TOWARD A NATIONAL LIBRARY....

TOWARD A NATIONAL LIBRARY

OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

BUILDING ON THE PRESENT -

CREATING THE DIGITAL FUTURE

Bonnie C. Carroll⁽¹⁾

and

Gail M. Hodge⁽²⁾

October 12, 1998

⁽¹⁾Ms. Carroll is President of Information International Associates, Inc. (IIa), a consulting firm in information resources management and is the Executive Director of CENDI (Commerce, Energy, NASA, National Libraries of Agriculture, Education & Medicine, Defense, and Interior), the interagency coordinating group of major federal Scientific and Technology Information (STI) programs.

⁽²⁾Ms. Hodge is a Senior Research Associate at IIa and provides technical support for CENDI.

NOTE: The ideas and opinions presented here are those of the authors

except as otherwise noted.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................... Ex Sum 1

1.0 PREMISE: We Have a Unique Opportunity to Embrace the Information Age Technology to Capitalize the National Scientific and Technical Information Resource......................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 The Importance of Science to the Nation.................................................................... 1

1.2 The Value of Information........................................................................................... 2

2.0 VISION: Build a Virtual-Digital National Library of Science and

Technology.................................................................................................................. 3

3.0 NATIONAL LIBRARY PRECEDENTS: Build on Success...................................... 4

4.0 THE NATIONAL LIBRARY CONCEPT IN A DIGITAL NETWORKED WORLD: Theme-based Information Infrastructures............................................................................ 6

4.1 The Biodiversity and Ecosystems Initiative.................................................................. 6

4.2 The Energy Science and Technology Initiative............................................................. 7

4.3 The Defense Initiative................................................................................................. 8

4.4 The Medical Initiative................................................................................................. 8

5.0 CONCEPTUAL DESIGN: Envisioning The Digital Future................................ 8

5.1 A Federated Network............................................................................................... 9

5.2 Desktop Access...................................................................................................... 10

5.3 Tools and Services.................................................................................................. 10

5.4 Types of Information................................................................................................ 10

6.0 BENEFITS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Crossing Boundaries.................................................................................................................. 10

6.1 Improve Communication of R&D Results to the American People............................ 10

6.2 Support the Interdisciplinary Nature of Science........................................................ 11

6.3 Promote Efficient and Effective Use of R&D Funds.................................................. 12

6.4 Bridge the Gap Between Digital Library Research and Implementation...................... 12

6.5 Identify What Exists: Bibliographic or Metadata Control........................................... 12

6.6 Provide Support Services and Tools........................................................................ 13

7.0 IMPLEMENTATION: Building on The Present .................................................. 13

7.1 Building on Current Information Programs................................................................ 13

7.2 Building on Current Cooperation.............................................................................. 14

7.3 Inclusion of Non-Federal Collaborators................................................................... 14

8.0 ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE: Representing All Interests......................... 14

8.1 The Role of OSTP: Policy and Oversight.................................................................. 14

8.2 An Executive Agent: The Coordinating Function....................................................... 15

8.3 A Membership Board: Contributors= Forum............................................................ 16

8.4 A Science Advisory Committee: Input from the User Community.............................. 16

9.0 ESTABLISHMENT: a Formal Commitment......................................................... 16

10.0 RESOURCES: Public And Private.......................................................................... 16

11.0 CONCLUSIONS: a Time For Action...................................................................... 17

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PREMISE: We Have a Unique Opportunity to Embrace the Information Age Technology and to Capitalize on the National Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Resource

ANew technologies that enhance the ability to create and understand information have always led to dramatic changes in civilization. The printing press unleashed the forces that led to the birth of the modern nation state. . . . Now come distributed networks connecting a myriad of computers, ranging from megaflop machines and workstations to desktop and personal laptop units. . . .There is no longer any doubt that such machines will reshape human civilization even more quickly and more thoroughly than did the printing press.@^[1]

