Information Retrieval List Digest 426 (October 12, 1998) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-426.txt IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 October 12, 1998 Volume XV, Number 40 Issue 426 ****************************************************************** I. QUERIES 1. Use of Copyrighted Material on the Web for IR Research 2. Responses to Copyright Query II. JOBS 1. Patent Translator/Syntacticians needed at Ergo III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. [WASHINGTON-UPDATE] EDUCAUSE Washington Update 10-05-98 2. [WASHINGTON-UPDATE] EDUCAUSE Washington Update 10-09-98 3. Student Reviewers Needed for Katharine Sharp Review! 4. JOURNAL for Global Information: Special Issue 5. ISTL Call for Papers B. Meetings 1. NACSIS Collection Workshop on Japanese Text Retrieval IV. NOTICES C. Awards, Fellowships, Grants, & Scholarships 1. IMLS Grant Project for UNT SLIS D. Research 1. New NSF Announcement of Interest ****************************************************************** I. QUERIES I.1. Fr: William Hersh Re: Use of Copyrighted Material on Web for IR Research I am interested in creating a test collection for IR research based on content from the Web, some of which is copyrighted. I have been unable to find an answer to the following question: What are the legal restrictions on downloading significant portions of the Web, some of which may be copyrighted, for use on a password-protected machine for doing IR research? Of course this content would be shared with other researchers, who would also have to agree to use it only on password-protected machines. Bill Hersh Oregon Health Sciences University ********** I.2. Fr: David Robert Austen Re: Everything is Copyrighted Material on Web for IR Research Greetings, I my humble opinion, everything on the Web is copyright protected, according to U.S. copyright law. Some government sites may be free of copyright, I believe. The copyright will be owned by the actual creator or the creator's employer. I know this applies to the wrold of photography and I expect to every other authored work of any kind. Hope this helps clarify matters. Yours sincerely, D R Austen >>>>>>>>>> Fr: Geoffrey McKim < mckimg@INDIANA.EDU> Re: Everything is Copyrighted Material on Web for IR Research Hello -- unfortunately I don't have an answer to original question, but thought I might post a clarifying comment. While I agree with Mr. Austen that essentially everything (with a few exceptions) on the Web is copyrighted, what I believe the original poster was asking was whether or not there would be a Fair Use exemption for use of copyrighted materials on a tightly access-controlled network for research purposes. I and probably many others on the list would be quite interested in an answer to this question. Best wishes, -geoff >>>>>>>>>> Fr: Doug D Blansit Re: Use of Copyrighted Material on Web for IR Research Bill, Why not play it as safe as possible and write to the contact person for the web addresses asking their permission? Chances are, most would be delighted to help you out (definitely enough so you can build a gigantic collection to test) and you avoid any questions about copyright. Just a thought. Doug ****************************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Philip A. Bralich Re: Patent Translator/Syntacticians needed at Ergo Our U.S. patent on our NLP technology was allowed just several months ago and we now need to find translations of the patent document for international patents. The patent is 114 pages in length (including drawings and abstract), and it must be translated into the major languages of the world for International Patents in the major countries of the world. Please send bids along with a resume that includes experience with theoretical syntax and patents. Be sure and include an estimate of the time required to complete the translation and a track record of completed translations. Necessary languages will include French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese (of the three districts), Japanese, Korean, German, Thai, etc. Please send bids and resumes to the address below. Bids from organizations that can handle more than one of the required languages would be welcomed. You may preview our software on our web site at http://www.ergo-ling.com. You can also download some of our products there as well. A copy of the patent will be provided to those who submit acceptable bids and resumes. The job will begin in late 1998 or early 1999. Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D. President and CEO Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920 Fax: (808)539-3924 bralich@hawaii.edu http://www.ergo-ling.com ****************************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: EDUCAUSE Re: [WASHINGTON-UPDATE] EDUCAUSE Washington Update 10-05-98 EDUCAUSE: Transforming Education through Information Technologies EDUCAUSE WASHINGTON UPDATE --- OCTOBER 5, 1998 IN THIS ISSUE: UPDATE ON SENATE MEASURE TO RESCIND NSF FUNDING FOR ADVANCED NETWORKS UNIVERSITIES USE 1998 TIIAP AWARDS TO ASSIST UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES FCC BLOCKS BOC MARKETING ALLIANCE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Written from EDUCAUSE's Washington office, "The EDUCAUSE Washington Update" is a free service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies. Anyone may subscribe to the Update by sending e-mail to listserv@listserv.educause.edu with "subscribe update firstname lastname" in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send a "signoff update" command to the same address. If you would like more information about the Update or would like to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Garret