Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory, Vol. 14, pp. 359-370, 1990 036&6408/90 $3.00 + .OO

Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright 0 1990 Pergamon Press plc

INTEGRATING ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING INTO THE CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES OF COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT

A SUMMARY OF THE INSTITUTE ON COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT FOR THE ELECTRONIC LIBRARY

ROBERT M. HAYES

Graduate School of Library and Information Science

University of California, Los Angeles

405 Hilgard Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90024-1520

We now come to the conclusion of this superb program, during which I will try to summa- rize what you have yourselves seen and heard. I will review the kaleidoscopic array of presen- tations. Before proceeding, though, I want to pay special tribute to Jan Olsen and Sam Demas for the planning and conduct of a program that I think will be regarded, in future years, as a milestone event. I congratulate them, the speakers and workshop discussants, and you the participants for a highly successful Institute, and I hope you will join me in applauding what has been accomplished.

In Figures 1 and 2, I have listed in order of presentation the several plenary session talks, from the exciting view of the developing National Research and Education Network presented by Robert Kahn, on Sunday night, through those on Wednesday morning. In each, I have pro- vided a brief description of what I interpreted as the substance of the talk (which in some cases was different from the nominal title). Speaking personally, without diminishing the value of each of them, I was especially excited by the presentations by Dennis Egan (on Super Book), Maurice Glicksman (who, as always, provided a perspective of great importance), Peter Gra- ham (who spoke with such passion and fervor of the vital role of the library in preservation of the record), and Fred Weingarten (who gave us remarkable insights into the political pro- cess in network development).

And in Figure 2, I have listed the participants in this morning’s plenary session. Unfortu- nately, since I had to devote the early part of this morning to preparation of these figures, I missed the comments by Peter Young and Malcolm Getz. But I have had the pleasure of hear- ing those by the representatives of the electronic publishing community, which were of excep- tional importance and value. Rarely have I seen such open discussion of the issues in pricing. The uncertainties faced by libraries, as we move into the world of electronic publishing, ob- viously are paralleled by those of the publishers. Clearly there is not only a willingness on their part to work with the library community in identifying the most appropriate mix of pricing mechanisms but even a necessity to do so.

Alternating with those plenary sessions were the several working groups focused on the is-

359

R. M. HAYES

PLENARY SESSION SPEAKERS -- I l Sunday Night

Robert Kahn Networks and the National Knowledge Bank

l Monday Morning

Jan Olsen Developing the Electronic Library -- An Overview

Dennis Egan “Super Book” -- The Enhanced lnteiface

Rowland Brown The Societal & Institutional Context

Maurice Glicksman Scholarship & Electronic Communication

Peter Graham Technical Services & Intellectual Preservation

l Tuesday Morning

Fred Weingarten The Political Process in Network Development

Brian Kahin The Modeb for Pricing

Steve Metalitz The Interests of the Information Industry

Ward Shaw The Interests of the Network Entrepreneur

Figure 1.

PLENARY SESSION SPEAKER.S -- II

Pricing Policies & Financing of

Electronic Information Resources

l Wednesday Morning

Malcolm Getz

Peter Young

Robert Badger

Dick Carney

Richard Farr

Chris Pooley

Vanderbilt University

The Faxon Institute

Springer Verlag

Information Access Company

Silver Platter

University Microfilms

Figure 2.

Collection Development for the Electronic Library 361

sues of tactical and operational importance. In my view, these were the most valuable com- ponents of this Institute. They provided forums in which the most critical problems could be identified and discussed, in which approaches to solution of them could be explored, in which real experiences could be shared. It was most gratifying to me to see the depth of knowledge that was exhibited during the workshop discussions. Clearly, the profession is now at a high level of maturity and sophistication with respect to the issues in library management of elec- tronic publishing.

I think we owe a special debt of gratitude to the discussants, who are listed on Figure 3 with the workshop that they each participated in; they provided the framework for the discussion and served as excellent leaders.

So that was the sequence of the Institute as it occurred. I want now to provide a sche- matic for putting this kaleidoscopic array of content into a structure that will emphasize the interrelationships.

This schematic relates the scholar (in the first column) as both user of information resources and creator of them, to the personal means of access (the terminal or work station), to the local resources and mechanisms, to the larger scale national resources and mechanisms, and finally to the major libraries and distributors of information (in the fifth column). The arrows penned onto Figure 4 are intended to illustrate the patterns of data flow that reflect the oper- ational modes in this schematic.

I found this valuable to me as means for relating the several talks and workshops, and I have shown at the top of the schematic the areas in which each of them made the most sig-

WORKSHOP SESSIONS

TCi’iC OiSOUSSSntS

SELEXTlCX’4 CRITERIA

LEGAL & ETHCAL ISSUES

LOCAL vs. REMOTE ACCESS

COLLECTION F’OLICIES

MANAGEMENT ISSUES & STFIATEGIES

FlNANClffi ACCESS

Kathy Ctiang

Brian Kahin

Howard Cutis

Tony Ferguson

Sam Demas

Gene Wiemers

Peggy Sejdu1

Emily Fayen

Ross AtkInson

Carl Deal

3ria1-1 Sweet

Figure 3.

