IFLA Universal Dataflow and Telecommunications Core Programme

Archive - Historical Material

Programme Plan for 1996

Introduction

Because of the far-reaching effects of this new environment, many libraries, businesses, private and governmental organizations and institutions are devoting considerable resources to ensure that their own internal information infrastructures are in place—that the necessary skills, technology, policies, and procedures are in place to take advantage of this rapidly expanding environment.

Building upon its efforts in 1995 to improve personal and professional communication between IFLA HQ, its membership, and the international library community, UDT has been working toward the establishment of an information infrastructure for IFLA, providing enhanced communication and information exchange for the international library community. As part of its infrastructure building efforts, UDT continues to acquire and implement the necessary technology, to work to develop networked information services, and to assist in determining procedures and responsibilities for managing IFLA’s information infrastructure.

IFLANET, UDT’s well-regarded Web service providing information about IFLA and about trends and issues of concern to the library community as a whole, is a starting point for this effort. Robert Wedgeworth, in his presidential address last year in Havana, described his dream to create a "virtual IFLA" which would "act as a stimulant to national and local library activity". This virtual organization would be available to its members and to the wider international library community—not just once a year at a conference—but constantly at the touch of a few keys. This dream has come to fruition through the development of IFLANET.

When IFLANET was proposed by the UDT Core Programme in 1993, it was suggested that IFLA would be able to:

• send electronic mail among IFLA Headquarters and its regional offices thus improving administrative and organizational communications
  
• improve communication between regional offices and individual IFLA members
  
• create electronic conferences among special interest groups, organizational groups, and working groups
  
• distribute electronic newsletters and electronic journals
  
• provide remote access to electronic documents.

This idea is now a reality. IFLANET uses a combination of networking and communications technologies to provide IFLA with an unprecedented opportunity to deliver information services to members and non-members alike.

The first steps in developing IFLANET began last year with the formation of IFLA-L, an Internet mailing list that now has over 500 subscribers and is growing. Mailing lists have proved to be a popular means for special interest groups to communicate amongst themselves and to others. IFLANET will be expanding the use of Internet mailing lists to bring library and information professionals together in discussing issues such as "Digital Libraries". IFLA sections and roundtables are encouraged to use the IFLANET mailing facilities to better communicate with their constituents.

The discussion list IFLA-L has been supported thus far by SilverPlatter. The UDT Core Programme would like to gratefully acknowledge their support in the early stages of IFLANET. As of August 18, 1995, IFLA-L has been moved to the National Library of Canada’s servers, joining the IFLANET Web site. All IFLA electronic communications and information services are now supported by the National Library of Canada.

IFLANET began the full operation of a World Wide Web service in March 1995. Within a very short time, the IFLANET WWW service has become a primary resource for library and information science information on the Internet. Some examples of this success will illustrate the point:

• On an average week this past July, over 3000 documents were provided through the IFLANET service to over 800 users. And these numbers have been increasing each month as the service provides even more information to librarians and becomes more widely known. Over a four week period in July, over 5,300 visitors downloaded almost 20,000 documents from the IFLANET service. In the first two weeks of this month (August), over 3000 people have visited IFLANET, retrieving over 12,000 documents.

• Users from nearly every country in the world with electronic mail connectivity have been able to access IFLANET services and documents.

• Hundreds of items ranging from the UDT Newsletter or information about IFLA services to software or conference proceedings, are downloaded each week from IFLANET.

• IFLANET is providing specialized lists of resources of interest to librarians, including "electronic" resources on: Digital Libraries, Copyright and Intellectual Property, the G-7 Information Society projects, Electronic Text archives, Cataloguing of Electronic Documents, and many others.

• The IFLA services on the Internet are being regularly promoted in important electronic forums such as the Public Access Computing Systems List, the seminal list for librarians on the Internet with over 10,000 subscribers.

Work Plan for 1996

1. Making Connections

   The goal here is to educate and assist members around the world about the benefits and challenges of networking and other information technologies, while raising the profile of libraries and IFLA around the world.

2. Providing Essential and Current Content

   Exemplary electronic information services to the international library community will depend on the content that IFLA can provide—organizational information, research papers, conference proceedings, directories and current awareness services, and other types of electronic publications.

3. "Growing the Future"

   Sowing the seeds for a "virtual IFLA" through the development of sustainable electronic services, maintaining current awareness of technological and policy changes, and creating a fertile ground for the new services to members and non-members alike is an essential goal for IFLANET.

In the following year, it will be important to continue to build on the momentum we have achieved with the current IFLANET services. To continue this effort, work in the four areas outlined below will be undertaken.

System and service maintenance

To be valuable as an information service, IFLANET must be sustainable. This means the maintainence of the existing document service is critical—ensuring the electronic publications are kept current, accurate, and provide useful content to users, and that the management and future of the service is administratively supportable.

A significant amount of technical effort and expertise is required to maintain existing services and provide new ones.

