
1. [MS] Introduction 
   This document is the Report of a Feasibility Study funded by the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding
Councils. The Study arose out of a Proposal submitted to the Committee by
the authors of the present report in February 1994.L. Burnard and H.
Short, Feasibility study into establishing an Arts and Humanities
Datacentre: a proposal to the Joint Information Systems Committee,
February 1994. Support for a feasibility study on this topic was also
recommended in the Follett Report.See para 299 of the Report of the Joint
Funding Councils Libraries Review Group, 1993 (hereafter Follett, 1993).
   The Proposal was also in part prompted by a report of the Humanities
Information Review Panel, published jointly by the British Academy and
the British Library, Information Technology in Humanities Scholarship,
British Library R \\& D Report 6097, London 1993. which documented the
growth of electronic resources in the humanities, and recommended the
development of a national strategy for the holding, maintenance and
provision of access to such materials.

1.1. Summary
   The objective of the Feasibility Study was to consider how a broad and
flexible Arts and Humanities Data Service might be established, within
which the development and use of electronic resources would be both
widened and facilitated, while remaining both responsive to change and
cost-effective.
   The recommendations of the Feasibility Study may be summarized as
follows:
    * the role of an Arts and Humanities Data Service should be to
promote effective, low-cost access to the widest range of relevant
digital resources by UK researchers and teachers from all Arts and
Humanities disciplines;
    * the functions to be performed include: cataloguing and
identification of resources; development and application of standards;
documentation and training; archival preservation of existing resources;
identification and creation of new resources; protection of intellectual
property rights;
    * the Arts and Humanities Data Service should have a distributed
structure, with some functions being performed by a central
infrastructure, and others by co-operating specialist data service
providers;
    * the Service should define standard policies with respect to the
description and encoding of data resources, their preservation, their
dissemination, and a range of ancillary support facilities and services;
    * the Service should invite bids from suitably qualified institutions
wishing to provide specific resources within the AHDS infrastructure and
define ways in which such service providers may co-operate;
    * initial funding is required for an executive to oversee the process
of establishing an organizational framework for the Service, and for a
small group of up to four collaborating service providers. These should
be chosen by open tender, with a view to covering the areas of textual
data, numeric and historical data sets, records of images and artefacts,
time-based resources such as music and video; the total budget for the
Service envisaged here is likely to fall between 500,000 and one million
pounds per annum during the start-up period.


1.2. [MSINT] Outline of the Report 
   The remainder of the current section summarizes the principal issues
addressed by the Feasibility Study, focusing on its timeliness, the
problems it addresses and the solutions proposed. A brief account is also
given (in section [ BKMODOP ]) of the consultative process by which the
Study was carried out.
   Section [ CU ] contains a summary overview of institutions, services,
and patterns of provision currently obtaining in this area, some of which
are described in more detail in Appendix [ IP ]. This section also
includes a discussion of the user needs identified by this study and the
way in which those needs are currently met, which is largely derived from
the consultative process carried out during the Feasibility Study.
   The Recommendations of the Study are presented under three major
headings. In section [ ST ] the scope of the Service is discussed in
terms of disciplines and data types, and the community which is to be
served. This section also describes the organizational structure proposed
for the Service, together with the functional requirements for its
various proposals. The proposals are intended to combine the virtues of
both distributed and centralized approaches to the management of
resources.
   Section [ SD ] discusses the application of standards within the AHDS,
which form a key element in the scheme proposed here. Section [ IS ]
outlines a possible implementation strategy for setting up such a service
and section [ FI ] makes some preliminary estimation of the likely costs
of the proposed service.

1.3. [MSISSUES] Timeliness and Relevance
   Recent major developments in information technology are beginning to
have a significant impact on humanities research and teaching. This is
due partly to the appearance of more sophisticated hardware and more
appropriate software, but it is above all the rapid spread of local,
national and international networks which is now presenting the higher
education community with both problems and opportunities.
   The opportunities arise in particular from the rapid increase in the
number, variety and accessibility of electronic data sets now being
created for research and teaching. Electronic data sets are being
produced across the whole range of humanities disciplines, covering both
primary and secondary materials in a wide variety of formats -- text,
data, image, sound, and multimedia. At the same time, as a result of
institutional information technology strategies, the number of teachers
and researchers who are equipped to take advantage of these resources is
steadily increasing, as is the recognition of their value in exploratory,
resource-based, learning.

