--- /dev/null
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of LOC WORKSHOP ON ELECTRONIC TEXTS
+
+
+
+
+ WORKSHOP ON ELECTRONIC TEXTS
+
+ PROCEEDINGS
+
+
+
+ Edited by James Daly
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ 9-10 June 1992
+
+
+ Library of Congress
+ Washington, D.C.
+
+
+
+ Supported by a Grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+Acknowledgements
+
+Introduction
+
+Proceedings
+ Welcome
+ Prosser Gifford and Carl Fleischhauer
+
+ Session I. Content in a New Form: Who Will Use It and What Will They Do?
+ James Daly (Moderator)
+ Avra Michelson, Overview
+ Susan H. Veccia, User Evaluation
+ Joanne Freeman, Beyond the Scholar
+ Discussion
+
+ Session II. Show and Tell
+ Jacqueline Hess (Moderator)
+ Elli Mylonas, Perseus Project
+ Discussion
+ Eric M. Calaluca, Patrologia Latina Database
+ Carl Fleischhauer and Ricky Erway, American Memory
+ Discussion
+ Dorothy Twohig, The Papers of George Washington
+ Discussion
+ Maria L. Lebron, The Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials
+ Discussion
+ Lynne K. Personius, Cornell mathematics books
+ Discussion
+
+ Session III. Distribution, Networks, and Networking:
+ Options for Dissemination
+ Robert G. Zich (Moderator)
+ Clifford A. Lynch
+ Discussion
+ Howard Besser
+ Discussion
+ Ronald L. Larsen
+ Edwin B. Brownrigg
+ Discussion
+
+ Session IV. Image Capture, Text Capture, Overview of Text and
+ Image Storage Formats
+ William L. Hooton (Moderator)
+ A) Principal Methods for Image Capture of Text:
+ direct scanning, use of microform
+ Anne R. Kenney
+ Pamela Q.J. Andre
+ Judith A. Zidar
+ Donald J. Waters
+ Discussion
+ B) Special Problems: bound volumes, conservation,
+ reproducing printed halftones
+ George Thoma
+ Carl Fleischhauer
+ Discussion
+ C) Image Standards and Implications for Preservation
+ Jean Baronas
+ Patricia Battin
+ Discussion
+ D) Text Conversion: OCR vs. rekeying, standards of accuracy
+ and use of imperfect texts, service bureaus
+ Michael Lesk
+ Ricky Erway
+ Judith A. Zidar
+ Discussion
+
+ Session V. Approaches to Preparing Electronic Texts
+ Susan Hockey (Moderator)
+ Stuart Weibel
+ Discussion
+ C.M. Sperberg-McQueen
+ Discussion
+ Eric M. Calaluca
+ Discussion
+
+ Session VI. Copyright Issues
+ Marybeth Peters
+
+ Session VII. Conclusion
+ Prosser Gifford (Moderator)
+ General discussion
+
+Appendix I: Program
+
+Appendix II: Abstracts
+
+Appendix III: Directory of Participants
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ Acknowledgements
+
+I would like to thank Carl Fleischhauer and Prosser Gifford for the
+opportunity to learn about areas of human activity unknown to me a scant
+ten months ago, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for
+supporting that opportunity. The help given by others is acknowledged on
+a separate page.
+
+ 19 October 1992
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ INTRODUCTION
+
+The Workshop on Electronic Texts (1) drew together representatives of
+various projects and interest groups to compare ideas, beliefs,
+experiences, and, in particular, methods of placing and presenting
+historical textual materials in computerized form. Most attendees gained
+much in insight and outlook from the event. But the assembly did not
+form a new nation, or, to put it another way, the diversity of projects
+and interests was too great to draw the representatives into a cohesive,
+action-oriented body.(2)
+
+Everyone attending the Workshop shared an interest in preserving and
+providing access to historical texts. But within this broad field the
+attendees represented a variety of formal, informal, figurative, and
+literal groups, with many individuals belonging to more than one. These
+groups may be defined roughly according to the following topics or
+activities:
+
+* Imaging
+* Searchable coded texts
+* National and international computer networks
+* CD-ROM production and dissemination
+* Methods and technology for converting older paper materials into
+electronic form
+* Study of the use of digital materials by scholars and others
+
+This summary is arranged thematically and does not follow the actual
+sequence of presentations.
+
+NOTES:
+ (1) In this document, the phrase electronic text is used to mean
+ any computerized reproduction or version of a document, book,
+ article, or manuscript (including images), and not merely a machine-
+ readable or machine-searchable text.
+
+ (2) The Workshop was held at the Library of Congress on 9-10 June
+ 1992, with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
+ The document that follows represents a summary of the presentations
+ made at the Workshop and was compiled by James DALY. This
+ introduction was written by DALY and Carl FLEISCHHAUER.
+
+
+PRESERVATION AND IMAGING
+
+Preservation, as that term is used by archivists,(3) was most explicitly
+discussed in the context of imaging. Anne KENNEY and Lynne PERSONIUS
+explained how the concept of a faithful copy and the user-friendliness of
+the traditional book have guided their project at Cornell University.(4)
+Although interested in computerized dissemination, participants in the
+Cornell project are creating digital image sets of older books in the
+public domain as a source for a fresh paper facsimile or, in a future
+phase, microfilm. The books returned to the library shelves are
+high-quality and useful replacements on acid-free paper that should last
+a long time. To date, the Cornell project has placed little or no
+emphasis on creating searchable texts; one would not be surprised to find
+that the project participants view such texts as new editions, and thus
+not as faithful reproductions.
+
+In her talk on preservation, Patricia BATTIN struck an ecumenical and
+flexible note as she endorsed the creation and dissemination of a variety
+of types of digital copies. Do not be too narrow in defining what counts
+as a preservation element, BATTIN counseled; for the present, at least,
+digital copies made with preservation in mind cannot be as narrowly
+standardized as, say, microfilm copies with the same objective. Setting
+standards precipitously can inhibit creativity, but delay can result in
+chaos, she advised.
+
+In part, BATTIN's position reflected the unsettled nature of image-format
+standards, and attendees could hear echoes of this unsettledness in the
+comments of various speakers. For example, Jean BARONAS reviewed the
+status of several formal standards moving through committees of experts;
+and Clifford LYNCH encouraged the use of a new guideline for transmitting
+document images on Internet. Testimony from participants in the National
+Agricultural Library's (NAL) Text Digitization Program and LC's American
+Memory project highlighted some of the challenges to the actual creation
+or interchange of images, including difficulties in converting
+preservation microfilm to digital form. Donald WATERS reported on the
+progress of a master plan for a project at Yale University to convert
+books on microfilm to digital image sets, Project Open Book (POB).
+
+The Workshop offered rather less of an imaging practicum than planned,
+but "how-to" hints emerge at various points, for example, throughout
+KENNEY's presentation and in the discussion of arcana such as
+thresholding and dithering offered by George THOMA and FLEISCHHAUER.
+
+NOTES:
+ (3) Although there is a sense in which any reproductions of
+ historical materials preserve the human record, specialists in the
+ field have developed particular guidelines for the creation of
+ acceptable preservation copies.
+
+ (4) Titles and affiliations of presenters are given at the
+ beginning of their respective talks and in the Directory of
+ Participants (Appendix III).
+
+
+THE MACHINE-READABLE TEXT: MARKUP AND USE
+
+The sections of the Workshop that dealt with machine-readable text tended
+to be more concerned with access and use than with preservation, at least
+in the narrow technical sense. Michael SPERBERG-McQUEEN made a forceful
+presentation on the Text Encoding Initiative's (TEI) implementation of
+the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). His ideas were echoed
+by Susan HOCKEY, Elli MYLONAS, and Stuart WEIBEL. While the
+presentations made by the TEI advocates contained no practicum, their
+discussion focused on the value of the finished product, what the
+European Community calls reusability, but what may also be termed
+durability. They argued that marking up--that is, coding--a text in a
+well-conceived way will permit it to be moved from one computer
+environment to another, as well as to be used by various users. Two
+kinds of markup were distinguished: 1) procedural markup, which
+describes the features of a text (e.g., dots on a page), and 2)
+descriptive markup, which describes the structure or elements of a
+document (e.g., chapters, paragraphs, and front matter).
+
+The TEI proponents emphasized the importance of texts to scholarship.
+They explained how heavily coded (and thus analyzed and annotated) texts
+can underlie research, play a role in scholarly communication, and
+facilitate classroom teaching. SPERBERG-McQUEEN reminded listeners that
+a written or printed item (e.g., a particular edition of a book) is
+merely a representation of the abstraction we call a text. To concern
+ourselves with faithfully reproducing a printed instance of the text,
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN argued, is to concern ourselves with the representation
+of a representation ("images as simulacra for the text"). The TEI proponents'
+interest in images tends to focus on corollary materials for use in teaching,
+for example, photographs of the Acropolis to accompany a Greek text.
+
+By the end of the Workshop, SPERBERG-McQUEEN confessed to having been
+converted to a limited extent to the view that electronic images
+constitute a promising alternative to microfilming; indeed, an
+alternative probably superior to microfilming. But he was not convinced
+that electronic images constitute a serious attempt to represent text in
+electronic form. HOCKEY and MYLONAS also conceded that their experience
+at the Pierce Symposium the previous week at Georgetown University and
+the present conference at the Library of Congress had compelled them to
+reevaluate their perspective on the usefulness of text as images.
+Attendees could see that the text and image advocates were in
+constructive tension, so to say.
+
+Three nonTEI presentations described approaches to preparing
+machine-readable text that are less rigorous and thus less expensive. In
+the case of the Papers of George Washington, Dorothy TWOHIG explained
+that the digital version will provide a not-quite-perfect rendering of
+the transcribed text--some 135,000 documents, available for research
+during the decades while the perfect or print version is completed.
+Members of the American Memory team and the staff of NAL's Text
+Digitization Program (see below) also outlined a middle ground concerning
+searchable texts. In the case of American Memory, contractors produce
+texts with about 99-percent accuracy that serve as "browse" or
+"reference" versions of written or printed originals. End users who need
+faithful copies or perfect renditions must refer to accompanying sets of
+digital facsimile images or consult copies of the originals in a nearby
+library or archive. American Memory staff argued that the high cost of
+producing 100-percent accurate copies would prevent LC from offering
+access to large parts of its collections.
+
+
+THE MACHINE-READABLE TEXT: METHODS OF CONVERSION
+
+Although the Workshop did not include a systematic examination of the
+methods for converting texts from paper (or from facsimile images) into
+machine-readable form, nevertheless, various speakers touched upon this
+matter. For example, WEIBEL reported that OCLC has experimented with a
+merging of multiple optical character recognition systems that will
+reduce errors from an unacceptable rate of 5 characters out of every
+l,000 to an unacceptable rate of 2 characters out of every l,000.
+
+Pamela ANDRE presented an overview of NAL's Text Digitization Program and
+Judith ZIDAR discussed the technical details. ZIDAR explained how NAL
+purchased hardware and software capable of performing optical character
+recognition (OCR) and text conversion and used its own staff to convert
+texts. The process, ZIDAR said, required extensive editing and project
+staff found themselves considering alternatives, including rekeying
+and/or creating abstracts or summaries of texts. NAL reckoned costs at
+$7 per page. By way of contrast, Ricky ERWAY explained that American
+Memory had decided from the start to contract out conversion to external
+service bureaus. The criteria used to select these contractors were cost
+and quality of results, as opposed to methods of conversion. ERWAY noted
+that historical documents or books often do not lend themselves to OCR.
+Bound materials represent a special problem. In her experience, quality
+control--inspecting incoming materials, counting errors in samples--posed
+the most time-consuming aspect of contracting out conversion. ERWAY
+reckoned American Memory's costs at $4 per page, but cautioned that fewer
+cost-elements had been included than in NAL's figure.
+
+
+OPTIONS FOR DISSEMINATION
+
+The topic of dissemination proper emerged at various points during the
+Workshop. At the session devoted to national and international computer
+networks, LYNCH, Howard BESSER, Ronald LARSEN, and Edwin BROWNRIGG
+highlighted the virtues of Internet today and of the network that will
+evolve from Internet. Listeners could discern in these narratives a
+vision of an information democracy in which millions of citizens freely
+find and use what they need. LYNCH noted that a lack of standards
+inhibits disseminating multimedia on the network, a topic also discussed
+by BESSER. LARSEN addressed the issues of network scalability and
+modularity and commented upon the difficulty of anticipating the effects
+of growth in orders of magnitude. BROWNRIGG talked about the ability of
+packet radio to provide certain links in a network without the need for
+wiring. However, the presenters also called attention to the
+shortcomings and incongruities of present-day computer networks. For
+example: 1) Network use is growing dramatically, but much network
+traffic consists of personal communication (E-mail). 2) Large bodies of
+information are available, but a user's ability to search across their
+entirety is limited. 3) There are significant resources for science and
+technology, but few network sources provide content in the humanities.
+4) Machine-readable texts are commonplace, but the capability of the
+system to deal with images (let alone other media formats) lags behind.
+A glimpse of a multimedia future for networks, however, was provided by
+Maria LEBRON in her overview of the Online Journal of Current Clinical
+Trials (OJCCT), and the process of scholarly publishing on-line.
+
+The contrasting form of the CD-ROM disk was never systematically
+analyzed, but attendees could glean an impression from several of the
+show-and-tell presentations. The Perseus and American Memory examples
+demonstrated recently published disks, while the descriptions of the
+IBYCUS version of the Papers of George Washington and Chadwyck-Healey's
+Patrologia Latina Database (PLD) told of disks to come. According to
+Eric CALALUCA, PLD's principal focus has been on converting Jacques-Paul
+Migne's definitive collection of Latin texts to machine-readable form.
+Although everyone could share the network advocates' enthusiasm for an
+on-line future, the possibility of rolling up one's sleeves for a session
+with a CD-ROM containing both textual materials and a powerful retrieval
+engine made the disk seem an appealing vessel indeed. The overall
+discussion suggested that the transition from CD-ROM to on-line networked
+access may prove far slower and more difficult than has been anticipated.
+
+
+WHO ARE THE USERS AND WHAT DO THEY DO?
+
+Although concerned with the technicalities of production, the Workshop
+never lost sight of the purposes and uses of electronic versions of
+textual materials. As noted above, those interested in imaging discussed
+the problematical matter of digital preservation, while the TEI proponents
+described how machine-readable texts can be used in research. This latter
+topic received thorough treatment in the paper read by Avra MICHELSON.
+She placed the phenomenon of electronic texts within the context of
+broader trends in information technology and scholarly communication.
+
+Among other things, MICHELSON described on-line conferences that
+represent a vigorous and important intellectual forum for certain
+disciplines. Internet now carries more than 700 conferences, with about
+80 percent of these devoted to topics in the social sciences and the
+humanities. Other scholars use on-line networks for "distance learning."
+Meanwhile, there has been a tremendous growth in end-user computing;
+professors today are less likely than their predecessors to ask the
+campus computer center to process their data. Electronic texts are one
+key to these sophisticated applications, MICHELSON reported, and more and
+more scholars in the humanities now work in an on-line environment.
+Toward the end of the Workshop, Michael LESK presented a corollary to
+MICHELSON's talk, reporting the results of an experiment that compared
+the work of one group of chemistry students using traditional printed
+texts and two groups using electronic sources. The experiment
+demonstrated that in the event one does not know what to read, one needs
+the electronic systems; the electronic systems hold no advantage at the
+moment if one knows what to read, but neither do they impose a penalty.
+
+DALY provided an anecdotal account of the revolutionizing impact of the
+new technology on his previous methods of research in the field of classics.
+His account, by extrapolation, served to illustrate in part the arguments
+made by MICHELSON concerning the positive effects of the sudden and radical
+transformation being wrought in the ways scholars work.
+
+Susan VECCIA and Joanne FREEMAN delineated the use of electronic
+materials outside the university. The most interesting aspect of their
+use, FREEMAN said, could be seen as a paradox: teachers in elementary
+and secondary schools requested access to primary source materials but,
+at the same time, found that "primariness" itself made these materials
+difficult for their students to use.
+
+
+OTHER TOPICS
+
+Marybeth PETERS reviewed copyright law in the United States and offered
+advice during a lively discussion of this subject. But uncertainty
+remains concerning the price of copyright in a digital medium, because a
+solution remains to be worked out concerning management and synthesis of
+copyrighted and out-of-copyright pieces of a database.
+
+As moderator of the final session of the Workshop, Prosser GIFFORD directed
+discussion to future courses of action and the potential role of LC in
+advancing them. Among the recommendations that emerged were the following:
+
+ * Workshop participants should 1) begin to think about working
+ with image material, but structure and digitize it in such a
+ way that at a later stage it can be interpreted into text, and
+ 2) find a common way to build text and images together so that
+ they can be used jointly at some stage in the future, with
+ appropriate network support, because that is how users will want
+ to access these materials. The Library might encourage attempts
+ to bring together people who are working on texts and images.
+
+ * A network version of American Memory should be developed or
+ consideration should be given to making the data in it
+ available to people interested in doing network multimedia.
+ Given the current dearth of digital data that is appealing and
+ unencumbered by extremely complex rights problems, developing a
+ network version of American Memory could do much to help make
+ network multimedia a reality.
+
+ * Concerning the thorny issue of electronic deposit, LC should
+ initiate a catalytic process in terms of distributed
+ responsibility, that is, bring together the distributed
+ organizations and set up a study group to look at all the
+ issues related to electronic deposit and see where we as a
+ nation should move. For example, LC might attempt to persuade
+ one major library in each state to deal with its state
+ equivalent publisher, which might produce a cooperative project
+ that would be equitably distributed around the country, and one
+ in which LC would be dealing with a minimal number of publishers
+ and minimal copyright problems. LC must also deal with the
+ concept of on-line publishing, determining, among other things,
+ how serials such as OJCCT might be deposited for copyright.
+
+ * Since a number of projects are planning to carry out
+ preservation by creating digital images that will end up in
+ on-line or near-line storage at some institution, LC might play
+ a helpful role, at least in the near term, by accelerating how
+ to catalog that information into the Research Library Information
+ Network (RLIN) and then into OCLC, so that it would be accessible.
+ This would reduce the possibility of multiple institutions digitizing
+ the same work.
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+The Workshop was valuable because it brought together partisans from
+various groups and provided an occasion to compare goals and methods.
+The more committed partisans frequently communicate with others in their
+groups, but less often across group boundaries. The Workshop was also
+valuable to attendees--including those involved with American Memory--who
+came less committed to particular approaches or concepts. These
+attendees learned a great deal, and plan to select and employ elements of
+imaging, text-coding, and networked distribution that suit their
+respective projects and purposes.
+
+Still, reality rears its ugly head: no breakthrough has been achieved.
+On the imaging side, one confronts a proliferation of competing
+data-interchange standards and a lack of consensus on the role of digital
+facsimiles in preservation. In the realm of machine-readable texts, one
+encounters a reasonably mature standard but methodological difficulties
+and high costs. These latter problems, of course, represent a special
+impediment to the desire, as it is sometimes expressed in the popular
+press, "to put the [contents of the] Library of Congress on line." In
+the words of one participant, there was "no solution to the economic
+problems--the projects that are out there are surviving, but it is going
+to be a lot of work to transform the information industry, and so far the
+investment to do that is not forthcoming" (LESK, per litteras).
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ PROCEEDINGS
+
+
+WELCOME
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+GIFFORD * Origin of Workshop in current Librarian's desire to make LC's
+collections more widely available * Desiderata arising from the prospect
+of greater interconnectedness *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+After welcoming participants on behalf of the Library of Congress,
+American Memory (AM), and the National Demonstration Lab, Prosser
+GIFFORD, director for scholarly programs, Library of Congress, located
+the origin of the Workshop on Electronic Texts in a conversation he had
+had considerably more than a year ago with Carl FLEISCHHAUER concerning
+some of the issues faced by AM. On the assumption that numerous other
+people were asking the same questions, the decision was made to bring
+together as many of these people as possible to ask the same questions
+together. In a deeper sense, GIFFORD said, the origin of the Workshop
+lay in the desire of the current Librarian of Congress, James H.
+Billington, to make the collections of the Library, especially those
+offering unique or unusual testimony on aspects of the American
+experience, available to a much wider circle of users than those few
+people who can come to Washington to use them. This meant that the
+emphasis of AM, from the outset, has been on archival collections of the
+basic material, and on making these collections themselves available,
+rather than selected or heavily edited products.
+
+From AM's emphasis followed the questions with which the Workshop began:
+who will use these materials, and in what form will they wish to use
+them. But an even larger issue deserving mention, in GIFFORD's view, was
+the phenomenal growth in Internet connectivity. He expressed the hope
+that the prospect of greater interconnectedness than ever before would
+lead to: 1) much more cooperative and mutually supportive endeavors; 2)
+development of systems of shared and distributed responsibilities to
+avoid duplication and to ensure accuracy and preservation of unique
+materials; and 3) agreement on the necessary standards and development of
+the appropriate directories and indices to make navigation
+straightforward among the varied resources that are, and increasingly
+will be, available. In this connection, GIFFORD requested that
+participants reflect from the outset upon the sorts of outcomes they
+thought the Workshop might have. Did those present constitute a group
+with sufficient common interests to propose a next step or next steps,
+and if so, what might those be? They would return to these questions the
+following afternoon.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+FLEISCHHAUER * Core of Workshop concerns preparation and production of
+materials * Special challenge in conversion of textual materials *
+Quality versus quantity * Do the several groups represented share common
+interests? *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Carl FLEISCHHAUER, coordinator, American Memory, Library of Congress,
+emphasized that he would attempt to represent the people who perform some
+of the work of converting or preparing materials and that the core of
+the Workshop had to do with preparation and production. FLEISCHHAUER
+then drew a distinction between the long term, when many things would be
+available and connected in the ways that GIFFORD described, and the short
+term, in which AM not only has wrestled with the issue of what is the
+best course to pursue but also has faced a variety of technical
+challenges.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER remarked AM's endeavors to deal with a wide range of library
+formats, such as motion picture collections, sound-recording collections,
+and pictorial collections of various sorts, especially collections of
+photographs. In the course of these efforts, AM kept coming back to
+textual materials--manuscripts or rare printed matter, bound materials,
+etc. Text posed the greatest conversion challenge of all. Thus, the
+genesis of the Workshop, which reflects the problems faced by AM. These
+problems include physical problems. For example, those in the library
+and archive business deal with collections made up of fragile and rare
+manuscript items, bound materials, especially the notoriously brittle
+bound materials of the late nineteenth century. These are precious
+cultural artifacts, however, as well as interesting sources of
+information, and LC desires to retain and conserve them. AM needs to
+handle things without damaging them. Guillotining a book to run it
+through a sheet feeder must be avoided at all costs.
+
+Beyond physical problems, issues pertaining to quality arose. For
+example, the desire to provide users with a searchable text is affected
+by the question of acceptable level of accuracy. One hundred percent
+accuracy is tremendously expensive. On the other hand, the output of
+optical character recognition (OCR) can be tremendously inaccurate.
+Although AM has attempted to find a middle ground, uncertainty persists
+as to whether or not it has discovered the right solution.
+
+Questions of quality arose concerning images as well. FLEISCHHAUER
+contrasted the extremely high level of quality of the digital images in
+the Cornell Xerox Project with AM's efforts to provide a browse-quality
+or access-quality image, as opposed to an archival or preservation image.
+FLEISCHHAUER therefore welcomed the opportunity to compare notes.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER observed in passing that conversations he had had about
+networks have begun to signal that for various forms of media a
+determination may be made that there is a browse-quality item, or a
+distribution-and-access-quality item that may coexist in some systems
+with a higher quality archival item that would be inconvenient to send
+through the network because of its size. FLEISCHHAUER referred, of
+course, to images more than to searchable text.
+
+As AM considered those questions, several conceptual issues arose: ought
+AM occasionally to reproduce materials entirely through an image set, at
+other times, entirely through a text set, and in some cases, a mix?
+There probably would be times when the historical authenticity of an
+artifact would require that its image be used. An image might be
+desirable as a recourse for users if one could not provide 100-percent
+accurate text. Again, AM wondered, as a practical matter, if a
+distinction could be drawn between rare printed matter that might exist
+in multiple collections--that is, in ten or fifteen libraries. In such
+cases, the need for perfect reproduction would be less than for unique
+items. Implicit in his remarks, FLEISCHHAUER conceded, was the admission
+that AM has been tilting strongly towards quantity and drawing back a
+little from perfect quality. That is, it seemed to AM that society would
+be better served if more things were distributed by LC--even if they were
+not quite perfect--than if fewer things, perfectly represented, were
+distributed. This was stated as a proposition to be tested, with
+responses to be gathered from users.
+
+In thinking about issues related to reproduction of materials and seeing
+other people engaged in parallel activities, AM deemed it useful to
+convene a conference. Hence, the Workshop. FLEISCHHAUER thereupon
+surveyed the several groups represented: 1) the world of images (image
+users and image makers); 2) the world of text and scholarship and, within
+this group, those concerned with language--FLEISCHHAUER confessed to finding
+delightful irony in the fact that some of the most advanced thinkers on
+computerized texts are those dealing with ancient Greek and Roman materials;
+3) the network world; and 4) the general world of library science, which
+includes people interested in preservation and cataloging.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER concluded his remarks with special thanks to the David and
+Lucile Packard Foundation for its support of the meeting, the American
+Memory group, the Office for Scholarly Programs, the National
+Demonstration Lab, and the Office of Special Events. He expressed the
+hope that David Woodley Packard might be able to attend, noting that
+Packard's work and the work of the foundation had sponsored a number of
+projects in the text area.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION I. CONTENT IN A NEW FORM: WHO WILL USE IT AND WHAT WILL THEY DO?
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DALY * Acknowledgements * A new Latin authors disk * Effects of the new
+technology on previous methods of research *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Serving as moderator, James DALY acknowledged the generosity of all the
+presenters for giving of their time, counsel, and patience in planning
+the Workshop, as well as of members of the American Memory project and
+other Library of Congress staff, and the David and Lucile Packard
+Foundation and its executive director, Colburn S. Wilbur.
+
+DALY then recounted his visit in March to the Center for Electronic Texts
+in the Humanities (CETH) and the Department of Classics at Rutgers
+University, where an old friend, Lowell Edmunds, introduced him to the
+department's IBYCUS scholarly personal computer, and, in particular, the
+new Latin CD-ROM, containing, among other things, almost all classical
+Latin literary texts through A.D. 200. Packard Humanities Institute
+(PHI), Los Altos, California, released this disk late in 1991, with a
+nominal triennial licensing fee.
+
+Playing with the disk for an hour or so at Rutgers brought home to DALY
+at once the revolutionizing impact of the new technology on his previous
+methods of research. Had this disk been available two or three years
+earlier, DALY contended, when he was engaged in preparing a commentary on
+Book 10 of Virgil's Aeneid for Cambridge University Press, he would not
+have required a forty-eight-square-foot table on which to spread the
+numerous, most frequently consulted items, including some ten or twelve
+concordances to key Latin authors, an almost equal number of lexica to
+authors who lacked concordances, and where either lexica or concordances
+were lacking, numerous editions of authors antedating and postdating Virgil.
+
+Nor, when checking each of the average six to seven words contained in
+the Virgilian hexameter for its usage elsewhere in Virgil's works or
+other Latin authors, would DALY have had to maintain the laborious
+mechanical process of flipping through these concordances, lexica, and
+editions each time. Nor would he have had to frequent as often the
+Milton S. Eisenhower Library at the Johns Hopkins University to consult
+the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. Instead of devoting countless hours, or
+the bulk of his research time, to gathering data concerning Virgil's use
+of words, DALY--now freed by PHI's Latin authors disk from the
+tyrannical, yet in some ways paradoxically happy scholarly drudgery--
+would have been able to devote that same bulk of time to analyzing and
+interpreting Virgilian verbal usage.
+
+Citing Theodore Brunner, Gregory Crane, Elli MYLONAS, and Avra MICHELSON,
+DALY argued that this reversal in his style of work, made possible by the
+new technology, would perhaps have resulted in better, more productive
+research. Indeed, even in the course of his browsing the Latin authors
+disk at Rutgers, its powerful search, retrieval, and highlighting
+capabilities suggested to him several new avenues of research into
+Virgil's use of sound effects. This anecdotal account, DALY maintained,
+may serve to illustrate in part the sudden and radical transformation
+being wrought in the ways scholars work.
+
+ ******
+
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+MICHELSON * Elements related to scholarship and technology * Electronic
+texts within the context of broader trends within information technology
+and scholarly communication * Evaluation of the prospects for the use of
+electronic texts * Relationship of electronic texts to processes of
+scholarly communication in humanities research * New exchange formats
+created by scholars * Projects initiated to increase scholarly access to
+converted text * Trend toward making electronic resources available
+through research and education networks * Changes taking place in
+scholarly communication among humanities scholars * Network-mediated
+scholarship transforming traditional scholarly practices * Key
+information technology trends affecting the conduct of scholarly
+communication over the next decade * The trend toward end-user computing
+* The trend toward greater connectivity * Effects of these trends * Key
+transformations taking place * Summary of principal arguments *
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Avra MICHELSON, Archival Research and Evaluation Staff, National Archives
+and Records Administration (NARA), argued that establishing who will use
+electronic texts and what they will use them for involves a consideration
+of both information technology and scholarship trends. This
+consideration includes several elements related to scholarship and
+technology: 1) the key trends in information technology that are most
+relevant to scholarship; 2) the key trends in the use of currently
+available technology by scholars in the nonscientific community; and 3)
+the relationship between these two very distinct but interrelated trends.
+The investment in understanding this relationship being made by
+information providers, technologists, and public policy developers, as
+well as by scholars themselves, seems to be pervasive and growing,
+MICHELSON contended. She drew on collaborative work with Jeff Rothenberg
+on the scholarly use of technology.
+
+MICHELSON sought to place the phenomenon of electronic texts within the
+context of broader trends within information technology and scholarly
+communication. She argued that electronic texts are of most use to
+researchers to the extent that the researchers' working context (i.e.,
+their relevant bibliographic sources, collegial feedback, analytic tools,
+notes, drafts, etc.), along with their field's primary and secondary
+sources, also is accessible in electronic form and can be integrated in
+ways that are unique to the on-line environment.
+
+Evaluation of the prospects for the use of electronic texts includes two
+elements: 1) an examination of the ways in which researchers currently
+are using electronic texts along with other electronic resources, and 2)
+an analysis of key information technology trends that are affecting the
+long-term conduct of scholarly communication. MICHELSON limited her
+discussion of the use of electronic texts to the practices of humanists
+and noted that the scientific community was outside the panel's overview.
+
+MICHELSON examined the nature of the current relationship of electronic
+texts in particular, and electronic resources in general, to what she
+maintained were, essentially, five processes of scholarly communication
+in humanities research. Researchers 1) identify sources, 2) communicate
+with their colleagues, 3) interpret and analyze data, 4) disseminate
+their research findings, and 5) prepare curricula to instruct the next
+generation of scholars and students. This examination would produce a
+clearer understanding of the synergy among these five processes that
+fuels the tendency of the use of electronic resources for one process to
+stimulate its use for other processes of scholarly communication.
+
+For the first process of scholarly communication, the identification of
+sources, MICHELSON remarked the opportunity scholars now enjoy to
+supplement traditional word-of-mouth searches for sources among their
+colleagues with new forms of electronic searching. So, for example,
+instead of having to visit the library, researchers are able to explore
+descriptions of holdings in their offices. Furthermore, if their own
+institutions' holdings prove insufficient, scholars can access more than
+200 major American library catalogues over Internet, including the
+universities of California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
+Direct access to the bibliographic databases offers intellectual
+empowerment to scholars by presenting a comprehensive means of browsing
+through libraries from their homes and offices at their convenience.
+
+The second process of communication involves communication among
+scholars. Beyond the most common methods of communication, scholars are
+using E-mail and a variety of new electronic communications formats
+derived from it for further academic interchange. E-mail exchanges are
+growing at an astonishing rate, reportedly 15 percent a month. They
+currently constitute approximately half the traffic on research and
+education networks. Moreover, the global spread of E-mail has been so
+rapid that it is now possible for American scholars to use it to
+communicate with colleagues in close to 140 other countries.
+
+Other new exchange formats created by scholars and operating on Internet
+include more than 700 conferences, with about 80 percent of these devoted
+to topics in the social sciences and humanities. The rate of growth of
+these scholarly electronic conferences also is astonishing. From l990 to
+l991, 200 new conferences were identified on Internet. From October 1991
+to June 1992, an additional 150 conferences in the social sciences and
+humanities were added to this directory of listings. Scholars have
+established conferences in virtually every field, within every different
+discipline. For example, there are currently close to 600 active social
+science and humanities conferences on topics such as art and
+architecture, ethnomusicology, folklore, Japanese culture, medical
+education, and gifted and talented education. The appeal to scholars of
+communicating through these conferences is that, unlike any other medium,
+electronic conferences today provide a forum for global communication
+with peers at the front end of the research process.
+
+Interpretation and analysis of sources constitutes the third process of
+scholarly communication that MICHELSON discussed in terms of texts and
+textual resources. The methods used to analyze sources fall somewhere on
+a continuum from quantitative analysis to qualitative analysis.
+Typically, evidence is culled and evaluated using methods drawn from both
+ends of this continuum. At one end, quantitative analysis involves the
+use of mathematical processes such as a count of frequencies and
+distributions of occurrences or, on a higher level, regression analysis.
+At the other end of the continuum, qualitative analysis typically
+involves nonmathematical processes oriented toward language
+interpretation or the building of theory. Aspects of this work involve
+the processing--either manual or computational--of large and sometimes
+massive amounts of textual sources, although the use of nontextual
+sources as evidence, such as photographs, sound recordings, film footage,
+and artifacts, is significant as well.
+
+Scholars have discovered that many of the methods of interpretation and
+analysis that are related to both quantitative and qualitative methods
+are processes that can be performed by computers. For example, computers
+can count. They can count brush strokes used in a Rembrandt painting or
+perform regression analysis for understanding cause and effect. By means
+of advanced technologies, computers can recognize patterns, analyze text,
+and model concepts. Furthermore, computers can complete these processes
+faster with more sources and with greater precision than scholars who
+must rely on manual interpretation of data. But if scholars are to use
+computers for these processes, source materials must be in a form
+amenable to computer-assisted analysis. For this reason many scholars,
+once they have identified the sources that are key to their research, are
+converting them to machine-readable form. Thus, a representative example
+of the numerous textual conversion projects organized by scholars around
+the world in recent years to support computational text analysis is the
+TLG, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. This project is devoted to
+converting the extant ancient texts of classical Greece. (Editor's note:
+according to the TLG Newsletter of May l992, TLG was in use in thirty-two
+different countries. This figure updates MICHELSON's previous count by one.)
+
+The scholars performing these conversions have been asked to recognize
+that the electronic sources they are converting for one use possess value
+for other research purposes as well. As a result, during the past few
+years, humanities scholars have initiated a number of projects to
+increase scholarly access to converted text. So, for example, the Text
+Encoding Initiative (TEI), about which more is said later in the program,
+was established as an effort by scholars to determine standard elements
+and methods for encoding machine-readable text for electronic exchange.
+In a second effort to facilitate the sharing of converted text, scholars
+have created a new institution, the Center for Electronic Texts in the
+Humanities (CETH). The center estimates that there are 8,000 series of
+source texts in the humanities that have been converted to
+machine-readable form worldwide. CETH is undertaking an international
+search for converted text in the humanities, compiling it into an
+electronic library, and preparing bibliographic descriptions of the
+sources for the Research Libraries Information Network's (RLIN)
+machine-readable data file. The library profession has begun to initiate
+large conversion projects as well, such as American Memory.
+
+While scholars have been making converted text available to one another,
+typically on disk or on CD-ROM, the clear trend is toward making these
+resources available through research and education networks. Thus, the
+American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language
+(ARTFL) and the Dante Project are already available on Internet.
+MICHELSON summarized this section on interpretation and analysis by
+noting that: 1) increasing numbers of humanities scholars in the library
+community are recognizing the importance to the advancement of
+scholarship of retrospective conversion of source materials in the arts
+and humanities; and 2) there is a growing realization that making the
+sources available on research and education networks maximizes their
+usefulness for the analysis performed by humanities scholars.
+
+The fourth process of scholarly communication is dissemination of
+research findings, that is, publication. Scholars are using existing
+research and education networks to engineer a new type of publication:
+scholarly-controlled journals that are electronically produced and
+disseminated. Although such journals are still emerging as a
+communication format, their number has grown, from approximately twelve
+to thirty-six during the past year (July 1991 to June 1992). Most of
+these electronic scholarly journals are devoted to topics in the
+humanities. As with network conferences, scholarly enthusiasm for these
+electronic journals stems from the medium's unique ability to advance
+scholarship in a way that no other medium can do by supporting global
+feedback and interchange, practically in real time, early in the research
+process. Beyond scholarly journals, MICHELSON remarked the delivery of
+commercial full-text products, such as articles in professional journals,
+newsletters, magazines, wire services, and reference sources. These are
+being delivered via on-line local library catalogues, especially through
+CD-ROMs. Furthermore, according to MICHELSON, there is general optimism
+that the copyright and fees issues impeding the delivery of full text on
+existing research and education networks soon will be resolved.
+
+The final process of scholarly communication is curriculum development
+and instruction, and this involves the use of computer information
+technologies in two areas. The first is the development of
+computer-oriented instructional tools, which includes simulations,
+multimedia applications, and computer tools that are used to assist in
+the analysis of sources in the classroom, etc. The Perseus Project, a
+database that provides a multimedia curriculum on classical Greek
+civilization, is a good example of the way in which entire curricula are
+being recast using information technologies. It is anticipated that the
+current difficulty in exchanging electronically computer-based
+instructional software, which in turn makes it difficult for one scholar
+to build upon the work of others, will be resolved before too long.
+Stand-alone curricular applications that involve electronic text will be
+sharable through networks, reinforcing their significance as intellectual
+products as well as instructional tools.
+
+The second aspect of electronic learning involves the use of research and
+education networks for distance education programs. Such programs
+interactively link teachers with students in geographically scattered
+locations and rely on the availability of electronic instructional
+resources. Distance education programs are gaining wide appeal among
+state departments of education because of their demonstrated capacity to
+bring advanced specialized course work and an array of experts to many
+classrooms. A recent report found that at least 32 states operated at
+least one statewide network for education in 1991, with networks under
+development in many of the remaining states.
+
+MICHELSON summarized this section by noting two striking changes taking
+place in scholarly communication among humanities scholars. First is the
+extent to which electronic text in particular, and electronic resources
+in general, are being infused into each of the five processes described
+above. As mentioned earlier, there is a certain synergy at work here.
+The use of electronic resources for one process tends to stimulate its
+use for other processes, because the chief course of movement is toward a
+comprehensive on-line working context for humanities scholars that
+includes on-line availability of key bibliographies, scholarly feedback,
+sources, analytical tools, and publications. MICHELSON noted further
+that the movement toward a comprehensive on-line working context for
+humanities scholars is not new. In fact, it has been underway for more
+than forty years in the humanities, since Father Roberto Busa began
+developing an electronic concordance of the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas
+in 1949. What we are witnessing today, MICHELSON contended, is not the
+beginning of this on-line transition but, for at least some humanities
+scholars, the turning point in the transition from a print to an
+electronic working context. Coinciding with the on-line transition, the
+second striking change is the extent to which research and education
+networks are becoming the new medium of scholarly communication. The
+existing Internet and the pending National Education and Research Network
+(NREN) represent the new meeting ground where scholars are going for
+bibliographic information, scholarly dialogue and feedback, the most
+current publications in their field, and high-level educational
+offerings. Traditional scholarly practices are undergoing tremendous
+transformations as a result of the emergence and growing prominence of
+what is called network-mediated scholarship.
+
+MICHELSON next turned to the second element of the framework she proposed
+at the outset of her talk for evaluating the prospects for electronic
+text, namely the key information technology trends affecting the conduct
+of scholarly communication over the next decade: 1) end-user computing
+and 2) connectivity.
+
+End-user computing means that the person touching the keyboard, or
+performing computations, is the same as the person who initiates or
+consumes the computation. The emergence of personal computers, along
+with a host of other forces, such as ubiquitous computing, advances in
+interface design, and the on-line transition, is prompting the consumers
+of computation to do their own computing, and is thus rendering obsolete
+the traditional distinction between end users and ultimate users.
