5. Partnerships Categorized by Type and Task for USEIN

Partnerships can be described by the nature of the collaborative bond and the kind of task that is the focus of the partnership. Listed below is a typology of stakeholder partnerships, emerging from the examination of education Web pages and the background review of the literature on partnership and collaboration.

Partnership by Type Potential Members Likely Tasks
Teaching/Learning Partnerships USEIN + other organizations with same or similar goals Reviewing practice


Examining for adaptation for solutions to USEIN tasks
Contractual Partnerships Identified Providers Preparation of Product Research Report, etc as per specifications
Participatory Partnerships Users & Representatives of diverse users of USEIN Advisory: evaluation recommendations
Contributors Providers of information Provide necessary information or pointer for linkage deemed relevant for USE IN linkage
Support Partnerships Organization leaders, media Development of financial support


Sponsorship of USEIN ventures


Publicize value of USEIN


Figure 1. Typology of Stakeholders as Partners in USEIN

Teaching-Learning Partnerships
Initially, USEIN may want to explore Teaching-Learning Partnerships with organizations, initiatives, and operations that are working towards the same goals as USEIN. Examining the progress of digital libraries and their methodologies for assessing what a subject-specific group of users specify they do would be useful. The Digital Library Initiative, located at five universities, contributes differing perspectives. Particularly relevant is the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana ( http://www.uiuc.edu/dli), which includes the focus group notes of the Social Science Team. This resource provides methodologies that would be useful in examining how a discipline-specific group was assessed for information needs in a digitized environment. USEIN might spend some time investigating the data collected on the Agricultural Information Network, since the participation of librarians is part of the data.

Moen and McClure's (1997) report on GILS uses both qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine the functioning of the Government Information Locator Service. Among their findings were:

  • Confused purposes and expectations of what GILS should be,
  • Lack of clear government-wide objectives to guide agenciesø implementations
  • Expectations for functionality from GILS that were not realistic
  • Lack of government-wide coordination, management, and oversight,
  • Insufficient senior agency management attention and allocation of resources
  • Lack of demonstrable benefits to agencies
  • A non-workable records component of GILS."
    (Moen and McClure, Executive Summary, http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gils-eval/html/exsum.html)

    • Recommendations included:

  • "refocusing GILS for clarity and utility,
  • Improving GILS efficacy in networked information discovery and retrieval,
  • resolving GILS relationships with other information handling functions and processes,
  • and increasing GILS awareness"
    (Moen and McClure, Executive Summary, http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/gils-eval/html/exsum.html)
    • These findings are specific examples of organizational structural aspects needing attention from the very beginning of USEIN planning. It is highly likely that USEIN will be facing many of the same issues.

    Contractual Partnerships
    USEIN will undoubtedly use contractual partnerships with a wide variety of individuals, groups, and organizations to accomplish the task of unifying information sources. The barriers to seamless information organization are many, as described by Moen and McClure (1997 and by David Stern, (Stern, 1997). Stern notes that the lack of cooperation between librarians and vendors is one of the reasons that existing technologies for information access are not in place. A review of user-vendor groups, such as that described by Presley and Robinson (1989) may flesh out such a judgment.

    Participant Partnerships: Users and Contributors
    Organizations most identified with the collection, organization, access, and evaluation of information were clearly present on the web pages, either by design (web page author was a member of such organizations) or links. However, all groups are participants to some degree . What distinguishes contributors in this partnership type is the factor of active contribution of information to the system. The information may be a site link, an information product, a research paper, a focus group interview, or service needed for maintenance of the system.

    Support Partnerships
    The financial support of an organization (philanthropic, grant-providing, professional) can usually be seen in Web pages. This is an essential kind of partnership, one to be pursued by USEIN. Methods of obtaining financial support need to be shared with USEIN participants. Another kind of support partnership is for purposes of publicity and public relations. USEIN needs to make itself visible through media, journal, and professional publications, as well as by it's Internet presence.
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    [4. Case Study of Partnerships] [Table of Contents] [6. Research Initiatives]