1867 lines
94 KiB
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1867 lines
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Libraries and the National Research and Education Network
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This file contains the text of six short pieces and a longer discussion
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paper prepared for the American Library Association confernce in June
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1990. They include perspectives from different types of libraries:
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"Developing the Information Superhighway" by Edwin Brownrigg
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"A Public Library Perspective" by Lois Kershner
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"The National Research and Education Network For Special Libraries" by
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Steve Cisler
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"Electronic Networking at Davis Senior High School" by Janet Meizel
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"Free-neting" by T.M. Grundner
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"Electronic Networking for California State and Public Libraries" by Gary
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Strong, Kathy Hudson, and John Jewell
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Finally, there is a piece by Dr. Vinton Cerf of the Corporation for National
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Research Initiatives entitled "Thoughts on the National Research and Education
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Network " that appeared in July 1990 as RFC 1167 for the Internet community.
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These papers plus a different one by Dr. Cerf, and other useful documents
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appear in the LITA publication LIBRARY PERSPECTIVES ON NREN, edited by Carol A.
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Parkhurst. (ISBN 0-8389-7477-5) Buy it from LITA Publications, 50 E. Huron
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Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602. Please cite this publication if you
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re-distribute all or part of this collection.
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If you have any comments about this electronic document , please contact
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Steve Cisler, Apple Library, Apple Computer, Inc. (sac@apple.com).
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----
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Developing the Information Superhighway
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Issues for Libraries
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Edwin Brownrigg, Ph.D.
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The Memex Research Institute
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This paper was commissioned by the Library and Information Technology
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Association, a division of the American Library Association, to provide a
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basis for discussion of library participation in current efforts to
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establish a national telecommunications "superhighway". The paper
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outlines the convergence of library automation and educational
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networking, and relates the importance of recent trends to future library
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service. The impact of the existing higher education network (Internet)
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and the proposed National Research and Education Network (NREN) on
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library service is explored. Public policy issues are defined, including
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the availability of resources, access to the resources, definition and
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adherence to standards, and boundary problems. To support the needed
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debate on public policy issues, ten principles for operation of publicly
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supported networking, within and beyond the NREN, are proposed.
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We live in an era of change in modes of communication[1] . At the root of
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our social changes, and our legal reactions to them, is a key
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technological change: communication, other than face-to-face, is becoming
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overwhelmingly electronic. Not only is electronic communication growing
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faster than communication through the traditional medium of print, but
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also the convergence of the modes of delivery (print, common carriage,
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and broadcasting) is bringing newspapers, journals, and books to the
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threshold of digital electronic communication.
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By the late 1970s, broadcasting had grown to the point where, on the
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average, Americans consumed four times as many words electronically as
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they read in print[2] . Yet, at the same time, publication of printed
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material was growing annually at a rate of five percent. Then through the
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1980s, academics and business people came to embrace electronic mail and
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telefacsimile through common carriers as electro- typographic means of
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personal expression.
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Along the arrow of time of human communications, our era is a mere speck
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compared to the preceding stretches. The arrow began with a long tail of
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communication by sound. That was followed by a stretch of communication
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by writing, and then by a stub of communication by print. At the tip of
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the arrow is the speck of our era of electronic communication.
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Understandably, our laws and public policies look back on the arrow of
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time for past analogies as we try to move ahead. From time to time it
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makes sense to revisit aging laws applied to then "new" communication
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modes of the past. The advent of a national network for research and
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education is such an occasion, and has prompted the commissioning of this
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work.
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In the past our various modes of communication were separate from each
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other, and the enterprises built upon them similarly distinct. Newspaper
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publishers and phonograph record producers, for example, did not get in
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each other's way. But today the historically separate modes of
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communication are converging due to the adroitness of digital
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electronics. Voice, music, text, images, motion video, numerical data,
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and computer programs, are all in the domain of digital electronics. By
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means of digital electronics they can all be created, collected,
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organized, distributed, reorganized, copied, displayed or performed.
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These activities for handling the various modes of communication are
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library functions. And, most significantly, all of these heretofore
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separate modes of communication can now play across the same electronic
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network.
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There can be little wonder at the confusion reflected both in our
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reactive laws for new communications technologies, and in the public
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policies for future priorities, practices, and rights in communication.
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The Convergence of Libraries and Networking
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The library profession stepped toward the threshold of digital electronic
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communication by perfecting the MARC cataloging communication standard
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over twenty years ago. At almost the same time, on the other side of
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Washington, D.C., plans for the ARPANET were developing. A decade later,
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and without precedent, the Division of Library Automation at the
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University of California created subnet 31 of the ARPA Internet in order
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to make available nationwide, MARC-based bibliographic data from the
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MELVYLt online union catalog.
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Now a growing number of library catalogs are appearing on the same
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nationwide network (the Internet) that has come to form the basis for the
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proposed National Research and Education Network (NREN).
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There is good reason that libraries should connect to the NREN. Common to
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those in the professions of computing, communications, and libraries has
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been the experience that when communities of people are surveyed as to
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how they would use an electronic network were one provided to them, the
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most frequent response (usually greater than the others combined) is:
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I would access library services.
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But librarians, who have traditionally dealt primarily with the separate
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mode of print, may not have been fully prepared for the implications of
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such a perception on the part of the patron/user. Nonetheless, the NREN
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is soon likely to become real after twenty years of tough decisions,
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public funding, institutional funding, and experimentation at campuses,
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laboratories, computer centers, research institutes, archives, and
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libraries. It falls to this generation of librarians to relate library
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services to network users' expectations.
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The National Research and Education Network (NREN)
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What is now being proposed under the name "National Research and
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Education Network" started in 1969 as an experiment under the sponsorship
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of the United States Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), an agency
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of the Department of Defense. The intent was to connect a small number of
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heterogeneous and geographically dispersed computers for the purpose of
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gaining experience in techniques for providing remote login access from
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one computer to another or through a series of intermediate computers.
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The first practical application of the experiment, although not
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originally a planned one, was electronic mail.
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The core of the design of the experiment was a small computer that would
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act as a switch to route packets of data back and forth among their
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sources and destinations. The model for the design was similar to the way
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the telephone network operates. Each computer was like a telephone
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connected to a local switch from which all other computers could be
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contacted. In addition, significant improvements over the telephone model
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were introduced into the ARPANET packet switching scheme.
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Since one of the primary goals of the network architecture was overall
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network survivability, the packet switches were designed to switch from
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one circuit to another in the event that any given circuit became
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congested or was interrupted. Another novelty was the introduction of a
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suite of protocols that could be programmed into computers connected to
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the ARPANET. These protocols would make it possible to transmit packets
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over a network composed of diverse physical media and circuits of
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different bit rates. By the 1980s, these protocols had evolved and
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allowed multiple and diverse networks to be connected to each other and
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thus to provide end-to-end service across many different networks. These
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mature protocols were called Transmission Control Protocol and Internet
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Protocol (TCP/IP).
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Perhaps the single most important realization of the ARPANET by the
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mid-1970s was that a community of different computers and operating
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systems could communicate with each other. At first the ARPANET grew
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slowly, but in the 1970s it added one new computer every twenty days. By
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the early 1980s the ARPANET was acquiring an increasing number of
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military sites, and it became clear that for security purposes there
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would have to be a split between research and military use. Thus MILNET
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(the military network) was created and diverged from ARPANET. This was a
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tribute to the success of the ARPANET, but it also called into question
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how ARPANET's future would be funded, once the Defense Department had
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gone its separate networking way.
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After the split, the name "Internet" entered the community's vocabulary
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for the network referent. Grave concerns grew over the funding issue, and
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various schemes were advanced for "managing" the Internet. Fortunately
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for the Internet community, in the early 1980s the National Science
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Foundation (NSF) had elevated supercomputing to a national science
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priority. Five supercomputer centers were established around the United
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States, and NSF funded further growth and expansion of the Internet as a
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means of enabling users remote from any of the five supercomputing sites
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to have access to supercomputing. The challenge then was to increase
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dramatically the speed of the network from a maximum speed of 56 kilobits
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per second to 1.5 megabits per second. Many in the community felt that
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this 28-fold increase in network speed would defeat the TCP/IP protocols,
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but this proved false, and now some NREN proponents are lobbying for
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speeds from 3 to 5 gigabits per second by the year 2000. If such speeds
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are realized, then NREN will be the de facto "information highway"
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envisioned by Senator Albert Gore, Jr.
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Two chief issues arise from the information highway scenario. First,
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which information services will use the NREN? Second, how will the NREN
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be financed? As of March 1990 these issues were still open. At the
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National Net'90 Conference, the formation of the Coalition for Networked
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Information was announced. Sponsored by the Association of Research
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Libraries (ARL), EDUCOM, and CAUSE, the Coalition is setting an agenda
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from which to discuss these two major issues and the many others that
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will arise in developing the NREN.
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Kenneth M. King, president of EDUCOM, originally described his vision of
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a networked scholarly community on December 8, 1988, at a joint meeting
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of the Library of Congress Network Advisory Committee and the EDUCOM
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Networking and Telecommunications Task Force. His vision embodied four
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objectives:
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--Connect every scholar in the world to every other scholar and thus
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reduce the barriers to scholarly interaction of space, time, and
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cultures.
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--Connect to the network all important information sources, specialized
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instruments, and computing resources worth sharing.
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--Build databases that are collaboratively and dynamically maintained
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that contain all that is known on a particular subject.
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--Create a knowledge management system on the network that will enable
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scholars to navigate through these resources in a standard, intuitive,
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and consistent way.
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The latter two objectives are fundamental library functions and the
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second (connecting to the network all important information sources)
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could be a library function in the future.
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Funding for the NREN
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The Coalition for the National Research and Education Network (not to be
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confused with the ARL/EDUCOM/CAUSE Coalition above) was formed to
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articulate the network challenge, to describe the NREN's benefits and
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beneficiaries, to propose a plan for the NREN's growth, to focus the
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issue of its funding and by whom, and to propose next steps.
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In its 1989 brochure entitled NREN: The National Research and Education
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Network the Coalition proposes that
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... the Network will give researchers and students at colleges of all
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sizes -- and at large and small companies -- in every state access to the
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same:
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--high performance computing tools
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--data banks
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--supercomputers
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--libraries
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--specialized research facilities
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--educational technology
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that are presently available to only a few large universities and
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laboratories that can afford them.
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>From this one can infer that the proponents of the NREN have a
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pluralistic approach.
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The Coalition for the NREN declares that federal funding is critically
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needed to:
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--stimulate the additional investments needed at the local and regional
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level; and
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--provide an infrastructure that will bring the benefits of those local
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and regional investments to the entire nation.
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There can be little doubt that there are economic advantages in building
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electronic networks, because campus after campus, and region after
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region, have done so. A proposal for $400 million for the NREN is
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currently before Congress as an initial request for 1991 through 1995.
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The Coalition for the NREN proposes that campuses continue to contribute
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to the cost of building local networks that would attach to the NREN, and
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that telecommunications companies contribute to the research and
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development of technologies that would enhance the speed and quality of
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services on the NREN.
