IFLA Universal Dataflow and Telecommunications Core Programme

Archive - Historical Material

1995 Annual Report

Introduction

The UDT Programme Plan for 1995 continued to follow the goals and objectives set out in the 1992-1997 Medium-Term Plan and IFLA's Long-Term Policy. The UDT Core Programme remains the focal point for the promotion of the international and national exchange of electronic data and works to provide the library community with pragmatic approaches to electronic communications and resource sharing. The 1995 Work Plan reflected a recognition of the potential impact of information technology and telecommunications on the nature and breadth of library services. This focus is in line with IFLA's Long-Term Policy to influence the development and application of information and telecommunications technologies in order to assist librarians in providing services responsive to the changing needs of library users.

This trend towards increased use of informatics technologies in libraries will continue in 1996. Dialogue and cooperation with the other IFLA sections, divisions, round tables and core programmes remains a priority.

IFLA HQ and Electronic Communications

In 1995, the UDT Core Programme continued to provide IFLA HQ with consultative support on the use of the services available over the Internet in order to improve personal and professional communications between IFLA HQ and its membership and among members of the international library community.

Developing the electronic services of IFLANET were a primary focus of the UDT Core Programme. Remote maintenance of a substantial document collection, as well as the development of future services, was more effectively implemented on facilities closer to the UDT staff. Consequently, services supported initially by SilverPlatter Information Inc. (U.S.A) in the provision of FTP and listserv mailing lists, were migrated to a server provided for IFLANET use by the National Library of Canada.

Internet mailing lists have proved themselves an important and popular means for special interest groups to communicate amongst themselves and with others. Electronic mail access to IFLA personnel, services and information is the cornerstone of IFLANET. IFLA-L, the mailing list devoted to IFLA communications and the general exchange of information among international librarians, was first initiated at the 1994 IFLA conference in Cuba and proved to be a great success. IFLA-L now has over 600 subscribers. Other IFLANET moderated lists include:

LIBJOBS-a mailing list being used by almost 2300 subscribers to locate employment opportunities in library and information science;
DIGLIB-where over 1300 subscribers share information about digital library research and developments.

The DIGLIB and LIBJOBS lists are among the most heavily subscribed to lists on the Internet.

Other IFLANET-supported mailing lists assist in facilitating communications between specialized groups within IFLA. IFLANET continues to utilize electronic mail communications to distribute organizational information and to facilitate resource-sharing.

The UDT Core Programme has prepared guidelines and provided training materials to IFLA members who wanted to provide content on IFLANET. The UDT Core Programme continued its efforts to encourage sections and roundtables to use the IFLANET mailing facilities to better communicate with their constituents.

IFLANET WWW Services

UDT began began the full operation of an IFLANET World Wide Web service in March 1995. Within a very short time, the IFLANET WWW service became a primary resource for library and information science on the Internet. Some recent IFLANET statistics are an indicator of the continuing popularity of the service:

In an average week, almost 10,000 documents are now provided through the IFLANET service to over 4500 users. These numbers continue to increase each month as the service provides even more information to librarians and becomes more widely known. These documents include newsletters, technical reports, bibliographies, organizational information, conference proceedings, and software.
In the period October 1, 1995 to March 30, 1996 (182 days) there were:
- 231,285 documents served (text, HTML, software)
- 71,217 distinct hosts used the service.
- An average of 1,271 requests per day.
- There were over 1,751 distinct files on IFLANET.
- Total data transferred: 6,533 Mbytes
- Average data transferred per day: 31,132 kbytes
Users from nearly every country in the world with electronic mail connectivity have been able to access IFLANET services and documents. Individuals in over 80 countries regularly access the IFLANET WWW services, including:
Thousands of items ranging from the UDT Newsletter or information about IFLA services to software or conference proceedings, are downloaded each week from IFLANET. For comparison, 49 copies of the UDT report #8 were sold last year. Within the first 3 months of 1996, over 40 copies were downloaded. The availability of the electronic version was not even announced at that time.
IFLANET is providing very popular, specialized lists of resources to librarians on topics such as:
- digital libraries
- metadata resources
- electronic text archives
- copyright and intellectual property
- global information infrastructure projects
- information policy, electronic text archives
- cataloguing of electronic documents
- resource-sharing and interlibrary loan
- various WWW and Internet training materials
- library-related quotations
The IFLA profile on the Internet is being regularly promoted in important electronic forums such as the Public Access Computing Systems List, one of the seminal lists for librarians on the Internet with over 10,000 subscribers.

