL Web Page Expanded

NEH Funds New Phase of NRMM Project

VPO Opportunities Identified

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARL Capabilities

1. Scholarly Communication and Information Policies (Objective 1)
ARL Objective 1: To understand, contribute to, and improve the system of scholarly communication and the communication and information policies that affect the availability and usefulness of research resources.

1.1 Office of Scholarly Communication
1.1.1 Scholarly Communication Committee
1.1.2 Firm Subscription Prices Working Group

1.2 Federal Relations and Information Policy Development
1.2.1 Committee on Information Policies

1.3 Intellectual Property and Copyright Issues
1.3.1 Working Group on Copyright Issues

1.4 AAU/ARL Action Agenda
1.4.1 AAU/ARL Research Libraries Steering Committee

2. Access and Technology (Objectives 2 and 5)
ARL Objective 2: To make access to research resources more efficient and effective.
ARL Objective 5: To assist member libraries to exploit technology in fulfillment of their mission and assess the impact of educational technologies on scholarly communication and on the role of research libraries.

2.1 Access and Technology
2.1.1 Committee on Access to Information Resources
2.1.2 Work Group on Scientific and Technical Information

2.2 Coalition for Networked Information
2.2.1 Steering Committee for the Coalition

2.3 HEIRAlliance

3. Collection and Preservation (Objectives 3 and 4)
ARL Objective 3: To support member libraries’ efforts to develop and maintain research collections, both individually and in the aggregate.
ARL Objective 4: To support member libraries’ efforts to preserve research collections, both individually and in the aggregate.

3.1 Collection Services
3.1.1 Committee on Research Collections
3.1.2 Committee on Preservation of Research Library Materials

4. Staffing and Management (Objectives 6 and 7) ARL Objective 6: To identify on an ongoing basis the capabilities and characteristics required for research library personnel to best serve their constituencies, and to assist member libraries and educational programs in the recruitment, development and effective use of staff.
ARL Objective 7: To assist member libraries in augmenting their management capabilities.

4.1 Diversity Program
4.1.1 Committee on Diversity

4.2 Office of Management Services
4.2.1 OMS Organizational Development
4.2.2 OMS Information Services Program
4.2.3 OMS Training and Staff Development Program
4.2.4 Committee on the Management of Research Library Resources

5. Performance Measures (Objective 8)
ARL Objective 8: To describe and measure the performance of research libraries and their contributions to teaching, research, scholarship, and community service.

5.1 Statistics and Measurements Program
5.1.1 Committee on Statistics and Measurements

6. Supporting Capabilities

6.1 Governance
Status Report on Committees and Selected Advisory and Project Groups

6.2 Communications and External Relations
6.2.1 ARL Publications Program
6.2.2 Electronic Communications and Technology

6.3 Membership Meetings

6.4 International Relations

6.5 General Administration

7. Research and Development

7.1 Office of Research and Development
Summary of Grant Funded Activities: May 1996 - September 1996
7.1.1 ARL Visiting Program Officer Program

Section 1: Scholarly Communication and Information Policies

1.1 Office of Scholarly Communication

The objective of the Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) is to maintain and improve scholars’ access to information. OSC undertakes activities to understand and influence the forces affecting the production, dissemination, and use of scholarly and scientific information. The Office seeks to promote innovative, creative, and alternative ways of sharing scholarly findings, particularly through championing new and evolving electronic methods of recording and disseminating academic and research scholarship.

The Office also maintains a continuing educational outreach to the scholarly community in order to encourage a shared "information conscience" among all participants in the scholarly publishing chain: academics, librarians, and information producers. The activities of this office build on the results of the ARL Serials Prices Project as well as interest and research ongoing in the profession. The capability is advanced and OSC receives guidance through the work of the ARL Committee on Scholarly Communication.

Initially created as the Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing, the capability was renamed in spring 1996. Mary Case became Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication on June 1.

Summary of Activities

Activities between June and October 1996 have included participation in the process to redefine a proposal for collective action by the AAU and ARL in support of electronic scholarly publishing, planning for the evolution of the Directory of Electronic Journals, and beginning the process for collaborative projects with the AAUP, AHA, CNI, and COSLA.

Collaborations to Promote Scholarly Communications: Projects and Programs

AAU/ARL Research Libraries Project. At its April 15 meeting, the AAU/ARL Research Libraries Steering Committee concluded that the Electronic Scholarly Publishing (ESP) Program, proposed by the AAU/ARL Intellectual Property Task Force, although descriptive of what universities should be doing, was not the kind of collective action the Steering Committee was seeking. The ESP replicated current activities rather than advancing or complementing these efforts. The Steering Committee discussed revisiting a definition of collective action in the context of other discussions underway within AAU about higher education’s need for expanded network capacity. These discussions have resulted in the development of a new proposal, the International Scholars Academic Network (IScAN).

Drafted by a Working Group of the ARL Board with the help of Paul Peters, Executive Director of CNI, IScAN is currently being developed at Board direction for broad discussion by the membership at the October meeting. The OSC is participating in this development process. (See Section 1.4)

Networked Information Consortia. OSC will co-sponsor a website with CNI and, tentatively, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) that will facilitate access to and analysis of information about networked information resources and service consortia. Also under discussion are plans for the three organizations to co-sponsor a program, "Networked Information Consortia: Strategies, Models, Projects," to be held in conjunction with the Spring 1997 CNI Task Force meeting. This program will address the management issues involved in creating, funding, and maintaining consortial networks.

The Future of the Scholarly Monograph. ARL will co-sponsor with AAUP and ACLS, and perhaps others, a symposium on the future of the scholarly monograph. A program planning committee is in the process of being appointed. The program will be held in June or July 1997.

Endangered Monograph Project. OSC is working with the American Historical Association to develop a proposal for a project on the endangered monograph. A project outline will be available for discussion by the Scholarly Communications Committee at the October meeting.

Program on Licensing. OSC is developing a program on licensing to be held in San Francisco on December 8 and 9, 1996. The program will be held in conjunction with the CNI Fall Task Force meeting.

Publications

ARL Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Academic Discussion Lists. This project advances electronic/Internet publishing of journals and has become the standard reference book in its area. The e-journal/newsletter directory has experienced enormous growth. The listings in the sixth annual edition, published in 1996, increased 150% over the fifth edition.

The increase is attributable primarily to two factors. First, Netscape offers an exciting and easy way to present non-textual materials, such as images, and is widely available to producers and readers, as well. More individuals and small organizations have been attracted to the e-medium for serial publications. Second, print publishers’ prototype projects for e-versions of their current journals are beginning to come online. The entire journals lists of a handful of publishers are now or shortly will be available through the WWW.

The majority of the actual research and keying for the e-journals sections is carried out by three interns from the Library and Information Science Program at Catholic University: Jennifer Page, Colleen Keller, and Ann Doty. The project is directed by Dru Mogge, Electronic Services Coordinator.

An abbreviated version of the Directory will be available on the Web this fall. Discussions are underway to revise the Directory for next year with a view toward producing a full Internet version. In addition, a large marketing campaign has been undertaken to increase sales of this year’s edition. A brochure was designed to promote the Directory beyond the research library market.

(See also Section 6.2.2)

1.1.1 Scholarly Communication Committee

This committee was established in February 1991 by the ARL Board of Directors to help the Association understand, contribute to, and improve the system of scholarly communication. The committee is charged to monitor developments, determine critical issues requiring ARL attention, inform members, and design strategic responses that can serve to influence the future of scholarly communication. The Committee also advises and guides the ARL staff on matters regarding the plans and strategies of the Office of Scholarly Communication.

Between the May and October 1996 ARL meetings, the committee has worked primarily to respond to the IScAN proposal and to provide advice and assistance to the new director for the Office of Scholarly Communication.

Members:

Joe Boisse (1994-1996)
Scott Bennett (1996-1998)
Susan Brynteson (1996-1998)
Eileen Hitchingham (1996-1998)
Margot Montgomery (1995-1997)
Carole Moore (1995-1997)
Carlton Rochell (1995-1997)
Elaine Sloan, Chair (1996-1997)

Staff Liaison: Mary Case

1.1.2 Firm Subscription Prices Working Group

To assist in efforts to obtaining firm serial subscription prices in a timely fashion, the Board approved formation of a working group under the aegis of the Scholarly Communications Committee. The group consists of volunteers who offered their services to ARL to work on this issue. Its objectives are to 1) establish a process of identifying firm price requirements by ARL libraries, and 2) establish a dialogue with the vending and publishing community to attain prices for the subscription year by August or September of the previous calendar year. While actively sponsoring publisher and vendor meetings in its early years, for 1996, it is expected to monitor developments in a low-key activity mode.

Members:

Tony Angiletta
Robert Holley
Scott Bennett
Paula Kaufman
Sue Martin
Dale Canelas
Charles Miller
Lois Ann Colaianni
Emily Mobley
Merrily Taylor
Sheila Creth
Jim Neal
Fred Friend
Barbara Smith
Paul Gherman
Graham Hill
Carla Stoffle
Sharon Hogan

Staff Liaison: Mary Case

1.2 Federal Relations and Information Policy Development

The Federal Relations and Information Policy Program is designed to: monitor activities resulting from legislative, regulatory, or operating practices of international and domestic government agencies and other relevant bodies on matters of concern to research libraries; prepare analyses of and responses to federal information policies; influence federal action on issues related to research libraries; examine issues of importance to the development of research libraries; and develop ARL positions on issues that reflect the needs and interests of its members. This capability is governed by the ARL Information Policies Committee. The ARL Working Group on Copyright Issues plays an advisory role with regard to Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues.

The Federal Relations Notebook (ARL/FRN) is now available via the World Wide Web at http://www.arl.org/info/ frn/info.html. Ann Doty, Research Assistant, reconfigured the Notebook for the Web during the summer months. ARL/FRN is intended to help ARL members keep abreast of the legislative landscape, as well as the rapidly changing issues, players, legislative vehicles, and priorities within the U.S. and Canadian federal governments. The ARL/FRN also provides a framework for the Federal Relations E-news distributed to the ARL Directors by the Executive Director. These monthly Federal Relations E-news are written by Prue Adler and edited by Patricia Brennan and they complement occasional action alerts to members on different topics.

Summary of Activities
The priorities of the capability are:

•copyright and intellectual property issues;

•government information issues;

•telecommunications, networking, and digital library issues; and

•other issues of importance to research libraries such as appropriations of selected federal agencies.

Copyright and Intellectual Property
(See Section 1.3)

Information Policy Legislation and Related Activities

Government Information Dissemination. Several Congressional initiatives are underway to reconceptualize access to government information. ARL staff met with Congressional and Executive Branch staff to discuss these proposals. ARL, with others in the library community, has responded to numerous GPO proposals, including the Government Printing Office Transition Plan. Prue Adler, as a member of the Advisory Committee, assisted the GPO on how the agency could move to a more electronically-based program. With others in the library community, ARL responded to the GPO plan and participated in numerous discussions with members of the executive and legislative branches regarding changes to Title 44.

On May 1, several ARL directors and government information specialists participated in a strategic planning session on government information issues, with a particular focus on electronic information. An ARL Strategic Plan on Government Information was drafted and reviewed by the Information Policies Committee. The ARL Board of Directors approved the plan at the July 1996 meeting of the Board of Directors. The four-point plan focuses on education, data gathering, continued political advocacy and policy leadership, and the initiation of pilot projects and collaboration with others in the development of new models. The Plan is available via the World Wide Web at http://www.arl.org/info/frn/gov/stratplan2.html.

Influencing Agency Information Programs. ARL continues to collaborate with others in the public interest community and with agencies in implementing the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) proposal. GILS provides a framework and common approach for federal agencies to make their information resources publicly available. ARL staff worked with NTIS on implementing their dissemination program, with a particular focus on depository library issues. NITS has proposed a pilot project for 20 federal depository libraries to receive NTIS resources electronically.

ARL GIS Literacy Project. The project seeks to educate librarians and users about GIS as well as to develop GIS capabilities in research libraries. Background materials related to this project are now available on the ARL website, including a database of all project participants. The number of libraries participating in the ARL Project continues to grow.

Prue Adler participates in numerous discussions and conferences related to the development of a national spatial data standard and issues relating to access to GIS resources. The increasing reliance upon GIS by multiple communities including government agencies and members of the academic and research communities indicate the need for research librarians to be well situated to provide access to the growing array of digital cartographic and spatial information. Prue Adler is a member of the Board of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), an NSF-sponsored consortium.

Telecommunications, Networking, Digital Libraries, and Related Activities

Telecommunications. With the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, ARL’s focus in this area now includes working with agencies to implement NII programs, responding to NII proposals, and collaborating with others in the education, library, and public interest communities to promote common positions.

ARL continues to participate in the challenge to provisions included in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, those provisions regarding restrictive access to selected information resources. ARL actively opposed provisions included in Title V, the Communications Decency Act (CDA), of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that sought to prohibit access to indecent or patently offensive materials via the Internet. These provisions would impose fines and criminal penalties for transmitting and/or providing access to these resources. ARL, as a member of the Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition (CIEC), is challenging the CDA in court. Several courts have ruled that provisions in the CDA are unconstitutional and overly broad. These cases are slated to be heard by the Supreme Court.

ARL reviewed and endorsed ALA filings before the Federal Communications Commission on discounted rates for schools and libraries.

Networking and Digital Libraries. ARL staff worked with agencies in designing and proposing network applications programs, such as the NASA Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications Program, the NSF/ARPA/NASA digital library initiative (DLI), and the NTIA TIIAP program. This included working with staff of Appropriations Committees in support of these programs. Prue Adler participated in the EOSDIS Users Report, an evaluation of user information needs for global change data; in Project Alexandria, an NSF/ARPA/NASA Digital Library Initiative; in meetings of the High Performance Computing Coalition regarding continued support for HPCC programs; and participated in NSF network-related efforts.

ARL staff participated in follow-up discussions to the conference Monterey 1995, "Higher Education and the NII–from Vision to Reality." The conference explored the steps required over the next few years to turn the potential of the advanced information infrastructure into a reality for higher education. FARNET, CNI, and others have sponsored several sessions focused on next generation networks. Duane Webster, Prue Adler, and Paul Peters have participated in these discussions.

Appropriations

Given the early departure by Congress, it was unable to complete action on many appropriations bills. ARL staff have worked in support of selected agencies’ FY 1997 appropriations, including those of the Library of Congress, GPO, NEH, NTIA, NSF, and the Department of Education. A comprehensive spending bill, which has passed the House and is under consideration in the Senate, includes FY 1997 funds for all those remaining agencies, such as NEH, to avert another federal government shutdown.

LC/GPO. ARL, ALA, and AALL submitted statements to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on behalf of the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office FY 1997 budget requests. ARL continues to be very active on this appropriations bill to ensure that needed funds are available to both agencies.

National Endowment for the Humanities. FY 1997 appropriations for NEH have not been completed. Letters and calls from ARL directors have been very helpful in the House and Senate deliberations on the NEH budget.

National Telecommunications Information Administration, Department of Commerce. TIIAP faced significant hurdles in the Senate appropriations discussions. ARL’s efforts focused on increasing the Senate TIIAP figures at least to match the higher House figure. The NTIA/TIIAP is a program that supports library, education, non-profit, and state and local government information technology projects.

National Science Foundation. ARL worked with others in the higher education community in support of the NSF FY 1997 budget request, with a particular focus on the CISE programs and reauthorization of the agency. ARL, as a member of the Consortium of Social Science Associations, submitted a statement in support of the FY 1997 NSF budget request. ARL is now a member of the Science Coalition and the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF).

HEA. ARL worked with a coalition of higher education groups and associations in support of HEA Title VI FY 1997 appropriations before the House and Senate.

Non-Profit Advocacy. ARL joined a coalition of over 800 non-profit groups to oppose language in appropriations bills that would severely restrict the ability of non-profits to work with others in the executive and congressional branches of government. Activities such as filing the amicus brief on the Texaco decision would be prohibited if such provisions were enacted.

1.2.1 Committee on Information Policies

At the Committee’s meeting in October 1995, members discussed FY96 priorities and requested that staff continue to focus on and respond to these ongoing issues, including: copyright and intellectual property; government information dissemination programs with the understanding that an investment in maintaining more government information in the public domain will, in the long-term, have an impact on ARL’s needed investment in copyright and intellectual property; telecommunications and networking issues, with a particular focus on digital library applications; and support of agency programs that are of direct importance to research libraries, including those that promote digitizing research library resources.

1996 Agenda of Issues:

•Advise on the development of ARL positions

•Monitor and assess other government policies that may have an impact on research libraries

•Advise on efforts to strengthen ARL’s capability to communicate with policymakers

Meetings planned in 1996: Meeting in conjunction with the ARL membership meetings in May and October 1996. Telephone consultations and e-mail conferences will continue as needed.

Members:

Jerry Campbell(1996-1998)
Sheila Creth(1996-1998)
Kenneth Frazier (1996-1998)
Fred Heath(1994-1996)
Ernie Ingles(1995-1997)
Paula Kaufman(1996-1998)
Gerald Lowell(1995-1997)
Susan K. Martin(1995-1997)
Tom Shaughnessy (1994-1996)
Robert Wedgeworth (1996-1998)
James F. Williams(1995-1997)
James Neal, Chair (1995-1996)

Staff Liaison: Prue Adler

1.3 Intellectual Property and Copyright Issues

The ARL Board of Directors has identified intellectual property and copyright as a defining set of issues for the future of scholarly communication. All programs were urged to identify ways to advance the ARL agenda in these areas. As a result, many programs contributed to recent activities.

Last fall and winter, the ARL Working Group on Copyright developed a set of strategies for expanded research library leadership and impact on proposed copyright legislation. The following strategies were reviewed by the ARL membership and changes were proposed and incorporated to produce the following list.

