The Naval Research Laboratory, NRL, is the Navyþs corporate
research laboratory. It is part of
the Department of Defense, but relies on sponsor funding for the
accomplishment of its research
mission. The main NRL campus is located on a 130-acre site on
the Potomac River in Southeast
Washington. The other primary research locations are at Stennis
Space Center in Mississippi
and in Monterey, California. All together there are about 4,000
employees and about half of
these are scientists, primarily physicists and chemists. The
Laboratory also has a large
complement of on-site contractors, with about 1,500 engaged in
the research effort. The
research efforts of the Laboratory are concentrated in 17 broad
areas: acoustics, advanced space
sensing, artificial intelligence, astrophysics, biotechnology,
chemistry, condensed matter science,
information technology, materials research, optical sciences,
plasma physics, radar and
electronics, radiation technology, remote sensing, space science,
space systems, and structural
dynamics.
The Ruth H. Hooker Research Library and Technical Information
Center serves the residents of
the D.C. campus and the headquarters staff of NRLþs parent
organization, the Office of Naval
Research (ONR). In addition it provides a number of electronic
services to NRL researchers in
Stennis and Monterey. The library has been in the forefront in
developing services that provide
both its local client groups and NRL residents of remote sites
with desktop access to
information.1 A brief overview of these digital services provide
a context for discussing the
libraryþs virtual library efforts.
In response to a 1990 User Needs Analysis that showed that
researchers wanted information at
their desktop, the library developed a campus-wide information
system called the InfoNet. The
InfoNet provides users with menu-driven access to a wide spectrum
of information resources.
These include commercial databases, both on CD-ROM and diskette
and on-line through OCLC
FirstSearch and other vendors; the library catalog; laboratory
in-house databases such as the
phone directory and supply store catalog; and selected Internet
resources such as the Library of
Congress and University of Maryland Library catalogs. The
InfoNet is available to users
independent of computing platform both from work and from home.
Itþs up 24-hours a day,
seven days a week. The InfoNet went online in August 1992. It
currently has over 800
registered users and is accessed remotely over 3,000 times a
month and by end-users in the
library another 1,500 times monthly. User surveys show that
researchers credit the InfoNet with
saving them 2 hours per week on average.
InfoNet provides users with access to text-based information.
While some of this information is
the actual data the user is seeking--for example, flight
information from the Official Airline
Guide--most InfoNet databases are the equivalent of catalogs and
indexes, serving as pointers to
information, which may be in a book, journal article, or report.
Because of the nature of
scientific publications, which contain many equations, formulas,
charts, and graphs, the InfoNet
only partially meets the information needs of NRL scientists.
To provide all the information that is in the document, the
library has developed TORPEDO (The
Optical Retrieval Project: Electronic Documents Online).2
TORPEDO uses commercial software,
called EFS (Electronic Filing System), from Excalibur
Technologies. The EFS software provides
end users with the ability to search the full-text of documents,
using a fuzzy search algorithm. It
also provides the ability to browse document collections, say all
the articles in a journal issue,
and to go directly to a particular article if the volume number
and page are known.
Document images can be viewed online or printed locally. TORPEDO
currently operates as a
client-server system with freely distributable PC Windows and
Macintosh clients and X-window
support. A World Wide Web interface, currently being beta tested
by over 50 NRL researchers,
will replace the client-server version next month. TORPEDO has
been available in the library
since January 1995, throughout the DC campus since May 1995, and
to remote NRL locations
since September 1995.
TORPEDO is available through the libraryþs World Wide Web pages
known as InfoWeb:
http://infoweb.nrl.navy.mil. InfoWeb serves not only as a
point of entry for TORPEDO, but
also for many other library services, some the Web-based
counterpart of the InfoNet databases.
Furthermore InfoWeb serves as a navigational aid for a wide range
of information on the Web
that the library has selected for its relevance and content and
organized to provide a subject
approach.
As an interface to TORPEDO, InfoWeb provides a functional front
end that tells the user about
the system, provides User Guides in Acrobat format, and launches
the Excalibur EFS (Electronic
Filing System) software on which TORPEDO is based.
TORPEDO provides the library with the ability to deliver
scientific publications to the desktops
of NRL researchers. Technical reports published by DoD, and DoD
contractors in industry and
academia, are one important source of information for the NRL
user community. Since 1988,
the NRL Library has been digitizing and storing optically its
large collection of technical reports.
Begun as a space saving measure, with access from within the
library only, the digital collection
now consists of 125,000 technical reports (about 7 million pages
stored as TIFF images). These
images are being OCRþd and added to TORPEDO as a key component of
the libraryþs digital
collections.
Journal articles are the other information source with which the
library is principally concerned.
In 1993, the NRL Library and the American Physical Society (APS)
agreed to work together to
test the electronic dissemination of current journals. For this
experiment, the APS provides NRL
with copies of two of its journals, Physical Review Letters and
Physical Review E, as they are
printed. Issues are sent from the APS publisher by overnight
mail. The library scans the journal
to create the TIFF images and OCRs them to generate ASCII text
for searching. This process is
accomplished the day the issue is received so that it is
available to the user community the next
day, well before the paper copy is received in the library. The
APS also provides, by e-mail,
bibliographic data for each article consisting of title, author,
and year of publication. TORPEDO
provides access to all issues of both journals starting with
January 1994, over 100 issues of
Physical Review Letters and 28 issues of Physical Review E.