1.4. Current Problems  
   Unfortunately, however, there are a number of problems associated with
these developments. These include:
   dependence on specific hardware or software: * this makes it hard both
to archive data sets effectively and to ensure their long term re-
usability, without significant additional costs;
   inadequate or non-existent documentation: * electronic resources are
largely unusable without some form of documentation, which is all too
often not readily available, either as a result of lack of awareness of
the need for it, or because in many areas there are no agreed
documentation standards;
   inadequate resource discovery tools: * in the absence of both widely
accepted standards for cataloguing such resources and any simple
mechanism for searching such catalogues as exist, it is difficult or
impossible for individual researchers or teachers to locate existing data
sets, or to carry out reliably complete searches through available
resources, even with skilled bibliographic assistance;
   a variety of incompatible complex access tools: * because of the wide
variety of software mechanisms now used for accessing and manipulating
data sets, potential users must acquire a daunting range of information
and skills, largely irrelevant to their immediate concerns;
   insufficient attention to data preservation: * in many cases there are
no procedures or plans to ensure the long term preservation of the data
sets, so that the investment in creating the data set will be wasted;
   institutional inflexibility: * the rapidity with which information
technology changes has made it very difficult for existing institutional
structures to adapt to new opportunities. Despite widespread recognition
of the gradual convergence of library and computing services functions,
it remains difficult to integrate the complementary skills of library and
computing staff in most institutions. Such integrated expertise is,
however, essential for the support of the growing numbers of IT- aware
teachers and researchers.


1.5. Proposed Solutions 
   This report proposes the establishment of a distributed Arts and
Humanities Data Service (AHDS) as a means of both taking full advantage
of the opportunities and also addressing the problems.
   Such a Service will need to concern itself with a wide range of
activities. We list here a few of the most immediately obvious
requirements:
    * identification of user needs;
    * creation and acquisition of data sets;
    * development and promotion of standard data formats;
    * documentation of data sets;
    * development of a comprehensive catalogue of resources;
    * development and promotion of suitable tools for resource discovery
and manipulation, both for UK and overseas data sets;
    * archiving of resources;
    * protection of the rights of data providers;
    * provision of user training and support;
    * promotion of the use of data sets in both research and teaching.

   Some of these activities might be most effectively provided in a
distributed environment, notably those requiring extensive specialist
knowledge; others, notably the establishment of standards and the
provision of comprehensive resource discovery tools, seem better suited
to a centralized infrastructure.
   The present proposal therefore proposes a framework in which a network
of autonomous service providers can co-ordinate activities under the
direction of a service infrastructure.
   This distributed approach provides the flexibility needed to adjust to
a rapidly changing landscape of information provision. The Humanities
comprise many widely-divergent disciplines, each with its own highly
specialized requirements, but each also highly inter- dependent. The
approach proposed here encourages the emergence of a consensus on such
issues as standardization of resource description and provision, without
imposing a rigid structure. It promotes the development and application
of relevant specialist expertise and facilitates the evolution of a
service which accurately reflects the real needs of a large community
with widely-ranging and diffuse needs. At the same time, the existence of
an effective infrastructure allows for significant cost-sharing and the
pooling of resources wherever appropriate.
   The proposed Arts and Humanities Data Service will comprise:
    * a Management Committee, acting as liaison between the AHDS and its
funders, which has final responsibility for the Service;
    * an Executive, with responsibilities for co- ordination of AHDS-
funded services, policy-making and day to day running of the Service as a
whole;
    * a number of Service Providers providing specialist services of
various kinds, according to AHDS-defined standards.

   This report proposes that a small number of such Service Providers be
established initially, covering as wide a spread of Arts and Humanities
data as possible. Service Providers will typically provide a range of
expertise and support appropriate to particular disciplines and data
types, building on existing areas of expertise, such as the CTI centres
and the TLTP projects, and liaising with relevant existing bodies, such
as JISC's Data Sets Implementation Group.
   In the long term, additional AHDS Service Providers will be
established, and other independently-funded projects or institutions may
wish to become Affiliated Providers; mechanisms to facilitate this are
also proposed.
   A key service provided by the AHDS will be its Catalogue -- a register
of all the resources maintained by the Service Providers. The development
of this Catalogue should be one of the first priorities in establishing
an Arts and Humanities Data Service. The Catalogue will also specify the
extent to which the resource concerned conforms to defined AHDS
standards.
   Information about resources available from institutions outside the
scope of the AHDS will also be included within its Catalogue, where
possible. One or more Gateways may be provided to such external services.
   AHDS Standards will be defined in a Reference Guide, production and
maintenance of which will also be the responsibility of the Executive,
acting in consultation with Resource Providers and experts within the
community. Layered standards will be defined not only for data formats
and data description but also for data provision and preservation, as
described in section [ SD ].
   In all aspects of its work, especially policy formulation, the
Executive will work closely with a Service Providers Forum, comprising
representatives of all Service Providers.