• Implement tactics to slow down the legislative process so that key issues can be identified and debated, including use of institutional legislative liaisons

• Advocate for appropriate change or improvements in the current copyright law

• Affirm and articulate our intellectual property principles as well as important professional tenets in such areas as intellectual freedom and privacy

• Evaluate the proposed legislation against these principles to identify key conflicts and gaps

• Identify and resolve critical philosophical and practical differences and varied interpretations in our own community

• Propose new or alternative legislative language which addresses the needs of the scholarly and higher education communities

• Shape specific programs of library service that maximize the value for readers of the fair use and other limitations on copyright provided by the law

• Improve understanding of the international dimensions of the issues

• Expand awareness of the increased legal vulnerability for libraries and parent institutions under the proposed legislation

• Expand coalition building with the higher education, not-for-profit and technology communities

• Launch an effective and broad-based education and advocacy program on our campuses and in our regions

During the May 1996 Membership meeting in Vancouver, the ARL Working Group on Copyright and the Board reviewed a number of issues related to copyright.

With regard to the legislation, the Working Group acknowledged the need for a strenuous, rigorous response given the speed at which the legislation is scheduled to move through both Houses of Congress. The Working Group also acknowledged the need to engage the higher education community and decided that ARL’s priority agenda should be: fair use, online liability, preservation, and distance education.

The Working Group reviewed the March draft of the CONFU electronic reserves guidelines as well as membership responses to them, and the draft CCUMC multimedia guidelines. The Working Group recommended that ARL not endorse the multimedia guidelines and recommended that a letter be sent to CCUMC explaining ARL’s reasons for lack of support. The working group also recommended that ARL not sign on to the electronic reserve guidelines, noting both practical and political concerns with the current draft. The Working Group also asked for guidance from the Board about the guidelines process overall and ARL’s association with them.

During the Business Meeting, Jim Neal, Chair of the Information Policies Committee, reported on the Working Group’s discussions. In response to the report, the membership adopted a resolution articulating ARL concerns that "readers be able to exercise with vigor their fair use rights provided under the U.S. Constitution and that readers be able to rely on third parties such as libraries in the exercise of their rights."

Based on all the membership discussions during the Vancouver meeting, the Board revisited efforts to draft fair use guidelines in the CONFU process. They acknowledged that, while guidelines are useful as aids in interpreting the law as it applies to various activities within libraries, they should not reflect a narrow interpretation of the law. The Board discussed comments by Susan Kornfield, attorney for the MDS, who outlined for the membership the way guidelines can be and have been misinterpreted by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in recent litigation.

The Board acknowledged the need for continued discussion and development of understandings with the user and creator communities about managing and using electronic information in ways that are within the spirit of the law and preserve users’ fair use rights. The Board decided that it was not in ARL member libraries’ best interests to sign onto electronic reserve guidelines at this point. ARL’s position on the electronic reserves guidelines was communicated to the CONFU participants. This was communicated back to the membership in July, as well. A letter was also sent to CCUMC outlining ARL’s reasons for lack of support on the multimedia guidelines.

The Board also asked for ARL staff to arrange a discussion among members of the higher education and scholarly community to come together to discuss these issues.

On July 30, 1996, the ARL Board of Directors hosted a discussion of current issues in copyright and intellectual property as they relate to scholarly communication. Participants reviewed the state of current developments and their potential impact on the scholarly process. Of particular concern to all attending the meeting is the future of fair use in the electronic environment and the feasibility of arriving at mutual understandings within the higher education and scholarly community for the management and use of intellectual property. The participants acknowledged that the meeting was beneficial to all involved in that it provided a forum for developing understandings and for exchanging perspectives among the representatives of key constituencies. Follow-up meetings are planned for fall and will be hosted by the National Humanities Alliance.

A summary of the discussion and the themes emerging from the meeting was distributed to the ARL membership in August.

Summary of Activities

• Reviewed and responded to the Administration- and Congressional-recommended revisions to the 1976 Copyright Act and related NII efforts

• Developed strategies in response to specific legislative proposals, such as the NII Copyright Protection Act, the Copyright Term Extension bill, the Omnibus Patent Act of 1996, and the Database Investment and Intellectual Property Antipiracy Act of 1996

• Provided background information to the membership on new copyright proposals and progress with development of fair use guidelines

• Organized and published a second briefing packet, Copyright and the NII: Resources for the Library and Education Community, focused on pending legislation

• Distributed regular updates via the Federal Relations monthly e-notes

Shared Legal Capability for Intellectual Property. ARL is collaborating very closely with others in the library community on copyright and NII issues through the formation of the Shared Legal Capability (SLC).

• Five library associations (ALA, AALL, ARL, MLA, and SLA) are members of the SLC. Members of the SLC met with members of the Administration and congressional staff to discuss many proposed changes to the Copyright Act.

• The SLC is participating in negotiations with other interested stakeholders on copyright term extension legislation. The Register of Copyright is the facilitator of these negotiations.

• The SLC submitted statements to the House and Senate regarding H.R. 2441 and S. 1284, the NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995. Members of the SLC and the Digital Future Coalition drafted six alternative legislative proposals for H.R. 2441 and S. 1282. These include issues relating to browsing, fair use, preservation, first sale, distance education, and copyright management information.

• The SLC is participating in the negotiations with online service providers and content owners on online service liability issues. Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) has convened these sessions to try and find common ground among these stakeholders. Arnie Lutzker, attorney with Fish and Richardson and SLC legal counsel, is representing the SLC in these discussions.

• The SLC, with the Association of American Publishers and the National Humanities Alliance, sent a joint letter to the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing serious reservations with the PTO reform legislation. Provisions that would have decoupled the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress were subsequently deleted. The Washington Post noted this "formidable alliance" in both a story and editorial on this issue.

• Members of SLC agreed to explore the development of "best practices" issue briefs in selected areas, such as e-reserves, ILL, and licensing.

• Prue Adler and Duane Webster are the ARL representatives to the SLC.

Intellectual Property and NII. During the last six months, ARL staff have been extremely active in intellectual property and copyright debates and discussions. Members of the copyright team have made numerous presentations on these issues. In addition, ARL staff conducted numerous visits to House and Senate offices to discuss H.R. 2441, H.R. 989, the legislation seeking to extend copyright term, S. 1961, the Omnibus Patent Act of 1996, and H.R. 3531, legislation seeking to extend new intellectual property protections to databases.

With others in the public and private sectors, ARL formed the Digital Future Coalition (DFC). This Coalition is comprised of a diverse constituency of library, education, legal, scholarly, consumer, public interest, hardware and software manufacturers, and telecommunications providers, each of which has concerns regarding both the White Paper produced by the Administration and with provisions in H.R. 2441 and S. 1284. The DFC was formed to provide constructive alternative proposals to the White Paper and the legislation. Prue Adler is the ARL representative to DFC. The DFC has:

• Submitted testimony to both the House and Senate on H.R. 2441 and S. 1284;

• Conducted numerous visits to meet with Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and senior members of the Administration on these issues;

• Sponsored a technology briefing for Senate staff;

• Developed alternative proposals to those included in the legislation;

• Launched a campaign focused on the international dimensions of the NII bills and particularly the activities of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO);

• Commenced a public awareness campaign regarding the critical importance of this legislation; and

• Worked to change and/or delete a provision in the Omnibus Patent Act that would make ephemeral legal "copies," thus changing current law and presenting serious liability issues for all network service providers.

ARL is participating in another copyright-related coalition, the Ad Hoc Copyright Coalition, comprised of private sector online service provider companies. This Coalition shares many of the same concerns as the SLC and the DFC and is primarily focused on network liability issues and the expansion of selected copyright owner’s rights.

See Section 6.4, International Relations, for a report on International Federation of Library Associations meeting. Discussions were held on copyright issues.

Conference on Fair Use. The Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) has met almost monthly for the past two years to develop guidelines for fair uses of copyrighted works by and in libraries and educational settings. ARL has been represented by Mary Jackson. Over 60 library associations, copyright holder groups, scholarly societies, and user groups attend the meetings regularly. The last CONFU meeting is scheduled for November 25, 1996, with the final report of the Conference being issued by the Patent & Trademark Office prior to the start of the December WIPO Diplomatic Conference in Geneva.

•Electronic Reserves: At the plenary CONFU meeting on September 6, 1996, participants agreed that consensus could not be reached on the March 1996 draft of the electronic reserve guidelines. Both AAP and SPA issued statements noting their inability to endorse the draft. Several library associations, including ARL, also expressed serious reservations on the draft.

•Distance Learning: The Working Group has finalized language on live, interactive programs and asynchronous taped programs for later transmission. They are now drafting language for computer network (Web) delivery of live interactive distance learning programs. Copies of draft guidelines will be circulated to ARL members when the Working Group issues the call for comment. As of mid-September, participants are optimistic that consensus can be reached on fair use guidelines for distance learning.

•Digital Images: Over 20 ARL members responded to the call for comment on the August 1996 draft guidelines for digital images. Concerns centered around four areas: the apparent balance favoring copyright holders, especially their economic rights; the unreasonable burden of record keeping and compliance placed on libraries; a further narrowing of the fair use principle; and new restrictive technical and workflow requirements. Some participants are optimistic that consensus can be reached on the digital images guidelines by mid-November.

•Interlibrary Loan: Earlier this year, members of the ILL Working Group reached unanimous consensus that it was premature to develop guidelines for digital transmission of digital documents. However, copyright holders pressed to explore the possibility of developing guidelines for digital transmission (e.g. fax, Ariel) of print documents. The library and user community responded to the AAP document articulating why they could not accept the restrictions proposed by AAP. It appears unlikely that new fair use guidelines for ILL will be developed within the CONFU setting.

•Multimedia: In a separate but parallel process, the Consortium of College and University Media Centers (CCUMC) has completed work on fair use guidelines for educational multimedia and has begun the endorsement process. ARL sent a letter to CCUMC in July outlining reasons not to endorse. As of mid-September, 15 endorsements have been received, primarily from organizations representing copyright holder interests such as AAP and SPA. Receiving a favorable response from Bruce Lehman, the CCUMC committee intends to include the multimedia guidelines in an appropriate Judiciary Committee report.

MDS Decision and Fair Use. ARL closely monitored reaction to a fair use decision passed down by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, on February 12. The court held that an off-campus, for-profit photocopy shop may, as a matter of fair use, make coursepacks that include substantial portions of copyright-protected books and sell them to students (Princeton University Press v. Michigan Document Services, Inc.). On April 9, 1996, the judges of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to rehear this case en banc. The effect of that vote is to vacate the previous decision from the Sixth Circuit, leaving in force the injunction issued by the District Court. Based on membership discussion in Vancouver in May, ARL with ALA sent a letter to the Court noting that issues regarding fair use as detailed in amicus briefs before the Court in support of MDS are of extreme importance to members of the library community.

Copyright Education Initiative. The H.W. Wilson Foundation awarded ARL funding to develop an educational initiative on copyright compliance that includes funding to sponsor a series of workshops for librarians who have a training or spokesperson role in copyright compliance. Two workshops were conducted in the last half of 1996.

For the U.S. audience, "Copyright and Libraries: A Leadership Workshop" was held in Seattle, WA (September 19-20). The needs of institutions governed by Canadian copyright law will be addressed in "Copyright in Canada," to be held in Ottawa, Ontario (October 3-4). ARL collaborated with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) in the design of the workshop and it is co-sponsored by ARL, CARL, and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

Copyright Publications. In May, ARL published Copyright and the NII: Resources for the Library and Education Community. This briefing packet was designed to assist libraries and educators understand and become aware of the current copyright legislative reform and to encourage involvement in the debate. To date, over 800 copies have been distributed. Segments of the publication are also available on the ARL server.

In preparation for the ARL Copyright Workshop in Seattle, ARL staff prepared A Copyright Handbook: An ARL Compilation of Key Resources for Librarians. This publication contains a range of materials designed to acquaint librarians with copyright and its application in the library. This publication will be revised in the fall of 1996 and made available for purchase.

A draft pamphlet on licensing electronic resources has been prepared and is available for review. It outlines strategic and practical considerations before signing electronic resource agreements or contracts. Karen Hersey, Intellectual Property Counsel, MIT, assisted ARL in the preparation of this document.

The ARL Focus Flyer on Copyright has been available since 1994 and is continuously updated. Most recently it was distributed at the ARL copyright workshop in Seattle and at the IFLA conference in Beijing. It was also available at a Copyright Conferences held at the University of Tennessee in September, in Bangkok in October.

Copyright materials are continuously being added to the ARL website and links are also in place to other relevant copyright and intellectual property sites.

1.3.1 Working Group on Copyright Issues

At the request of the ARL Board of Directors, the Working Group on Copyright Issues was asked to continue to coordinate ARL activities on intellectual property and copyright issues. The Committee is comprised of members from four standing committees of the Association and the Executive Committee. Members of the Group serve as liaisons to their respective committees on these issues.

Members:

Scott Bennett(Scholarly Communication)
Betty Bengtson(Board, AAU/ARL Steering)
Nancy Cline(Board)
Ken Frazier(Information Policies)
Ernie Ingles(Information Policies)
Paula Kaufman(Information Policies)
Peter Lyman(At Large)
Susan Nutter(At Large)
Martin Runkle(Preservation)
George Shipman(Access)
Elaine Sloan(Scholarly Communication, AAU/ARL Steering)
Robert Wedgeworth(Information Policies, AAU/ARL Steering)
Jim Neal, Chair(Board, Information Policies)

Staff Liaison:

Duane Webster

Staff Resources:

Prue Adler
Mary Jackson
Patricia Brennan

1.4 AAU/ARL Action Agenda

AAU/ARL Steering Committee Activities The spring 1996 meeting of the AAU/ARL Research Libraries Steering Committee led to a significant turning point in the way the two organizations are addressing their shared agenda. At that meeting, the Steering Committee decided to reconsider the collective action it desired to promote electronic scholarly communication, to endorse the Global Resources Program, and to consider coordinating its agenda with that of the AAU Committee on Information Technology’s. Subsequently, the Steering Committee co-chairs, Myles Brand and Jerry Campbell, decided that a new committee structure should be developed. The Intellectual Property Task Force was concluded with thanks for its significant contributions. The future of the Steering Committee itself is still unresolved, pending the AAU and ARL discussions this fall.

The following review presents the status of the major topics emerging from the spring steering committee discussion.

Electronic Scholarly Publishing: Rethinking a Strategy to Promote ESP

With the decision that the "call for proposals" for discreet ESP projects was not the kind of collective action that they were seeking, the Steering Committee discussed revisiting a definition of collective action for electronic scholarly publishing in the context of other discussions underway within AAU about higher education’s need for expanded network capacity. There was also a preliminary discussion of a consortial structure to provide a stable base of support for electronic scholarly publishing.

IScAN: Encouraged by the continuing interest in the Steering Committee for some form of collective action to foster electronic scholarly publishing, the ARL Board formed a Working Group (Jerry Campbell, Chair, Nancy Eaton, Jim Neal, and Barbara von Wahlde) to develop a discussion document to help define possible collective actions, taking into account both content- and conduit-related issues in electronic scholarly publishing. With the help of Paul Peters, Executive Director of CNI, a draft document on an International Scholars Academic Network (IScAN) was developed, discussed by the ARL Board, and distributed to all directors of ARL libraries. Response to the proposal was sought from the ARL membership prior to the July ARL Board meeting. While comments on the details of the proposal were mixed, most respondents were in favor of some collective action to facilitate electronic scholarly publishing. As a result, the Board requested that Paul Peters and Mary Case, Director of ARL’s Office of Scholarly Communication, develop further the IScAN concept, including an analysis of possible business models, for the purpose of broad discussion by the membership at the October meeting.

As one step in the development process, the Board recommended the convening of a focus group of individuals or organizations currently involved in electronic publishing projects. The intent of such a meeting was to explore the perspective of those actively engaged in creating value in the networked environment on the IScAN concept and to determine if, from that vantage point, there are goals that could be accomplished through collective action that are difficult to achieve individually or competitively in the current environment. The IScAN Forum was held in the ARL Conference Room on September 16.

Another strategy in the development of IScAN was the preparation of profiles of such organizations as ASCAP, BMI, and the NCAA. Information regarding the organization and functioning of these entities that promote both cooperation and competition should be constructive as possible business models for IScAN.

An updated report and set of materials will be made available to members and discussed at the October ARL membership business meeting.

Ongoing Coordination of the AAU/ARL "Digital" Agenda

Also at the April AAU meeting, the AAU Committee on Information Technology proposed a discussion for AAU presidents and chancellors this October to address the shortcomings of the Internet status quo and to discuss a proposal for collective action to establish a new network to better serve the needs of higher education. The AAU/ARL Steering Committee acknowledged the similarity of this agenda to its own and proposed a joint program for the AAU October meeting. A planning meeting including representatives of AAU, AAU’s Committee on Information Technology, and ARL met in Chicago in July to begin discussions on the October AAU program. Nancy Eaton, Robert Wedgeworth, and Duane Webster represented ARL at this meeting. The AAU program in mid-October will include a program on the digital environment: Robert Wedgeworth was invited to discuss digital intellectual property management and Paul Peters was invited to discuss forces shaping the evolution of the digital environment.

The AAU/ ARL Global Resources Program

In April, the proposal for a Global Resources Program was endorsed in principle by the Steering Committee that indicated its commitment to recommend that AAU Presidents and Chancellors provide some level of funding to implement the program. The Steering Committee had received a draft report prepared by the ARL Research Collections Committee (Tactical Plan for the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program) and a proposal for a process of consultation with chief academic officers and scholarly/area studies societies to secure agreement on both the Global Resources Plan and on the financial strategy for pursuing it. The tactical plan outlines the vision of a network-based, distributed collection of global information resources for North American teaching and research as well as the benefits it will provide in improved access to global resources. In May, the ARL Research Collections Committee discussed implementation of the plan and the ARL membership was briefed on the plan during the business meeting.

In September, AAU and ARL staff met at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to discuss plans for the Global Resources Program. On the basis of that conversation, ARL was encouraged to submit a proposal for funding to support the program over three years. The elements of the proposal will be based to a significant degree on the ideas outlined in the Tactical Plan and the experience of the three AAU/ARL Global Resources Demonstration Projects. See Section 3.1.1 of this report for a description of the key elements of the Global Resources Program; see below for a status report on the demonstration projects.

AAU/ARL Global Resources Demonstration Projects: Status Report

A key goal of the AAU/ARL common action agenda is to improve access to international research resources. Three demonstration projects, focusing on materials from Latin America, Japan, and Germany, form the first phase of a network-based, distributed program for the coordinated acquisition of and access to foreign materials, the Global Resources Program. The ARL Research Collections Committee provides overall guidance for these projects.