Sern at gsern@educause.edu. EDUCAUSE (http://www.educause.edu): Transforming Education Through Information Technologies ********** III.A.2. Fr: EDUCAUSE Re: [WASHINGTON-UPDATE] EDUCAUSE Washington Update 10-09-98 EDUCAUSE: Transforming Education through Information Technologies EDUCAUSE WASHINGTON UPDATE --- OCTOBER 9, 1998 IN THIS ISSUE: EFFORT TO RECIND NSF FUNDING FOR ADVANCED NETWORK RESEARCH CONTINUES IN SENATE CONGRESS REACHES AGREEMENT ON WIPO COPYRIGHT ACT; DATABASE AMENDMENT DROPPED HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE QUESTIONS "ACCOUNTABILITY & AUTHORITY" OF NEW DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Written from EDUCAUSE's Washington office, "The EDUCAUSE Washington Update" is a free service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies. Anyone may subscribe to the Update by sending an e-mail to listserv@listserv.educause.edu with "subscribe update firstname lastname" in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send a "signoff update" command to the same address. If you would like more information about the Update or would like to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Garret Sern atgsern@educause.edu. EDUCAUSE: Transforming Education through Information Technologies.(http://www.educause.edu/) ********** III.A.3. Fr: Katharine Sharp Review Re: Student Reviewers Needed for Katharine Sharp Review! Call for Student Reviewers Katharine Sharp Review (ISSN 1083-5261) http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/review The Katharine Sharp Review, the first electronic journal featuring scholarship and research by students in the field of library and information science, is seeking volunteers to participate on the peer-review board for the next year. The review process needs reviewers to make this a true 'peer-review' and the opportunity to participate in the editorial process first hand will be both enjoyable and educational. The due date for applications is Thursday, October 8. The review board will be responsible for the selection and review of all submitted articles. The length of commitment to the editorial board will be for a full year (actually from now through July) and will comprise two issues (April and August). Each reviewer will be responsible for returning complete critical reviews in a timely manner that will provide guidance as to the acceptability of any one submission. In order to be considered as a potential board member/reviewer, you must currently be enrolled in a LIS program (both MLS and PhD students are encouraged to consider), have ready access to e-mail as this will be the primary means of communication, ability to view documents in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, and preferably a graphical WWW browser (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer). A strong command of English, knowledge of the library and information science field, and a strong desire to take part in a unique and ground-breaking publication is also recommended! If you are interested in applying for this unique opportunity, please send: 1) your name and institution, 2) a description of your general interests within the field, 3) a *brief* paragraph describing your interest in participating in the review process, and 4) perhaps three or four keywords describing your specific interests in LIS (these are used to send you papers related to your interest), 5) the approximate date you will be graduating from your program to the editor, Kevin Ward, at review@edfu.lis.uiuc.edu. The due date for all applications is Thursday, October 8. For more information regarding the Katharine Sharp Review, please e-mail the editor or see the Review's WWW site, which includes the past seven issues from 1995-98, at http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/review. The site is also mirrored at http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/mirrored/lis journals/review/review/ for Europe and elsewhere. ********** III.A.4. Fr: Pattee Fletcher Re: JOURNAL for Global Information: Special Issue CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue of the JOURNAL for Global Information Management LIBRARIES AND THE INTERNET: AN INTERNATIONAL AGENDA. Patricia Diamond Fletcher, ed. We are soliciting research papers for a special issue of the Journal for Global Information Management. The goal of this special issue is to provide an international picture of the issues to and the responses by libraries to providing services and information on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Public, academic, school, business, and other special libraries will be the subject of the discourse. Current research on effectiveness of library networks and on the potential directions for libraries in a networked environment will be presented to share library best practices, policy, and services. Cross-cultural library issues are solicited. Topics can include: * Development of Internet services in libraries * Special populations for Internet services * Budgeting, accounting, and funding Internet services * Policy issues * Training and staffing issues * Global libraries * Collection development and dissemination * Providing for the information "have-nots" * International copyright * Transborder data flow Important Deadlines: January 10, 1999 -- submissions from authors due to editor March 31 -- papers due back to editor from reviewers April 15 -- papers returned to authors for final editing June 1 -- papers due to publisher for Fall issue inclusion Guidelines for submission can be found at the JGIM website: http://www.idea-group.com/jgim.htm Direct all inquiries and submissions to: Patricia Diamond Fletcher, Ph.D. Department of Information Systems 1000 Hilltop Circle The University