CNI Program 1996–1997
July 1, 1996 – June 30, 1997
CNI is an organization for institutions concerned with realizing the promise of high performance networks and computers for the advancement of scholarly communication and publishing and the enrichment of intellectual productivity. The Coalition was formed in 1990 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and Educom. The Coalition pursues its mission with the guidance of a nine member steering committee and the aid of a 200 plus member task force made up of higher education institutions, publishers, network service providers, computer hardware, software, and systems companies, library networks and organizations, and public and state libraries.
Director’s Message
This is a time of tremendous progress in the networked environment, particularly for the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and the over two hundred members of its task force.
In this new fiscal year, we have set new goals and objectives to accomplish our most basic mission: promoting the creation and use of networked information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity.
CNI helps its members to see the innovative, even transformational potential of networked information resources and services, and it encourages and assists them to work together to explore and then realize that potential through various experiments and demonstration projects.
CNI, developed through the partnership of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and Educom, pursues its mission through its strong support of the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, its continuing collaboration with such organizations as The Commission on Preservation and Access and The Internet Society, the work it is now doing with its members and other partners in the United Kingdom to create an international context for networked information, and the workshops and other events it co-sponsors with various partners.
To better capture the essence of the ever accelerating networked environment and the breadth of our members’ interests, we are sharpening our focus to find new ways to accomplish our mission.
For the last eighteen months CNI has begun to promote the scholarly and intellectually productive uses of the Internet by offering workshops and undertaking studies that are carefully targeted on specific needs and issues that are impeding progress in the direction of more and better networked information resources and services.
Examples of this new strategy include CNI’s highly acclaimed New Learning Communities program, its well received Working Together workshops, the white papers that CNI is preparing on cost centers and measures in the networked information value-chain, networked information discovery and retrieval, and access to and services for Federal information in a networked environment, and CNI’s participation in the litigation that the Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition is pursuing to test the constitutionality of the Communication Decency Act provisions of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996.
We need your help to develop this new strategy and with two new initiatives that implement it. The first will provide a vehicle for a number of institutions and organizations to work together on assessing the academic networked environment, using the manual by Charles McClure and Cynthia Lopata that CNI recently published as a starting point. The second will provide an opportunity for a number of institutions and organizations to work together on enterprise-wide strategies in four key areas of networked information resource and service development: hardware and software infrastructures; budgets; policies and practices; and, managing staff and facilities.
We pride ourselves on CNI being a responsive, agile, and dynamic presence in our members’ lives. These are difficult characteristics to measure, but they speak to the high standards that we have set for ourselves.
I look forward to working with each and every one of our members on reinforcing the position of the Coalition and raising the performance of its program to new heights. This is indeed a time of continued progress, and for CNI members, we intend to make the most of it.
Paul Evan Peters
Executive Director
Program Focus
Goals and Objectives
Facilitate the transition to networked scholarly communication and publishing
Networks and networked information resources and services enable entirely new modes of communication and publishing that will transform scholarship for the better, but they must also perform all the functions required by the scholarly communication and publishing process.
- Identify and describe the functions performed by the key stakeholders (e.g., publishers and librarians) in the value-chain of relationships that link creators and users of scholarly information
- Analyze and disseminate what those stakeholders think about possible future changes in their roles and costs
- Guide the development of institutional policies and services regarding the acquisition of, access to, and preservation of Federal information
- Stimulate the enrichment of subject access to networked information resources and services
Promote institutional readiness and professional development, and foster cross-sector perspectives, communication, and collaboration
Institutional readiness factors need to be addressed and the perspectives and skills of information professionals need to be developed before the promise of networks and networked information can be fully realized. Partnership relationships among different types of institutions and information professionals are key to realizing this promise.
- Identify and offer guidance on enterprise-wide networked information issues in four areas: hardware and software infrastructures; budgets; policies and practices; and, managing staff and facilities
- Develop a methodology for assessing the impacts and value of networks and networked information resources and services in academic settings
- Provide opportunities for teams made up of different types of information professionals (e.g., librarians and information technologists) to learn how to work together effectively
- Provide guidance to collaborative teams of faculty, librarians, information technologists, students, and others who are implementing teaching and learning programs with a networked information component
Influence the development of advanced information technologies and services
The requirements of the scholarly communication and publishing process and the needs and capacities of creators and users of scholarly works must be brought to bear upon the digital library research and development process.
- Strengthen the foundation of research on and development of networked information discovery and retrieval technologies and services
- Promote the development of metadata schemes, practices, and systems that enable cross-disciplinary access to networked information resources and services
Activities
Enterprise-wide information strategies
Develop case studies of how enterprise-wide issues are manifesting themselves at a dozen or so institutions, profiling how those institutions are framing and addressing those issues, and suggesting how other institutions can assess their own needs and formulate their own strategies in this area.