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One of the basic problems with the issue of funding the NREN is that most
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of the organizations connected to the Internet currently pay for the
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leased telecommunications circuits that link them to an Internet gateway.
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To add to the confusion, some of the long high-speed circuits in the
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Internet are underwritten by their common carriers. These practices may
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give rise to the appearance that, in large part, the proposed NREN would
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start as self-funding and, thus, not be in need of public support. The
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EDUCOM Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (NTTF) addresses this
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perception and reports in its Policy Paper revised March 1990 that "[t]he
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federal government, through its research sponsoring agencies, has
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historically been the major source of funding for inter-campus network
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facilities, with the current level estimated at $50 million per year."
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The issue of cost recovery is also addressed in the EDUCOM NTTF Policy
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Paper that concludes: "Until a useful and detailed accounting procedure
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is available, the present ... fixed fee basis is considered a fair method
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of financing the network."
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In addition to new federal policies, new federal dollars likely will be
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required to sustain a national network that will meet the needs of
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American education and research. Because the amount of new federal
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dollars available to the NREN will be directly proportional to supportive
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votes from the citizenry, it may be a fitting strategy to introduce
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library and information services into the NREN proposal, as they
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traditionally have enjoyed public tax support at the local and state
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levels. In addition, since 1966, federal library programs have promoted
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interlibrary cooperation and resource sharing among all types of
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libraries through library networks operating across geographic and
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political boundaries.
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In order to achieve the NREN's vision and realize its goals through new
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policies and new public funding, interested parties need to be clear on
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these issues (whose resolutions are beyond this paper's scope):
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--the domain in which the policy operates
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--availability of resources
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--organization of access to the resources
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--establishment and adherence to standard practices
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--problems at NREN's boundaries
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NREN Policy and Governance
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Governance is perhaps the most daunting aspect of the NREN. During its
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incarnation as the ARPANET, there was no doubt that the Defense
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Communication Agency was the maker and enforcer of policy for the
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network. After the ARPANET/MILNET split, the Internet community was left
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with a loosely organized community of users whose interrelationships were
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informal. As a result, different regional networks within the Internet
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have different policies; different backbone agencies have different
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policies. NSF has a policy. The Federation of American Research Networks
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(FARNET) recently issued a usage policy statement. These all differ in
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some respects.
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There are several special interest groups involving themselves in the
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discussion of policy for the NREN. These range from members of Congress
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to university administrators, computer center directors, common carrier
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executives, and librarians.
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In addition, publishers are asking for a role in developing a national
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digital library. A March 15, 1990, press release from the Association of
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American Publishers, Inc. (AAP) quotes Timothy B. King, vice president of
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John Wiley & Son as testifying on behalf of AAP to a subcommittee on the
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House Science, Space and Technology Committee on H.R. 3131 that the best
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way of protecting scientific publishers' copyright and literature "is to
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involve us from the beginning," as a "valuable source of information for
|
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the network's designers and an active participant in the development of
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its information infrastructure."
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Privacy
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How will network security be achieved? Security violations of the
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Internet are known to have taken place. For the library profession, one
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issue will be how to achieve a balance between open access and
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privacy/security? Assuming a resolution of this issue, then, with the
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cooperation of users, basic information about collection use could be
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gathered and analyzed. Such data could be valuable for cooperative
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collection development.
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Potential NREN Resources
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||
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The agglutination of resources within the Internet is truly impressive.
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||
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The number of computers connected to the network is in the tens of
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thousands, and is perhaps in the hundreds of thousands when unknown
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||
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numbers of personal computers on local networks are taken into account.
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|
The major applications among these devices have been electronic mail and
|
||
|
other forms of file sharing. Now there are supercomputers on the network,
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and their services are highly rationed. However, what the community now
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appears to want in growing demand is more library-like services. This
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demand represents an evolutionary step beyond electronic information
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provision taking place within libraries today.
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Library-like services are different from traditional library services.
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||
|
Such services reduce to electronics and can emanate remotely from the
|
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library. Online catalog and other database access has already begun. So,
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the challenge for traditional librarians is to readjust further the
|
||
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professional focus from communication primarily by print to communication
|
||
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in significant part by electronics.
|
||
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|
||
|
Library Online Catalogs on the Proposed NREN
|
||
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Traditionally, libraries have tightly controlled access by patrons. The
|
||
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methods have been straightforward: open or close the library building's
|
||
|
doors, open or close the stacks, adjudicate and enforce book circulation,
|
||
|
develop the collection as functions of perceived usership and budget
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limitations, and provide some form of bibliography to users.
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||
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||
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Clearly, as a result of activity on the Internet, users' expectations
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||
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towards libraries are changing. Although the percentage of libraries
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||
|
whose online catalogs are available on the Internet is small, the
|
||
|
implications are great. The most significant implication is that
|
||
|
connecting an online catalog to a national network effectively begs the
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||
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question of open access to everyone. So far, open access has been the
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policy of the pioneering libraries who have connected to the Internet.
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Standards Practices Within the proposed NREN
|
||
|
|
||
|
ARPANET, the Internet, and now the proposed NREN, as manifestations of
|
||
|
the same development, share a history of over twenty years. That only a
|
||
|
handful of libraries have incorporated the network into their operations
|
||
|
suggests that the continuing convergence of networking and library
|
||
|
practices may take a long time. For example, in the name of sound
|
||
|
business practices some cataloging utilities continue not to use the
|
||
|
Internet, while some vendors of library automation systems have
|
||
|
acknowledged the importance of networking protocols.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The issue here is not that standards for libraries' use of the proposed
|
||
|
NREN do not exist. To the contrary, communications standards abound
|
||
|
within the library community. The NISO Z.39 protocols have been designed
|
||
|
to work with the lower layers of the OSI protocols. Arguably, the library
|
||
|
profession is a relatively well prepared group to join the Internet
|
||
|
community with respect to standards. The issue is that the Internet
|
||
|
community does not yet run the OSI protocols, and, therefore, the library
|
||
|
profession per force will be involved in a migration from TCP/IP to OSI
|
||
|
(Open System Interconnect) on the Internet.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Problems at NREN's Boundaries
|
||
|
|
||
|
There are many who would cite the Internet as being a good example of bad
|
||
|
management. At the same time, most of those same people are members of
|
||
|
institutions connected in one way or another to the Internet, and many of
|
||
|
them use it on a regular basis, if only to exchange electronic mail. For
|
||
|
example, defining the line of demarcation between research and education
|
||
|
is one of the management problems with the proposed NREN. It arises
|
||
|
because of the formal and informal hierarchies within the Internet with
|
||
|
respect to both its use and content. As long as priorities are clear, the
|
||
|
EDUCOM NTTF approach, to be inclusive rather than exclusive, appears to
|
||
|
prevail, provided that it does not erode the value of the network for the
|
||
|
very highest quality of research.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Another common attitude toward the Internet has been that it should not
|
||
|
carry commercial traffic, although this is changing. This proscription
|
||
|
would impede libraries from using the proposed NREN to its fullest
|
||
|
potential. The dichotomy has been that the proponents of the NREN have
|
||
|
focused mainly on themes of universal access by everyone to everything in
|
||
|
the research and education community.
|
||
|
|
||
|
For libraries, universal accessibility would be meaningless without
|
||
|
published works. Published works are commercial property. Published works
|
||
|
comprise the main content of libraries. Copyright law prohibits
|
||
|
unlicensed use of published works across a network, as such use would be
|
||
|
an infringement of the copyright holders' display rights. There is a
|
||
|
fundamental problem for libraries in using the proposed NREN as the
|
||
|
carrier for electronic library services without a resolution of the
|
||
|
issue of commercial traffic. A solution to the separate problem of how
|
||
|
copyright through the NREN could be handled is addressed in principle TEN
|
||
|
below.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The norms of use of the proposed NREN arise not out of law, but out of
|
||
|
convention. The resolution of the issue of commercial traffic over the
|
||
|
proposed NREN could be an opportunity for libraries to meaningfully
|
||
|
influence NREN's countenance and at the same time test the copyright
|
||
|
arrangement among publishers, libraries, and the research and education
|
||
|
community.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Public Policy Issues for Libraries
|
||
|
|
||
|
Americans today enjoy virtually universal access to the common carrier
|
||
|
services of mail, telegraph, and telephone. The same is true for the
|
||
|
broadcast services of radio and television. While these services have
|
||
|
been universal, the amount and type of content have been limited. Normal
|
||
|
telephone service is limited to two-way voice communication. The
|
||
|
analog-to-digital conversion of telephone service is limited to 9600 bits
|
||
|
per second, roughly the speed at which telegrams have traveled. Broadcast
|
||
|
access, though of relatively high capacity in the case of television, is
|
||
|
usually only one-way.
|
||
|
|
||
|
As access to computing on campuses has approached universality over the
|
||
|
last two decades, the inadequacies of common carrier and broadcasting
|
||
|
services have been overcome with local and wide-area networks. Advances
|
||
|
in campus networks and regional networks have paralleled those of the
|
||
|
national network, but to date, there has been an absence of counterpart
|
||
|
private sector services. This suggests the viability of a "public good"
|
||
|
approach to developing America's information highway, similar to our
|
||
|
"public good" approaches to dealing with goods such as the environment
|
||
|
and the electromagnetic spectrum. Using radio spectrum to extend the
|
||
|
network to rural campuses is an example of this approach (and is expanded
|
||
|
in principle NINE below). It is the same public good approach from which
|
||
|
the interstate highway system evolved.
|
||
|
|
||
|
If the NREN is developed as a public good according to the principles
|
||
|
listed below, then Americans could access printed information converted
|
||
|
to or created in electronic form and delivered via the NREN through their
|
||
|
local libraries. Today a local call from home via common carrier to the
|
||
|
local library at 9600 bits per second could extend service from the
|
||
|
library into the home. If in the future the Federal Communications
|
||
|
Commission (FCC) rules change, as per principle NINE below, then a
|
||
|
high-speed, shared-channel connection between the home and the local
|
||
|
library would be feasible.
|
||
|
|
||
|
With this policy template in mind, a set of principles is hereby put
|
||
|
forward for consideration with respect to the NREN. There is a rich
|
||
|
scholarship on public policy within America from which to draw to develop
|
||
|
such principles. A fitting culmination of such scholarship rests with the
|
||
|
late Ithiel de Sola Pool, who in his work, Technologies of Freedom
|
||
|
(1983), idealized a network of which the NREN is suggestive. There he
|
||
|
framed a set of ideal principles that are adapted here for the proposed
|
||
|
National Research and Education Network.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Ten Suggested Principles for a National Research and Education Network
|
||
|
|
||
|
The FIRST principle is that the First Amendment apply to all media in the
|
||
|
NREN, that is, to the function of communication, not to the medium of
|
||
|
communication[3]. That "Congress shall make no law ... abridging freedom
|
||
|
of speech or of the press" must apply to communication by digital
|
||
|
electronics within the NREN equally as to communication by printing in
|
||
|
education and research.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The SECOND principle, following from the FIRST, is that through the NREN
|
||
|
anyone may publish at will, with no prior restraint, no licensing, no
|
||
|
taxation, and no scrutiny of content by any party[4].