1.6. [MSBENEF] Benefits 
   The report identifies the following benefits resulting from the
establishment of a distributed Arts and Humanities Data Service:
    * transferability and re-usability of expensive data resources;
    * a framework for the creation of complementary and linkable data
sets;
    * co-ordinated and coherent procedures for the investigation and
adoption of relevant standards in data preparation, documentation,
preservation and dissemination, and for involvement in European or
international initiatives to create new standards;
    * a framework and procedures to ensure the long-term availability of
electronic data sets;
    * faster and better-informed access to remote data sets by individual
researchers, teachers and students;
    * wider awareness and understanding of new access mechanisms and
manipulation tools, such as Gopher, WAIS and World Wide Web, thereby
ensuring more efficient use of national and international resources.

   The establishment of the AHDS should therefore make a significant
contribution to improved efficiency in the conduct of research and the
quality of research results. It should also greatly improve the
efficiency and quality of teaching and learning facilities within the
Higher Education community.
   The proposal is timely, in that it comes at a moment when there is
widespread recognition of the scope of the problems which it seeks to
address. Its proposals are well-grounded in that they result from a broad
-based consultation with a range of expert groups, as well as the
specialist knowledge and experience of the Study's authors and Steering
Group.

1.7. Financial considerations
   The costs of providing a Service of the type envisaged here are non-
trivial. We estimate that service providers will typically need at least
two full-time employees, with secretarial support. Assuming adequate
institutional support for computing facilities, and for most other
aspects of the necessary technical infrastructure, this gives a minimum
cost of around 80K per service provider per annum. Where adequate
institutional support is not forthcoming, the costs of providing a
service would, of course, be much higher.
   For the infrastructure itself, we estimate an annual cost of the order
of 100K, to cover at least two FTEs, and funding for meetings, workshops,
publications, etc. Again, it is assumed that the central AHDS office will
be located at some existing institution which will underwrite
establishment and similar costs.
   A comparable sum should be allocated to constitute a top-up fund which
can be used as needed for the creation of new resources, or to fund
specific research into matters of benefit to the AHDS as a whole (for
example, in defining particular standards). Projects of this nature are
likely to be inter-disciplinary, or inter-data type, and hence unlikely
to receive funding in any other way.

1.8. [BKMODOP] Conduct of the Feasibility Study
   This sub-section briefly summarizes how the Study was carried out, and
the present report produced.

1.8.1. [BKWKSHP] Workshop 
   The Feasibility Study began with a Workshop at which several of the
ideas now proposed were first discussed. The Workshop was held at the
British Academy on 29-30 March 1994. More than fifty invitations were
issued, and the Workshop was attended by a total of 28 experts, drawn
from a wide range of academic backgrounds and with particular interest
and expertise in most of the relevant academic, professional and
technical areas. Following the Workshop, a summary report was published
which identified the key issues raised and points of view
expressed.Towards an Arts and Humanities Data Service: Report of a
Workshop held at the British Academy on 29 - 30 March 1994.
   The Workshop participants took the unanimous view that what was needed
was some kind of infrastructure which could effectively manage the
provision of a range of distributed services, rather than a single centre
to hold and archive data. This notion, presented tentatively at the
Workshop, has become a key issue in the present proposals. The Workshop
also strongly recommended that the term data service should replace data
centre in the original project title.

1.8.2. [BKCNSLT] Consultation 
   The intention of the project team and steering group was to consult as
widely as possible within the relevant communities. To this end the
Workshop Report was disseminated widely by both paper and electronic
means. Groups, institutions and individuals known to have an interest
were identified as specific targets, but the distribution was
deliberately wider than this, and comments were invited from any
interested party. Full details of the process are given in Appendix [
APCO ].
   Despite the very short time available for public discussion and
comment, distribution of these documents generated a large and almost
entirely enthusiastic response from the community. Many useful comments
and ideas were provided, which have been incorporated in the present
report wherever possible. Appendix [ APCORE ] lists the institutions and
individuals who responded during this consultation process. Full details
of their responses are available on request from the authors.

1.8.3. [BKFACT] Fact Finding 
   It was hoped to investigate in some detail the provision of relevant
data sets from a number of existing institutions in the UK, Europe and
North America. To this end, a set of questions (reproduced in Appendix [
APQ ]) was devised for use as a basis for gathering information by
interview or other means.
   In the event, time permitted only a small number of formal face to
face interviews, or other contacts with relevant institutions. In some
cases visits were made; in others it was possible to make contact with
the individuals concerned at conferences, and in the remaining cases the
questions were sent by electronic mail. The institutions consulted and
events attended are listed in Appendix [ APCO ].
   In a number of cases, detailed visit reports were produced by project
staff or colleagues; these are not included in this report, but are for
the most part available electronically from the authors.