of Maryland Baltimore County Baltimore, MD, USA 21250 410-455-3154 410-455-1073 (fax) >>>>>SEE ALSO<<<<< the "Call for Chapters" for World Libraries on the Information Superhighway (Idea Group Publishing). Papers submitted for the above special issue of JGIM may also be considered - if received in time - for inclusion in the book. CHEERS! ********** III.A.5. Fr: Andrea Duda Re: ISTL Call for Papers Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship (ISTL) is an electronic publication of the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. It is available on the world wide web at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/ We invite your article proposals for our next three issues focusing on geographic information systems and libraries; electronic journals in sci-tech libraries; and grants and fundraising for sci-tech libraries. Articles should be substantive and may address any aspects of these topics. Issues and topics: Winter 1999: Geographic information systems Topics might include: a GIS primer for librarians, collection development in GIS Spring 1999: Electronic journals in sci-tech libraries Topics might include: Licensing, organization of e-journals, ideal publishers Summer 1999: Grants and fundraising for sci-tech libraries Topics might include: The pleasures and pitfalls of obtaining a grant, sources for information on grants ISTL's editorial guidelines are available at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/guidelines.html Please send an abstract of your proposed article to duda@library.ucsb.edu for consideration by the ISTL editorial board. We also welcome your suggestions for themes for future issues. Andrea L. Duda Networked Information Access Coordinator Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara E-mail: duda@library.ucsb.edu InfoSurf: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ ********** III.B.1. Fr: Noriko Kando Re: NACSIS Collection Workshop on Japanese Text Retrieval CALL FOR PARTICIPATION NACSIS Collection Japanese Text Retrieval Workshop November 1998 - July 1999 Conducted by: NTCIR Project Group, National Center for Science Information Systems (NACSIS), Japan Co-sponsored by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Approved by: Information Processing Society Japan (IPSJ) URL: http://www.rd.nacsis.ac.jp/~ntcadm/workshop/work-en.html Enquiries: ntcadm@rd.nacsis.ac.jp A competition-type workshop in Japanese text retrieval will be held from November 1998 to July 1999. Participation is invited from anyone interested in Japanese text retrieval and cross-lingual information retrieval, from large-scale collections of scientific documents. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES: - To encourage research in information retrieval, cross-lingual information retrieval and related areas by providing a large-scale Japanese test collection. - To provide a forum for research groups interested in comparing results and exchanging ideas or opinions in an informal atmosphere. - To improve the quality of the Test Collections based on the feedback from participants. DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION (DATA): - NACSIS Test Collection 1 (Kando et al. 1998): more than 330,000 documents of summaries of papers presented at conferences hosted by 65 Japanese academic societies in various subject fields; more than half are Japanese-English paired documents. - A tagged corpus: part of the Test Collection 1 containing detailed part-of-speech tags with three levels of lexical boundaries (Kageura et. al., 1997). WORKSHOP SCHEDULE: By October 31, 1998: Submit application. Beginning in November, 1998: Document disks distributed to those participants who have returned the required permission forms needed to obtain the documents. Thirty topics for training purposes will be available from the Workshop's home page through a password given to active participants. February 8, 1999: New fifty topics for ad hoc task and cross-lingual task distributed. March 1, 1999: Ad hoc results and cross-lingual results due. May 17,1999: Results of Relevance Assessment for the new topics will be distributed to the participants. By May 31, 1999: Submit application for Oral Presentation at the Workshop's meeting in July. By June 21, 1999: Submit camera-ready Copy for the Proceedings July 1999: Workshop meeting in Tokyo, Japan. TASK DESCRIPTIONS: Below, is a brief summary of the tasks envisaged for the Workshop. More detailed description and samples are found on the Workshop's web site. A participant will conduct one or more of the tasks below: - Ad hoc information retrieval task: to investigate the retrieval performance of systems that search a static set of documents using new search topics - Cross-lingual information retrieval task : an ad hoc task in which documents are in English and topics are in Japanese - Automatic term recognition and role analysis task : (a) to extract terms from titles and abstracts, and (b) to identify the terms representing the "object", "method" and "main operation" of the main topic. APPLICATIONS: Please complete and returned the application form attached below via e-mail to ntcadm@rd.nacsis.ac.jp. by October 31, 1998. Online registration is available at: http://www.rd.nacsis.ac.jp/~ntcadm/workshop/application/app-en.html By fax or postal mail, please print out the application form, complete, and send to: Noriko Kando R & D Dept. NACSIS 3-29-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8640 Japan fax: +81-3-5095-7064 phone: +81-3-3942-6969 ENQUIRIES: Please send email to Noriko Kando, project co-leader, at kando@rd.nacsis.ac.jp, or to NTCIR Project administrators at ntcadm@rd.nacsis.ac.jp. About "Automatic term recognition & role analysis task" in the Workshop, please