D-Lib Magazine
December 2002

Volume 8 Number 12

ISSN 1082-9873

In Brief

Report on a Panel on Information Management Technology Requirements

Contributed by:
Laurence Lannom
Director of Information Management Technology
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
<llannom@cnri.reston.va.us>

To better understand the information management technology requirements for applications of particular government interest, a panel study was conducted in 2001- 2002. Initiated by RIACS (Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science) and led by three co-chairs expert in different application areas, a panel was recruited with broad and diverse experience and knowledge of the field. To assure that the directions of the study were responsive to the long-term needs of the government, a steering committee of representatives from the three sponsoring agencies (DARPA, NASA, NSF) had continual interaction with the co-chairs and RIACS lead.

The study was conducted primarily �online�, with a kickoff meeting held at NASA Ames Research Center on 29-30 November 2001 and a wrap-up meeting held also at NASA Ames on 20-21 June 2002. A report on the results of the study was released in November 2002 and is available online at <http://eprints.riacs.edu/documents/data/00/00/00/90/index.html>.

The methodology used in the study was to look at three application areas that were felt to be of particular interest to the government:

• Mission Operations
• Scientific Data Management
• Digital Libraries

While there are certainly other application areas of interest to the government (e.g. logistics, government business operations), the panel felt that these three areas spanned the domain and hence could be used to characterize the nature of the requirements.

As the study proceeded through the panel discussions, it became clear that the differences in requirements between the application domains of government interest were more ones of priorities and importance, rather than the areas having significantly different requirements per se. A common thread is the need to interoperate with many diverse information resources, and hence to assure that future systems will be interoperable not only with past and current standards, but adaptable to resources that are not yet recognized. This was probably the major result of the study, and the driver for the recommendations.

It therefore became apparent that investments to improve the technology aimed at one of the application areas would most likely be valuable to the other areas as well. The panel concluded that it was desirable to have a coordinated program of R&D that pursues a science of information management focused on an environment typified by applications of government interest - highly distributed with very large amounts of data and a high degree of heterogeneity of sources, data, and users.

RIACS Director Barry Leiner, assisted by Linda Andrews, initiated and coordinated the study. The following individuals served on the panel that conducted the study and generated the report.

Panelist, Organization
Michael Buckland, UC Berkeley
Jeff Dozier UC Santa Barbara
Mike Folk, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Scott Fouse, ISX Corporation
James French, University of Virginia
Yolanda Gil, University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute
Sara Graves (co-chair), University of Alabama at Huntsville
James Hendler, DARPA/University of Maryland
Joseph JaJa, University of Maryland
Rao Kambhampati, Arizona State University
Craig Knoblock (co-chair), University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute
Carl Lagoze, Cornell University
Larry Lannom, (co-chair) Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Ronald Larsen, University of Maryland
Cliff Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information
Raj Reddy, Carnegie Mellon University
Steve Running, University of Montana
Katia Sycara, Carnegie Mellon University
Howard Wactlar, Carnegie Mellon University
Gio Wiederhold, Stanford University

The following served as a steering committee for the study:

Member, Organization
Jean Scholtz, DARPA
Yuri Gawdiak, NASA
Steve Griffin, NSF

DARE: A New Age in the Provision of Academic Information

Contributed by:
Lilian van der Vaart
Program Leader, DARE
SURF
Utrecht, The Netherlands
<vandervaart@surf.nl>

With the award of 2 million euros for the period 2003-2006, the Dutch government is giving a strong boost to innovation in the provision of academic information in the Netherlands. DARE (Digital Academic Repositories) is a collective initiative by the Dutch universities to make all their research results digitally accessible. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek [Royal Library], the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen [Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences] and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) [Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research] are also collaborating on this unique project. Coordination is being taken care of by the SURF Foundation, the ICT partnership organisation for higher education and research in the Netherlands.

DARE modernises the management of Dutch academic information by putting an infrastructure system in place and providing advanced services for the digital recording, accessing, storage and distribution of the Dutch academic output. This will greatly improve the visibility of and access to the academic output. DARE will follow open, international standards to ensure interoperability, nationally and internationally. All participating institutions will adopt the standards, while retaining their own responsibility in setting up and maintaining their own repositories.