The Information Age provides opportunities we could only dream of in the past. It links people in ways that were not possible just a few short years ago. New technologies allow individuals and organizations to publish information more quickly and in larger quantities than ever before. Analytical, modeling and simulation programs, are enhancing the creativity of the human mind by suggesting new avenues of research and discovery. The outcomes of previous research and development (R&D), including high-speed computation, high density data storage, and ever more intuitive programming techniques make this possible. Now, the challenge and opportunity is to use the Information Age technology to the greatest benefit, by using it to capture, enhance, disseminate, grow, and share our national scientific and technical information resources.

The findings of the recent bipartisan House Science Committee Report on AUnlocking Our Future: Toward a New National Science Policy@^[2] justifies the importance of science as a national resource.. The report calls for a renewed emphasis on basic, yet focused, federal scientific research. Another recommendation of the House Committee on Science Report is to improve the communication of the results of the federal R&D to the American people.

Information is one of the major products of the $70 billion taxpayer investment in science and technology. It is an integral part of the R&D process.^[3] Since science and technology have a tremendous impact on the nation and information is a vital part of the scientific process, the management of the nation=s scientific information resources is both a federal responsibility and a national necessity. The information output of the investment in science is a public good to be used in the public interest.

VISION: Build a Virtual-Digital National Library of Science and Technology

The vision addressed in this white paper is to capitalize on the opportunity that information technology affords to provide comprehensive access to scientific and technical information in all disciplines. It builds on the tradition of federal R&D, supported by scientific and technical information programs, for the most effective stewardship of the national scientific and technical information resource. It supports the needs of an increasingly complex and interdisciplinary world. The basic requirements and concepts presented in this paper are not new. It is the enabling technology that allows us to leverage existing decentralized resource collections that is new. This places us at a strategic time to create the digital future in support of scientific communication and the progress of science in the U.S.

The National Library of Science and Technology (NLST) will be a virtual, digital library that links and provides access to the comprehensive collections and information systems in the disciplines of the mission-oriented science agencies.

NATIONAL LIBRARY PRECEDENTS: Build on Success

The NLST will be born in a fully digital world and, to this extent, has no exact precedents. However, one can build on the successes of the three traditional national libraries already authorized within the Executive Branch. They are the National Library of Medicine, the National Agricultural Library, and the National Library of Education (NLE). Two common characteristics that were relevant to the need and value for their creation were:

1. The missions of the national libraries had a public good aspect and addressed a national priority.

2. An information resource base existed in the mission-oriented agency and its value was recognized as transcending the mission of its sponsoring organization.

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY CONCEPT IN A DIGITAL NETWORKED WORLD: Theme-based Information Infrastructures

With the new capabilities and opportunities provided by the Internet and the World Wide Web, the nature of scientific communication is undergoing a major transformation. Today, we have a national opportunity to harness the incredible power of science and technology information in the national interest -- this time in the digital, networked environment. The national libraries and the agency-based scientific information programs are addressing this need in a number of innovative ways. One response to this challenge has been the creation of thematic or mission-based information infrastructures. These are community-based subsets of the national information infrastructure. Four exemplary projects are:

! The National Biological Information Infrastructure

! The National Library of Energy Science and Technology

! The Defense Virtual Library

! The Medical Project PubMed

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN: Envisioning The Digital Future

With the existing mission-based national libraries in combination with the new thematic information infrastructures that are evolving, the NLST becomes the integrator. The strength of the NLST rests in the continuing success of each mission information system. The development of common standards or guidelines that allow the user to navigate seamlessly among them is the challenge. With these standards, we can then build tools that can effectively search and process Web information in a distributed and coherent manner.

This value-added, crosscutting function is the role of the NLST. Only now has such a role become technically feasible. It optimizes the value of the individual mission-based systems and promotes common standards and joint investments in research and development.

