ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 382 / C&RL News ciation should communicate in coming months with academic librarian delegates attending the White House Conference to coordinate the aca­ demic library agenda to be discussed at the confer­ ence. Many W hite House P reco n feren ces have brought forth resolutions supporting N REN thanks to A C RL chapter members. Chapters Council had presentations on this important piece of legislation during 1990 and the awareness taken back to the state level has produced results. Many chapters are actively discussing the ramifications of NREN at local programs and will be ready to aid in any national effort. Chapters are meeting with their state librarians to find out how collection and budget statistics can be used to demonstrate the importance of library legislation. Librarians are also meeting with busi­ ness and academic leaders in an effort to widen the circle o f those aware of academic library concerns. As chapters continue to step up their political activities and state-level political awareness in­ creases, the membership o f ACRL will come to expect an increased political agenda at the national level. Future association planning should take into account these expectations as well as the political influence that can be generated at both the local and national level and use both equally to further the goals of the profession and the association. ■ ■ P R E S E R V A T I O N N E W S Prepared by Barbara Brown C ollege L ib raries Com m ittee Commission on Preservation a n d Access • Columbus, Ohio. The January 1991 issue of Preservation Issues, a publication of the State Li­ brary o f Ohio, contains an excellent brief article by Dina Schoonmaker on “Oberlin College Libraries: A History o f Preservation” in which she describes the growth o f the preservation program at Oberlin. To obtain a copy of this issue or to be placed on the mailing list, contact Miriam Kahn, Preservation/ Conservation Consultant, State Library of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, Columbus, OH 43266-0334, (614) 644-1972. • Dawson, Pennsylvania. The Giant Brittle Book exhibit (produced by the Commission on Preservation and Access) is on the road again and will appear at the Pittsburgh Regional Library Center Spring Conference in May, at the Ohio State University Libraries in October, and at the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Kansas City in No­ vember. The Giant Brittle Book is available free of charge, except for shipping charges. For more in­ formation contact Trish Cece, communications assistant, at the Commission on Preservation and Access, 1785 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 313, Washington, DC 20036-2117. • Washington, DC. The May 1991 issue of the Commission on Preservation and Access newslet­ ter contains a list of publications available from the Commission. The form should be used to help expedite orders for the Commission’s reports. To request copies, call or write Trish Cece, communi­ cations assistant, at the Commission on Preserva­ tion and Access, 1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 313, Washington, DC 20036-2117; (202) 483-7474. 384 / C&RL News NREN, electronic library systems, and information services are topics at CNI meeting An electronic library system completely replac­ ing paper, a governance vision for NREN, and information services from the user's perspective were some o f the scenarios described at the Spring 1991 meeting o f the Coalition for Networked In­ formation Task Force. A total o f 258 individuals, representing 134 institutions and organizations belonging to the Coalition, attended the March 18-20 meeting in Washington, D.C. In presenting one o f three vision papers, Marvin Sirbu, professor o f engineering and public policy and chair o f the Executive Committee o f the Infor­ mation Networking Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, described a distributed electronic li­ brary system. Sirbu’s research goal is to “ develop a Information Pricing Crisis: Monterey Meeting Three working groups o f the Coalition held an invitational meeting March 3—5, 1991, in Monterey, California. Karen Hunter, Elsevier, chair, Commercial Publishing Working Group, Peter Lyman, University o f Southern Califor­ nia, chair, Noncommercial Publishing Working Group, and Clifford Lynch, University o f Cali­ fornia, chair, Systems and Architecture Work­ ing Group, convened the meeting o f librarians, economists, commercial and noncommercial publishers, university administrators, and tech­ nical systems experts. The forty conference participants discussed new econom ic models for scholarly publishing, the complex relationship between electronic and paper methods o f information distribution, and the unpredictability o f the possible end states o f electronic publishing. Different pos­ sible econom ic futures for electronic publish­ ing were considered. A proposed flat-priced national site license would centralize control, but not address distribution, resale and cost- recovery issues. An alternative model suggested pricing based on demand or perceived value with articles by Nobel Prize winners costing more than those by assistant professors. The conference ended with a clear consensus that new econom ic models are needed in publishing especially for the distribution o f information and that new models should be developed and validated in sufficient detail that they can be used to study and react to the implications o f each. ■ ■ plan which demonstrates that an electronic library system (ELS) for scientific and technical journals is economically feasible, can be built with today’s technology, and can provide high levels o f service