Digital availability, based on open, international standards, simplifies the further use of the information for various purposes. Examples are publication in traditional or new journals (including electronic ones), long-term storage at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek [Royal Library], inclusion in the NWO's Open Sources system and incorporation in digital learning environments for the future.

In the present situation, the visibility of and access to Dutch academic research leave much to be desired. In the fast-changing world of academic research and communications, changes are needed if the Netherlands wants to maintain its position in the academic world. Linking up with international developments in this area, such as the Open Archives Initiative, is crucial. In DARE, all the parties concerned are combining forces in a national effort and existing smaller-scale projects are being brought together. In a preparatory workshop late November, 50 representatives from the participating institutions came together to discuss available systems, standards and solutions, as well as work still to be done to complete the set of specifications needed by the institutions to set up their repositories. Work was also started on a programme for involvement of and support by faculty; enhanced accessibility to their research will greatly benefit the public profile of Dutch scholars and their universities. For both topics, project teams were formed; they will begin their actual work in January 2003, the official starting-date of DARE.

SURF
SURF is the ICT collaboration organisation for higher education and research in the Netherlands. The universities and hogescholen (universities of professional education) collaborate in SURF regarding ICT developments in the areas of ICT and Research, Education and Organisation, and regarding the network infrastructure of SURFnet and the software licences of SURFdiensten.

Note:
A summary of DARE is currently available on the SURF website (http://www.surf.nl) under 'News'.

For further information, please contact:

SURF Foundation
Mrs. C.G.E. van Hattem, Communications Manager
Leidseveer 35
Postbus 2290
NL-3500 GG Utrecht
+31 (0)30 234 66 00
+31 (0)30 233 29 60
<http://www.surf.nl>
<vanhattem@surf.nl>

Interested in Institutional Web Portals?

Contributed by:
Paul Miller
PORTAL Project Manager & Interoperability Focus
UKOLN
United Kingdom
<p.miller@ukoln.ac.uk>

Everywhere we turn, people are now talking about portals to information of relevance to our students and staff. Institutional portals, Subject portals, a Scholar's portal, an Image portal, a Geospatial portal, and a host of corporate portals vie for attention, and institutions scrabble to develop a position in this newly �hot' area of endeavour.

In the UK, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is active in addressing this problem space, and several projects are also exploring portal-related issues, whether at the national (the Resource Discovery Network's Subject Portals Project) or institutional (PORTAL) level.

For those interested in keeping abreast of current work on portals relevant to Further and Higher Education (mainly in the UK), it would be worth joining the PORTALS list on JISCmail - <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/portals.html>.

A second list, JASIG-UK, has just been set up, and much of the discussion on it will relate to an increasingly popular Open Source portal, uPortal, as used by the PORTAL project and others.

A number of UK universities are now actively deploying uPortal, and many more are considering it as their institutional strategies take shape. An oversubscribed meeting held in Hull in November clearly demonstrated the degree of interest within the community, and those present called for effort in the UK to focus current activity, and assist the broader community in moving forwards.

uPortal is a product of the international Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG), whose North American meetings are currently the main source of information. The last meeting, held in Vancouver, is reported in issue 33 of Ariadne.

It was agreed at the meeting in Hull to form a UK version of this international group, and a mailing list for the UK JASIG has now been set up, with a web site under development.

If you are interested in UK issues around the deployment and use of uPortal, or a UK slant on any other JA-SIG activities, please join us on the new JASIG-UK list.

To subscribe, please visit <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/jasig-uk.html> and select 'Join or leave the list'.

JA-SIG's own lists, concerned with the international JA-SIG effort, are detailed at <http://mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportal/getinv.html>.