The NLST would be a collaborative federation, building on the information systems of the major science mission agencies. The NLST is accessed from the user=s desktop. This means not only access but integration with the user=s work environment.

There already exists an organization which promotes regular cooperation among the nine of the major scientific and technical information programs of science and technology mission agencies which spend over 95 percent of the federal R&D budget. This organization is known as CENDI, information managers from the Departments of Commerce, Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Libraries of Agriculture and Medicine, and the Departments of Defense and Interior. A CENDI science and technology information network could form a conceptual backbone for the NLST. The thing that CENDI lacks is a clear mandate and adequate shared resources to go beyond the first steps.

The NLST will collaborate with primary and secondary publishers, software developers, and information brokers. In recent years, there has been an increase in the degree to which the federal information programs license or otherwise arrange for access to published literature, particularly for journal articles.

BENEFITS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Crossing Boundaries

The NLST has several key benefits:

! The NLST will communicate the results of federal R&D to the American public by providing a focal point for location of and access to the scientific and technical information products and services from the federal agencies.

! The NLST will promote interdisciplinary scientific research by providing the scientific results from a broad scope of scientific disciplines, organized in such a way to allow scientists to locate relevant information in other disciplines and promote the development of scientific collaboration through enhanced communication services.

! The NLST promotes efficient and effective use of federal R&D dollars by making the results known across federal agencies and the private sector, allowing for reuse of the science.

! The NLST will help to bridge the gap between the federally funded Digital Library Research and the implementation of such research.

! The NLST will provide coordinated systems for managing Internet-based scientific resources and addressing issues of life cycle management for digital information.

! The NLST will leverage the resources of the individual scientific and technical organization by providing a means by which common support services and tools can be developed and maintained.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE: Representing All Interests

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has responsibility under OSTP for coordinating across agencies and advising the president on R&D across the government. It promotes collaborative efforts, particularly on projects and issues that cannot be addressed by a stove-pipe approach. As such, the NSTC is the logical entity to take initial oversight of the development of the NLST.

Although OSTP coordinates across the science and engineering mission agencies, it is not an operating organization and does not generally fund ongoing operations. Therefore, a management function at the operational level would be needed.

In addition to the NLST Subcommittee, which serves a policy function, there should be a Membership Board made up of scientific and technical information managers from all organizations that contribute substantially to the NLST.

Finally, there is a need for input from actual scientists, engineers and others who use the NLST. There should be an advisory group made up of users.

ESTABLISHMENT: a Formal Commitment

As with the other national libraries, legislation should be sought that establishes the NLST, funds it with a unique appropriation, and outlines its responsibilities.

RESOURCES: Public And Private

A NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

BUILDING ON THE PRESENT - CREATING THE DIGITAL FUTURE

1.0 PREMISE: We Have a Unique Opportunity to Embrace the Information Age Technology to Capitalize the National Scientific and Technical Information Resource

The Information Age provides opportunities we could only dream of in the past. The information age is linking people in ways that we could never have thought possible just a few short years ago. Scientists, researcher, students, and the public are communicating with each other at an amazing rate and in real-time. New technologies allow individuals and organizations to publish information more quickly and in larger quantities than ever before. Analytical, modeling and simulation programs, including those based on virtual reality, are enhancing the creativity of the human mind by suggesting new avenues of research and discovery. These same programs allow students to learn not only the science, but how to think scientifically and ethically about scientific discoveries. The outcomes of previous research and development (R&D), including high-speed computation, high density data storage, and ever more intuitive programming techniques make this possible. Now, the challenge and opportunity is to use the Information Age to the greatest benefit, by using it to capture, enhance, disseminate, grow, and share our national scientific and technical information resources.

