Congress―the world's largest and most varied repository of information—served as a natural setting to discuss the policy framework for an advanced information infrastructure. He concurred with the vision of the future in which the innovation of the private entrepreneur and the dedication of our democratic Government to citizen access to information combine to serve learning, creativity, and productivity even more than it has in the past. The Library of Congress is a largely untapped asset for the information age that should be used to benefit the entire country. The Library of Congress, like most libraries, Dr. Billington observed, must move into an electronic environment to meet their core missions to gather, organize, catalogue, preserve, and make widely available their collections. The challenge will be to use new digital technologies efficiently and establish cooperative efforts to improve access to vast collections. The Librarian of Congress noted that certain forms of information, such as census statistics, technical journal articles, Government reports, and economic data, already existed in digital format, and that other types of information, such as complex maps, might soon be available only in a digitized version. Libraries will need to provide access to this increasing volume of new digital materials, as well as to digitize unique, and decaying, 19th and 20th century paper doc uments. Dr. Billington noted numerous Library of Congress projects underway that contribute to an advanced information infrastructure. These included testing, in conjunction with the Advanced Research Projects Agency and five academic libraries, an electronic copyright management system to automate registration, receive digitized deposits, and facilitate licensing and dissemination of materials; digitizing, through the American Memory project, basic American history collections and providing access to schools and libraries throughout the country; and placing library exhibits on-line on both the Internet and commercial systems. He noted the importance of establishing an efficient system under which the rights of authors and copyright owners are fully recognized, arrangements for clearances, permissions, and licenses are worked out, and payments are made. Yet, Dr. Billington also observed, the Library of Congress and other major libraries faced increasing budgetary pressures that could erode their ability even to maintain basic collections, much less expand services. The Nation needed, the Librarian warned, not only a digital highway but the intellectual cargo to traverse that system. With these concerns in mind, Dr. Billington asked the conference participants to consider three questions: • How will our society fund the digitization of non-commercial, non-entertainment materials? • What is the proper division of public/private labor in creating, storing, organizing, marketing, and distributing information? • How can we avoid creating a society of information haves and information have-nots? Dr. Billington also noted that the Library of Congress has a special obligation to help define, as well as serve, the general public interest. In this respect, policymakers must determine how to sustain, in the electronic age, the democratic equal access to information that free public libraries have provided in the age of print. EVOLVING ROLES IN A DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT We are in the midst of an information revolution that is significantly changing the way institutions operate and the roles they play in our society. These fundamental changes are occurring at such a rapid pace that they challenge leaders in Government and the private sector to develop effective new policies and practices that will facilitate achieving the promise of the information age. This transformation is driving consideration of new approaches to the way information is delivered to the public, a reevaluation of traditional institutional roles, and establishment of new types of relationships among different players. Throughout the conference, participants provided their perspectives on how the emergence of a digital environment created changing opportunities for libraries, Government, and the private sector. They also offered insights into new roles for the public in participating in a networked society. Finally, many participants commented on the new opportunities for collaboration that now exist to promote the creation and delivery of electronic information for both commercial benefit and the public good. Libraries Libraries acquire, catalogue, make available, and preserve collections of various kinds. In a traditional context, collections often consist of books and other published materials which are stored in a central facility. Thus, access is limited to those who can travel to the respective library or await an item's arrival through interlibrary loan. Once an item has been lent to one reader, it becomes temporarily unavailable to all others. Participants observed that an advanced information infrastructure dramatically changes many of these historical operations and relationships. Increasingly new forms of unpublished (and therefore unauthenticated) digitized materials are emerging as millions of users are linked by computer networks worldwide. As one participant noted, "there is a massive parallel creation of digital multimedia library materials that, by and large, is taking place outside of the library sector." The volume of this new digital material, if it were on paper, dwarfs the existing library buildings and their holdings. The situation is additionally complex because digitized information can be updated continuously, manipulated and combined with other materials, and viewed in multiple ways. Digital data thus creates enormous new amounts of dynamic knowledge that may exist only at the moment and never be stored anywhere permanently. Institutions, including libraries, may provide access to and global