JISC Consultancy on Archiving of Licensed E-journals

Contributed by:
Maggie Jones
JISC Researcher
The University of Leeds
Leeds, United Kingdom
<libmjj@leeds.ac.uk>

The transition from purchasing print journals, which the library then owned forever, to licensing access to e-journals for a defined period of time has major implications for libraries and publishers. In terms of archiving responsibilities, there are no longer any clear-cut distinctions between who should be doing what. There is a lack of clarity regarding responsibilities and uncertainty about precisely what libraries are paying for when they license journals. This has meant that the transition from print to electronic has been more problematic than it might otherwise have been. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is now in its third phase of content activities relating to journals [1] and it has developed a model licence to help clarify roles and responsibilities. Since 1999, this licence has included clauses related to archiving, in which primary responsibility is given to the publisher for ensuring that satisfactory arrangements are made for continuing access to material already paid for, in the event of termination of the licence. Options are continued online access from the publishers' server, or a mutually acceptable archival copy delivered either to the Licensee or a central facility operated on behalf of Higher Education (HE). The central facility referred to in the licence does not yet exist.

JISC now feels it is time to explore that possibility further by funding a consultancy from May 2002 for one year. Maggie Jones took up the consultancy and has been undertaking preparatory work that will provide the basis for an implementation plan and timetable aimed at significantly improving the status quo. Related developments will also be taken account of, such as anticipated legal deposit legislation for the U.K and the development of e-print archives, both of which may have an impact in the longer term. In the meantime, it is necessary to deal with the current situation and find ways for libraries to maintain ongoing and affordable access to licensed e-journals. This will certainly require close collaboration between libraries and publishers in finding mutually acceptable solutions.

These challenges are not, of course, confined to the U.K., and work in the U.S has been of particular interest. The Mellon Funded projects [2] have already provided insights into the prospects for fruitful collaboration between libraries and publishers and Mellon's continuing work with LOCKSS and JSTOR will be watched with interest. The work of OCLC in developing its digital archive [3] is also significant. While collaboration within and across sectors, and within and across geographic boundaries is going to be increasingly prevalent in the digital environment, it is not yet clear what business arrangements will need to be forged in order to move the agenda forward. An implementation plan and timetable will be prepared following a workshop in February 2003. Reports relating to the consultancy will be available from the JISC website in the near future.

1. <http://www.nesli.ac.uk/librarians_further_info.html>

2. <http://www.diglib.org/preserve/ejp.htm>

3. <http://www.oclc.org/digitalpreservation>

Invitation to a Cultural Content Forum Executive Retreat

Contributed by:
Paul Miller
Interoperability Focus
UKOLN
United Kingdom
<p.miller@ukoln.ac.uk>

The digital Cultural Content Forum (CCF), an international gathering of key stakeholders in the digitisation and delivery of our global cultural assets, invites you to express interest in attending our next meeting, an executive retreat in northern Italy over the weekend of 28-30 March 2003. It will follow the well-known EVA Florence Conference, which may include a wider discussion session on some of the issues being addressed by the CCF for those who are not able to attend the weekend event.

Previous meetings have been held in London and in Washington, D.C., and have attracted representatives from North America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

This third meeting will again be by invitation only, and will be limited to no more than 30 participants. The primary scope of discussions will be around explorations of audience for digitised cultural content, and this discussion will be informed by a piece of background research recently commissioned by the CCF, and by presentations and other material contributed by participants.

It is intended that the meeting will result in a far better understanding of existing research into what audiences need from and expect of our cultural institutions in the online environment, and also that the group can agree on a plan of action for progressing activity in this increasingly topical area.

Those interested in attending are requested to submit their expression of interest to [email protected] no later than Friday 17 January 2003.

Expressions of interest should detail any work your organisation has already undertaken in assessing the needs of online audiences, as well as specific issues that you hope might be addressed over the weekend.

Those who are able to contribute content to the commissioned background research, and to provide relevant input for fellow participants in advance of the meeting are especially welcomed.

Successful applicants will be notified by the end of January 2003, and we currently hope to be in a position to meet the costs of accommodation over the weekend.