Latin Americanist Research Resources Pilot Project

Overview

The project seeks to expand the range of materials available to Latin Americanist students and scholars, to restructure access to these materials through distributed, cooperative collection development based on new uses of technology, and to assist libraries in containing costs. Start-up funding for the project came from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and thirty-five participating ARL libraries. In October 1995, the Mellon Foundation awarded ARL a grant for $125,000 for the second phase of the project. Mark Grover, Latin American Studies Bibliographer at Brigham Young University Library, will conclude his assignment as Project Coordinator in December 1996. An Advisory Committee, chaired by Deborah Jakubs of Duke University, oversees the implementation of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Pilot Project. Ms. Jakubs can be contacted at jakubs@acpub.duke.edu.

Project Activities

The original project activities focused on three categories of Argentine and Mexican resources: serials, government documents, and the publications of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Progress in all three areas has been significant, and the Advisory Committee is planning for the next phase of the project.

An easily accessible Internet database hosted by the University of Texas Latin American Network Information Center (UT-LANIC) offers tables-of-contents for approximately 300 academic journals from Argentina and Mexico. A pilot interlibrary loan service, designed jointly by UT-LANIC and OCLC, is now operational, and will streamline the process of obtaining articles that are included in the table-of-contents database. The ILL enhancement allows users searching the database to submit an online ILL request for an article to their home institution’s PRISM ILL Review File. All 35 ARL libraries participating in the AAU/ARL Latin Americanist Research Resources Project are automatically included in this new service. The URL for the pilot ILL service is: http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/arl/arl.html.

The project improves access to Latin American government documents primarily through electronic technology. Presidential messages from Argentina and Mexico have been digitized, and the process of scanning and indexing the complete files of these documents is expected to be completed by December 1996. The work is being completed by Preservation Resources, and the images will be available on UT-LANIC. This part of the project brings together into a single online collection documents that were supplied by several ARL libraries.

The participating libraries have also assumed collecting and cataloging responsibilities for publications of Argentina and Mexican non-governmental organizations, research institutes, and other non-commercial producers of research reports and discussion papers.

In March 1996, a questionnaire was sent to the Latin American bibliographers at participating libraries seeking their feedback on the project activities and advice on next steps. A meeting of the project bibliographers held during the conference of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM) in June 1996 also provided helpful feedback. The Advisory Committee has reviewed the information gathered and has recommended several new activities for the project. They include:

•expanding the table-of-contents database by including coverage for serials volumes from 1990 forward;

•recommending that each participating library cancel a project journal from among those that are widely held, and accept responsibility for a new title;

•adding a monographic component to the project, in which participating libraries will be asked to reallocate a percentage of their Latin American monographic budgets to focus on an area of particular strength;

•building partnerships with Latin American libraries, research institutes, and book dealers;

•creating a set of five working groups, each made up of bibliographers from libraries participating in the project, to collaborate on developing the next steps for: serials; monographs; NGOs; government publications; and partnering.

In addition, as a complement to the first phase of the project, the University of Florida and the University of California at Berkeley are designing institutional studies that will examine the effects of distributed, cooperative projects on the internal structures of research libraries.

German Demonstration Project

Overview

The primary goals of the German Demonstration Project are (1) to ensure effective and timely access to and delivery of German language research materials through electronic resource sharing and improved interlibrary document delivery services, and 2) to test linking between North American and German libraries to expand access to specialized research resources. This is a cooperative effort among research institutions in the United States, Germany, and Canada with strong German library collections and an institutional commitment to research in German history and political science. For more information on the project, contact Sarah Thomas of Cornell, set9@cornell.edu.

The project has four specific activities:

•to cooperate with the Deutsche Bibliothek and German government agencies in locating and/or encouraging the development of digital versions of federal government documents;

•to collaborate with German research libraries to test network access to regional government documents;

•to develop complementary systems for cataloging;

•to identify serials published in Germany that are critical for furthering scholarship but not widely held in North America, and devise effective document delivery strategies.

Project Activities

The German Demonstration Project now has twenty-two participating libraries. The project is coordinated by a Working Group co-chaired by Winston Tabb of the Library of Congress and Sarah Thomas of Cornell.

The Library of Congress (LC) has made special arrangements so libraries in the project will have access to the cataloging records prepared by the Deutsche Bibliothek through files mounted at LC. Access to these records is available to participants on a subscription basis via Z39.50. The Universitaetsbibliothek in Goettingen has mounted an Internet-accessible test file of regional government documents.

Top priority at present is to obtain funding to enable the participants to undertake cooperative activities, such as developing a common serials list, analyzing methods for increasing North American coverage of German monographs in political science and history, and stimulating the development of digital documents by German agencies and making them easily available. This would reduce the need for print archival holdings in ARL libraries. The Working Group has already made some progress in this area through discussions held in June 1996 with Elmar Mittler, librarian of the University of Goettingen Library, and other German librarians at the Deutscher Bibliothekartag.

Japan Journal Access Project

Overview

The Japan Journal Access Project, which originally began as the Japanese Scientific and Technical Information Project, seeks to improve access to Japanese journal literature across all disciplines. Broadening of the scope of the project was facilitated by the interest and support of the National Coordinating Committee on Japanese Library Resources. The coordination of the Japan Journal Access Project has been shared by Don Simpson of the Center for Research Libraries and Dorothy Gregor, consultant to ARL. For more information on the project, contact Dorothy Gregor dgregor@library.berkeley.edu.

Project Activities

The Japan Journal Access Project has thus far focused primarily on gaining access to Japanese journals available from Japan. This focus will continue, but the Project is also being expanded to include improving access to Japanese language journals available from U.S. sources. The Serials Subcommittee of the National Coordinating Committee on Japanese Library Resources (NCC), which has been asked to draft a workplan for the Project, met in September to outline a plan for review by Japanese studies librarians and ARL directors. The following is an outline of the proposed components of an expanded Project.

Access to Japanese Journals Available in the U.S.

•Collaborative Collection Development: Distributed Approach
Using the Union List of Japanese Serials compiled by Mihoko Miki (UCLA) and Yasuko Makino (Columbia) as a base list, project participants will identify responsibilities for the ongoing maintenance of important titles in hopes of reallocating funds from duplicated titles to titles not currently available in the U.S. The Union List will be updated and made available over the Web.

•Collaborative Collection Development: Center for Research Libraries
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is currently developing a plan for an East Asian Area Studies Program. The Serials Subcommittee proposes including some less used but nonetheless important Japanese titles in the Program, noting that the Center already has a significant number of Japanese journals and newspapers.

•Web-based Access to Document Delivery for Japanese Journals
Several services, e.g., CARL Uncover, JICST, and Interlingua provide document delivery for Japanese journal articles. Web links with descriptions of the services for users can be provided on the Project’s Web page at OSU http://pears.lib.ohio-state.edu/.

•Retrospective Conversion
The NCC is completing a survey of progress made in the retrospective conversion of Japanese collections in the U.S. Several of the largest ARL libraries have not yet converted their serial holdings; some targeted recon may be necessary in order to gain better access to titles held by those libraries.

Access to Japanese Journals and Journal Articles from Japanese Sources

•National Diet Library’s Zasshi kiji sakuin
The Zasshi kiji sakuin is an important journal index produced by the National Diet Library (NDL). At the beginning 1996 NDL ceased paper publication and switched to an expensive CD-ROM. U.S. Japanese studies librarians have been pressuring the NDL to make the index available over the Internet. In early August 1996, Japan’s National Center for Science Information Systems (NACSIS), a government-supported bibliographic utility providing bibliographic and interlibrary loan/document delivery/e-text access for Japanese academic and research libraries, began including the index among its files available for foreign access. Although the costs of accessing the NACSIS system over the Internet are not particularly high, problems of payment mechanisms and hours of access remain and will be a continuing focus of the Japan Project and the NCC. It is important to note that NACSIS also houses a union catalog of the holdings of the Japanese national universities and a large number of other academic libraries.

Additionally, the NCC is developing a grant proposal to provide training for librarians and end users in the use of NACSIS files and information for search and display using vernacular script. Although NACSIS can be a major resource for U.S. users, work remains to be done before the system will be widely available in the U.S.

•Japanese Sci-Tech Literature
In accordance with the early emphasis of the Japan project on the sci-tech literature of Japan, the project has arranged for a September meeting of a staff member from Engineering Index (EI) with NACSIS staff in Tokyo. EI is interested in expanding its Japanese sci-tech coverage, but there are barriers of costs, language and culture to surmount. The outcome of this initial meeting will be reported at a later date.

1.4.1 AAU/ARL Research Libraries Steering Committee

The AAU/ARL Research Libraries Steering Committee played an active role in the integration of the separate initiatives and their ramifications for the way universities conduct their business. The Committee will not meet during the next AAU meeting scheduled for October 20-22 in Los Angeles. Both organizations are reviewing appropriate actions to advance the shared agenda of the two organizations; the future of the steering committee will be determined this fall and winter.

Members:

AAU
Myles Brand, Indiana, Co-chair
Donald Langenburg, Maryland
Robert McPherson, Michigan State
Robert Pritchard, Toronto
Harold Shapiro, Princeton

ARL
Jerry Campbell, Southern California, Co-chair
Betty Bengtson, Washington
Susan Nutter, North Carolina State
Elaine Sloan, Columbia
Robert Wedgworth, Illinois

Staff Liaisons:
John Vaughn, AAU
Duane Webster, ARL

Section 2: Access and Technology

2.1 Access to Information Resources

Summary of Activities

(See also Sections 2.2 Coalition for Networked Information and 2.3 HEIRAlliance)

NAILDD Project. A centerpiece of the ARL Access capability is the North American Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery (NAILDD) Project. The NAILDD Project was established in 1993 by ARL to promote developments that maximize access to research resources while minimizing the costs associated with such activities. The operating philosophy is to seek practical and creative technical developments that enable libraries to improve mediated ILL/DD services, and to introduce unmediated services in a networked environment. The strategy is to seek actions on the part of private sector developers that will respond to the priority needs of the library community.

NAILDD on the WWW. ARL’s Access and Technology Program has a home page on the ARL website where current information on the NAILDD Project is posted. Regular features include a status report as well as a list of members of the DIG and IPIG. See http://www.arl.org/access/access.shtml.

Collaboration with the Private Sector: the DIG. The Developers/Implementors Group (DIG) was formed to accelerate collaboration between libraries and a broad constituency of private sector players to advance the NAILDD Project’s priority technical developments. Now representing 50 organizations, the DIG continues to serve as a source of information and a forum for the major players in ILL/DD services. In the last year, standards remained the main focus of the NAILDD project work with the DIG

IPIG. The ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) was formed as a subset of the DIG to facilitate the use of the international ILL standard (ISO 10160 & 10161) by U.S. vendors and service providers. The Protocol is the international standard for communicating interlibrary loan requests. It is widely used in Canada, but, until last year, the only U.S. implementation of the Protocol was TRLN’s Document Delivery Project.

The IPIG was formed in late 1995 to identify ways in which the Protocol can be more widely implemented in the U.S. Seventeen organizations committed to implement the Protocol by participating in the IPIG. OCLC was the first to make the Protocol testbed available, and other IPIG members have been actively working with OCLC in early testing. Mary Jackson visited The Library Corporation in late spring to review progress on their Protocol-based ILL management system. Mark Wilson of The Library Corporation completed the encoding of all the Protocol messages and has opened a second IPIG testbed. Transmission of test messages by several IPIG participants, including DRA, has led to lively discussions on the IPIG listserv, and raised additional issues on which consensus needs to be reached. In addition, CISTI and The Library Corporation are collaborating to develop a method to permit two different encoding methods to exchange messages.

Expanding the DIG & IPIG beyond North America. The NAILDD Project received strong expressions of interest from organizations in Australia and Europe to expand the DIG and the IPIG to involve all organizations and libraries developing ILL projects or using the Protocol. In late June, Mary Jackson attended a meeting of the European Forum for Implementors of Library Automation (EFILA). Several EFILA participants are implementing either the Z39.50 Item Order extension or portions of the ILL Protocol. Discussions at the meeting confirmed the international interest of the work of the DIG and IPIG. As a result, both NAILDD groups are expanding to include key organizations from Britain and Australia with others expected.

NAILDD Project Meetings at ALA. The NAILDD Project continues to hold meetings the Friday before ALA conferences. The morning Directors Forum on Managing ILL/DD Operations provides an opportunity for directors and senior staff in research, academic, and public libraries to engage in discussions with developers of ILL/DD products and services. The afternoon DIG meeting brings together members to review the status of efforts to realize the Project’s three technical priorities.

Highlights of the meetings in July in New York City included reports from five DIG members and a presentation by the University of Arizona on its internal efforts to improve ILL/DD. DIG participants identified a range of new short-term goals for the project to consider. The next NAILDD Project meetings will be held on February 14, 1997 in Washington, DC.

AAU/ARL Demonstration Projects for Global Research Resources. The Access capability and the NAILDD Project advise on access and delivery issues that emerge in the AAU/ARL foreign publications demonstration projects. Since last fall, this included, with support from OCLC, developing a standards-based approach to streamline user-initiated ILL requests and services from the database for the Latin Americanist Project.

The University of Texas Latin American Network Information Center (UT-LANIC) hosts the electronic database of tables of contents of 300 academic and research periodicals from Argentina and Mexico. In order to facilitate user-generated electronic ordering of articles highlighted in the UT-LANIC database, OCLC agreed to participate in a pilot project to build a link between UT-LANIC and Prism ILL. In May, a report on the UT-LANIC implementation was made to a joint meeting of the ARL committees on Collections and Access to Information Resources. The service is now operational and while the use is light, it has identified a range of technical, policy, and internal workflow issues that need to be addressed as part of ongoing evaluation.

ILL/DD Performance Measures Study. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded ARL a grant to measure the performance of interlibrary loan and document delivery services in research and academic libraries. The two-year study, undertaken in collaboration with the Council on Library Resources (CLR), will expand the earlier ARL/RLG ILL cost study by measuring fill rate, turnaround time, user satisfaction, as well as costs. In late spring, Dr. Michael McPherson resigned as study consultant due to his appointment as President of Macalestar College. Dr. Bruce Kingma, University at Albany, accepted the invitation to serve in this role. Dr. Martin Cummings, CLR, continues to serve as study consultant.

Phase One of the study concluded this summer after site visits to six libraries that reported high or low cost from the original cost study. A report based on the site visits and new data submitted will seek to identify any characteristics that may contribute to their costs. Phase Two is underway. The Greater Midwest Research Library Consortium (GMRLC) tested the revised cost data instrument during the spring, and the instrument was revised based on comments of GMRLC participants. In July, an invitation to participate in the new performance measures study was issued to all directors of ARL libraries and over 80 responded affirmatively. During the fall, participants will gather data on general characteristics of ILL/DD units, costs, fill rates, turnaround time, and user satisfaction. Academic libraries are represented in the study by libraries part of the Oberlin Group. In September, Oberlin libraries were invited to participate and a similarly high level of participation is expected.

Other NAILDD activities

FedEx: NAILDD negotiated an agreement with Federal Express for two-day shipments of ILL materials for ARL member libraries. Nearly 30 members are now shipping and receiving ILL materials via the two-day delivery. In January of this year, FedEx extended the discounted rates to all types of library-related material (circulation material, returns to book-jobbers, administrative materials, etc.). FedEx also signed agreements with AMIGOS and RLG and notified ARL that they do not plan to enter into other new agreements until the current agreements are in place long enough to evaluate them.

Copyright. The Access capability also contributes to ARL’s initiatives associated with copyright and intellectual property. Since May 1996, this included:

• participation in the monthly Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) to develop guidelines for ILL/DD, electronic reserves in the NII; and

• organization of a Copyright & Libraries Leadership Workshop for the U.S. in September 1996, and one for Canadian institutions in October 1996. (See Section 1.3 Intellectual Property and Copyright Issues for a fuller description.)

Economics of Information Conference: Challenging Marketplace Solutions. ARL collaborated with the SUNY University Center Libraries, the Council on Library Resources, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, and the Coalition for Networked Information to conduct a national conference on issues related to the development of the knowledge infrastructure and the consequent economic impact on higher education. The conference proceedings, The Economics of Information in the Networked Environment, edited by Meredith Butler and Bruce Kingma, the University of Albany, was published by ARL in June. For more information, see http://www.arl.org/access/access.shtml.

A National Initiative on Networked Cultural Heritage: ARL has joined the National Initiative on Networked Cultural Heritage to give research libraries an active voice in an important new coalition. ARL’s initial year of funding was provided by a grant from the Delmas Foundation. NINCH was formed out of a collaborative project of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Coalition for Networked Information, and the Getty Information Institute. It seeks to draw together a broad coalition of arts, humanities and social science organizations to assure the fullest possible participation of the cultural sector in the new digitally networked environment. To date, 22 organizations have joined.

In the spring of 1996, David Green was appointed Executive Director; his office is hosted by the Coalition for Networked Information. Dr. Green met with the ARL Board in July and will brief ARL directors on the new initiative during the October 16 meeting of the ARL Committee on Access to Information Resources.

NINCH has a homepage on the WWW: http://www-ninch.cni.org/.

2.1.1 Committee on Access to Information Resources

The ARL Committee on Access to Information Resources is established to help the Association make access to research information resources more effective. In order to maintain and improve access to research information resources, ARL will undertake activities to strengthen bibliographic, abstracting and indexing tools, user access, and physical and electronic access to information.

The Committee is charged to monitor developments, determine critical issues requiring ARL attention, inform members, and design strategic responses to influence the access to research information resources. The Committee also advises and guides the ARL staff on matters regarding the plans and strategies of the ARL program capability on Access and Technology.

The current Committee focuses on an agenda in support of resource sharing in an electronic environment. Issues identified as key to this agenda are reconceptualization of ILL in an electronic environment and articulation of the principles and values that support resource sharing among research libraries.

