By NATALIE GAWDIAK
The Library of Congress and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center on April 18 signed an agreement to upgrade the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) to better serve Congress.
The memorandum of understanding signed by Dr. Billington and NASA Administrator Dan Goldin will increase accessibility of legal data from around the world for the Library's legal specialists, who provide information to Congress.
GLIN is a cooperative database administered by the Library of Congress's Law Library that provides access to laws of foreign countries and the United States to its 10 member countries over the Internet. This agreement will enable GLIN partners without Internet access to receive and transmit data using a satellite system being tested by Goddard. The agreement also calls for Library and NASA staff to work together to upgrade the speed and flexibility of GLIN.
Specifically, the agreement calls for, by the year 2000:
- Using satellites "to provide sufficiently high bandwidth communications to insure interactive usage of the [GLIN] database as a digital legal library anywhere in the world."
- Establishing a technology infrastructure that "supports current or de facto standards to provide basic access to any country of the world desirous of participation."
- Increasing usability of the system by designing better indexing and searching tools.
"The Library of Congress is pleased to enter into a cooperative agreement with NASA that will benefit both agencies," said Dr. Billington. "NASA's technology and expertise will help make GLIN more responsive to the needs of Congress."
GLIN is a system developed by the Library of Congress and its Law Library to improve service to Congress, which often needs information on the laws of foreign countries. For example, when writing treaties, the Senate needs to know the legal environment in which the treaty will be implemented. Congress also often asks the Law Library for examples of laws in other nations that address issues faced by the United States as well. All of GLIN's members have access to one another's databases.
Goddard researchers are developing systems to manage quickly large volumes of satellite data. The cooperative agreement joins the Library's need for an advanced data management system with Goddard's desire to test its systems inexpensively.
According to Milt Halem, head of Goddard Space Data and Computing Center, "This is a unique opportunity and may very well be the first time that Goddard or NASA has provided such significant information-network technology to an organization in the legislative branch."
Rubens Medina, Law Librarian and GLIN director, praised NASA for its willingness to offer its expertise and technology. "The Law Library staff look forward to a fruitful relationship. Together, we will make GLIN an even better system that is more widely accessible and easier to use."
The Law Library is the largest such library in the world. It was established in 1832 by the U.S. Congress to answer congressional inquiries and prepare reports and other documents for U.S. lawmakers. Its staff of legal specialists track legislation from around the world.
Romania Joins GLIN. Under the auspices of the Congressional Research Services's Task Force on International Parliamentary Programs, a delegation of Law Library staff, headed by the Law Librarian, traveled to Bucharest, Romania, on April 20-28 on a fact- finding mission to assess the viability of establishing a country GLIN station.
Current GLIN national member stations are not all at an equal level of performance and delivery due to factors such as procurement and connectivity. Thus a site visit is necessary to ensure that the network can be effectively implemented. For the benefit of all its users, a critical mass of data needs to be entered as expeditiously as possible.
The delegation to Romania inspected the technological infrastructure and assessed the administrative organization and expertise of local personnel who would undertake Romania's participation in this international partnership of electronic legal information exchange.
At the end of the trip, the delegation concluded that Romania has more than an adequate technology infrastructure with good telecommunications access; that both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies are interested and committed to GLIN participation; and that the legislative branch's organizational structure would allow for the cooperation of both bodies. A GLIN-Romania Team has been designated to participate in training and network administration activities.
Because the Chamber of Deputies has direct access to a satellite link and is equipped with the basic hardware and software elements required, it will serve as the location of the GLIN-Romania station. The Senate is also properly equipped to operate a support-associate station. The newly created Legislative Council as well as the Ministry of Justice are also interested in participating.
The Romanian Team members - a lawyer analyst and an information technology expert - are scheduled to participate in the GLIN training session to be conducted in Washington, at LC's Law Library this month. This session will also include training for a new GLIN- Mexico associate station.
Romania is the 11th nation to join the network. Sweden, France, Russia and Albania are scheduled for negotiations and fact-finding missions in this year, which would bring the total number of network members to 15 countries. The GLIN database has 33 other, mostly Hispanic, nations whose laws are indexed and input by the members of the GLIN- Central team at the Law Library. Ten other countries have expressed an interest in joining the network.
Natalie Gawdiak is a writer-editor in the Law Library.