SUMMARY OF MEETING

ARL WORKING GROUP ON THE GERMAN DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Washington, D. C.
ARL Conference Room
Thursday, October 2, 1997
10 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

1. Introductions
   Winston Tabb welcomed the meeting participants and asked each to introduce themselves. He noted that two colleagues, Konrad Jarausch and Karin Wittenborg, were unable to attend the meeting and had sent their regrets.

2. Meeting Objectives (Winston Tabb)
   Winston Tabb reviewed the agenda for the meeting and outlined the three objectives of the meeting:
   1. Determine whether there is a continuing need for the German Demonstration Project;

   2. If the answer is yes, fashion the objectives for the Project; and

   3. Outline a methodology to assure success for the Project.

      He noted that there are at least three choices: (1) reaffirm the present course of the Project; (2) revamp the Project and determine a new model; or (3) bring the Project to a close. He encouraged the participants to take a fresh look at the whole enterprise and to speak freely on the topic.

3. Overview of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program (Deborah Jakubs)

   Deborah Jakubs presented a brief overview of the Global Resources Program, with an emphasis on the important characteristics that have ensured success in the various projects. The documentation that the meeting participants received in their information packets summarizes much of the Program's background.

   The Program is based upon early work accomplished by the Task Force on the Acquisition and Distribution of Foreign-Language and Area Studies Materials of the AAU Research Libraries Project; the membership included university presidents and provosts, faculty, and librarians. AAU and ARL endorsed a common action agenda that emerged from the Project. One of the agenda items envisioned a program to build a distributed collection of global research resources to ensure North American access to foreign publications. Studies concluded that that there is a crisis in the ability of research libraries to develop their collections, particularly in foreign languages. Research libraries do not have the financial resources to cope with the increasing numbers of publications world-wide. Furthermore, the studies also concluded that research libraries are developing collections that more and more are coming to resemble each other.

   ARL defined three demonstration projects: the German Demonstration Project; the Japanese Journals Access Project; and the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project. In late 1996, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided funding for the Global Resources Program. Work on these three projects stimulated the development of proposals for three additional projects: a pilot project on digital South Asia library resources; an African newspaper union list and preservation project; and an index to Southeast Asian non-Roman script journal literature.

   CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS:

   1. Involving libraries in a collaborative approach to expand access and use technology;
   2. Planning that leads to long-term sustainability of the project;
   3. Identifying "lead institutions" that will provide oversight; ARL can be an incubator but cannot provide long-term management of the projects;
   4. Securing funding that may act as "seed" money;
   5. Appointing at least half-time positions to ensure work accomplishment and continuity; and
   6. Avoiding the "one-size-fits-all" approach to project development.

4. Status of German Demonstration Project (Winston Tabb and Sarah Thomas)

   Sarah Thomas gave a brief overview of the Project, which started a few years ago. Early discussions [see Summary of Meeting for 13Dec94 meeting and Summary of Meeting for 30Mar95 meeting] led to limiting the German Demonstration Project to 1945+ documents from Germany only. The emphasis was on three areas: (1) studies of holdings in political science where there were significant gaps; (2) a union list of German serials in political science with a goal of coordinating North American holdings; and (3) digital access to German government publications, Federal and Laender. Providing access to records from the Deutsche Bibliothek through the Library of Congress' Cataloging Distribution Services was an added twist to provide the wherewithal to speed the cataloging of German publications that may be languishing in backlogs or arrearages.

   The German Demonstration Project had neither start-up funding nor the assistance of a coordinator, either full- or part-time. Martin Runkle suggested that there could be a stronger, collaborative relationship between WESS and ARL. Shouldn't WESS be a more integral part of the Project? Deborah Jakubs mentioned that CORMOSEA has taken a role in the proposed Southeast Asia Project and that SALALM has been closely involved in the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project. Much time and effort involved submitting funding proposals for the German Demonstration Project to a number of foundations; however, none of the funding materialized. TransCoop turned down the last proposal this past summer.

   Winston Tabb, Sarah Thomas, and Deborah Jakubs brought the meeting participants up to date on a conversation that involved Elmar Mittler (our German "partner") and Richard Ekman from Mellon. Mellon may be willing to fund a meeting of German librarians to assist in building cooperation and establishing a common vision between North American and German librarians. Sarah Thomas could be a participant in such a meeting.

5. New Directions

   There was a wide-ranging discussion concerning the possible path for the German Demonstration Project. For ease of access and use, the conclusion and possible action items are at the end of the discussion items.

   Responding to Ann Okerson's question about the why of setting up a German Demonstration Project, Deborah Jakubs said the Project served as a balance with the Japanese and Latin American projects. Roger Brisson stated that there were WESS studies that identified a serious crisis. Perhaps the research library community was lulled into complacency over German materials as budgets were being cut. James Campbell observed that at the University of Virginia (and he suspects elsewhere), they are meeting the immediate needs of their clientele; however, that may be masking a problem that may surface 20 years from know when collections of German materials are declared inadequate. James Campbell mentioned the "Subito" project [copies provided to meeting participants] and the potential for new areas of ILL cooperation and electronic transmission. The German librarians may be willing to work in a consortial arrangement.