+
+The trend toward end-user computing is significant to consideration of
+the prospects for electronic texts because it means that researchers are
+becoming more adept at doing their own computations and, thus, more
+competent in the use of electronic media. By avoiding programmer
+intermediaries, computation is becoming central to the researcher's
+thought process. This direct involvement in computing is changing the
+researcher's perspective on the nature of research itself, that is, the
+kinds of questions that can be posed, the analytical methodologies that
+can be used, the types and amount of sources that are appropriate for
+analyses, and the form in which findings are presented. The trend toward
+end-user computing means that, increasingly, electronic media and
+computation are being infused into all processes of humanities
+scholarship, inspiring remarkable transformations in scholarly
+communication.
+
+The trend toward greater connectivity suggests that researchers are using
+computation increasingly in network environments. Connectivity is
+important to scholarship because it erases the distance that separates
+students from teachers and scholars from their colleagues, while allowing
+users to access remote databases, share information in many different
+media, connect to their working context wherever they are, and
+collaborate in all phases of research.
+
+The combination of the trend toward end-user computing and the trend
+toward connectivity suggests that the scholarly use of electronic
+resources, already evident among some researchers, will soon become an
+established feature of scholarship. The effects of these trends, along
+with ongoing changes in scholarly practices, point to a future in which
+humanities researchers will use computation and electronic communication
+to help them formulate ideas, access sources, perform research,
+collaborate with colleagues, seek peer review, publish and disseminate
+results, and engage in many other professional and educational activities.
+
+In summary, MICHELSON emphasized four points: 1) A portion of humanities
+scholars already consider electronic texts the preferred format for
+analysis and dissemination. 2) Scholars are using these electronic
+texts, in conjunction with other electronic resources, in all the
+processes of scholarly communication. 3) The humanities scholars'
+working context is in the process of changing from print technology to
+electronic technology, in many ways mirroring transformations that have
+occurred or are occurring within the scientific community. 4) These
+changes are occurring in conjunction with the development of a new
+communication medium: research and education networks that are
+characterized by their capacity to advance scholarship in a wholly unique
+way.
+
+MICHELSON also reiterated her three principal arguments: l) Electronic
+texts are best understood in terms of the relationship to other
+electronic resources and the growing prominence of network-mediated
+scholarship. 2) The prospects for electronic texts lie in their capacity
+to be integrated into the on-line network of electronic resources that
+comprise the new working context for scholars. 3) Retrospective conversion
+of portions of the scholarly record should be a key strategy as information
+providers respond to changes in scholarly communication practices.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+VECCIA * AM's evaluation project and public users of electronic resources
+* AM and its design * Site selection and evaluating the Macintosh
+implementation of AM * Characteristics of the six public libraries
+selected * Characteristics of AM's users in these libraries * Principal
+ways AM is being used *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Susan VECCIA, team leader, and Joanne FREEMAN, associate coordinator,
+American Memory, Library of Congress, gave a joint presentation. First,
+by way of introduction, VECCIA explained her and FREEMAN's roles in
+American Memory (AM). Serving principally as an observer, VECCIA has
+assisted with the evaluation project of AM, placing AM collections in a
+variety of different sites around the country and helping to organize and
+implement that project. FREEMAN has been an associate coordinator of AM
+and has been involved principally with the interpretative materials,
+preparing some of the electronic exhibits and printed historical
+information that accompanies AM and that is requested by users. VECCIA
+and FREEMAN shared anecdotal observations concerning AM with public users
+of electronic resources. Notwithstanding a fairly structured evaluation
+in progress, both VECCIA and FREEMAN chose not to report on specifics in
+terms of numbers, etc., because they felt it was too early in the
+evaluation project to do so.
+
+AM is an electronic archive of primary source materials from the Library
+of Congress, selected collections representing a variety of formats--
+photographs, graphic arts, recorded sound, motion pictures, broadsides,
+and soon, pamphlets and books. In terms of the design of this system,
+the interpretative exhibits have been kept separate from the primary
+resources, with good reason. Accompanying this collection are printed
+documentation and user guides, as well as guides that FREEMAN prepared for
+teachers so that they may begin using the content of the system at once.
+
+VECCIA described the evaluation project before talking about the public
+users of AM, limiting her remarks to public libraries, because FREEMAN
+would talk more specifically about schools from kindergarten to twelfth
+grade (K-12). Having started in spring 1991, the evaluation currently
+involves testing of the Macintosh implementation of AM. Since the
+primary goal of this evaluation is to determine the most appropriate
+audience or audiences for AM, very different sites were selected. This
+makes evaluation difficult because of the varying degrees of technology
+literacy among the sites. AM is situated in forty-four locations, of
+which six are public libraries and sixteen are schools. Represented
+among the schools are elementary, junior high, and high schools.
+District offices also are involved in the evaluation, which will
+conclude in summer 1993.
+
+VECCIA focused the remainder of her talk on the six public libraries, one
+of which doubles as a state library. They represent a range of
+geographic areas and a range of demographic characteristics. For
+example, three are located in urban settings, two in rural settings, and
+one in a suburban setting. A range of technical expertise is to be found
+among these facilities as well. For example, one is an "Apple library of
+the future," while two others are rural one-room libraries--in one, AM
+sits at the front desk next to a tractor manual.
+
+All public libraries have been extremely enthusiastic, supportive, and
+appreciative of the work that AM has been doing. VECCIA characterized
+various users: Most users in public libraries describe themselves as
+general readers; of the students who use AM in the public libraries,
+those in fourth grade and above seem most interested. Public libraries
+in rural sites tend to attract retired people, who have been highly
+receptive to AM. Users tend to fall into two additional categories:
+people interested in the content and historical connotations of these
+primary resources, and those fascinated by the technology. The format
+receiving the most comments has been motion pictures. The adult users in
+public libraries are more comfortable with IBM computers, whereas young
+people seem comfortable with either IBM or Macintosh, although most of
+them seem to come from a Macintosh background. This same tendency is
+found in the schools.
+
+What kinds of things do users do with AM? In a public library there are
+two main goals or ways that AM is being used: as an individual learning
+tool, and as a leisure activity. Adult learning was one area that VECCIA
+would highlight as a possible application for a tool such as AM. She
+described a patron of a rural public library who comes in every day on
+his lunch hour and literally reads AM, methodically going through the
+collection image by image. At the end of his hour he makes an electronic
+bookmark, puts it in his pocket, and returns to work. The next day he
+comes in and resumes where he left off. Interestingly, this man had
+never been in the library before he used AM. In another small, rural
+library, the coordinator reports that AM is a popular activity for some
+of the older, retired people in the community, who ordinarily would not
+use "those things,"--computers. Another example of adult learning in
+public libraries is book groups, one of which, in particular, is using AM
+as part of its reading on industrialization, integration, and urbanization
+in the early 1900s.
+
+One library reports that a family is using AM to help educate their
+children. In another instance, individuals from a local museum came in
+to use AM to prepare an exhibit on toys of the past. These two examples
+emphasize the mission of the public library as a cultural institution,
+reaching out to people who do not have the same resources available to
+those who live in a metropolitan area or have access to a major library.
+One rural library reports that junior high school students in large
+numbers came in one afternoon to use AM for entertainment. A number of
+public libraries reported great interest among postcard collectors in the
+Detroit collection, which was essentially a collection of images used on
+postcards around the turn of the century. Train buffs are similarly
+interested because that was a time of great interest in railroading.
+People, it was found, relate to things that they know of firsthand. For
+example, in both rural public libraries where AM was made available,
+observers reported that the older people with personal remembrances of
+the turn of the century were gravitating to the Detroit collection.
+These examples served to underscore MICHELSON's observation re the
+integration of electronic tools and ideas--that people learn best when
+the material relates to something they know.
+
+VECCIA made the final point that in many cases AM serves as a
+public-relations tool for the public libraries that are testing it. In
+one case, AM is being used as a vehicle to secure additional funding for
+the library. In another case, AM has served as an inspiration to the
+staff of a major local public library in the South to think about ways to
+make its own collection of photographs more accessible to the public.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+FREEMAN * AM and archival electronic resources in a school environment *
+Questions concerning context * Questions concerning the electronic format
+itself * Computer anxiety * Access and availability of the system *
+Hardware * Strengths gained through the use of archival resources in
+schools *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Reiterating an observation made by VECCIA, that AM is an archival
+resource made up of primary materials with very little interpretation,
+FREEMAN stated that the project has attempted to bridge the gap between
+these bare primary materials and a school environment, and in that cause
+has created guided introductions to AM collections. Loud demand from the
+educational community, chiefly from teachers working with the upper
+grades of elementary school through high school, greeted the announcement
+that AM would be tested around the country.
+
+FREEMAN reported not only on what was learned about AM in a school
+environment, but also on several universal questions that were raised
+concerning archival electronic resources in schools. She discussed
+several strengths of this type of material in a school environment as
+opposed to a highly structured resource that offers a limited number of
+paths to follow.
+
+FREEMAN first raised several questions about using AM in a school
+environment. There is often some difficulty in developing a sense of
+what the system contains. Many students sit down at a computer resource
+and assume that, because AM comes from the Library of Congress, all of
+American history is now at their fingertips. As a result of that sort of
+mistaken judgment, some students are known to conclude that AM contains
+nothing of use to them when they look for one or two things and do not
+find them. It is difficult to discover that middle ground where one has
+a sense of what the system contains. Some students grope toward the idea
+of an archive, a new idea to them, since they have not previously
+experienced what it means to have access to a vast body of somewhat
+random information.
+
+Other questions raised by FREEMAN concerned the electronic format itself.
+For instance, in a school environment it is often difficult both for
+teachers and students to gain a sense of what it is they are viewing.
+They understand that it is a visual image, but they do not necessarily
+know that it is a postcard from the turn of the century, a panoramic
+photograph, or even machine-readable text of an eighteenth-century
+broadside, a twentieth-century printed book, or a nineteenth-century
+diary. That distinction is often difficult for people in a school
+environment to grasp. Because of that, it occasionally becomes difficult
+to draw conclusions from what one is viewing.
+
+FREEMAN also noted the obvious fear of the computer, which constitutes a
+difficulty in using an electronic resource. Though students in general
+did not suffer from this anxiety, several older students feared that they
+were computer-illiterate, an assumption that became self-fulfilling when
+they searched for something but failed to find it. FREEMAN said she
+believed that some teachers also fear computer resources, because they
+believe they lack complete control. FREEMAN related the example of
+teachers shooing away students because it was not their time to use the
+system. This was a case in which the situation had to be extremely
+structured so that the teachers would not feel that they had lost their
+grasp on what the system contained.
+
+A final question raised by FREEMAN concerned access and availability of
+the system. She noted the occasional existence of a gap in communication
+between school librarians and teachers. Often AM sits in a school
+library and the librarian is the person responsible for monitoring the
+system. Teachers do not always take into their world new library
+resources about which the librarian is excited. Indeed, at the sites
+where AM had been used most effectively within a library, the librarian
+was required to go to specific teachers and instruct them in its use. As
+a result, several AM sites will have in-service sessions over a summer,
+in the hope that perhaps, with a more individualized link, teachers will
+be more likely to use the resource.
+
+A related issue in the school context concerned the number of
+workstations available at any one location. Centralization of equipment
+at the district level, with teachers invited to download things and walk
+away with them, proved unsuccessful because the hours these offices were
+open were also school hours.
+
+Another issue was hardware. As VECCIA observed, a range of sites exists,
+some technologically advanced and others essentially acquiring their
+first computer for the primary purpose of using it in conjunction with
+AM's testing. Users at technologically sophisticated sites want even
+more sophisticated hardware, so that they can perform even more
+sophisticated tasks with the materials in AM. But once they acquire a
+newer piece of hardware, they must learn how to use that also; at an
+unsophisticated site it takes an extremely long time simply to become
+accustomed to the computer, not to mention the program offered with the
+computer. All of these small issues raise one large question, namely,
+are systems like AM truly rewarding in a school environment, or do they
+simply act as innovative toys that do little more than spark interest?
+
+FREEMAN contended that the evaluation project has revealed several strengths
+that were gained through the use of archival resources in schools, including:
+
+ * Psychic rewards from using AM as a vast, rich database, with
+ teachers assigning various projects to students--oral presentations,
+ written reports, a documentary, a turn-of-the-century newspaper--
+ projects that start with the materials in AM but are completed using
+ other resources; AM thus is used as a research tool in conjunction
+ with other electronic resources, as well as with books and items in
+ the library where the system is set up.
+
+ * Students are acquiring computer literacy in a humanities context.
+
+ * This sort of system is overcoming the isolation between disciplines
+ that often exists in schools. For example, many English teachers are
+ requiring their students to write papers on historical topics
+ represented in AM. Numerous teachers have reported that their
+ students are learning critical thinking skills using the system.
+
+ * On a broader level, AM is introducing primary materials, not only
+ to students but also to teachers, in an environment where often
+ simply none exist--an exciting thing for the students because it
+ helps them learn to conduct research, to interpret, and to draw
+ their own conclusions. In learning to conduct research and what it
+ means, students are motivated to seek knowledge. That relates to
+ another positive outcome--a high level of personal involvement of
+ students with the materials in this system and greater motivation to
+ conduct their own research and draw their own conclusions.
+
+ * Perhaps the most ironic strength of these kinds of archival
+ electronic resources is that many of the teachers AM interviewed
+ were desperate, it is no exaggeration to say, not only for primary
+ materials but for unstructured primary materials. These would, they
+ thought, foster personally motivated research, exploration, and
+ excitement in their students. Indeed, these materials have done
+ just that. Ironically, however, this lack of structure produces
+ some of the confusion to which the newness of these kinds of
+ resources may also contribute. The key to effective use of archival
+ products in a school environment is a clear, effective introduction
+ to the system and to what it contains.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Nothing known, quantitatively, about the number of
+humanities scholars who must see the original versus those who would
+settle for an edited transcript, or about the ways in which humanities
+scholars are using information technology * Firm conclusions concerning
+the manner and extent of the use of supporting materials in print
+provided by AM to await completion of evaluative study * A listener's
+reflections on additional applications of electronic texts * Role of
+electronic resources in teaching elementary research skills to students *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the discussion that followed the presentations by MICHELSON,
+VECCIA, and FREEMAN, additional points emerged.
+
+LESK asked if MICHELSON could give any quantitative estimate of the
+number of humanities scholars who must see or want to see the original,
+or the best possible version of the material, versus those who typically
+would settle for an edited transcript. While unable to provide a figure,
+she offered her impressions as an archivist who has done some reference
+work and has discussed this issue with other archivists who perform
+reference, that those who use archives and those who use primary sources
+for what would be considered very high-level scholarly research, as
+opposed to, say, undergraduate papers, were few in number, especially
+given the public interest in using primary sources to conduct
+genealogical or avocational research and the kind of professional
+research done by people in private industry or the federal government.
+More important in MICHELSON's view was that, quantitatively, nothing is
+known about the ways in which, for example, humanities scholars are using
+information technology. No studies exist to offer guidance in creating
+strategies. The most recent study was conducted in 1985 by the American
+Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and what it showed was that 50
+percent of humanities scholars at that time were using computers. That
+constitutes the extent of our knowledge.
+
+Concerning AM's strategy for orienting people toward the scope of
+electronic resources, FREEMAN could offer no hard conclusions at this
+point, because she and her colleagues were still waiting to see,
+particularly in the schools, what has been made of their efforts. Within
+the system, however, AM has provided what are called electronic exhibits-
+-such as introductions to time periods and materials--and these are
+intended to offer a student user a sense of what a broadside is and what
+it might tell her or him. But FREEMAN conceded that the project staff
+would have to talk with students next year, after teachers have had a
+summer to use the materials, and attempt to discover what the students
+were learning from the materials. In addition, FREEMAN described
+supporting materials in print provided by AM at the request of local
+teachers during a meeting held at LC. These included time lines,
+bibliographies, and other materials that could be reproduced on a
+photocopier in a classroom. Teachers could walk away with and use these,
+and in this way gain a better understanding of the contents. But again,
+reaching firm conclusions concerning the manner and extent of their use
+would have to wait until next year.
+
+As to the changes she saw occurring at the National Archives and Records
+Administration (NARA) as a result of the increasing emphasis on
+technology in scholarly research, MICHELSON stated that NARA at this
+point was absorbing the report by her and Jeff Rothenberg addressing
+strategies for the archival profession in general, although not for the
+National Archives specifically. NARA is just beginning to establish its
+role and what it can do. In terms of changes and initiatives that NARA
+can take, no clear response could be given at this time.
+
+GREENFIELD remarked two trends mentioned in the session. Reflecting on
+DALY's opening comments on how he could have used a Latin collection of
+text in an electronic form, he said that at first he thought most scholars
+would be unwilling to do that. But as he thought of that in terms of the
+original meaning of research--that is, having already mastered these texts,
+researching them for critical and comparative purposes--for the first time,
+the electronic format made a lot of sense. GREENFIELD could envision
+growing numbers of scholars learning the new technologies for that very
+aspect of their scholarship and for convenience's sake.
+
+Listening to VECCIA and FREEMAN, GREENFIELD thought of an additional
+application of electronic texts. He realized that AM could be used as a
+guide to lead someone to original sources. Students cannot be expected
+to have mastered these sources, things they have never known about
+before. Thus, AM is leading them, in theory, to a vast body of
+information and giving them a superficial overview of it, enabling them
+to select parts of it. GREENFIELD asked if any evidence exists that this
+resource will indeed teach the new user, the K-12 students, how to do
+research. Scholars already know how to do research and are applying
+these new tools. But he wondered why students would go beyond picking
+out things that were most exciting to them.
+
+FREEMAN conceded the correctness of GREENFIELD's observation as applied
+to a school environment. The risk is that a student would sit down at a
+system, play with it, find some things of interest, and then walk away.
+But in the relatively controlled situation of a school library, much will
+depend on the instructions a teacher or a librarian gives a student. She
+viewed the situation not as one of fine-tuning research skills but of
+involving students at a personal level in understanding and researching
+things. Given the guidance one can receive at school, it then becomes
+possible to teach elementary research skills to students, which in fact
+one particular librarian said she was teaching her fifth graders.
+FREEMAN concluded that introducing the idea of following one's own path
+of inquiry, which is essentially what research entails, involves more
+than teaching specific skills. To these comments VECCIA added the
+observation that the individual teacher and the use of a creative
+resource, rather than AM itself, seemed to make the key difference.
+Some schools and some teachers are making excellent use of the nature
+of critical thinking and teaching skills, she said.
+
+Concurring with these remarks, DALY closed the session with the thought that
+the more that producers produced for teachers and for scholars to use with
+their students, the more successful their electronic products would prove.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION II. SHOW AND TELL
+
+Jacqueline HESS, director, National Demonstration Laboratory, served as
+moderator of the "show-and-tell" session. She noted that a
+question-and-answer period would follow each presentation.
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+MYLONAS * Overview and content of Perseus * Perseus' primary materials
+exist in a system-independent, archival form * A concession * Textual
+aspects of Perseus * Tools to use with the Greek text * Prepared indices
+and full-text searches in Perseus * English-Greek word search leads to
+close study of words and concepts * Navigating Perseus by tracing down
+indices * Using the iconography to perform research *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Elli MYLONAS, managing editor, Perseus Project, Harvard University, first
+gave an overview of Perseus, a large, collaborative effort based at
+Harvard University but with contributors and collaborators located at
+numerous universities and colleges in the United States (e.g., Bowdoin,
+Maryland, Pomona, Chicago, Virginia). Funded primarily by the
+Annenberg/CPB Project, with additional funding from Apple, Harvard, and
+the Packard Humanities Institute, among others, Perseus is a multimedia,
+hypertextual database for teaching and research on classical Greek
+civilization, which was released in February 1992 in version 1.0 and
+distributed by Yale University Press.
+
+Consisting entirely of primary materials, Perseus includes ancient Greek
+texts and translations of those texts; catalog entries--that is, museum
+catalog entries, not library catalog entries--on vases, sites, coins,
+sculpture, and archaeological objects; maps; and a dictionary, among
+other sources. The number of objects and the objects for which catalog
+entries exist are accompanied by thousands of color images, which
+constitute a major feature of the database. Perseus contains
+approximately 30 megabytes of text, an amount that will double in
+subsequent versions. In addition to these primary materials, the Perseus
+Project has been building tools for using them, making access and
+navigation easier, the goal being to build part of the electronic
+environment discussed earlier in the morning in which students or
+scholars can work with their sources.
+
+The demonstration of Perseus will show only a fraction of the real work
+that has gone into it, because the project had to face the dilemma of
+what to enter when putting something into machine-readable form: should
+one aim for very high quality or make concessions in order to get the
+material in? Since Perseus decided to opt for very high quality, all of
+its primary materials exist in a system-independent--insofar as it is
+possible to be system-independent--archival form. Deciding what that
+archival form would be and attaining it required much work and thought.
+For example, all the texts are marked up in SGML, which will be made
+compatible with the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) when
+they are issued.
+
+Drawings are postscript files, not meeting international standards, but
+at least designed to go across platforms. Images, or rather the real
+archival forms, consist of the best available slides, which are being
+digitized. Much of the catalog material exists in database form--a form
+that the average user could use, manipulate, and display on a personal
+computer, but only at great cost. Thus, this is where the concession
+comes in: All of this rich, well-marked-up information is stripped of
+much of its content; the images are converted into bit-maps and the text
+into small formatted chunks. All this information can then be imported
+into HyperCard and run on a mid-range Macintosh, which is what Perseus
+users have. This fact has made it possible for Perseus to attain wide
+use fairly rapidly. Without those archival forms the HyperCard version
+being demonstrated could not be made easily, and the project could not
+have the potential to move to other forms and machines and software as
+they appear, none of which information is in Perseus on the CD.
+
+Of the numerous multimedia aspects of Perseus, MYLONAS focused on the
+textual. Part of what makes Perseus such a pleasure to use, MYLONAS
+said, is this effort at seamless integration and the ability to move
+around both visual and textual material. Perseus also made the decision
+not to attempt to interpret its material any more than one interprets by
+selecting. But, MYLONAS emphasized, Perseus is not courseware: No
+syllabus exists. There is no effort to define how one teaches a topic
+using Perseus, although the project may eventually collect papers by
+people who have used it to teach. Rather, Perseus aims to provide
+primary material in a kind of electronic library, an electronic sandbox,
+so to say, in which students and scholars who are working on this
+material can explore by themselves. With that, MYLONAS demonstrated
+Perseus, beginning with the Perseus gateway, the first thing one sees
+upon opening Perseus--an effort in part to solve the contextualizing
+problem--which tells the user what the system contains.
+
+MYLONAS demonstrated only a very small portion, beginning with primary
+texts and running off the CD-ROM. Having selected Aeschylus' Prometheus
+Bound, which was viewable in Greek and English pretty much in the same
+segments together, MYLONAS demonstrated tools to use with the Greek text,
+something not possible with a book: looking up the dictionary entry form
+of an unfamiliar word in Greek after subjecting it to Perseus'
+morphological analysis for all the texts. After finding out about a
+word, a user may then decide to see if it is used anywhere else in Greek.
+Because vast amounts of indexing support all of the primary material, one
+can find out where else all forms of a particular Greek word appear--
+often not a trivial matter because Greek is highly inflected. Further,
+since the story of Prometheus has to do with the origins of sacrifice, a
+user may wish to study and explore sacrifice in Greek literature; by
+typing sacrifice into a small window, a user goes to the English-Greek
+word list--something one cannot do without the computer (Perseus has
+indexed the definitions of its dictionary)--the string sacrifice appears
+in the definitions of these sixty-five words. One may then find out
+where any of those words is used in the work(s) of a particular author.
+The English definitions are not lemmatized.
+
+All of the indices driving this kind of usage were originally devised for
+speed, MYLONAS observed; in other words, all that kind of information--
+all forms of all words, where they exist, the dictionary form they belong
+to--were collected into databases, which will expedite searching. Then
+it was discovered that one can do things searching in these databases
+that could not be done searching in the full texts. Thus, although there
+are full-text searches in Perseus, much of the work is done behind the
+scenes, using prepared indices. Re the indexing that is done behind the
+scenes, MYLONAS pointed out that without the SGML forms of the text, it
+could not be done effectively. Much of this indexing is based on the
+structures that are made explicit by the SGML tagging.
+
+It was found that one of the things many of Perseus' non-Greek-reading
+users do is start from the dictionary and then move into the close study
+of words and concepts via this kind of English-Greek word search, by which
+means they might select a concept. This exercise has been assigned to
+students in core courses at Harvard--to study a concept by looking for the
+English word in the dictionary, finding the Greek words, and then finding
+the words in the Greek but, of course, reading across in the English.
+That tells them a great deal about what a translation means as well.
+
+Should one also wish to see images that have to do with sacrifice, that
+person would go to the object key word search, which allows one to
+perform a similar kind of index retrieval on the database of
+archaeological objects. Without words, pictures are useless; Perseus has
+not reached the point where it can do much with images that are not
+cataloged. Thus, although it is possible in Perseus with text and images
+to navigate by knowing where one wants to end up--for example, a
+red-figure vase from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts--one can perform this
+kind of navigation very easily by tracing down indices. MYLONAS
+illustrated several generic scenes of sacrifice on vases. The features
+demonstrated derived from Perseus 1.0; version 2.0 will implement even
+better means of retrieval.
+
+MYLONAS closed by looking at one of the pictures and noting again that
+one can do a great deal of research using the iconography as well as the
+texts. For instance, students in a core course at Harvard this year were
+highly interested in Greek concepts of foreigners and representations of
+non-Greeks. So they performed a great deal of research, both with texts
+(e.g., Herodotus) and with iconography on vases and coins, on how the
+Greeks portrayed non-Greeks. At the same time, art historians who study
+iconography were also interested, and were able to use this material.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Indexing and searchability of all English words in Perseus *
+Several features of Perseus 1.0 * Several levels of customization
+possible * Perseus used for general education * Perseus' effects on
+education * Contextual information in Perseus * Main challenge and
+emphasis of Perseus *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Several points emerged in the discussion that followed MYLONAS's presentation.
+
+Although MYLONAS had not demonstrated Perseus' ability to cross-search
+documents, she confirmed that all English words in Perseus are indexed
+and can be searched. So, for example, sacrifice could have been searched
+in all texts, the historical essay, and all the catalogue entries with
+their descriptions--in short, in all of Perseus.
+
+Boolean logic is not in Perseus 1.0 but will be added to the next
+version, although an effort is being made not to restrict Perseus to a
+database in which one just performs searching, Boolean or otherwise. It
+is possible to move laterally through the documents by selecting a word
+one is interested in and selecting an area of information one is
+interested in and trying to look that word up in that area.
+
+Since Perseus was developed in HyperCard, several levels of customization
+are possible. Simple authoring tools exist that allow one to create
+annotated paths through the information, which are useful for note-taking
+and for guided tours for teaching purposes and for expository writing.
+With a little more ingenuity it is possible to begin to add or substitute
+material in Perseus.
+
+Perseus has not been used so much for classics education as for general
+education, where it seemed to have an impact on the students in the core
+course at Harvard (a general required course that students must take in
+certain areas). Students were able to use primary material much more.
+
+The Perseus Project has an evaluation team at the University of Maryland
+that has been documenting Perseus' effects on education. Perseus is very
+popular, and anecdotal evidence indicates that it is having an effect at
+places other than Harvard, for example, test sites at Ball State
+University, Drury College, and numerous small places where opportunities
+to use vast amounts of primary data may not exist. One documented effect
+is that archaeological, anthropological, and philological research is
+being done by the same person instead of by three different people.
+
+The contextual information in Perseus includes an overview essay, a
+fairly linear historical essay on the fifth century B.C. that provides
+links into the primary material (e.g., Herodotus, Thucydides, and
+Plutarch), via small gray underscoring (on the screen) of linked
+passages. These are handmade links into other material.
+
+To different extents, most of the production work was done at Harvard,
+where the people and the equipment are located. Much of the
+collaborative activity involved data collection and structuring, because
+the main challenge and the emphasis of Perseus is the gathering of
+primary material, that is, building a useful environment for studying
+classical Greece, collecting data, and making it useful.
+Systems-building is definitely not the main concern. Thus, much of the
+work has involved writing essays, collecting information, rewriting it,
+and tagging it. That can be done off site. The creative link for the
+overview essay as well as for both systems and data was collaborative,
+and was forged via E-mail and paper mail with professors at Pomona and
+Bowdoin.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+CALALUCA * PLD's principal focus and contribution to scholarship *
+Various questions preparatory to beginning the project * Basis for
+project * Basic rule in converting PLD * Concerning the images in PLD *
+Running PLD under a variety of retrieval softwares * Encoding the
+database a hard-fought issue * Various features demonstrated * Importance
+of user documentation * Limitations of the CD-ROM version *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Eric CALALUCA, vice president, Chadwyck-Healey, Inc., demonstrated a
+software interpretation of the Patrologia Latina Database (PLD). PLD's
+principal focus from the beginning of the project about three-and-a-half
+years ago was on converting Migne's Latin series, and in the end,
+CALALUCA suggested, conversion of the text will be the major contribution
+to scholarship. CALALUCA stressed that, as possibly the only private
+publishing organization at the Workshop, Chadwyck-Healey had sought no
+federal funds or national foundation support before embarking upon the
+project, but instead had relied upon a great deal of homework and
+marketing to accomplish the task of conversion.
+
+Ever since the possibilities of computer-searching have emerged, scholars
+in the field of late ancient and early medieval studies (philosophers,
+theologians, classicists, and those studying the history of natural law
+and the history of the legal development of Western civilization) have
+been longing for a fully searchable version of Western literature, for
+example, all the texts of Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux and
+Boethius, not to mention all the secondary and tertiary authors.
+
+Various questions arose, CALALUCA said. Should one convert Migne?
+Should the database be encoded? Is it necessary to do that? How should
+it be delivered? What about CD-ROM? Since this is a transitional
+medium, why even bother to create software to run on a CD-ROM? Since
+everybody knows people will be networking information, why go to the
+trouble--which is far greater with CD-ROM than with the production of
+magnetic data? Finally, how does one make the data available? Can many
+of the hurdles to using electronic information that some publishers have
+imposed upon databases be eliminated?
+
+The PLD project was based on the principle that computer-searching of
+texts is most effective when it is done with a large database. Because
+PLD represented a collection that serves so many disciplines across so
+many periods, it was irresistible.
+
+The basic rule in converting PLD was to do no harm, to avoid the sins of
+intrusion in such a database: no introduction of newer editions, no
+on-the-spot changes, no eradicating of all possible falsehoods from an
+edition. Thus, PLD is not the final act in electronic publishing for
+this discipline, but simply the beginning. The conversion of PLD has
+evoked numerous unanticipated questions: How will information be used?
+What about networking? Can the rights of a database be protected?
+Should one protect the rights of a database? How can it be made
+available?
+
+Those converting PLD also tried to avoid the sins of omission, that is,
+excluding portions of the collections or whole sections. What about the
+images? PLD is full of images, some are extremely pious
+nineteenth-century representations of the Fathers, while others contain
+highly interesting elements. The goal was to cover all the text of Migne
+(including notes, in Greek and in Hebrew, the latter of which, in
+particular, causes problems in creating a search structure), all the
+indices, and even the images, which are being scanned in separately
+searchable files.
+
+Several North American institutions that have placed acquisition requests
+for the PLD database have requested it in magnetic form without software,
+which means they are already running it without software, without
+anything demonstrated at the Workshop.
+
+What cannot practically be done is go back and reconvert and re-encode
+data, a time-consuming and extremely costly enterprise. CALALUCA sees
+PLD as a database that can, and should, be run under a variety of
+retrieval softwares. This will permit the widest possible searches.
+Consequently, the need to produce a CD-ROM of PLD, as well as to develop
+software that could handle some 1.3 gigabyte of heavily encoded text,
+developed out of conversations with collection development and reference
+librarians who wanted software both compassionate enough for the
+pedestrian but also capable of incorporating the most detailed
+lexicographical studies that a user desires to conduct. In the end, the
+encoding and conversion of the data will prove the most enduring
+testament to the value of the project.
+
+The encoding of the database was also a hard-fought issue: Did the
+database need to be encoded? Were there normative structures for encoding
+humanist texts? Should it be SGML? What about the TEI--will it last,
+will it prove useful? CALALUCA expressed some minor doubts as to whether
+a data bank can be fully TEI-conformant. Every effort can be made, but
+in the end to be TEI-conformant means to accept the need to make some
+firm encoding decisions that can, indeed, be disputed. The TEI points
+the publisher in a proper direction but does not presume to make all the
+decisions for him or her. Essentially, the goal of encoding was to
+eliminate, as much as possible, the hindrances to information-networking,
+so that if an institution acquires a database, everybody associated with
+the institution can have access to it.
+
+CALALUCA demonstrated a portion of Volume 160, because it had the most
+anomalies in it. The software was created by Electronic Book
+Technologies of Providence, RI, and is called Dynatext. The software
+works only with SGML-coded data.
+
+Viewing a table of contents on the screen, the audience saw how Dynatext
+treats each element as a book and attempts to simplify movement through a
+volume. Familiarity with the Patrologia in print (i.e., the text, its
+source, and the editions) will make the machine-readable versions highly
+useful. (Software with a Windows application was sought for PLD,
+CALALUCA said, because this was the main trend for scholarly use.)
+
+CALALUCA also demonstrated how a user can perform a variety of searches
+and quickly move to any part of a volume; the look-up screen provides
+some basic, simple word-searching.
+
+CALALUCA argued that one of the major difficulties is not the software.
+Rather, in creating a product that will be used by scholars representing
+a broad spectrum of computer sophistication, user documentation proves
+to be the most important service one can provide.
+
+CALALUCA next illustrated a truncated search under mysterium within ten
+words of virtus and how one would be able to find its contents throughout
+the entire database. He said that the exciting thing about PLD is that
+many of the applications in the retrieval software being written for it
+will exceed the capabilities of the software employed now for the CD-ROM
+version. The CD-ROM faces genuine limitations, in terms of speed and
+comprehensiveness, in the creation of a retrieval software to run it.
+CALALUCA said he hoped that individual scholars will download the data,
+if they wish, to their personal computers, and have ready access to
+important texts on a constant basis, which they will be able to use in
+their research and from which they might even be able to publish.
+
+(CALALUCA explained that the blue numbers represented Migne's column numbers,
+which are the standard scholarly references. Pulling up a note, he stated
+that these texts were heavily edited and the image files would appear simply
+as a note as well, so that one could quickly access an image.)
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+FLEISCHHAUER/ERWAY * Several problems with which AM is still wrestling *
+Various search and retrieval capabilities * Illustration of automatic
+stemming and a truncated search * AM's attempt to find ways to connect
+cataloging to the texts * AM's gravitation towards SGML * Striking a
+balance between quantity and quality * How AM furnishes users recourse to
+images * Conducting a search in a full-text environment * Macintosh and
+IBM prototypes of AM * Multimedia aspects of AM *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+A demonstration of American Memory by its coordinator, Carl FLEISCHHAUER,
+and Ricky ERWAY, associate coordinator, Library of Congress, concluded
+the morning session. Beginning with a collection of broadsides from the
+Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, the only text
+collection in a presentable form at the time of the Workshop, FLEISCHHAUER
+highlighted several of the problems with which AM is still wrestling.
+(In its final form, the disk will contain two collections, not only the
+broadsides but also the full text with illustrations of a set of
+approximately 300 African-American pamphlets from the period 1870 to 1910.)
+
+As FREEMAN had explained earlier, AM has attempted to use a small amount
+of interpretation to introduce collections. In the present case, the
+contractor, a company named Quick Source, in Silver Spring, MD., used
+software called Toolbook and put together a modestly interactive
+introduction to the collection. Like the two preceding speakers,
+FLEISCHHAUER argued that the real asset was the underlying collection.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER proceeded to describe various search and retrieval
+capabilities while ERWAY worked the computer. In this particular package
+the "go to" pull-down allowed the user in effect to jump out of Toolbook,
+where the interactive program was located, and enter the third-party
+software used by AM for this text collection, which is called Personal
+Librarian. This was the Windows version of Personal Librarian, a
+software application put together by a company in Rockville, Md.
+
+Since the broadsides came from the Revolutionary War period, a search was
+conducted using the words British or war, with the default operator reset
+as or. FLEISCHHAUER demonstrated both automatic stemming (which finds
+other forms of the same root) and a truncated search. One of Personal
+Librarian's strongest features, the relevance ranking, was represented by
+a chart that indicated how often words being sought appeared in
+documents, with the one receiving the most "hits" obtaining the highest
+score. The "hit list" that is supplied takes the relevance ranking into
+account, making the first hit, in effect, the one the software has
+selected as the most relevant example.
+
+While in the text of one of the broadside documents, FLEISCHHAUER
+remarked AM's attempt to find ways to connect cataloging to the texts,
+which it does in different ways in different manifestations. In the case
+shown, the cataloging was pasted on: AM took MARC records that were
+written as on-line records right into one of the Library's mainframe
+retrieval programs, pulled them out, and handed them off to the contractor,
+who massaged them somewhat to display them in the manner shown. One of
+AM's questions is, Does the cataloguing normally performed in the mainframe
+work in this context, or had AM ought to think through adjustments?
+
+FLEISCHHAUER made the additional point that, as far as the text goes, AM
+has gravitated towards SGML (he pointed to the boldface in the upper part
+of the screen). Although extremely limited in its ability to translate
+or interpret SGML, Personal Librarian will furnish both bold and italics
+on screen; a fairly easy thing to do, but it is one of the ways in which
+SGML is useful.
+
+Striking a balance between quantity and quality has been a major concern
+of AM, with accuracy being one of the places where project staff have
+felt that less than 100-percent accuracy was not unacceptable.
+FLEISCHHAUER cited the example of the standard of the rekeying industry,
+namely 99.95 percent; as one service bureau informed him, to go from
+99.95 to 100 percent would double the cost.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER next demonstrated how AM furnishes users recourse to images,
+and at the same time recalled LESK's pointed question concerning the
+number of people who would look at those images and the number who would
+work only with the text. If the implication of LESK's question was
+sound, FLEISCHHAUER said, it raised the stakes for text accuracy and
+reduced the value of the strategy for images.
+
+Contending that preservation is always a bugaboo, FLEISCHHAUER
+demonstrated several images derived from a scan of a preservation
+microfilm that AM had made. He awarded a grade of C at best, perhaps a
+C minus or a C plus, for how well it worked out. Indeed, the matter of
+learning if other people had better ideas about scanning in general, and,
+in particular, scanning from microfilm, was one of the factors that drove
+AM to attempt to think through the agenda for the Workshop. Skew, for
+example, was one of the issues that AM in its ignorance had not reckoned
+would prove so difficult.
+
+Further, the handling of images of the sort shown, in a desktop computer
+environment, involved a considerable amount of zooming and scrolling.
+Ultimately, AM staff feel that perhaps the paper copy that is printed out
+might be the most useful one, but they remain uncertain as to how much
+on-screen reading users will do.
+
+Returning to the text, FLEISCHHAUER asked viewers to imagine a person who
+might be conducting a search in a full-text environment. With this
+scenario, he proceeded to illustrate other features of Personal Librarian
+that he considered helpful; for example, it provides the ability to
+notice words as one reads. Clicking the "include" button on the bottom
+of the search window pops the words that have been highlighted into the
+search. Thus, a user can refine the search as he or she reads,
+re-executing the search and continuing to find things in the quest for
+materials. This software not only contains relevance ranking, Boolean
+operators, and truncation, it also permits one to perform word algebra,
+so to say, where one puts two or three words in parentheses and links
+them with one Boolean operator and then a couple of words in another set
+of parentheses and asks for things within so many words of others.
+
+Until they became acquainted recently with some of the work being done in
+classics, the AM staff had not realized that a large number of the
+projects that involve electronic texts were being done by people with a
+profound interest in language and linguistics. Their search strategies
+and thinking are oriented to those fields, as is shown in particular by
+the Perseus example. As amateur historians, the AM staff were thinking
+more of searching for concepts and ideas than for particular words.
+Obviously, FLEISCHHAUER conceded, searching for concepts and ideas and
+searching for words may be two rather closely related things.