Vlink - an OpenURL Link Generator

Contributed by:
Gerrit Alewaeters
<galewaet@ vub.ac.be>
Stefaan Renard
<strenard@vub.ac.be>
University library
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Brussels, Belgium

The University Library of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) has launched Vlink. This link generator based upon the OpenURL <http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html> has been developed by the automation office of the VUB library in cooperation with our Vubis partners (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) and Geac) and the Universit� Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Vlink guides the end-user seamlessly to relevant information in a consistent manner. It features a multilingual end-user interface that is customizable by the librarian (web-based administration) and the end-user (MyVlink); a tool to revise the query (LookUp) and integration with a third party remote access management tool (EZproxy <http://www.usefulutilities.com>).

More information about Vlink is available at
<http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/ubwebsite_vlink_en.html>.

You are free to try Vlink at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Please be aware of the fact that you will always use the Vlink OpenURL link generator @ VUB. In real life the patron will use his/her own institutional localized Vlink resolver in order to get context-sensitive links.

Vlink will be commercialized by Geac as a stand-alone product or as part of the Vubis Smart WebOpac <http://www.geac.com/vubis>.

The ZING Initiative Announces Version 1.0 of SRW and CQL

Contributed by:
Ray Denenberg
Library of Congress
Washington DC USA
<rden@loc.gov>

Robert Sanderson
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside, England
<azaroth@liv.ac.uk>

Mike Taylor
IR Consultant/Contractor
(Independent)
London, UK
<mike@z3950.org>

The ZING Initiative (Z39.50 International Next Generation), under the auspices of the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency at the Library of Congress, is pleased to announce Version 1.0 of SRW and CQL.

SRW ("Search/Retrieve for the Web") is a web-service-based protocol which aims to integrate access across networked resources, and to promote interoperability between distributed databases by providing a common platform. The underpinnings of the protocol are formed by bringing together more than 20 years experience from the collective implementers of the Z39.50 protocol with recent developments in the web-technologies arena. SRW features both SOAP and URL-based access mechanisms (SRW and SRU respectively) to provide for a wide range of possible clients. It uses CQL, the Common Query Language, which provides a powerful yet intuitive means of formulating searches. The protocol mandates the use of open and industry-supported standards XML and XML Schema, and where appropriate, Xpath and SOAP.

The SRW Initiative recognizes the importance of Z39.50 (as currently defined and deployed) for business communication, and focuses on getting information to the user. SRW provides semantics for searching databases containing metadata and objects, both text and non-text. Building on Z39.50 semantics enables the creation of gateways to existing Z39.50 systems while reducing the barriers to new information providers, allowing them to make their resources available via a standard search and retrieve service.

SRW, SRU, and CQL have been developed by an international team, minimizing cross-language pitfalls and other potential internationalization problems. Participants include:

Theo van Veen, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Mike Taylor, independent consultant
Pat Stevens, OCLC
Rob Sanderson, Liverpool University
Ralph LeVan, OCLC
Allan Kent, RMIT University
Ian Ibbotson, Knowledge Integration
Poul Henrik Jorgensen, Portia
Sebastian Hammer, IndexData
Janifer Gatenby, PICA
Matthew J. Dovey, Oxford University
Larry Dixson, Library of Congress
Adam Dickmeiss, Index Data
Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress

The ZING, SRW, and CQL home pages are at:
<http://www.loc.gov/zing>,
<http://www.loc.gov/srw>, and
<http://www.loc.gov/cql>

The Z39.50 Maintenance Agency home page is at <http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency>.

The SRW and CQL version 1.0 specifications will remain stable for a six- to nine-month implementation-experience period. During this period developers are encouraged to implement the specification (see the implementors page at <http://www.loc.gov/srw/implementors.html>), join the list of implementors, participate in interoperability testing, and help develop the next version, 1.1. Please direct questions, comments, and suggestions to <z3950@loc.gov>.

EURASIA ICT Workshop Report on Web Content Mapping

Contributed by:
P. Pichappan
Annamalai University & Digital Information Research Foundation
Annamalainagar, India
<ppich@vsnl.net>

The Workshop on Web Content Mapping in conjunction with the EURASIA ICT was held on 31 October 2002 at Shiraz, Iran. The workshop had twelve papers on different areas of web content analysis. Four sessions were conducted on various sub-themes that included web content evaluation, web page and content classification, web content relevance mapping and web databases.