   Harrassowitz is creating a database that initially includes the titles that North American libraries are not collecting. In response to Sem Sutter's question about coverage, Roger Brisson stated that this database will be title-by-title for all areas, not just, for example, literature. Harrassowitz also excludes up to 50% of their titles which it believes will not be wanted by North American libraries. These may not be part of the database. Katalin Radics stated that it is very important to have access to this database.

   The participants revisited the present period of 1945+ and the selection of history and political science as the subjects. Ann Okerson stated that there is a need for international studies and cross-disciplinary coverage because of the present course of some university research and course offerings. Do we need to think of Germany more broadly, for example in the context of the European community? Winston Tabb stated that our eventual goal may be to develop a more "global" approach to German research, but we may want to begin with specific areas. Martin Runkle also thought that this would be the best approach, i.e., concentrate on acquiring specific materials at the outset. He stated there are also cost considerations in setting up such programs as "German studies." Some thought that changing to the "global" path would be too "conceptual" at this time and that, so far, the German Demonstration Project has been too "conceptual," thus being unable to overcome the inertia.

   There was also discussion on the efficacy of projects involving the digitization of materials. Do we want to emphasize in-country digitization of German documents? Roger Brisson will be working in Leipzig for a number of months on MEDOC, which is a large German digitization project. How can we interface with German libraries in this area? After discussion, there seemed to be consensus that Germany is progressing, as is the United States, in bringing up Web materials. John Van Oudenaren mentioned the agreement (treaty?) between the United States and the European Union that encourages working more closely together. There is a trans-Atlantic agenda that encompasses the "building of bridges." Not much has happened since 1995; however, the State Department and its EU counter-parts recently met on this topic. One of the working groups dealt with electronic exchanges. Regarding trans-Atlantic digital library efforts, several organizations, including the Library of Congress, are interested in making this happen. There may be an analog to LC's NDL and American Memory projects. Winston Tabb mentioned the G-7 activities.

   The group discussed the German bibliographic records and the need for Z39.50 to access the records from the Deutsche Bibliothek. It was unclear how successful the participating libraries have been in using these records. How vital are these records? Martin Runkle asked how many libraries had been accessing the database and what use they were making of it. The Cataloging Distribution Service may have some usage statistics. Winston Tabb will check on use of the database.

Based on the discussion, Winston Tabb concluded that there is the need for a recast German Demonstration Project.

The components of the Project would include, but not necessarily be limited to:

1. Improving acquisitions collectively through use of the Harrassowitz File. Perhaps the non-selects can be reviewed and the responsibility for collecting needed titles for North American libraries apportioned. The participants believe that reliance on such a commercial database would be acceptable because it would be the only source for such information, unlike other commercial databases that share common characteristics or access to similar information or materials;

2. Increasing access to German materials by the use of ILL and other document delivery services (A need to involve the ARL Committee on Access to Information Resources and others);

3. Ascertaining what digitization activities involving relevant German research materials are underway, sharing this information, and building access around these activities; and

4. Continuing the availability of the German bibliographic records because they improve and increase access to German materials.

1. Meet with Harrassowitz (Knut Dorn) at ALA Midwinter Meeting about the Harrassowitz file; discuss possibilities of analyzing non-selects and coordinating acquisition of relevant research titles by project participants through reallocation of materials book budgets; and meet with Klaus Dieter Lehmann;

2. Follow up on possible Mellon grant for a meeting of German librarians to review activities relating to the creation of digital documents in Germany, especially government documents and to explore increased coordination and cooperation in the supply of German materials through document delivery channels;

3. Negotiate with IBZ for German Demonstration Project members;

4. Market the availability and use of the German bibliographic records (Winston Tabb will work with LC's Cataloging Distribution Service and the Project);

5. Pursue the possibility of working with the Johns Hopkins University Germanic Studies Center; and

6. Explore opportunities for enhanced document delivery relationships with German libraries, building on the German "Subito" program and working collaboratively with Mary Jackson (ARL) and the ARL Committee on Access to Information Resources.

Before requesting any funding for a revamped German Demonstration Project, Winston Tabb suggested developing various modules for the Project and reporting on the modules to the ARL membership. He believes that the Project is not yet ready to talk about membership and fees until more of the final work is done. For the Deutsche Bibliothek's bibliographic records, however, costs could be put together and the records continued to be used, along with item 4 under the Action Items.

• German Demonstration Project Home Page
• AAU/ARL Global Resources Program
• Association of Research Libraries Home Page
• Library of Congress Home Page