1996 Agenda of Issues:

• Promote and support NAILDD to advance priority technical developments

• Monitor the Network Information Resources and Discovery initiative underway within the Coalition for Networked Information

• Contribute to AAU-ARL initiatives that demonstrate and evaluate the concept of a distributed, multi-institutional research library collection that is linked together and made accessible to users via networked services

Members:

Pamela Andr� (1995-1997)
Meredith Butler (1994-1996)
Ellen Hoffman(1996-1998)
C. Lee Jones (1994-1996)
Paul Mosher (1996-1998)
Michael Ridley(1996-1998)
Marianne Scott (1995-1997)
George Shipman (1995-1997)
GladysAnn Wells(1996-1998)
Karin Wittenborg (1994-1996)
Shirley Baker, Chair(1995-1996)

Winston Tabb, Library of Congress Liaison
Mary Jackson, Access & Delivery Services Consultant

Staff Liaison: Jaia Barrett

2.1.2 Work Group on Scientific and Technical Information

The Work Group was formed in 1991 to follow up the report of the 1991 ARL Task Force on a National Plan for Science and Technology Information Needs. The Work Group monitors STI developments and functions as an advisor to the Board for shaping ARL activities in this area.

Status as of September 1996:
The Group met at the May 1996 ARL Membership Meeting in Vancouver, BC, to share reports on STI developments. The discussions were enriched with reports from colleagues representing CARL libraries, and with the participation of invited guest Aldyth Holmes, Director of Publishing for CISTI.

Also in Vancouver, Work Group Chair Marilyn Sharrow convened a luncheon program for ARL and CARL delegates on international library and publishing developments. The Work Group on STI’s special guest, Ms. Holmes, presented a report on an international view of electronic publishing in the sciences. Also on the program was a report from Leo Voogt, Director General of IFLA, on the future direction of this international organization.

Work Group meetings are planned in conjunction with the ARL Membership Meetings, supplemented with occasional e-list communications. The group functions as an informal communications and response network. The next meeting will take place October 16.

Members:

Pamela Andr�
Betty G. Bengtson
Joe Boisse
C. Lee Jones
Margot Montgomery
Susan K. Nutter
Marilyn J. Sharrow, Chair

Staff Liaison: Jaia Barrett

2.2 Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)

CNI is an organization for institutions concerned with realizing the promise of high performance networks and computers for the advancement of scholarship and the enrichment of intellectual productivity. The Coalition was formed in 1990 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Educom, and CAUSE. The Coalition pursues its mission through the aid of its membership, a 200 plus task force made up of higher education institutions, publishers, network service providers, computer hardware, software, and systems companies, library networks and organizations, and public and state libraries.

Goals and Objectives

Facilitate the transition to networked scholarly communication and publishing.

• Networks and networked information resources and services enable entirely new modes of communication and publishing that will transform scholarship for the better, but they must also perform all the functions required by the scholarly communication and publishing process

• Identify and describe the functions performed by the key stakeholders (e.g., publishers and librarians) in the value-chain of relationships that link creators and users of scholarly information

• Analyze and disseminate what those stakeholders think about possible future changes in their roles and costs

• Guide the development of institutional policies and services regarding the acquisition of, access to, and preservation of Federal information

• Stimulate the enrichment of subject access to networked information resources and services

Promote institutional readiness and professional development, and faster cross-sector perspectives, communication, and collaboration. Institutional readiness factors need to be addressed and the perspectives and skills of information professionals need to be developed before the promise of networks and networked information can be fully realized. Partnership relationships among different types of institutions and information professionals are key to realizing this promise.

• Identify and offer guidance on enterprise-wide networked information issues in four areas: hardware and software infrastructures; budgets; policies and practices; and, managing staff and facility

• Develop a methodology for assessing the impacts and value of networks and networked information resources and services in academic settings

• Provide opportunities for teams made up of different types of information professionals (e.g., librarians and information technologists) to learn how to work together effectively

• Provide guidance to collaborative teams of faculty, librarians, information technologists, students, and others who are implementing teaching and learning programs with a networked information component

Influence the development of advanced information technologies and services.

The requirements of the scholarly communications and publishing process and the needs and capacities of creators and users of scholarly works must be brought to bear upon the digital library research and development process.

• Strengthen the foundation of research on and development of networked information discovery and retrieval technologies and services

• Promote the development of metadata schemes, practices, and systems that enable cross-disciplinary access to networked information resources and services

Activities

Cost centers and measures in the networked information value-chain. Produce a white paper on the "life cycle" of the scholarly communication and publishing system that, among other things, identifies the cost centers that are expected to change most significantly and proposes ways to measure those changes over time

Access to and services for federal information in the networked environment.

Produce a white paper on developing and managing Federal information resources and services in a networked environment.

Subject access to networked information resources and services.

Convene an invitational workshop for developers of Internet sites designed to facilitate subject access resulting in a list of best practices to guide the efforts of prospective developers of such sites.

Enterprise-wide information strategies.

Develop case studies of how enterprise-wide issues are manifesting themselves at a dozen or so institutions, profiling how those institutions are framing and addressing those issues, and suggesting how other institutions can assess their own needs and formulate their own strategies in this area.

Assessing the academic networked environment.

Implement a field-test of McClure and Lopata’s Assessing the Academic Networked Environment: Strategies and Options by two groups of six research and non-research institutions, resulting in a handbook (made available on the Web as well as in print) to guide the assessment efforts of other institutions

Information professionals working together.

Convene open registration workshops and campus or regional workshops that bring institutional teams of librarians and information technologists together to assist them with developing collaborative projects.

Networked, collaborating learning communities.

Convene a workshop for newly formed teams, a half-day pre-conference for librarians at the ACRL National Conference, and assist the development of a website on this topic.

Networked information discovery and retrieval.

Produce a white paper that establishes a theoretical framework for considering the relationship between metadata structures and content, the organization of network objects, and networked information discovery and retrieval within a distributed environment.

Metadata for cross-disciplinary access.

Convene an invitational workshop to promote convergence among alternative approaches to describing images and image-bases in networked environments, and formulate a strategy for developing widely accepted and used metadata standards to facilitate the planning of image creation and conversion projects and to enable the discovery of existing images that can be used in research, teaching, and learning activities.

Task Force meetings.

Convene a fall and spring Task Force meeting to bring together representatives for a comprehensive update on critical issues and to provide an opportunity not only for representatives to receive briefings on current network topics, but to learn about specific networked information projects, and to provide suggestions on directions for Coalition initiatives:

•Fall Task Force Meeting: December 6-7, 1996, San Francisco, California

•Spring Task Force Meeting: April 1-2, 1997, Washington, D.C.

Regional conferences.

Co-sponsor with CAUSE regional conferences to provide affordable, high-quality professional development programs on networked information topics to a wide range of information professionals:

•Roanoke, Virginia: September 11-13, 1996, Virginia Tech

•Newark, Delaware: May 21-23, 1997, University of Delaware

•London, England: June 1997, Joint Information Systems Committee, British Library, UKOLN

Special events.

Organize special events to foster partnerships among Coalition members, frame critical issues, analyze important trends, synthesize progress made on key initiatives, and disseminate the lessons and experiences of various project.

Sponsorships.

•Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition

•The Commission on Preservation and Access

•Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)

•The Internet Society

•National Humanities Alliance (NHA)

•National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH)

2.2.1 Steering Committee for the Coalition for Networked Information

As part of the governance structure of the Coalition for Networked Information, each of the three founding organizations (ARL, CAUSE, EDUCOM) has three seats on the CNI Steering Committee. ARL representatives to the committee have been given staggered terms to achieve consistency with other ARL Committee assignments. The members of the committee meet with the ARL Board to review communication and advisory processes between ARL and CNI.

Status as of September 1996:

The ARL Board meets regularly with Paul Peters to discuss the Coalition’s program priorities. On each occasion, the Board has recognized the extraordinary success of the CNI program and the importance of the Coalition for institutions of higher education. In May, the Board met with ARL’s representatives to the CNI Steering Committee to review CNI program priorities. In July 1996, the Board reviewed a positive report from the representatives and reaffirmed its endorsement for another three-year term for the Coalition.

Meetings Planned for 1996:

The Coalition Steering Committee meets in conjunction with CNI.

Members:

David Bishop (1995-1998)
Sheila Creth (1994-1997)
Sharon Hogan (1996-1999)

Staff Liaison: Duane Webster

2.3 HEIRAlliance

In May 1991, the ARL Board received an invitation from CAUSE and EDUCOM to form an alliance to identify cooperative ventures in information resources management. The Higher Education Information Resources Alliance (HEIRAlliance) was approved in concept by all three boards as a device to further project-based cooperation.

The Board approved an initial phase of The HEIRAlliance Report, covering information technology and information resources targeted at chief executives and academic officers in the 3,000 academic institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

The initial product of this alliance is a series of four-page briefing papers now titled "Executive Outlook on..." (previously titled, "What Presidents Need to Know"). The reports are usually the work of teams that consist of library directors, heads of information technology, and presidents.

Status as of September 1996:

In July 1996, a briefing paper in the series was prepared and distributed. HEIRAlliance Executive Strategies Report #7 was Executive Outlook on... the Transformation of Higher Education.

The full series of HEIRAlliance reports is available through the CAUSE office in Boulder, Colorado, or through the ARL or CAUSE gophers.

Agenda of Issues:

The topic for the next report has been discussed but not determined. Options considered are: intellectual property, economics of information, cost centers and measures, digital library innovations, and licensing (READI project).

Staff Liaison: Duane Webster

Section 3 Collection and Preservation

3.1 Collection Services

This capability addresses the broad issues facing research libraries in the areas of collection management and preservation. The work of two ARL committees is covered by this capability: Research Collections, and Preservation of Research Library Materials.

ARL’s collection development efforts are directed toward the program objective of supporting member libraries’ efforts to develop and maintain research collections, both individually and in the aggregate. Strategies to accomplish the objective include: efforts toward improving the structures and processes needed for effective cooperative collection development programs; promotion of needed government and foundation support for collections of national importance in the United States and Canada; provision of collection management consulting through the Collection Analysis Program; and development and operation of collection management training programs.

ARL’s preservation efforts support the strategic program objective of promoting and coordinating member libraries programs to preserve their collections. Strategies in pursuit of this objective include: advocacy for strengthening and encouraging broad-based participation in national preservation efforts in the U.S. and Canada; support for development of preservation programs within member libraries; support for effective bibliographic control of preservation-related records; strengthening copyright legislation to support preservation activities in the electronic environment; encouragement for development of preservation information resources; and monitoring technological developments that may have an impact on preservation goals.

Summary of Activities

Many of the activities related to this capability are closely connected to other program capabilities or supported by grants, and therefore, several projects are described in other sections. (See especially Section 1.4 AAU-ARL Action Agenda and Section 7 Research and Development.)

3.1.1 ARL Committee on Research and Collections

The primary focus of the Committee on Research Collections continues to be the collaborative relationship with AAU through the three demonstration projects and the development of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program.

The Tactical Plan for the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program, which was endorsed by both ARL and AAU earlier this year, has been further developed into a proto-proposal for funding. ARL was encouraged, after a meeting at the Mellon Foundation in early September, to submit the proposal for consideration at their December 1996 board meeting. The proposal builds on the ideas in the Tactical Plan and the lessons of the three demonstration projects, as well as incorporating other elements that support a larger Global Resources Program. Examples of these are:

• a clearinghouse function for ARL to gather and disseminate information on national and international projects of relevance to the provision of global resources;

• an active outreach program to faculty and scholarly associations, in collaboration with the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), both through campus visits and a series of symposia at scholarly conferences;

• the identification of "lead institutions" that have linkages to universities, libraries, and research institutes abroad and are committed to building strong collections of materials from a country or set of countries and to assisting users in securing access to resources in all formats;

• partnerships with other library organizations, such as the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), and the Council on Library Resources/Commission on Preservation and Access (CLR/CPA); and

• extensive use of the World Wide Web to publicize collecting strengths, links among institutions internationally, and formal programs of resource-sharing.

At least two other world areas will develop projects such as those designed in the three original demonstration projects. The Global Resources Program will be managed by a full-time Program Coordinator for an initial three-year period, beginning in January 1997.

At the May 1996 committee meeting, the global resources initiative of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) was discussed. It was decided that ARL should join CRL as a co-sponsor of a foreign newspaper symposium being organized by CRL to take place in the spring of 1997.

The Committee continues to explore the topic of electronic information resources and to develop innovative approaches and structures aimed at sharing these resources. A discussion paper on this topic has been distributed to the committee.

Developmental priorities, 1996-98:

• Continue to evaluate and expand the three demonstration projects.

• Scale up from the three demonstration projects to a distributed Global Resources Program for North American libraries. One of the first steps will be to develop plans for projects covering other world regions.

• Build partnerships with scholarly associations and engage the scholarly community in shaping the Global Resources Program. The immediate strategy is to hold, beginning in early 1997, a series of symposia focused on global resources at meetings of scholarly associations. These will be sponsored jointly by ARL, ACLS, CRL and LC.

Members:

Betty Bengston(1996-98)
Claude Bonnelly(1995-97)
Joe A. Hewitt(1994-96)
Robert Miller(1995-97)
William G. Potter(1994-96)
Donald Simpson(1992-97)
George Terry(1995-97)
Barbara von Wahlde(1996-98)
Dale B. Canelas, Chair(1993-96)

Winston Tabb, Library of Congress Liaison

Staff Liaison: Deborah Jakubs

3.1.2 ARL Committee on Preservation of Research Library Materials

The Preservation Committee has developed a new five-year preservation action plan. The plan focuses on activities that complement ARL’s capacities, support the broader mission of member libraries, and acknowledge current trends and issues in North American research libraries. The Committee completed work on the ARL preservation action plan in May 1995, and the ARL Board endorsed the plan at its July 25, 1995 meeting. The focus of 1996 discussions is the development of an implementation plan.

The plan lists an array of ongoing ARL preservation program strategies and identifies six new preservation initiatives. These center on strengthening copyright legislation to support preservation activities in the electronic environment, investigating the feasibility of establishing a national coordinated serials preservation project, developing cost models for preservation decision making, and advancing preservation related digitizing projects, standards, and science research.

The Committee also coordinated ARL’s response to the CPA/RLG Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information. A one-day meeting to discuss and prepare the response was conducted at ARL in June. CPA graciously funded the meeting. The 1996/97 priority for the Preservation Committee will be issues of digital archiving and especially maintenance of university-generated digital archives. At its October meeting, the Preservation Committee plans to refine the proposed plan of action for ARL in the digital preservation arena.

Members of the Preservation Committee have also been participating in discussions with the MLA and other scholarly societies about the issues involved in the preservation of primary records. At ARL’s suggestion, a meeting was held at the Modern Language Association in New York on December 15, 1995 to discuss the implications for preservation raised in the MLA Statement on the Significance of Primary Records. The purpose of the meeting was to determine collaborative strategies and to plan next steps. It was agreed that MLA and ARL should create a joint working group to pursue the statement’s recommendations and an action agenda for education, preservation, and lobbying. A follow-up meeting was held on March 18, 1996, at which the American Historical Association joined MLA and ARL in sponsoring the joint working group. Another meeting including representatives from several interested scholarly societies, the Society of American Archivists, and ARL was held on September 12 in Washington. This group will serve as a steering committee for future action. This meeting confirmed the organizations’ desire to work together on these issues and resulted in two short-term tasks: the creation of a background document describing the progress made in preservation over the past 10-15 years (this will be coordinated by ARL); and the creation of a document identifying the intellectual issues that still face us regarding preservation. A meeting to review these documents and determine next steps is planned for late February in the ARL Office.

Members:

David Kohl (1995-97)
Martin Runkle (1994-96)
Barbara J. Smith (1996-98)
William Walker (1996-98)
Meredith Butler, Chair (1995-97)

Diane Kresh, Library of Congress Liaison
Jan Merrill-Oldham, Harvard (Consultant)

Staff Liaison: Mary Case

Section 4 Staffing and Management

4.1 Diversity Program

ARL is charged by its membership to identify on an ongoing basis the capabilities and characteristics required for research library personnel to serve their constituencies, and to assist member libraries and educational programs in the recruitment, development and effective use of staff (ARL Strategic Objective 6). In pursuing this objective, the membership recognized the importance of both a diverse workforce and an environment open and welcoming to diversity, and established an ongoing capability.

The purpose of this capability is to support and extend efforts within member institutions to promote and develop workforces that are representative of a diverse population and to foster workplace environments where all employees are valued for their uniqueness and personal contributions. These efforts include the recruitment and retention of library personnel from a variety of backgrounds, particularly those from groups traditionally underrepresented in the academic library workforce, and the development of a climate in the workplace that supports and encourages library personnel to recognize and value their similarities and differences.

Background

Over the course of the last five years, the program evolved into its current organizational configuration from a two-part portfolio: a Diversity Program and a Minority Recruitment and Retention Program. The Diversity Program provided information and consulting services to individual libraries on issues surrounding work relationships in libraries, while considering the impact of diversity on library services, interaction with library issues, and the development of collections. The Recruitment and Retention Program focused on developing workplace climates that value diversity but was distinct in seeking alliances external to ARL and member libraries to increase the visibility of research libraries as a desirable career opportunity. For example, the program established a working relationship with leadership in ALISE, the Association of Library and Information Science Educators. In 1995, responding to a recommendation from the incumbent Program Officer, the two programs were merged, and in 1996 the Diversity Program adopted a revised charge to reflect its new standing. The Program operates as a part of the ARL Executive Office with support, advice, and encouragement available from the Diversity Committee.

The Scope of the Diversity Program

The ARL Diversity Program assists libraries in addressing a multitude of diversity-related issues. Its primary concern is the development of workplace climates that welcome, develop, foster, and support diversity. The Program seeks to develop an awareness of human differences that leads to value of and respect for these distinctions. The Program examines issues surrounding work relationships in libraries, while considering the impact of diversity on library services, interactions with library users, and the development of collections. A broad definition of diversity is explored in all seminars and is not limited to racial or ethnic diversity as the only human qualities that make people different, unique, the same, and similar. In addition to diversity, ARL focuses on activities to support and extend local efforts to recruit minorities for careers in research libraries.

To meet the Program’s goals, the Program Officer for Diversity provides staff development seminars, presentations, and on-site, e-mail, and telephone consultation; facilitates staff discussions; conducts research via reviews of the literature and site visits to institutions; prepares articles and publications to share the findings from the program; seeks to identify strategies for adaptation by libraries and library schools; identifies issues and strategies relating to diversity and promotes them within ARL as well as to other national library-affiliated groups; and fosters partnerships on behalf of ARL with natural allies in the profession.