to users.” (See “An electronic library system sce­ nario” for a description o f Sirbu’s model.) Citing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and CO M SAT as pertinent examples, John P. Witherspoon, the Center for Communications, San Diego State University, suggested in his vision paper establishing N R E N as a congressionally chartered public-private partnership. H e noted that in both o f the prior cases, the country turned to a Congressionally chartered corporation “when it was necessary to establish a structure to manage a new technology-based development that was per­ ceived to have great importance although its impli­ cations were not well understood.” In response to questions, Witherspoon said that establishment o f the NREN as a public-private partnership would b e a sensible and politically expedient way to get the important but expensive N R E N initiative moving. The Partnership for the NREN in its Janu­ ary 1991 statement o f principles, advanced as key for the establishment o f NREN: (1) creation o f a federal, state, and local networking partnership, with contributions from all levels: (2) education in its broadest sense complementing established re­ search objectives as a reason for development o f the NREN; (3) all involved constituencies o f the NREN must have a voice in the development o f network policy; and (4) all fifty states must be provided with high capacity and affordable access to the network. “Technical problems and issues associated with the design and operation o f the NREN may be easier to resolve than the organizational, social, and behavioral ones,” asserted Charles R. McClure, professor at the School o f Information Studies, Syracuse University. The final vision paper de­ scribed the need for information professionals to develop academic information services from a user's perspective. McClure emphasized that users want straightforward technology and “holistic as­ sistance on accessing electronic information re­ sources and obtaining the actual information in the desired format.” Users don’t want someone to explain to them how or why it works, they just want the system to work. Stating that developing edu­ cated users would be a key component o f the success o f networked information, McClure en­ couraged conference attendees to reconcile them­ selves to the need for training and retraining. ■ ■ June 1 9 9 1 / 385 The Coalition’s working groups need your help Much o f the work o f the Coalition for N et­ worked Information takes place in its seven work­ ing groups (see April 1991 C&RL News for a brief description o f each) and the March meeting gave participants the opportunity to set goals and de­ velop activity plans for the com ing year. I would like to draw your attention to the plans o f two o f the working groups in particular because I think the input and assistance o f A C R L members to these groups would be useful. The W orking Group on Teaching and Learning (T& LW G ) is concerned with the use o f networked information in teaching and learning environ­ ments. Such environments included traditional educational institutions as well as distance learning situations. T & L W G sees as its primary goal devel­ opment and maintenance o f a significant educa­ tional role for present and future networks (e.g., N R E N ). T & L W G members want to identify suc­ cessful teaching and learning environments that are using networked information and to publicize their existence. Particular emphasis will be given to existing low technology and inexpensive projects. It is through the demonstration o f the successful use o f the present networks that future expanded access for students and faculty through networks such as N R E N can be ensured. The T & L W orking Group will serve as a facilita­ tor o f discussion o f the barriers to the use o f net­ w orked information to improve education because members believe the use o f networks needs to be prom oted among teachers and other groups con ­ cerned with the provision o f better educational opportunities. Such promotion must address the human, technical, and/or financial barriers to the use o f networked information. T & L W G is interested in learning about healthy network environments for teaching and learning and about efforts to remove barriers to the use o f netw orked inform ation through experimental projects, legislative initiatives, and other efforts to (Coalition con ton next page) An electronic library system scenario Users o f the electronic library will b e able to retrieve documents, view them on large screens, or print them out at their workstation eliminating the need for paper distribution o f journals to users o f such systems. Such was the scenario drawn by Marvin Sirbu, professor o f engineering and public policy, Carnegie Mellon University, during the recent Coalition meeting. During 1990 a group o f master’s students at Carnegie M ellon University’ s Information N et­ working Institute (IN I), led by Marvin Sirbu, stud­ ied a broad range o f issues relating to the develop­ ment o f an electronic library system. The INI study examined the technical issues o f a nationwide architecture for a distributed docum ent system. Solving the technical problems o f developing an electronic library system are not considered inordi­ nately difficult. It is the econom ic and political issues that are m ore difficult and challenging. “O ne can always build an ELS given enough money, but if the costs are m ore than users are willing to pay, no one will ever use the system. Furthermore, if the interests o f publishers, brokers, libraries, and users are not satisfied, the system may never receive the backing required to get o f f the ground,” asserted Sirbu. In