Web Content Evaluation should be the routine parsing for which models need to be designed and debated. Farajpahlou and Farideh Osareh detailed this theme in their papers. Krottmaier has investigated the approach for the automatic review system. In a paper on Feature Selection of Web Page Classification, D. Riboni has introduced a method for representing linked pages using local information that makes hypertext categorization feasible for real time applications. A semantic web classification system was recommended by Mortaza Kokabi in his paper. Y. Patel, J. K. Vijayakumar and B. Ramesh have proposed a model for accessing distributed web content using ontological metadata. Nitesh Shrestha, Ralph Busse and Gerald Huck have designed wrapper generation using an intelligent tagger to perform Graphical Schema Editor, an example Markup Tool and Grammar Generator for generating a grammar for automatically extracting data from similarly structured documents.

Jean-Charles Lamirel, Yannick Toussaint and Xavier Polanco have developed a hybrid methodology model, MultiSOM for the global and partitioned classification methods for mapping science and technology. Nachouki and Quafafou have used the Xquery based approach for extracting semi-structured data from the web. D. Jacobs, Chandrappa and Pichappan have advocated citation parsing to supplement web hyperlink mapping in the concept space for which they have recommended an architecture and presented the tested results.

Bita Shadgar and Ian Holyer have used the WebDEV advantages such as metadata and access control to present database metadata in a standardized way via WEDDAD properties for their work and presented the results. Sarasvady, Pichappan and Vijayakumar have measured the contextual correlation between the concepts that occur in the web testbed using stop words and controlled proximity operators in their paper.

In the News

Recent Press Releases and Announcements

Resource Publishes Annual Review

"London, 12 December 2002 - Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries has published its Annual Review 2001/02. The Review covers various aspects of Resource's activities during 2001/02, including key achievements and events, a section on Resource's main operations, the Annual Workplan 2002/03 and a summary of the Financial Statement. The Review also looks back at Resource's work in its first year."

"Anna Southall, Resource's Chief Executive, said: 'I recently joined Resource and am very impressed at the enormous amount that has been achieved since its formation in April 2000. Resource's core roles are to provide strategic leadership, act as a powerful advocate, develop capacity and promote innovation and change and the progress that has been made in these areas is illustrated throughout the Annual Review."

"'The Annual Review is an opportunity to look back at the success of a number of programmes to date. These include delivering the massive People's Network project on time and in budget, securing the first ever sustained funding for regional museums from Central Government through Renaissance in the Regions and developing a new regional infrastructure for the sector through the establishment of the Regional Agencies. It has been an exciting start for Resource and I look forward to building on these foundations to ensure increasing public benefit from the work of museums, archives and libraries.'"

For further information, contact Emma Wright, Resource's Media and Events Manager, <emma.wright@resource.gov.ukt>.

IMLS Seeks Proposals To Conduct a National Study of Users and Potential Users of Online Information

Institute of Museum and Library Services - December 6, 2002: The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites proposals for a project to conduct a large national study of the information needs and expectations of users and potential users of online information, and of the impacts of having such information. Online information includes but is not limited to information that is currently available online through libraries, museums and other cultural heritage institutions, and the Internet. The study will include a survey of user needs, which should include both current and potential user segments for online information, including students at all levels, teachers, parents, researchers, and other categories of adults. The project will be carried out in collaboration with IMLS. IMLS intends to make a single award for this project.

IMLS wishes the study to provide data and recommendations about:

• content that should be made available online to meet information and enterprise needs of the public, using broad definitions of both information and public; and
• mechanisms and resources necessary to efficiently and effectively connect users to that content.

Fast Facts

• Award amount: up to $500,000
• Deadline for submission: February 1, 2003
• Award announcement: mid-September 2003
• Grant period: 2 years beginning September 30, 2003

For more information contact: Martha Crawley, IMLS Office of Library Services, <mcrawley@imls.gov"> or (202) 606-5513.