|
||
|
|
||
|
The THIRD principle is that enforcement of the laws and policies of the
|
||
|
NREN be after the fact, not by prior review[5].
|
||
|
|
||
|
The FOURTH principle is that the NREN should be enabled as a free market.
|
||
|
If it fails as a free market and, therefore, needs to be monopolistic,
|
||
|
then apply common carrier regulation rather than direct regulation or
|
||
|
public ownership[6].
|
||
|
|
||
|
The FIFTH principle is that of universal interconnection (implying
|
||
|
adherence to the standards [7]of TCP/IP as they evolve to those of OSI)
|
||
|
and to a firm recognition of the basic right to interconnect. The EDUCOM
|
||
|
NTTF has proposed to bound "universal interconnection" within a community
|
||
|
composed of universities, government research labs, industrial research
|
||
|
labs, national databases, and libraries, as per its NREN brochure.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The SIXTH principle would oblige users, both institutional and
|
||
|
individual, to disclose their amount of use[8]of the NREN. This is
|
||
|
essential for monitoring and for planning network performance.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The SEVENTH principle is that government and common carriers should be
|
||
|
blind to circuit use. What the NREN is used for and how it is used are
|
||
|
not their concerns[9]
|
||
|
|
||
|
The EIGHTH principle is that bottlenecks should not be used as a
|
||
|
rationale to extend control[10]. As bottlenecks occur, the NREN
|
||
|
participants should be left alone to eliminate them by whatever
|
||
|
pluralistic process is available, or to live with the consequences of not
|
||
|
doing so. The TCP/IP protocols from which the NREN protocols have evolved
|
||
|
defy control in the classical management sense, and rest, rather, on the
|
||
|
philosophically pluralistic notions of convention, cooperation,
|
||
|
interoperability, and redundancy.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The NINTH principle is that regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum
|
||
|
for education and research should be separated from regulation extant for
|
||
|
interstate commerce[11]. In particular, there remain vast interstices in
|
||
|
the rural parts of the NREN that threaten to leave divided the
|
||
|
communities of research and education into groups of "haves" and
|
||
|
"have-nots." This latter group of "have-nots" is a population of "lone
|
||
|
users" who remain unconnected, or inadequately connected, to the NREN.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A publicly funded study needs to be done of the causes and cures of the
|
||
|
problem, embodied in Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations:
|
||
|
Telecommunication, that limits library access to communications
|
||
|
bandwidth. The study must result in an appropriate and effective rules
|
||
|
change process within the FCC that, in turn, would enable re-regulation
|
||
|
of spectrum that the FCC has already generously set aside for education.
|
||
|
The outcome should be a timely use for the NREN of a sliver of the
|
||
|
electromagnetic spectrum, a public good, for library services, a public
|
||
|
good, for which precedent exists.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The TENTH principle is that intellectual property must be recognized in
|
||
|
the NREN. This means that copyright enforcement and royalty distribution
|
||
|
must be adapted[12]to the NREN. Perhaps a recasting of ASCAP (American
|
||
|
Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) or some other remedy is in
|
||
|
order, but failing this principle will doom the NREN as a publishing
|
||
|
medium. It was the scholarly community that created information
|
||
|
publishers, and it has been the published work that libraries collect,
|
||
|
organize, preserve and disseminate. A new communications medium must
|
||
|
accommodate these traditions and relationships for publishers to accept
|
||
|
it.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Future Prospects for Libraries and the NREN
|
||
|
|
||
|
Already in a spirit of cooperation for which the Internet was intended,
|
||
|
library users and librarians have discovered benefits from connecting
|
||
|
online public access catalogs to the Internet. During the 1980s the
|
||
|
Linked Systems Protocol standard evolved and is now ready to be used to
|
||
|
allow libraries to share cataloging information with relative ease.
|
||
|
Privately funded research continues with LSP (Linked Systems Protocol,
|
||
|
NISO Z39.50).
|
||
|
|
||
|
Other types of information resources expected to be available on the NREN
|
||
|
are demonstrated by the following projects reported in the Proposal for
|
||
|
an ARL/CAUSE/EDUCOM Coalition for Networked Information.
|
||
|
|
||
|
--The Medieval Early Modern Data Bank (MEMDB), created by scholars at
|
||
|
Rutgers University and made accessible electronically by The Research
|
||
|
Libraries Group (RLG)
|
||
|
|
||
|
--Research in Progress (an RLG/RLIN Special Data Base), a file of entries
|
||
|
and abstracts of journal articles accepted by but not yet published in
|
||
|
several journals indexed by the Modern Language Association, as well as a
|
||
|
number of women's studies journals
|
||
|
|
||
|
--A publishing project currently underway at Johns Hopkins University
|
||
|
Medical Library in which a database of research findings is available for
|
||
|
access by readers, students, and critics who respond directly via
|
||
|
electronic mail to the author
|
||
|
|
||
|
--The Geographic Reference Information Network (proposed by RLG), a
|
||
|
digitized data file of satellite imagery and geographic information
|
||
|
developed by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara,
|
||
|
working with a number of agencies including the National Center for
|
||
|
Geographic Information and NASA
|
||
|
|
||
|
One of the most profound consequences of the NREN for librarians, library
|
||
|
users, and the general education and research community is the "virtual
|
||
|
library." As described by Richard Goodram[13] .
|
||
|
|
||
|
The most complex information element within any University is the library
|
||
|
system. As such it demands special analysis and provides the
|
||
|
opportunities for substantial benefits from improvements in its
|
||
|
operation. ... The virtual library [combines] an on-site collection of
|
||
|
current and heavily used materials, in both print and electronic form,
|
||
|
with an electronic network which provides access to, and delivery from,
|
||
|
external information sources, library and commercial, worldwide. The
|
||
|
design goal for the user is to create the effect of an indefinitely large
|
||
|
collection through the electronic access and delivery of materials as
|
||
|
needed rather than by expending staff and acquisition funds in an attempt
|
||
|
to anticipate future demands for a wide range of retrospective materials
|
||
|
and peripheral publications.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Discussions are under way to create a consortium of public libraries
|
||
|
which would use the NREN to connect their online catalogs. The purpose of
|
||
|
this cooperation would be to enable the "universal borrowing card" so
|
||
|
that library users in America's mobile society could move from public
|
||
|
library to public library and use each as if it were the same library.
|
||
|
Collections so united would be richer and more accessible than that of
|
||
|
the Library of Congress.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Finally, if the public policies and laws of the NREN are framed as
|
||
|
proposed above, then a currently reluctant publishing sector might more
|
||
|
readily strive and cooperate with libraries to perfect the standards
|
||
|
still lacking in library practices to describe the composition of
|
||
|
editions of works published as digital electronic artifacts. In that way
|
||
|
such works could be distributed or copied across the NREN and the
|
||
|
copyright owner could receive a fair royalty. Once perfected, such
|
||
|
publishing practices should achieve new economies and profits, on the
|
||
|
basis that the kinetic energy used in electronic publishing is several
|
||
|
orders of magnitude less than that of print publishing.
|
||
|
|
||
|
New standards such as those discussed herein could then be harnessed by
|
||
|
governmental agencies for internal communications as well as for
|
||
|
communications with the citizens participating in research and education,
|
||
|
including citizens who use public libraries.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Conclusion
|
||
|
|
||
|
Adoption of the above proposed ten principles into law and public policy
|
||
|
is in significant parts without precedent in American communications. In
|
||
|
the beginning, the style of practice of librarianship in America, too,
|
||
|
was without precedent, but was rooted in a philosophy of pluralism
|
||
|
consistent with the principles suggested herein.
|
||
|
|
||
|
References
|
||
|
|
||
|
[1]Communications is from the latin communicare, meaning "to make
|
||
|
common." With the greek prefix tele, meaning "distant",
|
||
|
telecommunications means "to make common at a distance."
|
||
|
|
||
|
[2]Ithiel de Sola Pool. Technologies of Freedom (Cambridge, Mass:
|
||
|
Belknap Press, 1984), p. 21.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[3]Ibid., p.235 note 32.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[4]Ibid., p.246.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[5]Ibid.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[6]Ibid.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[7]Ibid.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[8]Ibid., p.248-9.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[9]Ibid.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[10]Ibid.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[11]Ibid., p.249.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[12] Edwin Brownrigg with Brett Butler. Cooperative Library Networks:
|
||
|
Changing the Rules (Memex Research Institute White Paper "1. California
|
||
|
State University, Chico, 1990), p.10.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[13]Richard J. Goodram. The Virtual Library: Collections on Demand
|
||
|
(Memex Research Institute White Paper "2. California State University,
|
||
|
Chico, 1990), p.1.
|
||
|
|
||
|
___________________ The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the
|
||
|
author. Dr. Edwin Brownrigg is director of research, The Memex Research
|
||
|
Institute, 422 Bonita Avenue, Roseville, CA 95678.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
-----
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
NREN For Special Libraries by Steve Cisler, Apple Computer
|
||
|
Library
|
||
|
|
||
|
This brief paper discusses how the technical library at Apple
|
||
|
Computer, Inc. is using the existing web of electronic networks
|
||
|
and how an expanded broadband network might be used by this and
|
||
|
other special libraries.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Apple Library's mission is to help Apple employees obtain
|
||
|
the information they need in a timely manner. Because the
|
||
|
company's prime goal is to develop and sell innovative
|
||
|
computers and related products, the library and its users place
|
||
|
a premium on the speed of delivery of the information and its
|
||
|
relevance to the researcher. That means we will use any means
|
||
|
we can to communicate with the employee and to find the
|
||
|
information. This includes face-to-face reference interviews,
|
||
|
fax, phone, and extensive use of electronic mail. Much of our
|
||
|
internal business is conducted on a variety of LAN-based Email
|
||
|
systems, all of which are connected to AppleLink, an electronic
|
||
|
mail, databank, and bulletin board system for use by employees,
|
||
|
dealers, customers, and consultants around the world. To obtain
|
||
|
the information we rely on book jobbers, information brokers,
|
||
|
and of course, commercial services such as Dialog, Dow Jones,
|
||
|
and Mead. We access the latter via value-added packet switching
|
||
|
networks.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Many engineers within Apple also use the Internet, the network
|
||
|
of networks that will serve as the basis for the proposed
|
||
|
National Research and Education Network. Apple's Engineering
|
||
|
Computer Operations is a commercial member of BARNNet, a
|
||
|
regional network that is part of the Internet. We have wide
|
||
|
bandwidth networks within the company; the existing Internet is
|
||
|
using a backbone network where the speed will be increasing
|
||
|
from 1.56 megabits per second to 45 megabits per second in
|
||
|
1990. That is 18,750 times as fast as a 2400 baud connection.
|
||
|
Researchers at distant Apple sites and in universities and
|
||
|
government organizations keep in touch with their colleagues in
|
||
|
Cupertino, California, and are able to quickly transfer large
|
||
|
files between one part of the U.S. and Cupertino.There are mail
|
||
|
links between AppleLink and the Internet, so that Apple
|
||
|
engineers can send requests to the library any way they wish.