This effort is a learning process both for the NRL Library and
for the APS. Through user surveys
and other feedback weþre learning what users want and need in a
digital information system. By
working together to disseminate scientific journals
electronically, the NRL Library and the APS
hope to determine:
Web online subscriptions to an E-mail tables of
contents
service for most journals in the
libraryþs collection.
Because it has found the networking of CD-ROMs to be a
cost-effective approach for delivering
information to the end user, the library is looking for a method
to network CD-ROMs, currently
only available through the telnet-based InfoNet system, via a Web
browser. The alternative,
licensing the raw data and providing a local search engine, is
also under consideration.
Expanding Electronic Journal Access
Handing Other Formats in TORPEDO
During 1996, the library plans to develop its capability to
handle the other formats that
publishers are currently providing or plan to provide. Portable
Document Files, such as
Acrobat, seem to be the most likely alternative to explore at
this time as more and more
publishers are able to provide journals in this format. The
American Physical Society has
Acrobat files for its entire Physical Review series and has
agreed to provide them to NRL for
incorporation into TORPEDO. The library plans to use the
corresponding SGML text, which the
APS can also provide, as its searchable text database,
eliminating the scanning and OCRing
process entirely, and positioning the library to work with a
greater number of publishers in
disseminating journal information electronically.
InfoWeb Links to Publisher Web Sites
While many publishers are making journal information available
through their own Web sites,
each journal, or the Web-published journals of each publisher,
must be searched independently.
TORPEDO, on the other hand, allows a researcher to search across
all the journals in the
libraryþs collection that are available electronically.
While access to many journals to which the library subscribes is
currently available through
InfoWeb hyperlinks, this is thought to be an interim measure that
only partially meets the needs
of the user community. In addition to requiring that a
researcher know the publisher of a
particular journal, it assumes that the researcher has narrowed
his search to the point of knowing
where to look for the information. Configuration issues, such as
passwords and IP addresses,
have also been difficult to negotiate with vendors for
implementation on InfoWeb. In addition,
response time from publisher servers has been found to be
inadequate. Negotiations are
therefore underway with a number of publishers providing site
access to their journals on the
Web to add these journals to TORPEDO instead.
Conclusion
The NRL Library is well on the way to providing its research
community with a þvirtual library.þ
With the InfoWeb System, it is providing researchers at their
desktops with targeted, organized,
annotated, and searchable access to a large number of local and
remote information resources.
With TORPEDO, it is providing powerful search and retrieval tools
that enable end users seated
at their computers or workstations to use Web browsers to search,
view, and print the contents
of large collections of library materials.
1. Atkinson, Roderick D., Laurie E. Stackpole, and John Yokely,
Developing the Scientific-Technical Digital Library at a National
Laboratory, Digital Libraries: Current Issues, Digital
Libraries Workshop DL 94, Newark NJ, USA, May 1994, Selected
Papers, Nabil R. Adam,
Bharat K. Bhargave, and Yelena Yesha (Eds.), Springer-Verlag,
Berlin, Heidelberg, 1995, pp. 265-
279.
2. Atkinson, Roderick D., Laurie E. Stackpole, and John Yokely,
þDeveloping the Scientific-
Technical Digital Library at a National Laboratory,þ Digital
Libraries: Current Issues, Digital
Libraries Workshop DL 94, Newark NJ, USA, May 1994, Selected
Papers, Nabil R. Adam,
Bharat K. Bhargave, and Yelena Yesha (Eds.), Springer-Verlag,
Berlin, Heidelberg, 1995, pp. 265-279.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
Access to Federal Information on the
WWW:
The Public Library Perspective
St. Charles City-County Library District
O'Fallon, MO
Good morning. I would like to thank Sheila McGarr for inviting
me here and for giving me the
opportunity to talk to you.
I was asked to speak on the subject of access to Federal
information on the World Wide Web
from the public library perspective. Lily Wai was the one that
recruited me for this "job." I am
honored to be here, and to be able to share with you my thoughts
on this topic.
It seems appropriate to begin with an overview of the Internet
accessibility to the public libraries
in general. The question of "How the public libraries access
governmental information?"
becomes secondary to the question: " Can they access it?", in
other words, "Are they connected
to the Internet?"
According to the ALA, the United States has over 9,000 public
libraries. More than one-third of
them don't even have a computer, much less an Internet
connection. One in five public
libraries has an Internet connection, but only 13 percent of
Internet-equipped libraries offer
public access terminals. Much of the Internet access is
restricted to library staff for
administrative and reference processes. E-mail is the most
frequent activity, followed by
resource searches. Fewer yet provide Internet gateways that
patrons can use from home. Only
17 percent of rural libraries are on the Internet, compared with
79 percent of urban libraries.
I have read an article in the January 1996 issue of the Computers
in Libraries magazine, the
Internet Librarian section, that cites the statistics from the
ALA Press Release of August 30, 1995.
A recent survey conducted as part of the Public Library Data
Service "Statistical Report '95"
polled 369 public libraries serving populations of at least
100,000. According to the report only
23 percent of the surveyed libraries provide direct public access
to the Internet and another 5
percent provide public access with staff assistance. That leaves
an alarming number of almost
70 percent of all libraries that serve populations over 100,000
that are not connected to the
Internet. One can only speculate on the fate of all smaller
libraries that serve rural communities
or libraries situated in low income areas. The survey does not
provide any information on the
type of access: Netscape, LYNX.
Unless drastic measures are taken, many public libraries and the
communities they serve, will be
left behind with the grim prospects of never going beyond the
year 2000.
