AAU/ARL German Resources Project: Access to Information Resources Through ARL-German Collaboration

The Thomas Jefferson Building
Library of Congress
Washington, DC
June 25, 1998

 

List of Participants

Ross Atkinson, Associate University Librarian for Collections, Cornell University
Helene Baumann, Librarian, International and Area Studies, Duke University
Betty G. Bengtson, Director of University Libraries, University of Washington/ Chair, AAU/ARL Global Resources Advisory Board
Christine Bossmeyer, Head, Computer Department, Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Roger Brisson, Digital Access Librarian and Selector for German Language and Literature, The Pennsylvania State University
Georgia L. Brown, Vice President of Product Development, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)
Juergen Bunzel, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
James Campbell, Director, Library Technology Services, University of Virginia
Gay N. Dannelly, Associate University Librarian for Collections, Ohio State University
Berndt Dugall, Director, Stadt- und Universitaetsbibliothek Frankfurt/Main
Nancy L. Eaton, Dean of Libraries, Penn State University
Reimer Eck, Head of User Department, Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Goettingen
Richard Ekman, Secretary, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Jeffrey B. Garrett, WESS/Bibliographer for
Western Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University Library
Linda J. Gould, Associate Director for Library Collections, University of Washington
Ulrich Hagenah, Subject Specialist for Politics, Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Hamburg
Martha Hsu, North European Studies Bibliographer, Cornell University
Mary E. Jackson, Access and Delivery Services Consultant, Association of Research Libraries
Deborah Jakubs, Head, International and Area Studies, Duke University/ Director, Global Resources Program
Kerstin Koch, Librarian, The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies
Carl Lankowski, Research Director, The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies
Hermann Leskien, Director, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Frederick C. Lynden, Associate University Librarian, Brown University
Thomas L. Mann, Bibliographer for Anthropology, Sociology,
Political Science, and Slavic Literature, Northwestern University
Christof Mauch, Deputy Director, German Historical Institute
AnnMarie Dorwart Mitchell, Curator, Romance Collections (Europe) and Polish, University of California-Berkeley
Elmar Mittler, Director, Niedersaechische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Goettingen
Monika Muennich, Coordinator, Descriptive Cataloging, University of Heidelberg/ Chair, Working Group for Descriptive Cataloging for the German Library Institute
James Niessen, Librarian for History and Foreign Languages, Texas Tech University
Michael Olson, Librarian for Germanic Collections, Harvard University
Louis A. Pitschmann, Associate Director for Collection Development
and Preservation, University of Wisconsin-Madison
H.M.L. Rosenstock, Head, Collection Development Department, University of Toronto Libraries
Richard S. Ross, Assistant University Librarian, Georgetown University
William Schenck, Collections Program Officer, Library of Congress
Michael Seadle, Digital Services Librarian, Michigan State University Library
Ann P. Snoeyenbos, Librarian, New York University
Reinhart Sonnenburg, Literature and Languages Bibliographer, University of California, San Diego
Sem Sutter, Bibliographer for Modern Literatures, University of Chicago
Winston Tabb, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress
Sarah E. Thomas, University Librarian, Cornell University
John O. Van Oudenaren, Chief, European Division, Library of Congress
Barbara L. Walden, Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota
Donald Waters, Director, Digital Library Federation (DLF)
Linda West, Director, Member Programs and Initiatives, The Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG)
Glen A. Zimmerman, Senior Program Officer, Association of Research Libraries

 

1. Welcome and Objectives of Meeting

Overarching Goals

Winston Tabb, Associate Librarian of Congress, and co-chair of the German Resources Project, welcomed the 45 meeting participants. After a round of self-introductions, Mr. Tabb outlined the goals of the meeting, which include: (1) bringing the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) participants up to date on German Resources Project activities; (2) providing an update by our German colleagues regarding their endeavors; and (3) agreeing upon action items to further the German Resources Project's work. He thanked John Van Oudenaren, Chief of the Library of Congress (LC) European Division, for his assistance in furthering the Project's work and setting up the meeting.

Mr. Tabb also thanked Nancy L. Eaton, Dean of Libraries at Pennsylvania State University, and Sarah E. Thomas, University Librarian at Cornell University, for their generous support which will allow the appointment of a part-time Coordinator of the German Resources Project. LC and ARL are also providing support for the position. This development will greatly enhance the Project's work. The appointment of Roger Brisson, Digital Access Librarian and Selector for German Language and Literature, (Pennsylvania State University), to this position should take place soon. Mr. Tabb also acknowledged the continuing support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, particularly for the grant that made this meeting possible.