+
+While displaying several images, FLEISCHHAUER observed that the Macintosh
+prototype built by AM contains a greater diversity of formats. Echoing a
+previous speaker, he said that it was easier to stitch things together in
+the Macintosh, though it tended to be a little more anemic in search and
+retrieval. AM, therefore, increasingly has been investigating
+sophisticated retrieval engines in the IBM format.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER demonstrated several additional examples of the prototype
+interfaces: One was AM's metaphor for the network future, in which a
+kind of reading-room graphic suggests how one would be able to go around
+to different materials. AM contains a large number of photographs in
+analog video form worked up from a videodisc, which enable users to make
+copies to print or incorporate in digital documents. A frame-grabber is
+built into the system, making it possible to bring an image into a window
+and digitize or print it out.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER next demonstrated sound recording, which included texts.
+Recycled from a previous project, the collection included sixty 78-rpm
+phonograph records of political speeches that were made during and
+immediately after World War I. These constituted approximately three
+hours of audio, as AM has digitized it, which occupy 150 megabytes on a
+CD. Thus, they are considerably compressed. From the catalogue card,
+FLEISCHHAUER proceeded to a transcript of a speech with the audio
+available and with highlighted text following it as it played.
+A photograph has been added and a transcription made.
+
+Considerable value has been added beyond what the Library of Congress
+normally would do in cataloguing a sound recording, which raises several
+questions for AM concerning where to draw lines about how much value it can
+afford to add and at what point, perhaps, this becomes more than AM could
+reasonably do or reasonably wish to do. FLEISCHHAUER also demonstrated
+a motion picture. As FREEMAN had reported earlier, the motion picture
+materials have proved the most popular, not surprisingly. This says more
+about the medium, he thought, than about AM's presentation of it.
+
+Because AM's goal was to bring together things that could be used by
+historians or by people who were curious about history,
+turn-of-the-century footage seemed to represent the most appropriate
+collections from the Library of Congress in motion pictures. These were
+the very first films made by Thomas Edison's company and some others at
+that time. The particular example illustrated was a Biograph film,
+brought in with a frame-grabber into a window. A single videodisc
+contains about fifty titles and pieces of film from that period, all of
+New York City. Taken together, AM believes, they provide an interesting
+documentary resource.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Using the frame-grabber in AM * Volume of material processed
+and to be processed * Purpose of AM within LC * Cataloguing and the
+nature of AM's material * SGML coding and the question of quality versus
+quantity *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the question-and-answer period that followed FLEISCHHAUER's
+presentation, several clarifications were made.
+
+AM is bringing in motion pictures from a videodisc. The frame-grabber
+devices create a window on a computer screen, which permits users to
+digitize a single frame of the movie or one of the photographs. It
+produces a crude, rough-and-ready image that high school students can
+incorporate into papers, and that has worked very nicely in this way.
+
+Commenting on FLEISCHHAUER's assertion that AM was looking more at
+searching ideas than words, MYLONAS argued that without words an idea
+does not exist. FLEISCHHAUER conceded that he ought to have articulated
+his point more clearly. MYLONAS stated that they were in fact both
+talking about the same thing. By searching for words and by forcing
+people to focus on the word, the Perseus Project felt that they would get
+them to the idea. The way one reviews results is tailored more to one
+kind of user than another.
+
+Concerning the total volume of material that has been processed in this
+way, AM at this point has in retrievable form seven or eight collections,
+all of them photographic. In the Macintosh environment, for example,
+there probably are 35,000-40,000 photographs. The sound recordings
+number sixty items. The broadsides number about 300 items. There are
+500 political cartoons in the form of drawings. The motion pictures, as
+individual items, number sixty to seventy.
+
+AM also has a manuscript collection, the life history portion of one of
+the federal project series, which will contain 2,900 individual
+documents, all first-person narratives. AM has in process about 350
+African-American pamphlets, or about 12,000 printed pages for the period
+1870-1910. Also in the works are some 4,000 panoramic photographs. AM
+has recycled a fair amount of the work done by LC's Prints and
+Photographs Division during the Library's optical disk pilot project in
+the 1980s. For example, a special division of LC has tooled up and
+thought through all the ramifications of electronic presentation of
+photographs. Indeed, they are wheeling them out in great barrel loads.
+The purpose of AM within the Library, it is hoped, is to catalyze several
+of the other special collection divisions which have no particular
+experience with, in some cases, mixed feelings about, an activity such as
+AM. Moreover, in many cases the divisions may be characterized as not
+only lacking experience in "electronifying" things but also in automated
+cataloguing. MARC cataloguing as practiced in the United States is
+heavily weighted toward the description of monograph and serial
+materials, but is much thinner when one enters the world of manuscripts
+and things that are held in the Library's music collection and other
+units. In response to a comment by LESK, that AM's material is very
+heavily photographic, and is so primarily because individual records have
+been made for each photograph, FLEISCHHAUER observed that an item-level
+catalog record exists, for example, for each photograph in the Detroit
+Publishing collection of 25,000 pictures. In the case of the Federal
+Writers Project, for which nearly 3,000 documents exist, representing
+information from twenty-six different states, AM with the assistance of
+Karen STUART of the Manuscript Division will attempt to find some way not
+only to have a collection-level record but perhaps a MARC record for each
+state, which will then serve as an umbrella for the 100-200 documents
+that come under it. But that drama remains to be enacted. The AM staff
+is conservative and clings to cataloguing, though of course visitors tout
+artificial intelligence and neural networks in a manner that suggests that
+perhaps one need not have cataloguing or that much of it could be put aside.
+
+The matter of SGML coding, FLEISCHHAUER conceded, returned the discussion
+to the earlier treated question of quality versus quantity in the Library
+of Congress. Of course, text conversion can be done with 100-percent
+accuracy, but it means that when one's holdings are as vast as LC's only
+a tiny amount will be exposed, whereas permitting lower levels of
+accuracy can lead to exposing or sharing larger amounts, but with the
+quality correspondingly impaired.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+TWOHIG * A contrary experience concerning electronic options * Volume of
+material in the Washington papers and a suggestion of David Packard *
+Implications of Packard's suggestion * Transcribing the documents for the
+CD-ROM * Accuracy of transcriptions * The CD-ROM edition of the Founding
+Fathers documents *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Finding encouragement in a comment of MICHELSON's from the morning
+session--that numerous people in the humanities were choosing electronic
+options to do their work--Dorothy TWOHIG, editor, The Papers of George
+Washington, opened her illustrated talk by noting that her experience
+with literary scholars and numerous people in editing was contrary to
+MICHELSON's. TWOHIG emphasized literary scholars' complete ignorance of
+the technological options available to them or their reluctance or, in
+some cases, their downright hostility toward these options.
+
+After providing an overview of the five Founding Fathers projects
+(Jefferson at Princeton, Franklin at Yale, John Adams at the
+Massachusetts Historical Society, and Madison down the hall from her at
+the University of Virginia), TWOHIG observed that the Washington papers,
+like all of the projects, include both sides of the Washington
+correspondence and deal with some 135,000 documents to be published with
+extensive annotation in eighty to eighty-five volumes, a project that
+will not be completed until well into the next century. Thus, it was
+with considerable enthusiasm several years ago that the Washington Papers
+Project (WPP) greeted David Packard's suggestion that the papers of the
+Founding Fathers could be published easily and inexpensively, and to the
+great benefit of American scholarship, via CD-ROM.
+
+In pragmatic terms, funding from the Packard Foundation would expedite
+the transcription of thousands of documents waiting to be put on disk in
+the WPP offices. Further, since the costs of collecting, editing, and
+converting the Founding Fathers documents into letterpress editions were
+running into the millions of dollars, and the considerable staffs
+involved in all of these projects were devoting their careers to
+producing the work, the Packard Foundation's suggestion had a
+revolutionary aspect: Transcriptions of the entire corpus of the
+Founding Fathers papers would be available on CD-ROM to public and
+college libraries, even high schools, at a fraction of the cost--
+$100-$150 for the annual license fee--to produce a limited university
+press run of 1,000 of each volume of the published papers at $45-$150 per
+printed volume. Given the current budget crunch in educational systems
+and the corresponding constraints on librarians in smaller institutions
+who wish to add these volumes to their collections, producing the
+documents on CD-ROM would likely open a greatly expanded audience for the
+papers. TWOHIG stressed, however, that development of the Founding
+Fathers CD-ROM is still in its infancy. Serious software problems remain
+to be resolved before the material can be put into readable form.
+
+Funding from the Packard Foundation resulted in a major push to
+transcribe the 75,000 or so documents of the Washington papers remaining
+to be transcribed onto computer disks. Slides illustrated several of the
+problems encountered, for example, the present inability of CD-ROM to
+indicate the cross-outs (deleted material) in eighteenth century
+documents. TWOHIG next described documents from various periods in the
+eighteenth century that have been transcribed in chronological order and
+delivered to the Packard offices in California, where they are converted
+to the CD-ROM, a process that is expected to consume five years to
+complete (that is, reckoning from David Packard's suggestion made several
+years ago, until about July 1994). TWOHIG found an encouraging
+indication of the project's benefits in the ongoing use made by scholars
+of the search functions of the CD-ROM, particularly in reducing the time
+spent in manually turning the pages of the Washington papers.
+
+TWOHIG next furnished details concerning the accuracy of transcriptions.
+For instance, the insertion of thousands of documents on the CD-ROM
+currently does not permit each document to be verified against the
+original manuscript several times as in the case of documents that appear
+in the published edition. However, the transcriptions receive a cursory
+check for obvious typos, the misspellings of proper names, and other
+errors from the WPP CD-ROM editor. Eventually, all documents that appear
+in the electronic version will be checked by project editors. Although
+this process has met with opposition from some of the editors on the
+grounds that imperfect work may leave their offices, the advantages in
+making this material available as a research tool outweigh fears about the
+misspelling of proper names and other relatively minor editorial matters.
+
+Completion of all five Founding Fathers projects (i.e., retrievability
+and searchability of all of the documents by proper names, alternate
+spellings, or varieties of subjects) will provide one of the richest
+sources of this size for the history of the United States in the latter
+part of the eighteenth century. Further, publication on CD-ROM will
+allow editors to include even minutiae, such as laundry lists, not
+included in the printed volumes.
+
+It seems possible that the extensive annotation provided in the printed
+volumes eventually will be added to the CD-ROM edition, pending
+negotiations with the publishers of the papers. At the moment, the
+Founding Fathers CD-ROM is accessible only on the IBYCUS, a computer
+developed out of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae project and designed for
+the use of classical scholars. There are perhaps 400 IBYCUS computers in
+the country, most of which are in university classics departments.
+Ultimately, it is anticipated that the CD-ROM edition of the Founding
+Fathers documents will run on any IBM-compatible or Macintosh computer
+with a CD-ROM drive. Numerous changes in the software will also occur
+before the project is completed. (Editor's note: an IBYCUS was
+unavailable to demonstrate the CD-ROM.)
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Several additional features of WPP clarified *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Discussion following TWOHIG's presentation served to clarify several
+additional features, including (1) that the project's primary
+intellectual product consists in the electronic transcription of the
+material; (2) that the text transmitted to the CD-ROM people is not
+marked up; (3) that cataloging and subject-indexing of the material
+remain to be worked out (though at this point material can be retrieved
+by name); and (4) that because all the searching is done in the hardware,
+the IBYCUS is designed to read a CD-ROM which contains only sequential
+text files. Technically, it then becomes very easy to read the material
+off and put it on another device.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+LEBRON * Overview of the history of the joint project between AAAS and
+OCLC * Several practices the on-line environment shares with traditional
+publishing on hard copy * Several technical and behavioral barriers to
+electronic publishing * How AAAS and OCLC arrived at the subject of
+clinical trials * Advantages of the electronic format and other features
+of OJCCT * An illustrated tour of the journal *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Maria LEBRON, managing editor, The Online Journal of Current Clinical
+Trials (OJCCT), presented an illustrated overview of the history of the
+joint project between the American Association for the Advancement of
+Science (AAAS) and the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). The
+joint venture between AAAS and OCLC owes its beginning to a
+reorganization launched by the new chief executive officer at OCLC about
+three years ago and combines the strengths of these two disparate
+organizations. In short, OJCCT represents the process of scholarly
+publishing on line.
+
+LEBRON next discussed several practices the on-line environment shares
+with traditional publishing on hard copy--for example, peer review of
+manuscripts--that are highly important in the academic world. LEBRON
+noted in particular the implications of citation counts for tenure
+committees and grants committees. In the traditional hard-copy
+environment, citation counts are readily demonstrable, whereas the
+on-line environment represents an ethereal medium to most academics.
+
+LEBRON remarked several technical and behavioral barriers to electronic
+publishing, for instance, the problems in transmission created by special
+characters or by complex graphics and halftones. In addition, she noted
+economic limitations such as the storage costs of maintaining back issues
+and market or audience education.
+
+Manuscripts cannot be uploaded to OJCCT, LEBRON explained, because it is
+not a bulletin board or E-mail, forms of electronic transmission of
+information that have created an ambience clouding people's understanding
+of what the journal is attempting to do. OJCCT, which publishes
+peer-reviewed medical articles dealing with the subject of clinical
+trials, includes text, tabular material, and graphics, although at this
+time it can transmit only line illustrations.
+
+Next, LEBRON described how AAAS and OCLC arrived at the subject of
+clinical trials: It is 1) a highly statistical discipline that 2) does
+not require halftones but can satisfy the needs of its audience with line
+illustrations and graphic material, and 3) there is a need for the speedy
+dissemination of high-quality research results. Clinical trials are
+research activities that involve the administration of a test treatment
+to some experimental unit in order to test its usefulness before it is
+made available to the general population. LEBRON proceeded to give
+additional information on OJCCT concerning its editor-in-chief, editorial
+board, editorial content, and the types of articles it publishes
+(including peer-reviewed research reports and reviews), as well as
+features shared by other traditional hard-copy journals.
+
+Among the advantages of the electronic format are faster dissemination of
+information, including raw data, and the absence of space constraints
+because pages do not exist. (This latter fact creates an interesting
+situation when it comes to citations.) Nor are there any issues. AAAS's
+capacity to download materials directly from the journal to a
+subscriber's printer, hard drive, or floppy disk helps ensure highly
+accurate transcription. Other features of OJCCT include on-screen alerts
+that allow linkage of subsequently published documents to the original
+documents; on-line searching by subject, author, title, etc.; indexing of
+every single word that appears in an article; viewing access to an
+article by component (abstract, full text, or graphs); numbered
+paragraphs to replace page counts; publication in Science every thirty
+days of indexing of all articles published in the journal;
+typeset-quality screens; and Hypertext links that enable subscribers to
+bring up Medline abstracts directly without leaving the journal.
+
+After detailing the two primary ways to gain access to the journal,
+through the OCLC network and Compuserv if one desires graphics or through
+the Internet if just an ASCII file is desired, LEBRON illustrated the
+speedy editorial process and the coding of the document using SGML tags
+after it has been accepted for publication. She also gave an illustrated
+tour of the journal, its search-and-retrieval capabilities in particular,
+but also including problems associated with scanning in illustrations,
+and the importance of on-screen alerts to the medical profession re
+retractions or corrections, or more frequently, editorials, letters to
+the editors, or follow-up reports. She closed by inviting the audience
+to join AAAS on 1 July, when OJCCT was scheduled to go on-line.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Additional features of OJCCT *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+In the lengthy discussion that followed LEBRON's presentation, these
+points emerged:
+
+ * The SGML text can be tailored as users wish.
+
+ * All these articles have a fairly simple document definition.
+
+ * Document-type definitions (DTDs) were developed and given to OJCCT
+ for coding.
+
+ * No articles will be removed from the journal. (Because there are
+ no back issues, there are no lost issues either. Once a subscriber
+ logs onto the journal he or she has access not only to the currently
+ published materials, but retrospectively to everything that has been
+ published in it. Thus the table of contents grows bigger. The date
+ of publication serves to distinguish between currently published
+ materials and older materials.)
+
+ * The pricing system for the journal resembles that for most medical
+ journals: for 1992, $95 for a year, plus telecommunications charges
+ (there are no connect time charges); for 1993, $110 for the
+ entire year for single users, though the journal can be put on a
+ local area network (LAN). However, only one person can access the
+ journal at a time. Site licenses may come in the future.
+
+ * AAAS is working closely with colleagues at OCLC to display
+ mathematical equations on screen.
+
+ * Without compromising any steps in the editorial process, the
+ technology has reduced the time lag between when a manuscript is
+ originally submitted and the time it is accepted; the review process
+ does not differ greatly from the standard six-to-eight weeks
+ employed by many of the hard-copy journals. The process still
+ depends on people.
+
+ * As far as a preservation copy is concerned, articles will be
+ maintained on the computer permanently and subscribers, as part of
+ their subscription, will receive a microfiche-quality archival copy
+ of everything published during that year; in addition, reprints can
+ be purchased in much the same way as in a hard-copy environment.
+ Hard copies are prepared but are not the primary medium for the
+ dissemination of the information.
+
+ * Because OJCCT is not yet on line, it is difficult to know how many
+ people would simply browse through the journal on the screen as
+ opposed to downloading the whole thing and printing it out; a mix of
+ both types of users likely will result.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+PERSONIUS * Developments in technology over the past decade * The CLASS
+Project * Advantages for technology and for the CLASS Project *
+Developing a network application an underlying assumption of the project
+* Details of the scanning process * Print-on-demand copies of books *
+Future plans include development of a browsing tool *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Lynne PERSONIUS, assistant director, Cornell Information Technologies for
+Scholarly Information Services, Cornell University, first commented on
+the tremendous impact that developments in technology over the past ten
+years--networking, in particular--have had on the way information is
+handled, and how, in her own case, these developments have counterbalanced
+Cornell's relative geographical isolation. Other significant technologies
+include scanners, which are much more sophisticated than they were ten years
+ago; mass storage and the dramatic savings that result from it in terms of
+both space and money relative to twenty or thirty years ago; new and
+improved printing technologies, which have greatly affected the distribution
+of information; and, of course, digital technologies, whose applicability to
+library preservation remains at issue.
+
+Given that context, PERSONIUS described the College Library Access and
+Storage System (CLASS) Project, a library preservation project,
+primarily, and what has been accomplished. Directly funded by the
+Commission on Preservation and Access and by the Xerox Corporation, which
+has provided a significant amount of hardware, the CLASS Project has been
+working with a development team at Xerox to develop a software
+application tailored to library preservation requirements. Within
+Cornell, participants in the project have been working jointly with both
+library and information technologies. The focus of the project has been
+on reformatting and saving books that are in brittle condition.
+PERSONIUS showed Workshop participants a brittle book, and described how
+such books were the result of developments in papermaking around the
+beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The papermaking process was
+changed so that a significant amount of acid was introduced into the
+actual paper itself, which deteriorates as it sits on library shelves.
+
+One of the advantages for technology and for the CLASS Project is that
+the information in brittle books is mostly out of copyright and thus
+offers an opportunity to work with material that requires library
+preservation, and to create and work on an infrastructure to save the
+material. Acknowledging the familiarity of those working in preservation
+with this information, PERSONIUS noted that several things are being
+done: the primary preservation technology used today is photocopying of
+brittle material. Saving the intellectual content of the material is the
+main goal. With microfilm copy, the intellectual content is preserved on
+the assumption that in the future the image can be reformatted in any
+other way that then exists.
+
+An underlying assumption of the CLASS Project from the beginning was
+that it would develop a network application. Project staff scan books
+at a workstation located in the library, near the brittle material.
+An image-server filing system is located at a distance from that
+workstation, and a printer is located in another building. All of the
+materials digitized and stored on the image-filing system are cataloged
+in the on-line catalogue. In fact, a record for each of these electronic
+books is stored in the RLIN database so that a record exists of what is
+in the digital library throughout standard catalogue procedures. In the
+future, researchers working from their own workstations in their offices,
+or their networks, will have access--wherever they might be--through a
+request server being built into the new digital library. A second
+assumption is that the preferred means of finding the material will be by
+looking through a catalogue. PERSONIUS described the scanning process,
+which uses a prototype scanner being developed by Xerox and which scans a
+very high resolution image at great speed. Another significant feature,
+because this is a preservation application, is the placing of the pages
+that fall apart one for one on the platen. Ordinarily, a scanner could
+be used with some sort of a document feeder, but because of this
+application that is not feasible. Further, because CLASS is a
+preservation application, after the paper replacement is made there, a
+very careful quality control check is performed. An original book is
+compared to the printed copy and verification is made, before proceeding,
+that all of the image, all of the information, has been captured. Then,
+a new library book is produced: The printed images are rebound by a
+commercial binder and a new book is returned to the shelf.
+Significantly, the books returned to the library shelves are beautiful
+and useful replacements on acid-free paper that should last a long time,
+in effect, the equivalent of preservation photocopies. Thus, the project
+has a library of digital books. In essence, CLASS is scanning and
+storing books as 600 dot-per-inch bit-mapped images, compressed using
+Group 4 CCITT (i.e., the French acronym for International Consultative
+Committee for Telegraph and Telephone) compression. They are stored as
+TIFF files on an optical filing system that is composed of a database
+used for searching and locating the books and an optical jukebox that
+stores 64 twelve-inch platters. A very-high-resolution printed copy of
+these books at 600 dots per inch is created, using a Xerox DocuTech
+printer to make the paper replacements on acid-free paper.
+
+PERSONIUS maintained that the CLASS Project presents an opportunity to
+introduce people to books as digital images by using a paper medium.
+Books are returned to the shelves while people are also given the ability
+to print on demand--to make their own copies of books. (PERSONIUS
+distributed copies of an engineering journal published by engineering
+students at Cornell around 1900 as an example of what a print-on-demand
+copy of material might be like. This very cheap copy would be available
+to people to use for their own research purposes and would bridge the gap
+between an electronic work and the paper that readers like to have.)
+PERSONIUS then attempted to illustrate a very early prototype of
+networked access to this digital library. Xerox Corporation has
+developed a prototype of a view station that can send images across the
+network to be viewed.
+
+The particular library brought down for demonstration contained two
+mathematics books. CLASS is developing and will spend the next year
+developing an application that allows people at workstations to browse
+the books. Thus, CLASS is developing a browsing tool, on the assumption
+that users do not want to read an entire book from a workstation, but
+would prefer to be able to look through and decide if they would like to
+have a printed copy of it.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Re retrieval software * "Digital file copyright" * Scanning
+rate during production * Autosegmentation * Criteria employed in
+selecting books for scanning * Compression and decompression of images *
+OCR not precluded *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the question-and-answer period that followed her presentation,
+PERSONIUS made these additional points:
+
+ * Re retrieval software, Cornell is developing a Unix-based server
+ as well as clients for the server that support multiple platforms
+ (Macintosh, IBM and Sun workstations), in the hope that people from
+ any of those platforms will retrieve books; a further operating
+ assumption is that standard interfaces will be used as much as
+ possible, where standards can be put in place, because CLASS
+ considers this retrieval software a library application and would
+ like to be able to look at material not only at Cornell but at other
+ institutions.
+
+ * The phrase "digital file copyright by Cornell University" was
+ added at the advice of Cornell's legal staff with the caveat that it
+ probably would not hold up in court. Cornell does not want people
+ to copy its books and sell them but would like to keep them
+ available for use in a library environment for library purposes.
+
+ * In production the scanner can scan about 300 pages per hour,
+ capturing 600 dots per inch.
+
+ * The Xerox software has filters to scan halftone material and avoid
+ the moire patterns that occur when halftone material is scanned.
+ Xerox has been working on hardware and software that would enable
+ the scanner itself to recognize this situation and deal with it
+ appropriately--a kind of autosegmentation that would enable the
+ scanner to handle halftone material as well as text on a single page.
+
+ * The books subjected to the elaborate process described above were
+ selected because CLASS is a preservation project, with the first 500
+ books selected coming from Cornell's mathematics collection, because
+ they were still being heavily used and because, although they were
+ in need of preservation, the mathematics library and the mathematics
+ faculty were uncomfortable having them microfilmed. (They wanted a
+ printed copy.) Thus, these books became a logical choice for this
+ project. Other books were chosen by the project's selection committees
+ for experiments with the technology, as well as to meet a demand or need.
+
+ * Images will be decompressed before they are sent over the line; at
+ this time they are compressed and sent to the image filing system
+ and then sent to the printer as compressed images; they are returned
+ to the workstation as compressed 600-dpi images and the workstation
+ decompresses and scales them for display--an inefficient way to
+ access the material though it works quite well for printing and
+ other purposes.
+
+ * CLASS is also decompressing on Macintosh and IBM, a slow process
+ right now. Eventually, compression and decompression will take
+ place on an image conversion server. Trade-offs will be made, based
+ on future performance testing, concerning where the file is
+ compressed and what resolution image is sent.
+
+ * OCR has not been precluded; images are being stored that have been
+ scanned at a high resolution, which presumably would suit them well
+ to an OCR process. Because the material being scanned is about 100
+ years old and was printed with less-than-ideal technologies, very
+ early and preliminary tests have not produced good results. But the
+ project is capturing an image that is of sufficient resolution to be
+ subjected to OCR in the future. Moreover, the system architecture
+ and the system plan have a logical place to store an OCR image if it
+ has been captured. But that is not being done now.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION III. DISTRIBUTION, NETWORKS, AND NETWORKING: OPTIONS FOR
+DISSEMINATION
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ZICH * Issues pertaining to CD-ROMs * Options for publishing in CD-ROM *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Robert ZICH, special assistant to the associate librarian for special
+projects, Library of Congress, and moderator of this session, first noted
+the blessed but somewhat awkward circumstance of having four very
+distinguished people representing networks and networking or at least
+leaning in that direction, while lacking anyone to speak from the
+strongest possible background in CD-ROMs. ZICH expressed the hope that
+members of the audience would join the discussion. He stressed the
+subtitle of this particular session, "Options for Dissemination," and,
+concerning CD-ROMs, the importance of determining when it would be wise
+to consider dissemination in CD-ROM versus networks. A shopping list of
+issues pertaining to CD-ROMs included: the grounds for selecting
+commercial publishers, and in-house publication where possible versus
+nonprofit or government publication. A similar list for networks
+included: determining when one should consider dissemination through a
+network, identifying the mechanisms or entities that exist to place items
+on networks, identifying the pool of existing networks, determining how a
+producer would choose between networks, and identifying the elements of
+a business arrangement in a network.
+
+Options for publishing in CD-ROM: an outside publisher versus
+self-publication. If an outside publisher is used, it can be nonprofit,
+such as the Government Printing Office (GPO) or the National Technical
+Information Service (NTIS), in the case of government. The pros and cons
+associated with employing an outside publisher are obvious. Among the
+pros, there is no trouble getting accepted. One pays the bill and, in
+effect, goes one's way. Among the cons, when one pays an outside
+publisher to perform the work, that publisher will perform the work it is
+obliged to do, but perhaps without the production expertise and skill in
+marketing and dissemination that some would seek. There is the body of
+commercial publishers that do possess that kind of expertise in
+distribution and marketing but that obviously are selective. In
+self-publication, one exercises full control, but then one must handle
+matters such as distribution and marketing. Such are some of the options
+for publishing in the case of CD-ROM.
+
+In the case of technical and design issues, which are also important,
+there are many matters which many at the Workshop already knew a good
+deal about: retrieval system requirements and costs, what to do about
+images, the various capabilities and platforms, the trade-offs between
+cost and performance, concerns about local-area networkability,
+interoperability, etc.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+LYNCH * Creating networked information is different from using networks
+as an access or dissemination vehicle * Networked multimedia on a large
+scale does not yet work * Typical CD-ROM publication model a two-edged
+sword * Publishing information on a CD-ROM in the present world of
+immature standards * Contrast between CD-ROM and network pricing *
+Examples demonstrated earlier in the day as a set of insular information
+gems * Paramount need to link databases * Layering to become increasingly
+necessary * Project NEEDS and the issues of information reuse and active
+versus passive use * X-Windows as a way of differentiating between
+network access and networked information * Barriers to the distribution
+of networked multimedia information * Need for good, real-time delivery
+protocols * The question of presentation integrity in client-server
+computing in the academic world * Recommendations for producing multimedia
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Clifford LYNCH, director, Library Automation, University of California,
+opened his talk with the general observation that networked information
+constituted a difficult and elusive topic because it is something just
+starting to develop and not yet fully understood. LYNCH contended that
+creating genuinely networked information was different from using
+networks as an access or dissemination vehicle and was more sophisticated
+and more subtle. He invited the members of the audience to extrapolate,
+from what they heard about the preceding demonstration projects, to what
+sort of a world of electronics information--scholarly, archival,
+cultural, etc.--they wished to end up with ten or fifteen years from now.
+LYNCH suggested that to extrapolate directly from these projects would
+produce unpleasant results.
+
+Putting the issue of CD-ROM in perspective before getting into
+generalities on networked information, LYNCH observed that those engaged
+in multimedia today who wish to ship a product, so to say, probably do
+not have much choice except to use CD-ROM: networked multimedia on a
+large scale basically does not yet work because the technology does not
+exist. For example, anybody who has tried moving images around over the
+Internet knows that this is an exciting touch-and-go process, a
+fascinating and fertile area for experimentation, research, and
+development, but not something that one can become deeply enthusiastic
+about committing to production systems at this time.
+
+This situation will change, LYNCH said. He differentiated CD-ROM from
+the practices that have been followed up to now in distributing data on
+CD-ROM. For LYNCH the problem with CD-ROM is not its portability or its
+slowness but the two-edged sword of having the retrieval application and
+the user interface inextricably bound up with the data, which is the
+typical CD-ROM publication model. It is not a case of publishing data
+but of distributing a typically stand-alone, typically closed system,
+all--software, user interface, and data--on a little disk. Hence, all
+the between-disk navigational issues as well as the impossibility in most
+cases of integrating data on one disk with that on another. Most CD-ROM
+retrieval software does not network very gracefully at present. However,
+in the present world of immature standards and lack of understanding of
+what network information is or what the ground rules are for creating or
+using it, publishing information on a CD-ROM does add value in a very
+real sense.
+
+LYNCH drew a contrast between CD-ROM and network pricing and in doing so
+highlighted something bizarre in information pricing. A large
+institution such as the University of California has vendors who will
+offer to sell information on CD-ROM for a price per year in four digits,
+but for the same data (e.g., an abstracting and indexing database) on
+magnetic tape, regardless of how many people may use it concurrently,
+will quote a price in six digits.
+
+What is packaged with the CD-ROM in one sense adds value--a complete
+access system, not just raw, unrefined information--although it is not
+generally perceived that way. This is because the access software,
+although it adds value, is viewed by some people, particularly in the
+university environment where there is a very heavy commitment to
+networking, as being developed in the wrong direction.
+
+Given that context, LYNCH described the examples demonstrated as a set of
+insular information gems--Perseus, for example, offers nicely linked
+information, but would be very difficult to integrate with other
+databases, that is, to link together seamlessly with other source files
+from other sources. It resembles an island, and in this respect is
+similar to numerous stand-alone projects that are based on videodiscs,
+that is, on the single-workstation concept.
+
+As scholarship evolves in a network environment, the paramount need will
+be to link databases. We must link personal databases to public
+databases, to group databases, in fairly seamless ways--which is
+extremely difficult in the environments under discussion with copies of
+databases proliferating all over the place.
+
+The notion of layering also struck LYNCH as lurking in several of the
+projects demonstrated. Several databases in a sense constitute
+information archives without a significant amount of navigation built in.
+Educators, critics, and others will want a layered structure--one that
+defines or links paths through the layers to allow users to reach
+specific points. In LYNCH's view, layering will become increasingly
+necessary, and not just within a single resource but across resources
+(e.g., tracing mythology and cultural themes across several classics
+databases as well as a database of Renaissance culture). This ability to
+organize resources, to build things out of multiple other things on the
+network or select pieces of it, represented for LYNCH one of the key
+aspects of network information.
+
+Contending that information reuse constituted another significant issue,
+LYNCH commended to the audience's attention Project NEEDS (i.e., National
+Engineering Education Delivery System). This project's objective is to
+produce a database of engineering courseware as well as the components
+that can be used to develop new courseware. In a number of the existing
+applications, LYNCH said, the issue of reuse (how much one can take apart
+and reuse in other applications) was not being well considered. He also
+raised the issue of active versus passive use, one aspect of which is
+how much information will be manipulated locally by users. Most people,
+he argued, may do a little browsing and then will wish to print. LYNCH
+was uncertain how these resources would be used by the vast majority of
+users in the network environment.
+
+LYNCH next said a few words about X-Windows as a way of differentiating
+between network access and networked information. A number of the
+applications demonstrated at the Workshop could be rewritten to use X
+across the network, so that one could run them from any X-capable device-
+-a workstation, an X terminal--and transact with a database across the
+network. Although this opens up access a little, assuming one has enough
+network to handle it, it does not provide an interface to develop a
+program that conveniently integrates information from multiple databases.
+X is a viewing technology that has limits. In a real sense, it is just a
+graphical version of remote log-in across the network. X-type applications
+represent only one step in the progression towards real access.
+
+LYNCH next discussed barriers to the distribution of networked multimedia
+information. The heart of the problem is a lack of standards to provide
+the ability for computers to talk to each other, retrieve information,
+and shuffle it around fairly casually. At the moment, little progress is
+being made on standards for networked information; for example, present
+standards do not cover images, digital voice, and digital video. A
+useful tool kit of exchange formats for basic texts is only now being
+assembled. The synchronization of content streams (i.e., synchronizing a
+voice track to a video track, establishing temporal relations between
+different components in a multimedia object) constitutes another issue
+for networked multimedia that is just beginning to receive attention.
+
+Underlying network protocols also need some work; good, real-time
+delivery protocols on the Internet do not yet exist. In LYNCH's view,
+highly important in this context is the notion of networked digital
+object IDs, the ability of one object on the network to point to another
+object (or component thereof) on the network. Serious bandwidth issues
+also exist. LYNCH was uncertain if billion-bit-per-second networks would
+prove sufficient if numerous people ran video in parallel.
+
+LYNCH concluded by offering an issue for database creators to consider,
+as well as several comments about what might constitute good trial
+multimedia experiments. In a networked information world the database
+builder or service builder (publisher) does not exercise the same
+extensive control over the integrity of the presentation; strange
+programs "munge" with one's data before the user sees it. Serious
+thought must be given to what guarantees integrity of presentation. Part
+of that is related to where one draws the boundaries around a networked
+information service. This question of presentation integrity in
+client-server computing has not been stressed enough in the academic
+world, LYNCH argued, though commercial service providers deal with it
+regularly.
+
+Concerning multimedia, LYNCH observed that good multimedia at the moment
+is hideously expensive to produce. He recommended producing multimedia
+with either very high sale value, or multimedia with a very long life
+span, or multimedia that will have a very broad usage base and whose
+costs therefore can be amortized among large numbers of users. In this
+connection, historical and humanistically oriented material may be a good
+place to start, because it tends to have a longer life span than much of
+the scientific material, as well as a wider user base. LYNCH noted, for
+example, that American Memory fits many of the criteria outlined. He
+remarked the extensive discussion about bringing the Internet or the
+National Research and Education Network (NREN) into the K-12 environment
+as a way of helping the American educational system.
+
+LYNCH closed by noting that the kinds of applications demonstrated struck
+him as excellent justifications of broad-scale networking for K-12, but
+that at this time no "killer" application exists to mobilize the K-12
+community to obtain connectivity.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Dearth of genuinely interesting applications on the network
+a slow-changing situation * The issue of the integrity of presentation in
+a networked environment * Several reasons why CD-ROM software does not
+network *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the discussion period that followed LYNCH's presentation, several
+additional points were made.
+
+LYNCH reiterated even more strongly his contention that, historically,
+once one goes outside high-end science and the group of those who need
+access to supercomputers, there is a great dearth of genuinely
+interesting applications on the network. He saw this situation changing
+slowly, with some of the scientific databases and scholarly discussion
+groups and electronic journals coming on as well as with the availability
+of Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) and some of the databases that
+are being mounted there. However, many of those things do not seem to
+have piqued great popular interest. For instance, most high school
+students of LYNCH's acquaintance would not qualify as devotees of serious
+molecular biology.
+
+Concerning the issue of the integrity of presentation, LYNCH believed
+that a couple of information providers have laid down the law at least on
+certain things. For example, his recollection was that the National
+Library of Medicine feels strongly that one needs to employ the
+identifier field if he or she is to mount a database commercially. The
+problem with a real networked environment is that one does not know who
+is reformatting and reprocessing one's data when one enters a client
+server mode. It becomes anybody's guess, for example, if the network
+uses a Z39.50 server, or what clients are doing with one's data. A data
+provider can say that his contract will only permit clients to have
+access to his data after he vets them and their presentation and makes
+certain it suits him. But LYNCH held out little expectation that the
+network marketplace would evolve in that way, because it required too
+much prior negotiation.
+
+CD-ROM software does not network for a variety of reasons, LYNCH said.
+He speculated that CD-ROM publishers are not eager to have their products
+really hook into wide area networks, because they fear it will make their
+data suppliers nervous. Moreover, until relatively recently, one had to
+be rather adroit to run a full TCP/IP stack plus applications on a
+PC-size machine, whereas nowadays it is becoming easier as PCs grow
+bigger and faster. LYNCH also speculated that software providers had not
+heard from their customers until the last year or so, or had not heard
+from enough of their customers.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+BESSER * Implications of disseminating images on the network; planning
+the distribution of multimedia documents poses two critical
+implementation problems * Layered approach represents the way to deal
+with users' capabilities * Problems in platform design; file size and its
+implications for networking * Transmission of megabyte size images
+impractical * Compression and decompression at the user's end * Promising
+trends for compression * A disadvantage of using X-Windows * A project at
+the Smithsonian that mounts images on several networks *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Howard BESSER, School of Library and Information Science, University of
+Pittsburgh, spoke primarily about multimedia, focusing on images and the
+broad implications of disseminating them on the network. He argued that
+planning the distribution of multimedia documents posed two critical
+implementation problems, which he framed in the form of two questions:
+1) What platform will one use and what hardware and software will users
+have for viewing of the material? and 2) How can one deliver a
+sufficiently robust set of information in an accessible format in a
+reasonable amount of time? Depending on whether network or CD-ROM is the
+medium used, this question raises different issues of storage,
+compression, and transmission.
+
+Concerning the design of platforms (e.g., sound, gray scale, simple
+color, etc.) and the various capabilities users may have, BESSER
+maintained that a layered approach was the way to deal with users'
+capabilities. A result would be that users with less powerful
+workstations would simply have less functionality. He urged members of
+the audience to advocate standards and accompanying software that handle
+layered functionality across a wide variety of platforms.
+
+BESSER also addressed problems in platform design, namely, deciding how
+large a machine to design for situations when the largest number of users
+have the lowest level of the machine, and one desires higher
+functionality. BESSER then proceeded to the question of file size and
+its implications for networking. He discussed still images in the main.
+For example, a digital color image that fills the screen of a standard
+mega-pel workstation (Sun or Next) will require one megabyte of storage
+for an eight-bit image or three megabytes of storage for a true color or
+twenty-four-bit image. Lossless compression algorithms (that is,
+computational procedures in which no data is lost in the process of
+compressing [and decompressing] an image--the exact bit-representation is
+maintained) might bring storage down to a third of a megabyte per image,
+but not much further than that. The question of size makes it difficult
+to fit an appropriately sized set of these images on a single disk or to
+transmit them quickly enough on a network.
+
+With these full screen mega-pel images that constitute a third of a
+megabyte, one gets 1,000-3,000 full-screen images on a one-gigabyte disk;
+a standard CD-ROM represents approximately 60 percent of that. Storing
+images the size of a PC screen (just 8 bit color) increases storage
+capacity to 4,000-12,000 images per gigabyte; 60 percent of that gives
+one the size of a CD-ROM, which in turn creates a major problem. One
+cannot have full-screen, full-color images with lossless compression; one
+must compress them or use a lower resolution. For megabyte-size images,
+anything slower than a T-1 speed is impractical. For example, on a
+fifty-six-kilobaud line, it takes three minutes to transfer a
+one-megabyte file, if it is not compressed; and this speed assumes ideal
+circumstances (no other user contending for network bandwidth). Thus,
+questions of disk access, remote display, and current telephone
+connection speed make transmission of megabyte-size images impractical.
+
+BESSER then discussed ways to deal with these large images, for example,
+compression and decompression at the user's end. In this connection, the
+issues of how much one is willing to lose in the compression process and
+what image quality one needs in the first place are unknown. But what is
+known is that compression entails some loss of data. BESSER urged that
+more studies be conducted on image quality in different situations, for
+example, what kind of images are needed for what kind of disciplines, and
+what kind of image quality is needed for a browsing tool, an intermediate
+viewing tool, and archiving.