I want to voice my concern for this situation. Governmental
information is migrating into the
electronic media with the speed of lightning. Soon, only the
core of Federal documents will be
still available in a printed form. What is going to happen to
the libraries that will not be able to
afford computers? And what will happen to their users deprived of
the information that is
rightfully theirs? More important, what will be the role of the
public library in the next century?
In view of this situation, I thought it would be appropriate to
recount the St. Charles City-County
Library District's Internet success story. It is an example of
one avenue available for public
libraries to explore in their quest for the Internet connection.
If it weren't for this success, I
wouldn't be talking to you today.
While less than 25 percent of public libraries provide public
access to the Internet, the St.
Charles City-County Library District has direct Internet access
with over 100 stations in six
branches, out of which 50 are for public use - six or more
stations per branch. The library is
one of the original sponsors of the community information system
WIN. WIN, the Westplex
Information Network, a freenet, grew out of a series of
discussions between the St. Charles City-
County Library District, the City of St. Peters, the St. Peters
Fire Protection District, the St.
Charles County Community College, the St. Charles County
Government, and several other
organizations in 1993.
MOREnet, the Missouri Research and Education Network, was
selected to provide WIN with
access to the Internet. MOREnet, at that time, was already
successful in developing three other
community networks, and the DESE project, the Department of
Elementary and Secondary
Education project, designed to provide Internet access to all
Missouri school districts.
In early January 1995, WIN opted to work with MOREnet in
developing the WWW
implementation of the community information network. Originally,
LYNX, the textual browser,
was used in the basic development stage of the network. In April
1995, Netscape was installed
in most of the branches. As of now, all our branches provide
access to the WWW.
Among other benefits, WIN also offers free access to the Internet
to all of the county residents,
and for a minimal fee of $6.00 per month, a SLIP connection.
The next step for the St. Charles City-County Library District
was to establish its presence on the
Internet, which meant building home pages.
For me it has been a serendipitous journey that started in May
1995. I was recuperating at
home from a car accident. Reading, listening to music and
eventually surfing the Net kept me
busy for eight long summer weeks. Inflicted with a professional
preoccupation I focused on
professional home pages, and after a while became familiar with
most of them. I have found
many superbly constructed, comprehensive sites, immaculately
arranged, often detailed with
annotations and with numerous links branching into endless
labyrinths of the cyberspace.
Bruce Maxwell, in his presentation at last year's Federal
Depository Library Conference, cites
over 1000 comprehensive governmental sites on the Net. His count
is probably right. What
struck me while visiting these sites however, was the fact that
none of them were geared toward
the public library audience. And the public library does have
different needs.
I came across an article written by June Parker in the
January/February 1996 issue of the Journal
of Government Information. Parker in "Evaluating Documents
Reference Service and the
Implications for Improvement," suggests that there are no known
statistics on who uses
government documents in libraries, why they are used, and which
categories of materials are
used the most. The article evaluates reference services in
academic libraries.
The most recent article by Richmond and McKnelly, in the same
publication, March/April 1996
issue, addresses the same problem, again from the academic
library perspective. The use of
government documents in public libraries has never been formally
surveyed, as far as I could
establish.
I have spent the last ten years working as a reference librarian
for two large public libraries in
the St. Louis Area: the St. Louis County Library, which serves a
population of over two million
people, and the St. Charles City-County Library District, just
west of the St. Louis Metropolitan
Area, that serves over 250,000 residents. I have learned a lot.
Without formal statistics I can
tell quite accurately what governmental documents are used on a
daily basis. I am also aware
of the "document phobia" which inflicts not only the users but
also my fellow librarians. The
sum of these experiences proved to be invaluable in the
construction of my home page.
Government documents are used by a variety of people for
different reasons. Academic libraries
have their own clientele, as do special libraries and public
libraries. Two in three Americans go
to a public library each year, according to ALA. More than
one-third of all users are children.
Fifty-three percent of adults reported library use in the
previous year. Contrary to a common
belief, younger people visit the library more frequently than the
older. Two-thirds of 18-24 year
olds used the public library, versus one-third of people aged 65
and older.
Public libraries encounter a set of circumstances that are unique
only to them. They serve a
very inhomogeneous group of people. Their users come from all
walks of life; they come in all
ages; they come with different socio-economic and educational
backgrounds; some have no
education; others have some; yet there are those who are
professional people, with graduate
degrees and know what they want and how to ask for it; others may
have problems in
formulating the question; many have never seen a computer, less
searched the Net; others
searched occasionally but never learned the basics. Some, of
course, are familiar with the
Internet, with the World Wide Web, and with various methods of
searching. In other words--
there is no typical public library user.
My goal is to provide an easy access to Federal documents for
even the most inexperienced
public library user. In order to achieve that goal I often have
to repackage the information I find
on the Web.
"Access, represents the customer or user and encompasses
the terms distribution and
dissemination... Access ... must mean one other thing. It must
mean usefulness."
These are J.D. Young's words from his remarks at the fall 1995
Depository Library Council
Meeting.
My definition of "usefulness" encompasses the audience, the
appropriate sources for that
audience, and their presentation; in the case of a home page,
their arrangement. For a source to
be useful, it has to be the right source for that particular
audience offered in the most
appropriate way.
The Federal and State Information from the St. Charles
City-County Library District home page is
comprised of links to documents that are most frequently used by
the public library's users.
