Merrilee Proffitt
Program Officer, Member Initiatives
RLG

With generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, RLG began work in late 2001 looking at ways in which it could make the rich information held in the RLG Union Catalog available to a wider audience in a freely available Web environment. During the intervening time, we have learned volumes about what undergraduate users want from online information resources; how data mining software can uncover valuable new information hidden in the RLG Union Catalog; how to provide access to a wealth of complex information through a simple, easy-to-use interface; new opportunities for using bibliographic data to help end users find authoritative sources of research information; what is involved in the complicated process of transforming MARC records to XML; and incorporating concepts outlined in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), an emerging standard for distinguishing between various editions.

This presentation will feature an explanation of the history, motivations, “lessons learned,” and future directions of the project, a live demo of the pilot system, and outtakes of use studies.

Brian Lavoie
Research Scientist
OCLC, Inc.

Economics is fundamentally about incentives, so a study of the economics of digital preservation should begin with an examination of the incentives to preserve. Securing the long-term viability and accessibility of digital materials requires an appropriate allocation of incentives among key decision-makers in the digital preservation process. But the circumstances under which digital preservation takes place often lead to a misalignment of preservation objectives and incentives. Identifying circumstances in which insufficient incentives to preserve are likely to prevail, and how this can be remedied, are necessary first steps in developing economically sustainable digital preservation activities.

Ken Klingenstein
Project Manager, Internet2 Middleware Initiative, Chief Technologist
University of Colorado, Boulder

Shibboleth is an Internet2 initiative to develop and deploy a middleware interinstitutional authentication and authorization infrastructure. It has produced working open-source code that is being widely adopted by campuses and content providers as a new tool for access control. Shibboleth also raises an interesting set of issues, from alignment of content licenses with institutional middleware to role-based access control opportunities.

This session will provide an update on Shibboleth and invite discussion on the policy issues being exposed in its deployments.

Web Links:
http://shibboleth.internet2.edu

Ray Denenberg
Senior Networked Engineer
Library of Congress

Ralph LeVan
Senior Computing Analyst
OCLC, Inc.

The Search/Retrieve Web Service (SRW) is a protocol that combines many years of Z39.50 implementer experience with Web-service technology. Recognizing the importance of Z39.50 for business communication, SRW instead focuses on getting information to the user. It features both SOAP and URL-based access to accommodate a wide variety of possible clients, and defines the Common Query Language (CQL) providing a powerful, but intuitive means to formulate searches.

This session will provide an overview of SRW, including its history, status, and direction. In addition, implementor experience, toolkits, comparisons with similar protocols, and likely paths of evolution will be described.

Web Links:
http://www.loc.gov/srw

George Brett
Chief Information Architect, End-to-End Performance Initiative
Internet2

Elliot R. Siegel
Associate Director for Health Informaton Programs Development
National Library of Medicine

Frank W. Connolly
Partner
ConseQ Associates, LLP

“User Experience with the High Performance Internet Infrastructure” is a collaborative effort of the National Library of Medicine with the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development/Internet2 to better understand the use of the high performance Internet in the Health Care/Health Science community. The results of the pilot study will be used to: 1) inform the developers and the supporters of the infrastructure on the technological needs and challenges faced by the biomedical research and health care communities and 2) encourage these communities to capitalize on the effective uses of the high performance Internet, particularly among non-users. The pilot study currently is half way through a one-year life cycle. This session will inform the audience of the process of the pilot study and some observations so far.

Web Link
http://e2epi.internet2.edu

Handout:
User Experience with the High Performance Internet Infrastructure: A National Library of Medicine and Internet2 Collaborative Effort

Peggy Hoon
Scholarly Communication Librarian
North Carolina State University

Rodney Petersen
Director, IT Policy and Planning
University of Maryland

Now that the TEACH Act (Technology, Education, And Copyright Harmonization Act) is law, institutions are eager to take advantage of its new provisions. How did the TEACH Act change copyright law? What are the implications for distance education and Web-enhanced courses? What are the policy, educational, and technology requirements for an institution taking advantage of the Act?

This session will provide an overview of the TEACH Act and introduce The TEACH Toolkit, an online resource for understanding copyright and distance education. The Toolkit is a joint project of the North Carolina State University Libraries, Office of Legal Affairs, and Distance Education & Learning Technology Applications.

Mark Luker
Vice President
EDUCAUSE

In December of 2002, a Joint Committee representing higher education and the entertainment industry was formed to explore issues related to peer-to-peer file sharing on college and university campuses. This month, the Technology Task Force of that committee issued a Request for Information on available or planned technologies that might assist campuses trying to deal with such problems as bandwidth management and copyright infringement. The result of this RFI will be a knowledge base documenting the various responses. It is also anticipated that some campuses may wish to undertake pilot projects to test the products and services that respond to the RFI.

One of the organizations representing higher education on the Joint Committee and on the Task Force is EDUCAUSE, and at this session, speakers from EDUCAUSE will provide a question-and-answer opportunity to learn about these activities.

Marshall Breeding
Library Technology Officer
Vanderbilt University

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive has been recording the evening news on videotape since 1968 and is the world’s most extensive and complete archive of television news. The Archive currently makes its extensive collection available to researchers on site and through loans of videotapes. Given the rapidly approaching obsolescence of the videotape format on which the collection currently resides, the Archive faces the need to convert its collection and explore new business models. This presentation outlines the Archiveís plans for digitizing its collection, the challenges in finding a sustainable business model, and where the Archive stands regarding copyright issues.

The session will include a demonstration of the new database structure and search interface, the system for placing loan requests online, and the prototype of the streaming video delivery system.

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