+
+BESSER remarked two promising trends for compression: from a technical
+perspective, algorithms that use what is called subjective redundancy
+employ principles from visual psycho-physics to identify and remove
+information from the image that the human eye cannot perceive; from an
+interchange and interoperability perspective, the JPEG (i.e., Joint
+Photographic Experts Group, an ISO standard) compression algorithms also
+offer promise. These issues of compression and decompression, BESSER
+argued, resembled those raised earlier concerning the design of different
+platforms. Gauging the capabilities of potential users constitutes a
+primary goal. BESSER advocated layering or separating the images from
+the applications that retrieve and display them, to avoid tying them to
+particular software.
+
+BESSER detailed several lessons learned from his work at Berkeley with
+Imagequery, especially the advantages and disadvantages of using
+X-Windows. In the latter category, for example, retrieval is tied
+directly to one's data, an intolerable situation in the long run on a
+networked system. Finally, BESSER described a project of Jim Wallace at
+the Smithsonian Institution, who is mounting images in a extremely
+rudimentary way on the Compuserv and Genie networks and is preparing to
+mount them on America On Line. Although the average user takes over
+thirty minutes to download these images (assuming a fairly fast modem),
+nevertheless, images have been downloaded 25,000 times.
+
+BESSER concluded his talk with several comments on the business
+arrangement between the Smithsonian and Compuserv. He contended that not
+enough is known concerning the value of images.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Creating digitized photographic collections nearly
+impossible except with large organizations like museums * Need for study
+to determine quality of images users will tolerate *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the brief exchange between LESK and BESSER that followed, several
+clarifications emerged.
+
+LESK argued that the photographers were far ahead of BESSER: It is
+almost impossible to create such digitized photographic collections
+except with large organizations like museums, because all the
+photographic agencies have been going crazy about this and will not sign
+licensing agreements on any sort of reasonable terms. LESK had heard
+that National Geographic, for example, had tried to buy the right to use
+some image in some kind of educational production for $100 per image, but
+the photographers will not touch it. They want accounting and payment
+for each use, which cannot be accomplished within the system. BESSER
+responded that a consortium of photographers, headed by a former National
+Geographic photographer, had started assembling its own collection of
+electronic reproductions of images, with the money going back to the
+cooperative.
+
+LESK contended that BESSER was unnecessarily pessimistic about multimedia
+images, because people are accustomed to low-quality images, particularly
+from video. BESSER urged the launching of a study to determine what
+users would tolerate, what they would feel comfortable with, and what
+absolutely is the highest quality they would ever need. Conceding that
+he had adopted a dire tone in order to arouse people about the issue,
+BESSER closed on a sanguine note by saying that he would not be in this
+business if he did not think that things could be accomplished.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+LARSEN * Issues of scalability and modularity * Geometric growth of the
+Internet and the role played by layering * Basic functions sustaining
+this growth * A library's roles and functions in a network environment *
+Effects of implementation of the Z39.50 protocol for information
+retrieval on the library system * The trade-off between volumes of data
+and its potential usage * A snapshot of current trends *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Ronald LARSEN, associate director for information technology, University
+of Maryland at College Park, first addressed the issues of scalability
+and modularity. He noted the difficulty of anticipating the effects of
+orders-of-magnitude growth, reflecting on the twenty years of experience
+with the Arpanet and Internet. Recalling the day's demonstrations of
+CD-ROM and optical disk material, he went on to ask if the field has yet
+learned how to scale new systems to enable delivery and dissemination
+across large-scale networks.
+
+LARSEN focused on the geometric growth of the Internet from its inception
+circa 1969 to the present, and the adjustments required to respond to
+that rapid growth. To illustrate the issue of scalability, LARSEN
+considered computer networks as including three generic components:
+computers, network communication nodes, and communication media. Each
+component scales (e.g., computers range from PCs to supercomputers;
+network nodes scale from interface cards in a PC through sophisticated
+routers and gateways; and communication media range from 2,400-baud
+dial-up facilities through 4.5-Mbps backbone links, and eventually to
+multigigabit-per-second communication lines), and architecturally, the
+components are organized to scale hierarchically from local area networks
+to international-scale networks. Such growth is made possible by
+building layers of communication protocols, as BESSER pointed out.
+By layering both physically and logically, a sense of scalability is
+maintained from local area networks in offices, across campuses, through
+bridges, routers, campus backbones, fiber-optic links, etc., up into
+regional networks and ultimately into national and international
+networks.
+
+LARSEN then illustrated the geometric growth over a two-year period--
+through September 1991--of the number of networks that comprise the
+Internet. This growth has been sustained largely by the availability of
+three basic functions: electronic mail, file transfer (ftp), and remote
+log-on (telnet). LARSEN also reviewed the growth in the kind of traffic
+that occurs on the network. Network traffic reflects the joint contributions
+of a larger population of users and increasing use per user. Today one sees
+serious applications involving moving images across the network--a rarity
+ten years ago. LARSEN recalled and concurred with BESSER's main point
+that the interesting problems occur at the application level.
+
+LARSEN then illustrated a model of a library's roles and functions in a
+network environment. He noted, in particular, the placement of on-line
+catalogues onto the network and patrons obtaining access to the library
+increasingly through local networks, campus networks, and the Internet.
+LARSEN supported LYNCH's earlier suggestion that we need to address
+fundamental questions of networked information in order to build
+environments that scale in the information sense as well as in the
+physical sense.
+
+LARSEN supported the role of the library system as the access point into
+the nation's electronic collections. Implementation of the Z39.50
+protocol for information retrieval would make such access practical and
+feasible. For example, this would enable patrons in Maryland to search
+California libraries, or other libraries around the world that are
+conformant with Z39.50 in a manner that is familiar to University of
+Maryland patrons. This client-server model also supports moving beyond
+secondary content into primary content. (The notion of how one links
+from secondary content to primary content, LARSEN said, represents a
+fundamental problem that requires rigorous thought.) After noting
+numerous network experiments in accessing full-text materials, including
+projects supporting the ordering of materials across the network, LARSEN
+revisited the issue of transmitting high-density, high-resolution color
+images across the network and the large amounts of bandwidth they
+require. He went on to address the bandwidth and synchronization
+problems inherent in sending full-motion video across the network.
+
+LARSEN illustrated the trade-off between volumes of data in bytes or
+orders of magnitude and the potential usage of that data. He discussed
+transmission rates (particularly, the time it takes to move various forms
+of information), and what one could do with a network supporting
+multigigabit-per-second transmission. At the moment, the network
+environment includes a composite of data-transmission requirements,
+volumes and forms, going from steady to bursty (high-volume) and from
+very slow to very fast. This aggregate must be considered in the design,
+construction, and operation of multigigabyte networks.
+
+LARSEN's objective is to use the networks and library systems now being
+constructed to increase access to resources wherever they exist, and
+thus, to evolve toward an on-line electronic virtual library.
+
+LARSEN concluded by offering a snapshot of current trends: continuing
+geometric growth in network capacity and number of users; slower
+development of applications; and glacial development and adoption of
+standards. The challenge is to design and develop each new application
+system with network access and scalability in mind.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+BROWNRIGG * Access to the Internet cannot be taken for granted * Packet
+radio and the development of MELVYL in 1980-81 in the Division of Library
+Automation at the University of California * Design criteria for packet
+radio * A demonstration project in San Diego and future plans * Spread
+spectrum * Frequencies at which the radios will run and plans to
+reimplement the WAIS server software in the public domain * Need for an
+infrastructure of radios that do not move around *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Edwin BROWNRIGG, executive director, Memex Research Institute, first
+polled the audience in order to seek out regular users of the Internet as
+well as those planning to use it some time in the future. With nearly
+everybody in the room falling into one category or the other, BROWNRIGG
+made a point re access, namely that numerous individuals, especially those
+who use the Internet every day, take for granted their access to it, the
+speeds with which they are connected, and how well it all works.
+However, as BROWNRIGG discovered between 1987 and 1989 in Australia,
+if one wants access to the Internet but cannot afford it or has some
+physical boundary that prevents her or him from gaining access, it can
+be extremely frustrating. He suggested that because of economics and
+physical barriers we were beginning to create a world of haves and have-nots
+in the process of scholarly communication, even in the United States.
+
+BROWNRIGG detailed the development of MELVYL in academic year 1980-81 in
+the Division of Library Automation at the University of California, in
+order to underscore the issue of access to the system, which at the
+outset was extremely limited. In short, the project needed to build a
+network, which at that time entailed use of satellite technology, that is,
+putting earth stations on campus and also acquiring some terrestrial links
+from the State of California's microwave system. The installation of
+satellite links, however, did not solve the problem (which actually
+formed part of a larger problem involving politics and financial resources).
+For while the project team could get a signal onto a campus, it had no means
+of distributing the signal throughout the campus. The solution involved
+adopting a recent development in wireless communication called packet radio,
+which combined the basic notion of packet-switching with radio. The project
+used this technology to get the signal from a point on campus where it
+came down, an earth station for example, into the libraries, because it
+found that wiring the libraries, especially the older marble buildings,
+would cost $2,000-$5,000 per terminal.
+
+BROWNRIGG noted that, ten years ago, the project had neither the public
+policy nor the technology that would have allowed it to use packet radio
+in any meaningful way. Since then much had changed. He proceeded to
+detail research and development of the technology, how it is being
+deployed in California, and what direction he thought it would take.
+The design criteria are to produce a high-speed, one-time, low-cost,
+high-quality, secure, license-free device (packet radio) that one can
+plug in and play today, forget about it, and have access to the Internet.
+By high speed, BROWNRIGG meant 1 megabyte and 1.5 megabytes. Those units
+have been built, he continued, and are in the process of being
+type-certified by an independent underwriting laboratory so that they can
+be type-licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. As is the
+case with citizens band, one will be able to purchase a unit and not have
+to worry about applying for a license.
+
+The basic idea, BROWNRIGG elaborated, is to take high-speed radio data
+transmission and create a backbone network that at certain strategic
+points in the network will "gateway" into a medium-speed packet radio
+(i.e., one that runs at 38.4 kilobytes), so that perhaps by 1994-1995
+people, like those in the audience for the price of a VCR could purchase
+a medium-speed radio for the office or home, have full network connectivity
+to the Internet, and partake of all its services, with no need for an FCC
+license and no regular bill from the local common carrier. BROWNRIGG
+presented several details of a demonstration project currently taking
+place in San Diego and described plans, pending funding, to install a
+full-bore network in the San Francisco area. This network will have 600
+nodes running at backbone speeds, and 100 of these nodes will be libraries,
+which in turn will be the gateway ports to the 38.4 kilobyte radios that
+will give coverage for the neighborhoods surrounding the libraries.
+
+BROWNRIGG next explained Part 15.247, a new rule within Title 47 of the
+Code of Federal Regulations enacted by the FCC in 1985. This rule
+challenged the industry, which has only now risen to the occasion, to
+build a radio that would run at no more than one watt of output power and
+use a fairly exotic method of modulating the radio wave called spread
+spectrum. Spread spectrum in fact permits the building of networks so
+that numerous data communications can occur simultaneously, without
+interfering with each other, within the same wide radio channel.
+
+BROWNRIGG explained that the frequencies at which the radios would run
+are very short wave signals. They are well above standard microwave and
+radar. With a radio wave that small, one watt becomes a tremendous punch
+per bit and thus makes transmission at reasonable speed possible. In
+order to minimize the potential for congestion, the project is
+undertaking to reimplement software which has been available in the
+networking business and is taken for granted now, for example, TCP/IP,
+routing algorithms, bridges, and gateways. In addition, the project
+plans to take the WAIS server software in the public domain and
+reimplement it so that one can have a WAIS server on a Mac instead of a
+Unix machine. The Memex Research Institute believes that libraries, in
+particular, will want to use the WAIS servers with packet radio. This
+project, which has a team of about twelve people, will run through 1993
+and will include the 100 libraries already mentioned as well as other
+professionals such as those in the medical profession, engineering, and
+law. Thus, the need is to create an infrastructure of radios that do not
+move around, which, BROWNRIGG hopes, will solve a problem not only for
+libraries but for individuals who, by and large today, do not have access
+to the Internet from their homes and offices.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Project operating frequencies *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During a brief discussion period, which also concluded the day's
+proceedings, BROWNRIGG stated that the project was operating in four
+frequencies. The slow speed is operating at 435 megahertz, and it would
+later go up to 920 megahertz. With the high-speed frequency, the
+one-megabyte radios will run at 2.4 gigabits, and 1.5 will run at 5.7.
+At 5.7, rain can be a factor, but it would have to be tropical rain,
+unlike what falls in most parts of the United States.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION IV. IMAGE CAPTURE, TEXT CAPTURE, OVERVIEW OF TEXT AND
+ IMAGE STORAGE FORMATS
+
+William HOOTON, vice president of operations, I-NET, moderated this session.
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+KENNEY * Factors influencing development of CXP * Advantages of using
+digital technology versus photocopy and microfilm * A primary goal of
+CXP; publishing challenges * Characteristics of copies printed * Quality
+of samples achieved in image capture * Several factors to be considered
+in choosing scanning * Emphasis of CXP on timely and cost-effective
+production of black-and-white printed facsimiles * Results of producing
+microfilm from digital files * Advantages of creating microfilm * Details
+concerning production * Costs * Role of digital technology in library
+preservation *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Anne KENNEY, associate director, Department of Preservation and
+Conservation, Cornell University, opened her talk by observing that the
+Cornell Xerox Project (CXP) has been guided by the assumption that the
+ability to produce printed facsimiles or to replace paper with paper
+would be important, at least for the present generation of users and
+equipment. She described three factors that influenced development of
+the project: 1) Because the project has emphasized the preservation of
+deteriorating brittle books, the quality of what was produced had to be
+sufficiently high to return a paper replacement to the shelf. CXP was
+only interested in using: 2) a system that was cost-effective, which
+meant that it had to be cost-competitive with the processes currently
+available, principally photocopy and microfilm, and 3) new or currently
+available product hardware and software.
+
+KENNEY described the advantages that using digital technology offers over
+both photocopy and microfilm: 1) The potential exists to create a higher
+quality reproduction of a deteriorating original than conventional
+light-lens technology. 2) Because a digital image is an encoded
+representation, it can be reproduced again and again with no resulting
+loss of quality, as opposed to the situation with light-lens processes,
+in which there is discernible difference between a second and a
+subsequent generation of an image. 3) A digital image can be manipulated
+in a number of ways to improve image capture; for example, Xerox has
+developed a windowing application that enables one to capture a page
+containing both text and illustrations in a manner that optimizes the
+reproduction of both. (With light-lens technology, one must choose which
+to optimize, text or the illustration; in preservation microfilming, the
+current practice is to shoot an illustrated page twice, once to highlight
+the text and the second time to provide the best capture for the
+illustration.) 4) A digital image can also be edited, density levels
+adjusted to remove underlining and stains, and to increase legibility for
+faint documents. 5) On-screen inspection can take place at the time of
+initial setup and adjustments made prior to scanning, factors that
+substantially reduce the number of retakes required in quality control.
+
+A primary goal of CXP has been to evaluate the paper output printed on
+the Xerox DocuTech, a high-speed printer that produces 600-dpi pages from
+scanned images at a rate of 135 pages a minute. KENNEY recounted several
+publishing challenges to represent faithful and legible reproductions of
+the originals that the 600-dpi copy for the most part successfully
+captured. For example, many of the deteriorating volumes in the project
+were heavily illustrated with fine line drawings or halftones or came in
+languages such as Japanese, in which the buildup of characters comprised
+of varying strokes is difficult to reproduce at lower resolutions; a
+surprising number of them came with annotations and mathematical
+formulas, which it was critical to be able to duplicate exactly.
+
+KENNEY noted that 1) the copies are being printed on paper that meets the
+ANSI standards for performance, 2) the DocuTech printer meets the machine
+and toner requirements for proper adhesion of print to page, as described
+by the National Archives, and thus 3) paper product is considered to be
+the archival equivalent of preservation photocopy.
+
+KENNEY then discussed several samples of the quality achieved in the
+project that had been distributed in a handout, for example, a copy of a
+print-on-demand version of the 1911 Reed lecture on the steam turbine,
+which contains halftones, line drawings, and illustrations embedded in
+text; the first four loose pages in the volume compared the capture
+capabilities of scanning to photocopy for a standard test target, the
+IEEE standard 167A 1987 test chart. In all instances scanning proved
+superior to photocopy, though only slightly more so in one.
+
+Conceding the simplistic nature of her review of the quality of scanning
+to photocopy, KENNEY described it as one representation of the kinds of
+settings that could be used with scanning capabilities on the equipment
+CXP uses. KENNEY also pointed out that CXP investigated the quality
+achieved with binary scanning only, and noted the great promise in gray
+scale and color scanning, whose advantages and disadvantages need to be
+examined. She argued further that scanning resolutions and file formats
+can represent a complex trade-off between the time it takes to capture
+material, file size, fidelity to the original, and on-screen display; and
+printing and equipment availability. All these factors must be taken
+into consideration.
+
+CXP placed primary emphasis on the production in a timely and
+cost-effective manner of printed facsimiles that consisted largely of
+black-and-white text. With binary scanning, large files may be
+compressed efficiently and in a lossless manner (i.e., no data is lost in
+the process of compressing [and decompressing] an image--the exact
+bit-representation is maintained) using Group 4 CCITT (i.e., the French
+acronym for International Consultative Committee for Telegraph and
+Telephone) compression. CXP was getting compression ratios of about
+forty to one. Gray-scale compression, which primarily uses JPEG, is much
+less economical and can represent a lossy compression (i.e., not
+lossless), so that as one compresses and decompresses, the illustration
+is subtly changed. While binary files produce a high-quality printed
+version, it appears 1) that other combinations of spatial resolution with
+gray and/or color hold great promise as well, and 2) that gray scale can
+represent a tremendous advantage for on-screen viewing. The quality
+associated with binary and gray scale also depends on the equipment used.
+For instance, binary scanning produces a much better copy on a binary
+printer.
+
+Among CXP's findings concerning the production of microfilm from digital
+files, KENNEY reported that the digital files for the same Reed lecture
+were used to produce sample film using an electron beam recorder. The
+resulting film was faithful to the image capture of the digital files,
+and while CXP felt that the text and image pages represented in the Reed
+lecture were superior to that of the light-lens film, the resolution
+readings for the 600 dpi were not as high as standard microfilming.
+KENNEY argued that the standards defined for light-lens technology are
+not totally transferable to a digital environment. Moreover, they are
+based on definition of quality for a preservation copy. Although making
+this case will prove to be a long, uphill struggle, CXP plans to continue
+to investigate the issue over the course of the next year.
+
+KENNEY concluded this portion of her talk with a discussion of the
+advantages of creating film: it can serve as a primary backup and as a
+preservation master to the digital file; it could then become the print
+or production master and service copies could be paper, film, optical
+disks, magnetic media, or on-screen display.
+
+Finally, KENNEY presented details re production:
+
+ * Development and testing of a moderately-high resolution production
+ scanning workstation represented a third goal of CXP; to date, 1,000
+ volumes have been scanned, or about 300,000 images.
+
+ * The resulting digital files are stored and used to produce
+ hard-copy replacements for the originals and additional prints on
+ demand; although the initial costs are high, scanning technology
+ offers an affordable means for reformatting brittle material.
+
+ * A technician in production mode can scan 300 pages per hour when
+ performing single-sheet scanning, which is a necessity when working
+ with truly brittle paper; this figure is expected to increase
+ significantly with subsequent iterations of the software from Xerox;
+ a three-month time-and-cost study of scanning found that the average
+ 300-page book would take about an hour and forty minutes to scan
+ (this figure included the time for setup, which involves keying in
+ primary bibliographic data, going into quality control mode to
+ define page size, establishing front-to-back registration, and
+ scanning sample pages to identify a default range of settings for
+ the entire book--functions not dissimilar to those performed by
+ filmers or those preparing a book for photocopy).
+
+ * The final step in the scanning process involved rescans, which
+ happily were few and far between, representing well under 1 percent
+ of the total pages scanned.
+
+In addition to technician time, CXP costed out equipment, amortized over
+four years, the cost of storing and refreshing the digital files every
+four years, and the cost of printing and binding, book-cloth binding, a
+paper reproduction. The total amounted to a little under $65 per single
+300-page volume, with 30 percent overhead included--a figure competitive
+with the prices currently charged by photocopy vendors.
+
+Of course, with scanning, in addition to the paper facsimile, one is left
+with a digital file from which subsequent copies of the book can be
+produced for a fraction of the cost of photocopy, with readers afforded
+choices in the form of these copies.
+
+KENNEY concluded that digital technology offers an electronic means for a
+library preservation effort to pay for itself. If a brittle-book program
+included the means of disseminating reprints of books that are in demand
+by libraries and researchers alike, the initial investment in capture
+could be recovered and used to preserve additional but less popular
+books. She disclosed that an economic model for a self-sustaining
+program could be developed for CXP's report to the Commission on
+Preservation and Access (CPA).
+
+KENNEY stressed that the focus of CXP has been on obtaining high quality
+in a production environment. The use of digital technology is viewed as
+an affordable alternative to other reformatting options.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ANDRE * Overview and history of NATDP * Various agricultural CD-ROM
+products created inhouse and by service bureaus * Pilot project on
+Internet transmission * Additional products in progress *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Pamela ANDRE, associate director for automation, National Agricultural
+Text Digitizing Program (NATDP), National Agricultural Library (NAL),
+presented an overview of NATDP, which has been underway at NAL the last
+four years, before Judith ZIDAR discussed the technical details. ANDRE
+defined agricultural information as a broad range of material going from
+basic and applied research in the hard sciences to the one-page pamphlets
+that are distributed by the cooperative state extension services on such
+things as how to grow blueberries.
+
+NATDP began in late 1986 with a meeting of representatives from the
+land-grant library community to deal with the issue of electronic
+information. NAL and forty-five of these libraries banded together to
+establish this project--to evaluate the technology for converting what
+were then source documents in paper form into electronic form, to provide
+access to that digital information, and then to distribute it.
+Distributing that material to the community--the university community as
+well as the extension service community, potentially down to the county
+level--constituted the group's chief concern.
+
+Since January 1988 (when the microcomputer-based scanning system was
+installed at NAL), NATDP has done a variety of things, concerning which
+ZIDAR would provide further details. For example, the first technology
+considered in the project's discussion phase was digital videodisc, which
+indicates how long ago it was conceived.
+
+Over the four years of this project, four separate CD-ROM products on
+four different agricultural topics were created, two at a
+scanning-and-OCR station installed at NAL, and two by service bureaus.
+Thus, NATDP has gained comparative information in terms of those relative
+costs. Each of these products contained the full ASCII text as well as
+page images of the material, or between 4,000 and 6,000 pages of material
+on these disks. Topics included aquaculture, food, agriculture and
+science (i.e., international agriculture and research), acid rain, and
+Agent Orange, which was the final product distributed (approximately
+eighteen months before the Workshop).
+
+The third phase of NATDP focused on delivery mechanisms other than
+CD-ROM. At the suggestion of Clifford LYNCH, who was a technical
+consultant to the project at this point, NATDP became involved with the
+Internet and initiated a project with the help of North Carolina State
+University, in which fourteen of the land-grant university libraries are
+transmitting digital images over the Internet in response to interlibrary
+loan requests--a topic for another meeting. At this point, the pilot
+project had been completed for about a year and the final report would be
+available shortly after the Workshop. In the meantime, the project's
+success had led to its extension. (ANDRE noted that one of the first
+things done under the program title was to select a retrieval package to
+use with subsequent products; Windows Personal Librarian was the package
+of choice after a lengthy evaluation.)
+
+Three additional products had been planned and were in progress:
+
+ 1) An arrangement with the American Society of Agronomy--a
+ professional society that has published the Agronomy Journal since
+ about 1908--to scan and create bit-mapped images of its journal.
+ ASA granted permission first to put and then to distribute this
+ material in electronic form, to hold it at NAL, and to use these
+ electronic images as a mechanism to deliver documents or print out
+ material for patrons, among other uses. Effectively, NAL has the
+ right to use this material in support of its program.
+ (Significantly, this arrangement offers a potential cooperative
+ model for working with other professional societies in agriculture
+ to try to do the same thing--put the journals of particular interest
+ to agriculture research into electronic form.)
+
+ 2) An extension of the earlier product on aquaculture.
+
+ 3) The George Washington Carver Papers--a joint project with
+ Tuskegee University to scan and convert from microfilm some 3,500
+ images of Carver's papers, letters, and drawings.
+
+It was anticipated that all of these products would appear no more than
+six months after the Workshop.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ZIDAR * (A separate arena for scanning) * Steps in creating a database *
+Image capture, with and without performing OCR * Keying in tracking data
+* Scanning, with electronic and manual tracking * Adjustments during
+scanning process * Scanning resolutions * Compression * De-skewing and
+filtering * Image capture from microform: the papers and letters of
+George Washington Carver * Equipment used for a scanning system *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Judith ZIDAR, coordinator, National Agricultural Text Digitizing Program
+(NATDP), National Agricultural Library (NAL), illustrated the technical
+details of NATDP, including her primary responsibility, scanning and
+creating databases on a topic and putting them on CD-ROM.
+
+(ZIDAR remarked a separate arena from the CD-ROM projects, although the
+processing of the material is nearly identical, in which NATDP is also
+scanning material and loading it on a Next microcomputer, which in turn
+is linked to NAL's integrated library system. Thus, searches in NAL's
+bibliographic database will enable people to pull up actual page images
+and text for any documents that have been entered.)
+
+In accordance with the session's topic, ZIDAR focused her illustrated
+talk on image capture, offering a primer on the three main steps in the
+process: 1) assemble the printed publications; 2) design the database
+(database design occurs in the process of preparing the material for
+scanning; this step entails reviewing and organizing the material,
+defining the contents--what will constitute a record, what kinds of
+fields will be captured in terms of author, title, etc.); 3) perform a
+certain amount of markup on the paper publications. NAL performs this
+task record by record, preparing work sheets or some other sort of
+tracking material and designing descriptors and other enhancements to be
+added to the data that will not be captured from the printed publication.
+Part of this process also involves determining NATDP's file and directory
+structure: NATDP attempts to avoid putting more than approximately 100
+images in a directory, because placing more than that on a CD-ROM would
+reduce the access speed.
+
+This up-front process takes approximately two weeks for a
+6,000-7,000-page database. The next step is to capture the page images.
+How long this process takes is determined by the decision whether or not
+to perform OCR. Not performing OCR speeds the process, whereas text
+capture requires greater care because of the quality of the image: it
+has to be straighter and allowance must be made for text on a page, not
+just for the capture of photographs.
+
+NATDP keys in tracking data, that is, a standard bibliographic record
+including the title of the book and the title of the chapter, which will
+later either become the access information or will be attached to the
+front of a full-text record so that it is searchable.
+
+Images are scanned from a bound or unbound publication, chiefly from
+bound publications in the case of NATDP, however, because often they are
+the only copies and the publications are returned to the shelves. NATDP
+usually scans one record at a time, because its database tracking system
+tracks the document in that way and does not require further logical
+separating of the images. After performing optical character
+recognition, NATDP moves the images off the hard disk and maintains a
+volume sheet. Though the system tracks electronically, all the
+processing steps are also tracked manually with a log sheet.
+
+ZIDAR next illustrated the kinds of adjustments that one can make when
+scanning from paper and microfilm, for example, redoing images that need
+special handling, setting for dithering or gray scale, and adjusting for
+brightness or for the whole book at one time.
+
+NATDP is scanning at 300 dots per inch, a standard scanning resolution.
+Though adequate for capturing text that is all of a standard size, 300
+dpi is unsuitable for any kind of photographic material or for very small
+text. Many scanners allow for different image formats, TIFF, of course,
+being a de facto standard. But if one intends to exchange images with
+other people, the ability to scan other image formats, even if they are
+less common, becomes highly desirable.
+
+CCITT Group 4 is the standard compression for normal black-and-white
+images, JPEG for gray scale or color. ZIDAR recommended 1) using the
+standard compressions, particularly if one attempts to make material
+available and to allow users to download images and reuse them from
+CD-ROMs; and 2) maintaining the ability to output an uncompressed image,
+because in image exchange uncompressed images are more likely to be able
+to cross platforms.
+
+ZIDAR emphasized the importance of de-skewing and filtering as
+requirements on NATDP's upgraded system. For instance, scanning bound
+books, particularly books published by the federal government whose pages
+are skewed, and trying to scan them straight if OCR is to be performed,
+is extremely time-consuming. The same holds for filtering of
+poor-quality or older materials.
+
+ZIDAR described image capture from microform, using as an example three
+reels from a sixty-seven-reel set of the papers and letters of George
+Washington Carver that had been produced by Tuskegee University. These
+resulted in approximately 3,500 images, which NATDP had had scanned by
+its service contractor, Science Applications International Corporation
+(SAIC). NATDP also created bibliographic records for access. (NATDP did
+not have such specialized equipment as a microfilm scanner.
+
+Unfortunately, the process of scanning from microfilm was not an
+unqualified success, ZIDAR reported: because microfilm frame sizes vary,
+occasionally some frames were missed, which without spending much time
+and money could not be recaptured.
+
+OCR could not be performed from the scanned images of the frames. The
+bleeding in the text simply output text, when OCR was run, that could not
+even be edited. NATDP tested for negative versus positive images,
+landscape versus portrait orientation, and single- versus dual-page
+microfilm, none of which seemed to affect the quality of the image; but
+also on none of them could OCR be performed.
+
+In selecting the microfilm they would use, therefore, NATDP had other
+factors in mind. ZIDAR noted two factors that influenced the quality of
+the images: 1) the inherent quality of the original and 2) the amount of
+size reduction on the pages.
+
+The Carver papers were selected because they are informative and visually
+interesting, treat a single subject, and are valuable in their own right.
+The images were scanned and divided into logical records by SAIC, then
+delivered, and loaded onto NATDP's system, where bibliographic
+information taken directly from the images was added. Scanning was
+completed in summer 1991 and by the end of summer 1992 the disk was
+scheduled to be published.
+
+Problems encountered during processing included the following: Because
+the microfilm scanning had to be done in a batch, adjustment for
+individual page variations was not possible. The frame size varied on
+account of the nature of the material, and therefore some of the frames
+were missed while others were just partial frames. The only way to go
+back and capture this material was to print out the page with the
+microfilm reader from the missing frame and then scan it in from the
+page, which was extremely time-consuming. The quality of the images
+scanned from the printout of the microfilm compared unfavorably with that
+of the original images captured directly from the microfilm. The
+inability to perform OCR also was a major disappointment. At the time,
+computer output microfilm was unavailable to test.
+
+The equipment used for a scanning system was the last topic addressed by
+ZIDAR. The type of equipment that one would purchase for a scanning
+system included: a microcomputer, at least a 386, but preferably a 486;
+a large hard disk, 380 megabyte at minimum; a multi-tasking operating
+system that allows one to run some things in batch in the background
+while scanning or doing text editing, for example, Unix or OS/2 and,
+theoretically, Windows; a high-speed scanner and scanning software that
+allows one to make the various adjustments mentioned earlier; a
+high-resolution monitor (150 dpi ); OCR software and hardware to perform
+text recognition; an optical disk subsystem on which to archive all the
+images as the processing is done; file management and tracking software.
+
+ZIDAR opined that the software one purchases was more important than the
+hardware and might also cost more than the hardware, but it was likely to
+prove critical to the success or failure of one's system. In addition to
+a stand-alone scanning workstation for image capture, then, text capture
+requires one or two editing stations networked to this scanning station
+to perform editing. Editing the text takes two or three times as long as
+capturing the images.
+
+Finally, ZIDAR stressed the importance of buying an open system that allows
+for more than one vendor, complies with standards, and can be upgraded.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+WATERS *Yale University Library's master plan to convert microfilm to
+digital imagery (POB) * The place of electronic tools in the library of
+the future * The uses of images and an image library * Primary input from
+preservation microfilm * Features distinguishing POB from CXP and key
+hypotheses guiding POB * Use of vendor selection process to facilitate
+organizational work * Criteria for selecting vendor * Finalists and
+results of process for Yale * Key factor distinguishing vendors *
+Components, design principles, and some estimated costs of POB * Role of
+preservation materials in developing imaging market * Factors affecting
+quality and cost * Factors affecting the usability of complex documents
+in image form *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Donald WATERS, head of the Systems Office, Yale University Library,
+reported on the progress of a master plan for a project at Yale to
+convert microfilm to digital imagery, Project Open Book (POB). Stating
+that POB was in an advanced stage of planning, WATERS detailed, in
+particular, the process of selecting a vendor partner and several key
+issues under discussion as Yale prepares to move into the project itself.
+He commented first on the vision that serves as the context of POB and
+then described its purpose and scope.
+
+WATERS sees the library of the future not necessarily as an electronic
+library but as a place that generates, preserves, and improves for its
+clients ready access to both intellectual and physical recorded
+knowledge. Electronic tools must find a place in the library in the
+context of this vision. Several roles for electronic tools include
+serving as: indirect sources of electronic knowledge or as "finding"
+aids (the on-line catalogues, the article-level indices, registers for
+documents and archives); direct sources of recorded knowledge; full-text
+images; and various kinds of compound sources of recorded knowledge (the
+so-called compound documents of Hypertext, mixed text and image,
+mixed-text image format, and multimedia).
+
+POB is looking particularly at images and an image library, the uses to
+which images will be put (e.g., storage, printing, browsing, and then use
+as input for other processes), OCR as a subsequent process to image
+capture, or creating an image library, and also possibly generating
+microfilm.
+
+While input will come from a variety of sources, POB is considering
+especially input from preservation microfilm. A possible outcome is that
+the film and paper which provide the input for the image library
+eventually may go off into remote storage, and that the image library may
+be the primary access tool.
+
+The purpose and scope of POB focus on imaging. Though related to CXP,
+POB has two features which distinguish it: 1) scale--conversion of
+10,000 volumes into digital image form; and 2) source--conversion from
+microfilm. Given these features, several key working hypotheses guide
+POB, including: 1) Since POB is using microfilm, it is not concerned with
+the image library as a preservation medium. 2) Digital imagery can improve
+access to recorded knowledge through printing and network distribution at
+a modest incremental cost of microfilm. 3) Capturing and storing documents
+in a digital image form is necessary to further improvements in access.
+(POB distinguishes between the imaging, digitizing process and OCR,
+which at this stage it does not plan to perform.)
+
+Currently in its first or organizational phase, POB found that it could
+use a vendor selection process to facilitate a good deal of the
+organizational work (e.g., creating a project team and advisory board,
+confirming the validity of the plan, establishing the cost of the project
+and a budget, selecting the materials to convert, and then raising the
+necessary funds).
+
+POB developed numerous selection criteria, including: a firm committed
+to image-document management, the ability to serve as systems integrator
+in a large-scale project over several years, interest in developing the
+requisite software as a standard rather than a custom product, and a
+willingness to invest substantial resources in the project itself.
+
+Two vendors, DEC and Xerox, were selected as finalists in October 1991,
+and with the support of the Commission on Preservation and Access, each
+was commissioned to generate a detailed requirements analysis for the
+project and then to submit a formal proposal for the completion of the
+project, which included a budget and costs. The terms were that POB would
+pay the loser. The results for Yale of involving a vendor included:
+broad involvement of Yale staff across the board at a relatively low
+cost, which may have long-term significance in carrying out the project
+(twenty-five to thirty university people are engaged in POB); better
+understanding of the factors that affect corporate response to markets
+for imaging products; a competitive proposal; and a more sophisticated
+view of the imaging markets.
+
+The most important factor that distinguished the vendors under
+consideration was their identification with the customer. The size and
+internal complexity of the company also was an important factor. POB was
+looking at large companies that had substantial resources. In the end,
+the process generated for Yale two competitive proposals, with Xerox's
+the clear winner. WATERS then described the components of the proposal,
+the design principles, and some of the costs estimated for the process.
+
+Components are essentially four: a conversion subsystem, a
+network-accessible storage subsystem for 10,000 books (and POB expects
+200 to 600 dpi storage), browsing stations distributed on the campus
+network, and network access to the image printers.
+
+Among the design principles, POB wanted conversion at the highest
+possible resolution. Assuming TIFF files, TIFF files with Group 4
+compression, TCP/IP, and ethernet network on campus, POB wanted a
+client-server approach with image documents distributed to the
+workstations and made accessible through native workstation interfaces
+such as Windows. POB also insisted on a phased approach to
+implementation: 1) a stand-alone, single-user, low-cost entry into the
+business with a workstation focused on conversion and allowing POB to
+explore user access; 2) movement into a higher-volume conversion with
+network-accessible storage and multiple access stations; and 3) a
+high-volume conversion, full-capacity storage, and multiple browsing
+stations distributed throughout the campus.
+
+The costs proposed for start-up assumed the existence of the Yale network
+and its two DocuTech image printers. Other start-up costs are estimated
+at $1 million over the three phases. At the end of the project, the annual
+operating costs estimated primarily for the software and hardware proposed
+come to about $60,000, but these exclude costs for labor needed in the
+conversion process, network and printer usage, and facilities management.
+
+Finally, the selection process produced for Yale a more sophisticated
+view of the imaging markets: the management of complex documents in
+image form is not a preservation problem, not a library problem, but a
+general problem in a broad, general industry. Preservation materials are
+useful for developing that market because of the qualities of the
+material. For example, much of it is out of copyright. The resolution
+of key issues such as the quality of scanning and image browsing also
+will affect development of that market.
+
+The technology is readily available but changing rapidly. In this
+context of rapid change, several factors affect quality and cost, to
+which POB intends to pay particular attention, for example, the various
+levels of resolution that can be achieved. POB believes it can bring
+resolution up to 600 dpi, but an interpolation process from 400 to 600 is
+more likely. The variation quality in microfilm will prove to be a
+highly important factor. POB may reexamine the standards used to film in
+the first place by looking at this process as a follow-on to microfilming.
+
+Other important factors include: the techniques available to the
+operator for handling material, the ways of integrating quality control
+into the digitizing work flow, and a work flow that includes indexing and
+storage. POB's requirement was to be able to deal with quality control
+at the point of scanning. Thus, thanks to Xerox, POB anticipates having
+a mechanism which will allow it not only to scan in batch form, but to
+review the material as it goes through the scanner and control quality
+from the outset.
+
+The standards for measuring quality and costs depend greatly on the uses
+of the material, including subsequent OCR, storage, printing, and
+browsing. But especially at issue for POB is the facility for browsing.
+This facility, WATERS said, is perhaps the weakest aspect of imaging
+technology and the most in need of development.
+
+A variety of factors affect the usability of complex documents in image
+form, among them: 1) the ability of the system to handle the full range
+of document types, not just monographs but serials, multi-part
+monographs, and manuscripts; 2) the location of the database of record
+for bibliographic information about the image document, which POB wants
+to enter once and in the most useful place, the on-line catalog; 3) a
+document identifier for referencing the bibliographic information in one
+place and the images in another; 4) the technique for making the basic
+internal structure of the document accessible to the reader; and finally,
+5) the physical presentation on the CRT of those documents. POB is ready
+to complete this phase now. One last decision involves deciding which
+material to scan.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * TIFF files constitute de facto standard * NARA's experience
+with image conversion software and text conversion * RFC 1314 *
+Considerable flux concerning available hardware and software solutions *
+NAL through-put rate during scanning * Window management questions *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+In the question-and-answer period that followed WATERS's presentation,
+the following points emerged:
+
+ * ZIDAR's statement about using TIFF files as a standard meant de
+ facto standard. This is what most people use and typically exchange
+ with other groups, across platforms, or even occasionally across
+ display software.
+
+ * HOLMES commented on the unsuccessful experience of NARA in
+ attempting to run image-conversion software or to exchange between
+ applications: What are supposedly TIFF files go into other software
+ that is supposed to be able to accept TIFF but cannot recognize the
+ format and cannot deal with it, and thus renders the exchange
+ useless. Re text conversion, he noted the different recognition
+ rates obtained by substituting the make and model of scanners in
+ NARA's recent test of an "intelligent" character-recognition product
+ for a new company. In the selection of hardware and software,
+ HOLMES argued, software no longer constitutes the overriding factor
+ it did until about a year ago; rather it is perhaps important to
+ look at both now.