The UDT Core Programme promoted the profile of the IFLANET WWW service through an active process of announcing IFLA publications on-line, through the development of paper-based promotional materials, and through the creation of electronic resources that have a high degree of interest to the library community-at-large.

IFLANET Planning

The UDT Programme was very active in planning for future IFLANET development. This planning is essential in order to extend the reach of IFLANET services into new areas and to accommodate the growth of the service. This planning and administrative operation has included:

The establishment of a variety of guidelines and training materials for IFLANET content providers.
The development of roles and responsibilities for IFLANET technical services.
Providing training and technical support for IFLA HQ and members.
Examine mechanisms for the effective administration and delivery of IFLA directory information.
Exploration of various technical means for the alternative delivery of electronic documents through email gateways, FAX services, CD-ROM development, diskette distribution, and print-on-demand.

Publications

UDT Newsletter

Three issues of the UDT Newsletter were published in English, French and Spanish in 1995. The "Update" section of the newsletter reported on the activities and projects of the UDT Core Programme. The "Focus" section contained tutorial articles on various aspects of information and data communications technologies with an emphasis the tools and technologies that can be used to access the various resources available on the Internet.

UDT Series on Data Communication Technologies and Standards for Libraries

Seven reports in the UDT Series on Data Communication Technologies and Standards for Libraries were distributed by the International Office for UDT. Interest in these publications continued to be strong and we will continue to print additional copies of the reports and distribute them as required. Efforts to market the publications in library and information technology publications and at conferences will continue.

7 copies of Research Networks and Libraries: Applications and Issues for a Global Information Network: 1991 (Report #1)
10 copies of Electronic Document Delivery: Converging Standards and Technologies: 1991 (Report #2 )
8 copies of OSI for Libraries: From Standards to Services: 1992 (Report #3)
29 copies of Electronic Data Interchange: An Overview of EDI Standards for Libraries: 1993 (Report #4
11 copies of Packet Radio: Applications for Libraries in Developing Countries: 1993 (Report #5).
47 copies of Models for Open System Protocol Development: A Technical Report: 1994 (Report #6).
49 copies of Interlending in the Emerging Networked Environment: Implications for the ILL Protocol Standard: 1995 (Report #8).

UDT Occasional Papers

In 1995, the UDT Core Programme initiated a very successful electronic series of occasional papers dealing with different aspects of information technology. The first of these papers included:

Information and Networking Technologies in Russian Libraries.
Overview of Document Management Technology.
(Gary Cleveland, National Library of Canada)
An Overview of the Z39.50 Information Retrieval Standard.
(Fay Turner, National Library of Canada)

As a point of reference, over 2000 electronic copies of OP #2 and over 1900 copies of OP #3 have been downloaded as of the March 1996.

Workshops / Conferences

A one-day workshop in August, entitled "The Internet and the World Wide Web" was held by the UDT Core Programme in conjunction with the IFLA Section on Information Technology, the Section on Social Science Libraries and the Section on Science and Technology Libraries. Focusing on Internet and Web applications for the international library community, the workshop provided approximately 150 participants with introductory information on the use of the Internet, gopher and Web, as well as practical information about how to develop a Web site. Handouts and a diskette were distributed.

Overview and Evaluation

Developing and promoting IFLANET electronic services was the focus of the UDT Core Programme in 1995. The service was established and numerous lessons learned through its development. Among these lessons were:

the importance of promotion in the development of electronic services,
the diverse technical and human requirements and challenges in developing and maintaining a large, dynamic and accessible document collection,
the Internet's substantial ability to reach a broad range of people and to deliver services in new ways,
a recognition of the need to continue to explore and develop alternative mechanisms for information delivery.

(Prepared by: Leigh Swain, April 1996)

Latest Revision: April 26, 1996