|
||
|
Until recently, only two librarians have had Internet accounts,
|
||
|
but with the increased awareness of library resources and
|
||
|
discussion groups available through the Internet (and from
|
||
|
BITNET), more than half the staff now uses apple.com, the
|
||
|
computer that connects to the Internet. As more people begin to
|
||
|
use electronic mail the Internet accounts are proving to have
|
||
|
better connectivity than any other. At present we can exchange
|
||
|
mail with researchers, librarians, and educators on BITNET,
|
||
|
CompuServe, The WELL, Fidonet, FredNet, ALANET, UUCP--the Unix
|
||
|
network, and various networks in Asia and Europe. There is no
|
||
|
direct charge for connect time or packets of data transmitted,
|
||
|
as there would be on Dialog or ALANET.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Most special libraries may not believe they need this sort of
|
||
|
connectivity with so many other librarians or institutions.
|
||
|
Admittedly, the addressing schemes are complex, and the list of
|
||
|
bibliographic and database resources on the Internet is just
|
||
|
being compiled. Finding useful information is for pioneers and
|
||
|
explorers and may frustrate librarians used to having reliable
|
||
|
printed directories or running a macro that immediately
|
||
|
connects to Dialog and runs a search on Medline or Computer
|
||
|
Database.
|
||
|
|
||
|
When the NREN becomes a reality, either through legislation or
|
||
|
some other governmental involvement, the Internet will grow and
|
||
|
change. The changes will result from an increase in bandwidth,
|
||
|
an increase in member organizations (and membership may not
|
||
|
even be the correct term if NREN becomes more of a commercial
|
||
|
than a cooperative, government funded enterprise), and a
|
||
|
diversity in services and users that is not present on the
|
||
|
Internet in mid-1990. At present, the types of special
|
||
|
libraries using this network are limited to some governmental
|
||
|
organizations and libraries in computer manufacturing and
|
||
|
software development firms as well as telecommunications
|
||
|
companies. Various commercial vendors of network connectivity
|
||
|
are appearing on the scene including Performance Systems
|
||
|
International, Inc, formed with part of the technical staff
|
||
|
from NYSERNet in New York state, which is selling accounts to
|
||
|
various commercial firms. Undoubtedly, some of those special
|
||
|
libraries will come on line as the benefits become more
|
||
|
apparent.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I predict that more special libraries will find NREN to be
|
||
|
worth supporting, after it is established and new services are
|
||
|
offered for a fee. At present Research Libraries Group,
|
||
|
Colorado Alliance for Research Libraries, and Clarinet Software
|
||
|
are about the only ones selling information to Internet users.
|
||
|
All of it is currently textual information, but high data rates
|
||
|
will make possible the transmission of images of journal
|
||
|
articles, patents, sound and video clips, and large files from
|
||
|
satellite data collection archives and engineering design and
|
||
|
medical image databases. Because the legislation emphasizes the
|
||
|
eventual commercialization of the NREN, I am sure there will be
|
||
|
many old and new firms that will do business online with
|
||
|
special, academic, school, and public libraries. Another
|
||
|
benefit of this network, if it is eventually used by many
|
||
|
libraries, will be the ability of distant libraries to
|
||
|
collaborate on projects, of professional associations to
|
||
|
preplan annual conferences in ways that fax and phone do not
|
||
|
allow. Video conferencing may be used to some extent but won't
|
||
|
replace the face-to-face meetings. What will happen is that
|
||
|
participants will exchange a great deal more information prior
|
||
|
to meeting, and virtual communities of members who live far
|
||
|
from each other will grow stronger.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The opinions expressed in this short essay are mine; Apple
|
||
|
Computer, Inc. may not agree with all of them. Comments or
|
||
|
questions may be sent to Steve Cisler, Apple Computer Library,
|
||
|
10381 Bandley Drive, MS: 8C, Cupertino, California 95014. (408)
|
||
|
974-3258. Internet address: sac@apple.com.
|
||
|
|
||
|
----
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Data Networks and the Academic Library
|
||
|
Craig A. Summerhill
|
||
|
Washington State University
|
||
|
|
||
|
Background
|
||
|
|
||
|
In November 1987, the National Science Foundation provided
|
||
|
funding to be managed by the Merit Computer Network (Michigan)
|
||
|
over a five year period, in cooperation IBM and MCI, to
|
||
|
re-engineer and expand the backbone of the National Science
|
||
|
Foundation Network (NSFNET). Since July 1988, data traffic on
|
||
|
the network has increased approximately twenty percent per month.
|
||
|
Such profound growth illustrates the fact that higher education
|
||
|
in the United States is entering a new age of mass communication
|
||
|
and data transfer, and nowhere on American campuses are the shock
|
||
|
waves being felt more fully than in the library.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Currently, there are over 100,000 computers linked to the
|
||
|
NSFNET. Within ten years, there will be 500,000. The number of
|
||
|
active users on the network is projected to increase from the
|
||
|
current one million to four-to-six million users by the turn of
|
||
|
the century. Such growth offers clear justification for the
|
||
|
proposed National Research and Education Network (NREN) -- a
|
||
|
"data superhighway" to be built largely around the NSFNET
|
||
|
infrastructure.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Connecting Campus Networks
|
||
|
|
||
|
Nearly all colleges and universities in the United States
|
||
|
provide some level of access to the many converging data networks
|
||
|
such as BITNET, CSNET, Internet, and the NSFNET. The network
|
||
|
user in the academic world is a faculty member, an administrator,
|
||
|
a member of the support staff, or most importantly -- a student.
|
||
|
National networking is challenging professors to realize that the
|
||
|
classroom experience is no longer confined to the space and time
|
||
|
between the classroom walls.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Similarly, the age of the academic "library without walls" is
|
||
|
dawning, not of its own volition, but driven largely by forces
|
||
|
external to libraries. Electronic communication with other
|
||
|
students, professors, researchers, and even businessmen is having
|
||
|
a profound impact on traditional methods of information gathering
|
||
|
and dissemination in the academic community. Information which
|
||
|
formerly took months to publish in traditional print formats can
|
||
|
currently be distributed to a growing worldwide audience in a few
|
||
|
short hours. For example, following the recent and much
|
||
|
celebrated announcement of a successful cold-fusion experiment at
|
||
|
the University of Utah, interested physicists were sharing vital
|
||
|
data related to the experiment via a distributed mailing list
|
||
|
within days of the announcement.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
The essence of the interpersonal communication process is being
|
||
|
shaken at its foundation as a result of electronic
|
||
|
communication. The electronic transmission of text allows many
|
||
|
people to converse at their leisure. Unlike a telephone call,
|
||
|
textual messages sent on Monday can be answered on Tuesday with
|
||
|
no disruption in the flow of the conversation. Because this
|
||
|
process does not require the shared temporal periods necessary
|
||
|
for speech (i.e. telephone calls), this process is termed "non
|
||
|
real-time communication." Ironically, the hallmark of libraries,
|
||
|
namely the book, had a similar effect upon societal communication
|
||
|
in the Western world following the advent of moveable type.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Network Services
|
||
|
|
||
|
Electronic distribution of text is simply one method in which
|
||
|
data can be disseminated via the network. Any information stored
|
||
|
in binary can be transferred as a digital signal over the
|
||
|
network. Voice, music, still image graphics, and full motion
|
||
|
video, can all be transmitted, provided sufficient data capacity
|
||
|
(termed bandwidth) exists to move the signal. Given digital
|
||
|
technology, a professor at MIT could store a lecture which
|
||
|
includes videotape footage, color images (formerly slides or
|
||
|
transparencies), and the text of a homework assignment.
|
||
|
Transmitted across the network, the lecture could be viewed
|
||
|
concurrently at UC Berkeley, or recorded in California and
|
||
|
retransmitted at a later date.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Other benefits the academic community derives from national
|
||
|
networking include the cost-sharing of expensive scientific
|
||
|
instruments and immediate access to widely dispersed databases.
|
||
|
Geographically isolated researchers can share equipment by either
|
||
|
transmitting data to the equipment for processing, or logging
|
||
|
onto another computer across the network. This prevents two
|
||
|
institutions from making similar investments to operate the same
|
||
|
equipment. Thus astronomers at MIT and at UC Berkeley can each
|
||
|
analyze data from the Hubble Space Telescope across the network
|
||
|
by pooling their resources. Any data generated as a result of
|
||
|
research and experimentation is increasingly being stored for
|
||
|
statistical processing by computers. The provision of an open
|
||
|
systems computing model guarantees that all users can utilize
|
||
|
this data regardless of their physical location on the network.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Future Trends: The Academic Library Challenge
|
||
|
|
||
|
The provision of information services on the network, chiefly
|
||
|
through access to widely dispersed databases, poses the greatest
|
||
|
challenge to the academic library community. Organizing and
|
||
|
classifying large bodies of electronic data into information
|
||
|
formats valuable to the user demands resources that exceed those
|
||
|
available to most academic libraries. To date, the focal point of
|
||
|
automated library systems has been to provide bibliographic
|
||
|
information, but academic users are increasingly demanding full
|
||
|
text and multi-media information resources which exceed the data
|
||
|
processing capabilities of these systems. The provision of
|
||
|
personalized information services in a non real-time environment
|
||
|
is also challenging the basis of traditional library services.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Today, America is clearly the world leader in networking
|
||
|
technology. To keep this edge in the next decade, and the coming
|
||
|
century, the library must move beyond the confining walls of the
|
||
|
building. Academic librarians must provide both vocal support for
|
||
|
national networks such as the NREN, and educated leadership in
|
||
|
the development of data networks which provide information
|
||
|
services to all segments of society, all types of organizations,
|
||
|
and all different genres of libraries.