distribution of these materials without physically controlling them. Multiple readers can access the same material at anytime and from anywhere. What roles should libraries and librarians perform in this new environment of exponential growth of digital information? To what degree will the library community make access to digital materials a priority compared to other core services, such as storage, cataloging arrearages, and preservation? To what extent does digitization offer potential solutions to these problems? What kind of standards need to be developed to collect, provide access to, and authenticate digital data? Participants noted that libraries are heterogeneous entities that offer a wide array of services. They also saw distributed libraries providing a variety of evolving services since, as the network of digital materials grows, redundancy of holdings is no longer necessary. Some participants questioned whether libraries still had a unique role given broader access to digital information, whereas others maintained that libraries needed to ensure a sense of community and provide publicly subsidized access to information in all formats. In addition, many roles will be shared with other agencies or organizations. 78-056 0-94-17 Consensus emerged that the role of librarians may change significantly as they become increasingly viewed as managers of knowledge. These knowledge management skills may take many forms and can be expected to involve librarians in all facets of the information chain. Librarians will be present at the information generation process, perhaps advising authors on outlets for these new creative works. Librarians will also help place digital materials under some form of control, thus assisting people to deal with the morass of information. There will be a growing need to organize digital information on the networks from the standpoint of the users. New approaches, such as “mapping" data through a form of geographic organizational system, offer interesting possibilities for indexing not only what content exists, but where it exists. Librarians will increasingly function as facilitators, enablers, and teachers to potential users of computer networks. They will instruct people in using networks, creating intellectual content, manipulating data in new ways, and fashioning visualizations of abstract content. Librarians may manage both certain types of networks and skilled volunteers responsible for organizing information in an intelligible fashion. These efforts will better enable users to find materials on their own. Finally, librarians will negotiate network access rights on behalf of some public users. An advanced information infrastructure creates new vistas for librarians in support of their constituents. For example, librarians can more readily access materials from other countries to better serve a multicultural America. Yet participants cautioned against assuming that all, or even most, library collections will be digitized. Materials will appear in print, on microfiche, on CD-ROMs, and through a whole host of other formats. The daunting task confronting libraries, one participant observed, will be to deal with simultaneous technologies and attempt to integrate them into a seamless network or system. The challenge will further involve handling materials originating in digital form, converting critical collections to digital formats, and maintaining access to other items which may never be digitized. In this new “neographic institution", librarians will need to rely on the best of the traditional and current worlds and move to the future. Public and Private Sectors The creation of an advanced information infrastructure will require the investment of billions of dollars over the next decade. The private sector has already marshalled substantial resources towards this enterprise and is expected to intensify its activities. Representatives from the private sector stated that the building of the actual digital highway is well underway and does not require public funds for its construction. Given the massive and continuing Federal budget deficit, conflicting funding demands, and the efforts of the commercial sector, the Government's role should be focused on other aspects of the information infrastructure. General agreement also emerged, as one conference participant noted, that this venture is too complex, distributed, and pervasive to be handled strictly as a Government initiative. Indeed, several participants noted that the concept of public and private sectors needed to be redefined to encompass the full range of key players in the building of an advanced information infrastructure. These include the vast volunteer force that contributes to the Internet and local communities that can add to and benefit from the wealth of information resources that are becoming available digitally. Participants envisioned a close partnership of the public and private sectors and advocated a number of specific roles for Government and private industry. In addition to the importance of private investment in building the digital highway, participants recognized the vital role the private sector is already playing in providing valuable information products and services. The private sector has strong incentives to help eliminate barriers of access to electronic information resources and continues to make sizable investments to accomplish this goal. The participants also overwhelmingly agreed upon the need for a strong Government presence in the evolution of the information infrastructure. As one participant stated, there needs to be a "collaborative role" for Government so that it can enable things to happen, advance cutting edge technology, and speak on behalf of the people of the country. To accomplish this, Government needs to support the following areas: Promoting Innovation The Government can play an important role in promoting private sector investment and innovation. This role might