+
+ * Danny Cohen and Alan Katz of the University of Southern California
+ Information Sciences Institute began circulating as an Internet RFC
+ (RFC 1314) about a month ago a standard for a TIFF interchange
+ format for Internet distribution of monochrome bit-mapped images,
+ which LYNCH said he believed would be used as a de facto standard.
+
+ * FLEISCHHAUER's impression from hearing these reports and thinking
+ about AM's experience was that there is considerable flux concerning
+ available hardware and software solutions. HOOTON agreed and
+ commented at the same time on ZIDAR's statement that the equipment
+ employed affects the results produced. One cannot draw a complete
+ conclusion by saying it is difficult or impossible to perform OCR
+ from scanning microfilm, for example, with that device, that set of
+ parameters, and system requirements, because numerous other people
+ are accomplishing just that, using other components, perhaps.
+ HOOTON opined that both the hardware and the software were highly
+ important. Most of the problems discussed today have been solved in
+ numerous different ways by other people. Though it is good to be
+ cognizant of various experiences, this is not to say that it will
+ always be thus.
+
+ * At NAL, the through-put rate of the scanning process for paper,
+ page by page, performing OCR, ranges from 300 to 600 pages per day;
+ not performing OCR is considerably faster, although how much faster
+ is not known. This is for scanning from bound books, which is much
+ slower.
+
+ * WATERS commented on window management questions: DEC proposed an
+ X-Windows solution which was problematical for two reasons. One was
+ POB's requirement to be able to manipulate images on the workstation
+ and bring them down to the workstation itself and the other was
+ network usage.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+THOMA * Illustration of deficiencies in scanning and storage process *
+Image quality in this process * Different costs entailed by better image
+quality * Techniques for overcoming various de-ficiencies: fixed
+thresholding, dynamic thresholding, dithering, image merge * Page edge
+effects *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+George THOMA, chief, Communications Engineering Branch, National Library
+of Medicine (NLM), illustrated several of the deficiencies discussed by
+the previous speakers. He introduced the topic of special problems by
+noting the advantages of electronic imaging. For example, it is regenerable
+because it is a coded file, and real-time quality control is possible with
+electronic capture, whereas in photographic capture it is not.
+
+One of the difficulties discussed in the scanning and storage process was
+image quality which, without belaboring the obvious, means different
+things for maps, medical X-rays, or broadcast television. In the case of
+documents, THOMA said, image quality boils down to legibility of the
+textual parts, and fidelity in the case of gray or color photo print-type
+material. Legibility boils down to scan density, the standard in most
+cases being 300 dpi. Increasing the resolution with scanners that
+perform 600 or 1200 dpi, however, comes at a cost.
+
+Better image quality entails at least four different kinds of costs: 1)
+equipment costs, because the CCD (i.e., charge-couple device) with
+greater number of elements costs more; 2) time costs that translate to
+the actual capture costs, because manual labor is involved (the time is
+also dependent on the fact that more data has to be moved around in the
+machine in the scanning or network devices that perform the scanning as
+well as the storage); 3) media costs, because at high resolutions larger
+files have to be stored; and 4) transmission costs, because there is just
+more data to be transmitted.
+
+But while resolution takes care of the issue of legibility in image
+quality, other deficiencies have to do with contrast and elements on the
+page scanned or the image that needed to be removed or clarified. Thus,
+THOMA proceeded to illustrate various deficiencies, how they are
+manifested, and several techniques to overcome them.
+
+Fixed thresholding was the first technique described, suitable for
+black-and-white text, when the contrast does not vary over the page. One
+can have many different threshold levels in scanning devices. Thus,
+THOMA offered an example of extremely poor contrast, which resulted from
+the fact that the stock was a heavy red. This is the sort of image that
+when microfilmed fails to provide any legibility whatsoever. Fixed
+thresholding is the way to change the black-to-red contrast to the
+desired black-to-white contrast.
+
+Other examples included material that had been browned or yellowed by
+age. This was also a case of contrast deficiency, and correction was
+done by fixed thresholding. A final example boils down to the same
+thing, slight variability, but it is not significant. Fixed thresholding
+solves this problem as well. The microfilm equivalent is certainly legible,
+but it comes with dark areas. Though THOMA did not have a slide of the
+microfilm in this case, he did show the reproduced electronic image.
+
+When one has variable contrast over a page or the lighting over the page
+area varies, especially in the case where a bound volume has light
+shining on it, the image must be processed by a dynamic thresholding
+scheme. One scheme, dynamic averaging, allows the threshold level not to
+be fixed but to be recomputed for every pixel from the neighboring
+characteristics. The neighbors of a pixel determine where the threshold
+should be set for that pixel.
+
+THOMA showed an example of a page that had been made deficient by a
+variety of techniques, including a burn mark, coffee stains, and a yellow
+marker. Application of a fixed-thresholding scheme, THOMA argued, might
+take care of several deficiencies on the page but not all of them.
+Performing the calculation for a dynamic threshold setting, however,
+removes most of the deficiencies so that at least the text is legible.
+
+Another problem is representing a gray level with black-and-white pixels
+by a process known as dithering or electronic screening. But dithering
+does not provide good image quality for pure black-and-white textual
+material. THOMA illustrated this point with examples. Although its
+suitability for photoprint is the reason for electronic screening or
+dithering, it cannot be used for every compound image. In the document
+that was distributed by CXP, THOMA noticed that the dithered image of the
+IEEE test chart evinced some deterioration in the text. He presented an
+extreme example of deterioration in the text in which compounded
+documents had to be set right by other techniques. The technique
+illustrated by the present example was an image merge in which the page
+is scanned twice and the settings go from fixed threshold to the
+dithering matrix; the resulting images are merged to give the best
+results with each technique.
+
+THOMA illustrated how dithering is also used in nonphotographic or
+nonprint materials with an example of a grayish page from a medical text,
+which was reproduced to show all of the gray that appeared in the
+original. Dithering provided a reproduction of all the gray in the
+original of another example from the same text.
+
+THOMA finally illustrated the problem of bordering, or page-edge,
+effects. Books and bound volumes that are placed on a photocopy machine
+or a scanner produce page-edge effects that are undesirable for two
+reasons: 1) the aesthetics of the image; after all, if the image is to
+be preserved, one does not necessarily want to keep all of its
+deficiencies; 2) compression (with the bordering problem THOMA
+illustrated, the compression ratio deteriorated tremendously). One way
+to eliminate this more serious problem is to have the operator at the
+point of scanning window the part of the image that is desirable and
+automatically turn all of the pixels out of that picture to white.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+FLEISCHHAUER * AM's experience with scanning bound materials * Dithering
+*
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Carl FLEISCHHAUER, coordinator, American Memory, Library of Congress,
+reported AM's experience with scanning bound materials, which he likened
+to the problems involved in using photocopying machines. Very few
+devices in the industry offer book-edge scanning, let alone book cradles.
+The problem may be unsolvable, FLEISCHHAUER said, because a large enough
+market does not exist for a preservation-quality scanner. AM is using a
+Kurzweil scanner, which is a book-edge scanner now sold by Xerox.
+
+Devoting the remainder of his brief presentation to dithering,
+FLEISCHHAUER related AM's experience with a contractor who was using
+unsophisticated equipment and software to reduce moire patterns from
+printed halftones. AM took the same image and used the dithering
+algorithm that forms part of the same Kurzweil Xerox scanner; it
+disguised moire patterns much more effectively.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER also observed that dithering produces a binary file which is
+useful for numerous purposes, for example, printing it on a laser printer
+without having to "re-halftone" it. But it tends to defeat efficient
+compression, because the very thing that dithers to reduce moire patterns
+also tends to work against compression schemes. AM thought the
+difference in image quality was worth it.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Relative use as a criterion for POB's selection of books to
+be converted into digital form *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the discussion period, WATERS noted that one of the criteria for
+selecting books among the 10,000 to be converted into digital image form
+would be how much relative use they would receive--a subject still
+requiring evaluation. The challenge will be to understand whether
+coherent bodies of material will increase usage or whether POB should
+seek material that is being used, scan that, and make it more accessible.
+POB might decide to digitize materials that are already heavily used, in
+order to make them more accessible and decrease wear on them. Another
+approach would be to provide a large body of intellectually coherent
+material that may be used more in digital form than it is currently used
+in microfilm. POB would seek material that was out of copyright.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+BARONAS * Origin and scope of AIIM * Types of documents produced in
+AIIM's standards program * Domain of AIIM's standardization work * AIIM's
+structure * TC 171 and MS23 * Electronic image management standards *
+Categories of EIM standardization where AIIM standards are being
+developed *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Jean BARONAS, senior manager, Department of Standards and Technology,
+Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), described the
+not-for-profit association and the national and international programs
+for standardization in which AIIM is active.
+
+Accredited for twenty-five years as the nation's standards development
+organization for document image management, AIIM began life in a library
+community developing microfilm standards. Today the association
+maintains both its library and business-image management standardization
+activities--and has moved into electronic image-management
+standardization (EIM).
+
+BARONAS defined the program's scope. AIIM deals with: 1) the
+terminology of standards and of the technology it uses; 2) methods of
+measurement for the systems, as well as quality; 3) methodologies for
+users to evaluate and measure quality; 4) the features of apparatus used
+to manage and edit images; and 5) the procedures used to manage images.
+
+BARONAS noted that three types of documents are produced in the AIIM
+standards program: the first two, accredited by the American National
+Standards Institute (ANSI), are standards and standard recommended
+practices. Recommended practices differ from standards in that they
+contain more tutorial information. A technical report is not an ANSI
+standard. Because AIIM's policies and procedures for developing
+standards are approved by ANSI, its standards are labeled ANSI/AIIM,
+followed by the number and title of the standard.
+
+BARONAS then illustrated the domain of AIIM's standardization work. For
+example, AIIM is the administrator of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group
+(TAG) to the International Standards Organization's (ISO) technical
+committee, TC l7l Micrographics and Optical Memories for Document and
+Image Recording, Storage, and Use. AIIM officially works through ANSI in
+the international standardization process.
+
+BARONAS described AIIM's structure, including its board of directors, its
+standards board of twelve individuals active in the image-management
+industry, its strategic planning and legal admissibility task forces, and
+its National Standards Council, which is comprised of the members of a
+number of organizations who vote on every AIIM standard before it is
+published. BARONAS pointed out that AIIM's liaisons deal with numerous
+other standards developers, including the optical disk community, office
+and publishing systems, image-codes-and-character set committees, and the
+National Information Standards Organization (NISO).
+
+BARONAS illustrated the procedures of TC l7l, which covers all aspects of
+image management. When AIIM's national program has conceptualized a new
+project, it is usually submitted to the international level, so that the
+member countries of TC l7l can simultaneously work on the development of
+the standard or the technical report. BARONAS also illustrated a classic
+microfilm standard, MS23, which deals with numerous imaging concepts that
+apply to electronic imaging. Originally developed in the l970s, revised
+in the l980s, and revised again in l991, this standard is scheduled for
+another revision. MS23 is an active standard whereby users may propose
+new density ranges and new methods of evaluating film images in the
+standard's revision.
+
+BARONAS detailed several electronic image-management standards, for
+instance, ANSI/AIIM MS44, a quality-control guideline for scanning 8.5"
+by 11" black-and-white office documents. This standard is used with the
+IEEE fax image--a continuous tone photographic image with gray scales,
+text, and several continuous tone pictures--and AIIM test target number
+2, a representative document used in office document management.
+
+BARONAS next outlined the four categories of EIM standardization in which
+AIIM standards are being developed: transfer and retrieval, evaluation,
+optical disc and document scanning applications, and design and
+conversion of documents. She detailed several of the main projects of
+each: 1) in the category of image transfer and retrieval, a bi-level
+image transfer format, ANSI/AIIM MS53, which is a proposed standard that
+describes a file header for image transfer between unlike systems when
+the images are compressed using G3 and G4 compression; 2) the category of
+image evaluation, which includes the AIIM-proposed TR26 tutorial on image
+resolution (this technical report will treat the differences and
+similarities between classical or photographic and electronic imaging);
+3) design and conversion, which includes a proposed technical report
+called "Forms Design Optimization for EIM" (this report considers how
+general-purpose business forms can be best designed so that scanning is
+optimized; reprographic characteristics such as type, rules, background,
+tint, and color will likewise be treated in the technical report); 4)
+disk and document scanning applications includes a project a) on planning
+platters and disk management, b) on generating an application profile for
+EIM when images are stored and distributed on CD-ROM, and c) on
+evaluating SCSI2, and how a common command set can be generated for SCSI2
+so that document scanners are more easily integrated. (ANSI/AIIM MS53
+will also apply to compressed images.)
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+BATTIN * The implications of standards for preservation * A major
+obstacle to successful cooperation * A hindrance to access in the digital
+environment * Standards a double-edged sword for those concerned with the
+preservation of the human record * Near-term prognosis for reliable
+archival standards * Preservation concerns for electronic media * Need
+for reconceptualizing our preservation principles * Standards in the real
+world and the politics of reproduction * Need to redefine the concept of
+archival and to begin to think in terms of life cycles * Cooperation and
+the La Guardia Eight * Concerns generated by discussions on the problems
+of preserving text and image * General principles to be adopted in a
+world without standards *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Patricia BATTIN, president, the Commission on Preservation and Access
+(CPA), addressed the implications of standards for preservation. She
+listed several areas where the library profession and the analog world of
+the printed book had made enormous contributions over the past hundred
+years--for example, in bibliographic formats, binding standards, and, most
+important, in determining what constitutes longevity or archival quality.
+
+Although standards have lightened the preservation burden through the
+development of national and international collaborative programs,
+nevertheless, a pervasive mistrust of other people's standards remains a
+major obstacle to successful cooperation, BATTIN said.
+
+The zeal to achieve perfection, regardless of the cost, has hindered
+rather than facilitated access in some instances, and in the digital
+environment, where no real standards exist, has brought an ironically
+just reward.
+
+BATTIN argued that standards are a double-edged sword for those concerned
+with the preservation of the human record, that is, the provision of
+access to recorded knowledge in a multitude of media as far into the
+future as possible. Standards are essential to facilitate
+interconnectivity and access, but, BATTIN said, as LYNCH pointed out
+yesterday, if set too soon they can hinder creativity, expansion of
+capability, and the broadening of access. The characteristics of
+standards for digital imagery differ radically from those for analog
+imagery. And the nature of digital technology implies continuing
+volatility and change. To reiterate, precipitous standard-setting can
+inhibit creativity, but delayed standard-setting results in chaos.
+
+Since in BATTIN'S opinion the near-term prognosis for reliable archival
+standards, as defined by librarians in the analog world, is poor, two
+alternatives remain: standing pat with the old technology, or
+reconceptualizing.
+
+Preservation concerns for electronic media fall into two general domains.
+One is the continuing assurance of access to knowledge originally
+generated, stored, disseminated, and used in electronic form. This
+domain contains several subdivisions, including 1) the closed,
+proprietary systems discussed the previous day, bundled information such
+as electronic journals and government agency records, and electronically
+produced or captured raw data; and 2) the application of digital
+technologies to the reformatting of materials originally published on a
+deteriorating analog medium such as acid paper or videotape.
+
+The preservation of electronic media requires a reconceptualizing of our
+preservation principles during a volatile, standardless transition which
+may last far longer than any of us envision today. BATTIN urged the
+necessity of shifting focus from assessing, measuring, and setting
+standards for the permanence of the medium to the concept of managing
+continuing access to information stored on a variety of media and
+requiring a variety of ever-changing hardware and software for access--a
+fundamental shift for the library profession.
+
+BATTIN offered a primer on how to move forward with reasonable confidence
+in a world without standards. Her comments fell roughly into two sections:
+1) standards in the real world and 2) the politics of reproduction.
+
+In regard to real-world standards, BATTIN argued the need to redefine the
+concept of archive and to begin to think in terms of life cycles. In
+the past, the naive assumption that paper would last forever produced a
+cavalier attitude toward life cycles. The transient nature of the
+electronic media has compelled people to recognize and accept upfront the
+concept of life cycles in place of permanency.
+
+Digital standards have to be developed and set in a cooperative context
+to ensure efficient exchange of information. Moreover, during this
+transition period, greater flexibility concerning how concepts such as
+backup copies and archival copies in the CXP are defined is necessary,
+or the opportunity to move forward will be lost.
+
+In terms of cooperation, particularly in the university setting, BATTIN
+also argued the need to avoid going off in a hundred different
+directions. The CPA has catalyzed a small group of universities called
+the La Guardia Eight--because La Guardia Airport is where meetings take
+place--Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Penn State, Tennessee,
+Stanford, and USC, to develop a digital preservation consortium to look
+at all these issues and develop de facto standards as we move along,
+instead of waiting for something that is officially blessed. Continuing
+to apply analog values and definitions of standards to the digital
+environment, BATTIN said, will effectively lead to forfeiture of the
+benefits of digital technology to research and scholarship.
+
+Under the second rubric, the politics of reproduction, BATTIN reiterated
+an oft-made argument concerning the electronic library, namely, that it
+is more difficult to transform than to create, and nowhere is that belief
+expressed more dramatically than in the conversion of brittle books to
+new media. Preserving information published in electronic media involves
+making sure the information remains accessible and that digital
+information is not lost through reproduction. In the analog world of
+photocopies and microfilm, the issue of fidelity to the original becomes
+paramount, as do issues of "Whose fidelity?" and "Whose original?"
+
+BATTIN elaborated these arguments with a few examples from a recent study
+conducted by the CPA on the problems of preserving text and image.
+Discussions with scholars, librarians, and curators in a variety of
+disciplines dependent on text and image generated a variety of concerns,
+for example: 1) Copy what is, not what the technology is capable of.
+This is very important for the history of ideas. Scholars wish to know
+what the author saw and worked from. And make available at the
+workstation the opportunity to erase all the defects and enhance the
+presentation. 2) The fidelity of reproduction--what is good enough, what
+can we afford, and the difference it makes--issues of subjective versus
+objective resolution. 3) The differences between primary and secondary
+users. Restricting the definition of primary user to the one in whose
+discipline the material has been published runs one headlong into the
+reality that these printed books have had a host of other users from a
+host of other disciplines, who not only were looking for very different
+things, but who also shared values very different from those of the
+primary user. 4) The relationship of the standard of reproduction to new
+capabilities of scholarship--the browsing standard versus an archival
+standard. How good must the archival standard be? Can a distinction be
+drawn between potential users in setting standards for reproduction?
+Archival storage, use copies, browsing copies--ought an attempt to set
+standards even be made? 5) Finally, costs. How much are we prepared to
+pay to capture absolute fidelity? What are the trade-offs between vastly
+enhanced access, degrees of fidelity, and costs?
+
+These standards, BATTIN concluded, serve to complicate further the
+reproduction process, and add to the long list of technical standards
+that are necessary to ensure widespread access. Ways to articulate and
+analyze the costs that are attached to the different levels of standards
+must be found.
+
+Given the chaos concerning standards, which promises to linger for the
+foreseeable future, BATTIN urged adoption of the following general
+principles:
+
+ * Strive to understand the changing information requirements of
+ scholarly disciplines as more and more technology is integrated into
+ the process of research and scholarly communication in order to meet
+ future scholarly needs, not to build for the past. Capture
+ deteriorating information at the highest affordable resolution, even
+ though the dissemination and display technologies will lag.
+
+ * Develop cooperative mechanisms to foster agreement on protocols
+ for document structure and other interchange mechanisms necessary
+ for widespread dissemination and use before official standards are
+ set.
+
+ * Accept that, in a transition period, de facto standards will have
+ to be developed.
+
+ * Capture information in a way that keeps all options open and
+ provides for total convertibility: OCR, scanning of microfilm,
+ producing microfilm from scanned documents, etc.
+
+ * Work closely with the generators of information and the builders
+ of networks and databases to ensure that continuing accessibility is
+ a primary concern from the beginning.
+
+ * Piggyback on standards under development for the broad market, and
+ avoid library-specific standards; work with the vendors, in order to
+ take advantage of that which is being standardized for the rest of
+ the world.
+
+ * Concentrate efforts on managing permanence in the digital world,
+ rather than perfecting the longevity of a particular medium.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Additional comments on TIFF *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the brief discussion period that followed BATTIN's presentation,
+BARONAS explained that TIFF was not developed in collaboration with or
+under the auspices of AIIM. TIFF is a company product, not a standard,
+is owned by two corporations, and is always changing. BARONAS also
+observed that ANSI/AIIM MS53, a bi-level image file transfer format that
+allows unlike systems to exchange images, is compatible with TIFF as well
+as with DEC's architecture and IBM's MODCA/IOCA.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+HOOTON * Several questions to be considered in discussing text conversion
+*
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+HOOTON introduced the final topic, text conversion, by noting that it is
+becoming an increasingly important part of the imaging business. Many
+people now realize that it enhances their system to be able to have more
+and more character data as part of their imaging system. Re the issue of
+OCR versus rekeying, HOOTON posed several questions: How does one get
+text into computer-readable form? Does one use automated processes?
+Does one attempt to eliminate the use of operators where possible?
+Standards for accuracy, he said, are extremely important: it makes a
+major difference in cost and time whether one sets as a standard 98.5
+percent acceptance or 99.5 percent. He mentioned outsourcing as a
+possibility for converting text. Finally, what one does with the image
+to prepare it for the recognition process is also important, he said,
+because such preparation changes how recognition is viewed, as well as
+facilitates recognition itself.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+LESK * Roles of participants in CORE * Data flow * The scanning process *
+The image interface * Results of experiments involving the use of
+electronic resources and traditional paper copies * Testing the issue of
+serendipity * Conclusions *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Michael LESK, executive director, Computer Science Research, Bell
+Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore), discussed the Chemical Online
+Retrieval Experiment (CORE), a cooperative project involving Cornell
+University, OCLC, Bellcore, and the American Chemical Society (ACS).
+
+LESK spoke on 1) how the scanning was performed, including the unusual
+feature of page segmentation, and 2) the use made of the text and the
+image in experiments.
+
+Working with the chemistry journals (because ACS has been saving its
+typesetting tapes since the mid-1970s and thus has a significant back-run
+of the most important chemistry journals in the United States), CORE is
+attempting to create an automated chemical library. Approximately a
+quarter of the pages by square inch are made up of images of
+quasi-pictorial material; dealing with the graphic components of the
+pages is extremely important. LESK described the roles of participants
+in CORE: 1) ACS provides copyright permission, journals on paper,
+journals on microfilm, and some of the definitions of the files; 2) at
+Bellcore, LESK chiefly performs the data preparation, while Dennis Egan
+performs experiments on the users of chemical abstracts, and supplies the
+indexing and numerous magnetic tapes; 3) Cornell provides the site of the
+experiment; 4) OCLC develops retrieval software and other user interfaces.
+Various manufacturers and publishers have furnished other help.
+
+Concerning data flow, Bellcore receives microfilm and paper from ACS; the
+microfilm is scanned by outside vendors, while the paper is scanned
+inhouse on an Improvision scanner, twenty pages per minute at 300 dpi,
+which provides sufficient quality for all practical uses. LESK would
+prefer to have more gray level, because one of the ACS journals prints on
+some colored pages, which creates a problem.
+
+Bellcore performs all this scanning, creates a page-image file, and also
+selects from the pages the graphics, to mix with the text file (which is
+discussed later in the Workshop). The user is always searching the ASCII
+file, but she or he may see a display based on the ASCII or a display
+based on the images.
+
+LESK illustrated how the program performs page analysis, and the image
+interface. (The user types several words, is presented with a list--
+usually of the titles of articles contained in an issue--that derives
+from the ASCII, clicks on an icon and receives an image that mirrors an
+ACS page.) LESK also illustrated an alternative interface, based on text
+on the ASCII, the so-called SuperBook interface from Bellcore.
+
+LESK next presented the results of an experiment conducted by Dennis Egan
+and involving thirty-six students at Cornell, one third of them
+undergraduate chemistry majors, one third senior undergraduate chemistry
+majors, and one third graduate chemistry students. A third of them
+received the paper journals, the traditional paper copies and chemical
+abstracts on paper. A third received image displays of the pictures of
+the pages, and a third received the text display with pop-up graphics.
+
+The students were given several questions made up by some chemistry
+professors. The questions fell into five classes, ranging from very easy
+to very difficult, and included questions designed to simulate browsing
+as well as a traditional information retrieval-type task.
+
+LESK furnished the following results. In the straightforward question
+search--the question being, what is the phosphorus oxygen bond distance
+and hydroxy phosphate?--the students were told that they could take
+fifteen minutes and, then, if they wished, give up. The students with
+paper took more than fifteen minutes on average, and yet most of them
+gave up. The students with either electronic format, text or image,
+received good scores in reasonable time, hardly ever had to give up, and
+usually found the right answer.
+
+In the browsing study, the students were given a list of eight topics,
+told to imagine that an issue of the Journal of the American Chemical
+Society had just appeared on their desks, and were also told to flip
+through it and to find topics mentioned in the issue. The average scores
+were about the same. (The students were told to answer yes or no about
+whether or not particular topics appeared.) The errors, however, were
+quite different. The students with paper rarely said that something
+appeared when it had not. But they often failed to find something
+actually mentioned in the issue. The computer people found numerous
+things, but they also frequently said that a topic was mentioned when it
+was not. (The reason, of course, was that they were performing word
+searches. They were finding that words were mentioned and they were
+concluding that they had accomplished their task.)
+
+This question also contained a trick to test the issue of serendipity.
+The students were given another list of eight topics and instructed,
+without taking a second look at the journal, to recall how many of this
+new list of eight topics were in this particular issue. This was an
+attempt to see if they performed better at remembering what they were not
+looking for. They all performed about the same, paper or electronics,
+about 62 percent accurate. In short, LESK said, people were not very
+good when it came to serendipity, but they were no worse at it with
+computers than they were with paper.
+
+(LESK gave a parenthetical illustration of the learning curve of students
+who used SuperBook.)
+
+The students using the electronic systems started off worse than the ones
+using print, but by the third of the three sessions in the series had
+caught up to print. As one might expect, electronics provide a much
+better means of finding what one wants to read; reading speeds, once the
+object of the search has been found, are about the same.
+
+Almost none of the students could perform the hard task--the analogous
+transformation. (It would require the expertise of organic chemists to
+complete.) But an interesting result was that the students using the text
+search performed terribly, while those using the image system did best.
+That the text search system is driven by text offers the explanation.
+Everything is focused on the text; to see the pictures, one must press
+on an icon. Many students found the right article containing the answer
+to the question, but they did not click on the icon to bring up the right
+figure and see it. They did not know that they had found the right place,
+and thus got it wrong.
+
+The short answer demonstrated by this experiment was that in the event
+one does not know what to read, one needs the electronic systems; the
+electronic systems hold no advantage at the moment if one knows what to
+read, but neither do they impose a penalty.
+
+LESK concluded by commenting that, on one hand, the image system was easy
+to use. On the other hand, the text display system, which represented
+twenty man-years of work in programming and polishing, was not winning,
+because the text was not being read, just searched. The much easier
+system is highly competitive as well as remarkably effective for the
+actual chemists.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ERWAY * Most challenging aspect of working on AM * Assumptions guiding
+AM's approach * Testing different types of service bureaus * AM's
+requirement for 99.95 percent accuracy * Requirements for text-coding *
+Additional factors influencing AM's approach to coding * Results of AM's
+experience with rekeying * Other problems in dealing with service bureaus
+* Quality control the most time-consuming aspect of contracting out
+conversion * Long-term outlook uncertain *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+To Ricky ERWAY, associate coordinator, American Memory, Library of
+Congress, the constant variety of conversion projects taking place
+simultaneously represented perhaps the most challenging aspect of working
+on AM. Thus, the challenge was not to find a solution for text
+conversion but a tool kit of solutions to apply to LC's varied
+collections that need to be converted. ERWAY limited her remarks to the
+process of converting text to machine-readable form, and the variety of
+LC's text collections, for example, bound volumes, microfilm, and
+handwritten manuscripts.
+
+Two assumptions have guided AM's approach, ERWAY said: 1) A desire not
+to perform the conversion inhouse. Because of the variety of formats and
+types of texts, to capitalize the equipment and have the talents and
+skills to operate them at LC would be extremely expensive. Further, the
+natural inclination to upgrade to newer and better equipment each year
+made it reasonable for AM to focus on what it did best and seek external
+conversion services. Using service bureaus also allowed AM to have
+several types of operations take place at the same time. 2) AM was not a
+technology project, but an effort to improve access to library
+collections. Hence, whether text was converted using OCR or rekeying
+mattered little to AM. What mattered were cost and accuracy of results.
+
+AM considered different types of service bureaus and selected three to
+perform several small tests in order to acquire a sense of the field.
+The sample collections with which they worked included handwritten
+correspondence, typewritten manuscripts from the 1940s, and
+eighteenth-century printed broadsides on microfilm. On none of these
+samples was OCR performed; they were all rekeyed. AM had several special
+requirements for the three service bureaus it had engaged. For instance,
+any errors in the original text were to be retained. Working from bound
+volumes or anything that could not be sheet-fed also constituted a factor
+eliminating companies that would have performed OCR.
+
+AM requires 99.95 percent accuracy, which, though it sounds high, often
+means one or two errors per page. The initial batch of test samples
+contained several handwritten materials for which AM did not require
+text-coding. The results, ERWAY reported, were in all cases fairly
+comparable: for the most part, all three service bureaus achieved 99.95
+percent accuracy. AM was satisfied with the work but surprised at the cost.
+
+As AM began converting whole collections, it retained the requirement for
+99.95 percent accuracy and added requirements for text-coding. AM needed
+to begin performing work more than three years ago before LC requirements
+for SGML applications had been established. Since AM's goal was simply
+to retain any of the intellectual content represented by the formatting
+of the document (which would be lost if one performed a straight ASCII
+conversion), AM used "SGML-like" codes. These codes resembled SGML tags
+but were used without the benefit of document-type definitions. AM found
+that many service bureaus were not yet SGML-proficient.
+
+Additional factors influencing the approach AM took with respect to
+coding included: 1) the inability of any known microcomputer-based
+user-retrieval software to take advantage of SGML coding; and 2) the
+multiple inconsistencies in format of the older documents, which
+confirmed AM in its desire not to attempt to force the different formats
+to conform to a single document-type definition (DTD) and thus create the
+need for a separate DTD for each document.
+
+The five text collections that AM has converted or is in the process of
+converting include a collection of eighteenth-century broadsides, a
+collection of pamphlets, two typescript document collections, and a
+collection of 150 books.
+
+ERWAY next reviewed the results of AM's experience with rekeying, noting
+again that because the bulk of AM's materials are historical, the quality
+of the text often does not lend itself to OCR. While non-English
+speakers are less likely to guess or elaborate or correct typos in the
+original text, they are also less able to infer what we would; they also
+are nearly incapable of converting handwritten text. Another
+disadvantage of working with overseas keyers is that they are much less
+likely to telephone with questions, especially on the coding, with the
+result that they develop their own rules as they encounter new
+situations.
+
+Government contracting procedures and time frames posed a major challenge
+to performing the conversion. Many service bureaus are not accustomed to
+retaining the image, even if they perform OCR. Thus, questions of image
+format and storage media were somewhat novel to many of them. ERWAY also
+remarked other problems in dealing with service bureaus, for example,
+their inability to perform text conversion from the kind of microfilm
+that LC uses for preservation purposes.
+
+But quality control, in ERWAY's experience, was the most time-consuming
+aspect of contracting out conversion. AM has been attempting to perform
+a 10-percent quality review, looking at either every tenth document or
+every tenth page to make certain that the service bureaus are maintaining
+99.95 percent accuracy. But even if they are complying with the
+requirement for accuracy, finding errors produces a desire to correct
+them and, in turn, to clean up the whole collection, which defeats the
+purpose to some extent. Even a double entry requires a
+character-by-character comparison to the original to meet the accuracy
+requirement. LC is not accustomed to publish imperfect texts, which
+makes attempting to deal with the industry standard an emotionally
+fraught issue for AM. As was mentioned in the previous day's discussion,
+going from 99.95 to 99.99 percent accuracy usually doubles costs and
+means a third keying or another complete run-through of the text.
+
+Although AM has learned much from its experiences with various collections
+and various service bureaus, ERWAY concluded pessimistically that no
+breakthrough has been achieved. Incremental improvements have occurred
+in some of the OCR technology, some of the processes, and some of the
+standards acceptances, which, though they may lead to somewhat lower costs,
+do not offer much encouragement to many people who are anxiously awaiting
+the day that the entire contents of LC are available on-line.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ZIDAR * Several answers to why one attempts to perform full-text
+conversion * Per page cost of performing OCR * Typical problems
+encountered during editing * Editing poor copy OCR vs. rekeying *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Judith ZIDAR, coordinator, National Agricultural Text Digitizing Program
+(NATDP), National Agricultural Library (NAL), offered several answers to
+the question of why one attempts to perform full-text conversion: 1)
+Text in an image can be read by a human but not by a computer, so of
+course it is not searchable and there is not much one can do with it. 2)
+Some material simply requires word-level access. For instance, the legal
+profession insists on full-text access to its material; with taxonomic or
+geographic material, which entails numerous names, one virtually requires
+word-level access. 3) Full text permits rapid browsing and searching,
+something that cannot be achieved in an image with today's technology.
+4) Text stored as ASCII and delivered in ASCII is standardized and highly
+portable. 5) People just want full-text searching, even those who do not
+know how to do it. NAL, for the most part, is performing OCR at an
+actual cost per average-size page of approximately $7. NAL scans the
+page to create the electronic image and passes it through the OCR device.
+
+ZIDAR next rehearsed several typical problems encountered during editing.
+Praising the celerity of her student workers, ZIDAR observed that editing
+requires approximately five to ten minutes per page, assuming that there
+are no large tables to audit. Confusion among the three characters I, 1,
+and l, constitutes perhaps the most common problem encountered. Zeroes
+and O's also are frequently confused. Double M's create a particular
+problem, even on clean pages. They are so wide in most fonts that they
+touch, and the system simply cannot tell where one letter ends and the
+other begins. Complex page formats occasionally fail to columnate
+properly, which entails rescanning as though one were working with a
+single column, entering the ASCII, and decolumnating for better
+searching. With proportionally spaced text, OCR can have difficulty
+discerning what is a space and what are merely spaces between letters, as
+opposed to spaces between words, and therefore will merge text or break
+up words where it should not.
+
+ZIDAR said that it can often take longer to edit a poor-copy OCR than to
+key it from scratch. NAL has also experimented with partial editing of
+text, whereby project workers go into and clean up the format, removing
+stray characters but not running a spell-check. NAL corrects typos in
+the title and authors' names, which provides a foothold for searching and
+browsing. Even extremely poor-quality OCR (e.g., 60-percent accuracy)
+can still be searched, because numerous words are correct, while the
+important words are probably repeated often enough that they are likely
+to be found correct somewhere. Librarians, however, cannot tolerate this
+situation, though end users seem more willing to use this text for
+searching, provided that NAL indicates that it is unedited. ZIDAR
+concluded that rekeying of text may be the best route to take, in spite
+of numerous problems with quality control and cost.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Modifying an image before performing OCR * NAL's costs per
+page *AM's costs per page and experience with Federal Prison Industries *
+Elements comprising NATDP's costs per page * OCR and structured markup *
+Distinction between the structure of a document and its representation
+when put on the screen or printed *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+HOOTON prefaced the lengthy discussion that followed with several
+comments about modifying an image before one reaches the point of
+performing OCR. For example, in regard to an application containing a
+significant amount of redundant data, such as form-type data, numerous
+companies today are working on various kinds of form renewal, prior to
+going through a recognition process, by using dropout colors. Thus,
+acquiring access to form design or using electronic means are worth
+considering. HOOTON also noted that conversion usually makes or breaks
+one's imaging system. It is extremely important, extremely costly in
+terms of either capital investment or service, and determines the quality
+of the remainder of one's system, because it determines the character of
+the raw material used by the system.
+
+Concerning the four projects undertaken by NAL, two inside and two
+performed by outside contractors, ZIDAR revealed that an in-house service
+bureau executed the first at a cost between $8 and $10 per page for
+everything, including building of the database. The project undertaken
+by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
+cost approximately $10 per page for the conversion, plus some expenses
+for the software and building of the database. The Acid Rain Project--a
+two-disk set produced by the University of Vermont, consisting of
+Canadian publications on acid rain--cost $6.70 per page for everything,
+including keying of the text, which was double keyed, scanning of the
+images, and building of the database. The in-house project offered
+considerable ease of convenience and greater control of the process. On
+the other hand, the service bureaus know their job and perform it
+expeditiously, because they have more people.
+
+As a useful comparison, ERWAY revealed AM's costs as follows: $0.75
+cents to $0.85 cents per thousand characters, with an average page
+containing 2,700 characters. Requirements for coding and imaging
+increase the costs. Thus, conversion of the text, including the coding,
+costs approximately $3 per page. (This figure does not include the
+imaging and database-building included in the NAL costs.) AM also
+enjoyed a happy experience with Federal Prison Industries, which
+precluded the necessity of going through the request-for-proposal process
+to award a contract, because it is another government agency. The
+prisoners performed AM's rekeying just as well as other service bureaus
+and proved handy as well. AM shipped them the books, which they would
+photocopy on a book-edge scanner. They would perform the markup on
+photocopies, return the books as soon as they were done with them,
+perform the keying, and return the material to AM on WORM disks.
+
+ZIDAR detailed the elements that constitute the previously noted cost of
+approximately $7 per page. Most significant is the editing, correction
+of errors, and spell-checkings, which though they may sound easy to
+perform require, in fact, a great deal of time. Reformatting text also
+takes a while, but a significant amount of NAL's expenses are for equipment,
+which was extremely expensive when purchased because it was one of the few
+systems on the market. The costs of equipment are being amortized over
+five years but are still quite high, nearly $2,000 per month.
+
+HOCKEY raised a general question concerning OCR and the amount of editing
+required (substantial in her experience) to generate the kind of
+structured markup necessary for manipulating the text on the computer or
+loading it into any retrieval system. She wondered if the speakers could
+extend the previous question about the cost-benefit of adding or exerting
+structured markup. ERWAY noted that several OCR systems retain italics,
+bolding, and other spatial formatting. While the material may not be in
+the format desired, these systems possess the ability to remove the
+original materials quickly from the hands of the people performing the
+conversion, as well as to retain that information so that users can work
+with it. HOCKEY rejoined that the current thinking on markup is that one
+should not say that something is italic or bold so much as why it is that
+way. To be sure, one needs to know that something was italicized, but
+how can one get from one to the other? One can map from the structure to
+the typographic representation.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER suggested that, given the 100 million items the Library
+holds, it may not be possible for LC to do more than report that a thing
+was in italics as opposed to why it was italics, although that may be
+desirable in some contexts. Promising to talk a bit during the afternoon
+session about several experiments OCLC performed on automatic recognition
+of document elements, and which they hoped to extend, WEIBEL said that in
+fact one can recognize the major elements of a document with a fairly
+high degree of reliability, at least as good as OCR. STEVENS drew a
+useful distinction between standard, generalized markup (i.e., defining
+for a document-type definition the structure of the document), and what
+he termed a style sheet, which had to do with italics, bolding, and other
+forms of emphasis. Thus, two different components are at work, one being
+the structure of the document itself (its logic), and the other being its
+representation when it is put on the screen or printed.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION V. APPROACHES TO PREPARING ELECTRONIC TEXTS
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+HOCKEY * Text in ASCII and the representation of electronic text versus
+an image * The need to look at ways of using markup to assist retrieval *
+The need for an encoding format that will be reusable and multifunctional
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Susan HOCKEY, director, Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities
+(CETH), Rutgers and Princeton Universities, announced that one talk
+(WEIBEL's) was moved into this session from the morning and that David
+Packard was unable to attend. The session would attempt to focus more on
+what one can do with a text in ASCII and the representation of electronic
+text rather than just an image, what one can do with a computer that
+cannot be done with a book or an image. It would be argued that one can
+do much more than just read a text, and from that starting point one can
+use markup and methods of preparing the text to take full advantage of
+the capability of the computer. That would lead to a discussion of what
+the European Community calls REUSABILITY, what may better be termed
+DURABILITY, that is, how to prepare or make a text that will last a long
+time and that can be used for as many applications as possible, which
+would lead to issues of improving intellectual access.