send email to Kyo Kageura at kyo@rd.nacsis.ac.jp. NOTES: - The Workshop's meeting in July, 1999 will be open only to participating groups that submit results and selected people from sponsoring agencies. - The papers presented at the Workshop's meeting will be published in the Workshop Proceedings. - Dissemination of the research results using NACSIS Test Collection other than in the Workshop's Proceedings is welcomed. However, the conditions of participation preclude specific advertising claims based on the results using the Collection or the Workshop. - International participants are welcome. Announcements will be in Japanese and English. FURTHER INFORMATION http://www.rd.nacsis.ac.jp/~ntcadm/workshop/work-en.html ****************************************************************** IV. RESEARCH IV.C.1. Fr: Samantha Hastings Re: IMLS Grant Project for UNT SLIS The School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas receives National Leadership Grant from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The project, "Digital Image Managers for the New Millennium: A Museum / University Collaboration" is based on the partnership of the University of North Texas and the African American Museum in Dallas. One of the project goals is to produce expert managers of digital images and information. The School of Library and Information Sciences has received a grant from the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to build a collaborative program that includes a digital imaging laboratory and fellowships for students in a Certificate of Advanced Study Program. The program of study will prepare individuals to work as digital image managers in museums, libraries, archives, and other information centers. In collaboration with the School of Visual Arts, the project is designed to produce digital image managers with expertise in the production of visual images, the creation and management of databases and the ability to use advanced network and information technologies to improve access to digital images and information. The project proposes a unique educational experience made possible by the cooperation between a museum and a university. Students digitize objects from the museum collection and build an image database that will be accessible on the Web. The experience includes the use of video conference technologies to enhance collaboration between the museum and the university. Students communicate with the museum staff, work on images and database information simultaneously and share experiences immediately. By linking the digital image laboratory and the African American Museum, students have every opportunity to learn from museum professionals as well as from university professors. Dr. S.K. Hastings, Principal Investigator University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences POB311068 * ISB205F Denton, Texas 76203-1068 940-565-4538 FAX: 940-565-3101 hastings@lis.unt.edu http://www.unt.edu/slis ********** IV.D.1. Fr: Clifford Lynch Re: New NSF Announcement of Interest INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARIES COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH Effective Immediately Proposal Target Dates:January 15, 1999 (first year competition) January 15 (following years' competition) Announcement Number NSF 99-6 (NEW) INTRODUCTION: This activity is supported by the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems of the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, and the Division of International Programs of the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. It builds on and extends prior Foundation efforts in digital libraries research. International digital libraries research is intended to contribute to the fundamental knowledge required to create information systems that can operate in multiple languages, formats, media, and social and organizational contexts. To achieve this, collaborative creation of new research understandings, tools and ideas exploiting the different opportunities offered by materials and technologies in use in different countries is strongly encouraged. Research supported under this program is expected to: * identify a collection of information which is not accessible or usable because of technical barriers, distance, size, system fragmentation or other limits; * using this as a testbed, create the understanding and new technology to make it possible for such information to be found, delivered to and/or exploited by a distributed set of users; and * evaluate the effect of this new technology and its international benefits. The program's goal is to enable users to easily access digital collections, regardless of location, language or formats, and enable broad use in research, education, commerce and other purposes. Such a global information environment requires research on: * interoperable technologies for advanced retrieval of many kinds of information, including ways of adapting to different formats or organizations of databases; * technology for intellectual property protection in a global marketplace the development of linked, compatible databases with inherently regional information, such as databases of geographic, botanic, agricultural, demographic or economic data; and * methods and standards for ensuring long-term interoperability among distributed and separately administered databases; worldwide data mining and self-organizing databases; collective work on preserving and organizing domain-specific content. While there are now uncoordinated efforts in many countries, cooperative research can help avoid duplication of effort, prevent the development of fragmented digital systems, and encourage productive interchange of scientific knowledge and scholarly