Future Actions

Richard Ekman, Secretary of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. [See item 7. in this Meeting summary]

German Resources Project Goals--ARL Perspective

Sarah Thomas, co-chair of the German Resources Project, opened her discussion on the ARL perspectives by stating that the Project is at a fish-or-cut-bait point. She said that the German Resources Project needs definite action points to evolve from this meeting. The earlier focus of the then-German Demonstration Project included items dealing with collection development such as: developing a possible union list of serials; building on the earlier work of Mike Olson (Harvard University) and Jim Spohrer (University of California--Berkeley) which dealt with gaps in the acquisition of research monographs in political science and history; and making the database of Harrassowitz non-selects available. To establish if items were not being acquired, or if, instead, they were perhaps in cataloging backlogs, a sampling of Yale's backlog of German materials in the social sciences was searched. The majority of the items were not in OCLC or RLIN, but did appear in Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB) database. The Project, consequently, made DDB cataloging records available to participating libraries through LC and Z39.50. This approach allowed participants to adapt or modify German cataloging to make cataloging records available and clean up cataloging backlogs--LC was able to eliminate its German cataloging backlog through this system. A third area, digitization, received some early scrutiny and planning. Rather than scan German materials in the U.S., the plan included increasing materials in digital format in Germany. Elmar Mittler, Director of the Niedersaechische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek, Goettingen, proved to be a willing partner. Dr. Thomas recognized Dr. Mittler's contributions and his role in obtaining the Mellon funding for today's meeting.

Dr. Thomas stated that the October 2, 1997 meeting on the German Demonstration Project turned out to be an epiphany. During a revisitation of the original Project's goals, the meeting participants concluded that the Project should pursue access to German materials rather than ownership of these materials. Dr. Mittler, with the assistance of Mr. Brisson, who, fortunately, was scheduled to spend six months in Germany, began to work on proposals to increase access from North America to materials held in Germany. During this same time period, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies agreed to provide part-time services of its librarian, Kerstin Koch, for work on the Project. Working with Dr. Van Oudenaren, Ms. Koch has been concentrating on developing and redesigning the Project's Web site and analyzing the acquisition of German materials in North America. Thanks go to the Institute for making Ms. Koch's services available.

Dr. Thomas observed that the Project needs a "torch-bearer," more in the sense of an eternal flame, rather than the flickering on or off caused by Mr. Tabb's and her schedules. Mr. Brisson and Ms. Koch will help fill this role. She concluded her presentation by stating that we need specific, achievable, and useful projects, sooner than later. These projects could include: studies of overlap; mechanisms for document delivery; agreements on digitizing particular titles or areas; promotion of standards; and expansion of the Web site. We need improved, multi-channeled communications. The Project has to be multi-directional: participants to non-participants; Germany to North America/North America to Germany; etc. Dr. Thomas also mentioned that Martha Brogan, Director of Collection Development and University Bibliographer at Indiana University, offered to set up and coordinate an AAU/ARL Global Resources Program Electronic Newsletter; the Newsletter could be used to inform and educate people about the German Resources Project. Ms. Brogan's initial efforts may involve establishing a listserv for the Program.

German Objectives

Dr. Mittler outlined the German objectives. He thanked Mr. Ekman and the Mellon Foundation for the funding that supports today's meeting and the second meeting to be held in Germany. After telling the traditional story of the Hare and the Hedgehog, Dr. Mittler stated that the hedgehog was able to succeed using a highly standardized, distributive, and cooperative network. Networks of this kind are needed as well in the extremely fast changing and unstable world of information technology. We have to explore all avenues of cooperation, and we need to achieve stability. We also have to examine the digitization of materials, which can be very expensive. There is a good example of cooperation between North America and Europe in the field of microform masters: EROMM, the European Register of Microform Masters, hosted at the Goettingen Library computer center, which received a grant from the American Committee on Preservation and Access. In this database, libraries can get information about microform titles, and users can order copies of the microform from the holding libraries. As a result, we have two mirror databases, one in North America (RLG) and the other in Europe. This is just one example of trans-Atlantic cooperation among libraries. He sees digitization as another area for cooperative projects and the necessity of avoiding duplication in this expensive means of preserving and accessing information.