When available, I offer a direct access to these documents
avoiding multiple hyperlinks or a sub-
menu structure. The arrangement is simple but logical--a broad
subject division. I consciously
avoid listing by agencies. My experience tells me that most
people who use documents have no
idea where they originated.
The home page that dates back to September 1995 has been
perpetually under construction.
For those of you who might be interested in visiting it, I have
recently grouped the links together
in broad subject areas, and arranged them alphabetically, hoping
to provide a better and easier
access to the sources. As always comments and suggestion are
welcome.
The URL for Federal and State information from the St. Charles
City County Library District is:
http://www.win.org/library/matls/govdocs/
homepg.htm
Over the months the page has undergone several transformations.
As the number of links grew I
became aware that a long list of links merely arranged
alphabetically or by chronology of their
"discovery" is impractical. And so, I chose a broad grouping by
subject hoping that its simplicity
will prove to be useful to users.
I have also included several comprehensive sites. I believe that
constructing a home page can
be compared to a process of collection development. The
individual links can be viewed as
selected items while other documents can be found going to sites
like the Federal Web Locator,
FedWorld, or others.
Most of my links have been harvested from comprehensive sites on
the Web and placed directly
on my home page. I also regularly check other sources for WWW
governmental information:
reliability of its point of origin.
I prefer to select the "official" sites maintained by the Federal
agencies or from State universities
and colleges. However, I will add a commercial link when it
proves to be superior or in the
absence of a similar site. For example, I added the Federal Jobs
Digest, which is maintained by
a commercial provider.
The links are added and removed depending on their usefulness.
This is one of the advantages
of being your own publisher - freedom of choice! I am a
"one-person-operation" and experience
both its benefits and its downfalls!
As I mentioned before, the arrangement of my home page is simple.
The "front page" items, like
the Telecommunication Act of 1996, or the links to Presidential
Race 1996, are placed at the
very beginning of the Federal Information section. All other
items are grouped informally in
broad subject areas:
1. Major Statistical Sources. (with an added statement: "Check
Also Individual Topics For Other
Statistical Sources!")
a. The County and City Data Book (I am not too happy with
this choice, but some people
like it)
b. The Governmental Information Sharing Project from the
Oregon State University.
Absolutely the most popular of all, also one of my
favorites
c. The Statistical Abstract of the United States, which I
wish was key-word searchable!
d. The World Factbook, 1995
2. Business/Economy
a. Business Cycle Indicators: Data Extraction--a searchable
site from the School of Business,
University of Alabama at Birmingham, that covers years
1970-1996. The BCI used to be
part of the Survey of Current Business publication until
1995.
b. Commerce Business Daily from a commercial provider, Loran
Data Corp. Although the
CBD is included in the STAT-USA account, I felt it was
worth placing it here--it offers a
free access to the most recent issue, and no password is
required!
c. EDGAR - I hope that its database will eventually cover
all the companies required to file
with the SEC.
d. Information about the EE Savings Bonds. This commercial
site allows the patron to
calculate their bonds' value by the face value, issue
month, issue year, redemption
month. Years covered: 1980 - 1996.
e. The SIC Manual - searchable; from OSHA
Other sites here: the SBA, the Statistics of U.S.
Businesses, U.S. Economic Indicators, and
more.
3. Census Information
a. 1990 Census Data Lookup, a site that is used most
frequently. Sometimes a bit tedious
to use, nevertheless, well received and appreciated.
b. Population Division Home Page, from the Bureau of the
Census.
4. Educational/Environmental/Social Links include
a. The EPA documents
b. FannieMae information on housing, lenders, home buying,
etc.
c. Federal Jobs Digest from a commercial provider
d. Federal Jobs Search from FedWorld
e. GSA's Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
f. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a new
item covering issues that are at
the heart of everyone in this country. Includes the
Missing Children Database which is
searchable by several criteria.
g. Social Security Online
h. Uniform Crime Report for January-June 1995
The environmental links will soon migrate from this list to a
new environmental home page
that will include numerous FEMA and related sites. I plan to
cover the subject of: floods,
earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, their management, helpful
tips, addresses, phone
numbers, etc. As we all remember, the flood of 1993 created
new awareness of these issues.
I hope to be ready with this home page this summer.
5. Laws/Regulations
I have included here both Thomas and GPO Access to which I
have provided three access
points: access from GPO, from Purdue University and from the
University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. You will also find here the CFR, and the
Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.
As I mentioned before, I have incorporated several comprehensive
Federal Web sites on my
home page. Namely:
1. The Federal Web Locator from the Villanova Center for
Information Law and Policy
2. The FedWorld
3. A link to Larry Schankman's home pages (for the brave at
heart)
4. Several GPO links
5. The Spirit of UCONN from the University of Connecticut
6. The Statistical Resources on the Web from the University of
Michigan Documents Center
Although I consider most of the comprehensive sites too
cumbersome for the inexperienced or
even the average public library searcher, nevertheless, I felt
that my home page would not
reflect accurately the Federal information available on the Web
without their presence. Also, I
had to keep in mind the experienced user who likes to visit
comprehensive sites which allow
him the freedom of searching.
In conclusion of my presentation, I would like to stress the
necessity of diligently searching the
Web for new sites, and continuously reviewing all links on a
published home page. In the "age
of transition" we will have to rely more and more on our own
ingenuity. The core paper
collection will have to be heavily supplemented with electronic
formats. How the users will
access Federal information will depend on us--we are the ones
that will have to provide a user-
friendly access. Hopefully, the agencies responsible for their
publication will provide us with
user-friendly and timely documents.
