Summary

   
Objectives
        Using an Internet-based document delivery component of the ISTEC
Advanced Library Linkages initiative, provide delivery of Ibero-American
science and technology publications worldwide.

        Expanding on the successful Library Linkages pilot project, use
the 27 ISTEC -member library holdings to create the first Ibero-American
Science and Technology union list data base.

        Establish an interactive atmosphere between scientists, engineers
and librarians and provide sufficient baseline data to permit spinoff
research in Electronic Library Services.  

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Target Audience and Beneficiaries

 For the delivery of information from Ibero-American S&T researchers,
the target audience will be the worldwide community of co-researchers
from outside of Ibero-America.  It is anticipated that a secondary
audience will be Ibero-American researchers who will have expanded access
to research going on within their own region.  The primary beneficiaries
will be Ibero-American scientists whose research will be accessible to
the world, and who will have new avenues for regional collaboration.   
Through thi s bibliographic access and document delivery program,
Ibero-American research will become an integrated part of mainstream
scientific activity.  Once the level of awareness is raised, it is
expected that multidisciplinary audiences willjoin in the benefi ts of   
library linkages. 
 

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Site visits

   
The keystone to the ISTEC Information Accessand Exchange Project, site
visits to ISTEC member libraries will be made to evaluate library
facilities and analyze the state of electronic library access and 
development, collect data on holdings, and fo rge collegial
relationships. Recognition of the differences in each institution's
information infrastructure - as demonstrated by its library collections -
is imperative. Directing librarians at the sites are in a position to  
identify and obtain appropriate indexes and data bases from their
respective countries.
Recruitment of library staff and attention to the public relations work
that they carry out with research facult y and students who use the      
programs and services is vital to long range success of the program.
Professional exchange, the strongest element of the site visit, renders an
unquantifiable product from common cause and mutual respect.  Obtaining
raw data of serials owned by each institution, whether that data is in
paper for or CD-ROM, is a new and central component of this project.  This
information combined with the UNM holdings will lead to a Union List of
Serial Holdings in Science
 and Technology for ISTEC. While analyzing the level of electronic library
use, particular attention will be paid to current document delivery
efforts, the development of on-line catalogs and the possibility of
inputting collections data directly into th e planned data base.   

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Training Seminars

"Research via Internet" training provides researchers with
electronic investigative skills for the Internet.  The sessions also aim
at creating an efficient, independent user community, as well as a
uniformity of vision and goal with regard to free and public document    
access.  Changes take place quickly at the local level at each ISTEC
institution and on the international level through the Internet.  AsISTEC 
institutions upgrade their networks and as their libraries develop
more advanced electroni c access to their collections, it is critical 
that faculty, students and librarians link current traditional
information-seeking skills with the electronic environment.
 Training sessions are focused on access to the on-line catalogue of the
University of New Mexico and other data bases available through the
catalogue such as CARL, UnCover and, most recently, Expanded Academic
Index.  FirstSearch, a service of OCLC which offers access to over forty
interdisciplinary data bases from all academic disciplines, is also
taught.  Because students and faculty may not have had access to the
international indexing and abstracting indexes that are now so easily   
available through th e Internet, the basic foundations of indexing and
abstracting services have to be taught along with the electronic access 
environment.  Due to a wide variety of search systems on the Internet,
instruction in basic concepts of author, title, keyword, brows e, and    
subject searches in the electronic environment is offered.  Exposure to a
selection of available data bases and their search engines is a
prerequisite for effective and efficient searching.  In addition to
receiving training in filtered, Internet n avigational skills, attendees
receive instruction in requesting materials available at UNM through the
existing ISTEC document delivery system.    The current training seminar
offers a technical module for librarians only.  Because librarians by the
nature of their profession are familiar with organizational issues and
searching techniques, these presentations have a stronger, more uniform
base to build from and are much more detailed and complex.  Beyond
technical information, ISTEC Library Linkages goals are discussed and the
cooperation of the librarians is encouraged.  It is through librarians
that the foundation for continuity is developed; th us, librarians are  
responsible for carrying out "multiplier effect" activities for searching
and document delivery.  Clearly, each library handles the service
according to its facilities, but the overall goals and outcomes are agreed
upon.  Librarians have known for a long time that through word of mouth  
and personal experience, students and faculty encourage their own peers to
take advantage of access to electronic data bases.  Pilot project 
trainingseminars have attracted up to two hundre d and fifty faculty and 
students
over an average three-day period.  Each site is responsible for
advertising the seminars as they see fit and for providing the training 
facilities which include workstations for practice searching.  For the  
planned project , pilot training materials will be enhanced with
translation of key documents, on-line instruction and further
consideration of file transfer protocols.
 