Another challenge he sees is in the area of cataloging and metadata. In a cataloging study (known as REUSE), which is an American and German cooperative study, OCLC awarded a grant to Goettingen to study the problems. The project developed proposals for the harmonization of AACR2 and German cataloging rules. He concluded that the Germans will change their cataloging rules and, hopefully, U.S. librarians are willing to use/interpret their cataloging rules in a more consistent way.

The third area for cooperative endeavors is document delivery. This is ripe for a new proposal or experiment which emphasizes how we can work together and foster cooperation in the use of and access to our resources. We could develop the next steps in this subject during the meeting that will be held in Germany. In between these two meetings, we can do as much as we can, possibly through discussion lists on the Internet. A AAU/ARL Global Resources Program Electronic Newsletter or Listserv may also be helpful tools.

2. AAU/ARL Global Resources Program

Deborah Jakubs, Director of the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program, provided an overview of the Program's history, beginning with the AAU Research Libraries Project, which included a Task Force on the Acquisition and Distribution of Foreign Language and Area Studies Materials. The work of that group, which included faculty, university administrators, and librarians, was complemented by the ARL Foreign Acquisitions Project. Individual studies were carried out for each world region to examine the trends in publishing and scholarship, and the problems faced by libraries in keeping up with these trends, given largely inadequate budgets. The studies confirmed what many librarians had suspected, that our area studies collections have come to resemble each other and that there are many research materials that no library is currently collecting. The Global Resources Program, with generous funding from the Mellon Foundation, was created to develop new models of distributed collecting that also put to good use advances in technology. The major goal is to expand collective access to international resources and research materials.

The German Resources Project is one of three original projects recommended by the AAU Task Force. It has gotten a slow start, for a variety of reasons, but now, with renewed interest among a variety of librarians, a new grant from Mellon, and increased collaboration with German libraries, the German Resources Project promises to make good progress.

Dr. Jakubs also distributed the new AAU/ARL Global Resources Program brochure, which provides additional information on the various elements of the Program.

3. Progress Report

Ms. Koch presented the preliminary findings of her studies of North American acquisition of German titles found in the DDB catalog. She distributed the two parts of the study to the meeting participants. One part covers politics, and the other covers economic history. The two documents will need further refinement; however, the study suggests some sobering findings. A significant number of core titles are not being acquired and cataloged by North American libraries. The earlier thoughts that many German titles may be languishing in cataloging backlogs may not be true. Two earlier studies in the 1980's and early 1990's reached the same conclusions. Thus, three studies suggest that significant German materials are generally not being acquired by North American libraries. After refinements, Ms. Koch will distribute hard copies of the final reports to the meeting participants. This report will also be available via the Project Web site.

4. Digital Library Development

Donald Waters, Director of the Digital Library Federation (DLF), gave a brief overview of digital library development. The DLF is a partnership of 23-24 libraries and archives created to develop the means to bring together, or "federate," the collections of digital works that they manage. The DLF is managed by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). He described the DLF, which was formed in 1995, as the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Through a series of overheads, Mr. Waters presented the groundwork for DLF action. Questions include: How do libraries justify their investments in digital information? What are the priority issues for digital materials?

Institutional goals include: organizing, providing access to, and preserving knowledge that is born digitally; leveraging the management of intellectual works in support of efforts to redesign the scholarly communication process; providing an accessible and durable knowledge base that improves the quality and lowers the costs of education; and providing access to information that is needed to extend the reach of the scholarly enterprise to new audiences.

A framework for action includes: pay attention to materials born digitally; integrate digital materials into the fabric of academic life; and build the core digital library infrastructure. Within this background, the management of intellectual property and the discovery, archiving, and retrieval of digital information are involved.

The DLF also provides organizational support. Activities include: site visits (assisting libraries in justifying their investments in digital information); Making of America, Part II (structural metadata and genres of materials); Making of America, Part III (integration and migration of already digitized Americana); the Social Sciences Databases Project; and the intersystem searching of encoded archival description (EAD).

5. German Activities and Project Updates

A. Juergen Bunzel, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), stated that his organization is the main funding body for research and a primary developer of policy concepts for German libraries. The main activities include a 1997 retrospective digitization program of 24 projects involving library materials. The DFG is also involved in bibliographic databases and metadata development. They are involved in electronic publications in science libraries and are especially interested in demonstration projects in this area. Their work in discipline-based cooperative collection development, which has continued for more than 40 years and involves 21 German libraries, is one of their most important projects. It is a good candidate for a cooperative project under the German Resources Project.

