PANEL ON NATIONAL LIBRARIES' INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Chaired by:

Yakov Shraiberg

Deputy Director
Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology
Moscow, Russia
shra@gpntb.msk.su

In this panel on national libraries' international activities, we shall start with the first paper given by Pamela Andre of the National Agricultural Library of United States.
 

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PANEL ON NATIONAL LIBRARIES' INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT: THE NATIONAL LIBRARY ROLE*

Peter Young

Exective Director
U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science
Washington, D.C. 20005, USA
py_nclis@inet.ed.gov

The 21st century offers opportunity to revolutionize national library information service functions and to realize a radical new vision for global knowledge availa-bility. National libraries have the potential to develop programs that foster economic competitiveness, support innovation, improve educational effective-ness, increase intellectual productivity, advance knowledge transfer efficiency, enhance technological progress, promote government stability, and demonstrate the collective capacity to resolve global challenges of the future. Theses national institutions can assume expanded missions, form strategic alliances, coordinate global information policy framework development, and support new service functions. Opportunities for rapid, fundamental, and pervasive change in the creation, distribution, transmission of, and access to information services and knowledge products, provide the potential for future revolutionary development of national library products and information services.

The technological capability to interconnect global library and information communities through international network services coordinated by national libraries, offers the potential for creating a new global knowledge network paradigm. However, these national knowledge, research, and learning institu-tions must develop mechanisms to resolve basic policy conflicts that inhibit the achievement of a 21st century vision of a robust global knowledge network infrastructure. The opportunity offers national libraries a key role in developing policies which encourage global solutions to the challenges facing the world community in the next century.

Realizing the potential for this transformational development of national libraries requires a strategic alignment of national and international information policy responsibilities and priorities. It requires moving beyond a national library perspective to a vision of a global knowledge network infrastructure that supports the collaborative interaction of a highly integrated and cohesive total human community. This vision of global availability to the full diversity of recorded knowledge is more than a theoretical construct. It can be achieved through application of a national network policy development model which is adapted from joint work done by the National Commission and the Library of Congress.

Global Knowledge Network Infrastructure Policy Development

The ability of national libraries to take advantage of future opportunities for growth and development, and to assume new and expanded policies, missions, and functions, depends on the emergance of enlightened and innovative informa-tion policies to foster international cooperation and resource commitments re-quired to develop services which extend beyond more traditional roles, products, and services of national libraries into new areas of knowledge management and collaborative creativity.

New high performance high capacity digital network technologies present opportunities for national libraries to function as national coordination centers for emerging global interconnected information networks. These technologies also present national libraries opportunities for leadership in the development of policies assuring the effective exploitation of information network technology potential. Networking technologies are already extending the role of national libraries beyond the exchange of national bibliographic records that describe works, to the transmission and delivery of the intellectual content of works in textual, image, sound, and other media formats.

The emergance of global knowledge infrastructure policies requires a policy development progress framework that allows negotiation of diverse issues arising from information network policy differences, incompatible knowledge, property ownership rights, conflicting information transfer economic interests, and the complex administrative structures required to implement, operate, and manage a globally interconnected network system. In order to be effective, this interna-tional network policy formulation process must link to national information policies in a cohesive web of interrelated network infrastructure policies.

Evolutionary Development of Automated Library System Networks

Libraries and information services are engaged in a continual process of develop-ment, evolution, and transformation. In this regard, national libraries play a particularly important role, positioned as both instruments of the national govern-ment and as major facilitators for library, information service, and policy deve-lopment. Recent development is driven largely by digital information systems technology application , high-performance network telecommunications infra-structure, the emergance of a global information infrastructure, and the expand-ing international market for access to information services and knowledge pro-ducts. This process of continual change has influenced every aspect of library and information services over the past several decades. Evolving from function specific, single-application automated library systems developed in the 1960's, extending to the integrated system platforms of the 1980's, and more recent inter-connected network system developments, library systems have increased the inter-institutional and cross-sector interdependencies among libraries and infor-mation service suppliers.

Forces of Change

Fundamental forces are changing the traditional functions, services, products, and policies of national libraries. The forces that are prompting a library and infor-mation services paradigm shift include the following:

In the U.S., over the last two decades, cooperative activities between the Library of Congress (LC) as the national library and the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) as the library and information service national policy advising agency, provide a national model for library and infor-mation policy development at the international level. While the program focus of the Library of Congress is both operational and programmatic, cooperative activities involving the Library of Congress and the National Commission allow both organizations to focus attention on national policy development for libraries and information services, as well as national and international models.

