University of Oklahoma Libraries and University of Oklahoma Foundation
Present

The 20th Annual Conference
Improved Access to Information:
Portals, Content Selection and Digital Information

March 6 and 7, 2003

Embassy Suites Hotel, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Registration deadline: February 21, 2003

Conference Program: Thursday, March 6, 2003

Conference Welcome
Sul H. Lee, Dean
University of Oklahoma Libraries

1:00 - 1:45 p.m.
James Michalko President
Research Libraries Group, Inc.
"For whom is the library an anchor?"
In producing web portals the university library community intends to create anchor sites that will recapture an audience, elevate trusted information, and provide users with a range of services. Is this the correct goal? What are the prerequisites for its realization? This talk will reflect on the state of our knowledge of user needs, evolution in the ways research is conducted, the changing system of mutual support and service provision in the university library community, and the ways that libraries will be manifest in the world of digital information. It will conclude with some speculation on the title question.

1:45 - 2:30 p.m.
Barbara I. Dewey
Dean of Libraries
University of Tennessee Libraries
"Portals and Human Factor: Bringing Virtual Services to the Life of the Mind."
The notion of scholarly portal has been largely focused on content and methods of accessing content. This paper will explore the importance of accompanying services to ensure user success in locating and applying content to scholarship and learning. Differences in virtual services supporting portals and those developed in absence of the portal model will be explored using examples from the academic library community. Collaborative aspects of portal development and servicing in an integrated information environment will be summarized. Next steps, opportunities, and challenges will conclude the paper.

2:30 - 3:00 p.m.
Coffee Break
YBP Library Services

3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
Bernard F. Reilly
President
The Center for Research Libraries
"New Prospects for Cooperative Preservation and Access for Artifactual Materials"
Cooperative preservation and resource sharing have long been goals of the research library community, but have been realized only to a limited degree. Despite the proliferation of scholarly research materials available in electronic form, the corpus of paper-based materials held collectively by academic and research libraries continues to grow, and the challenge of maintaining comprehensive print collections in all disciplines is becoming increasingly difficult for individual libraries. Recent cooperative activities among U.S. libraries, however, suggest that development of a framework for rationalized, strategic management of research collections on a national or international level is possible.

3:45 - 4:30 p.m.
Joseph J. Branin
Director of Libraries
Ohio State University Libraries
"Knowledge Management for Librarians: Building the "Knowledge Bank" at the Ohio State University"
The general observation that academic librarians have progressed from "collection development" to "collection management" and now to "knowledge management" is becoming a reality at the Ohio State University where librarians are leading an effort to create a "Knowledge Bank" of the institution's intellectual digital assets.

This paper and presentation briefly describes the basic definitions and concepts of knowledge management and outlines the progression of academic librarianship practice over the last fifty years. The motivations for creating the Knowledge Bank at the Ohio State University are discussed, and the main features and challenges are presented.

4:30 - 5:15 p.m.
Mary E. Jackson
Senior Program Officer for Access Services
Association of Research Libraries
"Portals, Access, Research Libraries"
The Association of Research Libraries is supporting two initiatives to advance the implementation of portals in research libraries. First, the Scholars Portal Project is a self-selected group of ARL member institutions collaborating with Fretwell-Downing to test the vision of the ARL Scholars Portal Working Group using F-D software. Second, the Portal Applications Working Group has been charged to foster the definition and development of portals for research libraries and the communities they serve, to ensure ARL's presence in discussions of similar initiatives advocating the integration of information technology and content for the benefit of the academic and research communities, and to monitor how libraries are applying portal technology and to identify common issues or barriers to successful implementations. This presentation will provide an update on both initiatives.

8:30 - 9:15 a.m.
Edward Shreeves
Director, Collections & Information Resources
University of Iowa Libraries
"The role of the Selector in the Development of Digital Collections and the Deployment of Portals"
Much digital content is coming into libraries through "big deals" resulting in access to large bodies of material. Much of the attention of specialists in electronic resources is going to their management and organization. While lip service is paid to the selector's role in applying the traditional criteria of programmatic relevance to new acquisitions, there has been relatively little focus on the ways in which identification and selection of electronic resources is shifting the culture and principles of collection development. This presentation will reflect on these changes and their implications.

9:15 - 10:00 a.m.
Alice Prochaska
University Librarian
Yale University Library
"Are we all global librarians now? A consideration of the problems and opportunities in digitizing rare and unique materials."
The paper will address the issues associated with making unique special collections available to a world audience, via digitization and the web. Prochaska will use examples drawn from her experience both at the British Library up to 2001 and now a Yale University Librarian. She will explore the themes of universal access to previously inaccessible material, the different audiences the librarian now needs to consider, and the ways in which priorities should be set. She will consider the ethics of sharing and caring for materials that often have strong local iconic ties, as well as significance for an international audience. The paper will conclude with a look at the practical realities of building digital collections for use by a global audience.

10:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Coffee Break
Blackwell's Book Service
 

10:30 - 11:15 a.m.
Betsy A. Wilson
Director of University Libraries
University of Washington
"If We Build It, Will They Come? Library Users in a Digital World"
Libraries are dedicating significant resources to building robust digital collections and library portals. How can they ensure that what they are building meets the needs and aspirations of students, researchers and the citizen scholar? This paper will examine what is known about current and future user behavior and needs in a digital environment and how that knowledge can be used to create authentic, intuitive, integrated, and transparent content.

11:15 - 12:00 p.m.
Lorcan Dempsey
Vice President of Research
Online Computer Library Center
"The Recombinant Library: Portals and People"
"Portal" is a much-used word and with all such words its sense varies with user and occasion. This paper takes a general view of the portal problem, seeing it as a way of creating environments in which users are engaged with resources which are useful or interesting, and resources are presented in ways which maximize their fruitful use. It takes an architectural perspective, arguing that there is benefit in developing some shared pictures of what high-level services such environments might provide and how they might be articulated. It will exemplify this perspective with examples from commercial and research activity.