Lastly, I would like to remain hopeful for the future of the
public library and its access to the
Federal information on the Web.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
.The World Wide Web at a Small State
University
Larry Schankman
Mansfield University
Mansfield, PA
Good morning. During my 15 minutes this morning I'll talk about
the use of the Web in a
small, poorly funded State university. My primary motivation in
library use of the Web, and the
one thing that has made the big difference for me professionally,
is information content (what I
often call the "good stuff").
First and foremost, I consider myself a reference librarian.
Unfortunately, my library does not
enjoy the same ability (i.e. budget) to acquire value-added print
and electronic resources as
wealthier institutions. Now, until a few years ago I could only
sympathize with our patrons who
needed materials that we did not own, and hope they would either
wait up to two weeks for
inter-library loan or accept my excuses. This saddened me
horribly, especially since library
school taught me to avoid the dreaded "N" word (No!) like the
plague.
But now, with the near instantaneous, worldwide resources of the
Internet, I can insert the "Y"
word (Yes!) more often into my reference desk vocabulary. "Yes,
I can get that for you. Any
preference for format?" And this pleases me immensely. Indeed, I
appreciate the Internet as a
great equalizing force for information access. As a documents
librarian I take even further
delight in the fact that most U.S. Government information is
non-copyrighted. Thus, our school
enjoys much the same access to information, at least in the
public domain, as do the richer,
larger universities.
But as more and more Web sites pop up every day, it seems harder
and harder to find rich
content, especially those texts and data which we librarians
would refer to as ready reference.
For these reasons, and given that our book budget will not
increase, I set a goal for myself
shortly upon my arrival at Mansfield University to improve the
information resources for our
students, faculty and staff. Since we needed money, I wrote a
grant application. And after
several changes and an initial rejection, we finally received
about $90,000 in LSCA Title III
funds to enhance public access to government (and even
non-government) information.
In addition to many neat toys, some of which I have just now
ordered (such as a CD-ROM
recorder and multimedia authoring software), we were able to
substantially upgrade our Internet
services and install a CD-ROM network. With the addition of two
14-disc towers, we are now
able to serve government CD's to our own students, as well as to
our grant partner, the J.V.
Brown District Library in Williamsport, PA. Through the Brown
Library we provide electronic
government information to about 20 participating rural public
libraries.
The first stage of the grant involved creation of several Web
pages. Beginning with the
government and statistical data pages, this project has asserted
a life of its own. I certainly never
expected Web page maintenance to become such an all-consuming
experience. Nevertheless, I
have now created dozens of pages, on a variety of topics. In
fact, I have even had to remove
several pages as a result of insufficient time with which to
adequately maintain them (the
expression "get a life" often comes to mind).
In many ways, this project seems to me a harbinger of things to
come. After the implementation
of GPO's Transition Plan I can imagine an even greater need for
depository librarians to help
train and support smaller and less sophisticated libraries in
their congressional districts. Besides,
if we choose to expand our traditional role as educators we could
perform an even more
rewarding community service: more documents to more people, 24
hours a day, from any
connected location, clothing optional.
In this spirit, the second component of our grant consisted of
several workshops conducted for
public librarians. These workshops focused on government
information and the services now
available to them through our network via telnet, the Web, or
toll free dial-in access. For our
first workshop, conducted as a traveling "road show," we produced
a show-and-tell of our
favorite government documents. We later offered one workshop
each on Internet government
resources and the depository compact discs provided through our
CD network.
I will now demonstrate the three basic uses of the Web in my
library.
a. Local, Secure Menuing System
Recently I have set up an experimental Web page which can launch
any program we decide to
offer our patrons. The Web page itself is rather typical, except
that we use a Web browser
(Netscape in our case) to access local applications, CD's, and
local files, in addition to Web
resources. Since we do not have time to discuss the techniques
and software necessary to make
this work, I have set up a Web page which describes and
illustrates everything you need to set
up a secure menu yourself, using your favorite Web browser.1 The
advantage to this system is
that we can utilize Windows at the reference desk without the
confusion and inherent problems
associated with Program manager (minimizing or moving around
icons, security, etc.).
b. Remote Access to Information and Data
In many cases students and faculty request materials which are
either unavailable at our library,
or too inconvenient to find in print. Especially in the case of
data and more obscure text, our
subject librarians and support staff (including student reference
assistants) have as much difficulty
identifying and locating materials as the requester. To
forestall such embarrassing moments I
have put links on our library home page2 to many useful
government and full-text resources.
Even when we own the needed material, Web access proves far more
convenient than hunting
down individual documents. As an example, we have set up a
demographics page just for local
and county data.3 Perhaps an even better example, since so many
people are unaware of where
to find it, is the map of our state's Federal legislative
districts.4
c. Online Pathfinders and Library Guides
Now that many, if not most, of our students have become
accustomed to browsing the Web, we
can offer online library guides formatted in HTML. Not only does
this save on the cost of paper,
but it helps the environment as well. Besides, I am not so naive
as to discount the likelihood
that students, when provided handouts and other print resources,
will immediately throw them
away. Moreover, Web pathfinders just look better, and in the
case of guides to online resources,
link directly to the highlighted site. Pathfinders used at
Mansfield University include guides on
Federal legislative histories,5 Federal regulations,6 and
statistical data available in and out of the
library.7
The final phase of our grant will come to pass this summer, when
I hope to learn some
programming techniques. In addition to a CD Recorder, I have
acquired a color scanner,
graphics software, and the latest versions of Visual Basic and
Macromedia Director. My hope is
to create several interactive, multimedia CDs, which we can then
network. One particular
project that I plan to sink my teeth into is the creation of a
regional census CD, utilizing an
intuitive menu with data extracted from several depository CDs.
