From superman@engin.umich.edu Mon Aug 21 15:49:15 1995 Received: from srvr7.engin.umich.edu (root@srvr7.engin.umich.edu [141.212.2.69]) by srvr5.engin.umich.edu (8.6.12/8.6.4) with ESMTP id OAA07613; Mon, 21 Aug 1995 14:24:20 -0400 Received: from PSUVM.PSU.EDU (psuvm.psu.edu [128.118.56.2]) by srvr7.engin.umich.edu (8.6.12/8.6.4) with SMTP id OAA00976; Mon, 21 Aug 1995 14:25:13 -0400 Message-Id: <199508211825.OAA00976@srvr7.engin.umich.edu> Received: from PSUVM.PSU.EDU by PSUVM.PSU.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 1456; Mon, 21 Aug 95 14:01:13 EDT Received: from PSUVM.PSU.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@PSUVM) by PSUVM.PSU.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 8188; Mon, 21 Aug 1995 11:37:02 -0400 Date: Mon, 21 Aug 1995 10:33:44 CDT Reply-To: kareng@leland.stanford.edu Sender: "(ASEE) Engineering Libraries Division Network" From: kareng@leland.stanford.edu Subject: ASEE Session Summary: Futures To: Multiple recipients of list ELDNET-L ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Session 3541 - The Future of Engineering Libraries/Information Access Moderator: Mel DeSart, University of Kansas Purpose: This session explored the future of engineering libraries and access to engineering information in light of current and projected advances in information technologies. Speaker 1. W. David Penniman, consultant to senior management in information systems, resources, and services. "Engineers and Their Information Needs: Are They Really Different?" Highlights: - Background of the National Engineering Initiative (NEII) - Roles of Council on Library Resources (CLR) and ASEE - Evidence of Need - Champions and Critics - Next Steps BACKGROUND OF NEII In 1992 a conference took place in Florida to explore the National Engineering Information Initiative. 90 engineers attended this conference, along with various other interested parties. (David can provide anyone interested with information on how to obtain the proceedings.) There is no national engineering library and a need for one was perceived. Between 1992 and 1994 CLR promoted the idea of establishing a national engineering library, submitted grant applications, etc. - Data Gathering (1992-1994) Funded studies - Pilot project funded: ICE at Cornell - NEII Strategy Meeting (9/19/94). The upshot of this was that there is still a divergence of opinion. The push needs to come from an organization grounded in engineering, not from the library community. In 1995 there was a change in the lead organization from CLR to ASEE. (The 1993 ASEE proceedings includes a paper on NEII.) ROLE OF CLR AND ASEE - CLR: facilitator/funder/fund seeker - CLR: lead organization - ASEE: champion - ASEE: fund seeker ASEE's role will also be in continuing education and aggressive information promotion. The April 1995 issue of "Prism" contains a statement about this. EVIDENCE OF NEED - External Sources (government agencies, industry, professional societies) - Literature review (Center for Information Studies, University of Tennessee) The literature review yielded a report by Don King, with Jane Casto, and Heather Jones entitled "Communications of Engineers: A Literature Review of Engineers' Information Needs, Seeking Processes, and Use". This report is available from CLR for $25 (clr@cni.org). It is also available through the ICE page http://www.englib.cornell.edu/ice/lists/technical-communications.html. One of the conclusions of this report was that the library is used only as a last resort by engineers. Instead, engineers rely on local and internal information sources. They read scholarly journals less than scientists. Focus Group study: David and a colleague conducted a focus group study which consisted of interviews at four institutions: University of Illinois College of Engineering (students and faculty), New Jersey Institute of Technology, Ford Motor Company (R&D, managers, engineers of all ages), and the New York Power Authority. Ten to fifteen individuals were interviewed at each organization. The focus group study showed a high level of interest from management and engineers. There was recognition that there are problems in engineers' accessing of information and there are increased expectations for solutions to these problems. The results of the focus group study were published in the CLR newsletter. When asked what are the impediments to getting their jobs done, the participants zeroed in on information problems. Engineers are keenly aware of problems and they desire timely information and data and expect modern access techniques. - Internal access is equally problematic. - Competitive information (foreign and domestic) is desired - The clock is running faster. There's more information, more results are expected faster, want information fed to them when they need it... - Younger engineers have greater expectations due to their exposure to new technologies such as the Internet - Parochial solutions aren't enough to satisfy younger engineers CHAMPIONS AND CRITICS - Strong vested interests of large societies. Want to be "one stop shop" for their members and are resistant to NEII. - Strong interest from "second tier societies" with smaller membership. Organizing these societies behind the initiative is the way to go. - Skepticism regarding "real" need by managers, including information managers - Belief that current research will solve the problem. It is naive to believe this will happen without a top-down initiative. NEXT STEPS - Accelerate efforts of ASEE - Produce proposal for development funding - Engage interested societies/organizations - Continue documenting need ***************** Speaker 2. Jill H. Powell, Associate Engineering Librarian for Reference/Instruction at Cornell University and co-principal investigator for the ICE Project. "Serving Information on ICE: Internet Connections for Engineering" How to Access ICE: URL - http://www.englib.cornell.edu, or http://ice.englib.cornell.edu choose ICE Public Lynx Client - telnet cuinfo2.cit.cornell.edu:400, select G(o) and enter in the URL shown above. Outline 1. ICE - What is ICE? Funding, Staffing 2. Ice structure, examples 3. How we use ICE and the Web for reference and instruction 4. ICE Statistics (on back of handout) WHAT IS ICE? ICE is a catalog of engineering-related resources on the Internet made accessible on the World Wide Web (WWW). It includes 37 subject categories. Cornell received a one year (May 1994-April 1995) $14,000 grant from the Council on Library Resources. This grant was for non-equipment items only. This was enough for one part-time "miner" for one year and one part-time student. They are currently looking for new funding to keep one position through 9/95. Why the WWW and not gopher? The Web is here to stay, company's are spending money to be on the Web, publishing URLs in their advertising, etc. Jill then showed the Cornell Engineering Library home page and then the ICE home page. "About the server" has a fact sheet. An alphabetical index is available. Electrical Engineering sources has been the most heavily used page. Electronic Engineering Times under EE is very good. There is a History of Technology page which includes "Engineering Successes and Failures". This has been a handy reference tool. Under "Instructional Materials" is the Cornell Library Instructional Materials page which includes handouts covering html, patents, exploring the WWW, jobs, and more. Jill showed a sample page from the HTML Authoring Class that was offered by the library. Access statistics were given on the reverse side of Jill's handout. The main ICE page is being accessed approximately 94 times/day, from 54 countries. EE is the most popular with 620 accesses/month. Future: A student will be working on a search engine for ICE. ***************** Speaker 3. Maurita Peterson Holland, Clinical Associate Professor, School of Information and Library Studies and College of Engineering Technical Communication Program "W(h)ither the Engineering Library?" Maurita's talk can be accessed at: http://www.sils.umich.edu/~mholland/class/asee/conf95.html