THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DIGITAL LIBRARY
A FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING AND STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
OCTOBER 1996

REPORT TO THE LIBRARY COUNCIL
and
COMMITTEE ON INTERCAMPUS NETWORKING AND INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Executive Summary
and
Recommendations

A. BACKGROUND

In response to user needs and demands, as well as changing technologies, libraries are moving beyond the automation of access tools such as on-line catalogs and abstracting and indexing databases towards an era in which substantial amounts of primary source material are directly accessible on-line for the user community. These digital materials range from electronic versions of books and journals offered by traditional publishers to manuscripts, photographs, maps, sound recordings and similar materials digitized from libraries' own special collections to new electronic scholarly and scientific databases developed through the collaboration of researchers, computer and information scientists, and librarians.

There is growing national and international recognition that digital libraries will be a key research and development area for the next decade, and they will form an increasingly essential part of the broad information infrastructure supporting the research and education community. ARPA, NASA and the National Science Foundation are sponsoring a major research funding program that currently supports six major Digital Library Research Projects (at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Stanford, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Michigan), each of which involve many collaborating institutions. The Library of Congress has initiated a National Digital Library Project, and some 15 of the nation's largest research libraries and the Commission on Preservation and Access have joined together to establish a National Digital Library Federation. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has created and funded the Electronic Libraries Programme in the United Kingdom, and the European Commission has established an effort across the European Community.

The University Librarians of the nine UC campuses assumed a leadership role in launching a major initiative to define the scope of a UC digital library program. In October 1994, they proposed a UC Digital Library planning effort to UC's Library Council, with a time horizon for planning extending to the year 2000. They identified six priority strategies:

(1) Conceptualize a variety of models for building and accessing networked information resources and services;
(2) Undertake pilot projects that realize and test these models;
(3) Redesign UC-wide information delivery services;
(4) Develop policies and procedures for acquiring information resources in digital formats;
(5) Review and reshape the mutual relationship between the UC libraries and the Office of the President to focus efforts on the UC Digital Library; and
(6) Generate financial resources to support investment in the development of the UC Digital Library.

In response to this proposal, Library Council created an Ad Hoc Task Force on UC Digital Library Planning to develop a plan-to-plan. The Task force, which consisted of several faculty representatives as well as members of the UC library community, met several times and prepared a report that was approved in February 1995 (University of California Digital Library: Report and Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Task Force).

The report recommended the establishment of a more rigorous planning process. To lead that planning process, a Digital Library Executive Working Group was appointed by Library Council. The Executive Working Group reports jointly to Library Council and the Committee on Inter-campus Networking and Information Technology for Academic Purposes (CINITAP, a system-wide committee composed of representatives in the field of information technology drawn from the nine UC campuses and the Office of the President). The Executive Working Group has spent the past 10 months deliberating and preparing the attached 'plan', which is, rather, a framework and set of potential strategies to deal with the human, technical, organizational and financial issues which are critical to the development of a UC Digital Library.

B. SUMMARY

The UC Libraries are in a multi-faceted financial crisis. The UCDL Executive Working Group believes that new technologies capable of leveraging institutional and external investments offer an important and necessary means by which the University of California will be able to maintain the quality and scope of information resources required to support its teaching, research, and public service missions. The UCDL's potential to manage unprecedented quantities of knowledge and information in an integrated system of access, service, and dissemination will enable it to meet emerging and expanding needs, while making the cost of such an undertaking affordable to UC.

To maintain a library system capable of supporting a great research university, UC must:

• develop a shared vision for a digital library, which meets the evolving needs of the academic community;
• build an organizational structure to implement that vision; and
• create a funding model to sustain it.

This report contains no easy answers and promises no quick solutions to the problems the UC libraries face; it does articulate a vision of the UCDL, along with strategic initiatives to move the vision forward to reality. Many of the key issues and demonstrable benefits will not emerge until we implement these initiatives. In this context, two conclusions stand out with particular clarity:

(1) Organizational, policy, and financial elements in the design of the UCDL are more challenging than technical ones and will ultimately determine whether this effort succeeds or fails. It is essential that technologies not obscure the continuing goals and purposes of the research library as a central component of the University's academic mission.
2) The UCDL represents an opportunity by which UC can enhance the quality of its library system and provide national leadership in establishing a new model to sustain scholarly and scientific communication for decades to come. We believe that the UCDL has the potential to reduce the rate at which information resource costs increase and to spread those costs across a larger constituency through potential revenue sources. It is also our belief that overall library costs will not diminish in the short-term and substantial new capital investment is needed now.

It is important to note that planning for the UCDL in the mid-1990s follows the precedent established nearly twenty years ago, when UC pioneered a solution to crises of space and accelerating demand for information resources with The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development 1978-1988 (July 1977), commonly known as the "Salmon Plan." Development of the Melvyl system made it possible for three new campuses to augment their collections with access to libraries throughout UC, and construction of the Northern and Southern Regional Library Facilities eased space constraints. The Salmon Plan served UC well, but its fiscal underpinnings have eroded in recent years; it is clear that it can no longer secure the future.