362 R. M.HAYES

SCHEMATIC OF SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Olsen Gliiksman Graham

Y Scholar as User

k\

Scholar as Creator l

Kahn Egan

Glickman

* work

Station 4- A

Olsen Graham

Chiang Demas, Atkinson

Ferguson Wiemers, Deal Kahin, Seiden

Curtis, Fayen, Sweet

\ Local

Resources

Local * Network *

Local /‘Dist~bution

Figure 4.

Kahn Olsen Brown

Weinga~en

National Resources * /

c, National

-Network Access* -

National rc Dist~bution

Metalitz Shaw

Getz, Young

Badger, Carney Farr, Pooley

Major Libraries

_ Data Base Producers

- Publishers

Issues in Usage of Resources

* The Needs of the User

l integrity of the Intellectual Heritage

Issues in Electronic Access

l The Hardware & Software Interface

l Network Structure & Protocol

Issues in Collection Development

l The Forms of Data

l The Functions in Collection Management

Figure 5.

Collection Development for the Electronic Library 363

The Process of Development

l Time Scale for Strategic Planning

* The Dynamics among the Participants

The Process of Management

l Levels of Management Responsibility

l Justification for commitment of Resources

Figure 6.

USAGE OF RESOURCES -I* I

* InteJJectua~ Praperty Rights

To Support Instruction & Research

Jn Recognition of First Discovery

As

For

TO

* Kinds

one Basis for Academic Advancement . Return of and an Capital II

Encourage Distribution

of Usage & Related Needs

I instruction

Scholarly Research

Creative Devefopment

nvestment

fur Access

Figure “7.

364 R. M. HAYES

nificant contributions. Of course, many of them cut across the entire set of functions, and you may have different views of the areas of significance but I hope you find this structure of some value.

I turn now to the identification of what I have called “Crosscutting Issues”-those consid- erations that are significant in design, operation, and management of the systems to support electronic publication and the related responsibilities of libraries. Figure 5 identifies those is- sues that appear to be primarily what Sam Demas so excellently called “operational” and “tac- tical issues”- the ones that must be dealt with on a day-to-day basis.

And Figure 6 identifies those that are essentially of strategic importance, relating not to day- to-day operation but to long-range ptanning and management responsibilities.

In the following succession of figures, I will try to be more specific about each of the is- sues identified in Figures 5 and 6. In most cases, the items listed are derived from the lectures and workshop discussions, but I must confess that in some cases my own perceptions prob- ably have intruded.

I will not try to comment in detait on each of the items: there isn’t the time to do so and you can provide your own gloss on each of them. There are some aspects in each case, though, on which I do want to comment.

For example, here I want to comment on the significance of intellectual property rights. In virtually every comment I heard during this meeting, the focus was on the economic aspects

USAGE OF RESOURCES -- II

l Preservation of the Intellectual Heritage

Loss of Ephemeral Electronic Information

Loss of Trace of Intellectual Development

Loss of Low Demand Material

Updating of Current Electronic Records

Fraudulent Change of Electronic Data

Potential Loss of Integrity of Reference

Loss of the “Canonical Text”

Anti-Historical Potential

Increasing Fragility of Information

Figure 8.

Collection Development for the Electronic Library 365

THE INTERFACE IN ~N~ORMAT~~N ACCESS

l Mediation

In Use of Tools for Access & Processing

In Use of Retrieved Data

In Creation of Personal Data Fites

In Management of Personal Data Files

* Software

Linkage of Records

Enhancements to Means for Access

Structural Perspectives

0 Hardware

Processing Capacity

Display Capabilities

Communication Facilities

Figure 9.

THE NETWORK FOR INFORMATION ACCESS

l Network Structure and Access Addressing

* Knowledge Couriers

l Standards

* Governance

* Funding

Figure 10.

366 R. M. HAYES

of those rights, the ones reflecting the need to provide economic return on capital investments in creating information packages and distributing them. I recognize the importance of the eco- nomic aspects, but I do want to have us recognize that they are by no means the entire sig- nificance of intellectual property rights. In fact, the basis for copyright and patent legislation in the Constitution states, “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. ” It thus clearly, as my emphasis is intended to highlight, gives the use of infor- mation at least the same importance that it does the economic return. Beyond those rights, though, are others that have even more significance to the scholar, and I’ve tried to hint at

them in Figure 7. In Figure 8, I have focused on what I regard as the most crucial responsibility of the ma-

jor research library-preservation of the intellectual heritage. I am personally grateful for the passion and fervor with which Peter Graham and Ross Atkinson crusaded for this responsi- bility during the Institute.

The importance of the librarian as still the predominant means for mediation is evident. Im- plicit in those I have listed on Figure 9 but worthy of special emphasis is that of training.

And the network for information access has of course been one of the primary themes of the Institute (Figure 10).

THE FORMS OF DATA

l Bibliographic Data Bases

Catalogs & Union Catalogs

Indexes & Abstracts

l Numeric Data Bases

Demographic & Sociometric Data

Economic & Financial Data

Scientific & Technical Data

l Full Text Files

Structured & Formatted Text

Free Text

l Digitized Image Files

FAX Communication

Scanned Conversion

Algorithmic Production (CAD/CAM, e.g.1

Observation of Natural Processes

Figure 11.