Although both the Library of Congress and the National Commission are en-gaged in a diverse array of program activities, the two agencies share a consistent basis for cooperative policy development. This history of cooperative inter-agency information policy development between NCLIS and the Library of Congress serves as a model for application for multi-national environments. This paper identifies opportunities and barriers associated with global networked information infrastructure policy development that might be addressed by this model.

The Network Advisory Committee: Purpose and Structure

The network Advisory Committee (NAC) provides a national forum for discus-sion of information policies and network practices. NAC serves the needs of both the National Commission and the Library of Congress. Created in 1977, the Network Advisory Committee has the following goals and objectives:

In the years since the first semi-annual NAC meeting, NAC members have focused attention on a variety of topics related to national networking. Among these are several areas of special concern to the Library of Congress and the National Commission. These include the role of the Library of Congress in the evolving national network (1978), a proposal for establishing a Federal library and information services network (1982), and a study of the critical issues for libraries in the national network environment (1991) done in preparation for the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services. For each of these topic areas, the National Commission and the Library of Congress worked closely together to focus attention on policy issues and planning related to library networking.

U.S. organizations formally constituted and functioning in the public and private (for-profit or not-for-profit) sector which are actively engaged in regional or nationwide networking of library and information services, or have a signifi-cant impact on the development of nationwide networks providing library and information services are eligible for NAC membership. The Network Advisory Committee was created in order to provide a forum for national professional membership associations, trade and institutional associations, national regional/ federal information agencies, national bibliographic networks, regional/special bibliographic system operators, network service organizations, national reference systems, and individual library systems. Membership is limited to no more than 35 representatives.

In the years since NAC was first established, networking concerns have pro-gressed from library and information services issues involving bibliographic, cataloging, and authority record data exchange standards and transfer protocols, to those concerns involving high-performance, high-capacity digital network telecommunications policies that incorporate the interests of the telecommunica-tions, information systems, cable television, and satellite broadcasting industries. Networking environment policy issues are now cast in terms of future "informa-tion superhighways" rather than "bibliographic utilities." Also, network policy development has become more closely related with the commercial interests of mass market media.

Current NAC Networking Topics

Much current public attention is devoted to the potential convergence of tele-phone, computer, television, and multi-media technologies in a digital revolution fueled by advances in data compression techniques, broad band fiber optic digital transport media, and digital telecommunications switching capacity to provide a brave new world of video phones, interactive high-definition televisions, and multi-media virtual reality interactive entertainment devices. As a result these of these broader technology policy issues, future planning and development for library and information services networking is becoming increasingly complex. Recent NAC meeting topics reflect this increasing complexity: Nationwide networking (1987), Intellectual property rights in an electronic age (1988), Connecting the networks (1989), Beyond bibliographic data (1989), Riding the electronic wave (1990), Multimedia and networking (1992).

National Research and Education Network

In the U.S., networked information infrastructure policy developments are related to the enactment of P.L. 102-194 the High Policy Computing Act of 1991 and specifically, provisions in Title I of that act calling for the development of a National Research and Education Network (NREN). These developments in-volve policy decisions that bridge both telecommunications and information policy concerns. These developments also have important policy implications for national libraries and for national information policy development.

The concept of NREN arose from a vision for connecting supercomputing centers and research universities to create a national networking resource for university and government researchers. Such a resource was seen as necessary to effectively address grand challenges such as weather prediction, global change, mapping the structure of biological macromolecules, and determining atomic and nuclear structures. The Internet is currently comprised of a number of national, regional, state, and local networks interconnected by the "NSFnet" backbone which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, an agency of the Federal government, and operated on contract by Advanced Network and Ser-vices, Inc., a corporation whose principal managers/directors are IBM, MCI, and MERIT.

NREN Policy Topics Relevant to Network Information Infrastructure Policy Development

Last July, the National Commission sponsored on open forum on NREN to provide a channel for the library and information service community to offer comments and suggestions relevant to the report that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) prepared for Congress in December, 1992, as specified in P.L. 102-194 (9 December 1991).

The Commission issued a report summarizing the results of this forum. The report, published in November, 1992, addresses the issues raised by the establish-ment of the NREN. The NREN forum report summarizes concerns and findings, and offers clarification of the issues resulting from the six broad topic areas included in the 1991 Act.