Dr. Bunzel noted that there is growing activity in the interlibrary loan and electronic document delivery (ILL/DD) arena. The DFG is interested in extending this to the international level. They are also involved in licensing agreements with publishers and see this as a possible solution to copyright problems. He also sees several possibilities of cooperation with the German Resources Project: digitizing primary materials; digitizing large scale projects, such as the Key Journals Collection; digitizing key editions of German thinkers; digitizing smaller scale projects such as printed manuscripts and newspapers; etc. Another possible cooperative venture is the internetworking of Web sites. He concluded that perhaps the costs of these projects could be spread among several partners.

B. Berndt Dugall, Director of the Stadt- und Universitaetsbibliothek, Frankfurt/Main, noted that his organization tries to develop projects that will have a two to three year life. Digitizing photo archives has been a popular area of interest. Many libraries use commercial firms with the libraries providing some form of cataloging; however, the present German cataloging rules are not now equipped to handle digitized photos formats. One of the projects involves the DKG archives with 60,000 photos, slides, and glass plates. One portion involves 1880-1920 consisting of photos of people and buildings. The production of the security files is completed, and approximately 45,000 images have been produced, with descriptive records for 20,000 of them. A second project involves the 1848 pamphlet collection. About 30,000 pages have been converted (pamphlets are generally 1-4 pages long). Eventually, there will be 100,000 pages digitized in this project. In July 1998, they will start work on early 19th century Yiddish prints. Mr. Dugall said that their work demonstrates that digitization can be accomplished over a 1-2 year period, including the descriptive of contents. He provided a computer demonstration of German colonial materials. The material allows feedback through the use of e-mail to assist in describing the materials.

C. Reimer Eck, Head of User Services, and Bibliographer for English and American Collections, Niedersaechische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek, Goettingen, stressed during his presentation and computer demonstration that it would be quite feasible to work with North American libraries on various projects taking place at Goettingen. One of the most important digitization projects includes travel accounts, many of the travels taking place in the U.S. in the 18th century; they become important as original sources of American history. The library receives frequent requests from various regions of Germany and other countries for this material. This collection of travel accounts is a good candidate for digitization. The American and North American travel accounts may be of particular interest. They are accounts from European travelers in their "mother tongues." Because of the danger of changing the original intent of the traveler, these works do not readily lend themselves to translations. The accounts also include travel by German missionaries and advertising for colonizing and immigration. There are accounts by German troops who were stationed in Canada at the time of the American Revolution. This whole collection is basically in very good physical condition; the Goettingen copy may be useful in ascertaining "complete copy" information.

D. Hermann Leskien, Director of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, mentioned that there are areas that lend themselves to possible cooperative efforts. His library is a very old one and has rich collections about Germany and German history. Their digital projects are based on the collections. There are three projects dedicated to historical holdings. One is the parliamentary debates that took place from 1867-1890's and represents only digital images of texts. The debates are impossible to index because of the complex structure of their indexes. The library tried to outsource the work, using the same software that Cornell University used in one of its projects; however, the project did not work. The library, however, learned much from these efforts.

The second project involves incunabula--illustrations of German origin. The work is of very high quality because of the direct imaging method that is used. Demonstrating high resolution, roughly 7,000 pictures are finished; there will be an index to them.

The third project involves an encyclopedia from the 17th century and will include combined indexes. The work Dr. Leskien is doing should not stop at imprints; it should include other resources. He offered the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek as a partner for possible projects. He also asked the North American participants what they would like his library to digitize.

E. Dr. Mittler distributed a Distribution Scheme of the DFG. This
chart represents the collection development responsibilities for the participating libraries. Each library has the responsibility to purchase materials specific to their assigned field(s). Two-thirds of the funding comes from the DFG. This cooperative enterprise represents an example of a distributed collection with cooperative access to the materials. Dr. Mittler asked the questions: How can we cooperate in this field? Which fields would the U.S. be interested in? Which fields may be fertile for digital projects?