Assessing the academic networked environment
Implement a field-test of McClure and Lopata’s Assessing the Academic Networked Environment: Strategies and Options by two groups of six research and non-research institutions, resulting in a handbook (made available on the Web as well as in print) to guide the assessment efforts of other institutions.
Information professionals working together
Convene open registration workshops and campus or regional workshops, that bring institutional teams of librarians and information technologists together to assist them with developing collaborative projects.
Networked, collaborating learning communities
Convene a workshop for newly formed teams, a half-day preconference for librarians at the Association of College and Research Libraries National Conference, and assist the development of a Web site on this topic.
Cost centers and measures in the networked information value-chain
Produce a white paper on the “life cycle” of the scholarly communication and publishing system that, among other things, identifies the cost centers that are expected to change most significantly and proposes ways to measure those changes over time.
Access to and services for federal information in the networked environment
Produce a white paper on developing and managing Federal information resources and services in a networked environment.
Subject access to networked information
Convene an invitational workshop for developers of Internet sites designed to facilitate subject access resulting in a list of best practices to guide the efforts of prospective developers of such sites.
Networked information discovery and retrieval
Produce a white paper that establishes a theoretical framework for considering the relationship between metadata structures and content, the organization of network objects, and networked information discovery and retrieval within a distributed environment.
Metadata for cross-disciplinary access
Convene an invitational workshop to promote convergence among alternative approaches to describing images and imagebases in networked environments, and formulate a strategy for developing widely accepted and used metadata standards to facilitate the planning of image creation and conversion projects and to enable the discovery of existing images that can be used in research, teaching, and learning activities.
Task Force meetings
Convene a fall and spring Task Force meeting to bring together representatives for a comprehensive update on critical issues and to provide an opportunity not only for representatives to receive briefings on current network topics, but to learn about specific networked information projects, and to provide suggestions on directions for Coalition initiatives:
- Fall Task Force Meeting: December 6-7, 1996, San Francisco, California
- Spring Task Force Meeting: April 1-2, 1997, Washington, D.C.
Regional conferences
Co-sponsor with CAUSE regional conferences to provide affordable, high quality professional development programs on networked information topics to a wide range of information professionals:
- Roanoke, Virginia: September 11-13, 1996, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- Newark, Delaware: May 21-23, 1997, University of Delaware
- London, England: June 1997, Joint Information Systems Committee, British Library, UK Office for Library Networking
Special events
Organize special events to foster partnerships among Coalition members, frame critical issues, analyze important trends, synthesize progress made on key initiatives, and disseminate the lessons and experiences of various projects.
Affiliations
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH)
NINCH is a broad coalition of arts, humanities and social science groups organized to assure the fullest possible participation of the cultural sector in the new digitally networked environment. CNI, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Getty Information Institute established the organization in 1996. See www.ninch.cni.org/ninch.html for more information.
The Internet Society
The Internet Society is a non-governmental international organization for global cooperation and coordination for the Internet and its internetworking technologies and applications. The Society’s individual and organizational members are bound by a common stake in maintaining the viability and global scaling of the Internet. They comprise the companies, government agencies, and foundations that have created the Internet and its technologies as well as innovative new entrepreneurial organizations contributing to maintain that dynamic. See www.isoc.org for more information.
Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)
CIMI consists of sixteen member organizations, including CNI, who have agreed to work to solve problems relating to the electronic interchange of museum information. By broadly disseminating the results of its work and inviting participation in its efforts, CIMI has become the focal point for museums’ efforts to find the most economic/effective means to electronically exchange their information. CIMI’s mission is to promote a standards based approach to the interchange of cultural heritage. See www.cimi.org.
National Humanities Alliance (NHA)
NHA is an organization created in 1981 to advance the cause of the humanities by promoting the common interest of its members with regard to national policy, programs, and legislation. The Alliance is the only organization representing the humanities as a whole including: scholarly and professional associations; museums, libraries, historical societies, state humanities councils; and university and independent centers for scholarship. Call 202.296.4994 for more information.
The Commission on Preservation and Access
Supported through sponsorships of colleges, universities, associations, libraries, archives, publishers, and allied organizations such as CNI, The Commission on Preservation and Access is a group seeking to foster, develop and support collaboration among libraries and allied organizations to ensure the preservation of the published and documentary record in all formats and to provide enduring access to that information. The Commission serves as a catalyst and convener of interested parties and as an advocate for collaborative and visionary solutions. See www.palimpsest.stanford.edu/cpa.
Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition
The Citizens Internet Empowerment Coalition is a large and diverse group of Internet users, businesses, nonprofit groups, and civil liberties advocates, who share the common goal of protecting the First Amendment and the viability of the Internet as a means of free expression, education, and commerce. CIEC members believe that parents, not the United States Government, are the best and most appropriate judges of what material is appropriate for themselves and their children. See www.cdt.org/ciec/index.html.
About CNI’s Sponsor Organizations
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is an organization of major research libraries in the United States and Canada dedicated to shaping and influencing forces affecting the future of research libraries in the process of scholarly communication.
CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education, works to enable the transformational changes occurring in higher education through the more effective management and use of information resources: technology, services, and information.
Educom is a nonprofit consortium of higher education institutions, which facilitates the introduction, use, and access to and management of information resources in teaching, learning, scholarship, and research.
Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
PH: 202.296.5098
FAX: 202.872.0884
info@cni.org
www.cni.org
Task Force Members
Charter members indicated in bold.
Academic Press, Inc.
Alliance of Library Service Networks
American Chemical Society
American Institute of Physics
American University
Ameritech Library Services
Apple Computer
Arizona State University
Association of College and Research Libraries
AT&T
B. H. Blackwell, Ltd.
Baruch College of the City University of New York
Boston College
Boston Public Library
Brigham Young University
British Library
Brown University
Bucknell University
California State University, Bakersfield
California State University, Office of the Chancellor
Canadian Heritage Information Network
CARL Corporation
Carnegie Mellon University
Case Western Reserve University
Center for Research Libraries
Chief Officers of State Library Agencies
Chronicle of Higher Education
CICNet, Inc.
City University of New York
College Center for Library Automation
Colorado State Library
Colorado State University
Columbia University
Commonwealth Libraries
Connecticut State Library
Cornell University
Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL)
Countway Library of Medicine
CTW Library Consortium
Dartmouth College
Data Research Associates, Inc.
Digital Equipment Corporation
Eastman Kodak
Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.
Emory University
Faxon Company, Inc.
Fielding Institute
Five Colleges, Inc.
Genealogical Society of Utah
George Mason University
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Getty Art History Information Project
Gettysburg College
Harvard University
IBM Higher Education
IBM T. J. Watson Research Library
IEEE Computer Society
Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization
Illinois State Library
Indiana University
Information Access Company
Institute for Scientific Information
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Intel Corporation
Inter-American Development Bank
Iowa State University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Johns Hopkins University
Joint Information Systems Committee
Kent State University
Lafayette College
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lehigh University
Library and Information Technology Association
Library of Congress
Library of Virginia
Louisiana State University
Loyola University Chicago
Lund University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mayo Foundation
McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Miami University of Ohio
Michigan State University
Mills College
Mississippi State University
MITRE Corporation
Morino Institute
National Agricultural Library
National Archives and Records Administration
National Association of College Stores
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Library of Australia
National Library of Canada
Naval Research Laboratory
New Mexico State University
New York Public Library – Research Libraries
New York State Library
New York University
North Carolina State University
North Dakota State University
Northeastern University
Northern Illinois University
Northwestern University
Oberlin Group of Liberal Arts Colleges
OCLC, Inc.
Ohio Public Library Information Network
Ohio State University
OhioLINK
Pennsylvania State University
Polytechnic University
Portland Area Library System (PORTALS)
Princeton University
Public Library Association
Queen’s University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Research Libraries Group, Inc.
Rice University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers University
Silver Platter Information
Smithsonian Institution
Society of American Archivists
Sonoma State University
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Southern Methodist University
Special Libraries Association
St. Lawrence University
Stanford University
State University of New York at Albany
State University of New York at Binghamton
State University of New York at Buffalo
State University of New York, Central Administration
State University System of Florida
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Syracuse University
Temple University
Texas A & M University
Triangle Research Libraries Network
UMI
UnCover Company
Union College
University of Alabama
University of Arizona
University of Arkansas
University of British Columbia
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Office of the President
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Francisco
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Cincinnati
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Connecticut
University of Dayton
University of Delaware
University of Denver
University of Georgia
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Houston
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Iowa
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky
University of Louisville
University of Manitoba
University of Maryland at College Park
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Mississippi
University of Missouri at Columbia
University of Missouri System
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
University of New Mexico
University of North Carolina (System)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
University of Notre Dame
University of Oklahoma
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Rochester
University of South Carolina
University of Southern California
University of Tennessee
University of Texas at Arlington
University of Texas at Austin
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin at Madison
University System of Georgia
Urban Libraries Council
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
VTLS, Inc.
Washington Research Library Consortium
Washington State University
Washington University
Wayne State University
West Virginia University
WLN
Xerox Corporation
Yale University