|
||
|
|
||
|
_____________________ Craig A. Summerhill is assistant systems
|
||
|
librarian at Washington State University, and is currently chair
|
||
|
of the Library and Information Technology Association's
|
||
|
Telecommunications Interest Group.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
----
|
||
|
Electronic Networking at Davis Senior High School
|
||
|
|
||
|
Janet Meizel
|
||
|
|
||
|
Davis Senior High School, Davis, California
|
||
|
|
||
|
In the immediate future, much of our research and communication will be
|
||
|
handled by computer-based telecommunications. This has created new
|
||
|
opportunities for the business world and new problems for those in the
|
||
|
field of education who must provide students with the appropriate skills
|
||
|
to use in that world. The necessary skills should be taught to high
|
||
|
school students before they enter the job market, but programs to
|
||
|
accomplish this task are expensive and equipment available to students is
|
||
|
often out of date.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A unique partnership was formed in the K-12 educational arena to try to
|
||
|
resolve this problem. Under the auspices of a grant from Pacific Bell and
|
||
|
assistance from the Internet Federation, Davis (Calif.) Senior High
|
||
|
School (DSHS) and the University of California, Davis (UCD) have set up
|
||
|
what is believed to be the first data link from a K-12 school to a major
|
||
|
university in the state of California. This data link connects DSHS's
|
||
|
computer lab to UCD's computer network and affords access to a wide
|
||
|
variety of data available through UCD's Internet connection. It has
|
||
|
allowed the high school to expand its computer studies curriculum, thus
|
||
|
opening new horizons for students interested in computer applications and
|
||
|
research. It is also providing opportunities for innovative teaching and
|
||
|
work methods for students and faculty in all the other departments at
|
||
|
DSHS.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Pacific Bell's intention is to help the University of California system
|
||
|
and the State University system to fulfill their commitments to the
|
||
|
community by using telecommunications to support the educational process
|
||
|
at elementary, junior high and high schools. Their vision of the future
|
||
|
includes "distance learning" (learning in remote classrooms linked to
|
||
|
larger schools or universities), use of electronic messaging systems by
|
||
|
parents and school personnel as well as students, and increased
|
||
|
opportunities for multilingual students, those with disabilities and
|
||
|
those who need alternate approaches.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The University of California, Davis is heavily involved in computer
|
||
|
network research and actively participates in international network
|
||
|
standards committees. Computer networks are becoming an increasingly
|
||
|
important utility, particularly in the academic and research communities.
|
||
|
UCD is currently connected to all three of the major international
|
||
|
networks that are used for educational and research information exchange,
|
||
|
plus BARRNet (Bay Area Regional Research Network) and NSFNET (National
|
||
|
Science Foundation Network).
|
||
|
|
||
|
Davis Senior High School in Davis, California, is the largest campus in
|
||
|
the Davis Joint Unified School District, with an enrollment of over 1,100
|
||
|
students. It is a comprehensive high school. The school district has
|
||
|
strong community support, but limited resources.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A 56 kilobit per second Advanced Digital Network (ADN) circuit is the
|
||
|
data link from Davis Senior High School to the UC Davis campus. This
|
||
|
service provides high quality digital transmission as well as variable
|
||
|
data speeds, error detection, and flexible expansion for growth. Lines
|
||
|
have been set from the present (12 computer) network and its server to
|
||
|
the library and those computers are connected to the local network.
|
||
|
Future plans include lines out to classrooms in anticipation of placement
|
||
|
of computers in these areas. Apple Corporation has provided the high
|
||
|
school with a new network server (a Macintosh IICX) with additional
|
||
|
hardware and software to support the local area network. They have also
|
||
|
provided computers for additional classroom stations and two CD-ROM
|
||
|
players.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The first two groups of teachers and students have been trained, and the
|
||
|
reception has been enthusiastic. The teachers are so enthusiastic that
|
||
|
some of them have devoted one of their vacation days during winter break
|
||
|
to a workshop to familiarize themselves with network use. A significant
|
||
|
number of students and teachers are using MELVYLt for library research
|
||
|
assistance. Several classes have used the information stored on Compact
|
||
|
Disc (CD) databases for classroom reports. Because of the ease of use
|
||
|
(and perhaps the novelty), students constantly browse through the CDs we
|
||
|
now own (a history database, a database with information on various
|
||
|
countries, a CD containing public domain software and several CDs
|
||
|
containing programming information).
|
||
|
|
||
|
Teachers are using the network to do research and use electronic mail
|
||
|
systems. They can communicate with other teachers and authorities in
|
||
|
specialized fields, and use outside databases as sources of new
|
||
|
information for classroom support. One teacher, Cliff Simes, has already
|
||
|
begun his own search for resources and has found an additional bulletin
|
||
|
board to use--one devoted to teachers in the Vocational Education field
|
||
|
(CAVIX).
|
||
|
|
||
|
Teachers are able to communicate with professional organizations over
|
||
|
Internet (including the Modern Language Association, American Association
|
||
|
of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Association of Teachers of French,
|
||
|
American Association of Teachers of German, American Association of
|
||
|
Teachers of Mathematics, etc.). They can also download public domain
|
||
|
software from database software collections to support instruction and
|
||
|
aid in classroom management.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Both students and teachers have access to UCD's newsgroups, which provide
|
||
|
articles and opportunities for discussion of many subjects, ranging from
|
||
|
"Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Education" to postings for
|
||
|
many types of computers, general news, and a variety of cultural and
|
||
|
academic topics. It is planned that there will be a small "talk area" set
|
||
|
aside specifically for topics initiated by teachers at DSHS (for example,
|
||
|
questions open for discussion in the various foreign languages taught at
|
||
|
the school). Other plans include possible correspondence with students in
|
||
|
other countries and in other parts of the United States.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Some students have already joined the "talk groups" on UCD's network and
|
||
|
have read and responded to articles on topics from aeronautics and
|
||
|
physics to discussions of the Middle East, "C" language for the computer
|
||
|
and recent political events. One of the chief attractions of this type of
|
||
|
communication is that the students are seen as equal participants in the
|
||
|
communication process, not as "kids" playing with the computers. Their
|
||
|
comments must be carefully thought out and are given equal weight with
|
||
|
messages from the other members of the discussion. This promotes a form
|
||
|
of "electronic democracy," one of the themes in which Pacific Bell has
|
||
|
shown strong interest.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Beginning in September 1990, teachers and students will use the network
|
||
|
for immediate classroom access to information to be used in discussions
|
||
|
and projects (e.g. backup statistics, news items, electronic mail to
|
||
|
other classes). They will use network support in classroom discussions
|
||
|
and to support individual or small-group cooperative work in classroom
|
||
|
settings.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Have there been any problems? Not yet. Joan Gargano and Russell Hobby of
|
||
|
UCD have provided the high school with a guide to network etiquette and
|
||
|
guides for the many facets of telecommunications. Staff at the UC Davis
|
||
|
library have provided us with guides to MELVYLt. Everyone at the school
|
||
|
who has access to the network has read the documents and has promised to
|
||
|
follow the guidelines. They know that even with the grant and expertise
|
||
|
from Pacific Bell, the machines from Apple, and the help from the
|
||
|
Internet Federation and UCD, responsibility for the success of this
|
||
|
project rests with the students and faculty at the high school.
|
||
|
|
||
|
_______________________ Janet Meizel is a teacher at Davis Senior High
|
||
|
School, Davis, California, and a lecturer at the University of
|
||
|
California, Davis School of Medicine; Internet: jemeizel@ucdavis.edu.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
-----
|
||
|
|
||
|
"Free-neting"
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Development of Free, Public Access Community Computer Systems
|
||
|
|
||
|
T.M. Grundner, Ed.D
|
||
|
|
||
|
National Public Telecomputing Network
|
||
|
|
||
|
For the past 20 years futurists have been making a common prediction.
|
||
|
Someday, we are told, everyone will be able to use computers to send
|
||
|
electronic mail across town or around the world, access medical and legal
|
||
|
information, find out what's going on at their children's schools,
|
||
|
complain to the mayor about the potholes, access the local public library
|
||
|
card catalog, and so forth, all without ever leaving the comfort of home.
|
||
|
|
||
|
For some that vision has become reality via one or more of the many
|
||
|
commercial videotex companies which now exist. But the high cost of those
|
||
|
commercial services have, in general, prevented most average citizens
|
||
|
from using them. The result has been an "Information Age" which is
|
||
|
becoming populated more by people with $50,000+ household incomes than
|
||
|
anyone else.
|
||
|
|
||
|
For the past five years researchers at Case Western Reserve University in
|
||
|
Cleveland, Ohio have been working on the development of extremely
|
||
|
cost-efficient methods of delivering community based computerized
|
||
|
information and communications services. Their work has resulted in a
|
||
|
system which is so inexpensive to operate that it can be provided by
|
||
|
virtually any community as a free public service.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This report will touch on two aspects of their work. The first is the
|
||
|
development of the Cleveland Free-net(tm), a prototype community computer
|
||
|
system which currently averages about 2,000 logins a day and provides
|
||
|
over 125 information and communications services to the Cleveland area.
|
||
|
The second is the development of the National Public Telecomputing
|
||
|
Network, a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminating this
|
||
|
technology to other cities and linking them together into a common
|
||
|
network.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Because of space limitations, the following will only briefly outline
|
||
|
these developments. Those wishing more information may contact the author
|
||
|
at addresses shown at the end of the article.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Cleveland Free-net
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Cleveland Free-net is a free, open-access, community computer system
|
||
|
operated by Case Western Reserve University. Established in July 1986,
|
||
|
the central Free-net computer has been programmed to allow anyone with a
|
||
|
home, office, or school computer and a device called a modem, to call in
|
||
|
24 hours a day and access a wide range of electronic services and
|
||
|
features. These services range from free world-wide electronic mail, to
|
||
|
information in areas such as health, education, technology, government,
|
||
|
arts, recreation, and the law.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The key to the economics of operating a Free-net is the fact that the
|
||
|
system is literally run by the community itself. Every feature that
|
||
|
appears on the system is there because of individuals or organizations in
|
||
|
the community who contribute their time, effort, and expertise to bring
|
||
|
it online and operate it. On the Cleveland Free-net, for example, there
|
||
|
are over 250 "sysops" (system operators) who are doctors, lawyers,
|
||
|
educators, community group representatives, hobbyists, etc. each
|
||
|
operating their own area and, thereby, contributing to the electronic
|
||
|
whole. This is in contrast to the commercial systems which have very high
|
||
|
personnel and information-acquisition costs and must pass those costs on
|
||
|
to the consumer.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The first version of the Free-net attracted over 7,000 registered users
|
||
|
and averaged between 500 and 600 calls a day on ten incoming phone lines.
|
||
|
In August 1989 Free-net II opened and currently averages over 2,000
|
||
|
logins a day on 48 telephone lines. At the moment the Free-net has a user
|
||
|
base of about 10,000 persons, which is expected to grow eventually to at
|
||
|
least 15-20,000 registered users in the Cleveland area. Eighty-six
|
||
|
percent of Free-net users are over the age of twenty (average age 35.5
|
||
|
years) with a very deep middle class socio-economic penetration.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Inherent in the project from the beginning was the idea that, if we were
|
||
|
successful, we would make every attempt to disseminate this technology to
|
||
|
other cities. As a result, in September 1989 the National Public
|
||
|
Telecomputing Network was born.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN)
|
||
|
|
||
|
The concept behind NPTN is not new. You are probably familiar with
|
||
|
National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting on television. To
|
||
|
understand NPTN, simply substitute community computer systems for radio
|
||
|
or television stations, and you have the core of what the organization
|
||
|
hopes to accomplish.
|
||
|
|
||
|
NPTN is a nonprofit corporation which is funded completely by voluntary
|
||
|
membership dues from the users of its community computer systems,
|
||
|
corporate and foundation grants and donations, and other fund-raising
|
||
|
activities.