Transition Period for the Program

The period between the last ARL Membership Meeting in May 1996 and this Fall 1996 Membership Meeting marks a transition period for the Diversity Program. In this period a search for a new Program Officer for Diversity was conducted. Wide interest was shown in this position and many qualified candidates appeared in the pool. Following a rigorous review of applications and interviews with five highly qualified individuals, an appointment was made in September 1996. The new Program Officer for Diversity will be Ms. DeEtta Jones, currently Director of the Human Rights Office for the city of Fort Collins, CO, and formerly Coordinator for Multicultural Training and Leadership Development at Colorado State University. She will join ARL at the end of this calendar year.

In addition, the ARL Board approved a revision of the Diversity Committee name and charge as requested by that committee. The new name of the committee is the Diversity Committee. (See 4.1.1 for the revised charge.) How these changes are reflected in Program activities will be the subject of planning discussions at the Committee’s October meeting.

Summary of Activities

Promote the ARL Agenda for Minority Recruitment

On July 7, 1996, Kriza Jennings, ARL Diversity Consultant, conducted the "Implementing Post-Master’s Residency Programs" seminar. The success of this program is the basis for repeating it this fall. Planning began for this and another fall 1996 seminar: "Post-Master’s Residency Programs" (9/26/96); and "Promoting Careers in Library and Information Science Professions" (9/30-10/1/96).

Partnerships Program

Preliminary discussions were held with the ARL Publications/Communications staff in regards to producing a publication that will describe ARL’s findings from the site visits and consultations relating to the Partnerships Program. The decision was made to wait for the new Program Officer to be in place before moving forward on this initiative.

Diversity Issues in Canadian Libraries

Toni Olshen, York University and Visiting Program Officer for Diversity in 1995-96, was named consultant to the Diversity Committee. Ms. Olshen provides expertise and research experience on the subject of diversity in Canadian libraries and will advise the Committee on how the ARL program can be adapted to fit Canadian settings. Kriza Jennings and Toni Olshen will make consultation visits to York University and the University of Guelph at the end of November.

Personnel

In September, DeEtta Jones was named ARL Program Officer for Diversity. Ms. Jones brings expertise in diversity and minority recruitment and retention areas from Colorado State University. She will begin her tenure with ARL in December 1996. As mentioned above, Toni Olshen was named Consultant to the ARL Diversity Committee. Kriza Jennings, who resigned June 30 as Program Officer for Diversity and Minority Recruitment and Retention, was contracted to serve as Diversity Consultant for ARL until the new Program Officer is in place. In this role, Ms. Jennings has consulted for several ARL institutions and is a co-facilitator of the Fall Seminars. Ms. Jones will be attending one of those seminars as an introduction to the program.

Highlights of the period May 1996 - September 1996

•Five seminars were offered:

*May 2-3, 1996: "The Role of Assessment in Advancing Diversity for Libraries"

*July 9, 1996: "Implementing Post-Master’s Residency Programs"

*September 26, 1996: "Post-Master’s Residency Programs"

*September 30-October 1, 1996: "Promoting Careers in Library and Information Science Professions," to be held at ALA Headquarters, Chicago, IL

*November 7-8, 1996: "The Role of Assessment in Advancing Diversity for Libraries"

A representative from Pennsylvania State University, where an extensive climate assessment on diversity has just been completed, will be a guest presenter at the November seminar. Other seminar co-facilitators are drawn from ARL libraries.

•Meeting held with the AAUP (American Association of University Presses) in New York during which Kriza Jennings, former Program Officer, shared ARL findings on the subject of diversity. AAUP’s program initiatives were discussed, and suggestions were made for other activities that might be pursued.

•Meeting with Ms. Patricia Reichler, Project Director for the Diversity Governance Project of the National League of Cities. Ms. Reichler was a presenter at the October 1995 ARL program. She discussed NLC’s findings and initiatives in the area of diversity. An invitation was extended for Ms. Reichler to meet with the ARL Diversity Committee at a future committee meeting to explore collaborative efforts and to share more about NLC’s findings in the University and Colleges Governance section of the Association’s membership.

•Ms. Jennings attended the NCLIS meeting held in May and worked with a group assigned to discuss services to diverse communities and data collection to benchmark the progress in libraries.

•Drexel University College of Information Studies meeting with Kriza Jennings to explore diversity strategies that could be considered for minority recruitment in the library science program, and to develop the initiatives to be addressed in Drexel’s grant from the Kellogg Foundation on redesigning the professional school curriculum.

•On June 4, Kriza Jennings and Toni Olshen presented a workshop at the Ninth Annual Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education held in San Antonio entitled "A Diversity Program to Create an Environment that Values Difference and Supports Learning, Research, and Teaching: The ARL Eight-Component Model."

•At the ALA Annual Conference, New York July 1996. Kriza Jennings presented ARL’s findings from the six years of site visits at an ACRL Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee program, "Advancing Diversity in the 1990s: Assessments and Strategies."

•Kriza Jennings, Diversity Consultant, is working with Rutgers University Library to develop a new model for diversity consulting. This model involves having the consultant spend time on-site in the role of internal consultant. This semi-staff position allows increased contact with the staff and the administration and this contact assists the creation of strategies for integrating diversity with the Library’s reorganization effort.

Other on-site Consultations, Presentations, Facilitated Discussions

*University of Victoria, British Columbia

*Fairfax County Regional Library, VA

*Cleveland Area Metropolitan Library System (CAMLS), Ohio

*Oberlin College, OH

*Central Rappahonock Regional Library, VA

*Ohio Library Council (OCLC) Annual Conference, OH

*The Johns Hopkins University Libraries, MD

*Enoch Pratt Public Library, MD

*Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, OH

4.1.1 Committee on Diversity

The ARL Committee on Diversity is charged to provide oversight for the shaping and review of this capability and to provide leadership in the development of programming on the topic of diversity in the workplace. The Committee serves in an advisory capacity to the ARL Diversity Officer.

Specific elements of this charge include:

• Monitor developments and trends in academic libraries, library education and higher education that could/will impact the ability of ARL Libraries to recruit and retain diverse workforces including programs designed to attract and support individuals from underrepresented groups to the library and information science professions.

• Contribute to the development of coordinated and comprehensive planning for U.S., Canadian, and regional diversity initiatives.

• Advise in the development and assessment of progress on the plans and strategies of programs promoting diversity in the workplace.

• Monitor to ensure that the activities implemented promote the importance of developing library diversity programs and recognize the impact of this climate on the retention of employees from underrepresented groups in research libraries.

• Encourage ARL Libraries to recognize their responsibilities in recruiting employees from underrepresented groups as part of a North American agenda through strategic forums at ARL meetings.

• Identify ways to promote ARL’s leadership in pursuing the diversity agenda, enabling ARL libraries to attract personnel who value and welcome these programs and who are prepared to engage actively in the development of U.S., Canadian, regional, and local initiatives.

• Work with other ARL committees and task forces to develop ARL strategies and to accomplish the goals of ARL pertaining to diversity and the recruitment and retention of employees from underrepresented groups.

• Advise the ARL Diversity Officer on program priorities and initiatives.

• Support the work of ARL’s diversity program in assisting ARL libraries to develop organizational cultures and workplace climates that welcome, develop, foster, and support diversity.

• Develop staff that value diversity.

• Promote to ARL members, the consulting programs, seminars, and resource materials developed for the association on minority recruitment, retention and diversity. Encourage member participation so that research libraries will develop each member library’s knowledge and expertise to implement successful programs and strategies that advance diversity in the workplace and the recruitment and retention of employees from underrepresented groups.

Members:

Carol Armstrong(1996-98)
Ernie Ingles(1994-96)
John Haak(1996-98)
Edward Johnson(1996-98)
Charles E. Miller (1994-96)
James F. Williams (1996-98)
Nancy L. Baker, Chair(1996-97)

Staff Liaison: Kathryn Deiss/DeEtta Jones (effective at the end of the 1996 calendar year)

4.2 Office of Management Services

Established to help research and academic libraries develop better ways of managing their human and material resources, the OMS has assisted library leaders in finding more efficient and effective ways of meeting user needs for over 25 years. Several personnel and organizational changes announced in the past nine months herald the beginning of a new period for the OMS. The OMS Diversity Program was combined with the ARL Minority Recruitment Program under the oversight of the ARL Executive Office. Susan Jurow, Director of OMS since 1990, and Kriza Jennings, Program Officer for Diversity and Minority Recruitment, both announced their departure, effective June 1 and June 30, respectively. Maureen Sullivan, long-time OMS Organizational Development Consultant, moved to the Washington, DC area and was able to provide greater support to ARL and OMS operations and programs as the Office braced for the transition. Toward the end of 1995, three performance centers were established under the OMS umbrella to clarify the character and nature of dues investment for each program and the subsidy of OMS fees. The three performance centers are the OMS Organizational Development Program, the OMS Leadership Development Program, and the OMS Information Services Program. Business plans for these centers were developed which chart movement toward balanced budgets and retirement of outstanding negative fund balances over the next five years. During the transition, greater reliance will be placed on OMS-prepared consultants who work under contract with the ARL.

4.2.1 OMS Organizational Development Program

To assist libraries in making the transition from an archival role to that of an information gateway in a period of limited resources and digital transformation, the OMS Organizational Development Program provides a wide range of consulting services, incorporating new research on service delivery and marketing as well as on organizational effectiveness. Using an assisted self-study approach, the OMS Organizational Development Program provides academic and research libraries with programs to develop workable plans for improvement in such areas as public and technical services, planning, team building, and organizational review and design. The OMS provides on-site and telephone consultation, staff training, manuals, and other materials to aid participants in gathering information and in situation analysis.

Summary of Activities

Activities between May 1996 and October 1996 continue to focus primarily on support for strategic planning efforts and redesigning organizational structure and process.

During this period, projects undertaken included:

Strategic Planning and Planning Retreats. At a time when user demands and expectations are changing, computers and communications technology are redefining library structure and services, and information is being made available in a multiplicity of formats, libraries must consider imaginative and resourceful ways of embracing change without being crushed by it. The Strategic Planning Program is designed to help establish a clearer understanding of the future course a library should take, including priorities, strategies, management philosophy, and ways of meeting new challenges.

Institutions served: Emory University; Harvard Houghton Library; University of Missouri; National Agricultural Library; North Carolina State University; University of Pittsburgh; University of Texas at El Paso.

Organization Review and Design Program and Organizational Rethinking Retreats. The Organizational Review and Design Program has two primary goals: to ensure the optimal use of resources and to create a flexible organizational structure capable of renewing and redirecting itself as needed in the future. During the course of the project, members of the library staff examine the fit of the current structure to current programmatic needs. Careful attention is paid to horizontal and vertical design features, so that the structures developed during the project provide appropriate communication and decision making mechanisms. The process includes participating libraries deploying their own staff to develop new organizational structures.

Institutions served: University of Saskatchewan; University of Minnesota; Washington State University; Clark Art Institute; Emory University; University of Chicago.

Team Building & Retreat Facilitation. Skilled facilitators are available to work with short- and long-term committees, work groups, and library-wide community efforts to build a strong foundation for group effectiveness. Issues such as group development, conflict management, interpersonal relations, idea generation, and process planning are explored. Action planning that supports ongoing efforts is a key component of this program.

Institutions served: Georgetown University Law Center; Pennsylvania State University; University of Guelph; National Agricultural Library.

4.2.2 OMS Information Services Program

The OMS Information Services Program gathers, analyzes, and distributes information on contemporary management techniques, conducts surveys and analytical reviews, and answers inquiries on library issues and trends. The overall goals of the program are identifying expertise and encouraging its exchange; promoting experimentation and innovation; and improving performance and facilitating the introduction of change. These are accomplished through an active publication and service program whose principal components are the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC), the Transforming Libraries series, the OMS Occasional Papers, and the OMS Conferences Program.

Summary of Activities

The OMS Information Services Program maintains an active publications program whose principal components are the Systems Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) and the OMS Occasional Paper Series. Through the OMS Collaborative Research Writing Program, librarians work with OMS staff in joint research and writing projects, which are then published by OMS. Participants and staff work together in survey design, writing, editing, and in seeking management perspectives on current academic concerns.

The Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC). SPEC Kits organize and collect selected library documents concerning a specific area of library operation. Kits are designed to illustrate the range of current practices in dealing with particular issues. Documents describing both the administrative and operational aspects of the concern are included. While this program was established to exchange useful information for strengthening library operations and programs among ARL members, a number of academic, public, and special libraries worldwide are among the more than 490 SPEC subscribers. In fact, more than 5,000 SPEC Kits are distributed annually.

Increased marketing efforts for the SPEC program are underway; the success of the marketing effort will not be determined until later this year. Because the position of Program Officer for Information Services position was vacant for a large portion of 1994, the program is currently behind in the production of SPEC Kits. This has impacted both distribution and revenue figures due to lack of product. This problem is further exacerbated by the recent problems with late survey responses. Solutions to return the program to an appropriate production schedule include the creation of a new publication subseries entitled Transforming Libraries.

Although email distribution of SPEC Surveys began in early 1995, an email distribution list was created and became operational in June 1996 for one-way communication to the SPEC Liaisons. Considerable time will be saved in distributing surveys and other communications.

Efforts continue on updating and expanding the current SPEC Index. An electronic copy of the records pertaining to the SPEC Kits was obtained from the Education Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) which indexes and abstracts all ARL publications. It is planned that this information will be imported into a separate and searchable electronic database that would also be used as the foundation for a printed subject, title, and author index.

The following SPEC Kits were produced between May 1996 and October 1996:

*215 Library Reorganization and Restructuring, compiled by Joanne D. Eustis and Donald J. Kenney, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

*216 Role of Libraries in Distance Education, compiled by Carolyn Synder, Susan Logue, and Barbara Preece, Southern Illinois University

*217 Transforming Libraries: Issues and Innovations in Electronic Reserves, written by George Soete; Editorial Advisor, Jeff Rosedale

*218 Information Technology Policies, compiled by Shirley Leung and Diane Bisom, University of California, Irvine

SPEC Kits currently in progress are: Library Homepages; Internet Training; Improving the Reshelving Process; Gifts & Exchange Function; Electronic Resource Sharing; Approval Plans Government Documents; and Educational Backgrounds of Systems Librarians.

Future SPEC topics under consideration: Geographic Information Systems (GIS); Staff Development Electronic Text Centers; Remote Storage; and Copyright.

Transforming Libraries Series. SPEC Kit 217 represents the pilot issue of the Transforming Libraries series, ARL’s newest means of publishing information about developments in member libraries and beyond. ARL will publish this subseries of SPEC four times a year, with each volume focusing on a different application or aspect of library technology. As the publication evolves, it will eventually be issued under its own title as a separate publication series.

The purpose of the Transforming Libraries series is to encourage innovative activity in subscriber libraries and to put subscribers in touch with people who are leading technological change in libraries all over North America. The series, edited by George Soete, will focus on how libraries are using technology to transform services and operations. In an attempt to be timely and up-to-date, Transforming Libraries will take a reportorial approach to its topics, seeking out libraries that are trying new applications of technology and bringing to you their experiences while they are still innovative.

One important feature of the Transforming Libraries series will be its presence on the World Wide Web http://www.arl.org/transform/. Each issue will contain a direction to a website, which will be managed by a guest Editorial Advisor. Whereas SPEC Kits provide documentation in print, this site will be a place to find both documentation and links to sites related to the technology featured in the particular issue. It will also be a site where readers can advance their own ideas and reactions.

The initial issue addresses Issues and Innovations in Electronic Reserves. Future topics under consideration for this series include: distance education, geographic information systems (GIS), and licensing. We invite readers and libraries to provide feedback on this series and to inform us of their innovative practices.

OMS Occasional Papers. OP 19 Video Collections and Multimedia in ARL Libraries: Changing Technologies by Kris Brancolini, Indiana University, and Rick Provine, University of Virginia, was published in October; this paper updates SPEC Kit 199 Video Collections and Multimedia in ARL Libraries.

The Occasional Paper, Assisting Support Staff in Lateral Moves to the Public Service Desk, by Jennifer Boettcher and Candice Benefiel, Texas A&M University, is in progress and was presented at a poster session at the ALA National Conference in July. A third OP, Library Systems Security, by Scott Muir, University of Alabama, and Merri Beth Lavagnino, University of Illinois-Urbana, will be underway shortly.

OMS Conferences Program. OMS showcased its programs and services at the ALA LAMA/LITA conference in Pittsburgh.

Careers Resources Website. In January, ARL developed a Career Resources Website that lists job vacancy announcements from ARL member libraries. This service, designed to alert prospective employees to job vacancies and career opportunities within ARL member libraries, provides members with a better forum for advertising their position openings. By September, over 200 job announcements had been posted from a wide array of library service areas. The site also links to other career resource pages. The service was designed and is maintained by Allyn Fitzgerald, Senior Research Analyst. The site address is https://db.arl.org/careers/index.html.

4.2.3 OMS Training and Staff Development Program

The OMS Training & Staff Development Program designs implementation planning and project evaluation. OMS also provides support for libraries by delivering unique and dynamic learning events that actively assist academic and research libraries to recognize, develop, optimize, and refine staff talents and skills.

Increased demand for sponsored Training Institutes and On-Site Learning Workshops and Programs has continued. Organizations, experiencing tightened resources, are finding it more cost-effective and more productive to bring OMS to their site.

Summary of Activities

•Designed and offered the first Facilitating Change: The Internal Consultant Institute at the University of British Columbia.

•Planned and started an extensive training program at Pennsylvania State University to focus on team development and leadership development.

•Contributed to Harvard’s Finding Common Ground Conference.

•In collaboration with the Program Officer for Statistics and Measurement, began planning a series of workshops on assessing user satisfaction and statistics.

Workshops and Institutes Offered May 1996 - October 1996

Leadership in a Changing Environment

American Association of Law Libraries 89th Annual Meeting, July 18-19

Strategizes and develops approaches to the successful management of organizational change and explores ways to develop staff commitment and build a productive workplace while allowing time for participants to assess their personal strengths as leaders and prepare action plans for their personal development.