2. [CU] Perceived needs and the current situation
   In this section we review the general HE framework within which data
sets and networked information services are being developed, identify the
needs of the Arts and Humanities within this framework, and discuss the
current situation in relation to each of the needs.

2.1. [CUBG] Background 

2.1.1. [CUBGDST] Data sets and services today 
   In some disciplines, and in some countries, deposit of digital data
sets in approved archives is a common and accepted condition of grant.
This is frequently not the case in humanities disciplines in the United
Kingdom, as a brief informal survey of four funding institutions has
shown.
   The British Academy funds a significant number of projects which
result in the creation of arts or humanities data sets. Only in the last
two years has it required applicants for grants to make adequate
provision for both access and preservation in the grant application.
   The British Library Research and Development Department funds several
projects every year, some of which result in the creation of relevant
data sets, though these often are small and with limited scope for re-use
(some are specifically precluded from widespread use due to copyright
restrictions). It typically has encouraged creators of data sets to
deposit them at the ESRC Data Archive (see [ EDA ]), without making this
a condition of grant; not all data sets so created have been deposited.
The Library is considering a policy which requires deposit as a condition
of grant.
   The Getty Art History Information Program has funded two projects in
the UK explicitly concerned with the creation of data sets.These are the
Witt Computer Index, at the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, and
the Census of Antique Art and Architecture Known to the Renaissance
developed jointly by the Warburg Institute in London and the Biblioteca
Herziana in Rome. In both cases, the projects were required to deposit
copies with the Institute (in California), but not elsewhere.
   The Leverhulme Trust funds about 160 projects per year, many of which
include data set creation. It does not impose conditions concerning
access, deposit or preservation.
   Where researchers in the humanities have been successful in obtaining
funding for major projects from more scientifically-oriented research
councils, these have not always included any provision for the long-term
availability for any resources created. Several language engineering
projects have been funded by the Science and Engineering Research Council
(now EPSRC), under the Speech and Language Technology initiative, but
their availability to the humanities community at large remains unclear.
Often individual resource creation projects have been expected to manage
distribution for themselves, with consequent dangers of invisibility
outside the immediate research communities served.
   There is an expectation that data set provision can be made
economically viable and self-sustaining in the long term. This may be
true for some kinds of resource where the demand is clear and sustained;
it is less self-evident in the general case, particularly for the wide
range of materials likely to be of interest to the Humanities.
   The provision of services is varied and and uneven. There are two
formally constituted data archives -- the History Data Unit at the ESRC
Data Archive at the University of Essex,The History Data Unit was
established by means of a special 2-year grant from the ESRC which is due
to expire in December 1994. and the Oxford Text Archive at Oxford
University. Otherwise the management of data sets, including access,
documentation, support and preservation, depends very much on the
awareness and resources of the individual projects and their host
institution.

2.1.2. [CUBGCOM] Commercial data sets 
   In addition to the academic projects and institutions, several
commercial organizations are now becoming involved in producing and
publishing digital documents for scholarly use. Frequently, these are
traditional paper-based publishers which are diversifying into electronic
media. Their products range from novels sold on diskette for a few pounds
to corpora sold on CD-ROM for tens of thousands of pounds.For example,
Chadwyck- Healey's English Poetry Database has a price in excess of
20,000 pounds per institution.
   Recently the British Academy carried out a Networked Data Information
Survey of all Arts and Humanities departments in the UK. This suggested
that there is a demand for commercial data sets, many of which are too
expensive for smaller institutions to obtain individually.The results of
this survey have not yet been published.
   While it is in any single publisher's interest to maintain archival
copies of its materials, there is no commercial imperative to do so. On
the contrary, it is easily possible to imagine commercial pressures which
would result in data sets for which there is little demand being
discarded. We are not aware of any unified source or catalogue for these
materials; nor are we aware of any widely-used standard for works
published in electronic form.

2.1.3. [CUBGTCH] Resources for teaching
   There have been three major UK initiatives in the past few years
funded by the HEFCs aimed at promoting the use of electronic resources in
teaching, and at creating a range of transferable materials. First was
the Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) (see [ IP ]), followed more
recently by the Information Technology Training Initiative (ITTI), and
the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP).