+
+HOCKEY urged the need to look at ways of using markup to facilitate retrieval,
+not just for referencing or to help locate an item that is retrieved, but also to put markup tags in
+a text to help retrieve the thing sought either with linguistic tagging or
+interpretation. HOCKEY also argued that little advancement had occurred in
+the software tools currently available for retrieving and searching text.
+She pressed the desideratum of going beyond Boolean searches and performing
+more sophisticated searching, which the insertion of more markup in the text
+would facilitate. Thinking about electronic texts as opposed to images means
+considering material that will never appear in print form, or print will not
+be its primary form, that is, material which only appears in electronic form.
+HOCKEY alluded to the history and the need for markup and tagging and
+electronic text, which was developed through the use of computers in the
+humanities; as MICHELSON had observed, Father Busa had started in 1949
+to prepare the first-ever text on the computer.
+
+HOCKEY remarked several large projects, particularly in Europe, for the
+compilation of dictionaries, language studies, and language analysis, in
+which people have built up archives of text and have begun to recognize
+the need for an encoding format that will be reusable and multifunctional,
+that can be used not just to print the text, which may be assumed to be a
+byproduct of what one wants to do, but to structure it inside the computer
+so that it can be searched, built into a Hypertext system, etc.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+WEIBEL * OCLC's approach to preparing electronic text: retroconversion,
+keying of texts, more automated ways of developing data * Project ADAPT
+and the CORE Project * Intelligent character recognition does not exist *
+Advantages of SGML * Data should be free of procedural markup;
+descriptive markup strongly advocated * OCLC's interface illustrated *
+Storage requirements and costs for putting a lot of information on line *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Stuart WEIBEL, senior research scientist, Online Computer Library Center,
+Inc. (OCLC), described OCLC's approach to preparing electronic text. He
+argued that the electronic world into which we are moving must
+accommodate not only the future but the past as well, and to some degree
+even the present. Thus, starting out at one end with retroconversion and
+keying of texts, one would like to move toward much more automated ways
+of developing data.
+
+For example, Project ADAPT had to do with automatically converting
+document images into a structured document database with OCR text as
+indexing and also a little bit of automatic formatting and tagging of
+that text. The CORE project hosted by Cornell University, Bellcore,
+OCLC, the American Chemical Society, and Chemical Abstracts, constitutes
+WEIBEL's principal concern at the moment. This project is an example of
+converting text for which one already has a machine-readable version into
+a format more suitable for electronic delivery and database searching.
+(Since Michael LESK had previously described CORE, WEIBEL would say
+little concerning it.) Borrowing a chemical phrase, de novo synthesis,
+WEIBEL cited the Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials as an example
+of de novo electronic publishing, that is, a form in which the primary
+form of the information is electronic.
+
+Project ADAPT, then, which OCLC completed a couple of years ago and in
+fact is about to resume, is a model in which one takes page images either
+in paper or microfilm and converts them automatically to a searchable
+electronic database, either on-line or local. The operating assumption
+is that accepting some blemishes in the data, especially for
+retroconversion of materials, will make it possible to accomplish more.
+Not enough money is available to support perfect conversion.
+
+WEIBEL related several steps taken to perform image preprocessing
+(processing on the image before performing optical character
+recognition), as well as image postprocessing. He denied the existence
+of intelligent character recognition and asserted that what is wanted is
+page recognition, which is a long way off. OCLC has experimented with
+merging of multiple optical character recognition systems that will
+reduce errors from an unacceptable rate of 5 characters out of every
+l,000 to an unacceptable rate of 2 characters out of every l,000, but it
+is not good enough. It will never be perfect.
+
+Concerning the CORE Project, WEIBEL observed that Bellcore is taking the
+topography files, extracting the page images, and converting those
+topography files to SGML markup. LESK hands that data off to OCLC, which
+builds that data into a Newton database, the same system that underlies
+the on-line system in virtually all of the reference products at OCLC.
+The long-term goal is to make the systems interoperable so that not just
+Bellcore's system and OCLC's system can access this data, but other
+systems can as well, and the key to that is the Z39.50 common command
+language and the full-text extension. Z39.50 is fine for MARC records,
+but is not enough to do it for full text (that is, make full texts
+interoperable).
+
+WEIBEL next outlined the critical role of SGML for a variety of purposes,
+for example, as noted by HOCKEY, in the world of extremely large
+databases, using highly structured data to perform field searches.
+WEIBEL argued that by building the structure of the data in (i.e., the
+structure of the data originally on a printed page), it becomes easy to
+look at a journal article even if one cannot read the characters and know
+where the title or author is, or what the sections of that document would be.
+OCLC wants to make that structure explicit in the database, because it will
+be important for retrieval purposes.
+
+The second big advantage of SGML is that it gives one the ability to
+build structure into the database that can be used for display purposes
+without contaminating the data with instructions about how to format
+things. The distinction lies between procedural markup, which tells one
+where to put dots on the page, and descriptive markup, which describes
+the elements of a document.
+
+WEIBEL believes that there should be no procedural markup in the data at
+all, that the data should be completely unsullied by information about
+italics or boldness. That should be left up to the display device,
+whether that display device is a page printer or a screen display device.
+By keeping one's database free of that kind of contamination, one can
+make decisions down the road, for example, reorganize the data in ways
+that are not cramped by built-in notions of what should be italic and
+what should be bold. WEIBEL strongly advocated descriptive markup. As
+an example, he illustrated the index structure in the CORE data. With
+subsequent illustrated examples of markup, WEIBEL acknowledged the common
+complaint that SGML is hard to read in its native form, although markup
+decreases considerably once one gets into the body. Without the markup,
+however, one would not have the structure in the data. One can pass
+markup through a LaTeX processor and convert it relatively easily to a
+printed version of the document.
+
+WEIBEL next illustrated an extremely cluttered screen dump of OCLC's
+system, in order to show as much as possible the inherent capability on
+the screen. (He noted parenthetically that he had become a supporter of
+X-Windows as a result of the progress of the CORE Project.) WEIBEL also
+illustrated the two major parts of the interface: l) a control box that
+allows one to generate lists of items, which resembles a small table of
+contents based on key words one wishes to search, and 2) a document
+viewer, which is a separate process in and of itself. He demonstrated
+how to follow links through the electronic database simply by selecting
+the appropriate button and bringing them up. He also noted problems that
+remain to be accommodated in the interface (e.g., as pointed out by LESK,
+what happens when users do not click on the icon for the figure).
+
+Given the constraints of time, WEIBEL omitted a large number of ancillary
+items in order to say a few words concerning storage requirements and
+what will be required to put a lot of things on line. Since it is
+extremely expensive to reconvert all of this data, especially if it is
+just in paper form (and even if it is in electronic form in typesetting
+tapes), he advocated building journals electronically from the start. In
+that case, if one only has text graphics and indexing (which is all that
+one needs with de novo electronic publishing, because there is no need to
+go back and look at bit-maps of pages), one can get 10,000 journals of
+full text, or almost 6 million pages per year. These pages can be put in
+approximately 135 gigabytes of storage, which is not all that much,
+WEIBEL said. For twenty years, something less than three terabytes would
+be required. WEIBEL calculated the costs of storing this information as
+follows: If a gigabyte costs approximately $1,000, then a terabyte costs
+approximately $1 million to buy in terms of hardware. One also needs a
+building to put it in and a staff like OCLC to handle that information.
+So, to support a terabyte, multiply by five, which gives $5 million per
+year for a supported terabyte of data.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Tapes saved by ACS are the typography files originally
+supporting publication of the journal * Cost of building tagged text into
+the database *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the question-and-answer period that followed WEIBEL's
+presentation, these clarifications emerged. The tapes saved by the
+American Chemical Society are the typography files that originally
+supported the publication of the journal. Although they are not tagged
+in SGML, they are tagged in very fine detail. Every single sentence is
+marked, all the registry numbers, all the publications issues, dates, and
+volumes. No cost figures on tagging material on a per-megabyte basis
+were available. Because ACS's typesetting system runs from tagged text,
+there is no extra cost per article. It was unknown what it costs ACS to
+keyboard the tagged text rather than just keyboard the text in the
+cheapest process. In other words, since one intends to publish things
+and will need to build tagged text into a typography system in any case,
+if one does that in such a way that it can drive not only typography but
+an electronic system (which is what ACS intends to do--move to SGML
+publishing), the marginal cost is zero. The marginal cost represents the
+cost of building tagged text into the database, which is small.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN * Distinction between texts and computers * Implications
+of recognizing that all representation is encoding * Dealing with
+complicated representations of text entails the need for a grammar of
+documents * Variety of forms of formal grammars * Text as a bit-mapped
+image does not represent a serious attempt to represent text in
+electronic form * SGML, the TEI, document-type declarations, and the
+reusability and longevity of data * TEI conformance explicitly allows
+extension or modification of the TEI tag set * Administrative background
+of the TEI * Several design goals for the TEI tag set * An absolutely
+fixed requirement of the TEI Guidelines * Challenges the TEI has
+attempted to face * Good texts not beyond economic feasibility * The
+issue of reproducibility or processability * The issue of mages as
+simulacra for the text redux * One's model of text determines what one's
+software can do with a text and has economic consequences *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Prior to speaking about SGML and markup, Michael SPERBERG-McQUEEN, editor,
+Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), University of Illinois-Chicago, first drew
+a distinction between texts and computers: Texts are abstract cultural
+and linguistic objects while computers are complicated physical devices,
+he said. Abstract objects cannot be placed inside physical devices; with
+computers one can only represent text and act upon those representations.
+
+The recognition that all representation is encoding, SPERBERG-McQUEEN
+argued, leads to the recognition of two things: 1) The topic description
+for this session is slightly misleading, because there can be no discussion
+of pros and cons of text-coding unless what one means is pros and cons of
+working with text with computers. 2) No text can be represented in a
+computer without some sort of encoding; images are one way of encoding text,
+ASCII is another, SGML yet another. There is no encoding without some
+information loss, that is, there is no perfect reproduction of a text that
+allows one to do away with the original. Thus, the question becomes,
+What is the most useful representation of text for a serious work?
+This depends on what kind of serious work one is talking about.
+
+The projects demonstrated the previous day all involved highly complex
+information and fairly complex manipulation of the textual material.
+In order to use that complicated information, one has to calculate it
+slowly or manually and store the result. It needs to be stored, therefore,
+as part of one's representation of the text. Thus, one needs to store the
+structure in the text. To deal with complicated representations of text,
+one needs somehow to control the complexity of the representation of a text;
+that means one needs a way of finding out whether a document and an
+electronic representation of a document is legal or not; and that
+means one needs a grammar of documents.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN discussed the variety of forms of formal grammars,
+implicit and explicit, as applied to text, and their capabilities. He
+argued that these grammars correspond to different models of text that
+different developers have. For example, one implicit model of the text
+is that there is no internal structure, but just one thing after another,
+a few characters and then perhaps a start-title command, and then a few
+more characters and an end-title command. SPERBERG-McQUEEN also
+distinguished several kinds of text that have a sort of hierarchical
+structure that is not very well defined, which, typically, corresponds
+to grammars that are not very well defined, as well as hierarchies that
+are very well defined (e.g., the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae) and extremely
+complicated things such as SGML, which handle strictly hierarchical data
+very nicely.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN conceded that one other model not illustrated on his two
+displays was the model of text as a bit-mapped image, an image of a page,
+and confessed to having been converted to a limited extent by the
+Workshop to the view that electronic images constitute a promising,
+probably superior alternative to microfilming. But he was not convinced
+that electronic images represent a serious attempt to represent text in
+electronic form. Many of their problems stem from the fact that they are
+not direct attempts to represent the text but attempts to represent the
+page, thus making them representations of representations.
+
+In this situation of increasingly complicated textual information and the
+need to control that complexity in a useful way (which begs the question
+of the need for good textual grammars), one has the introduction of SGML.
+With SGML, one can develop specific document-type declarations
+for specific text types or, as with the TEI, attempts to generate
+general document-type declarations that can handle all sorts of text.
+The TEI is an attempt to develop formats for text representation that
+will ensure the kind of reusability and longevity of data discussed earlier.
+It offers a way to stay alive in the state of permanent technological
+revolution.
+
+It has been a continuing challenge in the TEI to create document grammars
+that do some work in controlling the complexity of the textual object but
+also allowing one to represent the real text that one will find.
+Fundamental to the notion of the TEI is that TEI conformance allows one
+the ability to extend or modify the TEI tag set so that it fits the text
+that one is attempting to represent.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN next outlined the administrative background of the TEI.
+The TEI is an international project to develop and disseminate guidelines
+for the encoding and interchange of machine-readable text. It is
+sponsored by the Association for Computers in the Humanities, the
+Association for Computational Linguistics, and the Association for
+Literary and Linguistic Computing. Representatives of numerous other
+professional societies sit on its advisory board. The TEI has a number
+of affiliated projects that have provided assistance by testing drafts of
+the guidelines.
+
+Among the design goals for the TEI tag set, the scheme first of all must
+meet the needs of research, because the TEI came out of the research
+community, which did not feel adequately served by existing tag sets.
+The tag set must be extensive as well as compatible with existing and
+emerging standards. In 1990, version 1.0 of the Guidelines was released
+(SPERBERG-McQUEEN illustrated their contents).
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN noted that one problem besetting electronic text has
+been the lack of adequate internal or external documentation for many
+existing electronic texts. The TEI guidelines as currently formulated
+contain few fixed requirements, but one of them is this: There must
+always be a document header, an in-file SGML tag that provides
+1) a bibliographic description of the electronic object one is talking
+about (that is, who included it, when, what for, and under which title);
+and 2) the copy text from which it was derived, if any. If there was
+no copy text or if the copy text is unknown, then one states as much.
+Version 2.0 of the Guidelines was scheduled to be completed in fall 1992
+and a revised third version is to be presented to the TEI advisory board
+for its endorsement this coming winter. The TEI itself exists to provide
+a markup language, not a marked-up text.
+
+Among the challenges the TEI has attempted to face is the need for a
+markup language that will work for existing projects, that is, handle the
+level of markup that people are using now to tag only chapter, section,
+and paragraph divisions and not much else. At the same time, such a
+language also will be able to scale up gracefully to handle the highly
+detailed markup which many people foresee as the future destination of
+much electronic text, and which is not the future destination but the
+present home of numerous electronic texts in specialized areas.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN dismissed the lowest-common-denominator approach as
+unable to support the kind of applications that draw people who have
+never been in the public library regularly before, and make them come
+back. He advocated more interesting text and more intelligent text.
+Asserting that it is not beyond economic feasibility to have good texts,
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN noted that the TEI Guidelines listing 200-odd tags
+contains tags that one is expected to enter every time the relevant
+textual feature occurs. It contains all the tags that people need now,
+and it is not expected that everyone will tag things in the same way.
+
+The question of how people will tag the text is in large part a function
+of their reaction to what SPERBERG-McQUEEN termed the issue of
+reproducibility. What one needs to be able to reproduce are the things
+one wants to work with. Perhaps a more useful concept than that of
+reproducibility or recoverability is that of processability, that is,
+what can one get from an electronic text without reading it again
+in the original. He illustrated this contention with a page from
+Jan Comenius's bilingual Introduction to Latin.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN returned at length to the issue of images as simulacra
+for the text, in order to reiterate his belief that in the long run more
+than images of pages of particular editions of the text are needed,
+because just as second-generation photocopies and second-generation
+microfilm degenerate, so second-generation representations tend to
+degenerate, and one tends to overstress some relatively trivial aspects
+of the text such as its layout on the page, which is not always
+significant, despite what the text critics might say, and slight other
+pieces of information such as the very important lexical ties between the
+English and Latin versions of Comenius's bilingual text, for example.
+Moreover, in many crucial respects it is easy to fool oneself concerning
+what a scanned image of the text will accomplish. For example, in order
+to study the transmission of texts, information concerning the text
+carrier is necessary, which scanned images simply do not always handle.
+Further, even the high-quality materials being produced at Cornell use
+much of the information that one would need if studying those books as
+physical objects. It is a choice that has been made. It is an arguably
+justifiable choice, but one does not know what color those pen strokes in
+the margin are or whether there was a stain on the page, because it has
+been filtered out. One does not know whether there were rips in the page
+because they do not show up, and on a couple of the marginal marks one
+loses half of the mark because the pen is very light and the scanner
+failed to pick it up, and so what is clearly a checkmark in the margin of
+the original becomes a little scoop in the margin of the facsimile.
+Standard problems for facsimile editions, not new to electronics, but
+also true of light-lens photography, and are remarked here because it is
+important that we not fool ourselves that even if we produce a very nice
+image of this page with good contrast, we are not replacing the
+manuscript any more than microfilm has replaced the manuscript.
+
+The TEI comes from the research community, where its first allegiance
+lies, but it is not just an academic exercise. It has relevance far
+beyond those who spend all of their time studying text, because one's
+model of text determines what one's software can do with a text. Good
+models lead to good software. Bad models lead to bad software. That has
+economic consequences, and it is these economic consequences that have
+led the European Community to help support the TEI, and that will lead,
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN hoped, some software vendors to realize that if they
+provide software with a better model of the text they can make a killing.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Implications of different DTDs and tag sets * ODA versus SGML *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+During the discussion that followed, several additional points were made.
+Neither AAP (i.e., Association of American Publishers) nor CALS (i.e.,
+Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistics Support) has a document-type
+definition for ancient Greek drama, although the TEI will be able to
+handle that. Given this state of affairs and assuming that the
+technical-journal producers and the commercial vendors decide to use the
+other two types, then an institution like the Library of Congress, which
+might receive all of their publications, would have to be able to handle
+three different types of document definitions and tag sets and be able to
+distinguish among them.
+
+Office Document Architecture (ODA) has some advantages that flow from its
+tight focus on office documents and clear directions for implementation.
+Much of the ODA standard is easier to read and clearer at first reading
+than the SGML standard, which is extremely general. What that means is
+that if one wants to use graphics in TIFF and ODA, one is stuck, because
+ODA defines graphics formats while TIFF does not, whereas SGML says the
+world is not waiting for this work group to create another graphics format.
+What is needed is an ability to use whatever graphics format one wants.
+
+The TEI provides a socket that allows one to connect the SGML document to
+the graphics. The notation that the graphics are in is clearly a choice
+that one needs to make based on her or his environment, and that is one
+advantage. SGML is less megalomaniacal in attempting to define formats
+for all kinds of information, though more megalomaniacal in attempting to
+cover all sorts of documents. The other advantage is that the model of
+text represented by SGML is simply an order of magnitude richer and more
+flexible than the model of text offered by ODA. Both offer hierarchical
+structures, but SGML recognizes that the hierarchical model of the text
+that one is looking at may not have been in the minds of the designers,
+whereas ODA does not.
+
+ODA is not really aiming for the kind of document that the TEI wants to
+encompass. The TEI can handle the kind of material ODA has, as well as a
+significantly broader range of material. ODA seems to be very much
+focused on office documents, which is what it started out being called--
+office document architecture.
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+CALALUCA * Text-encoding from a publisher's perspective *
+Responsibilities of a publisher * Reproduction of Migne's Latin series
+whole and complete with SGML tags based on perceived need and expected
+use * Particular decisions arising from the general decision to produce
+and publish PLD *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+The final speaker in this session, Eric CALALUCA, vice president,
+Chadwyck-Healey, Inc., spoke from the perspective of a publisher re
+text-encoding, rather than as one qualified to discuss methods of
+encoding data, and observed that the presenters sitting in the room,
+whether they had chosen to or not, were acting as publishers: making
+choices, gathering data, gathering information, and making assessments.
+CALALUCA offered the hard-won conviction that in publishing very large
+text files (such as PLD), one cannot avoid making personal judgments of
+appropriateness and structure.
+
+In CALALUCA's view, encoding decisions stem from prior judgments. Two
+notions have become axioms for him in the consideration of future sources
+for electronic publication: 1) electronic text publishing is as personal
+as any other kind of publishing, and questions of if and how to encode
+the data are simply a consequence of that prior decision; 2) all
+personal decisions are open to criticism, which is unavoidable.
+
+CALALUCA rehearsed his role as a publisher or, better, as an intermediary
+between what is viewed as a sound idea and the people who would make use
+of it. Finding the specialist to advise in this process is the core of
+that function. The publisher must monitor and hug the fine line between
+giving users what they want and suggesting what they might need. One
+responsibility of a publisher is to represent the desires of scholars and
+research librarians as opposed to bullheadedly forcing them into areas
+they would not choose to enter.
+
+CALALUCA likened the questions being raised today about data structure
+and standards to the decisions faced by the Abbe Migne himself during
+production of the Patrologia series in the mid-nineteenth century.
+Chadwyck-Healey's decision to reproduce Migne's Latin series whole and
+complete with SGML tags was also based upon a perceived need and an
+expected use. In the same way that Migne's work came to be far more than
+a simple handbook for clerics, PLD is already far more than a database
+for theologians. It is a bedrock source for the study of Western
+civilization, CALALUCA asserted.
+
+In regard to the decision to produce and publish PLD, the editorial board
+offered direct judgments on the question of appropriateness of these
+texts for conversion, their encoding and their distribution, and
+concluded that the best possible project was one that avoided overt
+intrusions or exclusions in so important a resource. Thus, the general
+decision to transmit the original collection as clearly as possible with
+the widest possible avenues for use led to other decisions: 1) To encode
+the data or not, SGML or not, TEI or not. Again, the expected user
+community asserted the need for normative tagging structures of important
+humanities texts, and the TEI seemed the most appropriate structure for
+that purpose. Research librarians, who are trained to view the larger
+impact of electronic text sources on 80 or 90 or 100 doctoral
+disciplines, loudly approved the decision to include tagging. They see
+what is coming better than the specialist who is completely focused on
+one edition of Ambrose's De Anima, and they also understand that the
+potential uses exceed present expectations. 2) What will be tagged and
+what will not. Once again, the board realized that one must tag the
+obvious. But in no way should one attempt to identify through encoding
+schemes every single discrete area of a text that might someday be
+searched. That was another decision. Searching by a column number, an
+author, a word, a volume, permitting combination searches, and tagging
+notations seemed logical choices as core elements. 3) How does one make
+the data available? Tieing it to a CD-ROM edition creates limitations,
+but a magnetic tape file that is very large, is accompanied by the
+encoding specifications, and that allows one to make local modifications
+also allows one to incorporate any changes one may desire within the
+bounds of private research, though exporting tag files from a CD-ROM
+could serve just as well. Since no one on the board could possibly
+anticipate each and every way in which a scholar might choose to mine
+this data bank, it was decided to satisfy the basics and make some
+provisions for what might come. 4) Not to encode the database would rob
+it of the interchangeability and portability these important texts should
+accommodate. For CALALUCA, the extensive options presented by full-text
+searching require care in text selection and strongly support encoding of
+data to facilitate the widest possible search strategies. Better
+software can always be created, but summoning the resources, the people,
+and the energy to reconvert the text is another matter.
+
+PLD is being encoded, captured, and distributed, because to
+Chadwyck-Healey and the board it offers the widest possible array of
+future research applications that can be seen today. CALALUCA concluded
+by urging the encoding of all important text sources in whatever way
+seems most appropriate and durable at the time, without blanching at the
+thought that one's work may require emendation in the future. (Thus,
+Chadwyck-Healey produced a very large humanities text database before the
+final release of the TEI Guidelines.)
+
+ ******
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+DISCUSSION * Creating texts with markup advocated * Trends in encoding *
+The TEI and the issue of interchangeability of standards * A
+misconception concerning the TEI * Implications for an institution like
+LC in the event that a multiplicity of DTDs develops * Producing images
+as a first step towards possible conversion to full text through
+character recognition * The AAP tag sets as a common starting point and
+the need for caution *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+HOCKEY prefaced the discussion that followed with several comments in
+favor of creating texts with markup and on trends in encoding. In the
+future, when many more texts are available for on-line searching, real
+problems in finding what is wanted will develop, if one is faced with
+millions of words of data. It therefore becomes important to consider
+putting markup in texts to help searchers home in on the actual things
+they wish to retrieve. Various approaches to refining retrieval methods
+toward this end include building on a computer version of a dictionary
+and letting the computer look up words in it to obtain more information
+about the semantic structure or semantic field of a word, its grammatical
+structure, and syntactic structure.
+
+HOCKEY commented on the present keen interest in the encoding world
+in creating: 1) machine-readable versions of dictionaries that can be
+initially tagged in SGML, which gives a structure to the dictionary entry;
+these entries can then be converted into a more rigid or otherwise
+different database structure inside the computer, which can be treated as
+a dynamic tool for searching mechanisms; 2) large bodies of text to study
+the language. In order to incorporate more sophisticated mechanisms,
+more about how words behave needs to be known, which can be learned in
+part from information in dictionaries. However, the last ten years have
+seen much interest in studying the structure of printed dictionaries
+converted into computer-readable form. The information one derives about
+many words from those is only partial, one or two definitions of the
+common or the usual meaning of a word, and then numerous definitions of
+unusual usages. If the computer is using a dictionary to help retrieve
+words in a text, it needs much more information about the common usages,
+because those are the ones that occur over and over again. Hence the
+current interest in developing large bodies of text in computer-readable
+form in order to study the language. Several projects are engaged in
+compiling, for example, 100 million words. HOCKEY described one with
+which she was associated briefly at Oxford University involving
+compilation of 100 million words of British English: about 10 percent of
+that will contain detailed linguistic tagging encoded in SGML; it will
+have word class taggings, with words identified as nouns, verbs,
+adjectives, or other parts of speech. This tagging can then be used by
+programs which will begin to learn a bit more about the structure of the
+language, and then, can go to tag more text.
+
+HOCKEY said that the more that is tagged accurately, the more one can
+refine the tagging process and thus the bigger body of text one can build
+up with linguistic tagging incorporated into it. Hence, the more tagging
+or annotation there is in the text, the more one may begin to learn about
+language and the more it will help accomplish more intelligent OCR. She
+recommended the development of software tools that will help one begin to
+understand more about a text, which can then be applied to scanning
+images of that text in that format and to using more intelligence to help
+one interpret or understand the text.
+
+HOCKEY posited the need to think about common methods of text-encoding
+for a long time to come, because building these large bodies of text is
+extremely expensive and will only be done once.
+
+In the more general discussion on approaches to encoding that followed,
+these points were made:
+
+BESSER identified the underlying problem with standards that all have to
+struggle with in adopting a standard, namely, the tension between a very
+highly defined standard that is very interchangeable but does not work
+for everyone because something is lacking, and a standard that is less
+defined, more open, more adaptable, but less interchangeable. Contending
+that the way in which people use SGML is not sufficiently defined, BESSER
+wondered 1) if people resist the TEI because they think it is too defined
+in certain things they do not fit into, and 2) how progress with
+interchangeability can be made without frightening people away.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN replied that the published drafts of the TEI had met
+with surprisingly little objection on the grounds that they do not allow
+one to handle X or Y or Z. Particular concerns of the affiliated
+projects have led, in practice, to discussions of how extensions are to
+be made; the primary concern of any project has to be how it can be
+represented locally, thus making interchange secondary. The TEI has
+received much criticism based on the notion that everything in it is
+required or even recommended, which, as it happens, is a misconception
+from the beginning, because none of it is required and very little is
+actually actively recommended for all cases, except that one document
+one's source.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN agreed with BESSER about this trade-off: all the
+projects in a set of twenty TEI-conformant projects will not necessarily
+tag the material in the same way. One result of the TEI will be that the
+easiest problems will be solved--those dealing with the external form of
+the information; but the problem that is hardest in interchange is that
+one is not encoding what another wants, and vice versa. Thus, after
+the adoption of a common notation, the differences in the underlying
+conceptions of what is interesting about texts become more visible.
+The success of a standard like the TEI will lie in the ability of
+the recipient of interchanged texts to use some of what it contains
+and to add the information that was not encoded that one wants, in a
+layered way, so that texts can be gradually enriched and one does not
+have to put in everything all at once. Hence, having a well-behaved
+markup scheme is important.
+
+STEVENS followed up on the paradoxical analogy that BESSER alluded to in
+the example of the MARC records, namely, the formats that are the same
+except that they are different. STEVENS drew a parallel between
+document-type definitions and MARC records for books and serials and maps,
+where one has a tagging structure and there is a text-interchange.
+STEVENS opined that the producers of the information will set the terms
+for the standard (i.e., develop document-type definitions for the users
+of their products), creating a situation that will be problematical for
+an institution like the Library of Congress, which will have to deal with
+the DTDs in the event that a multiplicity of them develops. Thus,
+numerous people are seeking a standard but cannot find the tag set that
+will be acceptable to them and their clients. SPERBERG-McQUEEN agreed
+with this view, and said that the situation was in a way worse: attempting
+to unify arbitrary DTDs resembled attempting to unify a MARC record with a
+bibliographic record done according to the Prussian instructions.
+According to STEVENS, this situation occurred very early in the process.
+
+WATERS recalled from early discussions on Project Open Book the concern
+of many people that merely by producing images, POB was not really
+enhancing intellectual access to the material. Nevertheless, not wishing
+to overemphasize the opposition between imaging and full text, WATERS
+stated that POB views getting the images as a first step toward possibly
+converting to full text through character recognition, if the technology
+is appropriate. WATERS also emphasized that encoding is involved even
+with a set of images.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN agreed with WATERS that one can create an SGML document
+consisting wholly of images. At first sight, organizing graphic images
+with an SGML document may not seem to offer great advantages, but the
+advantages of the scheme WATERS described would be precisely that
+ability to move into something that is more of a multimedia document:
+a combination of transcribed text and page images. WEIBEL concurred in
+this judgment, offering evidence from Project ADAPT, where a page is
+divided into text elements and graphic elements, and in fact the text
+elements are organized by columns and lines. These lines may be used as
+the basis for distributing documents in a network environment. As one
+develops software intelligent enough to recognize what those elements
+are, it makes sense to apply SGML to an image initially, that may, in
+fact, ultimately become more and more text, either through OCR or edited
+OCR or even just through keying. For WATERS, the labor of composing the
+document and saying this set of documents or this set of images belongs
+to this document constitutes a significant investment.
+
+WEIBEL also made the point that the AAP tag sets, while not excessively
+prescriptive, offer a common starting point; they do not define the
+structure of the documents, though. They have some recommendations about
+DTDs one could use as examples, but they do just suggest tag sets. For
+example, the CORE project attempts to use the AAP markup as much as
+possible, but there are clearly areas where structure must be added.
+That in no way contradicts the use of AAP tag sets.
+
+SPERBERG-McQUEEN noted that the TEI prepared a long working paper early
+on about the AAP tag set and what it lacked that the TEI thought it
+needed, and a fairly long critique of the naming conventions, which has
+led to a very different style of naming in the TEI. He stressed the
+importance of the opposition between prescriptive markup, the kind that a
+publisher or anybody can do when producing documents de novo, and
+descriptive markup, in which one has to take what the text carrier
+provides. In these particular tag sets it is easy to overemphasize this
+opposition, because the AAP tag set is extremely flexible. Even if one
+just used the DTDs, they allow almost anything to appear almost anywhere.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION VI. COPYRIGHT ISSUES
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+PETERS * Several cautions concerning copyright in an electronic
+environment * Review of copyright law in the United States * The notion
+of the public good and the desirability of incentives to promote it *
+What copyright protects * Works not protected by copyright * The rights
+of copyright holders * Publishers' concerns in today's electronic
+environment * Compulsory licenses * The price of copyright in a digital
+medium and the need for cooperation * Additional clarifications * Rough
+justice oftentimes the outcome in numerous copyright matters * Copyright
+in an electronic society * Copyright law always only sets up the
+boundaries; anything can be changed by contract *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Marybeth PETERS, policy planning adviser to the Register of Copyrights,
+Library of Congress, made several general comments and then opened the
+floor to discussion of subjects of interest to the audience.
+
+Having attended several sessions in an effort to gain a sense of what
+people did and where copyright would affect their lives, PETERS expressed
+the following cautions:
+
+ * If one takes and converts materials and puts them in new forms,
+ then, from a copyright point of view, one is creating something and
+ will receive some rights.
+
+ * However, if what one is converting already exists, a question
+ immediately arises about the status of the materials in question.
+
+ * Putting something in the public domain in the United States offers
+ some freedom from anxiety, but distributing it throughout the world
+ on a network is another matter, even if one has put it in the public
+ domain in the United States. Re foreign laws, very frequently a
+ work can be in the public domain in the United States but protected
+ in other countries. Thus, one must consider all of the places a
+ work may reach, lest one unwittingly become liable to being faced
+ with a suit for copyright infringement, or at least a letter
+ demanding discussion of what one is doing.
+
+PETERS reviewed copyright law in the United States. The U.S.
+Constitution effectively states that Congress has the power to enact
+copyright laws for two purposes: 1) to encourage the creation and
+dissemination of intellectual works for the good of society as a whole;
+and, significantly, 2) to give creators and those who package and
+disseminate materials the economic rewards that are due them.
+
+Congress strives to strike a balance, which at times can become an
+emotional issue. The United States has never accepted the notion of the
+natural right of an author so much as it has accepted the notion of the
+public good and the desirability of incentives to promote it. This state
+of affairs, however, has created strains on the international level and
+is the reason for several of the differences in the laws that we have.
+Today the United States protects almost every kind of work that can be
+called an expression of an author. The standard for gaining copyright
+protection is simply originality. This is a low standard and means that
+a work is not copied from something else, as well as shows a certain
+minimal amount of authorship. One can also acquire copyright protection
+for making a new version of preexisting material, provided it manifests
+some spark of creativity.
+
+However, copyright does not protect ideas, methods, systems--only the way
+that one expresses those things. Nor does copyright protect anything
+that is mechanical, anything that does not involve choice, or criteria
+concerning whether or not one should do a thing. For example, the
+results of a process called declicking, in which one mechanically removes
+impure sounds from old recordings, are not copyrightable. On the other
+hand, the choice to record a song digitally and to increase the sound of
+violins or to bring up the tympani constitutes the results of conversion
+that are copyrightable. Moreover, if a work is protected by copyright in
+the United States, one generally needs the permission of the copyright
+owner to convert it. Normally, who will own the new--that is, converted-
+-material is a matter of contract. In the absence of a contract, the
+person who creates the new material is the author and owner. But people
+do not generally think about the copyright implications until after the
+fact. PETERS stressed the need when dealing with copyrighted works to
+think about copyright in advance. One's bargaining power is much greater
+up front than it is down the road.
+
+PETERS next discussed works not protected by copyright, for example, any
+work done by a federal employee as part of his or her official duties is
+in the public domain in the United States. The issue is not wholly free
+of doubt concerning whether or not the work is in the public domain
+outside the United States. Other materials in the public domain include:
+any works published more than seventy-five years ago, and any work
+published in the United States more than twenty-eight years ago, whose
+copyright was not renewed. In talking about the new technology and
+putting material in a digital form to send all over the world, PETERS
+cautioned, one must keep in mind that while the rights may not be an
+issue in the United States, they may be in different parts of the world,
+where most countries previously employed a copyright term of the life of
+the author plus fifty years.
+
+PETERS next reviewed the economics of copyright holding. Simply,
+economic rights are the rights to control the reproduction of a work in
+any form. They belong to the author, or in the case of a work made for
+hire, the employer. The second right, which is critical to conversion,
+is the right to change a work. The right to make new versions is perhaps
+one of the most significant rights of authors, particularly in an
+electronic world. The third right is the right to publish the work and
+the right to disseminate it, something that everyone who deals in an
+electronic medium needs to know. The basic rule is if a copy is sold,
+all rights of distribution are extinguished with the sale of that copy.
+The key is that it must be sold. A number of companies overcome this
+obstacle by leasing or renting their product. These companies argue that
+if the material is rented or leased and not sold, they control the uses
+of a work. The fourth right, and one very important in a digital world,
+is a right of public performance, which means the right to show the work
+sequentially. For example, copyright owners control the showing of a
+CD-ROM product in a public place such as a public library. The reverse
+side of public performance is something called the right of public
+display. Moral rights also exist, which at the federal level apply only
+to very limited visual works of art, but in theory may apply under
+contract and other principles. Moral rights may include the right of an
+author to have his or her name on a work, the right of attribution, and
+the right to object to distortion or mutilation--the right of integrity.
+
+The way copyright law is worded gives much latitude to activities such as
+preservation; to use of material for scholarly and research purposes when
+the user does not make multiple copies; and to the generation of
+facsimile copies of unpublished works by libraries for themselves and
+other libraries. But the law does not allow anyone to become the
+distributor of the product for the entire world. In today's electronic
+environment, publishers are extremely concerned that the entire world is
+networked and can obtain the information desired from a single copy in a
+single library. Hence, if there is to be only one sale, which publishers
+may choose to live with, they will obtain their money in other ways, for
+example, from access and use. Hence, the development of site licenses
+and other kinds of agreements to cover what publishers believe they
+should be compensated for. Any solution that the United States takes
+today has to consider the international arena.
+
+Noting that the United States is a member of the Berne Convention and
+subscribes to its provisions, PETERS described the permissions process.
+She also defined compulsory licenses. A compulsory license, of which the
+United States has had a few, builds into the law the right to use a work
+subject to certain terms and conditions. In the international arena,
+however, the ability to use compulsory licenses is extremely limited.
+Thus, clearinghouses and other collectives comprise one option that has
+succeeded in providing for use of a work. Often overlooked when one
+begins to use copyrighted material and put products together is how
+expensive the permissions process and managing it is. According to
+PETERS, the price of copyright in a digital medium, whatever solution is
+worked out, will include managing and assembling the database. She
+strongly recommended that publishers and librarians or people with
+various backgrounds cooperate to work out administratively feasible
+systems, in order to produce better results.
+
+In the lengthy question-and-answer period that followed PETERS's
+presentation, the following points emerged:
+
+ * The Copyright Office maintains that anything mechanical and
+ totally exhaustive probably is not protected. In the event that
+ what an individual did in developing potentially copyrightable
+ material is not understood, the Copyright Office will ask about the
+ creative choices the applicant chose to make or not to make. As a
+ practical matter, if one believes she or he has made enough of those
+ choices, that person has a right to assert a copyright and someone
+ else must assert that the work is not copyrightable. The more
+ mechanical, the more automatic, a thing is, the less likely it is to
+ be copyrightable.
+
+ * Nearly all photographs are deemed to be copyrightable, but no one
+ worries about them much, because everyone is free to take the same
+ image. Thus, a photographic copyright represents what is called a
+ "thin" copyright. The photograph itself must be duplicated, in
+ order for copyright to be violated.
+
+ * The Copyright Office takes the position that X-rays are not
+ copyrightable because they are mechanical. It can be argued
+ whether or not image enhancement in scanning can be protected. One
+ must exercise care with material created with public funds and
+ generally in the public domain. An article written by a federal
+ employee, if written as part of official duties, is not
+ copyrightable. However, control over a scientific article written
+ by a National Institutes of Health grantee (i.e., someone who
+ receives money from the U.S. government), depends on NIH policy. If
+ the government agency has no policy (and that policy can be
+ contained in its regulations, the contract, or the grant), the
+ author retains copyright. If a provision of the contract, grant, or
+ regulation states that there will be no copyright, then it does not
+ exist. When a work is created, copyright automatically comes into
+ existence unless something exists that says it does not.
+
+ * An enhanced electronic copy of a print copy of an older reference
+ work in the public domain that does not contain copyrightable new
+ material is a purely mechanical rendition of the original work, and
+ is not copyrightable.
+
+ * Usually, when a work enters the public domain, nothing can remove
+ it. For example, Congress recently passed into law the concept of
+ automatic renewal, which means that copyright on any work published
+ between l964 and l978 does not have to be renewed in order to
+ receive a seventy-five-year term. But any work not renewed before
+ 1964 is in the public domain.
+
+ * Concerning whether or not the United States keeps track of when
+ authors die, nothing was ever done, nor is anything being done at
+ the moment by the Copyright Office.
+
+ * Software that drives a mechanical process is itself copyrightable.
+ If one changes platforms, the software itself has a copyright. The
+ World Intellectual Property Organization will hold a symposium 28
+ March through 2 April l993, at Harvard University, on digital
+ technology, and will study this entire issue. If one purchases a
+ computer software package, such as MacPaint, and creates something
+ new, one receives protection only for that which has been added.
+
+PETERS added that often in copyright matters, rough justice is the
+outcome, for example, in collective licensing, ASCAP (i.e., American
+Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), and BMI (i.e., Broadcast
+Music, Inc.), where it may seem that the big guys receive more than their
+due. Of course, people ought not to copy a creative product without
+paying for it; there should be some compensation. But the truth of the
+world, and it is not a great truth, is that the big guy gets played on
+the radio more frequently than the little guy, who has to do much more
+until he becomes a big guy. That is true of every author, every
+composer, everyone, and, unfortunately, is part of life.
