A scholar, a librarian and a computer scientist will report on their experience and discuss the implications of the recent NINCH Workshop:  "Building Blocks: Intellectual Needs Shaping Technical Solutions" <http://www.ninch.org/bb/project/project.html>.  Building Blocks is one component of NINCH's ongoing Computer Science & Humanities Initiative conducted with CNI and the National Academies. The September 20-24 workshop assembled 90 scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers, IT and computer scientists in five humanities fields. The goals of the workshop were to: review current scholarly and pedagogical practice (especially in using primary source materials); articulate by field and across disciplines the most pressing needs in the humanities that networked computing can address; and outline both short-term, practical projects and areas to include on a longer-term research agenda to be developed with computer scientists. More than 20 shorter-term project proposals are now being marshaled to funders as we begin to think through the program for the first of three annual Computer Science & Humanities conferences starting fall 2001.

Higher Education (IT) has long been at the mercy of vendors. Each vendor offers different applications with different user interfaces running on different platforms using different security models -- all developed in a variety of technologies. The JA-SIG uPortal changes this, offering a solution that takes the institution's perspective into account. Here the emphasis is on the vendor interoperating (1) with the campus directory services and (2) with the campus portal. This presentation explains the technology, goals and future of the JA-SIG uPortal effort.

This session will provide a report on the Library of Congress Web harvesting activity with the non-profit Internet Archive. The project entails capturing over 150 U.S. Presidential Candidate/Election-related Web sites; developing selection criteria for open access Web sites; and creating protocols and prototypes for capturing, preserving, and accessing born digital Web sites.

The Knowledge Conservancy is a non-profit organization being formed to make privately held intellectual property accessible online to the public for free and assure its long-term preservation. The Knowledge Conservancy will accept limited licenses to copyright properties and financial support to achieve its mission.

The Knowledge Conservancy offers authors and publishers a means to serve the public good while continuing to exploit the value of their intellectual property. Owners of intellectual property can select terms for their donations, specifying degrees of functionality associated with online access to their property, which do not compete with their own product offerings, and which may accentuate the values of those offerings and/or provide a convenient way for potential consumers to test the products before buying.

The Knowledge Conservancy offers a way to contribute to greater accessibility of intellectual properties and a way to ensure that future generations will also have access to intellectual properties even if the current owners of such properties are no longer interested in providing access.

This report will discuss the status of The Knowledge Conservancy and current thoughts on how it will operate.

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) is a new law being proposed to govern contracts for computer information. Computer information is defined broadly to include any "information in electronic form which is obtained from or through the use of a computer or which is in a form capable of being processed by a computer." In other words, networked information of all kinds (computer software, library databases, electronic journals, e-books, etc.) will fall subject to this uniform state law that will among other things enable the enforceability of shrinkwrap and click-through license terms. The law has been criticized because its provisions tend to weigh in the favor of licensors: software companies and information distributors. Libraries and educational institutions are also concerned because it is likely to upset the balanced treatment afforded creators and users under federal copyright law. This briefing will focus on the controversial provisions of UCITA, implications for institutional licensing policy, and status of UCITA in the states.

TILT is a highly interactive web-based tutorial designed to teach students basic research skills. Created for the University of Texas System, its use at the Austin campus refocused our approach to library instruction. Within one year of its official debut, TILT has seen exponential growth. The undergraduate-friendly environment and universally applicable content make it useful to educators internationally as a supplement to existing programs. It is a model for online pedagogy in this era of distributed learning. TILT was honored as the 1999 Best Educational Site of the Year by the SXSW Interactive Festival and received the 2000 ACRL Innovation in Instruction award.

The library plays a critical role in providing a viable electronic service with which to win faculty interest and motivation to actively engage in improving access to scholarly research. Caltech will present its strategy and successes over the last 18 months in recruiting and developing self-publishing repositories for inclusion in the Open Archives initiative. Topics include mechanisms for identifying opportunities, handling of copyright, and faculty response and behavior.

One aspect of CNIs mission since its inception has been the promotion of collaboration and partnership among information professionals at the institutional level. The Task Force structure, with institutions designating senior library and IT officials as CNI representatives, has been one manifestation of the collaborative strategy to encourage linkages, communication, and joint projects at the institutional level. CNI has also promoted cross-sector collaboration in the way it structured many of its projects, such as University Presses in the Networked Environment and New Learning Communities. CNI has offered a workshop, Working Together, since 1994, that provides a structured environment for institutional teams to develop projects related to networking and networked information resources.

In this open discussion session, participants will be invited to discuss the state of cross-sector collaboration at their institutions and will be asked to guide CNIs program development in this area. Should CNI develop new initiatives to address collaboration? Is collaboration a problem solved at many institutions? What would be useful to the CNI membership?