Science.gov Web Site Connects Public to Government Science

WASHINGTON, DC - December 5, 2002The American public is now connected as never before to U.S. Government science and technology. Fourteen scientific and technical information organizations from 10 major science agencies have collaborated to create science.gov < http://www.science.gov/>, the "FirstGov for Science" web site. Science.gov is the gateway to reliable information about science and technology from across Federal government organizations.

From science.gov, users can find over one thousand government information resources about science. These resources include: technical reports, journal citations, databases, Federal web sites, and fact sheets. The information is all free, and no registration is required.

"Science.gov aims to bring the substantial resources of the federal science and technology enterprise together, in one place. Working together, federal agencies have assembled countless pages of government research, data, and reports. The site is a great example of e-government in action," said Dr. John H. Marburger, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President.

Science.gov is for the educational and library communities, as well as business people, entrepreneurs, agency scientists, and anyone with an interest in science. Support for building the science.gov gateway came from "CENDI," an interagency committee of senior managers of Federal science and technology information programs.

"Science.gov provides the unique ability to search across the content within databases as well as across Web sites," said Eleanor Frierson, Deputy Director of the National Agricultural Library and co-chair of the science.gov Alliance, the interagency group that created science.gov. "It shows that Federal agencies can work together to pull off something none of them could do individually."

The agencies participating in science.gov are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Interior; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the National Science Foundation.

Additional information is available at <http://www.science.gov/communications> or by contacting Valerie Allen [phone (865) 576-3469; e-mail <allenv@osti.gov>] or Sharon Jordan [phone (865) 576-1194; e-mail <jordans@osti.gov>].

The British Library, Adobe and Elsevier Science set standard for secure EDD

The British Library Press - 3 December 2002: " Groundbreaking work by the British Library and Adobe�, unveiled today at Online 2002, combines the Library's expertise and Adobe's encryption technology to set a new standard for secure electronic document delivery (EDD) services."

"The British Library, one of the world's leading document suppliers, has integrated Adobe Content Server� encryption and Adobe Acrobat® eBook Reader® software into its electronic document delivery operations, allowing customers of the Library's inside service to order PDF files of articles from Elsevier Science and other publishers on a strict pay-per-view basis."

"Until now publishers and document supply companies have had difficulty enforcing copyright and managing rights in the digital environment. Working together, the British Library and Elsevier Science have used Adobe's technology to answer publishers' needs - ensuring the secure delivery of articles."

"The British Library's approach has won the endorsement of Elsevier Science, the world's leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Elsevier Science will make articles from 1,700 of its titles available in PDF format to the Library's document supply customers. Titles covered by the agreement include well-known journals such as The Lancet, Tetrahedron and Brain Research, through to more specialist periodicals."

"The British Library can now supply PDF files of journal articles from over 2,500 key titles from the top research publishers (including 800 titles covered by separate deals with S. Karger AG and Kluwer Academic Publishers)."

"Using the Library's inside service, customers can search for relevant articles; select the items they require; and quickly obtain print-quality copies of articles delivered directly to their desktop. Articles can be viewed on screen and printed using Adobe's Acrobat eBook Reader. Prices for the new PDF electronic delivery service include copyright fees and customers can pay using a secure credit card payment facility. In the future, PDF electronic delivery will also be available on other British Library Web-based services."

For further information, see the full press release at <http://www.bl.uk/cgi-bin/press.cgi?story=1310>.

Royal Roads University Plans KM Research Centre

VICTORIA, CANADA, December 2, 2002 - "Business leaders may soon have a new think tank to boost their companies' know-how. Royal Roads University is expected to announce the creation of a research centre for knowledge-based leadership in January when the university launches its' first master's program in knowledge management."

"'More and more business leaders see that their workers must share their collective know-how if their organizations are to thrive,' said Steve Grundy, dean of the science, technology and environment division at Royal Roads. 'It's no accident that Nobel Prize winners come from rich networks of people who share their smarts and passion.'"

"Several representatives from Royal Roads have hit the road across Canada this month to gauge support for the new think tank. It will be created when the university achieves a critical mass of interest and support from 15 to 20 companies—including two to four collaborative partners."

