Panel 2: How Should the Library be Governed, Managed, and Funded

 
Revised by Dave Fulker 24 Sep 99 

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An effective Digital Library for Earth System Education is best established under a two phase governance model. The first phase should reflect a simple philosophy, minimizing central costs and relying heavily on volunteer efforts and contributed resources. In this phase a small but broadly representative steering committee, informed by several function-oriented advisory groups, should provide strong, policy-level guidance and direction to an initial set of Federally funded activities. These central efforts should enable broad participation, foster a culture of users as providers of Library contents, and emphasize Earth-system characteristics that make the Library a uniquely valuable educational resource. The second phase governance should be matched to a long-range business model, developed in the first phase with appropriate economic and market analyses.

Discussion

The second-phase governance model may incorporate significant private-sector roles and revenues, such as considered by other Panels. However we focus here on the start-up model, and assume primary reliance on efforts funded by agencies and universities.

Governing Assumptions

The Digital Library for Earth System Education is multidisciplinary in scope and serves an international community of learners and educators at many levels of scientific sophistication. Efforts to build the Library combine voluntary contributions by community members with centrally funded activities. The Library's "holdings" are a federated collection of digital artifacts from many sources, and only a fraction are acquired and maintained in central repositories.

Governing Principles

The purpose for imposing a governance structure on the Library is to align Library efforts with the advancement of Earth system education. This includes ensuring that the associated decision makers are accountable to a large community of users with a complex variety of interests in the Earth system and in the Earth sciences broadly defined, including educators at all levels (primary, secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and community outreach), providers of data (NASA, NOAA, IRIS, UCAR, etc.), and information technology specialists. Hence the governance structure and the selection of governors must:

  1. reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the Earth system;

  2. exploit the alliances that already exist within the scientific and educational communities being served;

  3. represent the needs of a highly diverse population of learners; and

  4. instill a sense of "ownership" among Library constituents.

Governing policies for the Library should enfranchise all of the contributing partners, attract new partners to the federation, and create a sense of communal responsibility for contributing to and promoting the effectiveness of the Library. This includes fostering a sense of responsibility among content providers for Library excellence, in part by offering the providers expert assistance, tools that enable content creation, and forms of recognition for their work. In addition, Library governance must achieve balance along two dimensions: advancement versus responsiveness and centralization versus decentralization. To this end, the governance process should:

  1. encourage decisions (by sponsors and contributors as well as by Library managers) that position the Library to meet well recognized needs and simultaneously to lead the community toward improved educational practices and creative uses of advanced digital technology;

  2. foster reliance, to the greatest practical extent, on federated and contributed resources, limiting the central functions to those required for interoperability and overall effectiveness.

Together, all of the above considerations imply the need for a small but broadly representative Steering Committee, informed by several function-oriented advisory groups and chartered to provide strong, policy-level guidance and direction for Library efforts. Though the Steering Committee may alter its structure as the Library evolves, the initial framework should include four advisory groups focused on users, services, collections, and technical matters. The work of the advisory groups should be complemented with broad-based, electronically facilitated input directly from the community of Library user/creators.

The Steering Committee also should establish a framework for including federated members in the Library effort and establishing:

  1. a fair and open use policy;

  2. guidelines on intellectual property, with non-exclusive rights to materials being held by the creators;

  3. minimum technical standards for effective networking across and between federated Library components;

  4. responsibilities that lead to a robust, sustainable system for collecting, maintaining, and disseminating materials or services that are incorporated in the Library.

Indicators

The Library's governers should be watchful for signs of success or failure. Among the indicators of success are that the Library:

  • Is widely used

  • Is linked to educators on large scales (via textbooks, e.g.)

  • Has an integrative effect in respect to data sources, tools, etc.

  • Is self organizing and adaptive

  • Is attractive to commercial organizations

  • Is the best among many (implying focus, emphasis on "good" data, etc.)

  • Effectively utilizes "seals of approval" (from USGS & NSTA, e.g.)