2.1.4. [CUBGNIP] Networked Information in the UK 
   The creation and management of networked electronic resources is
currently a major area of activity within the HE community, with a number
of bodies and institutions involved, and a number of projects and
initiatives.
   Within the UK the academic communications infrastructure -- JANET and
SuperJANET -- has largely, up to now, been centrally funded by the HEFCs.
The funding councils are advised by an Advisory Council on Networking
(ACN), and the work of creating and maintaining the networks is carried
out by the Joint Network Team (JNT).
   There have also been a number of recent policy reviews, including the
SuperJANET Project on Information Resources (SPIRS),This was a study
group set up by the JNT and chaired by Michael Breaks. An edited version
of its report is included in Libraries and IT. and more recently the
Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review, carried out by the Follett
Committee.Follett, 1993. The Follett recommendations were accepted by the
Councils and are now in process of implementation. A large number of the
recommendations are concerned with the creation and delivery of
electronic resources, and their implementation is being planned and
carried out by the Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology
(FIGIT).FIGIT's planned modus operandi is set out in JISC Circular 4/94 -
Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology: Framework for
Progressing the Initiative.
   There are a number of projects and groups active in developing network
provision and access. Notable among these are UK Office for Library and
Information Networking (UKOLN), based at Bath University, and the
recently formed special interest group Information Networking Alliance
(INA), which represents librarians (through SCONUL), academic computing
professionals (UCISA) and publishers (BIC).

2.1.5. [CUBGINT] The international dimension
   Although, for practical reasons, the focus in our discussion is
largely within the UK, there are many relevant institutions and projects
outside the UK. There has always been a strong international tradition
among scholars, which has been greatly facilitated by the ease with which
students and researchers can now cross international frontiers
electronically in their pursuit of digital resources. Indeed, there is a
clearly emerging tendency for a small number of academic experts working
within a comparatively narrow specialization but spread across several
countries, to gain critical mass by working together using the Internet,
thereby achieving results greater than the sum of the results they might
achieve individually.
   Alongside this the rapid and chaotic growth of the Internet has to be
taken into account, comprising as it does a certain number of stable well
-ordered data sets and services and very large volume of unregulated
activity and information. This presents problems of its own; for it has
become difficult to distinguish useful high-quality information from the
low-grade material available side by side. (On the one hand everything is
available. But on the other hand, everything is available. - Alfred
Glossbrenner). The difficulty of locating appropriate resources has
become a common complaint.

2.2. [CUPN] Needs 
   The following sections present a number of specific issues in the
provision of networked information. They formed a major component of the
AHDS Workshop at the British Academy, and continued to be important
throughout the Feasibility Study. Discussion is presented under broad
headings chosen to reflect the life cycle of an electronic resource:
    * resource creation;
    * resource management;
    * resource preservation;
    * resource dissemination and discovery.
    Within this framework, we identify the specific needs of the Arts and
Humanities community, and try to summarize the current situation in each
case.

2.3. [CUCRE] Resource Creation 
   The resources covered here include:
    * Those created from scratch, and also those created by digitising
existing paper resources, or by re-purposing existing electronic
resources;
    * New types of resource, such as electronic journals, or interactive
(modifiable) materials;
    * Both research and teaching materials. In any case the distinction
between the two may be far from clear, as when research resources are
used in resource-based learning programmes.
    All these resource types are covered within the FIGIT framework, in
particular Programme Areas 2 - Electronic Journals, and 3 -
Digitisation.JISC 4/94.

2.3.1. [CUACD] Academic quality. 

2.3.1.1. Need
   Peer review procedures are needed which provide external validation
for AHDS data sets. Without these the creation of such data sets, whether
as resources for research or teaching, will not receive recognition from
HE institutions or from the academic community as a whole.

2.3.1.2. Current Situation
   Funding bodies such as the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust
carry out refereeing procedures when bids are assessed for projects which
will create electronic data sets, as do a number of HE institutions when
allocating funds internally for such projects. However, there are large
numbers of data sets which are conceived and initiated without any such
procedure. Even more important, perhaps, peer review of completed
projects is relatively rare. It may be that such procedures should be
external to the AHDS, but it is nevertheless a matter which the AHDS must
take very seriously.

2.3.2. [CUCOP] Copyright

2.3.2.1. Need
   First, it is important that copyright issues are addressed at a very
early stage in the planning of individual projects. More generally,
agreements and guidelines are needed at HE community level to provide a
coherent and well-understood framework within which resource creation
projects can operate.

2.3.2.2. Current Situation
   There is discussion going on amongst publishers, and between
publishers and HE authors and institutions. The British Library has a
working party on Legal Deposit of electronic material which is of
relevance here. The development of a model agreement with publishers is
being addressed by FIGIT.JISC Circular 4/94, Introduction, paragraph 18.
The WATCH project, with its aim of creating a database of copyright
holders, is of interest in this area.See Appendix [ IP ] It is also
likely that the Copyright Licensing Agency will make their database of
copyright holders available on-line in the relatively near future.Source:
private conversations with CLA staff.

2.3.3. [CUDES] Design standards

2.3.3.1. Need
   There is a need for more widespread awareness and use of good design
practice, both for research data sets and for teaching modules.