|
||
|
|
||
|
One of its main objectives is to establish as many community computer
|
||
|
systems as possible throughout the country. To that end the necessary
|
||
|
software is being made available to qualified parties, on a license
|
||
|
basis, for $1 a year. Each Free-net system is an affiliate of NPTN, which
|
||
|
provides inter-system electronic mail handling and other services. In
|
||
|
addition, NPTN provides Cybercastingt services whereby a wide variety of
|
||
|
quality news and information features are delivered to the affiliates via
|
||
|
NPTN feed -- a concept very similar to that of any radio or television
|
||
|
broadcasting network. A five city network of NPTN community computers
|
||
|
currently exists, with more expected to come online later this year.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Services
|
||
|
|
||
|
The list of services available on any given Free-net is limited only by
|
||
|
the resources of the community in which it operates. The Cleveland
|
||
|
system, for example, has 16 "buildings" which cover areas such as:
|
||
|
government, the arts, science and technology, education, medicine,
|
||
|
recreation, libraries, community affairs, business and industry, and law.
|
||
|
It even has a "Teleport" which will transfer people to other area
|
||
|
computer systems such as the Cleveland Public Library and other major
|
||
|
libraries throughout northeast Ohio, and a "post office" to provide free
|
||
|
electronic mail.
|
||
|
|
||
|
NPTN network services include such features as: national and
|
||
|
international electronic mail via the Internet, the dissemination of U.S.
|
||
|
Supreme Court opinions within minutes of their release, the
|
||
|
"Congressional Memory Project" which provides summaries of House and
|
||
|
Senate bills and how our congresspersons voted on them, and hopefully
|
||
|
soon, will be providing a network-wide electronic news service.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Greening of a Medium
|
||
|
|
||
|
Toward the end of the last century the public library as we know it today
|
||
|
did not exist. Eventually, however, literacy became high enough (and the
|
||
|
cost of books cheap enough) that the free public library became feasible.
|
||
|
People in cities and towns all over the country got together to make free
|
||
|
public access to the printed word a reality. The result was a legacy from
|
||
|
which virtually everyone reading this document has, at one point or
|
||
|
another, benefited.
|
||
|
|
||
|
We believe we have reached a point in this century where computer
|
||
|
"literacy" has gotten high enough (and the cost of the equipment low
|
||
|
enough) that a demand for free, public access, computerized information
|
||
|
systems has developed.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Cleveland Free-net proved it could be done. NPTN is currently about
|
||
|
the business of establishing these systems in cities throughout the
|
||
|
country. And the futuristic dream of universal information and
|
||
|
communication services for the community -- all of the community -- is
|
||
|
not that far from becoming a reality.
|
||
|
|
||
|
___________________ For more information about the Cleveland Free-net or
|
||
|
NPTN, please contack: T.M. Grundner, Ed.D., President, NPTN, Box 1987,
|
||
|
Cleveland, OH 44106; Voice: (216) 368-2733; FAX: (216) 368-5436;
|
||
|
Internet: aa001@cleveland.freenet.edu.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------ A Public Library Perspective on the NREN
|
||
|
|
||
|
Lois M. Kershner
|
||
|
|
||
|
Peninsula Libraries Automated Network
|
||
|
|
||
|
The last paragraph of the Resolution on a National Research and Education
|
||
|
Network submitted by the LITA Board of Directors (and endorsed by the
|
||
|
LAMA Board of Directors) to the ALA Legislation Committee at the Chicago
|
||
|
1990 Midwinter Meeting states:
|
||
|
|
||
|
RESOLVED That the American Library Association work to improve
|
||
|
legislative and other proposals to increase opportunities for multitype
|
||
|
library participation in and contributions to the National Research and
|
||
|
Education Network.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This clear statement recognizes a potential role for public libraries as
|
||
|
well as those of the academic and corporate community in the development
|
||
|
and opportunity of a National Research and Education Network (NREN).
|
||
|
|
||
|
A brief review of articles addressing the NREN indicates that present
|
||
|
network access best serves persons associated with institutions of higher
|
||
|
education or large corporations with industrial laboratories where the
|
||
|
technological development and funding have been made available. Access to
|
||
|
existing networks, each with its databases and/or supercomputing and
|
||
|
conferencing capabilities, is through institutional affiliation. For
|
||
|
example, from a single workstation a staff member could not only access
|
||
|
the institution's library online catalog and other databases mounted
|
||
|
locally, but also switch through inter-network bridges to databases at
|
||
|
other institutions, other data services, and bibliographic utilities.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The articulation of the larger vision for the National Research and
|
||
|
Education Network broadens the view beyond institutional affiliation, to
|
||
|
a "workplace without walls." As Erich Bloch has stated:
|
||
|
|
||
|
[The national network] is a facility in which a full range of the
|
||
|
nation's intellectual resources--databases, libraries, computers, and
|
||
|
people--are universally accessible to researchers and educators. In this
|
||
|
new context, `remote' no longer means `isolated', and the concept of
|
||
|
`scholar' is restored to its historic significance denoting a
|
||
|
practitioner of a portable profession.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Provision of information access for researchers and scholars is not
|
||
|
limited to research and corporate libraries, however. The public research
|
||
|
library has defined as its role the assistance to scholars and
|
||
|
researchers as they conduct in-depth studies, investigate specific areas
|
||
|
of knowledge, and create new knowledge. The needs of the individual may
|
||
|
well go beyond the collection strengths of the public research library,
|
||
|
speaking to the need for access to the resources available through a
|
||
|
National Research and Education Network.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The independent scholar whose library of residence is not a public
|
||
|
research library has information access needs no different from those of
|
||
|
colleagues living in close proximity to one. Indeed, any individual not
|
||
|
associated with an institution already on a network can benefit from
|
||
|
access to information resources on the NREN. Any public library therefore
|
||
|
has the potential need, on behalf of its patrons, for connection to the
|
||
|
NREN, whether by direct linkage to the network or indirectly through
|
||
|
relationships with other regional institutions.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Unlike academic and corporate research libraries, however, with access to
|
||
|
such a network through institutional affiliation, the public library
|
||
|
itself bears the full expense of network linkage. While public and other
|
||
|
libraries can apply for grants to help bear the cost of linking to a
|
||
|
network, for example from the National Science Foundation to link to the
|
||
|
NSFNET, public funding must be made available to ensure that access to
|
||
|
information can be both available and affordable.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Now is the time that technological, access, funding, and governance
|
||
|
issues for the National Research and Education Network are being
|
||
|
addressed. Now is the time for the public library to be an active
|
||
|
advocate for its needs, to ensure they are built into planning during the
|
||
|
formative years of NREN, so that the broader vision of access to
|
||
|
information in the "workplace without walls" becomes a reality.
|
||
|
|
||
|
___________________ Lois Kershner is project director for the Peninsula
|
||
|
Libraries Automated Network, 25 Tower Road, Belmont, California 94002,
|
||
|
and is a past president of LITA.
|
||
|
|
||
|
-----
|
||
|
|
||
|
Electronic Networking: California State & Public Libraries
|
||
|
Gary Strong, California State Librarian
|
||
|
Kathy Hudson & John Jewell, CSL Library Automation
|
||
|
|
||
|
State libraries and public libraries in the United States have
|
||
|
valuable contributions to offer the users of a network such as NREN. Our
|
||
|
California State Library serves as a public research library, provides
|
||
|
for the information & library needs of state government, and works for
|
||
|
the development & promotion of public library services for all
|
||
|
Californians. The MELVYL System, in fact, includes the California State
|
||
|
Library in addition to the nine University of California libraries. It
|
||
|
is a source of pride to me as State Librarian and to our staff, that we
|
||
|
are a net lender, not a net borrower, with these major research
|
||
|
libraries.
|
||
|
Throughout its 140 year history, the California State Library has
|
||
|
acquired important works. Far West explorer, John C. Fremont, was one of
|
||
|
the first contributors. The Sutro family of San Francisco fame provided
|
||
|
the nucleus for an extensive local history and genealogy collection. The
|
||
|
Paul Gann Archive contains the personal records of the originator of a
|
||
|
tax revolt that rocked the nation's public sector. Nearly 3,000,000
|
||
|
records from newspapers, periodicals and books about California persons,
|
||
|
places, and events are included in the California Room information files.
|
||
|
The Government Publications Section is the only complete federal
|
||
|
depository library in California and produces printed indexes to state
|
||
|
publications.
|
||
|
The State Library recognizes the importance of electronic access for
|
||
|
its own holdings with over 500,000 RLIN records already in the MELVYL
|
||
|
System; plans are close to completion to add over 200,000 federal
|
||
|
document records, and a major retrospective conversion project is well
|
||
|
underway for older state documents. Like Oregon State Library, which has
|
||
|
brought up a variety of public information databases, we know that to
|
||
|
serve our clientele we must provide more than our own bibliographic
|
||
|
holdings. The State Library's own integrated library system, presently
|
||
|
being installed, supports NISO standards and can mount non-MARC
|
||
|
databases. It can link to a variety of external information sources,
|
||
|
including, in a test, TCP/IP links to MELVYL and Internet. The State
|
||
|
Library's planning, still in draft, includes providing electronic access
|
||
|
for state agencies and public libraries to our holdings and to these
|
||
|
other resources.
|
||
|
Public and special libraries in the state have their own unique
|
||
|
contributions. For example, the extensive holdings of the Los Angeles,
|
||
|
San Francisco, and San Diego public libraries have long been recognized
|
||
|
as key research sources. Fresno County Free Library has one of the
|
||
|
world's finest collections on William Saroyan. The California Institute
|
||
|
of the Arts Library has more than 16,000 music scores, approximately
|
||
|
10,000 art exhibition catalogs, a large collection of screenplays, and
|
||
|
the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art Artist's Registry with data
|
||
|
and slides on contemporary southern California artists.
|
||
|
The State Library has an active, positive role in helping libraries
|
||
|
make such resources accessible. The California Statewide Data Base on
|
||
|
OCLC is an ongoing project to build and maintain an automated data base
|
||
|
of the current acquisitions of California public libraries. It contains
|
||
|
nearly 9,000,000 California public library holdings records. Significant
|
||
|
special reference resources from 93 public and special libraries were
|
||
|
made available through last year's Telefacsimile Networking Grants
|
||
|
(LSCA), including those of the California Institute of the Arts Library.
|
||
|
As Ed Brownrigg points out in Developing the Information Superhighway:
|
||
|
Issues for Libraries, implementation of NREN requires more than solving
|
||
|
technical communication problems. It involves complex policy,
|
||
|
procedural, governance and financing issues. A battery of California
|
||
|
Library programs are helping lay a foundation. Libraries in the state
|
||
|
are carefully building the structure for a multi-type network. A new
|
||
|
model for reference referral, also recognizing contributions of all types
|
||
|
of libraries, is under development and will provide access to high
|
||
|
quality reference for all Californians. The state-funded (CLSA)
|
||
|
Transaction Based Reimbursements Program provides a strong basis to
|
||
|
encourage libraries to provide materials to other than their own
|
||
|
clientele, assisting with direct loans of over 16,000,000 and
|
||
|
interlibrary loans of over 460,000.
