Beyond the Trees

Abstract

In early 1991, we (the Chicago-Kent Law Library) embarked on a project to change the nature of the Information Center—to increase its efficiency and effectiveness, to improve its cash position and, most of all, to remove the physical barriers presented not only by the building, but by the very books and materials themselves. This was when the information Center began to offer access to its own materials electronically. The Information Center is rather unusual because it is actually a multi-type library system in one location. Not only does it contain the Chicago-Kent Law Library, but it also integrates the Business Library of Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as the Library of International Relations (LIR) into one functioning whole. The Law Library is a fairly typical good law library with concentrations of materials in the areas of jurisprudence, law and aging, environmental and energy law, and international law. The Law Library is a U.S. depository and a repository for labor arbitration cases and for Illinois Supreme Court records and briefs. The Stuart Business Library is quite small and highly dependent on electronic resources, primarily CD-ROM collections and indexes. Its greatest concentration of materials is in the area of financial markets and trading and in international trade. The Library of International Relations began as a private library collecting cross-disciplinary materials related to international studies and international relations—political science, history, geography, economics, sociology and law. It is a depository for the European Union, United Nations, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now WTO), International Labor Organization, Food and Agricultural Organization, and several others. It also collects central bank reports from numerous countries, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) documents, most treaty collections, and international arbitration and environmental law materials. The Library of International Relations has always been open to the public; because of its integration with the other two library collections, this now means that the entire Information Center is open and available to any member of the public, in addition to the primary clients of the law school and business school. In 1991 the Information Center undertook to provide access to its materials electronically—not just the bibliographic description of the materials, but the very pages themselves. The technology chosen for this projectwas electronic imaging, a technology that was unused within the library and information communities at the time, but which was proven and used extensively in the business communities already. The goals of the project were outlined as follows: OPEN the collections to persons outside the Chicago area. The nature of the LIR is that many of the materials there were not easily available to most people. The collection of international documents is extraordinarily extensive, providing access to so many international organizations in one location. Moreover, many of the items are not available in other collections at all due to traditional weeding practices. An example of this is the UN Press Releases in the LIR which date from the origination of the United Nations and give a unique perspective on the developments in San Francisco in the mid-forties. These press releases are not otherwise available than in the LIR. PRESERVE materials in the collections which were reproduced on poor quality paper and which have become quite brittle. The Information Center was seeking to preserve materials from both the LIR and the law collections, but most of the measures and technologies available are more costly than the Center can maintain. The imaging technologies provided a cost-effective alternative for preservation of the information in the exact format in which it had been held, capturing all style elements as well as all information on every page. Certainly, the exact capture of each page of material provides the necessary provenance as well. ORGANIZE materials in a way which would serve to make them more easily accessible to the clients of the Information Center. Because libraries have traditionally treated pieces of information according to the package in which they are provided, information may easily be overlooked when pursuing it through the traditional indexes and catalogs (either card or online). For example, many law materials, especially law practice materials are actually collections of essays or chapters, each written by a different person. Because attorneys are familiar with their colleague experts, they deisre to search by name for authored materials, even when the material is contained within a greater "package." Our imaging technology enables documents to be managed so as to accommodate this greater level of indexing and access, while still maintaining access through the more traditional packaging. STORE greater amounts of information within the same limited space that was provided for the Information Center. Although the entire Downtown Center of the Illinois Institute of Technology moved to new quarters (one building) in January, 1992, it was evident from the outset that no amount of space would be adequate for unlimited growth of the Center over the life of that building. Some mechanism had to be found which would allow continuing growth of information, but not of the physical collection. DISSEMINATE and SHARE materials in ways which would be more cost-effective while providing a greater level of dissemination. It is well-accepted that the costs associated with traditional interlibrary loan have become overwhelming for many libraries. Much of that cost results from the requirement of physical handling that occurs either with an original source or with providing photocopies and/or telefacsimiles of original sources. The imaging technology generally includes functionalities which allow routing and other document distribution easily, greatly reducing the costs of handling materials. A requirement for introducing such a new technological application was that it would have to operate in the environment which already existed at the Downtown Center. The Downtown Center is fully networked, providing access to the network from virtually every workstation/desktop in the building, including from each desk in almost every classroom. This is a PC network, utilizing a wide variety of equipment types on an ethernet network. It would also have to operate in a remote situation so that access could be gained from outside the building. The Information Center purchased the ExLIBRIS Document Management and Delivery System software from The ExLIBRIS Group in