1.2_ The Importance of Science to the Nation

The findings of the recent bipartisan House Science Committee Report on AUnlocking Our Future: Toward a New National Science Policy@^[5] justifies the importance of science as a national resource. This report, which followed numerous hearings and interviews with policy makers, educators, and practicing scientists in a variety of disciplines, addresses the question of national science policy in the post-Cold War Era. Harking back to the seminal work Science: The Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush, Science Advisor to the President following WWII, the report emphasizes the importance of science in three key areasChealth, national defense, and global economic competitiveness. The House Committee also added a fourth key area -- informed decision making. In general, the House Committee report calls for a renewed emphasis on basic, yet focused, federal scientific research.

1.2 The Value of Information

Information is one of the major inputs and outputs of the $70 Billion taxpayer investment in science and technology. It=s position as an integral part of the R&D process was one of the key conclusions of the 1963 President=s Science Advisory Committee on AScience, Government, and Information,@ chaired by Dr. Alvin Weinberg, then Director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.^[6] In a policy research paper from OTA in 1990, it was noted that AScientists and engineers involved in R&D often spend between one-quarter and one-half of their time on information-related activities that include both analyzing and reporting one=s own research and searching for and applying the research results of others.@^[7]

Since science and technology have a tremendous impact on the nation and information is a vital part of the scientific process, the management of the nation=s scientific information resources is both a federal responsibility and a national necessity. In other words, the information output of the investment in science is a public good that must be used in the public interest.

A. . . more and more people realize that information is a treasure that must be shared to be valuable. . .@ Albert Gore, Jr. Speech before the National Press Club, Washington, DC, March 21, 1994

A renewed emphasis on federal scientific research must have a corresponding emphasis on scientific information management and communication. This was realized in the 1950's-1960's when part of the response to Vannevar Bush=s call for a national science policy was a major science information initiative that moved the dissemination of scientific and technical information from paper toward the electronic world we live in today. In both the federal and private sectors, major information products were developed for the sciences. Many of the private sector efforts were supported by NSF grants. This federal investment led to the development of the online information industry in the U.S. That paradigm has supported U.S. science productivity through the last two decades.

However, these systems were accessible primarily through librarians and information specialists familiar with the specialized systems. Technology had not yet enabled the view of the information future that Vannevar Bush conceived to support his national science policy. Dr. Bush envisioned a system in which paper documents were made electronic, and indexes and abstracts were provided for the world=s knowledge.^[8] Bush envisioned a system he called Memex involving links he called Atraces@ which have, today, been achieved through the World Wide Web and hyperlinks. Bush conceived a digital library -- a concept that could not be achieved without the advances of the Information Age.

Vice President Albert Gore had a similar vision dating back to when he introduced a bill to promote the National Research and Education Network (NREN), a network that today has developed into the Internet. His vision remains a driver. As he stated, AThere have been advances in networking technology. We have the technical know‑how to make networks that would enable a child to . . . use something that looks like a video game machine to plug into the Library of Congress. It could be possible to gain access to the most powerful supercomputers in our nation from every PC in America C and to gain access to digital libraries, another key part of the national information infrastructure we need.@^[9]

Federal and private sectors are just beginning to utilize the advances of the Information Age in new and innovative ways to capture, disseminate, and make use of scientific information. Facing the new millennium and a renewed emphasis on science and technology as a national resource, how should the federal government respond in terms of science information management to best take advantage of the opportunities that technology opens up for us?

2.0 VISION: Build a Virtual-Digital National Library of Science and Technology

The vision addressed in this white paper is to capitalize on the opportunity that information technology affords to provide comprehensive access to scientific and technical information in all disciplines. It builds on the tradition of federal R&D, supported by scientific and technical information programs, for the most effective stewardship of the national scientific and technical information resource. The building blocks of this model use the existing and ongoing efforts that have helped to make our national science enterprise strong. It 1) builds on the existing science communication and content infrastructure, 2) takes optimal advantage of the new and rapidly advancing information technologies, and 3) helps to bring together the results of a decentralized federal science organization. It supports the needs of an increasingly complex and interdisciplinary world.