developing a cost model, Sirbu assumed an ELS that com pletely replaces paper, includes first- page costs, uses a nationwide system com posed o f three index and docum ent brokers, and accounts for declining costs o f relevant technologies. The m odel also takes into account costs o f hardware, storage, operations, networks, software packages, maintenance contracts, software maintenance, and data production for an ELS containing 20 years o f 5,000 journals accessed b y four million users served by small, medium, and large libraries. Am ong Sirbu’s conclusions were that the initial software developm ent costs w ould require ap­ proximately $4.5 million, that ELS costs are dom i­ nated by first-page costs and system operations, that storage is not a major concern and becom es less so with time, and that bitmaps are a reasonable way to store ELS pages. H e projects such a system w ould cost only tens o f dollars per user per month, w ould be usage insensitive, w ould be dominated by publisher costs, w ould be strongly affected by num ber o f journals and size o f library, and would compare well with current library budgets. He emphasizes that success o f this scenario is depend­ ent on standards developm ent and coordination relating to docum ent storage formats, unique docum ent identifiers, naming databases, billing systems, and p r o to co l interfaces.— Thomas J. Michalak, librai-y director, Carnegie Mellon Uni­ versity Libraries ■ ■ 386 / C&RL News (Coalition con t from previous page) promote the use o f existing networked information. Send information to Philip Tompkins, convener o f the Teaching and Learning Working Group, at the Maricopa Community College District, Estrella Mountain Community College Center, 919 North Dysart Road, Avondale, AZ 85323 (voice: (602) 932-6500; fax: (602) 461-7681; e-mail: tompkins- @gc). AC R L members can also contribute to the Working Group on Management and Professional and User Education. This Working Group believes that at the heart o f the Coalition’s success is the ability to organize personnel resources to make the vision o f a national network a reality. This working group seeks to identify and promote educational materials and programs directed at management, professional and general users o f networked infor­ mation. The group plans to develop a series o f generic materials on networked information and seeks sample materials from those who have devel­ oped presentations on the use o f information re­ sources accessed via electronic networks. Three types o f material are sought: (1) that used to inform academic administrators about networked infor­ mation resources and their potential use in educa­ tion and research activities; (2) that for professional librarians and computer center staff to prepare them to deal with those technical and service issues to support patron use o f networked information; and (3) instructional material showing patrons how to use networked information. Samples should be sent to Sheila D. Creth, University Librarian, Uni­ versity o f Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 (voice: (319) 335-5868; fax: (319) 335-3830; e-mail: cadscdcts- ‹â›uiamvs) or Thomas C. Gabriele, director o f aca­ dem ic computing services, Western Michigan University, 3326 R ood Hall, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5154 (voice: (616) 387-5436; fax: (616) 387- 5473; e-mail: gabriele@gw.wmich.edu.)— Thomas Kirk, college librarian, Berea College ■■ PUNLICATIONS by George M. Eberhart • A tlas o f C om m unism , edited by Geoffrey Stem (256 pages, April 1991), traces the history, ideals, successes, and failures o f this controversial social experiment. Many color and black-and- white illustrations accompany maps o f the Franco- Prussian War, the October Revolution, the Cold War, the New Order in China, Budapest in 1956, student power in 1968, the collapse o f Commu­ nism in 1988-1990, the new Russia, and many others. The atlas is divided into five parts: the roots o f Communism (1810-1917), the Soviet experi­ ence (1917-1945), Cold War Communism (1945- 1962), new perspectives (1962-1985), and reform and revolution (1985-1990). A final essay discusses the directions Communism might take and how its future relates to religious tolerance and economic stability around the world. This atlas is a fascinating and objective reminder o f grim social reality. The cost is $95.00, available from Macmillan Refer­ ence, 866 Third Ave„ New York, NY 10022. ISBN 0-02-897265-1. Inf • lu A en “B ra n d N ew la n g u a g e : C om m ercial ces in L i ” te ra tu re and C ulture, by Monroe Friedman (183 pages, February 1991), shows how commercial products have greatly affected Ameri­ can speech, literature, and popular culture since W orld War II. Three interesting chapters look at the results o f content analyses o f popular novels, plays, and songs from the postwar era, while others examine newspaper texts and American humor to see how product advertising has affected the lan­ guage. Are these changes good or bad? There are arguments on both sides, but the consensus seems to favor use if the idiom is widespread enough. After all, the term “Pepsi generation” has a layer o f significance beyond the words “youth culture.” Copies may be ordered for $39.95 from Green­ w ood Press, 88 Post Road West, Box 5007, West­ port, C T C 0 D 6881. M IS L B o N • -RO c a 0 l -3 A 1 r 3 e - a 2 6 N 16 e 9 tw -5 o . rks: A User’s G u ide, edited by Norman Desmarais (131 pages, April 1991), examines the increasingly common yet complex use o f C D -R O M servers on local area networks. The seven chapters cover network soft­ ware and hardware, considerations for the systems manager, alternatives to C D -R O M networks, li-