2.3.3.2. Current Situation
   A number of data analysis and design methodologies are available in
the commercial world which can be brought to bear on the development of
research data sets.One example, of many, is SSADM (Structured Systems
Analysis and Design Methodology). This widely used methodology was
originally developed by Learmont and Burchett, and was subsequently
adopted as a standard within the Civil Service. There is also now an
extensive literature concerning the design of computer-based learning
(CBL) packages. However there are many projects in both research and
teaching contexts which do not use specialist designers or specific
design standards.

2.3.4. [CUENC] Re-usability and access

2.3.4.1. Need
   Platform-independent standards for data encoding are essential to
ensure transferability and re-usability of data. Such re-usability has
academic benefits in terms of increasing the resources available for
research and teaching, of allowing arguments and conclusions to be
challenged by manipulation of a particular data set, and also, where
copyright conditions of use permit it, of enabling resources to be re-
purposed -- i.e. modified or adapted to serve a new teaching or research
purpose. Re-usability also has economic importance: high-quality
electronic resources are expensive to produce, and it is important to
ensure that as far as possible their re-use is a matter of academic
judgment rather than of technical or financial constraint.

2.3.4.2. Current Situation
   Currently platform-independence remains a goal rather than a reality
for the most part. However, data encoding is an area of great activity
and promise for all data types, with the work of the Text Encoding
Initiative offering particular promise (see Section [ SD ]). On the other
hand, for certain types of resources, such as databases and CBL packages,
platform- independence is somewhat distant, which means that for the
foreseeable future AHDS Service Providers would need to cope with a
number of proprietary software packages. Even so, it is often possible to
ensure platform-indpendent access to the data, as for example in
constructing relational databases so they can be manipulated by means of
Structured Query Language (SQL).ISO/IEC 9075 (1989). In hypermedia work,
for CBL and other purposes, the HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) used by
the World Wide Web is very popular, in part because of the platform
independence its use of SGML implies.
   Following on from the above, an increasingly important issue is
whether the resource is to be accessed and manipulated on-line. If so,
consideration has to be given to which access tools users will be able to
employ. Among the most common network access mechanisms are WAIS (Wide
Area Information Server), Gopher, and World Wide Web (WWW). For WAIS
access, the material has to be run through a WAIS Indexer; WWW documents
have to be marked up in HTML. These represent additional encoding issues
which should be considered when the resource is created.

2.3.5. [CUDOC] Resource identification
   This is the first in a range of documentation which is required if
electronic resources are to be both accessible and usable, and which is
best produced by the resource creator.

2.3.5.1. Need
   Standards are urgently required which enable resources in the rapidly
growing Internet world to be uniquely identified and located. The need is
far from simple, as for example in identifying resources which are
replicated in a number of places.

2.3.5.2. Current Situation
   The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has a work group on Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URIs) which aims to provide a standard for the
unique identification of networked resources, by means of a Uniform
Resource Name (URN) and a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Where libraries
and archives have on-line catalogues, the individual entries will follow
the standards used by the institution.E.g. the BIRON system provides an
on-line catalogue of the data sets held by the ESRC Data Archive.
However, since the catalogue is itself a networked resource, it too will
require a unique network identifier.

2.3.6. Resource description

2.3.6.1. Need
   Standards are needed for the electronic equivalent of full catalogue
entries, to enable prospective users to make a judgment on the
suitability of the resource to meet their needs without having to
retrieve the whole data set. A considerable amount of technical
information is needed, beyond the standard catalogue entries, from the
details of the encoding scheme used to the software and hardware required
in order to manipulate the resource.

2.3.6.2. Current Situation
   Within the Library community there has been a great deal of work on
resource description, mostly involving variations on the MARC standard,
e.g. USMARC, UKMARC, UNIMARC. The TEI Header provides another possible
approach, and the TEI Guidelines describe how the two approaches may be
linked.Part 4 of C.M. Sperberg-McQueen and Lou Burnard, Editors,
Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange (TEI P3), Chicago
and Oxford, 1994. For a more detailed discussion of these and other
approaches, see L. Dempsey, Network Resource Discovery: a European
library perspective, in N. Smith, Editor, Libraries, networks and Europe:
A European Networking Study, London, 1994 (hereafter Dempsey, 1994).

2.3.7. Technical description

2.3.7.1. Need
   Standards are required so that all the technical information needed to
understand and manipulate the data set is available. Documentation of
this type is particularly important for certain types of data set, e.g.
for complex relational databases where schemas showing the tables and
their relationships are essential. It is also essential whenever
proprietary software or hardware is used.

2.3.7.2. Current Situation
   It is far from clear that technical descriptions are produced as a
matter of course along with every new data set. A number of system design
methodologies, e.g. SSADM, include documentation standards, such as data
structure diagrams, which can be very helpful. These could form the basis
of guidelines for use by academic projects. A number of software packages
enable relevant technical information to be embedded within the data set,
as do mark-up systems such as SGML.