|
||
|
The State Library and California public libraries have a valuable role
|
||
|
in linking our users to the proposed NREN resources. Access to NREN by
|
||
|
our libraries is critical to our mission to provide accurate, timely, and
|
||
|
responsive reference and information service to our patrons. Moreover,
|
||
|
our ability to provide access to specialized databases and current
|
||
|
research relevant to public policy is of critical importance to ongoing
|
||
|
support of NREN, whether it be current status of earthquake prediction or
|
||
|
superconductor research. The majority of policy planners and
|
||
|
decision-makers in the state will form their impression of libraries upon
|
||
|
the quality and level of information they receive through the State
|
||
|
Library and public library service programs.
|
||
|
In California, as in the rest of the nation, entrepreneurial spirit is
|
||
|
viewed as critical in state industries maintaining a competitive edge in
|
||
|
the world market. Most of the companies in our high technology centers
|
||
|
have or began with fifty or fewer employees. For these, there is no
|
||
|
major research facility or corporate library. The local public libraries
|
||
|
provide strong support as a research resource for such companies. The
|
||
|
California State Library has encouraged and supported such development,
|
||
|
for example, through grants to projects like the Silicon Valley
|
||
|
Information Center in the San Jose Public Library.
|
||
|
California's ethnically and racially diverse population poses a
|
||
|
challenge to all public service organizations, and certainly to libraries
|
||
|
- public, school, special and academic. The State Library has allocated
|
||
|
over $4,000,000 in LSCA funds to assist community library service staff
|
||
|
serving American Indian, Asian, Pacific, Black and Hispanic populations.
|
||
|
We recently arranged with OCLC for the loading of Spanish language
|
||
|
subject headings tapes. Asian Shared Information & Access (ASIA)
|
||
|
continues to provide machine-readable cataloged titles (over 130,000
|
||
|
copies) in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages to
|
||
|
libraries serving readers of Asian languages.
|
||
|
In addition, the State Library and California public libraries have
|
||
|
become increasing concerned with the growing division between the
|
||
|
information-rich and information-poor, with serious gaps created by
|
||
|
social, economic and geographic barriers. It is not enough to provide
|
||
|
for delivery systems. Californians to be full participants in the new
|
||
|
networking and new economy will require appropriate education. Although
|
||
|
the rate of adult illiteracy in basic reading skills is staggering, the
|
||
|
rate of information illiteracy in accessing and using more sophisticated
|
||
|
information far exceeds this basic challenge. Public libraries have a
|
||
|
responsibility to assist our patrons in developing information literacy.
|
||
|
If we are to bridge this growing gap between the information-poor and the
|
||
|
information-rich, we suggest an approach which does not require making
|
||
|
every Californian information technology literate. It is mediated access
|
||
|
through libraries that is realistic and appropriate. The libraries and
|
||
|
their clientele can accept the value of the new technologies. The
|
||
|
problem lies in equality of access. The public libraries serve as a base
|
||
|
for such universal access for all Californians.
|
||
|
Free and equal access are hallmarks for the California State Library
|
||
|
and, we believe, for the public librarians of California. Recently, a
|
||
|
headline read "All Librarians Are Radicals". The author, Stewart Brand,
|
||
|
commented, "The only communicators taking full advantage of the
|
||
|
electronic convergence of all media are the librarians, who owe
|
||
|
allegiance to no single industry. In America librarians are officially
|
||
|
sanctioned outlaws. They truly believe information ought to be free and
|
||
|
follow wherever it explores ... libraries are major crafters of the
|
||
|
emerging information infrastructure - infostructure." [Stewart Brand,
|
||
|
"Outlaws, Musicians, Lovers, and Spies: The Future of Control", Whole
|
||
|
Earth Review (Summer 1990), No. 67, pp. 130-135.]
|
||
|
|
||
|
-----
|
||
|
|
||
|
Network Working Group V. Cerf
|
||
|
Request for Comments: 1167 CNRI
|
||
|
July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
THOUGHTS ON THE NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK
|
||
|
|
||
|
Status of this Memo
|
||
|
|
||
|
The memo provides a brief outline of a National Research and
|
||
|
Education Network (NREN). This memo provides information for the
|
||
|
Internet community. It does not specify any standard. It is not a
|
||
|
statement of IAB policy or recommendations.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
|
||
|
|
||
|
ABSTRACT
|
||
|
|
||
|
This contribution seeks to outline and call attention to some of the
|
||
|
major factors which will influence the form and structure of a
|
||
|
National Research and Education Network (NREN). It is implicitly
|
||
|
assumed that the system will emerge from the existing Internet.
|
||
|
|
||
|
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
|
||
|
|
||
|
The author gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science
|
||
|
Foundation, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the
|
||
|
Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space
|
||
|
Administration through cooperative agreement NCR-8820945. The author
|
||
|
also acknowledges helpful comments from colleagues Ira Richer, Barry
|
||
|
Leiner, Hans-Werner Braun and Robert Kahn. The opinions expressed in
|
||
|
this paper are the personal opinions of the author and do not
|
||
|
represent positions of the U.S. Government, the Corporation for
|
||
|
National Research Initiatives or of the Internet Activities Board.
|
||
|
In fact, the author isn't sure he agrees with everything in the
|
||
|
paper, either!
|
||
|
|
||
|
A WORD ON TERMINOLOGY
|
||
|
|
||
|
The expression "national research and education network" is taken to
|
||
|
mean "the U.S. National Research and Education Network" in the
|
||
|
material which follows. It is implicitly assumed that similar
|
||
|
initiatives may arise in other countries and that a kind of Global
|
||
|
Research and Education Network may arise out of the existing
|
||
|
international Internet system. However, the primary focus of this
|
||
|
paper is on developments in the U.S.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 1]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
FUNDAMENTALS
|
||
|
|
||
|
1. The NREN in the U.S. will evolve from the existing Internet base.
|
||
|
By implication, the U.S. NREN will have to fit into an international
|
||
|
environment consisting of a good many networks sponsored or owned and
|
||
|
operated by non-U.S. organizations around the world.
|
||
|
|
||
|
2. There will continue to be special-purpose and mission-oriented
|
||
|
networks sponsored by the U.S. Government which will need to link
|
||
|
with, if not directly support, the NREN.
|
||
|
|
||
|
3. The basic technical networking architecture of the system will
|
||
|
include local area networks, metropolitan, regional and wide-area
|
||
|
networks. Some nets will be organized to support transit traffic and
|
||
|
others will be strictly parasitic.
|
||
|
|
||
|
4. Looking towards the end of the decade, some of the networks may be
|
||
|
mobile (digital, cellular). A variety of technologies may be used,
|
||
|
including, but not limited to, high speed Fiber Data Distribution
|
||
|
Interface (FDDI) nets, Distributed-Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) nets,
|
||
|
Broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks (B-ISDN) utilizing
|
||
|
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switching fabrics as well as
|
||
|
conventional Token Ring, Ethernet and other IEEE 802.X technology.
|
||
|
Narrowband ISDN and X.25 packet switching technology network services
|
||
|
are also likely play a role along with Switched Multi-megabit Data
|
||
|
Service (SMDS) provided by telecommunications carriers. It also
|
||
|
would be fair to ask what role FTS-2000 might play in the system, at
|
||
|
least in support of government access to the NREN, and possibly in
|
||
|
support of national agency network facilities.
|
||
|
|
||
|
5. The protocol architecture of the system will continue to exhibit a
|
||
|
layered structure although the layering may vary from the present-day
|
||
|
Internet and planned Open Systems Interconnection structures in some
|
||
|
respects.
|
||
|
|
||
|
6. The system will include servers of varying kinds required to
|
||
|
support the general operation of the system (for example, network
|
||
|
management facilities, name servers of various types, email, database
|
||
|
and other kinds of information servers, multicast routers,
|
||
|
cryptographic certificate servers) and collaboration support tools
|
||
|
including video/teleconferencing systems and other "groupware"
|
||
|
facilities. Accounting and access control mechanisms will be
|
||
|
required.
|
||
|
|
||
|
7. The system will support multiple protocols on an end to end basis.
|
||
|
At the least, full TCP/IP and OSI protocol stacks will be supported.
|
||
|
Dealing with Connectionless and Connection-Oriented Network Services
|
||
|
in the OSI area is an open issue (transport service bridges and
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 2]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
application level gateways are two possibilities).
|
||
|
|
||
|
8. Provision must be made for experimental research in networking to
|
||
|
support the continued technical evolution of the system. The NREN
|
||
|
can no more be a static, rigid system than the Internet has been
|
||
|
since its inception. Interconnection of experimental facilities with
|
||
|
the operational NREN must be supported.
|
||
|
|
||
|
9. The architecture must accommodate the use of commercial services,
|
||
|
private and Government-sponsored networks in the NREN system.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Apart from the considerations listed above, it is also helpful to
|
||
|
consider the constituencies and stakeholders who have a role to play
|
||
|
in the use of, provision of and evolution of NREN services. Their
|
||
|
interests will affect the architecture of the NREN and the course of
|
||
|
its creation and evolution.
|
||
|
|
||
|
NREN CONSTITUENTS
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Users
|
||
|
|
||
|
Extrapolating from the present Internet, the users of the system
|
||
|
will be diverse. By legislative intent, it will include colleges
|
||
|
and universities, government research organizations (e.g.,
|
||
|
research laboratories of the Departments of Defense, Energy,
|
||
|
Health and Human Services, National Aeronautics and Space
|
||
|
Administration), non-profit and for-profit research and
|
||
|
development organizations, federally funded research and
|
||
|
development centers (FFRDCs), R&D activities of private
|
||
|
enterprise, library facilities of all kinds, and primary and
|
||
|
secondary schools. The system is not intended to be discipline-
|
||
|
specific.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It is critical to recognize that even in the present Internet, it
|
||
|
has been possible to accommodate a remarkable amalgam of private
|
||
|
enterprise, academic institutions, government and military
|
||
|
facilities. Indeed, the very ability to accept such a diverse
|
||
|
constituency turns on the increasing freedom of the so-called
|
||
|
intermediate-level networks to accept an unrestricted set of
|
||
|
users. The growth in the size and diversity of Internet users, if
|
||
|
it can be said to have been constrained at all, has been limited
|
||
|
in part by usage constraints placed on the federally-sponsored
|
||
|
national agency networks (e.g., NSFNET, NASA Science Internet,
|
||
|
Energy Sciences Net, High Energy Physics Net, the recently
|
||
|
deceased ARPANET, Defense Research Internet, etc.). Given the
|
||
|
purposes of these networks and the fiduciary responsibilities of
|
||
|
the agencies that have created them, such usage constraints seem
|
||
|
highly appropriate. It may be beneficial to search for less
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 3]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
constraining architectural paradigms, perhaps through the use of
|
||
|
backbone facilities which are not federally-sponsored.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Internet does not quite serve the public in the same sense
|
||
|
that the telephone network(s) do (i.e., the Internet is not a
|
||
|
common carrier), although the linkages between the Internet and
|
||
|
public electronic mail systems, private bulletin board systems
|
||
|
such as FIDONET and commercial network services such as UUNET,
|
||
|
ALTERNET and PSI, for example, make the system extremely
|
||
|
accessible to a very wide variety of users.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It will be important to keep in mind that, over time, an
|
||
|
increasing number of institutional users will support local area
|
||
|
networks and will want to gain access to NREN by that means.