6. Discussion of Potential for Collaboration

Following the presentations by our German colleagues, Mr. Tabb thanked them for sharing their efforts with the meeting participants. He said there that are so many possibilities for cooperative efforts it may be difficult to decide where to begin. One of the participants asked a question about how German libraries and publishers are using the same material--is there competition for distribution of this information? Drs. Dugall and Mittler responded that libraries are working with publishers, e.g., Chadwick-Healey. There is also an element of concern about competition. But through cooperation with publishers, libraries receive copies of CD-ROM's, etc., to offset some of the library costs of assisting the publishers. Another example of cooperation is a bibliography that is created by a library and sold and distributed by a publisher. One of the participants stated that this may be the scholarly communications problem all over again. Libraries may not be able to afford to purchase the publisher's product that was derived from the library.

Mr. Tabb noted that Mr. Brisson will collect all of the URL's used in the demonstrations by our German colleagues and distributed to the meeting participants [Please see the List at the end of this Summary].

7. Remarks by Richard Ekman, Secretary of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Mr. Tabb introduced Mr. Ekman, who described how the AAU/ARL Global Resources Program fits within Mellon's strategies. It led to Mellon's support of acquisitions programs and organizational collaboration. North American and German cooperation is a growing area of scholarly interest. It offers a good opportunity for collaboration. Mr. Ekman observed that this effort is moving in the right direction.

8. Bibliographic Records, Cooperative Cataloging, International Standards, Project REUSE

A. Monika Muennich, Coordinator, Descriptive Cataloging, University of Heidelberg and Chair, Working Group for Descriptive Cataloging for the German Library Institute, provided the status of the German cataloging rules. Sponsored by OCLC and with help from LC and German cataloging experts, her group compared the various cataloging codes (REUSE). There are both major and minor problems where the codes differ. The major problems include headings for persons and corporations. The Germans also create records for each volume in a multi-volume work. The working group on descriptive cataloging in Germany has discussed these issues and have sent resolutions to the Committee that deals with cataloging issues. Ms. Muennich gave examples of what should be done, changed, and/or used. They included resolutions on title (recommendation to adopt title proper which will be closer to AACR), conference titles, and pre-fixes (recommendation to conform to American usage). Ms. Muennich reported that the meetings made good progress. The rules are to be discussed at the 1998 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. She also summarized the resolutions dealing with MARC harmonization. This was a more difficult area.

B. Christine Bossmeyer, Head, Computer Department, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, reported on the agreement signed by RLG and DDB on access to DDB records, which number 6,000,000, with 1,000 new records added daily. The records are authority controlled according to German rules. They are the database for all Deutsche Bibliothek services. There was a recent conversion to USMARC. Since 1992, the DDB has exchanged record with LC using UNIMARC.

Under the contract with RLG, the DDB server presents records to the RLG client in USMARC. These records can be used by RLG and its member libraries. The parties were working toward 50 connections by May 1, but they are still working toward that goal. They are also trying to harmonize differences, but the conversion programs cannot overcome the differences in the cataloging codes. The system also uses Z39.50, version 3, to provide better access to German records.

C. Beacher Wiggins, Director for Cataloging at the Library of Congress, briefly mentioned discussions that he has had with Karen Smith-Yoshimura at RLG. The discussions centered around the possibility of making DDB records available to the German Resources Project members and even to Project members that are not RLG members. Perhaps for a year or so pilot, the transactions would go through an LC account number. Mr. Wiggins commented on this being a prime example of cooperation. [Subsequent to the June 25 German Resources Project meeting, Mr. Wiggins reported that in lieu of LC arranging access to DDB records via LC's Cataloging Distribution Service, LC and RLG have made arrangements for LC's FY1999 (October 1, 1998 to September 30, 1999). These arrangements provide for access to DDB records, via RLIN, for all German Resources Project members. Project members who are RLG members will have access to searching DDB records as part of their regular membership. Those Project members who are not RLG members will also have access, without charge to the institution, under LC's fixed-rate agreement with RLG. RLG will provide LC with a summary of the searching done on DDB records for all project members to help assess use and plan for FY2000 access. IMPORTANT NOTE: RLG needs to have the name of a contact person at each institution that will be participating in this part of the Project in order to set up the arrangements. Each Project member institution should send the name of their contact person (including title, address, e-mail address, and phone number) to Roger Brisson <rob1@psu.edu>. Mr. Brisson will forward the information to Mr. Wiggins, who serves as LC's liaison with RLG for the fixed-rate contract.]

9. Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: GBVdirekt/North America

A. Mr. Brisson presented a computer demonstration of a prototype idea for an ILL/DD system; the title for this very early stage of discussion is GBVdirekt North America. The experimental Web site includes e-mail capabilities. Mr. Brisson would like to receive comments about improvements and cost recommendations among other related items. The whole concept is to configure the system for the North American audience which would not only include ILL departments but also serve scholars and others who could go directly into the system. The GBVdirekt staff is working on an English language interface. The system could give access to the growing databases in Germany and also access to proprietary databases. Implementing a system would require support on campuses, at ARL, and from Mr. Brisson as coordinator. Some technical issues need to be addressed, e.g., TIFF files and/or Ariel delivery. Mr. Brisson again stated that the system that has been developed so far is an experimental prototype.

B. Dr. Eck reiterated Mr. Brisson's comments that GBVdirekt North America is a test site. Details will have to be worked out. He suggested that the parties will have to arrive at a price, a standardized price to make it easier logistically to deal with transfers of different currencies. There is a similar agreement that has been worked out with Finland where the Helsinki Public Library serves as the common account for all Finnish libraries using a standardized price. Perhaps a similar agreement could be worked out with North America, the German Resources Project participants in particular. Thus there could be one account center (he suggested ARL) with a transfer of currencies every three months or so. There would be a similar German center with a standardized price as well. Dr. Eck gave a computer demonstration using the travel account collection about which he spoke earlier. There were questions on serving scholars; it is difficult to see providing free access to all scholars on a continuing basis. Dr. Eck mentioned that it costs 34DM to send a book by transatlantic mail. There could be cost benefits to using digitization when such high mail costs are involved.

He also discussed the copyright question in Germany and how that question involves the individual, libraries, and the State government as far as fees are concerned. The copyright debate also includes the question: Is copying by electronic means the same as copying by paper means? In Germany, the publishers will accept, until the end of 1999, the convention that electronic copies can be made for users.

10. Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: North American Initiatives

Mary E. Jackson, Access and Delivery Services Consultant at ARL, summarized the current interlibrary loan environment in North America. Libraries in the U.S. rely on OCLC and RLIN as their primary methods of transmitting requests. The findings of the ARL ILL/DD Performance Measures Study confirm that libraries using one messaging system have lower costs than those that use multiple electronic methods for transmitting requests. Although Ms. Jackson is very encouraged by expanded access to German resources, she expressed concern about how much a stand-alone system would be used by ILL staff. If the success of the German Resources Project will be measured by the total number of ILL transactions initiated by Project participants, then a way needs to be found to permit ILL staff in the U.S. to order via OCLC or RLIN, and for those requests to be forwarded into GBVdirekt/North America by the use of the international ILL protocol. Details on effective payment options and user-initiated ordering are other areas that need to be considered.

During the discussion, it was pointed out that Germany does not have different ILL/DD messaging systems as does the U.S. All messages are pretty much standardized. The problem in the U.S. is that many messaging systems do not send via the ISO Protocol, nor do they use Z39.50 Item Order.

Dr. Thomas mentioned briefly that she has talked to Knut Dorn about the Harrassowitz database. Dr. Dorn stated that he is amenable to making the database available; however, because of other priorities, this may not happen until at least June 2000. The specifications would have to be worked out. A critical mass of records would have to be built up to make the database useful.

BRAINSTORMING SESSION

The meeting moved into a brainstorming session. The participants decided to establish four Working Groups: (1) ILL/DD; (2) Digitization; (3) Collection Development; and (4) Bibliographic Access. The concepts listed under each Working Group serve both as a conceptual charge and a basis for discussions and recommendations for that particular working group. Mr. Tabb and Dr. Thomas asked each meeting participant to consider serving on a Working Group and to e-mail them with their responses. Also, following the discussion on the appropriate name for the Project, meeting participants were asked to e-mail suggestions for any change to Mr. Brisson. He will confer with Mr. Tabb and Dr. Thomas.

I. Charge to ILL/DD Working Group

1. Reciprocity.
2. Need details (costs, "ceilings," timing).
3. Accounting systems.
4. Copyright clarity.
5. ILL protocol.
6. Long range plans for all materials.
7. How to measure success (when have we arrived?).
8. User-initiated.
9. U.S. gateway.
10. Extensibility.
11. Flexibility.
12. Focus user group.
13. Potential volume.
14. Linking existing systems.