Building Teams for the High Performance Organization

American Association of Law Libraries 89th Annual Meeting, July 20

Focuses on developing the skills required of effective team members as well as an understanding of the tools and techniques for problem solving and decision making.

Library Management Skills Institute I: The Manager
Brooklyn, NY, "sponsored event," Brooklyn Public Library, May 28-31
Washington, DC, "sponsored event," Washington Research Library Consortium, June 4-7, 1996
Chicago, IL, "public event," October 1-4, 1996
Boston, MA, "sponsored event," Boston Library Consortium, October 28-31

Middle and senior managers in libraries participated and were able to address some of the critical leadership issues they face with a focus on the individual and his/her relationship to the library as a whole.

The Art of Communication
National Agriculture Library, September 9, 1996

Focuses on understanding the communication process and exploring ways to improve communication in groups and organizations as well as in interpersonal relationships at work.

Working & Thinking Together
National Agricultural Library, September 10, 1996

Focuses on understanding different roles that contribute to effective performance in groups and developing the skills to work with others, to support and build on the ideas of others, to think together through an organized collective process, to analyze work needs and expected results, to appreciate the differences in working and thinking styles, and to resolve conflict in a positive, productive, and meaningful way.

Working Together: A Seminar for Library & Information Technology Professionals
Pre-conference Seminar of the CAUSE/CNI Southeast Regional Conference, September 11, 1996

Provides an opportunity for a small number of institutional teams of librarians and information technologists to develop techniques to increase the effectiveness of collaborative efforts and to begin a planning process for specific collaborative projects in their workplaces.

Facilitation Skills Institute
Baltimore, MD, September 11-13, 1996

Focuses on skill development as an in-house facilitator who can assume a key role in helping groups and teams produce better quality results.

Library Management Skills Institute II: The Manager’s Role in the Organization
New York Public Library, October 7-11, 1996

Focuses on the manager’s role as leader in the larger organization. Within the framework of the learning organization, participants explore such issues as organizational communication, shared visioning, strategic planning, and gaining staff commitment to organizational change.

The Learning Organization: Managing Change by Changing the Way We Learn
Pre-conference Program of the LITA/LAMA National Conference, October 12-13, 1996

Focuses on understanding the principles and practices of the learning organization, understanding the dynamics of change and using this information in the development of action plans for managing change in participants’ work settings.

Facilitating Change: The Internal Consultant
Kansas City, KS, October 21-23

Examines the basics of organizational development; the methods and strategies of facilitating meaningful and successfully implemented change; the dynamics of organizational change; and the importance of transitions.

OMS/DORAL Management Skills Institute for Library Development Officers
Boulder, CO, October 21-23

Helps research and academic library fund-raisers who have three years or less experience acquire, develop, and refine the skills to meet their development responsibilities.

4.2.4 Committee on the Management of Research Library Resources

The ARL Committee on the Management of Research Library Resources was established to help the Association augment the management capabilities of its members, including the recruitment, development, and effective use of staff. The Management Committee is charged with monitoring developments, determining critical issues requiring ARL attention, informing members, and designing strategic responses that can serve to strengthen the management of research library resources.

The Committee proposed the program for the October 1996 meeting to focus on the university in transition. The effort is designed to provide a more clearly delineated context for the emerging digital library and an opportunity for library directors to influence the thinking of senior university administrators.

1996 Agenda of Issues:

• Support the realization of digital libraries through supporting the transformation of universities

• Provide a framework for the effective recruitment and evaluation of library directors

• Identify activities and projects in the management area to be recommended for action to ARL staff, OMS staff, and the membership

• Develop greater understanding of management and organizational issues through discussions among Committee members and invited guests

Meetings planned in 1996:
Meetings are scheduled in conjunction with the May and October membership meetings.

Members:

Nancy Eaton(1996-1998)
Graham Hill(1995-1997)
Sarah Michalak(1996-1998)
Robert Migneault(1996-1998)
Rush Miller (1995-1997)
Charles Osburne (1995-1997)
Ruth Patrick (1995-1997)
Sherrie Schmidt(1996-1998)
Carolyn Snyder(1996-1998)
Paul Kobulnicky, Chair(1996-1998)

William Crowe (ex officio as chair, Statistics & Measurements Committee)

Staff Liaison: Maureen Sullivan, Kathryn Deiss, Laura Rounds

Section 5 Performance Measures

5.1 Statistics and Measurement Program

The Statistics and Measurement Program describes and measures the performance of research libraries and their contribution to teaching, research, scholarship, and community service. This program includes support for the ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee and collaboration with other national and international library statistics programs.

Strategies to accomplish this objective include:

• Collecting, analyzing, and publishing quantifiable information about library collections, personnel, and expenditures, as well as expenditures and indicators of the nature of a research institution;

• Developing new measures to describe and measure both traditional and networked information resources and services;

• Developing mechanisms to assess the relationship between campus information resources and high quality research, the teaching environment, and, in general, the success of scholars and researchers;

• Providing customized, confidential analysis for peer comparisons;

• Preparing workshops regarding statistics and measurement issues in research libraries;

• Sustaining a leadership role in the testing and application of academic research library statistics for North American institutions of higher education; and

• Collaborating with other national and international library statistics programs and accreditation agencies.

Summary of Activities

Published Statistical Reports. The largest portion of this program’s resources is devoted to collecting, verifying, analyzing, and publishing the data for the following annual publications:

ARL Statistics 1994-95 was published in March 1996, and four copies were mailed to each member library in April. ARL Statistics is the standard annual publication that reports growth in research library resources, expenditures, and service activities. The introduction to this report tracks trends in expenditures and unit prices for serials and monographs and in service activities such as interlibrary loan, circulation, reference services, and library instruction. The five variables that comprise the ARL Membership Index were published in the Chronicle of Higher Education last May. The 1995-96 survey instrument was mailed to ARL libraries in July and is due back in October.

Developing Performance Indicators for Academic Libraries: Ratios from the ARL Statistics was published in August 1996. Now in its second year it reports thirty ratios calculated from data in the ARL Statistics and provides an introduction with a brief literature review on performance indicators in higher education. Copies will be available at the registration desk during the October ARL Membership Meeting.

Two editions of the ARL Academic Law and Medical Library Statistics were published for the first time in May 1996: the fifteen year compilation from 1977-78 to 1991-92, and the three-year compilation 1992-93 to 1993-94. This publication reports trends similar to the ARL Statistics but only for law and medical libraries. A copy was mailed to each member library in May. The 1995-96 survey instrument was mailed to ARL libraries in July and is due back in October.

ARL Annual Salary Survey 1996-97 was mailed to ARL libraries in June and was due back at the end of August. The 1996-97 publication is expected to be ready later in 1996 and four copies will be mailed to each member library. This publication presents data on more than 8,000 professionals in ARL libraries. It covers U.S. and Canadian university and nonuniversity libraries, as well as ARL law and medical libraries. The 1995-96 publication reports a $41,000 median annual salary for professionals in university libraries.

ARL Preservation Statistics. The 1994-95 edition was published in May 1996 and two copies were mailed to each member library. Discussions are underway to make next year’s publication available through the Internet. Printed copies will be available for purchase only. The 1995-96 survey instrument was mailed to ARL libraries in July and is due back in November.

Stanley Wilder, author of The Age Demographics of Academic Librarians, presented the results of this study at the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University and at North Carolina State Library. An editorial on the book was issued in the September issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship and an article in the Christian Science Monitor on the future of librarianship will refer to this work. Stanley Wilder completed this project while serving as a Visiting Program Officer for ARL.

Innovative Services. A new survey was distributed to ARL member libraries this year to inventory innovative services. It gathers information about whether certain services are available at ARL libraries. The data will be published once they have been compiled and analyzed. The survey was mailed to ARL member libraries in July and is due back in October.

Unpublished reports. In addition to the published data compilations, the program prepared for the member libraries two annual unpublished reports:

The ARL Supplementary Statistics is a testbed for new variables that may ultimately be incorporated into the ARL Statistics. It serves an important role by guaranteeing that questions that may migrate into the regular annual compilation can provide valid and reliable data. The 1994-95 report was mailed to ARL libraries in June. The 1995-96 survey instrument was mailed in July and is due back in October.

The Library Expenditures as a Percent of Education and General Expenditures report tracks library expenditures as a percentage of a university budget -- probably the most common budget measure. The trend during the last ten years is a decline in the percentage of library expenditures as a percent of university budget. The 1994-95 report was mailed to ARL libraries in June and it shows that the average library expenditures as a percent of University Expenditures was 3.28%. The 1995-96 survey will be mailed to ARL libraries in December.

Electronic Publishing. The Electronic edition of the ARL Statistics on the WWW provides an extensive interactive data analysis component, and is constantly upgraded to provide new features. The latest addition to the ARL statistics pages on the WWW is 10 years of membership data, as published in the Chronicle of Higher Education each spring. The Web presentation was prepared by the Social Sciences Data Center of the University of Virginia. The data can be displayed as numbers or as graphs: http://fisher.lib.Virginia.EDU/newarl/.

Other electronic statistics products available on the WWW include:

• ARL Preservation Statistics http://www.arl.org/stats/pres/

• ARL Annual Salary Survey http://www.arl.org/stats/salary

• Machine readable data for the ARL Academic Law and Medical Library Statistics http://www.arl.org/stats/lawmed/

• Machine readable data for the ARL Statistics http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/

• Developing Indicators for Academic Library Performance: Ratios from the ARL Statistics http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/index.html#INDICATO

Electronic Investments Initiative. The Council on Library Resources awarded a grant of $11,800 to ARL to study the "Character and Nature of Research Library Investment in Electronic Resources." The goal is to develop new definitions that support collection of information about the transformation of research library collections. The study will do secondary analysis on the data collected through the ARL Supplementary Statistics during the last three years. This study will identify inconsistencies in the way data on expenditures for electronic resources have been collected and will propose revisions to the current definitions that will increase their usefulness. Carol Mandel, Columbia University, accepted an invitation to serve as consultant to this project. Timothy Jewell, Head of the Electronic Information Program at the University of Washington Libraries, has been appointed as Visiting Program Officer from September 1996 to July 1997 on a part-time basis.

User Surveys Initiative. Kendon Stubbs, consultant to the Statistics Program, is working on developing a manual on user surveys. This initiative progressed during the last year by (a) appointing an advisory committee, (b) carrying forward consulting assignments, and (c) conducting various workshops (July 5th in New York, September 30th at North Carolina State University, and October 1st at the University of North Carolina).

Workshops. A variety of workshops have been organized, and detailed descriptions are available on the WWW http://www.arl.org/stats/workshop.html. In particular, the following workshops have been offered or will be offered from May 1996 to March 1997:

The Role of Assessment in Advancing Diversity for Libraries
May 2-3, 1996, Washington, D.C.
November 7-8, 1996, Washington, D.C.

Conducting User Surveys in Academic Libraries
July 5, 1996, New York, NY
September 30, 1996, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
October 1, 1996, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
March 31, 1997, University of California-Irvine, CA

Electronic Publishing of Data Sets on the WWW
Oct. 28-30, 1996, Charlottesville, VA
March 12-14, 1997, Charlottesville, VA

Contracts and Consulting. This largely dues-based program is expanding its cost-recovery activities by contracting for custom reports and consulting services. During the last six months, custom reports for peer institution comparison for various ARL member libraries were prepared. Custom reports were drafted from the ARL Statistics, ARL Performance Indicators, and ARL Annual Salary Survey.

Communications Activities. Communications activities with the ARL Survey Coordinators included management of the three electronic lists for the three annual statistical surveys (arl-statsurvey, arl-statsalary, and arl-statpresv) and organizing a forthcoming meeting for the ARL Survey Coordinators in conjunction with the ALA Midwinter meeting on February 13, 1997 in Washington, DC.

Liaison with External Statistical Programs. ARL has actively sought to cooperate with other library and higher education data gathering efforts, extending the influence of ARL perspectives and seeking experience to assist ARL in refining data gathering and measurement approaches.

ALA/IPEDS Advisory Committee advises NCES on the IPEDS Academic Libraries survey. This committee meets twice a year in conjunction with the ALA meetings, and participants also attend various IPEDS/ALS training meetings. William Crowe, Chair of the ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee, and Martha Kyrillidou, Program Officer for Statistics and Measurement, attend these meetings.

ALA/ESAL Project. Jennifer Cargill, Louisiana State University, member of the ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee, participates at the Advisory Committee for the ALA/Ameritech survey on electronic services in academic libraries.

NACUBO Benchmarking Council. NACUBO is organizing this group to develop performance measurement tools to identify exemplary processes and practices through (a) coordinating the benchmarking activities of participating institutions; (b) leveraging the technical expertise within the Council; (c) taking advantage of economies of scale in conducting benchmarking activities; (d) developing coordinated training efforts; (e) work to develop a national data base of information available to all higher education institutions; and (f) effectively communicate the Council’s activities to higher education. The first meeting was held on April 10, 1996. Another meeting is scheduled to take place November 22 in Tuscon, Arizona.

NPEC Council on Postsecondary Education met in November 1995 for the first time and will meet again December 9-10, 1996. The purpose of the Cooperative is "to produce and maintain with the cooperation of the states, comparable and uniform educational information and data that are useful for policy making at the federal, state and local levels." NPEC is a voluntary partnership among governmental and nongovernmental providers and users of education data. The central mission of NPEC is to promote quality, comparability, and utility of postsecondary data and information that support policy development. NPEC is currently sponsoring the following projects: (a) an examination of student outcomes from a policy perspective; (b) student outcomes from a data perspective; (c) unit record data vs. aggregate data; (d) development of a data encyclopedia; (e) achieving better coordination of PSE data collection and exchange; and (f) a study of the impact of future development on PSE data systems.

Coordination with Related ARL Programs. Statistics and Measurement is working with other related ARL programs, including Access to Information Resources, Diversity, Office of Management Services, Preservation, and Research Collections.

Members of the ARL Statistics and Measurement Committee serve as advisors to the ILL Performance Measures Study, which is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

At the operational level, recent activities include planning and participation for ARL technologies through the four-member Technology Team.

5.1.1 ARL Committee on Statistics and Measurement

During 1996, the Committee repeatedly discussed the value of the existing statistical compilations and supported the idea of continuing them. Attention was paid to creating a climate conducive to the timely and accurate data reporting through extensive communication with the member libraries via meetings of the survey coordinators and electronic communication. As a result, the surveys are being returned increasingly closer to the deadlines and there has been a notable decrease in the effort and time required for follow up.

The Program has developed workshops that have been well received. The Committee has advised on the development of the content and "deliverables" from these workshops.

Last, the Committee is placing increased emphasis on the measurement of service quality and expenditures for electronic resources.

1996 Agenda of issues

• Advise on annual projects: monitor and refine 1996-97 ARL Statistics, Supplementary Statistics questionnaire, 1997-98 ARL Annual Salary Survey, and ARL Academic Law and Medical LibraryStatistics

• Advise Kendon Stubbs on developing a manual on how to conduct user surveys and support the work of the ‘user surveys’ advisory committee

• Refine and distribute a survey on innovative services that improve access

• Advise on the development of an interactive data analysis component of the electronic publication of the ARL Statistics

• Advise on collaborative projects with other ARL programs

• Seek funding for applying SERVQUAL in academic libraries (Principal Investigator: Danuta Nitecki)

• Advise Timothy Jewell on CLR funded project on the Character and Nature of Investments in Electronic Resources

Members:

Jennifer Cargill(1995-1997)
Carolynne Presser(1996-1998)
Ray Metz(1996-1998)
Carla Stoffle(1994-1996)
William Studer(1993-1998)
Don Tolliver(1995-1997)
Gloria Werner(1996-1998)
William Crowe, Chair(1995-1997)

Gordon Fretwell, Consultant Emeritus
Kendon Stubbs, Consultant

Staff Liaison: Martha Kyrillidou

Section 6 Supporting Capabilities

6.1 Governance of the Association

The capability for Governance of the Association is intended to represent prudently the interests of ARL members in directing the business of the Association. The governing body is the ARL Board of Directors, whose functions include: to establish operating policies, budgets, and fiscal controls; to approve long-range plans; to modify or clarify the ARL mission and continuing objectives; to monitor performance and the succession of the Executive Director; and to represent ARL to the community. The staff role in this capability is to provide information to the Board adequate to fulfill its responsibilities in a knowledgeable and expeditious manner. The Board establishes several committees to help achieve effective governance of the Association.

1.) Program and Budget Review. At its February meeting, the Board reviewed the 1996 Program Plan and the proposed 1996 resource allocations. The 1996 Program Plan presents the framework of program capabilities as developed by the Executive Director and staff to implement the program objectives and financial strategies. The February Board discussions led to the adoption of the Program Plan and direction to the Executive Director to reallocate resources if needed to engage emergent issues in an agile fashion. There was recognition that the crucial issue of copyright and copyright legislation may call for added investment and may reduce the 1996 contribution to the Board designation reserve fund. The Board also identified a major priority for further development in 1996 as a capacity for research libraries to sponsor and support electronic scholarly publishing.

In July 1996, the Board reviewed the fiscal condition of the Association and developed a financial strategy for 1997. The result was a recommended dues increase for 1997 of $600, for a total of $14,450. In October, the full membership will vote on this recommendation.

Last year, the Board authorized ARL’s participation in the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH), subject to development of a creative funding strategy to support the first year of participation. This was achieved through a grant from the Delmas Foundation. This Delmas grant allows ARL to join the American Council of Learned Societies, the Getty Art History Information Program, the Coalition for Networked Information and a number of other organizations that serve the arts, humanities, social sciences, and disciplines that create and interpret human culture in an initiative to assure the widest possible participation of organizations concerned with our cultural heritage in the evolution of the global information highway. The Delmas funding allows ARL’s participation through June 1997.