+
+Copyright always originates with the author, except in cases of works
+made for hire. (Most software falls into this category.) When an author
+sends his article to a journal, he has not relinquished copyright, though
+he retains the right to relinquish it. The author receives absolutely
+everything. The less prominent the author, the more leverage the
+publisher will have in contract negotiations. In order to transfer the
+rights, the author must sign an agreement giving them away.
+
+In an electronic society, it is important to be able to license a writer
+and work out deals. With regard to use of a work, it usually is much
+easier when a publisher holds the rights. In an electronic era, a real
+problem arises when one is digitizing and making information available.
+PETERS referred again to electronic licensing clearinghouses. Copyright
+ought to remain with the author, but as one moves forward globally in the
+electronic arena, a middleman who can handle the various rights becomes
+increasingly necessary.
+
+The notion of copyright law is that it resides with the individual, but
+in an on-line environment, where a work can be adapted and tinkered with
+by many individuals, there is concern. If changes are authorized and
+there is no agreement to the contrary, the person who changes a work owns
+the changes. To put it another way, the person who acquires permission
+to change a work technically will become the author and the owner, unless
+some agreement to the contrary has been made. It is typical for the
+original publisher to try to control all of the versions and all of the
+uses. Copyright law always only sets up the boundaries. Anything can be
+changed by contract.
+
+ ******
+
+SESSION VII. CONCLUSION
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+GENERAL DISCUSSION * Two questions for discussion * Different emphases in
+the Workshop * Bringing the text and image partisans together *
+Desiderata in planning the long-term development of something * Questions
+surrounding the issue of electronic deposit * Discussion of electronic
+deposit as an allusion to the issue of standards * Need for a directory
+of preservation projects in digital form and for access to their
+digitized files * CETH's catalogue of machine-readable texts in the
+humanities * What constitutes a publication in the electronic world? *
+Need for LC to deal with the concept of on-line publishing * LC's Network
+Development Office exploring the limits of MARC as a standard in terms
+of handling electronic information * Magnitude of the problem and the
+need for distributed responsibility in order to maintain and store
+electronic information * Workshop participants to be viewed as a starting
+point * Development of a network version of AM urged * A step toward AM's
+construction of some sort of apparatus for network access * A delicate
+and agonizing policy question for LC * Re the issue of electronic
+deposit, LC urged to initiate a catalytic process in terms of distributed
+responsibility * Suggestions for cooperative ventures * Commercial
+publishers' fears * Strategic questions for getting the image and text
+people to think through long-term cooperation * Clarification of the
+driving force behind both the Perseus and the Cornell Xerox projects *
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+In his role as moderator of the concluding session, GIFFORD raised two
+questions he believed would benefit from discussion: 1) Are there enough
+commonalities among those of us that have been here for two days so that
+we can see courses of action that should be taken in the future? And, if
+so, what are they and who might take them? 2) Partly derivative from
+that, but obviously very dangerous to LC as host, do you see a role for
+the Library of Congress in all this? Of course, the Library of Congress
+holds a rather special status in a number of these matters, because it is
+not perceived as a player with an economic stake in them, but are there
+roles that LC can play that can help advance us toward where we are heading?
+
+Describing himself as an uninformed observer of the technicalities of the
+last two days, GIFFORD detected three different emphases in the Workshop:
+1) people who are very deeply committed to text; 2) people who are almost
+passionate about images; and 3) a few people who are very committed to
+what happens to the networks. In other words, the new networking
+dimension, the accessibility of the processability, the portability of
+all this across the networks. How do we pull those three together?
+
+Adding a question that reflected HOCKEY's comment that this was the
+fourth workshop she had attended in the previous thirty days, FLEISCHHAUER
+wondered to what extent this meeting had reinvented the wheel, or if it
+had contributed anything in the way of bringing together a different group
+of people from those who normally appear on the workshop circuit.
+
+HOCKEY confessed to being struck at this meeting and the one the
+Electronic Pierce Consortium organized the previous week that this was a
+coming together of people working on texts and not images. Attempting to
+bring the two together is something we ought to be thinking about for the
+future: How one can think about working with image material to begin
+with, but structuring it and digitizing it in such a way that at a later
+stage it can be interpreted into text, and find a common way of building
+text and images together so that they can be used jointly in the future,
+with the network support to begin there because that is how people will
+want to access it.
+
+In planning the long-term development of something, which is what is
+being done in electronic text, HOCKEY stressed the importance not only
+of discussing the technical aspects of how one does it but particularly
+of thinking about what the people who use the stuff will want to do.
+But conversely, there are numerous things that people start to do with
+electronic text or material that nobody ever thought of in the beginning.
+
+LESK, in response to the question concerning the role of the Library of
+Congress, remarked the often suggested desideratum of having electronic
+deposit: Since everything is now computer-typeset, an entire decade of
+material that was machine-readable exists, but the publishers frequently
+did not save it; has LC taken any action to have its copyright deposit
+operation start collecting these machine-readable versions? In the
+absence of PETERS, GIFFORD replied that the question was being
+actively considered but that that was only one dimension of the problem.
+Another dimension is the whole question of the integrity of the original
+electronic document. It becomes highly important in science to prove
+authorship. How will that be done?
+
+ERWAY explained that, under the old policy, to make a claim for a
+copyright for works that were published in electronic form, including
+software, one had to submit a paper copy of the first and last twenty
+pages of code--something that represented the work but did not include
+the entire work itself and had little value to anyone. As a temporary
+measure, LC has claimed the right to demand electronic versions of
+electronic publications. This measure entails a proactive role for the
+Library to say that it wants a particular electronic version. Publishers
+then have perhaps a year to submit it. But the real problem for LC is
+what to do with all this material in all these different formats. Will
+the Library mount it? How will it give people access to it? How does LC
+keep track of the appropriate computers, software, and media? The situation
+is so hard to control, ERWAY said, that it makes sense for each publishing
+house to maintain its own archive. But LC cannot enforce that either.
+
+GIFFORD acknowledged LESK's suggestion that establishing a priority
+offered the solution, albeit a fairly complicated one. But who maintains
+that register?, he asked. GRABER noted that LC does attempt to collect a
+Macintosh version and the IBM-compatible version of software. It does
+not collect other versions. But while true for software, BYRUM observed,
+this reply does not speak to materials, that is, all the materials that
+were published that were on somebody's microcomputer or driver tapes
+at a publishing office across the country. LC does well to acquire
+specific machine-readable products selectively that were intended to be
+machine-readable. Materials that were in machine-readable form at one time,
+BYRUM said, would be beyond LC's capability at the moment, insofar as
+attempting to acquire, organize, and preserve them are concerned--and
+preservation would be the most important consideration. In this
+connection, GIFFORD reiterated the need to work out some sense of
+distributive responsibility for a number of these issues, which
+inevitably will require significant cooperation and discussion.
+Nobody can do it all.
+
+LESK suggested that some publishers may look with favor on LC beginning
+to serve as a depository of tapes in an electronic manuscript standard.
+Publishers may view this as a service that they did not have to perform
+and they might send in tapes. However, SPERBERG-McQUEEN countered,
+although publishers have had equivalent services available to them for a
+long time, the electronic text archive has never turned away or been
+flooded with tapes and is forever sending feedback to the depositor.
+Some publishers do send in tapes.
+
+ANDRE viewed this discussion as an allusion to the issue of standards.
+She recommended that the AAP standard and the TEI, which has already been
+somewhat harmonized internationally and which also shares several
+compatibilities with the AAP, be harmonized to ensure sufficient
+compatibility in the software. She drew the line at saying LC ought to
+be the locus or forum for such harmonization.
+
+Taking the group in a slightly different direction, but one where at
+least in the near term LC might play a helpful role, LYNCH remarked the
+plans of a number of projects to carry out preservation by creating
+digital images that will end up in on-line or near-line storage at some
+institution. Presumably, LC will link this material somehow to its
+on-line catalog in most cases. Thus, it is in a digital form. LYNCH had
+the impression that many of these institutions would be willing to make
+those files accessible to other people outside the institution, provided
+that there is no copyright problem. This desideratum will require
+propagating the knowledge that those digitized files exist, so that they
+can end up in other on-line catalogs. Although uncertain about the
+mechanism for achieving this result, LYNCH said that it warranted
+scrutiny because it seemed to be connected to some of the basic issues of
+cataloging and distribution of records. It would be foolish, given the
+amount of work that all of us have to do and our meager resources, to
+discover multiple institutions digitizing the same work. Re microforms,
+LYNCH said, we are in pretty good shape.
+
+BATTIN called this a big problem and noted that the Cornell people (who
+had already departed) were working on it. At issue from the beginning
+was to learn how to catalog that information into RLIN and then into
+OCLC, so that it would be accessible. That issue remains to be resolved.
+LYNCH rejoined that putting it into OCLC or RLIN was helpful insofar as
+somebody who is thinking of performing preservation activity on that work
+could learn about it. It is not necessarily helpful for institutions to
+make that available. BATTIN opined that the idea was that it not only be
+for preservation purposes but for the convenience of people looking for
+this material. She endorsed LYNCH's dictum that duplication of this
+effort was to be avoided by every means.
+
+HOCKEY informed the Workshop about one major current activity of CETH,
+namely a catalogue of machine-readable texts in the humanities. Held on
+RLIN at present, the catalogue has been concentrated on ASCII as opposed
+to digitized images of text. She is exploring ways to improve the
+catalogue and make it more widely available, and welcomed suggestions
+about these concerns. CETH owns the records, which are not just
+restricted to RLIN, and can distribute them however it wishes.
+
+Taking up LESK's earlier question, BATTIN inquired whether LC, since it
+is accepting electronic files and designing a mechanism for dealing with
+that rather than putting books on shelves, would become responsible for
+the National Copyright Depository of Electronic Materials. Of course
+that could not be accomplished overnight, but it would be something LC
+could plan for. GIFFORD acknowledged that much thought was being devoted
+to that set of problems and returned the discussion to the issue raised
+by LYNCH--whether or not putting the kind of records that both BATTIN and
+HOCKEY have been talking about in RLIN is not a satisfactory solution.
+It seemed to him that RLIN answered LYNCH's original point concerning
+some kind of directory for these kinds of materials. In a situation
+where somebody is attempting to decide whether or not to scan this or
+film that or to learn whether or not someone has already done so, LYNCH
+suggested, RLIN is helpful, but it is not helpful in the case of a local,
+on-line catalogue. Further, one would like to have her or his system be
+aware that that exists in digital form, so that one can present it to a
+patron, even though one did not digitize it, if it is out of copyright.
+The only way to make those linkages would be to perform a tremendous
+amount of real-time look-up, which would be awkward at best, or
+periodically to yank the whole file from RLIN and match it against one's
+own stuff, which is a nuisance.
+
+But where, ERWAY inquired, does one stop including things that are
+available with Internet, for instance, in one's local catalogue?
+It almost seems that that is LC's means to acquire access to them.
+That represents LC's new form of library loan. Perhaps LC's new on-line
+catalogue is an amalgamation of all these catalogues on line. LYNCH
+conceded that perhaps that was true in the very long term, but was not
+applicable to scanning in the short term. In his view, the totals cited
+by Yale, 10,000 books over perhaps a four-year period, and 1,000-1,500
+books from Cornell, were not big numbers, while searching all over
+creation for relatively rare occurrences will prove to be less efficient.
+As GIFFORD wondered if this would not be a separable file on RLIN and
+could be requested from them, BATTIN interjected that it was easily
+accessible to an institution. SEVERTSON pointed out that that file, cum
+enhancements, was available with reference information on CD-ROM, which
+makes it a little more available.
+
+In HOCKEY's view, the real question facing the Workshop is what to put in
+this catalogue, because that raises the question of what constitutes a
+publication in the electronic world. (WEIBEL interjected that Eric Joule
+in OCLC's Office of Research is also wrestling with this particular
+problem, while GIFFORD thought it sounded fairly generic.) HOCKEY
+contended that a majority of texts in the humanities are in the hands
+of either a small number of large research institutions or individuals
+and are not generally available for anyone else to access at all.
+She wondered if these texts ought to be catalogued.
+
+After argument proceeded back and forth for several minutes over why
+cataloguing might be a necessary service, LEBRON suggested that this
+issue involved the responsibility of a publisher. The fact that someone
+has created something electronically and keeps it under his or her
+control does not constitute publication. Publication implies
+dissemination. While it would be important for a scholar to let other
+people know that this creation exists, in many respects this is no
+different from an unpublished manuscript. That is what is being accessed
+in there, except that now one is not looking at it in the hard-copy but
+in the electronic environment.
+
+LEBRON expressed puzzlement at the variety of ways electronic publishing
+has been viewed. Much of what has been discussed throughout these two
+days has concerned CD-ROM publishing, whereas in the on-line environment
+that she confronts, the constraints and challenges are very different.
+Sooner or later LC will have to deal with the concept of on-line
+publishing. Taking up the comment ERWAY made earlier about storing
+copies, LEBRON gave her own journal as an example. How would she deposit
+OJCCT for copyright?, she asked, because the journal will exist in the
+mainframe at OCLC and people will be able to access it. Here the
+situation is different, ownership versus access, and is something that
+arises with publication in the on-line environment, faster than is
+sometimes realized. Lacking clear answers to all of these questions
+herself, LEBRON did not anticipate that LC would be able to take a role
+in helping to define some of them for quite a while.
+
+GREENFIELD observed that LC's Network Development Office is attempting,
+among other things, to explore the limits of MARC as a standard in terms
+of handling electronic information. GREENFIELD also noted that Rebecca
+GUENTHER from that office gave a paper to the American Society for
+Information Science (ASIS) summarizing several of the discussion papers
+that were coming out of the Network Development Office. GREENFIELD said
+he understood that that office had a list-server soliciting just the kind
+of feedback received today concerning the difficulties of identifying and
+cataloguing electronic information. GREENFIELD hoped that everybody
+would be aware of that and somehow contribute to that conversation.
+
+Noting two of LC's roles, first, to act as a repository of record for
+material that is copyrighted in this country, and second, to make
+materials it holds available in some limited form to a clientele that
+goes beyond Congress, BESSER suggested that it was incumbent on LC to
+extend those responsibilities to all the things being published in
+electronic form. This would mean eventually accepting electronic
+formats. LC could require that at some point they be in a certain
+limited set of formats, and then develop mechanisms for allowing people
+to access those in the same way that other things are accessed. This
+does not imply that they are on the network and available to everyone.
+LC does that with most of its bibliographic records, BESSER said, which
+end up migrating to the utility (e.g., OCLC) or somewhere else. But just
+as most of LC's books are available in some form through interlibrary
+loan or some other mechanism, so in the same way electronic formats ought
+to be available to others in some format, though with some copyright
+considerations. BESSER was not suggesting that these mechanisms be
+established tomorrow, only that they seemed to fall within LC's purview,
+and that there should be long-range plans to establish them.
+
+Acknowledging that those from LC in the room agreed with BESSER
+concerning the need to confront difficult questions, GIFFORD underscored
+the magnitude of the problem of what to keep and what to select. GIFFORD
+noted that LC currently receives some 31,000 items per day, not counting
+electronic materials, and argued for much more distributed responsibility
+in order to maintain and store electronic information.
+
+BESSER responded that the assembled group could be viewed as a starting
+point, whose initial operating premise could be helping to move in this
+direction and defining how LC could do so, for example, in areas of
+standardization or distribution of responsibility.
+
+FLEISCHHAUER added that AM was fully engaged, wrestling with some of the
+questions that pertain to the conversion of older historical materials,
+which would be one thing that the Library of Congress might do. Several
+points mentioned by BESSER and several others on this question have a
+much greater impact on those who are concerned with cataloguing and the
+networking of bibliographic information, as well as preservation itself.
+
+Speaking directly to AM, which he considered was a largely uncopyrighted
+database, LYNCH urged development of a network version of AM, or
+consideration of making the data in it available to people interested in
+doing network multimedia. On account of the current great shortage of
+digital data that is both appealing and unencumbered by complex rights
+problems, this course of action could have a significant effect on making
+network multimedia a reality.
+
+In this connection, FLEISCHHAUER reported on a fragmentary prototype in
+LC's Office of Information Technology Services that attempts to associate
+digital images of photographs with cataloguing information in ways that
+work within a local area network--a step, so to say, toward AM's
+construction of some sort of apparatus for access. Further, AM has
+attempted to use standard data forms in order to help make that
+distinction between the access tools and the underlying data, and thus
+believes that the database is networkable.
+
+A delicate and agonizing policy question for LC, however, which comes
+back to resources and unfortunately has an impact on this, is to find
+some appropriate, honorable, and legal cost-recovery possibilities. A
+certain skittishness concerning cost-recovery has made people unsure
+exactly what to do. AM would be highly receptive to discussing further
+LYNCH's offer to test or demonstrate its database in a network
+environment, FLEISCHHAUER said.
+
+Returning the discussion to what she viewed as the vital issue of
+electronic deposit, BATTIN recommended that LC initiate a catalytic
+process in terms of distributed responsibility, that is, bring together
+the distributed organizations and set up a study group to look at all
+these issues and see where we as a nation should move. The broader
+issues of how we deal with the management of electronic information will
+not disappear, but only grow worse.
+
+LESK took up this theme and suggested that LC attempt to persuade one
+major library in each state to deal with its state equivalent publisher,
+which might produce a cooperative project that would be equitably
+distributed around the country, and one in which LC would be dealing with
+a minimal number of publishers and minimal copyright problems.
+
+GRABER remarked the recent development in the scientific community of a
+willingness to use SGML and either deposit or interchange on a fairly
+standardized format. He wondered if a similar movement was taking place
+in the humanities. Although the National Library of Medicine found only
+a few publishers to cooperate in a like venture two or three years ago, a
+new effort might generate a much larger number willing to cooperate.
+
+KIMBALL recounted his unit's (Machine-Readable Collections Reading Room)
+troubles with the commercial publishers of electronic media in acquiring
+materials for LC's collections, in particular the publishers' fear that
+they would not be able to cover their costs and would lose control of
+their products, that LC would give them away or sell them and make
+profits from them. He doubted that the publishing industry was prepared
+to move into this area at the moment, given its resistance to allowing LC
+to use its machine-readable materials as the Library would like.
+
+The copyright law now addresses compact disk as a medium, and LC can
+request one copy of that, or two copies if it is the only version, and
+can request copies of software, but that fails to address magazines or
+books or anything like that which is in machine-readable form.
+
+GIFFORD acknowledged the thorny nature of this issue, which he illustrated
+with the example of the cumbersome process involved in putting a copy of a
+scientific database on a LAN in LC's science reading room. He also
+acknowledged that LC needs help and could enlist the energies and talents
+of Workshop participants in thinking through a number of these problems.
+
+GIFFORD returned the discussion to getting the image and text people to
+think through together where they want to go in the long term. MYLONAS
+conceded that her experience at the Pierce Symposium the previous week at
+Georgetown University and this week at LC had forced her to reevaluate
+her perspective on the usefulness of text as images. MYLONAS framed the
+issues in a series of questions: How do we acquire machine-readable
+text? Do we take pictures of it and perform OCR on it later? Is it
+important to obtain very high-quality images and text, etc.?
+FLEISCHHAUER agreed with MYLONAS's framing of strategic questions, adding
+that a large institution such as LC probably has to do all of those
+things at different times. Thus, the trick is to exercise judgment. The
+Workshop had added to his and AM's considerations in making those
+judgments. Concerning future meetings or discussions, MYLONAS suggested
+that screening priorities would be helpful.
+
+WEIBEL opined that the diversity reflected in this group was a sign both
+of the health and of the immaturity of the field, and more time would
+have to pass before we convince one another concerning standards.
+
+An exchange between MYLONAS and BATTIN clarified the point that the
+driving force behind both the Perseus and the Cornell Xerox projects was
+the preservation of knowledge for the future, not simply for particular
+research use. In the case of Perseus, MYLONAS said, the assumption was
+that the texts would not be entered again into electronically readable
+form. SPERBERG-McQUEEN added that a scanned image would not serve as an
+archival copy for purposes of preservation in the case of, say, the Bill
+of Rights, in the sense that the scanned images are effectively the
+archival copies for the Cornell mathematics books.
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ Appendix I: PROGRAM
+
+
+
+ WORKSHOP
+ ON
+ ELECTRONIC
+ TEXTS
+
+
+
+ 9-10 June 1992
+
+ Library of Congress
+ Washington, D.C.
+
+
+
+ Supported by a Grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
+
+
+Tuesday, 9 June 1992
+
+NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION LAB, ATRIUM, LIBRARY MADISON
+
+8:30 AM Coffee and Danish, registration
+
+9:00 AM Welcome
+
+ Prosser Gifford, Director for Scholarly Programs, and Carl
+ Fleischhauer, Coordinator, American Memory, Library of
+ Congress
+
+9:l5 AM Session I. Content in a New Form: Who Will Use It and What
+ Will They Do?
+
+ Broad description of the range of electronic information.
+ Characterization of who uses it and how it is or may be used.
+ In addition to a look at scholarly uses, this session will
+ include a presentation on use by students (K-12 and college)
+ and the general public.
+
+ Moderator: James Daly
+ Avra Michelson, Archival Research and Evaluation Staff,
+ National Archives and Records Administration (Overview)
+ Susan H. Veccia, Team Leader, American Memory, User Evaluation,
+ and
+ Joanne Freeman, Associate Coordinator, American Memory, Library
+ of Congress (Beyond the scholar)
+
+10:30-
+11:00 AM Break
+
+11:00 AM Session II. Show and Tell.
+
+ Each presentation to consist of a fifteen-minute
+ statement/show; group discussion will follow lunch.
+
+ Moderator: Jacqueline Hess, Director, National Demonstration
+ Lab
+
+ 1. A classics project, stressing texts and text retrieval
+ more than multimedia: Perseus Project, Harvard
+ University
+ Elli Mylonas, Managing Editor
+
+ 2. Other humanities projects employing the emerging norms of
+ the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI): Chadwyck-Healey's
+ The English Poetry Full Text Database and/or Patrologia
+ Latina Database
+ Eric M. Calaluca, Vice President, Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.
+
+ 3. American Memory
+ Carl Fleischhauer, Coordinator, and
+ Ricky Erway, Associate Coordinator, Library of Congress
+
+ 4. Founding Fathers example from Packard Humanities
+ Institute: The Papers of George Washington, University
+ of Virginia
+ Dorothy Twohig, Managing Editor, and/or
+ David Woodley Packard
+
+ 5. An electronic medical journal offering graphics and
+ full-text searchability: The Online Journal of Current
+ Clinical Trials, American Association for the Advancement
+ of Science
+ Maria L. Lebron, Managing Editor
+
+ 6. A project that offers facsimile images of pages but omits
+ searchable text: Cornell math books
+ Lynne K. Personius, Assistant Director, Cornell
+ Information Technologies for Scholarly Information
+ Sources, Cornell University
+
+12:30 PM Lunch (Dining Room A, Library Madison 620. Exhibits
+ available.)
+
+1:30 PM Session II. Show and Tell (Cont'd.).
+
+3:00-
+3:30 PM Break
+
+3:30-
+5:30 PM Session III. Distribution, Networks, and Networking: Options
+ for Dissemination.
+
+ Published disks: University presses and public-sector
+ publishers, private-sector publishers
+ Computer networks
+
+ Moderator: Robert G. Zich, Special Assistant to the Associate
+ Librarian for Special Projects, Library of Congress
+ Clifford A. Lynch, Director, Library Automation, University of
+ California
+ Howard Besser, School of Library and Information Science,
+ University of Pittsburgh
+ Ronald L. Larsen, Associate Director of Libraries for
+ Information Technology, University of Maryland at College
+ Park
+ Edwin B. Brownrigg, Executive Director, Memex Research
+ Institute
+
+6:30 PM Reception (Montpelier Room, Library Madison 619.)
+
+ ******
+
+Wednesday, 10 June 1992
+
+DINING ROOM A, LIBRARY MADISON 620
+
+8:30 AM Coffee and Danish
+
+9:00 AM Session IV. Image Capture, Text Capture, Overview of Text and
+ Image Storage Formats.
+
+ Moderator: William L. Hooton, Vice President of Operations,
+ I-NET
+
+ A) Principal Methods for Image Capture of Text:
+ Direct scanning
+ Use of microform
+
+ Anne R. Kenney, Assistant Director, Department of Preservation
+ and Conservation, Cornell University
+ Pamela Q.J. Andre, Associate Director, Automation, and
+ Judith A. Zidar, Coordinator, National Agricultural Text
+ Digitizing Program (NATDP), National Agricultural Library
+ (NAL)
+ Donald J. Waters, Head, Systems Office, Yale University Library
+
+ B) Special Problems:
+ Bound volumes
+ Conservation
+ Reproducing printed halftones
+
+ Carl Fleischhauer, Coordinator, American Memory, Library of
+ Congress
+ George Thoma, Chief, Communications Engineering Branch,
+ National Library of Medicine (NLM)
+
+10:30-
+11:00 AM Break
+
+11:00 AM Session IV. Image Capture, Text Capture, Overview of Text and
+ Image Storage Formats (Cont'd.).
+
+ C) Image Standards and Implications for Preservation
+
+ Jean Baronas, Senior Manager, Department of Standards and
+ Technology, Association for Information and Image Management
+ (AIIM)
+ Patricia Battin, President, The Commission on Preservation and
+ Access (CPA)
+
+ D) Text Conversion:
+ OCR vs. rekeying
+ Standards of accuracy and use of imperfect texts
+ Service bureaus
+
+ Stuart Weibel, Senior Research Specialist, Online Computer
+ Library Center, Inc. (OCLC)
+ Michael Lesk, Executive Director, Computer Science Research,
+ Bellcore
+ Ricky Erway, Associate Coordinator, American Memory, Library of
+ Congress
+ Pamela Q.J. Andre, Associate Director, Automation, and
+ Judith A. Zidar, Coordinator, National Agricultural Text
+ Digitizing Program (NATDP), National Agricultural Library
+ (NAL)
+
+12:30-
+1:30 PM Lunch
+
+1:30 PM Session V. Approaches to Preparing Electronic Texts.
+
+ Discussion of approaches to structuring text for the computer;
+ pros and cons of text coding, description of methods in
+ practice, and comparison of text-coding methods.
+
+ Moderator: Susan Hockey, Director, Center for Electronic Texts
+ in the Humanities (CETH), Rutgers and Princeton Universities
+ David Woodley Packard
+ C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, Editor, Text Encoding Initiative (TEI),
+ University of Illinois-Chicago
+ Eric M. Calaluca, Vice President, Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.
+
+3:30-
+4:00 PM Break
+
+4:00 PM Session VI. Copyright Issues.
+
+ Marybeth Peters, Policy Planning Adviser to the Register of
+ Copyrights, Library of Congress
+
+5:00 PM Session VII. Conclusion.
+
+ General discussion.
+ What topics were omitted or given short shrift that anyone
+ would like to talk about now?
+ Is there a "group" here? What should the group do next, if
+ anything? What should the Library of Congress do next, if
+ anything?
+ Moderator: Prosser Gifford, Director for Scholarly Programs,
+ Library of Congress
+
+6:00 PM Adjourn
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ Appendix II: ABSTRACTS
+
+
+SESSION I
+
+Avra MICHELSON Forecasting the Use of Electronic Texts by
+ Social Sciences and Humanities Scholars
+
+This presentation explores the ways in which electronic texts are likely
+to be used by the non-scientific scholarly community. Many of the
+remarks are drawn from a report the speaker coauthored with Jeff
+Rothenberg, a computer scientist at The RAND Corporation.
+
+The speaker assesses 1) current scholarly use of information technology
+and 2) the key trends in information technology most relevant to the
+research process, in order to predict how social sciences and humanities
+scholars are apt to use electronic texts. In introducing the topic,
+current use of electronic texts is explored broadly within the context of
+scholarly communication. From the perspective of scholarly
+communication, the work of humanities and social sciences scholars
+involves five processes: 1) identification of sources, 2) communication
+with colleagues, 3) interpretation and analysis of data, 4) dissemination
+of research findings, and 5) curriculum development and instruction. The
+extent to which computation currently permeates aspects of scholarly
+communication represents a viable indicator of the prospects for
+electronic texts.
+
+The discussion of current practice is balanced by an analysis of key
+trends in the scholarly use of information technology. These include the
+trends toward end-user computing and connectivity, which provide a
+framework for forecasting the use of electronic texts through this
+millennium. The presentation concludes with a summary of the ways in
+which the nonscientific scholarly community can be expected to use
+electronic texts, and the implications of that use for information
+providers.
+
+Susan VECCIA and Joanne FREEMAN Electronic Archives for the Public:
+ Use of American Memory in Public and
+ School Libraries
+
+This joint discussion focuses on nonscholarly applications of electronic
+library materials, specifically addressing use of the Library of Congress
+American Memory (AM) program in a small number of public and school
+libraries throughout the United States. AM consists of selected Library
+of Congress primary archival materials, stored on optical media
+(CD-ROM/videodisc), and presented with little or no editing. Many
+collections are accompanied by electronic introductions and user's guides
+offering background information and historical context. Collections
+represent a variety of formats including photographs, graphic arts,
+motion pictures, recorded sound, music, broadsides and manuscripts,
+books, and pamphlets.
+
+In 1991, the Library of Congress began a nationwide evaluation of AM in
+different types of institutions. Test sites include public libraries,
+elementary and secondary school libraries, college and university
+libraries, state libraries, and special libraries. Susan VECCIA and
+Joanne FREEMAN will discuss their observations on the use of AM by the
+nonscholarly community, using evidence gleaned from this ongoing
+evaluation effort.
+
+VECCIA will comment on the overall goals of the evaluation project, and
+the types of public and school libraries included in this study. Her
+comments on nonscholarly use of AM will focus on the public library as a
+cultural and community institution, often bridging the gap between formal
+and informal education. FREEMAN will discuss the use of AM in school
+libraries. Use by students and teachers has revealed some broad
+questions about the use of electronic resources, as well as definite
+benefits gained by the "nonscholar." Topics will include the problem of
+grasping content and context in an electronic environment, the stumbling
+blocks created by "new" technologies, and the unique skills and interests
+awakened through use of electronic resources.
+
+SESSION II
+
+Elli MYLONAS The Perseus Project: Interactive Sources and
+ Studies in Classical Greece
+
+The Perseus Project (5) has just released Perseus 1.0, the first publicly
+available version of its hypertextual database of multimedia materials on
+classical Greece. Perseus is designed to be used by a wide audience,
+comprised of readers at the student and scholar levels. As such, it must
+be able to locate information using different strategies, and it must
+contain enough detail to serve the different needs of its users. In
+addition, it must be delivered so that it is affordable to its target
+audience. [These problems and the solutions we chose are described in
+Mylonas, "An Interface to Classical Greek Civilization," JASIS 43:2,
+March 1992.]
+
+In order to achieve its objective, the project staff decided to make a
+conscious separation between selecting and converting textual, database,
+and image data on the one hand, and putting it into a delivery system on
+the other. That way, it is possible to create the electronic data
+without thinking about the restrictions of the delivery system. We have
+made a great effort to choose system-independent formats for our data,
+and to put as much thought and work as possible into structuring it so
+that the translation from paper to electronic form will enhance the value
+of the data. [A discussion of these solutions as of two years ago is in
+Elli Mylonas, Gregory Crane, Kenneth Morrell, and D. Neel Smith, "The
+Perseus Project: Data in the Electronic Age," in Accessing Antiquity:
+The Computerization of Classical Databases, J. Solomon and T. Worthen
+(eds.), University of Arizona Press, in press.]
+
+Much of the work on Perseus is focused on collecting and converting the
+data on which the project is based. At the same time, it is necessary to
+provide means of access to the information, in order to make it usable,
+and them to investigate how it is used. As we learn more about what
+students and scholars from different backgrounds do with Perseus, we can
+adjust our data collection, and also modify the system to accommodate
+them. In creating a delivery system for general use, we have tried to
+avoid favoring any one type of use by allowing multiple forms of access
+to and navigation through the system.
+
+The way text is handled exemplifies some of these principles. All text
+in Perseus is tagged using SGML, following the guidelines of the Text
+Encoding Initiative (TEI). This markup is used to index the text, and
+process it so that it can be imported into HyperCard. No SGML markup
+remains in the text that reaches the user, because currently it would be
+too expensive to create a system that acts on SGML in real time.
+However, the regularity provided by SGML is essential for verifying the
+content of the texts, and greatly speeds all the processing performed on
+them. The fact that the texts exist in SGML ensures that they will be
+relatively easy to port to different hardware and software, and so will
+outlast the current delivery platform. Finally, the SGML markup
+incorporates existing canonical reference systems (chapter, verse, line,
+etc.); indexing and navigation are based on these features. This ensures
+that the same canonical reference will always resolve to the same point
+within a text, and that all versions of our texts, regardless of delivery
+platform (even paper printouts) will function the same way.
+
+In order to provide tools for users, the text is processed by a
+morphological analyzer, and the results are stored in a database.
+Together with the index, the Greek-English Lexicon, and the index of all
+the English words in the definitions of the lexicon, the morphological
+analyses comprise a set of linguistic tools that allow users of all
+levels to work with the textual information, and to accomplish different
+tasks. For example, students who read no Greek may explore a concept as
+it appears in Greek texts by using the English-Greek index, and then
+looking up works in the texts and translations, or scholars may do
+detailed morphological studies of word use by using the morphological
+analyses of the texts. Because these tools were not designed for any one
+use, the same tools and the same data can be used by both students and
+scholars.
+
+NOTES:
+ (5) Perseus is based at Harvard University, with collaborators at
+ several other universities. The project has been funded primarily
+ by the Annenberg/CPB Project, as well as by Harvard University,
+ Apple Computer, and others. It is published by Yale University
+ Press. Perseus runs on Macintosh computers, under the HyperCard
+ program.
+
+Eric CALALUCA
+
+Chadwyck-Healey embarked last year on two distinct yet related full-text
+humanities database projects.
+
+The English Poetry Full-Text Database and the Patrologia Latina Database
+represent new approaches to linguistic research resources. The size and
+complexity of the projects present problems for electronic publishers,
+but surmountable ones if they remain abreast of the latest possibilities
+in data capture and retrieval software techniques.
+
+The issues which required address prior to the commencement of the
+projects were legion:
+
+ 1. Editorial selection (or exclusion) of materials in each
+ database
+
+ 2. Deciding whether or not to incorporate a normative encoding
+ structure into the databases?
+ A. If one is selected, should it be SGML?
+ B. If SGML, then the TEI?
+
+ 3. Deliver as CD-ROM, magnetic tape, or both?
+
+ 4. Can one produce retrieval software advanced enough for the
+ postdoctoral linguist, yet accessible enough for unattended
+ general use? Should one try?
+
+ 5. Re fair and liberal networking policies, what are the risks to
+ an electronic publisher?
+
+ 6. How does the emergence of national and international education
+ networks affect the use and viability of research projects
+ requiring high investment? Do the new European Community
+ directives concerning database protection necessitate two
+ distinct publishing projects, one for North America and one for
+ overseas?
+
+From new notions of "scholarly fair use" to the future of optical media,
+virtually every issue related to electronic publishing was aired. The
+result is two projects which have been constructed to provide the quality
+research resources with the fewest encumbrances to use by teachers and
+private scholars.
+
+Dorothy TWOHIG
+
+In spring 1988 the editors of the papers of George Washington, John
+Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin were
+approached by classics scholar David Packard on behalf of the Packard
+Humanities Foundation with a proposal to produce a CD-ROM edition of the
+complete papers of each of the Founding Fathers. This electronic edition
+will supplement the published volumes, making the documents widely
+available to students and researchers at reasonable cost. We estimate
+that our CD-ROM edition of Washington's Papers will be substantially
+completed within the next two years and ready for publication. Within
+the next ten years or so, similar CD-ROM editions of the Franklin, Adams,
+Jefferson, and Madison papers also will be available. At the Library of
+Congress's session on technology, I would like to discuss not only the
+experience of the Washington Papers in producing the CD-ROM edition, but
+the impact technology has had on these major editorial projects.
+Already, we are editing our volumes with an eye to the material that will
+be readily available in the CD-ROM edition. The completed electronic
+edition will provide immense possibilities for the searching of documents
+for information in a way never possible before. The kind of technical
+innovations that are currently available and on the drawing board will
+soon revolutionize historical research and the production of historical
+documents. Unfortunately, much of this new technology is not being used
+in the planning stages of historical projects, simply because many
+historians are aware only in the vaguest way of its existence. At least
+two major new historical editing projects are considering microfilm
+editions, simply because they are not aware of the possibilities of
+electronic alternatives and the advantages of the new technology in terms
+of flexibility and research potential compared to microfilm. In fact,
+too many of us in history and literature are still at the stage of
+struggling with our PCs. There are many historical editorial projects in
+progress presently, and an equal number of literary projects. While the
+two fields have somewhat different approaches to textual editing, there
+are ways in which electronic technology can be of service to both.
+
+Since few of the editors involved in the Founding Fathers CD-ROM editions
+are technical experts in any sense, I hope to point out in my discussion
+of our experience how many of these electronic innovations can be used
+successfully by scholars who are novices in the world of new technology.
+One of the major concerns of the sponsors of the multitude of new
+scholarly editions is the limited audience reached by the published
+volumes. Most of these editions are being published in small quantities
+and the publishers' price for them puts them out of the reach not only of
+individual scholars but of most public libraries and all but the largest
+educational institutions. However, little attention is being given to
+ways in which technology can bypass conventional publication to make
+historical and literary documents more widely available.
+
+What attracted us most to the CD-ROM edition of The Papers of George
+Washington was the fact that David Packard's aim was to make a complete
+edition of all of the 135,000 documents we have collected available in an
+inexpensive format that would be placed in public libraries, small
+colleges, and even high schools. This would provide an audience far
+beyond our present 1,000-copy, $45 published edition. Since the CD-ROM
+edition will carry none of the explanatory annotation that appears in the
+published volumes, we also feel that the use of the CD-ROM will lead many
+researchers to seek out the published volumes.
+
+In addition to ignorance of new technical advances, I have found that too
+many editors--and historians and literary scholars--are resistant and
+even hostile to suggestions that electronic technology may enhance their
+work. I intend to discuss some of the arguments traditionalists are
+advancing to resist technology, ranging from distrust of the speed with
+which it changes (we are already wondering what is out there that is
+better than CD-ROM) to suspicion of the technical language used to
+describe electronic developments.
+
+Maria LEBRON
+
+The Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials, a joint venture of the
+American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Online
+Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), is the first peer-reviewed journal
+to provide full text, tabular material, and line illustrations on line.
+This presentation will discuss the genesis and start-up period of the
+journal. Topics of discussion will include historical overview,
+day-to-day management of the editorial peer review, and manuscript
+tagging and publication. A demonstration of the journal and its features
+will accompany the presentation.
+
+Lynne PERSONIUS
+
+Cornell University Library, Cornell Information Technologies, and Xerox
+Corporation, with the support of the Commission on Preservation and
+Access, and Sun Microsystems, Inc., have been collaborating in a project
+to test a prototype system for recording brittle books as digital images
+and producing, on demand, high-quality archival paper replacements. The
+project goes beyond that, however, to investigate some of the issues
+surrounding scanning, storing, retrieving, and providing access to
+digital images in a network environment.
+
+The Joint Study in Digital Preservation began in January 1990. Xerox
+provided the College Library Access and Storage System (CLASS) software,
+a prototype 600-dots-per-inch (dpi) scanner, and the hardware necessary
+to support network printing on the DocuTech printer housed in Cornell's
+Computing and Communications Center (CCC).
+
+The Cornell staff using the hardware and software became an integral part
+of the development and testing process for enhancements to the CLASS
+software system. The collaborative nature of this relationship is
+resulting in a system that is specifically tailored to the preservation
+application.
+
+A digital library of 1,000 volumes (or approximately 300,000 images) has
+been created and is stored on an optical jukebox that resides in CCC.
+The library includes a collection of select mathematics monographs that
+provides mathematics faculty with an opportunity to use the electronic
+library. The remaining volumes were chosen for the library to test the
+various capabilities of the scanning system.