In the current round of planning, the detailed operational design embodied in the Salmon Plan is neither possible nor appropriate because the technical, institutional, and economic environments in which universities exist are so fluid. Current experience simply has not provided sufficient data for the kind of detailed operational planning in the Salmon Plan. We have also learned a great deal about planning since then. In fact, our experience with the Salmon Plan is that the most detailed parts of the plan have been the least accurate and useful.

Instead, we propose that the UCDL will unfold more organically, with an extended period of continuous innovation in organizational, financial, and technical structures. In many respects, this report is intended to identify challenges, issues, and tensions and to provoke interest and discussion across university constituencies.

In September 1996, the University initiated a broad nine-campus Library Planning and Action Initiative. It is the hope of the Executive Working Group that its work will be folded into that effort as a key information input, and that the momentum established in the Digital Library planning effort will be leveraged for initiating several strategic initiatives over the next eighteen months.

C. RECOMMENDATIONS

The Executive Working Group believes that it is essential to reach agreement now on the organizational, policy, and financial frameworks which will enable strategic initiatives. The vision will continue to evolve organically as: (1) more faculty and students interact with implementations of components of the digital library; and (2) technology advances. (Please note that specific report references are included with those recommendations where such background is critical to an understanding of the recommendation.)

Recommendation 1:
It is not possible to move forward expeditiously within the current organizational structure. A UCDL organizational structure, with the responsibility, authority and resources to implement strategic initiatives, should be established by the University in early 1997. This report describes three alternatives. The Executive Working Group believes that the most appropriate framework at this time is that of co-library. The Library and Planning and Action Initiative staff and Advisory Task Force should review these alternatives carefully and put forward a specific recommendation for action by early 1997. (See: Report, pp. 4-6; Appendix C.)

Recommendation 2:
Strategic initiatives serve as rich sources of learning; they provide UC with: a valuable laboratory; a source for data critical to policy, financial, organizational, and operational decisions; and practically advance the reality of a UCDL. One strategic initiative, the EAD Project, has already been put forward and partially funded by the University. This project lays the foundation for building and making accessible an electronic collection of the 100 million pages of original material contained in UC's special collections. The Executive Working Group recommends that the next strategic initiative focus on building the University of California Digital Library's Science, Technology, and Industry Collection. (See Report, pp. 12-16.) It further recommends that a formal proposal be developed for this initiative by the Library Planning and Action Initiative, for University action in early 1997.

Recommendation 3:
The UC libraries lack the resources and budgetary flexibility necessary to make progress in implementing strategic initiatives and building the Digital Library. The University should provide annual special budgetary appropriations, over the next three years, for the funding of a Digital Library organization (Recommendation 1) and strategic initiatives emerging from UCDL planning and the Library Planning and Action Initiative. (See Report, pp. 12-16.)

Recommendation 4:
The UCDL will take shape in an environment in which State funding alone will not adequately support building and maintaining it. The Library Planning and Action Initiative should convene a special Finance Task Force which will not only thoroughly review current UC library funding models for appropriateness and adequacy with respect to current library services, but also make recommendations for new, sustainable models to the President and Chancellors for support of the UCDL. (See Report, pp. 6-7.)

Recommendation 5:
As part of its public service mission, the University, through the Library Planning and Action Initiative, should actively explore the potential of intersegmental collaboration among educational institutions in California and outreach to the California business community as opportunities for UCDL funding.

Recommendation 6:
A robust technological infrastructure is an essential prerequisite for the UCDL. The Office of the President and the nine campuses should not only continue but also expand their investment in IT networking infrastructure and faculty/student/staff access and know-how for state-of-the-art hardware and software. (See: Report, p. 10; Appendix E.)

Recommendation 7:
The University should explore the development of network access capabilities beyond the physical boundaries of the University, with particular attention to moving beyond modem access in the classroom and off campus. Working with the systemwide Communications Planning Group, opportunities should be sought to conduct pilot projects in cooperation with communications companies, from local cable firms to global enterprises.

Recommendation 8:
As a critical component of one of the UCDL strategic initiatives, distributed printing and charging capabilities should be designed and implemented.

Recommendation 9:
The campuses should define and adopt a Universitywide authentication system, as currently being proposed through the systemwide Communications Planning Group.

Recommendation 10:
The University should convene a systemwide task force on copyright to review and make recommendations regarding the role and implications of University copyright policy in sustaining cost-effective access to scholarly information. This should proceed in parallel with strategic initiatives, which will provide the necessary laboratory in which to explore, test, and evaluate alternatives.

Recommendation 11:
A Universitywide human resources program that acknowledges increased demand for user services in the digital environment and recognizes that library staff need equipment and time to deliver the required services should be developed collaboratively across the nine campuses.

Recommendation 12:
The Library Planning and Action Initiative should appoint a Digital Library Task Force, with significant faculty participation, to advise ongoing UCDL planning and strategic initiative implementation.

Last updated: 31 January 1997