The possibilities are indeed
endless.
References
1. http://www.clark.net/pub/lschank/web/
launch.html
2. http://www.mnsf
ld.edu/depts/lib/index.html
3. http://www.
mnsfld.edu/depts/lib/stats.html
4. http://
www.mnsfld.edu/depts/lib/pa-districts.html
5. http://www.m
nsfld.edu/depts/lib/mythomas.html
6. http://www.mnsfld.edu/depts/lib/fedregs.
html
7. http://www.mnsfld.edu/depts/lib/govstats.
html
You might also see the Govdocs pages, at:
http://www.clark.net/pub/lschank/web/gov.html
http://www.clark.net/pub/lschank/web/govdoc.html
.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
.What Wicked Web Will We Weave?
Maggie Parhamovich Farrell
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, DC
The World Wide Web is an important development in the evolution
of the Internet. With the
Web, we finally get a glimpse of the possibilities of the
National Information Infrastructure (NII).
The Web incorporates easy-to-use graphics and limited commands to
navigate through the
wealth of online information. Based upon Windows technology, the
Web facilitates multiple
applications so that users can use a word processor and navigate
the Web at the same time. The
Web is more dynamic and incorporates URL linkages to pull
together similar topics. In libraries,
we do not need to provide intense instruction since users can
easily learn the basics of
navigating the Web.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the Web is that it has
propelled the Internet into our
business and everyday activities unlike any other aspect of
Internet technology. It is impossible
to ignore URL listings in advertisements and in popular culture
as the Web has truly weaved its
way into our everyday lives.
For all of the benefits and wonders of the Web, there still
remains much developmental work.
Despite the impression that the Web is an integral part of our
lives, according to a recent
Nielsen Survey, only 8% of the U.S. and Canadian population have
access to the Web.1
Knowing that this percentage has probably increased since the
survey was taken in 1995, it is
still dangerous to think that we are developing technology and
services for a small, elite portion
of the U.S. population. To truly be effective, the Web and the
developing NII must reach greater
portions of our population.
The Web is limited in that it requires high end equipment to run.
Users must have sophisticated
online accounts in addition to possessing the technical skills to
manage the software on their
own personal computers. There are also limitations on the
structure of the Internet. We can all
attest to incidents of busy sites or slow responses during peak
periods of use on the Internet.
The technology is stressed due to the increase of users on the
Internet. þThe same tools and
applications that are expanding the enabling character of the
Internet and attracting new users
are pushing the network beyond the bounds of its current
architecture.þ2 The success of the
Web is limiting its own capabilities. Despite the advancements
of the Web, essentially the Web
is a graphical interface to ftp or file transfer protocol. The
current Internet software and
architecture need to be drastically revised in order to meet the
demands of users.
I see five areas which need to be developed in order to fully
realize the promises of the Web.
These are infrastructure, conduits, software, content, and
attitude.
1. INFRASTRUCTURE
Bandwidth
Currently, there is a lack of priority or sectioning of the
Internet. For instance, your E-mail to a
friend about Friday night plans competes for bandwidth space with
a doctor who is sending
graphical images of x-rays to another doctor. One solution would
be to increase the bandwidth.
Unfortunately, traffic on the Internet will increase accordingly.
Our current highway system is an
example of this scenario. As traffic increases on highways, we
need to expand the number of
lanes. However, expanded lanes draw more traffic and the traffic
increases to the capacity of
the highway. Increased bandwidth would solve slow response time.
However, this would only
be a temporary solution.
HOV Lanes
One solution to the increased traffic is the development of
priority routing through the Internet.
Similar to High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on highways,
regular traffic would flow along
at a steady pace while high priority traffic would move along
faster lanes with less traffic. This
would permit those applications, such as video and interactive
applications, which need faster
and more bandwidth to travel according to their needs while
ordinary traffic, such as E-mail and
ASCII texts which require less bandwidth, would travel along
normal lanes.
Another option would be to establish a system in which certain
applications which need high
capacity bandwidth can reserve the bandwidth for a certain period
of time for that specific
application. Packet assembling is currently being studied as
well. Before information is
transmitted along the Internet, the application is split into a
series of packets which reassemble
themselves when they arrive at their destination. With graphics
and video, it is essential that the
packets be reassembled in the correct order.
As we improve the quality of the bandwidth, we can be assured
that the traffic on the Internet or
the NII will be stable and reliable. Currently, the National
Science Foundation in cooperation
with MCI is developing priority and high capacity bandwidth which
would run within the
existing Internet infrastructure. Applications with
Supercomputer centers are currently being
tested.
.Rural Networks
In order for the NII to truly reach all Americans, the
infrastructure needs to expand beyond
universities, governments, and selected commercial companies.
The NII holds the greatest
potential for rural communities since it facilitates interaction
between individuals and transmits
timely and relevant information. Networks must reach every
community and neighborhood
before the NII can become a viable information resource. It is
likely that the infrastructure will
be built through cooperative ventures. The government cannot
afford to build the infrastructure,
yet the commercial sector must see the profit beyond the social
good before it heavily invests
into building the NII. It is likely that the NII will be a
cooperative venture between the public
and private sectors working within local communities to build the
NII.
2. CONDUIT TO HOMES AND OFFICES
This is closely tied to infrastructure but is more specific to
the connections from the network to
your home and the hardware necessary to access the Internet or
its successor. Once the
infrastructure is built, we need stable and simple connections to
our homes. SLIP/PPP
technology needs to be easier to install and more reliable.
However, PPP connections will
probably be surpassed by the development of direct connections to
the NII.
There are several types of direct connectivity including ATM
(Asynchronous Transfer Mode),
ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Lines) and cable modems
which operate on cable
television wiring. Perhaps the most popular is the development
of ISDN (Integrated Services
Digital Network) which is available in some major metropolitan
markets. Yet at this time, direct
connections are costly, unstable, and do not reach every
community.
.MCI and AT&T are working on the development of direct connections
to offices and homes
through telephone cables. Cable television is also pursuing
direct connectivity through existing
cable television wiring. I do not think it will be long before
we are able to directly connect to
an Internet Service Provider (ISP) without going through a modem
connection. The driving force
behind direct connectivity will be the business profits seen in
providing entertainment options to
the consumer.
3. SOFTWARE AND TOOLS
The Web is a great tool and advances the development of the
Internet. However, we need an
even more seamless interface with graphics across protocols, and
advanced applications such as
videos and interactive technologies. Currently, the browser, in
cooperation with the Windows
interface, looks for the application on your computer to handle
unique file formats. For
instance, with JPEG files, the browser will call up Adobe Acrobat
or whichever viewer you have
in order to view the image. However, if you do not have the
appropriate application, then you
must save the file but can not view it at that moment. The other
problem is that each individual
must maintain the most current version of various application
software on their PCþs. The Web
is high maintenance at this stage and we need to develop software
which requires automatic
maintenance.
Java is important in this development. Java will find the most
recent version of the application
software and run the software on your PC and then return the
software to the host computer.
This provides for a more seamless interface and reduces the
burden of the user to have all of the
latest versions of application software. þSome well-known
computer scientists even argue that
Java, or a language very much like it, will eventually transform
the computer industry by turning
networks into a new technology platform - supplanting both the
personal computer and PC
operating system software as the foundation for a new market and
new businesses that will grow
as quickly as the PC software industry once did.3 Java or
javalike applications have the
potential to radically change how we use software applications.
The development of indexers has facilitated searching on the
Internet. GovBot, the forthcoming
Pathway Indexer, Yahoo!, and Open Text are excellent tools but
limited in their capability.
Relevancy ranking is problematic since it is the interpretation
of a computer, not human
expertise.
One of the contributing factors to the success of the Web has
been the relatively easy coding
language HTML (HyperText Markup Language). HTML is easy to learn
and facilitates the
development of Web applications for small companies and
institutions since it does not require
expensive programming to implement. Javascript is more
difficult to learn and requires
advanced skills to implement. We need to continue to develop
software and computer coding
or languages which empower the individual and smaller companies
in developing their own
applications on the Internet.
Another development is forms software which integrates Web
technology to existing computer
systems. This goes beyond a form on the Internet to taking the
information submitted via a form
and converting that information into another application. For
example, depository libraries
could submit their item selection on a form and computer
programming would convert the form
information to a computer which controls the selection. The
lighted bin system would be
automatically updated and the new selection would begin
immediately. Human intervention
would not be necessary since this function is completely
automated. Form software technology
goes beyond a simple submission of data to integration of data
with existing systems.
Collaborative software, especially available on Internet and
Intranets, is currently being
developed. This includes sharing of documents simultaneously and
the ability to provide instant
feedback within a group process. Collaborative software
facilitates virtual workplace
environments which promote telecommuting and the utilization of
experts located throughout
the world. Work is not limited by geography or physical space.
Collaborative software goes
beyond E-mail and fax technology to fully integrated work
processes and collaborative working
environments available through Internet technology. The Federal
Webmasters Consortium is
developing work in this area in cooperation with NCSA.4
One of the major problems of the Internet is the instability of
file locations. Files are moved or
Web sites are reorganized which makes it difficult for users to
locate a file after it has been
moved. Although Webmasters are sensitive to this problem, the
difficulties continue to persist.
Under development is the idea of Uniform Resource Identifiers
(URI) or handles. Another
terminology is persistent URLs or PURLs. Regardless of the
name, the idea is that a file
would have a single URI which would point to the correct location
of the file regardless of
where the file is located. This idea also works for E-mail, so
that regardless of your institution or
geographical location, your E-mail would be a unique identifier
and you would never worry
about new E-mail addresses when you change institutions or
Internet service providers.
As depository librarians, we have all experienced patrons who
need authentication that the
government publication which they are photocopying is a
legitimate and authoritative copy of
the original. This issue is further complicated in the
electronic environment. How can we
ensure that the electronic copy is as authoritative as the print
copy? How can we authenticate a
signature on a document? The development of authentication tools
is critical. þDigital
signatures are needed for electronic commerce and official
communication so that electronic
transactions can be done with as much confidence as a signed
paper contract or document.5
Authentication software is based upon the safety deposit key
analogy. In order to authenticate
a document, you need two keys, one from the originator and one
from the receiver. When
the keys match, then the user can be assured that the document is
official from its government
entity. The U.S. Postal Service is working toward developing
standards for authentication of
documents and signatures.