Collection Development for the Electronic Library 367

In her comments at the opening of the Institute, Jan Olsen listed the several categories of data forms. Among them, she identified “other” but the examples she gave were all in the cat- egory that I here describe as “Digitized Image Files.” In my view, this is a form of data of in- creasing importance to scholarship, in both instruction and research. The crucial point to me is the problem of magnitude, especially for those files of digitized images arising from the ob- servations of natural processes-scanning of the human body, pictures of the world taken from satellites, monitoring of events in high-energy physics experiments. While these proba- bly do not represent operational problems for most academic research libraries, being so tied to the needs of specific investigators, they do represent immense technical problems to which the tools and experience of the librarian are applicable (Figure 11).

The functions in collection management were, of course, the primary concern in the set of workshops, representing the operational responsibilities in selection, acquisition, cataloging, and access (Figure 12).

In Figure 13, I try to list some of the issues with which strategic planning should be con- cerned. Among them, in my view, the most important is the first -Institutional Readir,ess. The Iibrarian needs to determine the pace at which the university’s administration is prepared to deal with the impact of electronic pubIishing; there needs to be a conscious, planned effort to create the necessary awareness, to establish recognition of the programmatic needs, to as- sure the commitment of resources.

THE FUNCTIONS IN COLLECTION MANAGEMENT

l Identify Information of Vaiue

Relation to Programmatic Objectives

Assessment of Alternative Forms

Barriers to Availability

Acquisition

Preservation

l Organize the Information Acquired

Cataloging, Indexing, Abstracting

Access Allocation Decisions

l Access

Interfaces with Users

lnf~rmation Seeking “Couriers’

Relationship to Utilization

Figure 12.

368 R. M. HAYES

TIME SCALE FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

l lnslilulional Readiness

Relationshrp to Academic Goals

l Programmatic Needs

Coordination wilh Academic Requirements

l Equipment Capabilities

Time Cycle for Obsolescence

l Local Facilities

Telecomm, Computer, Space

l Publisher Commitments

Slralegies for Distribution

l Funding Availability

Sources, Means, Augmentalion

l Network Operations

Protocols, Standards, Services

l Governance Structures

Responsrveness to Specrfic Needs

l Pricing Stability

Allernafives. Funding Realities

Figure 13.

The other kinds of issues I’ve listed here are almost self-evident, and I am sure there are others that should have been included as well.

In national strategic planning, it is necessary to recognize that we face a complex set of in- teractions among a wide range of participants. An amoebalike jostling for position among them reflects the fact that each depends, for its own decisions, upon those being made by others. To some extent, the jockeying reflects competition; to some extent, mutual depen- dence. In this Institute, examples of such jockeying and jostling were repeatedly evident, but they were most clearly exhibited in the talks on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, in the dis- cussion by Weingarten of the political arena and those by the several publishers of the pric- ing arena (Figure 14).

Characterizing the dynamics and the various debates are differences in perception of the proper role of various means for decision-making. I was intrigued by the fact that Weingar- ten, in his talk, did not even mention the forces of the market place. I wondered, but only briefly, whether they would be recognized. But then, of course, Kahin, Metalitz, and Shaw focused all of their attention on that basis for decision-making (Figure 15).

I must say, as a personal aside, that I repeatedly experienced a feeling a deja vu during this Institute, and most evidently so during the Tuesday morning session when I saw, flashing be- fore my eyes, all of the debates I observed in the NCLIS Public Sector/Private Sector Task Force.

I conclude this summary with these efforts to identify the challenges, both to the man- agement of major academic research libraries and to the profession at large (Figure 16 and 17).

Collection Development for the Electronic Library 369

THE DYNAMICS AMONG PARTICIPANTS -- I

overnmenls

Figure 14.

THE DYNAMICS AMONG PARTICIPANTS -- II

l The Processes of Decision-Making

Forces of the Market Place

Political Negotiation

Managerial or Bureaucratic

Technical and Formulistic

l The Crucial Issues Public Sector/Private Sector

Science Community/Broad-scale Public

Wide Partjcipation/Narrow Participation

Industrial Policy/Market Determined

Content Oriented/Technology Oriented

Open Access/Restricted Access

Information as a Resource/as an Expense

Egalitarian Based/Money Based

Cooperation/Competition

Figure 15.

370 R. M. HAYES

I LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITY l Institutional Leadership

l Library Strategic Management

Relationship to Institutional Goals

Assessment of External Conditions

l Library Tactical

Policies

Allocation of

Management

Resources

l Library Operational Management

Professional Responsibilities

Figure 16.

THE CHALLENGE TO THE PROFESSION

The Tactical & Operational Challenges

l Meeting the Academic Needs

a Managing the Technologies

0 Managing the Information Resources

The Strategic Challenges

0 Relating to Academic Goals

l Planning for Electronic Information

0 Controlling the Process of Development

l Establishing a Political Agenda

l Gaining the Commitment of Resources

Figure 17.