"Research at the new centre would focus on critical issues identified by stakeholder organizations engaged in knowledge initiatives. These may include:

• what leadership looks like in successful knowledge-based organizations
• how to create new knowledge to support innovation
• how to compare competing information systems
• KM practices for smaller companies and the public sector"

"Some research studies might even raise eyebrows. 'For example, what role does storytelling play?' says Alan Breakspear, chief executive officer of Ottawa's Ibis Research Inc. and chair of Royal Roads' advisory board on knowledge management. 'And what can organizations and indigenous communities teach each other about knowledge?'"

"Breakspear says the research centre would hold conferences where corporate sponsors would kick off studies and hear results a year later. 'You can't continue to teach forever without replenishing the stock of what you're teaching. In part, that's what research at a university is about. Royal Roads has the opportunity—the launch platform of its KM degree programs - to get into this.'"

"Business and public sector leaders who want to support the new centre or learn about openings in the university's KM programs should contact Royal Roads' KM program manager Alice MacGillivray at (250) 391-2600 ext 4139 or <alice.macgillivray@royalroads.ca> "

Columbia University Press to Publish the Journal of Electronic Publishing

The following announcement is from Eve Trager, University of Michigan:

"The Journal of Electronic Publishing and Columbia University Press announce with pleasure their new partnership. With the release of the Spring 2003 issue, The Journal of Electronic Publishing (JEP) will be published by Columbia University Press and will be re-launched with a new design, augmented content, enhanced search capabilities, and a new home address on the Columbia University Press Web site. Publication of JEP will be on a brief hiatus until spring."

"The University of Michigan Press published JEP since its inception in 1995. The University of Michigan Press and Columbia University Press have agreed that all archives of the journal will be moved to Columbia, and calls to the old URL addresses will be automatically redirected to JEP's new home. In partnership with Columbia, JEP can reach a far wider audience, including many of the subscribers to CUP's renowned electronic publications. William Strachan, director of CUP said, 'This move comes just as we ready the publication of The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing. Columbia's staff and its committee of top experts in the field of digital publishing will now be available to work with the members of the JEP staff to strengthen JEP's position as the definitive journal in the field.'"

"The Journal of Electronic Publishing has been published since January, 1995. It currently delivers three issues a year, in April, August, and December. Judith Axler Turner and Eve Trager, who both joined the journal in 1997, will continue in their respective positions of editor and managing editor. JEP is available by free subscription, and has 1,700 subscribers and thousands more readers, mostly in the publishing industry, libraries, and the academy. Readers have access to close to 200 articles written by industry professionals in library science, private publishing, and academic presses. "

NSDL.org is Open for Learning

From the November 29, 2002 NSDL Whiteboard Report:

"Welcome to the first release of the National Science Digital Library now at nsdl.org! We are proud of the contributions made by many dedicated individuals and institutions toward making the NSDL a reality. The result of their hard work is the first version of an NSDL that will evolve into an increasingly useful resource for educators, students, and the general public over the next four years of current NSF funding."

"Please return regularly to watch the evolution of this national treasure. We hope to inform and delight you as we continually add features to "The comprehensive source for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education." Your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome and encouraged at <feedback@nsdl.org>.—The NSDL Core Integration Team."

For further information, see the NSDL web site at <http://nsdl.org/>.

Debut of the Biggest Online Children's Library

November 18, 2002, Washington, DC--The federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with non-profit, industry, academic, and other government organizations today announced a five-year, $4.4 million plan to build a digital library freely available for children worldwide. The library will consist of 10,000 children's books drawn from 100 cultures. The International Children's Digital Library, developed by the Internet Archive and the University of Maryland, is part of a larger research project to develop new technology to serve young readers. No other library of this size, that is appropriate and accessible for 3-13 year olds, exists.

Experience the International Children's Digital Library Web site at: <http://www.icdlbooks.org>.

For the full press release, see <http://www.imls.gov/whatsnew/current/111802.htm>.

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DOI: 10.1045/december2002-inbrief