Closely related to authentication is encryption. Now you might
recall the dreaded v-chip or
call up images of spies, but encryption has valid uses for all of
us. Encryption ensures secure
transactions by using mathematical formulas to change the
original message into garbage and
then translates the message once it is received by the correct
recipient. There is the false
perception that encryption creates closed communication but the
opposite is true. If we have
confidence that our activities on the Internet are secure, we
will have more open
communication and transfers of information. Encryption is
critical if we use the Internet for
business applications, especially in sales. Individuals will be
more comfortable in placing online
orders if they are ensured that their transaction is secure.
Encryption will have a positive impact
upon electronic applications by facilitating more interactive
services.
As we move into the electronic era, we have discussed changing
from a just in case to a just
in time scenario. With the advancement of technology, we no
longer need to collect all of the
information in the world but we need to be able to connect to
specific information in the world
when we need it. Now we are moving to a just for you
environment. Technology not only
needs to connect us to information, but to that specific
information which we need for a specific
application. Also, software needs to locate relevant information
regardless of the format. For
instance, if you were doing research on document collections in
public libraries, search software
would locate not just the articles you need but would locate the
paragraphs within articles and
chapters within books along with any graphics you need for your
research. Another example:
NBC is testing an application called HyperMedia which permits
affiliates to pick and choose
which videos they need for a local broadcast. Affiliates no
longer need to download the entire
video archive for the small percentage of video they will
actually use. Affiliates only download
specific files relevant to their needs.6 You already apply this
principle when you channel surf
through programs on television. For instance, you watch the
first 15 minutes of a news program
and then move on to a sitcom. If you do not care for a
particular story, then you switch
channels to another newscast. This same principle is being
applied to software so that you not
only locate information, but you locate specific information
tailored to your particular needs.
4. CONTENT
This is dependent upon the first three needs of the Internet. The
Web is limited in significant
content primarily due to the instability of the structure and
lack of authentication. Once the
structure is constructed, we need to build the content of the
World Wide Web. It needs to be
more than advertising and promotional materials to information
which is being requested by
individuals.
The strength of the Internet has been the idea of the
information commons. Anyone and any
group can interact through the Internet. The Internet has
supported minority opinions and has
promoted the free exchange of ideas. While entrepreneurs rush
to build Web sites and Web
products, content remains thin. Some of the richest aspects of
American culture have come
from its minorities and outcasts.7 We need to protect the
information commons concept and
fulfill the empty promises of television and cable TV.
5. ATTITUDE
I personally believe that as individuals we need to put an end to
technology controlling us and
turn it around to us using technology to do our jobs better. I
will give you a simple example
which I think illustrates what I mean. When you are using
E-mail, do you respond to each new
incoming message when it is sent? Do you feel pressured that you
must respond to that E-mail
immediately or to the latest posting on GOVDOC-L? Or do you use
your E-mail to control your
communications and set aside time in your daily routine to check
and respond to E-mail? We
need to stop viewing technology as a threat and develop
procedures and services which utilize
the best of technology. The Internet Goddess at UNLV, Kay
Tuma, often asks this question in
her training Are you doing your job differently today because of
technology or are you doing
the same job just with a computer? If your personal computer is
a glorified typewriter and
messaging center, then you are not tapping the potential of
technology to do your job better and
provide effective services. We need to use technology as a
tool. A positive, objective
viewpoint will assist in the development of tools which we need
in order to bring about the full
vision of the World Wide Web.
And finally a note of encouragement. Throughout the last two
days of the conference, we have
been discussing many problems in making the transition to an
electronic environment. These
problems are not limited to GPO and the Federal Depository
Library Program. Bibliographic
control, persistent URLs, locators, and search engines are issues
which are being considered
throughout the Internet community. The World Wide Web is just
one more step in the evolution
of the Internet. What are we going to do with it? How will it
improve our lives? Can it
improve our lives? What is its value? New technologies do not
mature and take hold overnight,
let alone change our culture . . . If we want a fundamental
change for the better in human
relations, it will take more than the presence of a new
technology to do it.8 I am confident in
the future developments of the Web and that we can build an
infrastructure which supports our
current information needs. It is up to us to determine how to
use this new tool within our
society and I hope we make the correct decisions.
1. CommerceNet/Nielsen Internet Demographic Survey, Executive
Summary, New York:
CommerceNet Consortium/Nielsen Media Research, 1995, sec.3.2.8
http://www.commerce.net/information/surveys/exec_sum.html
2. Brian Kahin and James Keller, eds. Public Access to the
Internet, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
1995, p. 45.
3. John Markoff, Making the PC Come Alive: A Software Language
that Puts You in the
Picture, New York Times, September 25, 1995, p. C1.
4. http://skydive.ncsa.uiuc.edu
/
5. Alan Sherwood, Digital Law Inked Signature, Government
Technology, 9 (February 1996),
p.19.
6. NBC to Test MCI's Fast Video Service,þ Information Week,
(April 22, 1995), p. 28.
7. Joel Dreyfuss, Not as Hip as You Thought: Lack of Diversity
Restricts the IT Business and
Deprives us of New Ideas, Information Week, (April 22, 1995), p.
132.
8. Dennis F. Galletta. Doomed to Disappointment: Our
Expectations of the Internet are Well
Beyond What the Technology Can Now Deliver, Washington Post,
February 16, 1996, p. A21.
.
[ Back to the Table of
Contents
]
.Dissemination of Energy Information: An
Overview of the Energy Information
Administration Electronic Dissemination
Program
Mark Rodekohr
U.S. Department of Energy
Washington, DC
Goals of the Energy Information Administration (EIA)
Electronic
Dissemination Program
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