The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an effort to develop experimental standards to permit sites to expose metadata for objects that they house; this metadata is then harvested by applications services which can use it to provide functions like federated searching. The OAI has its roots in efforts to federate e-print archives, but has now moved to a much more general framework that can accomodate a wide range of repositories, descriptive metadata schemes, and applications. OAI is being supported by both CNI and the Digital Library Federation

This session will provide an high level view of the history, status and planned development of the OAI effort, as well as a look at some of the applications being built on it. It will not include a detailed technical discussion of the experimental standards.

The University of Texas has access to over 20,000 e-books and participates in multiple overlapping e-book consortia. The e-books have received steady usage, they are included in the libraries'online catalog, and they have been well received by faculty and students. Nevertheless, it has been a challenge to incorporate e-books into existing routines, and librarians continue to believe that their format and functionality make e-books inherently a new breed of information species. These experiences have led to the formulation of a set of guiding principles for the acquisition of e-books. While early e-book experiences have been positive and benign, the gold rush mentality in the e-book marketplace raises questions of potential pitfalls which libraries and academics need to keep in mind.

In the current wake of Napsters legal proceedings, find out how the University of Southern California resolved a lawsuit filed by the heavy metal band Metalica, claiming that copyright violations allegedly committed by Napster users have been facilitated by the University and the MP3-sharing company.

In this open discussion session, participants will be invited to discuss Napster and MP3 distribution and how the University of Southern California took a different approach in finding a resolution and establishing a policy that banned usage but still maintained access. Discussions will include the future of proxy MP3 distributors and if current university policies will need to adapt.

A proposal to support national site licensing of electronic journals, abstracts, and indexes was funded in late 1999 by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. This federal agency funds infrastructure for research institutions in the broad areas of science and technology. The current project involves an unprecedented collaborative effort of 64 Canadian universities and builds on earlier work done in other countries. Federal grant funding provides 40% of the cost of the project through 2003. Progress to date and expected outcomes will be discussed.

This session will explore the topic of services and facilities jointly developed and staffed by library and computing staff. The presenters will discuss the rationale for the development of their facility and services, describe program objectives, and discuss day-to-day collaboration challenges.

Library and computing services have some common or complementary goals and serve the same user groups. Students and faculty need a range of services from identifying subject-oriented resources to using a statistical software package to trouble-shooting hardware or telecommunications problems. It can be confusing to users to know where to go for help and whom to approach for problems. At Dartmouth College, a renovation and addition to the library prompted a re-thinking of the location of library and academic computing services. The design for the new wing of the library, recently opened, includes many co-located library and computing services, such as the reference desk and academic computing consulting services. A joint library/IT planning process developed the concept and design.

At Oregon State University, the Information Commons, jointly staffed by library, IT personnel, and others, was designed to offer services and resources to keep pace with the changes in the way their students and faculty work and study. The facility offers users library reference assistance, computing consultation, a multi-media production facility, classrooms, and equipment loans.

Perpetual access to paper materials has been ensured through local decisions and investments. Hundreds, and in many cases, thousands of copies of journals and books are stored and maintained on the shelves of libraries around the country and around the world. Although the current system is often seen as an archival solution, these materials are stored locally not to ensure a safe archive, but rather to provide convenient access. In a technological world where local storage is not required to provide access, who will pay to insure that material, especially infrequently used material, remains accessible as technologies evolve? And how will they pay? From what budget? The speaker will address these and related questions from the perspective of JSTOR, an organization with a mission to serve as a trusted electronic archive of journal literature. The response of the academic community to the JSTOR archive provides early feedback on the capacity of institutions in the academic community to pay for "archiving."

This presentation will update activities recently completed and currently underway to develop statistics and performance measures for electronic information services and resources in ARL libraries. The project is sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and has been funded by a consortia of 24 ARL libraries. Work is being completed by the Information Institute at Florida State University. A project abstract appears at:   <http://www.ii.fsu.edu/Projects/ARL/ARL.abstract.html>

The presentation will include preliminary findings from Phase I of the study regarding (1) current ARL strategies in managing/using statistics for electronic services, (2) successful strategies for managing networked data, and (3) issues related to obtaining and using vendor-based statistics. Additional information about the project can be found at:   <http://www.arl.org/stats/newmeas/e-metrics.html>

This session will cover the three major projects the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative has been working on for 2000:

1. Interesting Practices and Best Systems in Faculty Engagement and Support;
   
   
2. the READI (READiness Inventory) project, to develop a web-based dynamic decision making tool for the executive leadership of campuses as they evaluate the capacity of their respective institutions to use technology to accomplish institutional goals;
   
   
3. the Communities of Practice (CoP) project to pilot test support, tools and environments for on-line communities.

In addition, other NLII programs and services such as regional focus sessions, the fellowship program, and the Teaching & Learning Award will be discussed.