II. Charge to Digitization Working Group

1. Why limit to Germany? (German language materials?).
2. Need to catalog materials already owned.
3. Protocols and standards for cataloging images, etc.
4. Inventory of digitized collections.
5. Identify high impact collections (e.g., government documents, travel.
6. All of these ideas are reciprocal.
7. Link to other groups (e.g., DLF, G7/G13 in EU, commercial publishers.
8. German members help U.S. members.
9. Balanced financial models.
10. Knowledge transfer (more formal ways).
11. Copyright.
12. Publishing what is going on.
13. Collaboratories (Digital Project to Scholars).
14. H NET reviews of non-North American publications.
15. Deciding what to do next.
16. Bring in actual users of German resources.
17. How to access digital documents and table of contents.
18. More input from Germans.
19. More detailed knowledge of what is digitized.
20. Coordination model.
21. Web based list of content.
22. NSF as contact.

III. Charge to Collection Development Working Group

1. Do not lose sight of this topic!
2. Update Louis Pitschmann's work.
3. Qualitative analysis of gaps.
4. Replicate/extrapolate model of German collecting.
5. Harrassowitz booklet plan.
6. Analysis of ILL requests.
7. Handle on catalog backlog.
8. Learn from Latin Americanist Research Resources Project.
9. How research in U.S. has been changing (match development goals with use/need).
10. Titles not in North American libraries (cost, subject, etc.).

IV. Charge to Bibliographic Access Working Group

1. DDB access to all.
2. Cataloging rules/culture.

NEXT STEPS

Dr. Mittler noted that there are a number of questions that need answers. Instead of convening a Fall 1998 meeting in Germany as originally planned, there seemed to be consensus for another meeting for North American librarians and others in Fall 1998 to address some of these questions and topics. This new time frame would allow some work to be done by the four working groups that will be formed as a result of today's meeting. The Fall meeting would bring a sharper focus to these questions and would make the meeting in Germany more profitable.

The German side will prepare a study for this meeting, so that further, definitive decisions can be jointly made.

At this point, the participants made the decision to call a meeting in the Fall 1998 for North American librarians and others. The meeting in Germany would, then, take place in Spring 1999, perhaps in March.

Selected List of URL's Referred to during the June 25, 1998, AAU/ARL German Resources Project Meeting

1. German Demonstration Project

(http://lcweb.loc.gov/loc/german/)

2. Sponsoring and Funding Bodies

Association of Research Libraries (http://www.arl.org/)
AAU/ARL Global Resources Program (http://www.arl.org/collect/grp/index.html)
Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov)
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de)
Cornell University Library (http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu/)
Pennsylvania State University (http://www.psu.edu)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (http://www.dfg.de/english/index.html)
DFG information on support to libraries (http://www.dfg.de/foerder/biblio/index.html)
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (http://www.mellon.org/)
Council on Library and Information Resources (http://www.clir.org/)

3. Digital Library Sites

Digital Library Federation (http://www.diglib.org/dlfhomepage.htm)
Information on the DFG's federated digital library initiatives (http://www.dbi-berlin.de/projekte/d_lib/d_lib_00.htm)
Göttinger Digitalisierungs Zentrum (http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/)
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (http://www.bsb.badw-muenchen.de/index2.htm)
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Digitalisierungszentrum (http://mdz.bib-bvb.de/)
Collection of manuscript illustrations from the 15th century (http://mdz.bib-bvb.de/digbib/inkunabeln)
Stadt und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt (http://www.stub.uni-frankfurt.de)
Der Bildbestand der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft (http://www.stub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de)
Making of America Project
(Michigan) (http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/about.html)
(Cornell) (http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/index.html)

4. Digital Document Delivery: GBVdirekt/North America

Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund (http://www.brzn.de)
Overview of databases (English) (http://www.gbv.de/cgi-bin/nph-wwwobnmenu?PAGE=OBNACCESS&LANG=EN&EXT=ON)

5. Collection Development

Deutsche Sondersammelgebiete (German cooperative collection development program) (through WEBIS Hamburg) (http://webis.sub.uni-hamburg.de)
WESSWeb, homepage of the Western European Specialists Section of ACRL (http://www.lib.virginia.edu/wess/index.html)
EROMM- European Register of Microform Masters (http://www.gbv.de/eromm/)

6. Cataloging Initiatives

Project REUSE (http://www.oclc.org/oclc/cataloging/reuse_project/index.htm)
Die Deutsche Bibliothek (http://www.ddb.de)
Research Libraries Group (http://www.rlg.org)
Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate (http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/catdir.html)