2.) Association Officers. The 1996 Board is comprised of:

• Nancy Cline - President

• Gloria Werner - Vice President/President Elect

• Jerry D. Campbell - Past President

• Betty L. Bengtson

• William Crowe

• Nancy Eaton

• Kent Hendrickson

• Carole Moore

• James G. Neal

• Barbara von Wahlde

• James F. Williams

Three Board members will conclude their terms this October: Jerry Campbell, Kent Hendrickson, and James Williams. The ARL Nomination Committee (1996), chaired by Gloria Werner and including Pam Andre and Martin Runkle, brought forth a roster of three candidates to stand for election to the Board of Directors. The roster of nominees includes: Shirley Baker, Kenneth Frazier, and William Potter. The election will be held at the October 1996 business meeting.

3.) Committee Activities. In 1996, almost 100 member library directors participate in eight standing committees, various advisory committees and working groups, and 19 liaison assignments. Virtually all interested library directors were involved in ARL groups during the course of the year.

4.) New Member in ARL. In 1995, an ad hoc membership committee was established to consider the suitability of the Ohio University, Athens Library for membership and they completed their work in 1996 with a recommendation to invite. The Committee was comprised of Nancy Cline, Sheila Creth, and Gloria Werner, who served as Chair. The Board brought the recommendation to the full membership at the May 1996 Membership meeting and the membership voted to extend an invitation to Ohio University, Athens Library. Ohio University subsequently accepted, bringing to 120 the number of libraries belonging to the Association.

5.) New Committee established. An ARL Working Group was established to work with representatives of the Modern Language Association’s Committee on the Future of the Print Record to consider the development of "Categories of Material having indisputable, artifactual value." Meredith Butler (SUNY-Albany) co-chairs and the group met in September 1996 to consider first steps in establishing an initiative.

Status Report on Standing Committees and Selected Advisory and Project Group Activities

Committee on Information Policies
Chair:James Neal
Staff:Prue Adler

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Advise on the development of ARL legislative strategies, monitor and assess other government policies, especially in regard to the National Endowment for the Humanities examine copyright and intellectual property

•Examine and monitor developments in networking and telecommunications monitor access to government information

•Advise on efforts to strengthen ARL’s ability to communicate with policymakers

Committee on Access to Information Resources
Chair:Shirley Baker
Staff:Jaia Barrett

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Promote and support the NAILDD agenda and activities

•Contribute to ARL projects that elaborate the concept of a distributed, multi-institutional research library collection that is linked together and made accessible to users via networked services

Committee on Research Collections
Chair:Dale Canelas
Staff:Deborah Jakubs

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Determine next steps in developing Global Resources Program, electronic information resources and electronic resource sharing

•Advance the distributed research collections concept

Committee on Preservation of Research Library Materials
Chair:Meredith Butler
Staff:Mary Case

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Determine next steps with the ARL Preservation Plan

•Strategies to advance digital archiving

•Collaboration with scholarly societies or intellectual issues associated with preservation

Committee on the Management of Research Library Resources
Chair:Paul Kobulnicky
Staff:Maureen Sullivan and Kathryn Deiss

1996 Agenda of issues:

Examine organizational effectiveness, human resources utilization and development, and library education and recruitment

Committee on Diversity
Chair:Nancy Baker
Staff:Kathryn Deiss, DeEtta Jones (effective end of 1996)

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Promote collaborative efforts with ALISE

•Foster discussions among ARL members, library educators and students to explore recruitment strategies

•Provide leadership to increase visibility of the new capability

Committee on Scholarly Communication
Chair:Elaine Sloan
Staff:Mary Case

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Promote initiatives to encourage publishing electronically

•Monitor developments in the scholarly publishing arena

•Contribute to the development of ARL positions on ownership and copyright

•Monitor and report on publishers licensing plans

Committee on Statistics and Measurement
Chair:William Crowe
Staff:Martha Kyrillidou

1996 Agenda of issues:

•Monitor new questions on 1993-94 ARL Statistics and Supplementary Statistics questionnaires

•Monitor issues raised through participation in ALA-NCES Advisory Committee and other national groups

•Plan a "hot topics" or briefing session for members at a future meeting to discuss new initiatives

•Advise on revision of ARL access inventory

Working Group on Copyright Issues
Chair:James Neal
Staff:Duane Webster and Prue Adler

Assignment: To advise on ARL activities and interests on intellectual property and copyright matters

Firm Subscription Prices Working Group
Chair:Elaine Sloan
Staff:Mary Case

Assignment:To maintain a dialogue with the vending and publishing community to attain prices for the subscription year early in the previous calendar year

Working Group on Scientific and Technical Information
Chair:Marilyn Sharrow
Staff:Jaia Barrett

Assignment: To monitor STI developments and to function as advisor to the Board for shaping further ARL activities in this area

AAU-ARL Research Libraries Steering Committee
Co-chairs:Jerry Campbell and Myles Brand
Staff:Duane Webster and John Vaughn

Assignment: To promote implementation of the AAU-ARL action agenda that resulted from the AAU Research Libraries Project

Advisory Committee on ILL Performance Measures
Chair:Shirley Baker
Staff:Mary Jackson

Assignment:To advise on conduct of project

ARL-MLA Working Group on Preservation Issues
Chair:Meredith Butler
Staff:Mary Case and Duane Webster

Assignment:Develop on action agenda for education and preservation

6.2 Communication and External Relations

The capability for Communication and External Relations is designed to: acquaint ARL members with current, important developments of interest to research libraries; inform the library profession of ARL’s position on theses issues; influence policy and decision makers within higher education and other areas related to research and scholarship; and educate academic communities about issues related to research libraries.

Through print and electronic publications as well as direct outreach, members of the library, higher education, and scholarly communication communities are informed of important developments and ARL positions on issues that affect the research library community. External relations with relevant constituencies are also carried on through all ARL programs.

6.2.1 ARL Publications Program

Communications Priorities in 1996

• Analyze sales and develop marketing strategies for ARL publications. In recent months ARL has expanded its marketing efforts for ARL Publications. The ARL Statistics and Measurement Program, the Office of Scholarly Communication, and the OMS Information Services Programs have all embarked on marketing campaigns in 1996 designed to reach wider audiences. Working with ARL’s communications team (Allyn Fitzgerald as principal coordinator) and Kevin Flood (Library of Congress), a marketing consultant, two publication-specific brochures were designed and distributed to over 80,000 individuals. In addition, print advertisements have been placed in three library journals with large readerships. Plans are underway for a targeted effort to expand subscriptions to the ARL Newsletter. ARL sales analysis for the past two years indicates that 80% of publication sales comes from outside the membership and that increasingly our publications are being bought by new customers outside of the research library community. In the current marketing efforts, public and special libraries have been targeted. An additional effort is underway to expand our customer base outside North America. Another possibility for increased marketing involves soliciting advertisements from service providers who are an increasing segment of the ARL customer base.

• Develop centralized mailing list for ARL (see Section 6.2.2).

• Develop 3- to 5-year plan for the Communications Program. Through the ARL communications team, ARL staff have undertaken efforts to streamline the processes within the Executive office for publication development and production. One effort in this direction is development of guidelines for staff as they undertake activities in electronic and print communications. The ARL publications program has facilitated publications for every ARL program, including the Coalition for Networked Information in the past 6 months. Additionally, electronic publishing efforts are being expanded under the direction of the Electronic Services Coordinator.

• Maximize effective technology utilization, including exploring the feasibility of enhancing the publications accounting software system. During the summer months, ARL staff re-evaluated the current accounting software and hardware used to track and manage ARL publications processing. With expanded marketing efforts, an increase in the number of publications available, and an increased customer base, the recommendation is to either upgrade or enhance the current system. An additional option under consideration is to outsource management of the publications fulfillment process.

• Explore options for enhancing electronic publishing efforts through cost recovery mechanisms. Even as ARL promotes electronic publishing within the scholarly community, we are not yet sure how our publications program will most effectively make this transition. ARL aims to encompass and optimize new computer and telecommunications technologies, while continuing an appropriate print publications program. Until a secure and dependable mechanism is in place for cost recovery for electronic publishing, the Association must absorb the costs of what it publishes on the Internet. In the meantime, the Internet offers the ability to provide no-charge services to members and other users. Because the cost of distributing works on the Internet is so low (most of the costs are expended on the first copy), ARL is able to give away far more information than in a print-only environment, where extra copies must be printed and mailed to readers.

Development of a plan to enhance ARL’s communications capability and maximize use of both print and electronic formats is in progress. An initial step toward this goal is to make more ARL publications available on the ARL server. (See electronic services section for update on enhancements to the ARL server.)

• Evaluate the copyright policy for ARL publications. In 1996, the ARL communications and copyright teams worked together to reevaluate and update the ARL copyright policy for ARL publications. A priority was to ensure that the copyright statement on ARL publications conform to ARL’s position on copyright - especially with regard to fair use. The statement which applies to print and electronic publications is:

ARL grants blanket permission to reproduce this work for library, educational, and not for profit works, provided that copies are distributed at or below cost and that full attribution is given.

Summary of Activities

1.) Newsletter. Two issues of ARL: A Bimonthly Newsletter of Research Library Issues and Actions were published since May 1996. Jaia Barrett, Deputy Executive Director, and Michael Matthews, Communications Specialist, serve as editor and copy manager, respectively. Topics covered in these issues included copyright, issues in higher education, updates on library statistics, trends in preservation activities, and reports from individual programs and capabilities. Issue 186 also included a supplement article that reported on the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU).

Beginning in May 1996 and subsequent issues of the ARL newsletters are being made available on the ARL Web (see Section 6.2.2).

2.) ARL-Announce. Established in January 1995, this service provides electronic updates about ARL activities to the community outside of ARL. The subscriber base continues to grow, and for the first time news items about ARL member library activities were distributed via ARL-Announce.

3.) Information Packets and Brochures. ARL regularly receives information requests on a vast array of topics from a variety of sources, including students, educators, the press (scholarly and popular), and representatives of the information industry. To facilitate these requests, ARL Publications has developed Focus Flyers on particular topics and a standard ARL Information Packet that includes key resource documents about ARL programs and services, including: fact sheets, recent press releases, a publications catalog, OMS training schedule, and information about pertinent resources available on the ARL Server. Focus Flyers that have been updated or added since May include Economics Issues, Copyright, Preservation, and Interlibrary Loan. In addition, ARL released brochures on the ARL Directory of Electronic Journals and the SPEC Publications Program. An update of the ARL publications catalog is in production and will be available in December 1996.

4.) Outreach to Library Community. ARL exhibited its programs and publications at the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). This was a pilot effort to expand outreach efforts within the library community. Plans are underway to exhibit ARL materials at the Special Libraries Association meeting in 1997. ARL will exhibit at the LITA/LAMA meeting in Pittsburgh October 1996. ARL also displays its publications annually at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In addition, ARL materials were displayed at the April and September ARL workshops on copyright.

5.) Relations with the Scholarly Community and External Groups. Collaboration on both a technical and policy level is documented under all individual capabilities. Activities at the executive level in the past six months include collaborations with, among others, the Association of American University Presses, the National Humanities Alliance, the Modern Language Association, NASULGC, the Association of American Universities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and CAUSE. In July, ARL hosted a one-day symposium held in conjunction with the ARL Board meeting where members of the scholarly community addressed current copyright issues. A summary report of this meeting was distributed via ARL-Announce to the ARL membership and to the library and education communities.

6.) ARL Communications Team. The team consists of the Information Services Coordinator, the OMS Program Officer for Information Services, the Electronic Services Coordinator, the Office Manager, the Communications Specialist, the Senior Research Analyst, and the Publications Clerk. In 1996, the Team is focusing on three areas: creating a marketing plan for the Association, outlining strategic options for publication program development in the future, and developing a centralized mailing list. In August, Colleen Keller was appointed Publications Clerk.

7.) Publications Fulfillment: In 1994, ARL consolidated and outsourced the publications fulfillment for all ARL/OMS programs to International Fulfillment Corporation (IFC). In May 1996, ARL staff and IFC undertook a review of operations and a decision was made to find another agency to better match ARL’s needs. The new agency, Publications Management, Distribution Services (PMDS), will begin working with ARL on October 7, 1996. PMDS specializes in small associations and can offer a range of services not available from the current provider.

8.) ARL Publications May - October 1996.

• ARL Newsletter (2 issues)

• Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters and Academic Discussion Lists

• Developing Indicators for Academic Library Performance

• The Economics of Information in the Networked Environment

• Copyright and the NII: Resources for the Library and Education Community

• A Copyright Handbook: An ARL Compilation of Key Resources for Librarians

(For OMS Publications, see Section 4.2.2.)

6.2.2 Electronic Communications and Technology

Development of the ARL Server on the Internet.

ARL Web: http://www.arl.org/index.html

ARL Gopher: gopher://arl.cni.org/ (link no longer active)

Under the direction of the E-services Coordinator, the ARL website has been enhanced and added to over the past six months. In addition, Kim Maxwell, a graduate student at the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science, worked with the E-services Coordinator to develop a template for ARL Web pages while completing a practicum on HTML. The template will contribute to a unified graphic identity for the ARL Web while still allowing individual programs freedom to be creative in their areas. Kim’s contribution was the design and mark-up of the 1996 ARL Newsletter issues. Beginning in 1996, each issue of the ARL Newsletter will appear on the Web.

Planned enhancements to the ARL Web server are image maps, a search engine, a web link checker and an analysis of usage statistics. Work is underway to compile and configure the search software, Glimpse, a search engine that is compatible with the server’s NeXTStep operating system. In addition, Getstat, a package to analyze usage of the ARL Web server, has been compiled and configured but will require further testing to refine the output generated. The web link checker, MOMspider, has also been compiled and installed. The first project to utilize MOMspider’s capability was to verify the links to the 1,700 titles in the Web version of the Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters.

The following sites were either added or significantly revised in the last six months:

Access & Technology Program/NAILDD Project
http://www.arl.org/access/access.shtml— contacts: Jaia Barrett and Mary Jackson

Collection Development
http://www.arl.org/collect/index.html — contact: Deborah Jakubs

ARL Member Libraries’ Information Servers
http://www.arl.org/members.html — contacts: Dru Mogge and Judith Hopkins (University of Buffalo)

Calendar
http://www.arl.org/arl/arlfacts.html — contact: Dru Mogge

Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters
http://www.arl.org/scomm/edir/index.html — contacts: Mary Case and Dru Mogge

Federal Relations Notebook
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/info.html— contacts: Ann Doty and Prue Adler

Newsletter
http://www.arl.org/newsltr/index.html — contacts: Kim Maxwell and Jaia Barrett

Publications Catalog (revised)
http://www.arl.org/pubscat/index.html — contacts: Patricia Brennan and Michael Matthews

SPEC
http://www.arl.org/spec/index.html — contacts: Laura Rounds and Michael Matthews

Statistics (revised)
http://www.arl.org/stats/index.html — contact: Martha Kyrillidou

Management of ARL Electronic Discussion Groups. In May 1996, the 48 electronic discussion groups sponsored by ARL were consolidated into the same software. Now, all lists administered by ARL will use the CREN ListProcessor, v7.2, software. Previously, some lists were administered using a simple mail reflector program. One of the benefits of the ListProcessor software is that it automatically archives all messages. We will be upgrading to v8.0 in the near future. Electronic lists continue to be an important means of communication between members of ARL committees and working groups.

Installation and Configuration of New Hardware, Software, and Upgrades. Although no new hardware was purchased during this time period, several computers were moved around the office to make better use of the equipment with the changes in staffing. Minor hardware upgrades, such as adding memory, have enabled some staff to continue using their current computers. Macintosh operating system software was upgraded on several machines and some users received software upgrades.

Technology Support for ARL Staff. The Electronic Services Coordinator responds to individual needs for technical support throughout the office. The wide range of support issues includes working with particular software applications and trouble-shooting hardware malfunctions. ARL continues to investigate different options for staff training.

ARL Technology Team. Current issues facing the Technology Team are staff training and redesigning the ARL Web server. In addition to finalizing a policy on staff computer usage, the Technology Team has plans to review guidelines for staff to follow when creating HTML documents for the ARL Web Server. Mary Case, OSC Director, joined the Technology Team in June.

ARL Communications Team. A comprehensive mailing list has been compiled and we are in the process of coding each of the 3,200+ entries so that different sub-sets of the list can be used to meet different mailing list needs within the ARL offices. The File Maker Pro database is housed on a Mac server and is accessible by all staff, Mac and Windows users alike, from their desktop computers.

6.3 ARL Membership Meetings

The ARL membership meeting capability is designed to develop programs on topics of interest to the ARL membership, schedule and manage meetings and activities, coordinate local arrangements, and evaluate the success of these meetings. The May meeting emphasizes a topical program, coordinated by the ARL President; the October meeting focuses on internal finances, elections, and strategic planning.

Summary of Activities

• May 1996 meeting. The site of the May 1996 meeting was Vancouver, British Columbia, hosted by the University of British Columbia. The program theme was "Leading the Agile Library Organization" and was developed in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.

• October 1996 meeting. The fall membership meeting sessions explored the theme "Refining Higher Education."

• Some papers from the May 1995 meeting held in Boston are available on the ARL Server at http://www.arl.org/arl/proceedings/index.html.

6.4 International Relations

The International Relations capability is designed to monitor activities, maintain selected contacts, identify developments on issues of importance to North American research libraries, and share experiences of North American research libraries that may contribute to the development of research libraries internationally. This capability draws on staff and projects across several ARL programs. As with scholarly relations, international relations represents a capability that is manifested by activities in several separate program areas rather than through a consolidated office.

Dorothy Gregor, consultant to ARL, now represents ARL to the National Coordinating Committee on Japanese Library Resources. The committee’s mission is "to mobilize the resources of information providers, information users, and funding organizations toward the long-range goal of creating a comprehensive national system of cooperative collection, development, and ready access to Japanese information in as wide a range of fields as possible for all current and potential users in North America."

Prue Adler serves as the ARL representative on the Department of State Advisory Panel on International Copyright, Advisory Committee on International Intellectual Property, addressing GATT, the WIPO Copyright Program, and related issues.

Deborah Jakubs and the Collections Committee is involved with international analyses and collaborations, including projects on foreign publications and Latin American Studies and the German and Japanese Research Resources projects that are in the planning stage. Also in the planning stage is a symposium that will partner with ACLS to examine the issues related to the adequacy of library and information resources to support internationally-connected scholarship in the U.S. and abroad.

