The following may be of interest

Dan


>  Tuesday, November 21, 2000
>
>
>
>  SUNY's Library-Software Contract Includes 'Ultimate
>  Protection': Program Code
>
>  By FLORENCE OLSEN
>
>
>
>  State University of New York officials have approved a
>  five-year statewide contract for library software that is
>  unusual because it requires the vendor to place in escrow a
>  complete copy of the software source code and all related
>  documentation.
>
>  The escrow agreement is among many reasons that SUNY officials
>  give for their optimism that a $19.5-million project called
>  SUNYConnect will be successful. The five-year network project,
>  spearheaded by the system's office of library and information
>  services, will integrate the libraries of all 64 SUNY campuses
>  by creating a shared virtual catalog of nearly 18 million
>  records.
>
>  The contract SUNY signed last month with the software vendor
>  Ex Libris Inc. was not the first in which the university has
>  insisted that a vendor using proprietary source code make
>  escrow arrangements. "We've done it before, and it has
>  benefited us," says Carey B. Hatch, assistant provost for
>  library and information services at SUNY. "In case the vendor
>  goes under, we still have access to the source code that makes
>  the system work."
>
>  At any time during the contract with Ex Libris, SUNY can look
>  at the source code and documentation for the company's
>  library-management system. If the contract is terminated for
>  any reason, the source code and documentation will be released
>  to SUNY. "That's our ultimate protection," Mr. Hatch says.
>
>  Not all vendors are willing to sign escrow agreements, he
>  adds. But library-software vendors that were unwilling to do
>  so "were eliminated from consideration" when the university
>  was accepting bids for the new contract.
>
>  The ambitious SUNYConnect plan calls for interlibrary loans of
>  nonelectronic books and other materials to be processed and
>  delivered in 48 hours. By the time the library system is
>  completed, officials also expect that nearly 50 percent of all
>  serials and scholarly journals in SUNY's virtual library will
>  be online and accessible from anywhere to SUNY students and
>  faculty members, who can log in to the system from any Web
>  browser.
>
>  The 18 million records, which will be stored on large Oracle
>  database servers, will represent all of the holdings in all
>  SUNY libraries. "There's nothing that a faculty member at
>  Harvard University or the University of Chicago or Stanford
>  University has access to that our faculty or students won't
>  have access to," says Peter D. Salins, provost and vice
>  chancellor for academic affairs at SUNY.
>
>  SUNYConnect will also provide better access to government
>  data, Mr. Salins said. Most of the information is available
>  electronically now, but Mr. Salins says it "is messy and
>  incoherent." Under the new system, it will be organized and
>  easy to download.
>
>  A desire for greater operating efficiency also moved SUNY
>  officials to create a statewide library-management system.
>  "Because of rising serial-publications costs and the cost of
>  technology, many libraries realize it's do or die," says Julie
>  A. Wash, who is distance- and collaborative-learning librarian
>  at Monroe Community College and also is president of the SUNY
>  Librarians Association.
>
>  SUNY's library directors are enthusiastic about the
>  virtual-library project, Ms. Wash says. The library software
>  will create a single electronic catalog and  system for
>  circulation, serials, acquisition, and administration for the
>  universities' 71 libraries, while still permitting librarians
>  to exercise their authority locally.
>
>  SUNY is not the first state-university system to begin such a
>  project. OhioLINK -- a electronic library and information
>  network linking that state's university, college, technical,
>  and community-college libraries and the State Library of Ohio
>  -- served as a model for New York officials. California,
>  Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have
>  similarly ambitious statewide library projects up and running.
>  "If SUNY wants to stay up there with attracting students, we
>  really need to do something like this," Ms. Wash says.
>
>  Six SUNY campuses have begun installing the Ex Libris library
>  software, known as ALEPH 500. They are Tompkins-Cortland
>  Community College, the colleges at Fredonia and Oswego, and
>  the university campuses at Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony
>  Brook. By 2004, all of the system's campuses expect to be
>  using the software. The City University of New York has plans
>  to follow SUNY in installing the Ex Libris software. Officials
>  say "electronic bridges" will link SUNY's virtual library to
>  CUNY's.
>
>  SUNY officials say they would like to offer a fee-based
>  service for nonuniversity users, such as researchers in the
>  state's technology businesses and health-care organizations.
>  "We're looking at ways to make this a resource, not just for
>  our students and faculty but for the larger community in the
>  state," Mr. Salins says.
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>Chronicle subscribers can read this article on the Web at this address:
>http://chronicle.com/free/2000/11/2000112101t.htm
>
>If you would like to have complete access to The Chronicle's Web
>site, a special subscription offer can be found at:
>
>   http://chronicle.com/4free
>
>Use the code D00CM when ordering.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>
>You may visit The Chronicle as follows:
>
>   * via the World-Wide Web, at http://chronicle.com
>   * via telnet at chronicle.com
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Copyright 2000 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Daniel Greenstein
Director, Digital Library Federation
CLIR
1755 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Suite 500
Washington DC 20036
phone 202 939 4762