+
+One project objective is to provide users of the Cornell library and the
+library staff with the ability to request facsimiles of digitized images
+or to retrieve the actual electronic image for browsing. A prototype
+viewing workstation has been created by Xerox, with input into the design
+by a committee of Cornell librarians and computer professionals. This
+will allow us to experiment with patron access to the images that make up
+the digital library. The viewing station provides search, retrieval, and
+(ultimately) printing functions with enhancements to facilitate
+navigation through multiple documents.
+
+Cornell currently is working to extend access to the digital library to
+readers using workstations from their offices. This year is devoted to
+the development of a network resident image conversion and delivery
+server, and client software that will support readers who use Apple
+Macintosh computers, IBM windows platforms, and Sun workstations.
+Equipment for this development was provided by Sun Microsystems with
+support from the Commission on Preservation and Access.
+
+During the show-and-tell session of the Workshop on Electronic Texts, a
+prototype view station will be demonstrated. In addition, a display of
+original library books that have been digitized will be available for
+review with associated printed copies for comparison. The fifteen-minute
+overview of the project will include a slide presentation that
+constitutes a "tour" of the preservation digitizing process.
+
+The final network-connected version of the viewing station will provide
+library users with another mechanism for accessing the digital library,
+and will also provide the capability of viewing images directly. This
+will not require special software, although a powerful computer with good
+graphics will be needed.
+
+The Joint Study in Digital Preservation has generated a great deal of
+interest in the library community. Unfortunately, or perhaps
+fortunately, this project serves to raise a vast number of other issues
+surrounding the use of digital technology for the preservation and use of
+deteriorating library materials, which subsequent projects will need to
+examine. Much work remains.
+
+SESSION III
+
+Howard BESSER Networking Multimedia Databases
+
+What do we have to consider in building and distributing databases of
+visual materials in a multi-user environment? This presentation examines
+a variety of concerns that need to be addressed before a multimedia
+database can be set up in a networked environment.
+
+In the past it has not been feasible to implement databases of visual
+materials in shared-user environments because of technological barriers.
+Each of the two basic models for multi-user multimedia databases has
+posed its own problem. The analog multimedia storage model (represented
+by Project Athena's parallel analog and digital networks) has required an
+incredibly complex (and expensive) infrastructure. The economies of
+scale that make multi-user setups cheaper per user served do not operate
+in an environment that requires a computer workstation, videodisc player,
+and two display devices for each user.
+
+The digital multimedia storage model has required vast amounts of storage
+space (as much as one gigabyte per thirty still images). In the past the
+cost of such a large amount of storage space made this model a
+prohibitive choice as well. But plunging storage costs are finally
+making this second alternative viable.
+
+If storage no longer poses such an impediment, what do we need to
+consider in building digitally stored multi-user databases of visual
+materials? This presentation will examine the networking and
+telecommunication constraints that must be overcome before such databases
+can become commonplace and useful to a large number of people.
+
+The key problem is the vast size of multimedia documents, and how this
+affects not only storage but telecommunications transmission time.
+Anything slower than T-1 speed is impractical for files of 1 megabyte or
+larger (which is likely to be small for a multimedia document). For
+instance, even on a 56 Kb line it would take three minutes to transfer a
+1-megabyte file. And these figures assume ideal circumstances, and do
+not take into consideration other users contending for network bandwidth,
+disk access time, or the time needed for remote display. Current common
+telephone transmission rates would be completely impractical; few users
+would be willing to wait the hour necessary to transmit a single image at
+2400 baud.
+
+This necessitates compression, which itself raises a number of other
+issues. In order to decrease file sizes significantly, we must employ
+lossy compression algorithms. But how much quality can we afford to
+lose? To date there has been only one significant study done of
+image-quality needs for a particular user group, and this study did not
+look at loss resulting from compression. Only after identifying
+image-quality needs can we begin to address storage and network bandwidth
+needs.
+
+Experience with X-Windows-based applications (such as Imagequery, the
+University of California at Berkeley image database) demonstrates the
+utility of a client-server topology, but also points to the limitation of
+current software for a distributed environment. For example,
+applications like Imagequery can incorporate compression, but current X
+implementations do not permit decompression at the end user's
+workstation. Such decompression at the host computer alleviates storage
+capacity problems while doing nothing to address problems of
+telecommunications bandwidth.
+
+We need to examine the effects on network through-put of moving
+multimedia documents around on a network. We need to examine various
+topologies that will help us avoid bottlenecks around servers and
+gateways. Experience with applications such as these raise still broader
+questions. How closely is the multimedia document tied to the software
+for viewing it? Can it be accessed and viewed from other applications?
+Experience with the MARC format (and more recently with the Z39.50
+protocols) shows how useful it can be to store documents in a form in
+which they can be accessed by a variety of application software.
+
+Finally, from an intellectual-access standpoint, we need to address the
+issue of providing access to these multimedia documents in
+interdisciplinary environments. We need to examine terminology and
+indexing strategies that will allow us to provide access to this material
+in a cross-disciplinary way.
+
+Ronald LARSEN Directions in High-Performance Networking for
+ Libraries
+
+The pace at which computing technology has advanced over the past forty
+years shows no sign of abating. Roughly speaking, each five-year period
+has yielded an order-of-magnitude improvement in price and performance of
+computing equipment. No fundamental hurdles are likely to prevent this
+pace from continuing for at least the next decade. It is only in the
+past five years, though, that computing has become ubiquitous in
+libraries, affecting all staff and patrons, directly or indirectly.
+
+During these same five years, communications rates on the Internet, the
+principal academic computing network, have grown from 56 kbps to 1.5
+Mbps, and the NSFNet backbone is now running 45 Mbps. Over the next five
+years, communication rates on the backbone are expected to exceed 1 Gbps.
+Growth in both the population of network users and the volume of network
+traffic has continued to grow geometrically, at rates approaching 15
+percent per month. This flood of capacity and use, likened by some to
+"drinking from a firehose," creates immense opportunities and challenges
+for libraries. Libraries must anticipate the future implications of this
+technology, participate in its development, and deploy it to ensure
+access to the world's information resources.
+
+The infrastructure for the information age is being put in place.
+Libraries face strategic decisions about their role in the development,
+deployment, and use of this infrastructure. The emerging infrastructure
+is much more than computers and communication lines. It is more than the
+ability to compute at a remote site, send electronic mail to a peer
+across the country, or move a file from one library to another. The next
+five years will witness substantial development of the information
+infrastructure of the network.
+
+In order to provide appropriate leadership, library professionals must
+have a fundamental understanding of and appreciation for computer
+networking, from local area networks to the National Research and
+Education Network (NREN). This presentation addresses these
+fundamentals, and how they relate to libraries today and in the near
+future.
+
+Edwin BROWNRIGG Electronic Library Visions and Realities
+
+The electronic library has been a vision desired by many--and rejected by
+some--since Vannevar Bush coined the term memex to describe an automated,
+intelligent, personal information system. Variations on this vision have
+included Ted Nelson's Xanadau, Alan Kay's Dynabook, and Lancaster's
+"paperless library," with the most recent incarnation being the
+"Knowledge Navigator" described by John Scully of Apple. But the reality
+of library service has been less visionary and the leap to the electronic
+library has eluded universities, publishers, and information technology
+files.
+
+The Memex Research Institute (MemRI), an independent, nonprofit research
+and development organization, has created an Electronic Library Program
+of shared research and development in order to make the collective vision
+more concrete. The program is working toward the creation of large,
+indexed publicly available electronic image collections of published
+documents in academic, special, and public libraries. This strategic
+plan is the result of the first stage of the program, which has been an
+investigation of the information technologies available to support such
+an effort, the economic parameters of electronic service compared to
+traditional library operations, and the business and political factors
+affecting the shift from print distribution to electronic networked
+access.
+
+The strategic plan envisions a combination of publicly searchable access
+databases, image (and text) document collections stored on network "file
+servers," local and remote network access, and an intellectual property
+management-control system. This combination of technology and
+information content is defined in this plan as an E-library or E-library
+collection. Some participating sponsors are already developing projects
+based on MemRI's recommended directions.
+
+The E-library strategy projected in this plan is a visionary one that can
+enable major changes and improvements in academic, public, and special
+library service. This vision is, though, one that can be realized with
+today's technology. At the same time, it will challenge the political
+and social structure within which libraries operate: in academic
+libraries, the traditional emphasis on local collections, extending to
+accreditation issues; in public libraries, the potential of electronic
+branch and central libraries fully available to the public; and for
+special libraries, new opportunities for shared collections and networks.
+
+The environment in which this strategic plan has been developed is, at
+the moment, dominated by a sense of library limits. The continued
+expansion and rapid growth of local academic library collections is now
+clearly at an end. Corporate libraries, and even law libraries, are
+faced with operating within a difficult economic climate, as well as with
+very active competition from commercial information sources. For
+example, public libraries may be seen as a desirable but not critical
+municipal service in a time when the budgets of safety and health
+agencies are being cut back.
+
+Further, libraries in general have a very high labor-to-cost ratio in
+their budgets, and labor costs are still increasing, notwithstanding
+automation investments. It is difficult for libraries to obtain capital,
+startup, or seed funding for innovative activities, and those
+technology-intensive initiatives that offer the potential of decreased
+labor costs can provoke the opposition of library staff.
+
+However, libraries have achieved some considerable successes in the past
+two decades by improving both their service and their credibility within
+their organizations--and these positive changes have been accomplished
+mostly with judicious use of information technologies. The advances in
+computing and information technology have been well-chronicled: the
+continuing precipitous drop in computing costs, the growth of the
+Internet and private networks, and the explosive increase in publicly
+available information databases.
+
+For example, OCLC has become one of the largest computer network
+organizations in the world by creating a cooperative cataloging network
+of more than 6,000 libraries worldwide. On-line public access catalogs
+now serve millions of users on more than 50,000 dedicated terminals in
+the United States alone. The University of California MELVYL on-line
+catalog system has now expanded into an index database reference service
+and supports more than six million searches a year. And, libraries have
+become the largest group of customers of CD-ROM publishing technology;
+more than 30,000 optical media publications such as those offered by
+InfoTrac and Silver Platter are subscribed to by U.S. libraries.
+
+This march of technology continues and in the next decade will result in
+further innovations that are extremely difficult to predict. What is
+clear is that libraries can now go beyond automation of their order files
+and catalogs to automation of their collections themselves--and it is
+possible to circumvent the fiscal limitations that appear to obtain
+today.
+
+This Electronic Library Strategic Plan recommends a paradigm shift in
+library service, and demonstrates the steps necessary to provide improved
+library services with limited capacities and operating investments.
+
+SESSION IV-A
+
+Anne KENNEY
+
+The Cornell/Xerox Joint Study in Digital Preservation resulted in the
+recording of 1,000 brittle books as 600-dpi digital images and the
+production, on demand, of high-quality and archivally sound paper
+replacements. The project, which was supported by the Commission on
+Preservation and Access, also investigated some of the issues surrounding
+scanning, storing, retrieving, and providing access to digital images in
+a network environment.
+
+Anne Kenney will focus on some of the issues surrounding direct scanning
+as identified in the Cornell Xerox Project. Among those to be discussed
+are: image versus text capture; indexing and access; image-capture
+capabilities; a comparison to photocopy and microfilm; production and
+cost analysis; storage formats, protocols, and standards; and the use of
+this scanning technology for preservation purposes.
+
+The 600-dpi digital images produced in the Cornell Xerox Project proved
+highly acceptable for creating paper replacements of deteriorating
+originals. The 1,000 scanned volumes provided an array of image-capture
+challenges that are common to nineteenth-century printing techniques and
+embrittled material, and that defy the use of text-conversion processes.
+These challenges include diminished contrast between text and background,
+fragile and deteriorated pages, uneven printing, elaborate type faces,
+faint and bold text adjacency, handwritten text and annotations, nonRoman
+languages, and a proliferation of illustrated material embedded in text.
+The latter category included high-frequency and low-frequency halftones,
+continuous tone photographs, intricate mathematical drawings, maps,
+etchings, reverse-polarity drawings, and engravings.
+
+The Xerox prototype scanning system provided a number of important
+features for capturing this diverse material. Technicians used multiple
+threshold settings, filters, line art and halftone definitions,
+autosegmentation, windowing, and software-editing programs to optimize
+image capture. At the same time, this project focused on production.
+The goal was to make scanning as affordable and acceptable as
+photocopying and microfilming for preservation reformatting. A
+time-and-cost study conducted during the last three months of this
+project confirmed the economic viability of digital scanning, and these
+findings will be discussed here.
+
+From the outset, the Cornell Xerox Project was predicated on the use of
+nonproprietary standards and the use of common protocols when standards
+did not exist. Digital files were created as TIFF images which were
+compressed prior to storage using Group 4 CCITT compression. The Xerox
+software is MS DOS based and utilizes off-the shelf programs such as
+Microsoft Windows and Wang Image Wizard. The digital library is designed
+to be hardware-independent and to provide interchangeability with other
+institutions through network connections. Access to the digital files
+themselves is two-tiered: Bibliographic records for the computer files
+are created in RLIN and Cornell's local system and access into the actual
+digital images comprising a book is provided through a document control
+structure and a networked image file-server, both of which will be
+described.
+
+The presentation will conclude with a discussion of some of the issues
+surrounding the use of this technology as a preservation tool (storage,
+refreshing, backup).
+
+Pamela ANDRE and Judith ZIDAR
+
+The National Agricultural Library (NAL) has had extensive experience with
+raster scanning of printed materials. Since 1987, the Library has
+participated in the National Agricultural Text Digitizing Project (NATDP)
+a cooperative effort between NAL and forty-five land grant university
+libraries. An overview of the project will be presented, giving its
+history and NAL's strategy for the future.
+
+An in-depth discussion of NATDP will follow, including a description of
+the scanning process, from the gathering of the printed materials to the
+archiving of the electronic pages. The type of equipment required for a
+stand-alone scanning workstation and the importance of file management
+software will be discussed. Issues concerning the images themselves will
+be addressed briefly, such as image format; black and white versus color;
+gray scale versus dithering; and resolution.
+
+Also described will be a study currently in progress by NAL to evaluate
+the usefulness of converting microfilm to electronic images in order to
+improve access. With the cooperation of Tuskegee University, NAL has
+selected three reels of microfilm from a collection of sixty-seven reels
+containing the papers, letters, and drawings of George Washington Carver.
+The three reels were converted into 3,500 electronic images using a
+specialized microfilm scanner. The selection, filming, and indexing of
+this material will be discussed.
+
+Donald WATERS
+
+Project Open Book, the Yale University Library's effort to convert 10,
+000 books from microfilm to digital imagery, is currently in an advanced
+state of planning and organization. The Yale Library has selected a
+major vendor to serve as a partner in the project and as systems
+integrator. In its proposal, the successful vendor helped isolate areas
+of risk and uncertainty as well as key issues to be addressed during the
+life of the project. The Yale Library is now poised to decide what
+material it will convert to digital image form and to seek funding,
+initially for the first phase and then for the entire project.
+
+The proposal that Yale accepted for the implementation of Project Open
+Book will provide at the end of three phases a conversion subsystem,
+browsing stations distributed on the campus network within the Yale
+Library, a subsystem for storing 10,000 books at 200 and 600 dots per
+inch, and network access to the image printers. Pricing for the system
+implementation assumes the existence of Yale's campus ethernet network
+and its high-speed image printers, and includes other requisite hardware
+and software, as well as system integration services. Proposed operating
+costs include hardware and software maintenance, but do not include
+estimates for the facilities management of the storage devices and image
+servers.
+
+Yale selected its vendor partner in a formal process, partly funded by
+the Commission for Preservation and Access. Following a request for
+proposal, the Yale Library selected two vendors as finalists to work with
+Yale staff to generate a detailed analysis of requirements for Project
+Open Book. Each vendor used the results of the requirements analysis to
+generate and submit a formal proposal for the entire project. This
+competitive process not only enabled the Yale Library to select its
+primary vendor partner but also revealed much about the state of the
+imaging industry, about the varying, corporate commitments to the markets
+for imaging technology, and about the varying organizational dynamics
+through which major companies are responding to and seeking to develop
+these markets.
+
+Project Open Book is focused specifically on the conversion of images
+from microfilm to digital form. The technology for scanning microfilm is
+readily available but is changing rapidly. In its project requirements,
+the Yale Library emphasized features of the technology that affect the
+technical quality of digital image production and the costs of creating
+and storing the image library: What levels of digital resolution can be
+achieved by scanning microfilm? How does variation in the quality of
+microfilm, particularly in film produced to preservation standards,
+affect the quality of the digital images? What technologies can an
+operator effectively and economically apply when scanning film to
+separate two-up images and to control for and correct image
+imperfections? How can quality control best be integrated into
+digitizing work flow that includes document indexing and storage?
+
+The actual and expected uses of digital images--storage, browsing,
+printing, and OCR--help determine the standards for measuring their
+quality. Browsing is especially important, but the facilities available
+for readers to browse image documents is perhaps the weakest aspect of
+imaging technology and most in need of development. As it defined its
+requirements, the Yale Library concentrated on some fundamental aspects
+of usability for image documents: Does the system have sufficient
+flexibility to handle the full range of document types, including
+monographs, multi-part and multivolume sets, and serials, as well as
+manuscript collections? What conventions are necessary to identify a
+document uniquely for storage and retrieval? Where is the database of
+record for storing bibliographic information about the image document?
+How are basic internal structures of documents, such as pagination, made
+accessible to the reader? How are the image documents physically
+presented on the screen to the reader?
+
+The Yale Library designed Project Open Book on the assumption that
+microfilm is more than adequate as a medium for preserving the content of
+deteriorated library materials. As planning in the project has advanced,
+it is increasingly clear that the challenge of digital image technology
+and the key to the success of efforts like Project Open Book is to
+provide a means of both preserving and improving access to those
+deteriorated materials.
+
+SESSION IV-B
+
+George THOMA
+
+In the use of electronic imaging for document preservation, there are
+several issues to consider, such as: ensuring adequate image quality,
+maintaining substantial conversion rates (through-put), providing unique
+identification for automated access and retrieval, and accommodating
+bound volumes and fragile material.
+
+To maintain high image quality, image processing functions are required
+to correct the deficiencies in the scanned image. Some commercially
+available systems include these functions, while some do not. The
+scanned raw image must be processed to correct contrast deficiencies--
+both poor overall contrast resulting from light print and/or dark
+background, and variable contrast resulting from stains and
+bleed-through. Furthermore, the scan density must be adequate to allow
+legibility of print and sufficient fidelity in the pseudo-halftoned gray
+material. Borders or page-edge effects must be removed for both
+compactibility and aesthetics. Page skew must be corrected for aesthetic
+reasons and to enable accurate character recognition if desired.
+Compound images consisting of both two-toned text and gray-scale
+illustrations must be processed appropriately to retain the quality of
+each.
+
+SESSION IV-C
+
+Jean BARONAS
+
+Standards publications being developed by scientists, engineers, and
+business managers in Association for Information and Image Management
+(AIIM) standards committees can be applied to electronic image management
+(EIM) processes including: document (image) transfer, retrieval and
+evaluation; optical disk and document scanning; and document design and
+conversion. When combined with EIM system planning and operations,
+standards can assist in generating image databases that are
+interchangeable among a variety of systems. The applications of
+different approaches for image-tagging, indexing, compression, and
+transfer often cause uncertainty concerning EIM system compatibility,
+calibration, performance, and upward compatibility, until standard
+implementation parameters are established. The AIIM standards that are
+being developed for these applications can be used to decrease the
+uncertainty, successfully integrate imaging processes, and promote "open
+systems." AIIM is an accredited American National Standards Institute
+(ANSI) standards developer with more than twenty committees comprised of
+300 volunteers representing users, vendors, and manufacturers. The
+standards publications that are developed in these committees have
+national acceptance and provide the basis for international harmonization
+in the development of new International Organization for Standardization
+(ISO) standards.
+
+This presentation describes the development of AIIM's EIM standards and a
+new effort at AIIM, a database on standards projects in a wide framework
+of imaging industries including capture, recording, processing,
+duplication, distribution, display, evaluation, and preservation. The
+AIIM Imagery Database will cover imaging standards being developed by
+many organizations in many different countries. It will contain
+standards publications' dates, origins, related national and
+international projects, status, key words, and abstracts. The ANSI Image
+Technology Standards Board requested that such a database be established,
+as did the ISO/International Electrotechnical Commission Joint Task Force
+on Imagery. AIIM will take on the leadership role for the database and
+coordinate its development with several standards developers.
+
+Patricia BATTIN
+
+ Characteristics of standards for digital imagery:
+
+ * Nature of digital technology implies continuing volatility.
+
+ * Precipitous standard-setting not possible and probably not
+ desirable.
+
+ * Standards are a complex issue involving the medium, the
+ hardware, the software, and the technical capacity for
+ reproductive fidelity and clarity.
+
+ * The prognosis for reliable archival standards (as defined by
+ librarians) in the foreseeable future is poor.
+
+ Significant potential and attractiveness of digital technology as a
+ preservation medium and access mechanism.
+
+ Productive use of digital imagery for preservation requires a
+ reconceptualizing of preservation principles in a volatile,
+ standardless world.
+
+ Concept of managing continuing access in the digital environment
+ rather than focusing on the permanence of the medium and long-term
+ archival standards developed for the analog world.
+
+ Transition period: How long and what to do?
+
+ * Redefine "archival."
+
+ * Remove the burden of "archival copy" from paper artifacts.
+
+ * Use digital technology for storage, develop management
+ strategies for refreshing medium, hardware and software.
+
+ * Create acid-free paper copies for transition period backup
+ until we develop reliable procedures for ensuring continuing
+ access to digital files.
+
+SESSION IV-D
+
+Stuart WEIBEL The Role of SGML Markup in the CORE Project (6)
+
+The emergence of high-speed telecommunications networks as a basic
+feature of the scholarly workplace is driving the demand for electronic
+document delivery. Three distinct categories of electronic
+publishing/republishing are necessary to support access demands in this
+emerging environment:
+
+ 1.) Conversion of paper or microfilm archives to electronic format
+ 2.) Conversion of electronic files to formats tailored to
+ electronic retrieval and display
+ 3.) Primary electronic publishing (materials for which the
+ electronic version is the primary format)
+
+OCLC has experimental or product development activities in each of these
+areas. Among the challenges that lie ahead is the integration of these
+three types of information stores in coherent distributed systems.
+
+The CORE (Chemistry Online Retrieval Experiment) Project is a model for
+the conversion of large text and graphics collections for which
+electronic typesetting files are available (category 2). The American
+Chemical Society has made available computer typography files dating from
+1980 for its twenty journals. This collection of some 250 journal-years
+is being converted to an electronic format that will be accessible
+through several end-user applications.
+
+The use of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) offers the means
+to capture the structural richness of the original articles in a way that
+will support a variety of retrieval, navigation, and display options
+necessary to navigate effectively in very large text databases.
+
+An SGML document consists of text that is marked up with descriptive tags
+that specify the function of a given element within the document. As a
+formal language construct, an SGML document can be parsed against a
+document-type definition (DTD) that unambiguously defines what elements
+are allowed and where in the document they can (or must) occur. This
+formalized map of article structure allows the user interface design to
+be uncoupled from the underlying database system, an important step
+toward interoperability. Demonstration of this separability is a part of
+the CORE project, wherein user interface designs born of very different
+philosophies will access the same database.
+
+NOTES:
+ (6) The CORE project is a collaboration among Cornell University's
+ Mann Library, Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), the American
+ Chemical Society (ACS), the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), and
+ OCLC.
+
+Michael LESK The CORE Electronic Chemistry Library
+
+A major on-line file of chemical journal literature complete with
+graphics is being developed to test the usability of fully electronic
+access to documents, as a joint project of Cornell University, the
+American Chemical Society, the Chemical Abstracts Service, OCLC, and
+Bellcore (with additional support from Sun Microsystems, Springer-Verlag,
+DigitaI Equipment Corporation, Sony Corporation of America, and Apple
+Computers). Our file contains the American Chemical Society's on-line
+journals, supplemented with the graphics from the paper publication. The
+indexing of the articles from Chemical Abstracts Documents is available
+in both image and text format, and several different interfaces can be
+used. Our goals are (1) to assess the effectiveness and acceptability of
+electronic access to primary journals as compared with paper, and (2) to
+identify the most desirable functions of the user interface to an
+electronic system of journals, including in particular a comparison of
+page-image display with ASCII display interfaces. Early experiments with
+chemistry students on a variety of tasks suggest that searching tasks are
+completed much faster with any electronic system than with paper, but
+that for reading all versions of the articles are roughly equivalent.
+
+Pamela ANDRE and Judith ZIDAR
+
+Text conversion is far more expensive and time-consuming than image
+capture alone. NAL's experience with optical character recognition (OCR)
+will be related and compared with the experience of having text rekeyed.
+What factors affect OCR accuracy? How accurate does full text have to be
+in order to be useful? How do different users react to imperfect text?
+These are questions that will be explored. For many, a service bureau
+may be a better solution than performing the work inhouse; this will also
+be discussed.
+
+SESSION VI
+
+Marybeth PETERS
+
+Copyright law protects creative works. Protection granted by the law to
+authors and disseminators of works includes the right to do or authorize
+the following: reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute
+the work to the public, and publicly perform or display the work. In
+addition, copyright owners of sound recordings and computer programs have
+the right to control rental of their works. These rights are not
+unlimited; there are a number of exceptions and limitations.
+
+An electronic environment places strains on the copyright system.
+Copyright owners want to control uses of their work and be paid for any
+use; the public wants quick and easy access at little or no cost. The
+marketplace is working in this area. Contracts, guidelines on electronic
+use, and collective licensing are in use and being refined.
+
+Issues concerning the ability to change works without detection are more
+difficult to deal with. Questions concerning the integrity of the work
+and the status of the changed version under the copyright law are to be
+addressed. These are public policy issues which require informed
+dialogue.
+
+
+ *** *** *** ****** *** *** ***
+
+
+ Appendix III: DIRECTORY OF PARTICIPANTS
+
+
+PRESENTERS:
+
+ Pamela Q.J. Andre
+ Associate Director, Automation
+ National Agricultural Library
+ 10301 Baltimore Boulevard
+ Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
+ Phone: (301) 504-6813
+ Fax: (301) 504-7473
+ E-mail: INTERNET: PANDRE@ASRR.ARSUSDA.GOV
+
+ Jean Baronas, Senior Manager
+ Department of Standards and Technology
+ Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
+ 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100
+ Silver Spring, MD 20910
+ Phone: (301) 587-8202
+ Fax: (301) 587-2711
+
+ Patricia Battin, President
+ The Commission on Preservation and Access
+ 1400 16th Street, N.W.
+ Suite 740
+ Washington, DC 20036-2217
+ Phone: (202) 939-3400
+ Fax: (202) 939-3407
+ E-mail: CPA@GWUVM.BITNET
+
+ Howard Besser
+ Centre Canadien d'Architecture
+ (Canadian Center for Architecture)
+ 1920, rue Baile
+ Montreal, Quebec H3H 2S6
+ CANADA
+ Phone: (514) 939-7001
+ Fax: (514) 939-7020
+ E-mail: howard@lis.pitt.edu
+
+ Edwin B. Brownrigg, Executive Director
+ Memex Research Institute
+ 422 Bonita Avenue
+ Roseville, CA 95678
+ Phone: (916) 784-2298
+ Fax: (916) 786-7559
+ E-mail: BITNET: MEMEX@CALSTATE.2
+
+ Eric M. Calaluca, Vice President
+ Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.
+ 1101 King Street
+ Alexandria, VA 223l4
+ Phone: (800) 752-05l5
+ Fax: (703) 683-7589
+
+ James Daly
+ 4015 Deepwood Road
+ Baltimore, MD 21218-1404
+ Phone: (410) 235-0763
+
+ Ricky Erway, Associate Coordinator
+ American Memory
+ Library of Congress
+ Phone: (202) 707-6233
+ Fax: (202) 707-3764
+
+ Carl Fleischhauer, Coordinator
+ American Memory
+ Library of Congress
+ Phone: (202) 707-6233
+ Fax: (202) 707-3764
+
+ Joanne Freeman
+ 2000 Jefferson Park Avenue, No. 7
+ Charlottesville, VA 22903
+
+ Prosser Gifford
+ Director for Scholarly Programs
+ Library of Congress
+ Phone: (202) 707-1517
+ Fax: (202) 707-9898
+ E-mail: pgif@seq1.loc.gov
+
+ Jacqueline Hess, Director
+ National Demonstration Laboratory
+ for Interactive Information Technologies
+ Library of Congress
+ Phone: (202) 707-4157
+ Fax: (202) 707-2829
+
+ Susan Hockey, Director
+ Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH)
+ Alexander Library
+ Rutgers University
+ 169 College Avenue
+ New Brunswick, NJ 08903
+ Phone: (908) 932-1384
+ Fax: (908) 932-1386
+ E-mail: hockey@zodiac.rutgers.edu
+
+ William L. Hooton, Vice President
+ Business & Technical Development
+ Imaging & Information Systems Group
+ I-NET
+ 6430 Rockledge Drive, Suite 400
+ Bethesda, MD 208l7
+ Phone: (301) 564-6750
+ Fax: (513) 564-6867
+
+ Anne R. Kenney, Associate Director
+ Department of Preservation and Conservation
+ 701 Olin Library
+ Cornell University
+ Ithaca, NY 14853
+ Phone: (607) 255-6875
+ Fax: (607) 255-9346
+ E-mail: LYDY@CORNELLA.BITNET
+
+ Ronald L. Larsen
+ Associate Director for Information Technology
+ University of Maryland at College Park
+ Room B0224, McKeldin Library
+ College Park, MD 20742-7011
+ Phone: (301) 405-9194
+ Fax: (301) 314-9865
+ E-mail: rlarsen@libr.umd.edu
+
+ Maria L. Lebron, Managing Editor
+ The Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials
+ l333 H Street, N.W.
+ Washington, DC 20005
+ Phone: (202) 326-6735
+ Fax: (202) 842-2868
+ E-mail: PUBSAAAS@GWUVM.BITNET
+
+ Michael Lesk, Executive Director
+ Computer Science Research
+ Bell Communications Research, Inc.
+ Rm 2A-385
+ 445 South Street
+ Morristown, NJ 07960-l9l0
+ Phone: (201) 829-4070
+ Fax: (201) 829-5981
+ E-mail: lesk@bellcore.com (Internet) or bellcore!lesk (uucp)
+
+ Clifford A. Lynch
+ Director, Library Automation
+ University of California,
+ Office of the President
+ 300 Lakeside Drive, 8th Floor
+ Oakland, CA 94612-3350
+ Phone: (510) 987-0522
+ Fax: (510) 839-3573
+ E-mail: calur@uccmvsa
+
+ Avra Michelson
+ National Archives and Records Administration
+ NSZ Rm. 14N
+ 7th & Pennsylvania, N.W.
+ Washington, D.C. 20408
+ Phone: (202) 501-5544
+ Fax: (202) 501-5533
+ E-mail: tmi@cu.nih.gov
+
+ Elli Mylonas, Managing Editor
+ Perseus Project
+ Department of the Classics
+ Harvard University
+ 319 Boylston Hall
+ Cambridge, MA 02138
+ Phone: (617) 495-9025, (617) 495-0456 (direct)
+ Fax: (617) 496-8886
+ E-mail: Elli@IKAROS.Harvard.EDU or elli@wjh12.harvard.edu
+
+ David Woodley Packard
+ Packard Humanities Institute
+ 300 Second Street, Suite 201
+ Los Altos, CA 94002
+ Phone: (415) 948-0150 (PHI)
+ Fax: (415) 948-5793
+
+ Lynne K. Personius, Assistant Director
+ Cornell Information Technologies for
+ Scholarly Information Sources
+ 502 Olin Library
+ Cornell University
+ Ithaca, NY 14853
+ Phone: (607) 255-3393
+ Fax: (607) 255-9346
+ E-mail: JRN@CORNELLC.BITNET
+
+ Marybeth Peters
+ Policy Planning Adviser to the
+ Register of Copyrights
+ Library of Congress
+ Office LM 403
+ Phone: (202) 707-8350
+ Fax: (202) 707-8366
+
+ C. Michael Sperberg-McQueen
+ Editor, Text Encoding Initiative
+ Computer Center (M/C 135)
+ University of Illinois at Chicago
+ Box 6998
+ Chicago, IL 60680
+ Phone: (312) 413-0317
+ Fax: (312) 996-6834
+ E-mail: u35395@uicvm..cc.uic.edu or u35395@uicvm.bitnet
+
+ George R. Thoma, Chief
+ Communications Engineering Branch
+ National Library of Medicine
+ 8600 Rockville Pike
+ Bethesda, MD 20894
+ Phone: (301) 496-4496
+ Fax: (301) 402-0341
+ E-mail: thoma@lhc.nlm.nih.gov
+
+ Dorothy Twohig, Editor
+ The Papers of George Washington
+ 504 Alderman Library
+ University of Virginia
+ Charlottesville, VA 22903-2498
+ Phone: (804) 924-0523
+ Fax: (804) 924-4337
+
+ Susan H. Veccia, Team leader
+ American Memory, User Evaluation
+ Library of Congress
+ American Memory Evaluation Project
+ Phone: (202) 707-9104
+ Fax: (202) 707-3764
+ E-mail: svec@seq1.loc.gov
+
+ Donald J. Waters, Head
+ Systems Office
+ Yale University Library
+ New Haven, CT 06520
+ Phone: (203) 432-4889
+ Fax: (203) 432-7231
+ E-mail: DWATERS@YALEVM.BITNET or DWATERS@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU
+
+ Stuart Weibel, Senior Research Scientist
+ OCLC
+ 6565 Frantz Road
+ Dublin, OH 43017
+ Phone: (614) 764-608l
+ Fax: (614) 764-2344
+ E-mail: INTERNET: Stu@rsch.oclc.org
+
+ Robert G. Zich
+ Special Assistant to the Associate Librarian
+ for Special Projects
+ Library of Congress
+ Phone: (202) 707-6233
+ Fax: (202) 707-3764
+ E-mail: rzic@seq1.loc.gov
+
+ Judith A. Zidar, Coordinator
+ National Agricultural Text Digitizing Program
+ Information Systems Division
+ National Agricultural Library
+ 10301 Baltimore Boulevard
+ Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
+ Phone: (301) 504-6813 or 504-5853
+ Fax: (301) 504-7473
+ E-mail: INTERNET: JZIDAR@ASRR.ARSUSDA.GOV
+
+
+OBSERVERS:
+
+ Helen Aguera, Program Officer
+ Division of Research
+ Room 318
+ National Endowment for the Humanities
+ 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
+ Washington, D.C. 20506
+ Phone: (202) 786-0358
+ Fax: (202) 786-0243
+
+ M. Ellyn Blanton, Deputy Director
+ National Demonstration Laboratory
+ for Interactive Information Technologies
+ Library of Congress
+ Phone: (202) 707-4157
+ Fax: (202) 707-2829
+
+ Charles M. Dollar
+ National Archives and Records Administration
+ NSZ Rm. 14N
+ 7th & Pennsylvania, N.W.
+ Washington, DC 20408
+ Phone: (202) 501-5532
+ Fax: (202) 501-5512
+
+ Jeffrey Field, Deputy to the Director
+ Division of Preservation and Access
+ Room 802
+ National Endowment for the Humanities
+ 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
+ Washington, DC 20506
+ Phone: (202) 786-0570
+ Fax: (202) 786-0243
+
+ Lorrin Garson
+ American Chemical Society
+ Research and Development Department
+ 1155 16th Street, N.W.
+ Washington, D.C. 20036
+ Phone: (202) 872-4541
+ Fax: E-mail: INTERNET: LRG96@ACS.ORG
+
+ William M. Holmes, Jr.
+ National Archives and Records Administration
+ NSZ Rm. 14N
+ 7th & Pennsylvania, N.W.
+ Washington, DC 20408
+ Phone: (202) 501-5540
+ Fax: (202) 501-5512
+ E-mail: WHOLMES@AMERICAN.EDU
+
+ Sperling Martin
+ Information Resource Management
+ 20030 Doolittle Street
+ Gaithersburg, MD 20879
+ Phone: (301) 924-1803
+
+ Michael Neuman, Director
+ The Center for Text and Technology
+ Academic Computing Center
+ 238 Reiss Science Building
+ Georgetown University
+ Washington, DC 20057
+ Phone: (202) 687-6096
+ Fax: (202) 687-6003
+ E-mail: neuman@guvax.bitnet, neuman@guvax.georgetown.edu
+
+ Barbara Paulson, Program Officer
+ Division of Preservation and Access
+ Room 802
+ National Endowment for the Humanities
+ 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
+ Washington, DC 20506
+ Phone: (202) 786-0577
+ Fax: (202) 786-0243
+
+ Allen H. Renear
+ Senior Academic Planning Analyst
+ Brown University Computing and Information Services
+ 115 Waterman Street
+ Campus Box 1885
+ Providence, R.I. 02912
+ Phone: (401) 863-7312
+ Fax: (401) 863-7329
+ E-mail: BITNET: Allen@BROWNVM or
+ INTERNET: Allen@brownvm.brown.edu
+
+ Susan M. Severtson, President
+ Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.
+ 1101 King Street
+ Alexandria, VA 223l4
+ Phone: (800) 752-05l5
+ Fax: (703) 683-7589
+
+ Frank Withrow
+ U.S. Department of Education
+ 555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.
+ Washington, DC 20208-5644
+ Phone: (202) 219-2200
+ Fax: (202) 219-2106
+
+
+(LC STAFF)
+
+ Linda L. Arret
+ Machine-Readable Collections Reading Room LJ 132
+ (202) 707-1490
+
+ John D. Byrum, Jr.
+ Descriptive Cataloging Division LM 540
+ (202) 707-5194
+
+ Mary Jane Cavallo
+ Science and Technology Division LA 5210
+ (202) 707-1219
+
+ Susan Thea David
+ Congressional Research Service LM 226
+ (202) 707-7169
+
+ Robert Dierker
+ Senior Adviser for Multimedia Activities LM 608
+ (202) 707-6151
+
+ William W. Ellis
+ Associate Librarian for Science and Technology LM 611
+ (202) 707-6928
+
+ Ronald Gephart
+ Manuscript Division LM 102
+ (202) 707-5097
+
+ James Graber
+ Information Technology Services LM G51
+ (202) 707-9628
+
+ Rich Greenfield
+ American Memory LM 603
+ (202) 707-6233
+
+ Rebecca Guenther
+ Network Development LM 639
+ (202) 707-5092
+
+ Kenneth E. Harris
+ Preservation LM G21
+ (202) 707-5213
+
+ Staley Hitchcock
+ Manuscript Division LM 102
+ (202) 707-5383
+
+ Bohdan Kantor
+ Office of Special Projects LM 612
+ (202) 707-0180
+
+ John W. Kimball, Jr
+ Machine-Readable Collections Reading Room LJ 132
+ (202) 707-6560
+
+ Basil Manns
+ Information Technology Services LM G51
+ (202) 707-8345
+
+ Sally Hart McCallum
+ Network Development LM 639
+ (202) 707-6237
+
+ Dana J. Pratt
+ Publishing Office LM 602
+ (202) 707-6027
+
+ Jane Riefenhauser
+ American Memory LM 603
+ (202) 707-6233
+
+ William Z. Schenck
+ Collections Development LM 650
+ (202) 707-7706
+
+ Chandru J. Shahani
+ Preservation Research and Testing Office (R&T) LM G38
+ (202) 707-5607
+
+ William J. Sittig
+ Collections Development LM 650
+ (202) 707-7050
+
+ Paul Smith
+ Manuscript Division LM 102
+ (202) 707-5097
+
+ James L. Stevens
+ Information Technology Services LM G51
+ (202) 707-9688
+
+ Karen Stuart
+ Manuscript Division LM 130
+ (202) 707-5389
+
+ Tamara Swora
+ Preservation Microfilming Office LM G05
+ (202) 707-6293
+
+ Sarah Thomas
+ Collections Cataloging LM 642
+ (202) 707-5333
+
+
+ END
+ *************************************************************
+
+Note: This file has been edited for use on computer networks. This
+editing required the removal of diacritics, underlining, and fonts such
+as italics and bold.
+
+kde 11/92
+
+[A few of the italics (when used for emphasis) were replaced by CAPS mh]
+
+*End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of LOC WORKSHOP ON ELECTRONIC ETEXTS
+
projects / thirdparty / zlib-ng.git / commitdiff