data around the world. This NSF effort will fund the US portion of collaborative digital library projects among investigators from different countries to foster long-term, sustainable relationships between US and non-US researchers and research organizations. Cooperating groups in supported projects are expected to be balanced in terms of level of effort and expertise, and demonstrate the benefits obtainable from complementary and synergistic international research. The research strengths of researchers in different countries should be combined to facilitate work on complex multi-faceted problems relating to the access and use of international distributed and multilingual resources. CONTENT: Proposals should have the overall research goal of enabling users to access and exploit information in new ways. Research issues include information organization, forms of information distribution, scalability and security techniques for worldwide data systems, and tools to search, store, and deliver information in different media or languages. Specific research areas falling under this program are: * multi-lingual information systems, cross-language retrieval systems, language translation, and language teaching software * multi-national digital libraries including sound, data, image, multimedia, software, and other kinds of content * interoperability and scalability technology to permit extremely large world-wide collections * metadata techniques and tools * geospatial, environmental, biological, historical and other information systems in which location is highly relevant, including consideration of best organizations for such systems * preservation and archiving of digital scholarly information, including technology and procedures for long-term information asset management * social aspects of digital libraries and cross-cultural context studies * utilization of digital libraries in educational technology at all levels of instruction * economic and copyright issues: authentication, payment, rights formalism, trust and fair use * electronic publishing and scholarly communication technology, including collaboratories, online repositories, and new methods of organizing scientific knowledge distribution. These topics are not intended to be totally inclusive, but to illustrate and encourage research that opens exciting new research areas, and gives promise of user benefit from international research synergy. ELIGIBILITY: Multi-country, multi-team projects are required, and proposals to this program must involve at least one research team in the United States and one in another country. A project should have a single jointly developed proposal from all involved groups, which clearly delineates both the division of areas of research and the synergies expected. Each research team is responsible for obtaining support for its part of the project. NSF will not support the non-US portion of a project, or the US portion of a project not receiving support in the foreign country or countries involved. The NSF proposal must contain, in addition to budget(s) for the US team(s), information indicating the level of investments and efforts for each foreign team. Where desirable, NSF may choose to coordinate review with a foreign funding agency and make joint decisions. Institutions eligible to apply to the NSF supported portion of this program are US universities and US non-profit research institutions. Each project should not exceed three year's duration with a maximum yearly cost of $165,000. NSF funding for this initiative is anticipated to be a minimum of $1M annually. PROPOSAL CONTENT: Proposal preparation guidelines are in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, NSF 99-2. Each proposal must include a plan of work explaining: * what the primary research questions are, * what information resource is to be used in the project, * what area will be investigated, * who is likely to use the information and for what purposes, and * what benefits are expected to flow from the research. In addition, the proposal must have a clear and explicit management plan. This includes: * details of how cooperation is to be carried out and coordinated, * description of and justification for the partitioning of the research activities, * processes to be used for coordinating and evaluating progress, and * anticipated travel requirements. Biographical information should be provided for all investigators in the collaborative effort, both US, and non-US as described in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, NSF 99-2. Citations to participant publications that appeared after July 1, 1998 are encouraged to be given as Web addresses only. A letter of endorsement from the foreign counterparts, which identifies the source of support for the non-US activities, is required. PROPOSAL EVALUATION: Evaluation criteria applied to all NSF proposals listed in the Grant Proposal Guide, NSF 99-2, are: 1. What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? How important is the proposed activity to advancing knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields? How well qualified is the proposer (individual or team) to conduct the project? (If appropriate, the reviewer will comment on the quality of prior work.) To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative and original concepts? How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity? Is there sufficient access to resources? 2. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning? How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks, and partnerships? Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding? What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society? In addition, the following criteria will be used for this program: 1. Does the proposal represent new research in the area of digital libraries, and does it contain new scientific ideas and methods? 