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About CENDI — Highlights from FY 1998

The major accomplishments for FY98 are summarized in three main areas: Federal STI Leadership and Forum for Discussion; STI Management and Technical Cooperation; and STI Education and Information Literacy.

FEDERAL STI LEADERSHIP AND FORUM FOR DISCUSSION

CENDI provided leadership in discussion of STI topics with over 38 outside organizations including 4 policy agencies, 13 other Executive Branch mission agencies, 3 legislative branch organizations, 4 interagency organizations, 4 academic institutions, 1 international organization, and 9 private sector entities.

Dialogs were hosted with information communities outside of the federal STI community to identify issues in information management futures:

• The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) briefed CENDI on the FGDC metadata efforts, including standards development, tools development, and training of scientists.


• The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Library of Congress gave briefings on digital library projects.


• The National Science Foundation (NSF) presented an overview of the Digital Government of the 21^st Century, a project funded by NSF to foster collaboration between agencies, academia, and industry, to address the problems related to legacy systems, and to identify the research needed to move the government forward in the digital direction.


• CENDI invited members of the intelligence, academic and industrial/corporate information communities to discuss the future of STI dissemination and use within these communities.


• CENDI sponsored an event on machine-aided indexing attended by over 30 people. Presentations were given by 7 MAI vendors.


• Jointly with DARPA, CENDI sponsored a session on the first major digital library projects funded by DARPA, NSF, and NASA (DL-1) and the upcoming DL-2 program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting.

CENDI took leadership roles on STI policy issues for the government:

• The white paper "The Changing R&D Information Economy in the Digital Age" was completed.


• The CENDI Copyright Task Group was formed. A workshop was held to collect the issues related to copyright and database protection. Initial observations were shared with the Office of Management and Budget/Office of Science and Technology Policy and with the Federal Library and Information Center Committee.

The National Agricultural Library and the National Library of Education joined CENDI during 1997/98.

An environmental scanning and hot topic update system has been developed for CENDI. Issues of interest that have been presented by the Secretariat include US legislation regarding digital copyright, US research and development funding, the Global Information Locator Service (GILS) metadata standards, database protection, revisions to the U.S. code (Title 44) governing the printing and distribution of government publications, and preprint services in the sciences. An arrangement has been made with the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) to exchange information on hot topics.

CENDI agencies shared information about a wide variety of agency systems and research activities including automated cataloging, virtual reference desks, and cataloging and retrieval systems for images.

JOINT PROJECTS AND TECHNICAL COOPERATION

Background was provided to begin to develop a high level conceptual model of the information architecture of the future including both technology and content design.

• Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, presented his views on the information architecture of the future.


• The discussions on agency digital library initiatives provided an information exchange among agencies on this approach to information system architecture.

CENDI discussed the acquisition of electronic journals and bibliographic records. Presentations were given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (publisher of Science magazine), the chair of the FEDLINK Consortial Procurement Task Group, and the Association of Research Libraries. In addition, the agencies described their efforts at acquiring electronic bibliographic records and full text. Bilateral discussions and ideas for strategic development resulted from the meeting.

STI EDUCATION AND INFORMATION LITERACY

The CENDI Website was enhanced with the STI Manager, which provides links to selected sites related to STI policy, information lifecycle management, standards, etc. Seventy-five records have been cataloged and indexed using the Dublin Core metadata element set and a categorization and controlled vocabulary scheme developed for this site. The site is being restructured from a CENDI "brochure" to an active site for the STI community.

The User Education Working Group sponsored a field trip to the National Library of Medicine to see demonstrations of NLM's new help desk and telephone routing systems.

The User Education Working Group sponsored a Web Metrics task group, which discussed issues related to the collection and use of metrics on web usage. As an outgrowth, a webmasters' listserv was created.

Contact was made with the Digital Library Metrics Working Group sponsored by D-Lib Magazine. Key points from the Web Metrics report were shared with the DL Working Group.

CENDI Working Groups provided educational opportunities for cataloging and indexing staff so that they have a better understanding of metadata developments.

• The Cataloging and Subject Analysis and Retrieval Working Groups jointly sponsored a task group on metadata initiatives among the CENDI agencies. Seven agencies presented information on their non-traditional metadata formats for bibliographic information, as well as metadata for images, photos, lessons plans, and other non-textual objects.


• CENDI co-sponsored a workshop on Federal Metadata Standards and Initiatives with the Federal Library and Information Center Committee.


• The Subject Analysis and Retrieval Working Group sponsored an indexing workshop, where agency indexing systems were reviewed.

CENDI developed educational tools that describe the directions and capabilities of CENDI agencies and the benefits of the joint enterprise.

• A new CENDI brochure was produced.


• CENDI members and the Secretariat staff presented sessions about CENDI at the Open Source Solution's Conference and to the Scientific and Technical Information Communications Committee of the Intelligence Community.


• The CENDI Web site is moving from a "CENDI-only" focus to one with broader information on STI.