2.3.8. User Guide

2.3.8.1. Need
   Guidelines are needed to ensure first that users have available the
necessary information on how to use the resource, and second that the way
in which this information is presented is consistent from one data set to
another.

2.3.8.2. Current Situation
   It is widely accepted that while a paper version may be appropriate in
some circumstances, help for users of on-line resources must be provided
on-line. There are no standards as yet for the structure and presentation
of such material, but hypertext approaches - often using HTML - are
increasingly used.

2.4. [CURMG] Resource Management

2.4.1. [CUBP] Basic procedures

2.4.1.1. Need
   Policies, standards and procedures are needed for accessioning data
sets, documenting them where necessary, adding entries to the local
catalogue(s) and indexes, and where appropriate to central catalogues.

2.4.1.2. Current Situation
   All the established data archives have such procedures as a matter of
course (as, of course, do all HE libraries).

2.4.2. [CUINF] Information content

2.4.2.1. Need
   Procedures are needed to assure the integrity of the resource against
accidental or deliberate corruption. Where a resource is subject to
amendment, version control procedures are required to ensure that users
know which version of the resource they are using, and which versions are
available for use.

2.4.2.2. Current Situation
   Version control procedures are well established in existing data
archives and university computing services. The TEI Guidelines include
detailed proposals for embedding version control information within an
electronic resource.

2.4.3. [CUHIS] Intellectual history

2.4.3.1. Need
   Documentation procedures are required which will allow the usage of
the resource to be recorded, along with comments by the users, in
particular any reports of errors in the data. Clearly it would be
improper for an archive to correct such errors silently, but equally it
has a duty to report them to future prospective users. Over time,
networked resources will inevitably accrue critical commentary (often in
electronic form) in exactly the same way as printed resources. It would
be desirable for at least the bibliography for this commentary to be
included with the documentation for the data set.

2.4.3.2. Current Situation
   It seems that most data archives, e.g. the ESRC Data Archive (ESRC DA)
and the Oxford Text Archive (OTA), have mechanisms to allow users to
comment on the data sets they use (and the service provided by the
archive). In the past these have been paper based, but electronic forms,
bulletin boards and discussion groups are increasingly being used for
this purpose.

2.4.4. [CUPHY] Physical access

2.4.4.1. Need
   Procedures are needed which ensure that there is no unauthorized
access to networked resources.

2.4.4.2. Current Situation
   For some data sets and services there is no restriction on access.
Where access has to be restricted, electronic registration is widely
used, typically involving the allocation to a user of a user identifier
and password. Where necessary, passwords -- and even complete data sets -
- may be encrypted. Usually, registration will entitle the user to the
basic services offered by the institution. However, additional procedures
are required where particular conditions are attached to the use of
specific data sets, as described below.

2.4.5. Conditions of use

2.4.5.1. Need
   Procedures are needed which ensure that conditions of use imposed by
creators, copyright holders, and the institution managing the resource
are agreed and respected by users.

2.4.5.2. Current Situation
   Typically, as part of the registration process, the prospective user
signs a Conditions of Use form in relation to the archive generally.
However, further conditions may be imposed in relation to specific data
sets.

2.4.6. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

2.4.6.1. Need
   Procedures are needed which ensure that the rights of authors and
other rights-holders are protected, as far as is within the power of the
service. (See [ SD ].)

2.4.6.2. Current Situation
   This can be a complex area. At present it is covered typically within
the registration and conditions of use procedures, with the user
undertaking to cite all materials used for further publication in the
appropriate manner.

2.4.7. Charging

2.4.7.1. Need
   Procedures are needed which can cope, potentially, with a variety of
charging mechanisms. (See [ SD ].)

2.4.7.2. Current Situation
   There are few electronic charging mechanisms in current use. Typically
charges are levied as part of the registration or conditions of use
procedures.

2.4.8. Platform-specific data 

2.4.8.1. Need
   Until such time as platform independence is uniformly enforceable,
individual Service Providers will need to be able to manage data sets
produced in a number of formats, and to handle both the variety of
software common among their constituency of creators and users, and the
hardware on which it runs. It is desirable if conversion between formats
can be carried out where necessary. It would also be desirable for old
non-conformant data sets to be upgraded to comply with defined standards,
particularly where they are likely to be widely used.

2.4.8.2. Current Situation
   Typically, existing data archives accept and manage data sets in a
variety of formats. In certain circumstances data conversion may be
carried out at the request of a user. The OTA has undertaken a phased
programme of marking up its non-TEI conformant texts in SGML to the TEI
standards, but its policy is to accept and distribute material in any
format.