An invitation by the U.S. Associations to IFLA to hold the General Conference of 2001 in the U.S. was accepted by the IFLA Steering Committee. A National Organizing Committee (NOC) was established to oversee the planning and operation of the IFLA Conference in Boston. The Committee is comprised of the Chief Executive Officer and a designated member leader from each of the seven Associations comprising the American delegation to IFLA. The Committee met in September to develop the organizational structure for the effort. It is expected that the Committee will meet quarterly for the next five years. ARL’s representatives to the NOC are James Neal and Duane Webster.

The 62 IFLA General Conference was held August 25-31 1996 in Beijing, China. Nearly 2,600 delegates from 94 countries participated, giving one of the largest attendance recorded for an IFLA conference. The American delegation was almost 200 including 14 ARL directors. Currently, 57 ARL directors are assigned IFLA committees. The theme of the conference was "The Challenge of Change: Library and Economic Development." Topics dealt with electronic technology and its impact on information flow. A statement on copyright was advanced by the conference, affirming that copyright protection should not hinder information flow. Copyright was the centerpiece of discussions at the U.S. Caucus. Jim Neal and Mary Jackson assessed the international implications of copyright and the potential negative impact of proposals submitted by the Clinton Administration and the European Union for discussion and possible adoption at the December, 1996 WIPO Diplomatic Conference. The 63rd IFLA conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the theme "Libraries and Information for Human Development."

Two important pre-IFLA conferences were held in China. The first was the China-U.S. Conference on Global Information Access held at the National Library of China. This conference included presentations by Hwa-wei Lee, James Neal, Donald Riggs, Winston Tabb, and Duane Webster.

There was also a three day pre-IFLA Conference on Copyright held at the Tianjin Public Library. The conference attracted nearly 60 Asian, European, Australian, and North American delegates representing publisher, reproduction rights organizations, and libraries. Mary Jackson represented ARL and presented a paper on copyright issues in North America.

6.5 General Administration

General Administration encompasses overall coordination and management of the Association, staffing, financial planning and strategy, space planning, fiscal control, secretarial support, and office operations.

1.) Financial Status as of August 1996

The 1996 ARL financial plan approved by the Board projects a deficit of $25,000 for the Executive Office that includes revenue of $2,072,750 and expenditures of $2,097,750. The budgeted deficit is the result of the need to continue support for the Shared Legal Capability, the Digital Futures Coalition, participation in the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU), and other efforts to address copyright issues. This budget assumes an allocation of $60,000 to the permanent reserve and a commitment of $25,000 to the ARL portion of the Shared Legal Capability. The August financial report indicates that we are on budget for expenditures for the Executive Office for the first eight months. Revenue projections are lagging in publications and conference fees but are otherwise conforming with expectations. 1996 Budget goals for the Executive Office are expected to be reached.

The OMS is budgeted for revenues of $754,100. The August financial report indicates expenditures are 8% less than projected but revenue is 16% less than projected. At the end of August the OMS deficit was $42,000. Subscription renewals and other expected revenue in the fourth quarter should result in balancing the OMS budget.

The Office of Research and Development is showing a $66,000 deficit at the end of August due to new accounting rules governing the reporting of restricted funds. It is expected that the ORD will have a balanced budget by the end of the year.

The audit of 1995 fiscal activities was conducted by Meyer and Associates during the first quarter of 1996. The audited 1995 financial report indicates an excess of revenue ($3,163,800) over expenses ($3,155,400) for the year. The General Operating Fund, including the Office of Research and Development, had a $59,000 positive balance. The Office of Management Services (OMS) experienced a $50,600 deficit. The OMS shortfall was applied to the negative fund balance developed over the last several years, extending it to a minus $110,850. An annual contribution of $60,000 was made to the Board Designated Reserve along with $20,000 of interest earned on the Reserve during 1995. The Board Designated Reserve totaled $398,900 at the end of 1995. The unrestricted fund balance (net assets) was $339,200 at the end of 1995. This is the seventh consecutive year of balanced operating budgets for the Association.

ARL membership may note some changes in format and terminology for the 1995 audited report. This is the result of implementing two new accounting standards (SFAS number 116 and 117). One of the most visible aspects of this change is the posting of the Coalition of Networked Information accounts on the same page as the General Operating Fund and the Office of Management Services creating a totals column that is not of operating or practical value but does serve to illustrate the legal and fiduciary relationship of the CNI to ARL.

2.) ARL 1997 Financial Strategy

The ARL Board of Directors propose a steady state ARL budget and minimal membership dues increases as the 1997 financial strategy. The Board identified the following elements of the 1997 budget that warrant an incremental dues increase: 1) Continued support for copyright related activities; 2) merit-based salary adjustments; and 3) increases in the costs of office operations. Thus, the ARL Board of Directors recommended for membership consideration at the October business meeting a dues increase for 1997 of $600 to a level of $14,450. The recommendation represents a 4.3% increase. The 1997 dues recommendation continues the pattern of incremental increases recommended by the 1989 Financial Strategy Task Force, whose work has formed the basis for major financial decisions over the last seven years. This financial strategy also calls for a continuing commitment to building a reserve fund to support innovative projects, and membership approval of any new programs that have dues implications.

3.) Personnel Resources

Important changes took place with ARL staff since May:

• Mary Case was recruited to join ARL as Director of the renamed Office of Scholarly Communication effective June 1, 1996.

• Jutta Reed-Scott, Kriza Jennings, and Susan Jurow announced plans to retire/resign from ARL during 1996.

• Deborah Jakubs was appointed part-time VPO for six months to develop the Global Resources Program previously managed by Jutta Reed-Scott.

• After a recruitment process and interviews with five candidates, DeEtta Jones was named Diversity Program Officer. She will begin her duties at the end of 1996.

• In August, Colleen Keller was appointed Publications Clerk on a temporary basis, to fill the position left vacant since March.

• Patricia Brennan, Information Services Coordinator, announced plans to take a six month leave of absence to work in Ireland effective December.

4.) Electronic Communications and Technology

See Section 6.2.2.

Section 7 Research and Development

7.1 Research and Development

The ARL Office of Research and Development (ORD) consolidates the administration of grants and grant-supported projects administered by ARL. The major goal within this capability is to identify and match ARL projects that support the research library community’s mission with sources of external funding. The ARL Visiting Program Officer project is also a part of this capability (see Section 7.1.1).

Summary of Activities

Descriptions of individual project activities appear on the following pages.

Proposals submitted and pending

• German Demonstration Project

• Measuring the Quality of Library Services

Projects under development

• AAU/ARL Global Resources Program

• Cost Models for Preservation Decision Making

• The Endangered Monograph

• Library Security

Ongoing Project activities in 1996

• The Character and Nature of Research Library Investments in Electronic Resources

• NRMM RECON: Non-Roman and Musical Scores

• Latin Americanist Research Resources Project

• Streamlining Network ILL/DD Requests for Users & Libraries

• Japan Journal Access Project

• Copyright Education Initiative

• ILL/DD Cost and Performance Measures

• Shared Legal Capability on Intellectual Property

• National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage

Summary of ARL Grant-Funded Activities, May 1996 - September 1996

The Office of R&D was established to provide the Association with a point of coordination for grant seeking activity and idea management. The ORD provides a consolidated picture of ARL activities that are operated with "soft" funds. All ARL program officers play roles in the development of project concepts and funding contacts.

Proposals Submitted and Pending:

1.) German Demonstration Project. A Working Group has developed a workplan and implementation strategy for coordinated collections and delivery services for German social science library resources. The Library of Congress has agreed to provide operational support for the project. A proposal for funding initial project planning and start-up is being discussed with potential partners. (Contacts: Sarah Thomas, Winston Tabb, Deborah Jakubs)

2.) Measuring the Quality of Library Services. The Statistics & Measurements Program collaborated with Danuta Nitecki on a project to explore the applicability of the SERVQUAL instrument as a reliable diagnostic tool to measure customer criteria for service quality. Library services under consideration for the project scope are: reference, circulation and/or reserve, ILL, bibliographic instruction, and electronic services. Dr. Nitecki prepared a proposal that was submitted to the Council on Library Resources in April 1996. If funded, Dr. Nitecki, who is now at Yale University, will be the principal investigator as a Visiting Program Officer; ARL will play an advisory role (via the Committee on Statistics and Measurement) and contribute technical support for a survey of approximately nine libraries. (Contact: Martha Kyrillidou)

Projects under Development:

1.) AAU/ARL Global Resources Program. AAU and ARL staff met at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in early September to discuss plans for the Global Resources Program. On the basis of that conversation, ARL was encouraged to submit to the Mellon Foundation for consideration at their December 1996 meeting, a proposal for funding to support the Program over three years. See Section 3.1.1 for a description of the program elements. (Contact: Deborah Jakubs)

2.) Cost Models for Preservation Decision Making. ARL’s Preservation agenda calls for a cost model to compare the cost effectiveness of various strategies for preserving collections. Strategies to be embraced include all options, from conservation of the artifact to reformatting (including digitization) within the context of collection use, condition, and value. A proposal will be developed to engage a consultant to develop a feasible methodology. (Contacts: Mary Case, Jaia Barrett)

3.) The Endangered Monograph. ARL and the American Historical Association (AHA) are developing a project to design and test the functionality of an electronic database of monographic literature important for teaching and research in historical studies. The goal is to identify strategies to publish and disseminate monographic literature that are more cost effective than the traditional print model for readers, publishers, and libraries. Targeted material are books out-of-print but in-demand and new monographs that would be produced in short print runs. Partners envisioned for the project include three or four university presses, about 10 associations affiliated with AHA, and ARL libraries with a preservation program. A project proposal is being discussed by potential participants. (Contacts: Mary Case, Jaia Barrett)

4.) Library Security. Because library security is an area of specialized knowledge, ARL is seeking the support of the Council on Library Resources to hire a committed, experienced firm to assist in the development of assessment materials and to provide training in the area of security for ARL staff who will undertake the program development and implementation.

The program will consist of an initial site visit by the project consultants, who will meet with a local project team to outline the process and tour the library’s facilities. An audit to assess current security vulnerabilities, threats, capabilities and performance will be undertaken and analyzed by the consultants. Recommendations will be prepared and a plan of action will be jointly developed with the local project team. The project consultants will monitor and support the implementation including the provision of training and training-the-trainer programs to ensure ongoing attention to the issues. (Contacts: Patricia Brennan and Duane Webster)

Ongoing Funded Projects:

1.The Character and Nature of Research Library Investments in Electronic Resources. The Council on Library Resources provided $11,800 to support a review and assessment of three years of ARL supplementary survey data about research library expenditures for electronic resources. The goal is to identify options for more meaningful and credible measures about the nature and character of research library investments in electronic resources. The University of Washington is supporting Timothy Jewell, Head, Electronic Information Program, to work with Martha Kyrillidou as a Visiting Program Officer to undertake this analysis for ARL. (Contact: Martha Kyrillidou)

1. National Register of Microform Masters (NRMM) RECON Project: Non-Roman Reports and Musical Scores. In May 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded ARL a grant of $114,000 in support of the final phase of the NRMM RECON Project. In cooperation with the Library of Congress and New York Public Library, ARL will manage a cooperative project for creating more than 13,800 online records for non-Roman reports as well as for other remaining NRMM reports. ARL is using the OCLC Conversion Services to produce the records. Scheduled to end in September 1997, this final NRMM project completes a complex, multi-year effort to provide online access to more than half a million bibliographic records for preservation microform masters. Also with support from the NEH is work that is concurrently underway to create machine-readable records for approximately 7,200 NRMM reports for musical scores. This component of the NRMM project is scheduled to conclude in October 1996. (Contact: Jutta Reed-Scott)

2. Latin American Research Resources Project. The aim of the project is to make available a broader array of resources to Latin American students and scholars, to restructure access to these collections on a comprehensive scale, and to assist research libraries in containing costs (see Section 1.4 of this report for project activities update). The start-up Project funding was received from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and thirty-five participating ARL Libraries. Brigham Young University supports Mark Grover’s role as VPO/Project Coordinator. In October 1995, The Mellon Foundation awarded ARL a $125,000 grant for the second phase of the project. (Contact: Deborah Jakubs)

3. Streamlining Network ILL/DD Requests for Users & Libraries. In November 1995, OCLC agreed to collaborate with the NAILDD Project to build a standards-based linkage between the AAU/ARL Table of Contents Database located at UT-LANIC, and the OCLC ILL messaging system. The linkage was operational in March and allows network users to initiate an ILL/DD request for an article cited in the database and have it forwarded into the online system of the holding library and, if desired, into the system of the user’s home library for user authentication. Lessons from this application will be applied to other databases, other ILL messaging systems, and sets of libraries. As part of its contribution to the scaling up the AAU/ARL demonstration projects, OCLC has agreed to supply the same kind of system linkages for up to a dozen additional databases. (Contacts: Deborah Jakubs and Mary Jackson)

4. Japan Journal Access Project. The goal of the Japan Project was broadened to demonstrate a network-based program that improves North American access to Japanese journal literature in all disciplines. Without minimizing the importance of improved access to scientific and technical information, the expansion in scope is the result in part of the interest and support of the National Coordinating Committee on Japanese Library Resources (NCC), and, in part at the urging of the AAU/ARL Steering Committee that the foreign acquisitions projects be scaled up as quickly as possible. Coordination of the project is shared by Don Simpson, President of the Center for Research Libraries, and Dorothy Gregor, consultant to ARL. The NCC and OCLC provide support for Dorothy Gregor’s role and Ohio State University Library maintains project files as part of the East Asian Libraries Cooperative WWW site. (Contacts: Dorothy Gregor, Don Simpson, Deborah Jakubs, Jaia Barrett)

6.Copyright Education Initiative. The H.W. Wilson Foundation awarded ARL funding to develop an educational initiative on copyright compliance. The initiative includes development of training resources to assist library managers. The initiative supported the design of workshops for librarians who have a training or spokesperson role in copyright compliance. Three workshops for U.S. librarians were held (fall of 1995 and spring of 1996 in Washington, DC, and fall of 1996 in Seattle, hosted by the University of Washington). In addition, in collaboration with CARL and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, ARL developed a workshop for Canadian educational institutions to be held October 3-4, 1996 in Ottawa. To date, two publications have resulted: a notebook used in the workshops and a Copyright Resources Handbook. (Contacts: Mary Jackson, Jaia Barrett)

1. ILL/DD Cost and Performance Measures. In June 1995, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded ARL $160,000 to conduct an ILL/DD Performance Measures Project. This cooperative project, developed with Martin Cummings of the Council on Library Resources, will study the cost and performance of interlibrary loan and document delivery services. Phase 1 of this 24 -month study, concluded during the summer of 1996, was a follow-up to the 1992 ARL/RLG ILL Cost Study in order to expand the survey instrument used in that study. Phase 2 began this August with an invitation to libraries to participate in data collection using the new instrument. Over 80 libraries have joined the new study. (Contact: Mary Jackson)

2. Shared Legal Capability. ARL organized and manages a fund for legal expertise on intellectual property and the NII. The American Library Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association have each contributed or pledged $25,000 toward this fund in 1996. In September, SLA agreed to contribute $10,000 to the SLC fund for development of a set of principles to guide non-profit and for-profit libraries in negotiating license agreements with vendors of digital information resources. (Contacts: Duane Webster, Prue Adler)

3. NINCH. The Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation awarded ARL $10,000 to join the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). The initiative seeks to encourage the development of the NII as a means to preserve, access, and creatively build on our cultural legacy. In the spring of 1996, David Green was appointed Executive Director of NINCH. The ARL Board met with him in July; the ARL Access to Information Resources Committee will meet with him this October. (Contact: Duane Webster)

7.1.1 ARL Visiting Program Officer Program

The ARL Visiting Program Officer (VPO) program provides an opportunity for a staff member from a member library to assume responsibility for carrying out part or all of a project for ARL. It provides a very visible staff development opportunity for an outstanding staff member and serves the membership as a whole by extending the capacity of ARL to undertake additional activities.

Typically, the member library supports the salary of the staff person, and ARL seeks grant funding to cover travel or other project-related expenses. Depending on the nature of the project and the circumstances of the individual, a VPO may spend extended periods of time in Washington, DC, or may conduct most of their project from their home library. In either case, contact with ARL staff and a presence in the ARL offices is encouraged, as this has proved to be mutually beneficial for the VPO and for ARL.

Since the program’s beginning in 1988, 21 member libraries have sponsored a VPO. Between May and September 1996, this included:

• Brigham Young University: Mark Grover, to serve as Project Coordinator for the ARL/AAU Latin American Demonstration Project.

• Duke University: Deborah Jakubs, to develop the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program as well as coordinate the work of the three ongoing pilot projects, on Latin America, Japan, and Germany.

• University of Virginia: Kendon Stubbs, to develop a manual and design a workshop on how libraries could measure user satisfaction and quality service, with Martha Kyrillidou.

• University of Washington: Timothy Jewell, to assess ARL data on the character and nature of research library expenditures for electronic resources, with Martha Kyrillidou.

• York University: Toni Olshen, who developed for ARL recommendations for an organizational and programmatic response to diversity in Canadian libraries and universities.

VPO Opportunities for 1996+

In collaboration with Martha Kyrillidou and the Statistics and Measurements Committee, Danuta Nitecki (now AUL for Public Services at Yale University) developed a proposal for the Council on Library Resources to fund a project with ARL to explore the applicability of the SERVQUAL instrument as a reliable diagnostic tool to measure customer criteria for service quality. If funded, Dr. Nitecki will undertake the project as a Visiting Program Officer.

Issues where VPO contributions would be particularly welcome in 1996-97 include:

• workshops on analytical, management, and electronic publishing of data sets (see Martha Kyrillidou);

• a clearinghouse of research available or underway about the cost of research library operations (see Jaia Barrett);

• assessment of guidelines on the fair use of digital images in educational settings (see Mary Jackson);

• development of a self study to assess library security procedures (see Duane Webster);

• development of a program to address technology training skills for librarians (see Duane Webster); and

• participation in the design and development of a clearinghouse of information on collaborative e-publishing projects (see Mary Case).

Directors who wish to propose staff as Visiting Program Officers or discuss other topics for VPO projects may contact G. Jaia Barrett, Director, Office of Research and Development.