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Evaluation

 Through periodic evaluation and analysis, the program will focus on the
real research needs of involved students and faculty.  Analysis will be   
based on data from baseline questionnaires (see Annex 2), access logs to 
the databases made available on t he network and actual request data
collected at delivery sites.  The independence of students and faculty 
vs.librarian-promoted and assisted service, will be of interest.  Users 
of  
the service will be queried on identification of the material requested,
assistance received, and whether or not the material received was useful.
As the service grows, users will need to prioritize and evaluate their  
requests at the front end.  It is important that the users' knowledge be
developed in this area in order that the service not be overburdened by
extraneous requests which are not used once delivered.  While independence
of the user is a goal, the level of review and interaction by the
librarian at the institution making the requests will also be continually
moni tored.  Determining the right amount of review that adds to
effectiveness without hindering timeliness will be part of a semi-annual
evaluation. A six-month analysis of project success should be presented by
each site manager; these semi-annual reports, w hich will also summarize
Internet and local electronic environment changes, will be compiled after 
two years for a final analysis and recommendation of follow-on projects. 

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Dissemination of Project Results

Current distributed dissemination methods will be continued and
upgraded.  In addition to each participating institution's chosen path for
best informing their university population, ISTEC headquarters announces
project results to members in monthly e-mail messages and reviews the  
year's progress at its annual General Assembly meeting.  We will continue 
to seek presentation selection at concerned conferences held by the
Special Libraries Alliance and the Coalition for Networked Information.  
The proj ect has been nominated for presentation at a proposed 1995
NSF-OAS conference on Computer Applications for Teacher Support and
Training.  A new WEB home page outlining the Library Linkage efforts is   
available via the Internet.  The Project Director is the editor
of an electronic journal sponsored by the Association of College and
Research Libraries of the American Library Association.  The journal,    
Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, is distributed via
Internet to over 900 subscribers.  

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Short- and Long-Term Impact

 For the first time, U.S. scholars will have access to current waves
in Ibero-American Science and Technology.  In the short term, an
augmentation in cooperative research - and a reduction in repetitive
efforts - is anticipated.  The already proven desire to locate exact   
information and to obtain that information quickly will cause librarians  
to upgrade their staff in electronic library searching and document
delivery and relook at traditional reference and interlibrary loan
services.  U.S. access to Iberi an and Latin American publications will
lead to greater citing of those works, thus greater frequency of listings
in U.S. citation indexes, whirling Ibero-American science and technology  
research into the mainstream. The Organization of American States is
pledging to see all Latin American countries connected to the Internet by
the end of 1994.  Connection and use are two very different things:  the 
proposed project exploits the common knowledge of free and public lib rary
access for user introduction to a vaster selection of references and 
tothe basic concepts of riding the Internet.  Existing and new Internet
tools for electronic libraries will gradually be incorporated according to
demands in education and research .  

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Document Transmission Data

Document Delivery data base statistics from  5/94 - 8/96 ...

                                General   94-8 months  95-12 months  96-8 
month$

        Documents delivered     1033       253            358             422
        Total pages             9636      2341           3411            3911
        Avg. Pages/document        9         9             
10               9
        Avg. Docs./month          37        32             
30              53
        Users                   300 +

Distribution per status group :

                                 (%)
        Graduated students      63
        Professors              16
        Undergraduates          13
        Research                 4
        Staff                    3
        Others                   1
                                
Distribution of documents per Institution :
        
        La plata (Argentina)               4
        Unicamp (Brasil)                 747
        Santa Catarina (Brasil)           11
        USP (Brasil)                       1
        Catolica Rio Grande S. (Brasil)    1
        Los Andes (Columbia)             123
        UTE (Ecuador)                     12
        Vigo (Espana)                     66
        Catolica Peru                     28
        La Republica (Uruguay)            36
        USB (Venezuela)                    4
                                        --------
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