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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 13:29:00 CDT
From:         Alan Emtage <bajan@bunyip.com>
Subject:      Musings on the Infostructure, Part I

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hello All,
A little while back I promised various people to write up what I
would call "personal musings" from my point of view of what is currently
happening with the Internet, its information systems and the "technical"
and library communities. This is intended to focus my own thoughts as
well as perhaps provide a set of targets for people to shoot at: in a
sense a true "Request for Comments". Some of the writing gets off the
beaten track, but I trust you will bear with me on this. I will also warn
you that this is rather lengthy so you might want to grab a cup of coffee
before trudging through my diatribe.

I also have to say that I have no formal training in library sciences
(I'm a comp sci person), but over the past while have become increasingly
involved in the role of information services as well as interacting with
the librarians.

I would appreciate any feedback on this.


-Alan



Alan's Musings
--------------

A fundamental shift has taken place in the Internet and Library
communities in the past two years or so. The technical communities (the
"techies") after spending many years building the Internet infrastructure
are now being asked (and are asking themselves) "So, now what do we _do_
with the darned thing?". The fact that services like archie, WAIS, W3,
Gopher and the rest came into existence at about the same time is proof
once again that necessity is the mother of
invention. At about the same time, the library community "woke up" to the
Internet and the potential that it held. I certainly don't mean to imply
here that there have not been groups in both camps who have recognized
the situation for a while, but there came a point where the critical mass
was reached and the larger community got the collective "Aha!".

Please note that much of this has a particularly North American flavor. I
haven't had much contact with the librarian groups in either Europe or
Asia but hope to do so in the coming months. Some of the points made
below may seem obvious.... let me say that I have had enough interactions
with both communities to realize that this is not always so. Also, I'm
painting with a very broad brush here... please don't take these comments
personally.

As a minimum I see the following points as creating an essential
foundation if we in the two communities are to work together and provide
the general public with systems that meet their needs for this decade and
beyond.

Point 1: Getting together
-------------------------

First and foremost the stereotypes have to be broken down. While this
smells a bit like social engineering, it is a problem that needs to be
recognized and addressed. Without trying to sound silly here, it is still
partially true to say that the techies (and many people in general) think
of your average librarian as a little lady with a _really_ tight hairdo,
pursed lips and cat-eyed glasses sitting around in dimly lit rooms
reeking of moldy paper.  Similarly, the "Poindexter" (sorry to
non-Americans here for the culture-specific reference :-),
pocket-protector-and-sliderule image comes to mind when the general
public thinks of techies. These stereotypes get in the way of
understanding what each of us does and what knowledge, expertize and
experience each group brings to the table.

Contacts between the two communities have to be formalized, strengthened
and, perhaps most importantly at this juncture _funded_. It is nice when
the two groups have conferences in the same city at the same time, and as
welcomed as that kind of "cross-pollenation" is it is simply no longer
good enough as it depends on the motivated interest of individuals not
institutional will. The organizations in both communities need to
establish liaison groups, lines of communication (like common mailing
lists) and ultimately, face-to-face gatherings in which both feel welcomed
and accepted.

We all have to realize that neither group has the financial means nor
expertize to do this on their own. We really do _need_ one another.


As with any meeting of the minds boths groups have to understand the
needs, fears and expectations of the other.


Point 2: Getting it right vs. Getting it now
--------------------------------------------

We techies need to realize that the community that the library serves are
hungry for something right now, not tomorrow or the day after. The users
have an idea of what's out there and they want to know how to find what
they are looking for. This of course is also true of the Internet
environment.  However, the traditional Internet user was a lot more
likely to put up with the indignities of the FTP client interface and the
word of mouth method of information dissemination than your average high
school student is today.

This came home to me recently when I had the opportunity to meet with the
Library of Congress MARC group to provide informal feedback on the
upcoming proposed changes to the MARC record. I have to admit that my
first thoughts to many of the proposed fields were "You can't do it that
way... this information is inherently dynamic and you can't store dynamic
information in static records". We techies often have an aversion to what
_we_ view as "bandaid solutions" due to the knowledge that the "temporary
fix" may be around for generations to come. Rather than getting something
out there which works now but isn't a long term solution, we want to sit
down and get it right: how many of us have cursed the designer of bathroom
taps where the cold and hot water spigots don't mix the water before it
gets to you...  you alternately get your hands frozen or scalded. Could
the person who designed it just sat down for a couple minutes more and
said "Hmmm, maybe I should think about this a bit before I unleash it to
the unwashed masses?"  :-)

We have to understand that for the users that don't have access to _any_
of this information now, something is better than nothing even if it
means that the information may be out of date when it gets to them.

I find myself now coming down somewhere in between the two camps: give
the users the data and make it as accurate as you can at the time, but
make sure that they realize that this information may be out of date and
at best they must think of it as a hint. In the meantime, the long
process of designing technical solutions to providing a higher quality of
service can be worked on. It doesn't help your student looking for a
particular piece of information on the network to say "We'd love to help
you with that, but we'd like for you to get it right all the time... and
by the way, this will be ready in 1999".

The problems that we are attempting to tackle are enormous in scope and
while I have no doubt that they will ultimately be solved, it will take a
lot of talk, work and time.


I have to split this into two parts for certain mailers so... continued
in Part II.....
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU