Since many sources are of national and international significance, attempts should be made to support collaborative efforts to create electronic information sources and tools. The field of information technology is subject to rapid change. In the rush to exploit new ways of creating and accessing information, regulatory issues are often neglected or brushed aside. A case in point is the variety of coding systems devised by individual scholars for textual analysis of electronic texts, described earlier in this report. Standardization is always several steps behind innovation, but remains essential for information technology to yield real benefits.
Cooperation is hindered by a lack of common standards.
The great changes underway in humanities information justify standards like SGML, which are extensible and have application across disciplines and data types. Intellectual property and copyright are additional areas of concern. The advent of electronic information systems has created a host of problems not addressed by the 1976 Copyright Act. These demand urgent consideration if they are not to hinder the development of electronic publications and information resources. Two fundamental themes involve the determination of fair compensation based on ownership of object by the creator, and the issue of what constitutes fair use.