Section on Information Technology

Annual Report 1994-1995

Leigh Swain (Information Technology Services, National Library of Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A OA4, Canada (fax: +(1-819) 9946835; e-mail: leigh.swain@nlc.bnc.ca)) is Chair of the Section on Information Technology, succeeding Ms Sally McCallum (USA). Alex C. Klugkist (University Library, State University Groningen, POB 559, 9700 AN Groningen, Netherlands (fax: +(31-50) 3634996; e-mail: a.c.klugkist@ub.rug.nl)) is Secretary, succeeding Christian Lupovici (France).

Standing Committee and Section Membership

In mid-1995, Section membership was 319, with 20 representatives of the membership from 13 countries constituting the Standing Committee. Five new members were welcomed to Standing Committee meetings in Istanbul, which were attended by approximately 65% of its members; a number of observers also participated.

Projects Completed

Russian Network Report

Yakov Schraiberg (Russia), project leader, completed a report comprised of three articles that were published together as No. 1, Information and Networking in Russian Libraries, in the new series, UDT Occasional Papers. The first article, "The First Russian Computerized Library Network - A Description and Perspectives of the LIBNET Project" is about the Russian network project, and the second paper "The Current State and Prospects of Online Systems in Russian Libraries" reviews progress in automation by several library groups in Russia. The final paper treats the application of optical character recognition technologies to Cyrillic. The papers are also available on IFLANET.

Multimedia Software

Standing Committee member Jan van der Starre (Netherlands) was project leader for a feasibility study for preparing a guide to multimedia software. The study report indicated that the task of putting together a comprehensive list was not feasible for a single institution or committee such as Information Technology, but should be pursued by a commercial establishment, a network of information providers, or informally on an electronic vehicle such as IFLANET. The project report with a sampling of guide entries is available on IFLANET.

Feasibility of Standards for Graphical User Interface Icons

Bruce Royan (UK) and Ms Wilda Newman (USA) carried out a study to ascertain the feasibility and scope of a major project to define universal prompt icons for bibliographic functions. These icons would be used in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for information retrieval and online public access systems employing universal prompt symbols that are script and language independent. The report recommended that a project for design and testing of icons be undertaken by the Section. The report is available on IFLANET.

Database of Multiscript Systems

Monica Ertel (USA) completed a project to build a listing of vendor systems that could handle multiple scripts, and made it available on an IFLANET. Mapping from International Character Sets. The Standing Committee abandoned a project to create a mapping from currently used national and international character sets to the new Universal Character Set (ISO 10646). There is work taking place in European and North America on this topic and the results of those investigations will instead be made available to the IFLA community when they are available, if possible.

Continuing Projects

Electronic Library Study

A large two-year project to document the trends associated with increasing reliance on sources in electronic form is in progress led by Standing Committee member Michael Malinconico (USA). The project is surveying university and national libraries to determine the extent to which they have begun replacing or complementing print with electronic sources, including document delivery services. A preliminary report was presented at the Istanbul open session (see abstract below).

Other Projects

The Standing Committee is working jointly with the Section on Classification and Indexing on an exchange format for classification schedule data. Requirements for an international format are being discussed in a joint committee for the format work, chaired by Joan Mitchell (USA), the editor of the Dewey Decimal Classification. Information Technology is represented by Sten Hedberg (Sweden) on a joint project with the Section on Cataloging to revise the ISBD(CF). In Istanbul, the Standing Committee recommended that the draft revision developed by the task group be circulated for worldwide review. Led by Standing Committee member Xavier Agenjo (Spain), progress was made on a project to develop a holdings format with the completion of a preliminary draft.

New Projects

Two new projects were approved by the Standing Committee for 1995. The first is Phase 1 of the follow-on to the feasibility study on the development of GUI icons (see above). This phase will develop some test icons and establish an electronic mechanism for reviewing the draft icons. Funding is being sought for Phase 2, a larger project that would develop a full set, conduct review and revision, draft a standard for the icons, and provide for easy downloading of symbols. The project leaders are the same as for the feasibility project for this topic (see above). The second project is to develop an Internet instructional package to help IFLA members connect to and use the Internet. Jon-Erik Nordstrand (Sweden) and Monica Ertel will undertake this project.