Dallas, Texas. They also provided the hardware which was desired to add to the network (scanner, file server, storage devices, etc.). After a very brief set-up period, we were set to begin building our databases of information. The first materials chosen for scanning were international trade and statistical documents, primarily from the United Nations. These were easily identified by a reference staff member as items from which information was frequently requested, and access through the network at any terminal would increase the efficiency with which the materials could be provided. The documents were pulled from the shelf and prepared for scanning. We were not going to retain the originals, so we separated the pages, thus allowing an automatic feed for scanning rather than a flatbed scan (a slower process because of the greater amount of handling required). While the documents were being prepared, the database was defined. This is perhaps the most challenging and most interesting part of the process. First, the definition of a document must be established: it may be a single section, a chapter, a sub-part, an entire volume, an entire title of several volumes, etc. When operating in an electronic environment this definition is totally at the discretion of the database builder. Additionally, the "access points" are established. They are the points of index by which the document may be retrieved. In the ExLIBRIS system, the indexing of image documents is highly flexible and can be defined in whatever way that the Center desires. At the Information Center, care is taken to establish access points that match indexes already in existence rather than to re-index the individual documents in-house. This allows links to current bibliographic tools to exist in concert with the actual documents themselves. After several months of study at the Information Center, as well as at other institutions, it became obvious that a very high percentage (approximately 80%) of requestors came to the Center knowing an author, title and/or citation. This fact was taken into consideration in establishing the access points as well. However, we also consider our own convenience for some databases. For example, the database that functions as an equipment inventory is not open to the public; it is an internal database into which we scan documents, such as purchase orders, invoices, assembly instructions and ever-elusive owner's manuals. We then index them according to the type and model of the equipment, the room in which it is located, the date the warranty runs out and the IIT inventory number. In this way, we can track the location of equipment according to the inventory number, or we can target equipment for preventive maintenance before the warranty ends. We have also indexed by subject. An example of that is administrative files which are scanned to reduce the number of file cabinets needed, but are still accessible. And, finally, we have indexed by location as in the example of the floor plans of the building in which we are located. These have been scanned according to the type of system (security, air conditioning, etc.) and by the floor and the sector of the floor. Therefore, our engineering staff can have access to the building information from any terminal in the building rather than carrying around the blueprints themselves. Of course, prints and faxes of any of the documents are made with just the click of the mouse on the icon and the entry of the fax phone number. All documents which are printed actually print in the Document Center of the Information Center, a central facility for reprography of all sorts. This is because we can then ensure that the person who picks up the document will be available to pay the copyright license fees at that time. All such fees are allocated and tracked automatically by a software system, ExMENTIS, that we use both for manual transactions for the automatic transactions of the image system. Only subscribers have the privileges in LOIS (our name for the ExLIBRIS image system) to fax material and ExMENTIS tracks these transactions and then incorporates them into a monthly invoice to each subscriber for all transactions and services provided by the Information Center. Many changes have occurred as a result of the incorporation of the ExLIBRIS business approach and imaging system into the daily routines of the Information Center. Many of the changes were anticipated, but some were not; and many have changed the operation of the Information Center forever. Perhaps the first, and certainly the most profound, was the early realization that the investment in the imaging system could be the basis of a revenue stream for the Information Center. This realization has caused numerous changes to flow from it. First, it changed the way in which we viewed our audiences: they were no longer "patrons" on whom one was dependent for largesse, but rather clients with whom one maintained a very professional and very businesslike relationship. It also changed the way in which we viewed ourselves—it mattered that we were producing with an eye toward a "bottom line," that we were fiscally responsible and that we were effective and efficient in our performance. The act of choosing collections to be scanned has become a balancing of the potential marketability of each as a product against the other requirements of efficiency in handling materials, effectiveness in providing greater access to documents and care for preserving the information at all. For example, we have scanned the press releases from the origination of the United Nations, not because we believe it to be a high demand item in the marketplace, but rather to ensure that future generations will be able to view them in their original form. On the other hand, we have scanned the U.S. Reports and many titles of law journals because surveys have taught us that these are in high demand by the law firms and corporations that frequent the Information Center, and particularly the Law Library. Scanning and indexing have been incorporated into the daily tasks which are done by everyone in the Information Center. All library assistants participate in scanning, and all professional law librarians participate inindexing the imaged documents. Both scanning and indexing are rather tedious tasks that can be draining because they require a great deal of concentration and focus to ensure high levels of quality. For these reasons, no one is scheduled to scan for longer than three hours at one time. However, we did not have enough staff to utilize our two scan stations to the maximum extent. Therefore, we implemented a program to accomplish the conversion of materials at a greater rate than the current staff