|
||
|
Individual use will continue to rely on dial-up access and, as it
|
||
|
is deployed, narrow-band ISDN. Eventually, metropolitan area
|
||
|
networks and broadband ISDN facilities may be used to support
|
||
|
access to NREN. Cellular radio or other mobile communication
|
||
|
technologies may also become increasingly popular as access tools.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Service Providers
|
||
|
|
||
|
In its earliest stages, the Internet consisted solely of
|
||
|
government-sponsored networks such as the Defense Department's
|
||
|
ARPANET, Packet Radio Networks and Packet Satellite Networks.
|
||
|
With the introduction of Xerox PARC's Ethernet, however, things
|
||
|
began to change and privately owned and operated networks became
|
||
|
an integral part of the Internet architecture.
|
||
|
|
||
|
For a time, there was a mixture of government-sponsored backbone
|
||
|
facilities and private local area networks. With the introduction
|
||
|
of the National Science Foundation NSFNET, however, the
|
||
|
architecture changed again to include intermediate-level networks
|
||
|
consisting of collections of commercially-produced routers and
|
||
|
trunk or access lines which connected local area network
|
||
|
facilities to the government-sponsored backbones. The
|
||
|
government-sponsored supercomputer centers (such as the National
|
||
|
Aerospace Simulator at NASA/AMES, the Magnetic Fusion Energy
|
||
|
Computing Center at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and the half-
|
||
|
dozen or so NSF-sponsored supercomputer centers) fostered the
|
||
|
growth of communications networks specifically to support
|
||
|
supercomputer access although, over time, these have tended to
|
||
|
look more and more like general-purpose intermediate-level
|
||
|
networks.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Many, but not all, of the intermediate-level networks applied for
|
||
|
and received seed funding from the National Science Foundation.
|
||
|
It was and continues to be NSF's position, however, that such
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 4]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
direct subsidies should diminish over time and that the
|
||
|
intermediate networks should become self-sustaining. To
|
||
|
accomplish this objective, the intermediate-level networks have
|
||
|
been turning to an increasingly diverse user constituency (see
|
||
|
section above).
|
||
|
|
||
|
The basic model of government backbones, consortium intermediate
|
||
|
level nets and private local area networks has served reasonably
|
||
|
well during the 1980's but it would appear that newer
|
||
|
telecommunications technologies may suggest another potential
|
||
|
paradigm. As the NSFNET moves towards higher speed backbone
|
||
|
operation in the 45 Mb/s range, the importance of carrier
|
||
|
participation in the enterprise has increased. The provision of
|
||
|
backbone capacity at attractive rates by the inter-exchange
|
||
|
carrier (in this case, MCI Communications Corporation) has been
|
||
|
crucial to the feasibility of deploying such a high speed system.
|
||
|
|
||
|
As the third phase of the NREN effort gets underway, it is
|
||
|
becoming increasingly apparent that the "federally-funded
|
||
|
backbone" model may and perhaps even should or must give way to a
|
||
|
vision of commercially operated, gigabit speed systems to which
|
||
|
the users of the NREN have access. If there is federal subsidy in
|
||
|
the new paradigm, it might come through direct provision of
|
||
|
support for networking at the level of individual research grant
|
||
|
or possibly through a system of institutional vouchers permitting
|
||
|
and perhaps even mandating institution-wide network planning and
|
||
|
provision. This differs from the present model in which the
|
||
|
backbone networks are essentially federally owned and operated or
|
||
|
enjoy significant, direct federal support to the provider of the
|
||
|
service.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The importance of such a shift in service provision philosophy
|
||
|
cannot be over-emphasized. In the long run, it eliminates
|
||
|
unnecessary restrictions on the use and application of the
|
||
|
backbone facilities, opening up possibilities for true ubiquity of
|
||
|
access and use without the need for federal control, except to the
|
||
|
extent that any such services are considered in need of
|
||
|
regulation, perhaps. The same arguments might be made for the
|
||
|
intermediate level systems (metropolitan and regional area access
|
||
|
networks). This does NOT mean that private networks ranging from
|
||
|
local consortia to inter-continental systems will be ruled out.
|
||
|
The economics of private networking may still be favorable for
|
||
|
sufficiently heavy usage. It does suggest, however, that
|
||
|
achieving scale and ubiquity may largely rely on publicly
|
||
|
accessible facilities.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 5]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
The Vendors
|
||
|
|
||
|
Apart from service provision, the technology available to the
|
||
|
users and the service providers will come largely from commercial
|
||
|
sources. A possible exception to this may be the switches used in
|
||
|
the gigabit testbed effort, but ultimately, even this technology
|
||
|
will have to be provided commercially if the system is to achieve
|
||
|
the scale necessary to serve as the backbone of the NREN.
|
||
|
|
||
|
An important consequence of this observation is that the NREN
|
||
|
architecture should be fashioned in such a way that it can be
|
||
|
constructed from technology compatible with carrier plans and
|
||
|
available from commercial telecommunications equipment suppliers.
|
||
|
Examples include the use of SONET (Synchronous Optical Network)
|
||
|
optical transmission technology, Switched Multimegabit Data
|
||
|
Services offerings (metropolitan area networks), Asynchronous
|
||
|
Transmission Mode (ATM) switches, frame relays, high speed,
|
||
|
multi-protocol routers, and so on. It is somewhat unclear what
|
||
|
role the public X.25 networks will play, especially where narrow
|
||
|
and broadband ISDN services are available, but it is also not
|
||
|
obvious that they ought to be written off at this point. Where
|
||
|
there is still research and development activity (such as in
|
||
|
network management), the network R&D community can contribute
|
||
|
through experimental efforts and through participation in
|
||
|
standards-making activities (e.g., ANSI, NIST, IAB/IETF, Open
|
||
|
NMF).
|
||
|
|
||
|
OPERATIONS
|
||
|
|
||
|
It seems clear that the current Internet and the anticipated NREN
|
||
|
will have to function in a highly distributed fashion. Given the
|
||
|
diversity of service providers and the richness of the constituent
|
||
|
networks (as to technology and ownership), there will have to be a
|
||
|
good deal of collaboration and cooperation to make the system work.
|
||
|
One can see the necessity for this, based on the existing voice
|
||
|
network in the U.S. with its local and inter-exchange carrier (IEC)
|
||
|
structure. It should be noted that in the presence of the local and
|
||
|
IEC structure, it has proven possible to support private and virtual
|
||
|
private networking as well. The same needs to be true of the NREN.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A critical element of any commercial service is accounting and
|
||
|
billing. It must be possible to identify users (billable parties,
|
||
|
anyway) and to compute usage charges. This is not to say that the
|
||
|
NREN component networks must necessarily bill on the basis of usage.
|
||
|
It may prove preferable to have fixed access charges which might be
|
||
|
modulated by access data rate, as some of the intermediate-level
|
||
|
networks have found. It would not be surprising to find a mixture of
|
||
|
charging policies in which usage charges are preferable for small
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 6]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
amounts of use and flat rate charges are preferred for high volume
|
||
|
use.
|
||
|
|
||
|
It will be critical to establish a forum in which operational matters
|
||
|
can be debated and methods established to allow cooperative operation
|
||
|
of the entire system. A number of possibilities present themselves:
|
||
|
use of the Internet Engineering Task Force as a basis, use of
|
||
|
existing telecommunication carrier organizations, or possibly a
|
||
|
consortium of all service providers (and private network operators?).
|
||
|
Even if such an activity is initiated through federal action, it may
|
||
|
be helpful, in the long run, if it eventually embraces a much wider
|
||
|
community.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Agreements are needed on the technical foundations for network
|
||
|
monitoring and management, for internetwork accounting and exchange
|
||
|
payments, for problem identification, tracking, escalation and
|
||
|
resolution. A framework is needed for the support of users of the
|
||
|
aggregate NREN. This suggests cooperative agreements among network
|
||
|
information centers, user service and support organizations to begin
|
||
|
with. Eventually, the cost of such operations will have to be
|
||
|
incorporated into the general cost of service provision. The federal
|
||
|
role, even if it acts as catalyst in the initial stages, may
|
||
|
ultimately focus on the direct support of the users of the system
|
||
|
which it finds it appropriate to support and subsidize (e.g., the
|
||
|
research and educational users of the NREN).
|
||
|
|
||
|
A voucher system has been proposed, in the case of the NREN, which
|
||
|
would permit users to choose which NREN service provider(s) to
|
||
|
engage. The vouchers might be redeemed by the service providers in
|
||
|
the same sort of way that food stamps are redeemed by supermarkets.
|
||
|
Over time, the cost of the vouchers could change so that an initial
|
||
|
high subsidy from the federal government would diminish until the
|
||
|
utility of the vouchers vanished and decisions would be made to
|
||
|
purchase telecommunications services on a pure cost/benefit basis.
|
||
|
|
||
|
IMPORTANCE OF COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
|
||
|
|
||
|
The initial technical architecture should incorporate commercial
|
||
|
service provision where possible so as to avoid the creation of a
|
||
|
system which is solely reliant on the federal government for its
|
||
|
support and operation. It is anticipated that a hybrid system will
|
||
|
develop but, for example, it is possible that the gigabit backbone
|
||
|
components of the system might be strictly commercial from the start,
|
||
|
even if the lower speed components of the NREN vary from private, to
|
||
|
public to federally subsidized or owned and operated.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cerf [Page 7]
|
||
|
|
||
|
RFC 1167 NREN July 1990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
CONCLUSIONS
|
||
|
|
||
|
The idea of creating a National Research and Education Network has
|
||
|
captured the attention and enthusiasm of an extraordinarily broad
|
||
|
collection of interested parties. I believe this is in part a
|
||
|
consequence of the remarkable range of new services and facilities
|
||
|
which could be provided once the network infrastructure is in place.
|
||
|
If the technology of the NREN is commercially viable, one can readily
|
||
|
imagine that an economic engine of considerable proportions might
|
||
|
result from the widespread accessibility of NREN-like facilities to
|
||
|
business sector.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Security Considerations
|
||
|
|
||
|
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Author's Address
|
||
|
|
||
|
Vinton G. Cerf
|
||
|
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
|
||
|
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
|
||
|
Reston, VA 22091
|
||
|
|
||
|
EMail: vcerf@NRI.Reston.VA.US
|
||
|
|
||
|
Phone: (703) 620-8990
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|