  • Matches resources to constituents

  • Resembles the Consumers Union model

  • Exhibits excellence in design and architecture

  • Provides a distillation function (not just filtering)

  • Leverages existing and new assets

  • Provides a framework/infrastructure for new initiatives

  • Resembles the Nature Conservancy model: measuring things yields changing attitudes

Perhaps the foremost indicator of success is the emergence of new attitudes and practices, on large scales, linked to use of the Library.

Among the indicators of failure are that the Library:

  • Has no users (perhaps through lack of evangelism, e.g.)

  • Is too rigid/structured to adapt to change

  • Is too late (i.e., others are more widely used or more prestigious)

  • Is too ambitious (e.g., attempting educational changes beyond the contributors' qualifications)

  • Is too narrowly focused

  • Achieves few results beyond those that would have emerged as quickly (from the Web, e.g.) without the effort

The governors may have need for metrics, such as for determining the Library's:

  • Value beyond a simple list of digital resources

  • Utility in supporting (large-scale) educational change


    • Note: this is more important than measuring its value in digital libraries research (e.g., for proofs of principle)

  • Effect on the speed and quality of educational change

  • Soundness (i.e., excellence) in its "core" capabilities

The governors should examine carefully issues of scope, including:

  • Library focus on the Earth system (broadly defined)

  • Library focus on the true strengths and expertise of its contributors (i.e., avoiding seduction by the excitingly unfamiliar)

  • Library commitment to being the best (e.g., not ignoring genuine distinctions between research and education

Finally, the governors must adapt to uncertainties in the funding model:

  • Are the Web and Digital Libraries replacing the publisher model?

  • If so, does that imply that the Digital Library for Earth System Education can be self sustaining?

Action Plan

  1. (Now) Adopt a two-phase governance plan.

  2. (Within one month) Appoint and seek funding for a Digital Library for Earth System Education Steering Committee with:

    • 8-12 voting members (with staggered 2-year terms) selected by the Coolfont Workshop organizing committee, based on recommendations from all of the Workshop Panels. These members should represent a wide educational spectrum and a wide disciplinary spectrum, and they should be skilled in reflecting broad community perspectives.

    • Several observers/commentators from government agencies and the private sector.

    • A charter that is consistent with the Discussion section above.

    • A structure and advisory groups as indicated in the diagram below and as described in more detail in the other panel reports.

  3. (Within 3 months, by the Steering Committee) Develop a clear statement of understanding that 1) establishes an appropriate relationship under which the steering committee provides guidance for the GDL effort and 2) is acceptable to and adopted by the members of the steering committee and the GDL investigators. As part of this understanding, it is anticipated that UCAR will provide administrative and hosting support for the steering committee.

  4. (Short-Term) Build prototype(s) and a community of user-owners, based on what's feasible with government funding, with outreach to other digital library initiatives, and with the federated resources of the Earth science community; appoint an "ambassador" to do this work.

  5. (Short-Term, by NASA/NSF) Fund an economic analysis, an IP analysis, a needs assessment, and a business plan, incorporating the factors listed below plus experience gained from the prototype efforts

    • Community Assets

      • Knowledge, judgement, raw materials (data, simulations, visualizations, diagrams, explanations, etc.)

      • Potential for helping the publication industry adapt to the digital/Internet age

      • Potential interfaces with other digital library efforts.

    • Possible Bases for Revenue

      • Usage-based micropayments, subscriptions...

      • Macropayments from libraries...

      • "Finder Fees" from commercial providers

      • Intellectual property licensing

      • Coprorate/personal underwriting (per PBS/NPR model; formally connected to memberships?)

    • Intellectual Property Constraints and Opportunities

  6. (Medium-Term, by the Steering Committee) Adopt "Articles of Federation" or a similar framework formalizing the means by which institutions and other contributors are included in the Library structure.  This should articulate guiding principles and by-laws for the operation of the Library.

  7. (In two years, in a Coolfont-like workshop) Adopt a business plan and a corresponding long-term governance model. Utilize advances in the Digital Earth Initiative and knowledge gained in the economic/market study and the prototyping efforts.

  8. (Long-Term): Establish the central facilities (offices, professional/technical/managerial staff, administration, infrastructure, etc.) needed to operate the Library.

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