could maintain. The President of The ExLIBRIS Group conceived of and helped us to implement a program which is call ExTEND. Through this program the Information Center has systematically created relationships with several of the inner city high schools in Chicago. We have hired students to do scanning at the Information Center. We also provided links from the schools to LOIS to enhance the materials that the schools have available in their libraries. Law student groups, such as the Hispanic Law Students Association and the Black Law Students Association, help to mentor the high school students and to tutor in classes or for college entrance exams. We have also involved the faculty who meet with the high school student-employees and explain to them the documents that they may be scanning. For example, the law professor who teaches Human Rights held a session on the use of the UN Human Rights Commission documents. Finally, we also train the students in numerous library tasks to enhance their stay and to ensure that they can be busy even if the network goes down unexpectedly. From all of this, we have now hired several graduates from the first school as full-time library assistants in the Information Center. They now attend IIT college classes and are working toward their college degrees through a tuition remission program for IIT employees. The result of having ExTEND and the 10-12 additional staff members generated by it has been unexpected. It should have been predictable, but it was not. In order to manage the flow of materials and the scheduling of people, we have moved to a project management system of organization and management which is unlike most libraries. All tasks anywhere in the Information Center are now defined in project terms, each with a beginning and an end, a manager and a reporting device. This has been essentialin managing a flow which is currently 35,000 scanned and indexed pages per week. Decisions have to be made as to the priorities of materials/collections to be scanned, preparatory work must be completed to ensure the flow of materials through scanning,different databases must be given appropriate priorities for scanning and indexing, and accountability at every level must be evident. The absolute necessity of managing all aspects of these conversion efforts very closely as projects has flowed over into all aspects of managing the Information Center at this time. Every single staff member now has projects for which he or she is the manager and has the responsibility of maintaining a project plan with allocations of resources (time, personnel and equipment) and reporting regularly on the projects. The projects may be as mundane as opening the mail on a daily basis or as exotic as developing a multimedia presentation for the LIR. This, in turn, has had the effect of providing "procedure manuals" for every aspect of the Information Center, the definition of every task that is begun or is continuing, and the discovery of tasks which may make no sense in light of the handling and defining of documents differently as images. For example, the entire relationship of processing of new material into the collection has had to be reconsidered. There are many items which now arrive, may be checked into the collection, scanned and thrown away. They reside in the collection only as imaged documents available electronically. An example of this type of material is the Commodities Trade Statistics produced by the United Nations or the press releases of the World Trade Organization and the U.S. International Trade Commission. These last two are items which would not be preserved at all under the traditional library practices of weeding materials which have been preserved through another "more scholarly or lasting" format. However, the economics of scanning are such that ephemeral material such as press releases may be scanned immediately upon receipt, made available onsite to the public and remotely to our subscribers, and then retained indefinitely on optical disks. Not only has the processing of materials changed, but often even the very idea of collection and of weeding has changed! Another example of this is that we can now add to the collections without regard to physical space constraints, because we may be adding a product which is expected to be revenue-producing. For example, we are currently scanning and adding to the collections all of the rules and regulations of the major financial exchanges of the world. We are doing this in response to a desire by a large segment of the business clients to have access to these materials in one place. Therefore, the acquisition of this material is very directly an investment on which we expect to have a return—something that will provide a continuing revenue stream, but which would have had serious handling and storage costs in paper format. Another effect of involving the entire staff in the various levels of the imaging project has been the continued breakdown of departmental walls. In part as a result of the necessity to have everyone facile with the imaging system itself, everyone is included in a variety of decision-making associated with it. This continues to break down the barriers between the traditional library departments: at this time, the Information Center no longer has a cataloging department or circulation department or processing department or reference department, etc. Instead we have library assistants, library specialists and professional librarians, all of whom perform tasks formerly associated with the different "territories." It is interesting to note that breaking out from the walls of the building electronically really demands first the breakdown of the walls of the department. Our entire organization structure has changed and is quite different from any other library that I know. I believe that there must be a willingness to have an organizational reaction to the implementation of technology. Otherwise there is merely an automation of manual tasks without regard to the desirability of such automation, and the organization, in fact, functions no differently than before the automation. We do offer access to the images to any member of the public who is onsite with printing capabilities. However, we also offer a subscriber service which provides an array of services including remote access both to our online catalog (CIarK) and to the online image databases (LOIS). The subscriber services have grown as LOIS has grown and we now expect to be tuition-independent within the next two years. The use of imaging technology has proven to be very liberating, and we have been able to move beyond the paper boundaries—beyond the trees—in many ways. We are now much more cognizant