2. Does the project demonstrate the need for and advantages of shared international activities, and exploit, as appropriate, new communications methods to link its teams? 3. Are the research groups interacting as true collaborators, displaying complementary and comparable levels of professional expertise? 4. Does the management plan provide mechanisms for effective communication, coordination, progress assessment, and flexibility? 5. Should the research be successful, how many people will benefit from the new technology created? 6. Should the research be successful, how will the content be made available to communities of users? 7. Do the previous efforts of the research teams demonstrate their competence and support their likelihood of achieving the goals of the project? 8. If the work is successful at creating a new information service, does the proposal include a plan by which that service will be continued after the research funding ends, and how credible is that plan? 9. How effective is the project plan for enabling others to draw upon the results of the research? Integration of Research and Education One of the principal strategies in support of NSF's goals is to foster integration of research and education through the programs, projects and activities it supports at academic and research institutions. These institutions provide abundant opportunities where individuals may concurrently assume responsibilities as researchers, educators, and students and where all can engage in joint efforts that infuse education with the excitement of discovery and enrich research through the diversity of learner perspectives. PIs should address this issue in their proposal to provide reviewers with the information necessary to respond fully to both NSF merit review criteria. NSF staff will give it careful consideration in making funding decisions. Integrating Diversity into NSF Programs, Projects, and Activities Broadening opportunities and enabling the participation of all citizens -- women and men, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities -- is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering. NSF is committed to this principle of diversity and deems it central to the programs, projects, and activities it considers and supports. Pis should address this issue in their proposal to provide reviewers with the information necessary to respond fully to both NSF merit review criteria. NSF staff will give it careful consideration in making funding decisions. CATEGORIES OF SUPPORT: All awards for this announcement made by NSF will be as grants or cooperative agreements to academic institutions and qualified non-profit research organizations. Partnership arrangements with other groups in the United States are encouraged, including subcontracts with the proposing organization. PROPOSAL SCHEDULES AND PREPARATION Letters of Intent: Due One Month Prior to Proposal Submission Letters of Intent are encouraged to assist the program in administrative and review preparation. Organizations or persons considering submission of a proposal should send an electronic mail message with the following statement: "I am interested in submitting a proposal to the International Digital Libraries Program," and include the title and brief abstract of the proposed work, as much as is known of the list of participants, including the foreign participants, and the source of funds anticipated for the foreign partners. Letters of intent will not be refereed or evaluated but should contain sufficient information about the topic to help in the selection of reviewers. Submit the letter of intent as an electronic mail message to idli2@nsf.gov International Digital Libraries Research Division of Information and Intelligent Systems Suite 1115 National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22230 Full Proposals: Target Date January 15, 1999 (first year competition) January 15 (succeeding years' competition) The proposals must be marked INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARIES - NSF 99-6 in the top left hand box, "Program Announcement", on the cover sheet (NSF Form 1207). Proposals must be prepared as specified in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, NSF 99-2 and sent to: National Science Foundation PPU International Digital Libraries Research, Suite 1115 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22230 AWARD ADMINISTRATION: NSF requires prospective grantees to furnish, upon request by NSF's Division of Grants and Agreements, basic organization and management information that will assist the NSF Grant Officers in assessing their financial and managerial responsibility. These requirements are described in the NSF 95-26, NSF Grant Policy Manual. Grants awarded as a result of this solicitation are administered in accordance with the terms and conditions of NSF GC-1, "Grant General Conditions," or FDP-III, "Federal Demonstration Partnership General Terms and Conditions," depending on the grantee organization. Any Cooperative Agreement resulting from this announcement must comply with NSF GC-1 and Cooperative Agreement General Conditions, CA-1. NSF expects significant findings from research to be promptly submitted for publication by US supported teams, and strongly encourages this practice on the part of the non-US collaborators. OTHER INFORMATION: The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. Grantees are wholly responsible for conducting their project activities and preparing the results for publication. Thus, the Foundation does not assume responsibility for such findings