The six topics address issues concerned with NREN funding, operation, charges, commercial access, protection, and security. These matters are of critical importance to the library and the national and international information services community, especially in light of the evolving policy climate for new network information infrastructure development. The topics do not primarily center on technical matters related to high-performance computing networks, nor does the report, which concentrates on network economics, market development, commercialization, federal network policy, property rights ownership, privacy, and security. Technical decisions about NREN development and deployment will shape outcomes and present opportunities for accomplishing the law's purpose of ensuring continued US leadership in high-performance computing and its applications. Policy decisions at the national level will also determine the potential for successful development of a global knowledge network infrastruc-ture.

The many comments, ideas, positions, and suggestions presented at the NREN forum represent a rich texture of concerns that are both complementary and con-flicting. The challenges facing library and information services groups necessi-tate the creation of opportunities to identify intersecting issues and common concerns arising from competing interests and conflicting views and to explore common policies that will balance these competing interests.

Network Infrastructure Policy Challenges

A few of the views that underlie the many intersecting issues related to network infrastructure development include the following:

Network Infrastructure Policy Questions

The networking issues and decisions arising from the six topics addressed at the NCLIS forum on NREN raise many complex questions about the nature of NREN development and about policies related to national and global network infrastructure development. These questions include the following:

1) What funding sources and mechanisms will sustain network operations?

a) What user fees will be charged for network maintenance and use?

b) What industry support is required for operating the network?

c) What continuing National investment in the network is required?

d) What network market development model that blends user, industry, and National support is best?

2) What managerial, administrative, and operational structures are required for network evolution and development?

a) What structures and groups will make network decisions?

b) Should network operations be coordinated or managed by a central or decentralized organization?

c) What are the mechanisms for developing and implementing network policies and procedures?

d) What process will allow for changes to operational practices and poli- cies?

3) How will commercial information services providers be charged for network access and how will network users be charged for commercial information

services?

a) What is (are) the basis (bases) for determining charge(s) for commercial providers and for network users? [e.g. use-sensitive charges, annual subscriptions, service level tier charges, etc.]

b) What procedures and mechanisms will record and change transactions between users and commercial information services?

c) Will commercial information service provider charges subsidize net- work access for non-commercial providers?

d) What administrative costs are associated with network access and user charges and how will these costs be paid?

4) What is the technological feasibility of allowing commercial information ser- vice providers to use the network and other publicly funded research networks?

a) What are the costs associated with an administrative procedure for al- lowing commercial information service providers to use the network and how will these costs be paid?

b) What are the technical requirements which must be addressed in order

for commercial providers to access the network?

c) How will network access for commercial users affect the network's

performance?

d) How will commercial information providers use the network?

5) How will copyrights of material distributed over the network be predicted?

a) How will users determine the status of copyright ownership of material?

b) What will constitute fair use of material on the network?

c) How will permissions be handled on the network?

d) What network enforcement mechanisms are appropriate for ensuring

protection of copyright ownership?

6) What policies are appropriate to insure the security of the resources available

on the network and to protect the privacy of the users of the network?

a) How will network security policies be established and how will network

security and privacy procedures be enforced?

b) How will competing interests of user privacy and network resource

security be resolved?

c) What mix of technical, administrative, and economic mechanisms are

required to safeguard resource security and privacy?

d) How will network policies address differing resource security and user

privacy needs for different communities, commercial, non-commercial, and governmental?

These questions, as well as other complex matters of network policy, opera-tion, and procedure, must be addresses to achieve the functional involvement of the interests of library and information services in infrastructure policy decisions at both the national and the international levels. The response to these network infrastructure questions must recognize that those with an interest and a role to play in network infrastructure development have differing positions, viewpoints, and priorities on a range of matters affecting network development, evolution, and use. The national library and information services communities need to unite to move the national and global network infrastructure agenda forward to achieve a common vision for the future in a coordinated fashion.

Towards a Global Knowledge Community

National structures, operations, and policies required for the development of a digitally switched fiber optic network for multimedia interactive services will be formulated over the next several years. As the technical, regulatory, and policy issues are resolved, a new industrial convergence will emerge that combine the strengths and technologies of the telecommunications , broadcast, satellite, and cable television, online database, computer, and microchip industries to produce a new generation of knowledge infrastructure products and services. As these events unfold, national libraries and the information service community need to facilitate the integration of these new network services into the missions, functions, services, and budgets of national libraries. Further, national libraries should collectively address the need to formulate a robust policy framework model to resolve conflicts and reduce tensions.

National libraries have been an integral part of national communities through-out civilized history. As we progress towards the new networked information infrastructures, national libraries must be at the center of this evolutionary pro-cess. We must work together for an active and involved role in these changing times to assure that national libraries will maintain a viable role in the evolving "Global Knowledge Community" of the future.