of the content of the documents, not just of the physical arrangements. That proves to be very useful in shifting the focus of the staff from the handling of the paper to the handling of the information itself. This is a very important shift to experience and it manifests itself in a variety of ways in the behaviors and attitudes of the staff. The staff members have changed somewhat the way in which they evaluate the collection/acquisition of information. The use of imaging makes it cost-effective to acquire and store items which formerly were not collected. Therefore, access to these items must be considered. Often these items are not indexed at all in existing indexes and have been considered to be only of passing, "current awareness" value. Some of these items have formerly been housed in vertical or pamphlet files which generally are used only by librarians. The possible relationships of cataloging and classification to an imaged database have engendered a great deal of discussion as to the level of cataloging which is appropriate. However, unpredictably, the shift has been to a decreased level of descriptive cataloging because of the ease of pulling up the image of the document itself. Most would have suggested that a greater level was necessary when the project first began, but all indications are that that is not the case. Additionally, the treatment of the "fore" and "after" pages of books had to be considered—causing a re-evaluation of the relationship of indexes to the entire publication when the publication has been re-ordered to appear as smaller units (chapters, sections, sub-parts and the like). The very act of indexing documents creates a familiarity with the content that proves to be extraordinarily useful for the professional law librarians in the reference and research context. Nuances of type and organization which might have been unnoticed are capitalized upon in providing services and classes. Similarly, the scanning of the documents by library staff creates an awareness of the materials that is otherwise not easily accomplished. This awareness, in turn, provides a level of service from all of these staff which is much higher than would normally be available. The understanding of the project which is created by having all participate in these activities has also strengthened the competence of each staff member. Another totally unexpected change in the staff was attitudinal: the staff have become eager to define new products and services. They now view the collections differently and with an eye to the development of specific collections into particular products. They have also re-evaluated all the traditional services with the goal of adding value to them and providing them for fees to the subscriber base of the Information Center. This very professional attitude has also spread simply in the ways in which the staff present themselves. They take great pride in being the very best and providing cost-effective services to all of their clients, attorneys, business people, scholars, students and faculty. The staff are very aware that they play a role in reducing the cost of legal services to the general population through the provision of such effective services to subscribers. They now look around themselves to see what changes in procedures might be made to make the entire Information Center every more productive and effective, with their eyes focused on ways to improve services, reduce costs, increase revenue and increase visibility. Of course, all of this benefits our clients directly. A result of all of this creativity and innovation has been the absolute necessity of strong and dynamic business marketing plans. These plans focus efforts and keep things organized according to priorities so that we are not wasting time and energy in needless duplication and/or cross-purposes. One of the surprises that has occurred with the implementation of a totally electronic delivery of documents has been the increase in the generation of paper—in one sense, we have not moved beyond the trees at all. Care in the management and delivery of the paper has had to be a consideration in order to make the final link to the clients using LOIS. New procedures had to be initiated in the Document Center and a faster printer installed. The staff has resisted the pressure to become so caught in the technology that they no longer understand the mission of the Information Center. In an environment where technology so dominates, the staff constantly and consistently questions its use. For example, we have resisted the trends in many of the libraries around us to implement CD-ROMs on the network—we have questioned the use of CD-ROM as a research tool (when other online services are available), while exploring the best way in which to capture the pedagogical needs we have to emphasize to students. There is always a temptation with technology to find solutions without having a problem. We have had innumerable visitors in the last four years who are fascinated by the "image system" that we run. However, most of them miss the point—they become caught in the technical specifications, in the nuances of compression algorithms, in the rates of resolution, in the speed of scanning itself. While these things may be fun and fascinating, we must see beyond them to the real issues—technology is only a tool and cannot be treated as more than that or we will lose all battles. This does not mean, however, that there are not problems that surface unexpectedly that the technology can solve. For example, in discussing the image system with some of our visually-handicapped students, we discovered that the reverse video capabilities coupled with the zoom functions provided much better access to their materials than other equipment that we had purchased especially for their use. We have since experimented and have found that some of our quadriplegic students are better served by the image system than more traditional means and we will be experimenting with another student this fall to determine whether it assists her with a visual impairment that she has. These were all problems which were solved by the use of the technology, but things that we had not even thought could be addressed by it in the beginning. We were using the technology to continue to enhance our mission in each case. This is not the same as searching for the problem to solve after the technology has been adopted. And, in the end, that is the point—it is easy to become caught in the trees—in the bells and whistles of the technology. We must see beyond the trees and keep sight of the missions of our organizations and the goals we seek. We must use the technology to reach those goals and fulfill those missions.