or their interpretation. NSF welcomes proposals from all qualified scientists, engineers and educators. The Foundation strongly encourages women, minorities, and persons with disabilities to compete fully in its programs. In accordance with federal statutes, regulations, and NSF policies, no person on grounds of race, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving financial assistance from NSF (unless otherwise specified in the eligibility requirements for a particular program). Facilitation Awards for Scientists and Engineers with Disabilities (FASED) provide funding for special assistance or equipment to enable persons with disabilities (investigators and other staff, including student research assistants) to work on NSF-supported projects. See the programannouncement or contact the program coordinator at (703) 306-1636. The National Science Foundation has Telephonic Device for the Deaf (TDD) and Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) capabilities that enable individuals with hearing impairments to communicate with the Foundation regarding NSF programs, employment, or general information. TDD may be accessed at (703) 306-0090 or through FIRS on 1-800-877-8339. PRIVACY ACT AND PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENTS: The information requested on proposal forms and project reports is solicited under the authority of the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended. The information on proposal forms will be used in connection with the selection of qualified proposals; project reports submitted by awardees will be used for program evaluation and reporting within the Executive Branch and to Congress. The information requested may be disclosed to qualified reviewers and staff assistants as part of the review process; to applicant institutions/grantees to provide or obtain data regarding the proposal review process, award decisions, or the administration of awards; to government contractors, experts, volunteers and researchers and educators as necessary to complete assigned work; to other government agencies needing information as part of the review process or in order to coordinate programs; and to another Federal agency, court or party in a court or Federal administrative proceeding if the government is a party. Information about Principal Investigators may be added to the Reviewer file and used to select potential candidates to serve as peer reviewers or advisory committee members. See Systems of Records, NSF-50, "Principal Investigator/Proposal File and Associated Records," 63 Federal Register 267 (January 5, 1998), and NSF-51, "Reviewer/Proposal File and Associated Records," 63 Federal Register 268 (January 5, 1998). Submission of the information is voluntary. Failure to provide full and complete information, however, may reduce the possibility of receiving an award. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 120 hours per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Send comments regarding this burden estimate and any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Reports Clearance Officer; Information Dissemination Branch, DAS; National Science Foundation; Arlington, VA 22230. YEAR 2000 REMINDER: In accordance with Important Notice No. 120 dated June 27, 1997, Subject: Year 2000 Computer Problem, NSF awardees are reminded of their responsibility to take appropriate actions to ensure that the NSF activity being supported is not adversely affected by the Year 2000 problem. Potentially affected items include: computer systems, databases, and equipment. The National Science Foundation should be notified if an awardee concludes that the Year 2000 will have a significant impact on its ability to carry out an NSF funded activity. Information concerning Year 2000 activities can be found on the NSF web site at http://www.nsf.gov/oirm/y2k/start.htm. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers: 47.070 Computer and Information Science and Engineering 47.075 Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences OMB# 3145-0058 P.T. (34) K.W.(1000000,0400000,0300000) AGENCY CONTACTS Stephen M. Griffin National Science Foundation Division of Information and Intelligent Systems 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22230 Electronic mail: sgriffin@nsf.gov Telephone: 703-306-1930 Fax: 703-306-0599 For country specific or regional information, please contact: Division of International Programs 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22230 Electronic mail: intpubs@nsf.gov Fax: 703-306-0476 Telephones: Africa, Near East, South Asia: 703-306-1707 Americas: 703-306-1706 East Asia and Pacific: 703-306-1704 Eastern Europe, Newly Independent States: 703-306-1703 Japan and Korea: 703-306-1701 Western Europe: 703-306-1702 Stephen M. Griffin Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS) Program Director: Special Projects Digital Libraries Initiative Mail: National Science Foundation | e-mail: sgriffin@nsf.gov 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 1115 | phone: (703) 306-1930 Arlington, VA 22230 | fax: (703) 306-0599 | home: (202) 363-0986 For More Information: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iis/sp_pdhome.html ****************************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA. 94607-5200. Send subscription requests and submissions to: nancy.gusack@ucop.edu Editorial Staff: Nancy Gusack nancy.gusack@ucop.edu Cliff Lynch (emeritus) cliff@cni.org The IRLIST Archives is set up for anonymous FTP. Using anonymous FTP via the host ftp.cdl.ucop.edu, the files will be found in the directory /data/ftp/pub/irl, stored in subdirectories by year (e.g., data/ftp/pub/irl/1993). 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