A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Day 1: Opening Remarks

Welcome and  Meeting Objectives

- Blane Dessy, Executive Director, National Library of Education; and
- Jane Kolbe, Chair, Access for All Task Force

Ms. Kolbe opened the meeting by welcoming participants and noting how the meeting reflected one of the recommendations of the Access for All Task Force. She hoped the meeting would generate good outcomes and move the task force's goals forward.

Blane Dessy, executive director of the National Library of Education (NLE) added his welcome and those of Richard Riley, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (DoED) and the acting Assistant Secretary, all of whom believe in the power of collaboration, outreach, and consultation with clients. Mr. Dessy provided a history of NLE's formation and the origin of this meeting. He credited the National Agricultural Library (NAL), the U.S. National Agricultural Information Network (USAIN), and the University of Kentucky's agricultural library as providing good models for NLE. The following paragraphs summarize the main points of Mr. Dessy's discussion:

NLE History. Created in 1994, NLE had several charges:

• to be a repository for Education information in the United States;
• to serve as a "one-stop" reference service for a variety of users; and
• to promote greater cooperation and resource-sharing among providers, using technology to build links to the network of national education resources - necessitating a real team-building, collaborative agenda.

Wide spectrum of participants. Mr. Dessy noted the wide variety of conference attendees, who included representatives from labs, centers, the publishing industry, information technology specialties, foundations, professional associations, education, the communications industry, a variety of research and information services, and public, state, and academic libraries. All have a vested interest in education information and are at some level "in the same business." All are trying to improve American education at some point, continued Mr. Dessy, and so bring their combined resources to bear on creating as meaningful and useful a system as possible.

Tangible outcomes wanted. Participants were asked to work together to derive tangible outcomes. Mr. Dessy asked for "synergy" from the group in order to produce an agenda for disseminating education information. Conference attendees were asked to consider how to effectively collaborate to improve what is already out there and to identify ways to address gaps in education information. He noted that this was more than a matter of technology, that it also involved the preservation and digitization of historic materials as part of a gamut of issues ranging from traditional to modern.

Five papers commissioned. Five papers commissioned by NLE to help guide its approach presented thoughtful suggestions and outlined several possible strategic directions. The papers were in draft form, and participants were asked to provide input to the authors, whose final products were to be widely distributed.

Author's Opening Remarks 

- Jo Ann Carr, Jon D'Amicantonio, Patricia Libutti, Donald Ely, and Nancy O'Brien

Jo Ann Carr, Director, Instructional Materials Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, said she was excited about this meeting's potential for obtaining the collective input of unique client groups and expertise. She felt that the United States Education Information Network (USEIN) should reflect the following:

• The diversity of the American education audience. Services of the education information world can match the pervasive diversity found throughout American education.

• The consumer focus of deliverers, entrepreneurs, and developers of education information.

• A view of the world wide web and information channels as both a medium and a process, relative to technology.

• A view of information as more than a commodity. Ms. Carr highlighted the need to find the best way to develop knowledge as a basis of informed decision-making and educator staff development.

• A view of USEIN as an expansive agency of change that must be inclusive and constructive.

Jon D'Amicantonio, Associate Librarian, California State University, felt the meeting participants could have a big impact on the future of education information access and distribution. The challenge, he stressed, would be to include those not in the "technological loop." To illustrate, he told a story about a librarian who resisted putting in a telephone because she "had no use for that new technology."

Patricia Libutti, Education Subject Specialist at Quinn Library, Lincoln Center, Fordham University Libraries, addressed the theoretical end in her paper, while raising some of the same issues as the other authors. She said we need to know what makes an organization work, to understand what must happen after the enthusiasm takes hold. The need exists to develop a wide variety of social user networks for USEIN.

Donald Ely, Senior Associate for Educational Technology, ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, was visionary in his outlook. He used an analogy of designing and constructing a home, with the staff of NLE serving as the "architects." The role of conference participants, then, could be to serve as advisers or consultants to the architects. This role demands asking many questions, he continued, questions that are targeted and intelligent, to elicit answers that will allow the most effective use of the technology already accessible. "If technology is the answer," quoted Mr. Ely, "then what was the question?" One important question is to decide how to use the existing technology, not to create more. He asked participants to "dream a bit," encouraging them to ask the questions that will further the design of a great house able to meet the needs of its inhabitants.

Nancy O'Brien, Head, Education and Social Science Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, called herself the "pragmatic one." Her desire: to bring this network into existence, so that it is useful to all and widely accessible. This goal requires input, she said, from the diverse conference audience.
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[Title Page]

[Session I]