Publications

Standing Committee activities produced a report on networking in Russia, published by the UDT Core Programme (described above). In addition two papers from the IT open session in Havana were published in IFLA Journal. Two issues of the Section newsletter, IT Review (No.24 and No.25), were distributed during the year. Reflecting decisions taken at the Standing Committee meeting in Havana, the scope of the newsletter was narrowed to focus (Section activities, programmes, publications, and projects, with the expectation that longer reports and general information on networking and automation will be carried in the UDT Newsletter. The Standing Committee published its new brochure describing the Section in English, French, Spanish, and Russian.
The Standing Committee developed a homepage for the Section on IFLANET. Information about the Section, issues of IT Review, project reports, and selected papers from the conference sessions are being posted there. (http://www.ifla.org/general/sit.htm)

Istanbul Meetings

Workshop

"The Internet and the World Wide Web" was the topic of a workshop presented in Istanbul, organized jointly with the UDT Core Programme. It was planned as a follow-on to the successful workshop on Internet Basics that IT and UDT sponsored in Havana. The focused on two important developments in the Internet environment, the World Wide Web and its simpler partner, Gopher. Topics were presented by Leigh Swain ("Overview of the Internet and WWW"); Steve Cisler (USA) ("Using Gopher and WWW Navigation"); and Gary Cleveland (Canada) ("Constructing the Web Site").

Open Session

"Electronic Publishing: Technology and Use" was the theme of the Information Technology open session, organized jointly with the Section on Serial Publications. It included four papers selected to show the extent to which the world of electronic publishing has arrived and what the effect is on publishers, users and library management. The following papers were presented:

The Use of Electronic Documents in Libraries
by S. MICHAEL MALINCONICO and JANE WARTH

Abstract:
Libraries are finding it increasingly difficult to acquire and make available to their users the full range of information in print form they require. At the same time electronic information products and services are appearing at a rapidly increasing rate. Users find them attractive and use them more heavily than print sources. Consequently, libraries in response to the demands of their users, and overwhelmed by the problems posed by print publications, are increasingly making electronic sources available. this paper describes the nature of the problems posed by print publications and trends involving the use of electronic documents in libraries. It discusses the viability of electronic documents as alternatives to print collections. It also describes a study that the IFLA Section on Information Technology has undertaken to assess how rapidly libraries are adopting alternatives to locally held print sources.

Normes et Édition Électronique
by CATHARINE LUPOVICI

Abstract:
Standardization in information technology and information processing has been very active during the last five years to support multimedia applications in electronic publishing or on the global network. This standardization covers information content (text, still image, graphic, sound and video) as well as information structure and presentation.

Towards Electronic Journal Articles: The Publishers' Technical Point of View: Implementation of Elsevier Science Electronic Subscriptions (EES) at the University of Tilburg: A Case History
by CHRISTIAAN C.P. KLUITERS

Abstract:
In this paper the implementation of Elsevier Science Electronic Subscriptions at Tilburg University in the Netherlands is taken as a case reference point. The papers discusses the most important technical standards/formats involved. The paper does not consider the broad range of organizational and operational changes needed to build an electronic library. Starting with the delivery of 1200 printed journal titles to external production, or document imaging processing, facilities, via an (internal) validation procedure, to a customized CD manufacturing for, in principle, every library customer. The paper briefly considers the technical disclosure and dissemination solutions as well.

The Use of Electronic Documents in an Academic Environment
by M.W. COLLIER and R.J. ADAMS

Abstract:
The paper describes electronic library work in progress at De Montfort University with particular emphasis on the use of electronic documents and also places it in the national and international context.

Latest Revision: October 9, 1995