require the Government to convene key players, resolve divisive issues, and make things happen. This might also take the form of funding critical demonstration projects in technology and research. For example, several participants observed that a relatively modest public investment in the Internet had leveraged enormous private sector and research community activities. At the same time, the private sector understands well what consumers want and has created significant pieces of the infrastructure based upon consumer spending. Future innovations may be in part dependent on the transition to new regulatory structures not bound by outmoded technological distinctions and policies that promote capital investment. Government also has a role to play in preserving intellectual property rights of information creators and distributors in the digital era. Encouraging Open Systems An efficient and effective information infrastructure requires open, accessible, and interoperable architecture for all systems. The Government has a significant responsibility in encouraging standards and regulations that promote openness, while not imposing requirements that would limit the flexibility of the private sector. The endorsement of open systems will permit greater opportunities for a wide range of applications and services to be developed. To support this, the evolving regulatory framework needs to encompass a long-term view that supports interconnection of different components of the information infrastructure. Openness also involves developing systems that are usable to the average citizen. There is much to be done by all players to improve ease of access to digital information and facilitate broad-based use of networked information. Ensuring the Public Interest The Government has an obligation to ensure that all Americans derive the benefits of the information highway. To accomplish this involves performing an oversight role to encourage a balance between commercial interests and the public good. Related to this is the need to promote educational and cultural resources as essential cargo on this highway. Public service applications that have less commercial viability are candidates for Government support. This category also would include many traditional library functions, such as preserving knowledge and providing access to information for those who cannot afford other sources. The Government may also provide incentives for the private sector to fund projects that advance the public interest. As stated by one participant, there is a major opportunity for the digital highway to be a catalyst of change to overcome the tremendously growing disparity among groups in this country. To capitalize on this opportunity will require that adequate "ramps" to the highway are built to all communities, including the inner cities and rural areas. This includes providing equal access to technology and information in schools and supporting relevant education and training. Creating Databases of Government Information Federal, State, and local agencies collect and process enormous amounts of information in the course of meeting their specific missions. Increasing amounts are already digitized. The Government can significantly enhance both national educational and research goals and America's competitiveness in the global marketplace, several participants noted, by making this wealth of information available electronically. They urged a collaborative effort under which Government creates the wholesale data base and the private sector develops retail information products for public consumption. The availability of Government information in digital form provides enormous opportunities for the private sector to create a multiplicity of value-added materials and services. The private sector also is critical for developing more "user-friendly" tools to enhance access to Government information. At the same time, participants believed that the Government needed to maintain its archival and preservation functions, develop locators to the growing store of Government data, and guarantee public access to Government information. Opportunities for Collaboration Participants frequently mentioned collaboration and partnerships in describing the opportunities presented by the advanced information infrastructure. Discussion focused on promoting new forms of collaboration between public and private bodies in the higher national interest. Speakers identified specific challenges, such as making it easier for people to access networked information or developing standards. One participant suggested collaboration between the library sector and the volunteer force on the Internet so that the volumes of information could begin to be organized before it “collapses under its own weight.” Participants advocated better dialogue among the Government, private sector, academia, and other communities involved in information generation and distribution. This dialogue is critical to developing a higher level of trust and partnership between the private and public sectors to serve the long term public interest. Working collaboratively, many stated, offered the only way to continue the advancement that has been achieved in building the Internet — the vehicle for a wide range of partnerships among traditional competitors and the basis for forging new partnerships globally. Participants offered a number of existing models of effective collaboration. Many of these involved improving educational opportunities and access to library materials and Government information. There is a need to better disseminate information about these efforts so that others can learn from them. It is also important to evaluate how scalable individual projects may be for broader national programs. PUBLIC POLICY AGENDA The continued development of a national information infrastructure requires the support of Government through effective public policies that clearly define the Federal role and |