Currently the IFLANET service is being maintained on an DEC Alpha UNIX computer. The World Wide Web service will be using the Netscape WebSite server which will provide for secure transactions. The software for the new mailing list service is L-Soft LISTSERV, the most common Internet list software. Document preparation is being undertaken on personal computers running Windows and a variety of proprietary and shareware Internet and WWW development tools.

The document and software collection being maintained under IFLANET now contains over 1000 titles, in addition to hundreds of links to external resources. To facilitate access to these documents, keyword indexes will be developed further.

Expanded Content Provision

Content is essential to the success of any information service. IFLA must build on its success in this area to provide more information about the work that it does, the concerns of its members, and the issues facing library institutions.

• Based upon initial responses from users, there is an expectation that IFLANET will expand its document provision to include materials from all parts of IFLA. The first example of this is the action of the Standing Committee Section on Information Technology in providing access to their Newsletter, papers, and project information. This effort will be continued and expanded to include all organizational units of IFLA. IFLANET will work in consultation with other organizational units to expand IFLA’s information services offerings to the worldwide library community.

• Defining the roles and responsibilities of IFLA HQ, Core Programmes, and other organizational units vis-a-vis the provision of IFLANET information services is a priority in the 1996 workplan.

• Guidelines and procedures for the submission of electronic materials will be developed.

• A significant number of users have requested membership and directory information. The feasibility of providing this information will be examined.

• The 1995 conference information was very popular and making this available in 1996 will be a priority. Ideas for next years conference include:
  • a larger multimedia display about the host country,
    
  • WWW registration forms,
    
  • an electronic exhibitor’s section,
    
  • electronic conference proceedings.

• Exhibits and Special Services are also being examined as a means for drawing visitors to IFLANET. Simple electronic services such as the library quotations are very popular. Among the projects being proposed for 1996 are:
  • A Tour of the World’s Great Libraries Electronic Exhibit
    
  • An Electronic Icon/Clipart Library for Libraries
    
  • Expansion of the Library Software collection
    
  • IFLA mirror of the free electronic text Gutenberg archive
    
  • Digital Libraries Research and Projects Directory
    
  • Internet Training Materials of Interest to Libarians

Projects may be undertaken in partnership with other sections of IFLA.

Publications

The UDT Core Programme has initiated a series of electronic Occasional Papers to address current technological developments. The first of these included papers on networking in Russia, document management systems, and the Z39.50 standard. This series will be continued and papers will be solicited from interested parties. These are intended to be “educational” in scope.

The UDT Newsletter is to be replaced with a monthly electronic UDT Digest which will be distributed through electronic mail and through the IFLANET WWW service. This new electronic publication will allow us to distribute current and fast-breaking news about technological and information policy developments of general interest to the library community. The use of IFLANET for this purpose represents a quantum leap beyond paper in the ability to disseminate information. It is globally accessible, highly current, and has capabilities that go far beyond paper. The flurry of activity and discussion surrounding the future of libraries in the emerging global information infrastructure just cannot be adequately captured in a paper newsletter three times yearly. IFLANET represents a much more powerful publishing tool that provides the ability to bring together more information more rapidly to its users than was ever possible on paper.

The UDT Core Programme is developing series of papers relating to Visions and Issues of the Digital Library. The first of this series is a paper by Professor Luciano Floridi, (Oxford University) entitled Internet: Which Future for Organized Knowledge, Frankenstein or Pygmalion? This effort will be expanded throughout the year to include statements of interest to the profession in this critical area of development.

Communications

• IFLANET is expanding its communications services to include new forums for the discussion of issues of interest to librarians and information professionals. A decision has been made to moderate the IFLA-L mailing list which will add some overhead to the current list but reduce some of the frustrations list users often have over extraneous messages.

• New IFLA lists include DIGLIB and LIBJOBS. Neither of these currently exist on the Internet.

• Digital Libraries research and development is expanding dramatically. IFLANET will be maintaining a moderated Internet mailing list, DIGLIB, to facilitate the transfer of information about projects and current research.

• LIBJOBS, is a list which will provide a moderated, employment listing service for library and information professionals around the world..

• IFLANET will encourage and assist special interest groups within IFLA to exploit the advantages of electronic communications in bringing communities of special interests together for information sharing.

• IFLANET will be providing "hypermail" WWW access to archives of IFLA lists and to simplify the means for contacting the lists.

• Features such as user surveys and the creation of an IFLANET electronic "guestbook" will allow IFLA to better respond to the needs of its real and "potential" members.

• IFLANET will continue to provide users with low-level connectivity, the ability to deliver IFLANET documents through electronic mail, for example by means of the AGORA service of the W3 Consortia in Switzerland. Means for expanding delivery mechanisms, including fax-on-demand, print-on-demand, or MIME-based services, will be explored for technical and economic feasibility. IFLANET will be exploring offering a WWW-to-email gateway (AGORA) and FTP-mail services on the IFLANET system.

Conclusion

(Prepared August, 1995)