2.5. [CUPRE] Resource Preservation 
   This is an area of particular importance to the funding bodies, who
are anxious to ensure that expensively created resources will remain
available for use after the project funding runs out.

2.5.1. [CUPRP] Preservation procedures

2.5.1.1. Need
   Procedures are needed which can ensure the preservation of electronic
resources indefinitely, until a decision is taken to destroy them or to
allow them to lapse. Associated documentation procedures are also needed,
e.g. to record the versions and formats in which a resource is held.

2.5.1.2. Current Situation
   For all too many data sets there are no measures to ensure their
preservation. For others, advantage is taken of the routine back-up and
archive facilities offered by the local computing service. Where data is
deposited with one of the established archives, there are usually more
elaborate procedures in operation, with data sets held in several
formats, and new copies made periodically.

2.5.2. [CUPRM] Preservation media

2.5.2.1. Need
   Effective preservation procedures need to take account of the likely
longevity of the media on which the data sets are to be stored, both in
terms of physical degeneration and of the availability of the necessary
hardware to decode the data.

2.5.2.2. Current Situation
   There is considerable activity in this area among the Archive
community. Until recently, the major preservation medium was magnetic
tape, with new copies made periodically to protect against physical
deterioration. Optical disc technologies are now increasingly widely
used, but there are no universally accepted standards. The Council for
European Social Sciences Data Archives (CESSDA) has initiated a project
on preservation methodology, based at the ESRC DA.Where the scale of
copying required from an old medium to a new one makes the task too
costly, it may be necessary for old hardware to be retained. The ESRC DA,
for example, retains a punched card reader in order to maintain the
availability of certain of its older data sets.

2.6. [CUDIS] Resource Dissemination and Discovery 
   Discovery and Dissemination are very closely related. The emphasis in
Dissemination is on the steps taken by resource publishers to make
materials available and usable; in Discovery it is on the range of tools
needed by users to access and manipulate the resources. However, the
latter depends very directly on the former.

2.6.1. [CUDEL] Delivery platforms

2.6.1.1. Need
   For the foreseeable future it is likely that a variety of delivery
methods will be required. Guidelines are needed covering dissemination of
resources in parallel: over the networks, on other electronic media such
as CD-ROM, and on paper. Authors and funders will be reluctant to limit
themselves to any single delivery platform while the capabilities of
users and their equipment are so varied.

2.6.1.2. Current Situation
   Mixed platform delivery is well established in existing archives,
where data sets are available over JANET and the Internet, on CD-ROM, on
floppy discs, and even on magnetic tape if required. Commercial
publishers are increasingly involved, at least in parallel publishing on
paper and CD-ROM; a number are also very interested in publication over
the Internet.For a recent summary of electronic publishing in the UK, see
David Brown: Electronic publishing in the UK publishing industry in
Libraries and IT. Publishers of course have a particular interest in
journal publication. Inter alia, Brown describes the work of the SPIRS
(Publishing Group) and the intention to establish an Electronic Journal
Testbed. FIGIT Programme Areas 1 - Electronic Document and Article
Delivery and 4 - On-Demand Publishing are particularly significant in
this context.JISC 4/94

2.6.2. [CUCOM] Communications infrastructure

2.6.2.1. Need
   The networking of resources is possible only if a suitable
communications infrastructure is in place, and valuable only if
institutional infrastructures provide access to the resources for a
critical mass of researchers, teachers, and students.

2.6.2.2. Current Situation
   SuperJANET will provide a nation-wide high-speed, high-bandwidth
platform, with links to other national and international networks, and
capable of carrying the whole range of arts and humanities data types,
including high resolution still and moving colour images. There are a
number of SuperJANET demonstrator projects, including some from the Arts
and Humanities, such as the RAMA and Van Eyck projects.See Appendix [ IP
]. The JNT in the UK, and the IETF, are concerned with creating the basic
platform, and also with the whole range of related issues, such as
resource identification and resource discovery tools. It will be
important for the AHDS to stay in close touch with developments in this
area.
   It is now a requirement of the Funding Councils that HE institutions
have formal IT strategies. In a number of institutions the extension of
network access has a high priority within this context. Typically this
element of the strategy takes the form of target ratios of person per
machine with network access, to be achieved over some target time-scale,
for different categories of staff and students.

2.6.3. [CUCAT] Catalogues and Indexes 

2.6.3.1. Need
   The creation of comprehensive metadata resources is crucial if the
networks are to be a successful method of dissemination. This involves
not only on-line catalogues of resources, and catalogues of catalogues,
but also searchable indexes of various types, including by subject, by
author and by data type.

2.6.3.2. Current Situation
   This has long been an area of considerable activity in the library
community, and On-line Public Access Catalogues are well established.
Many existing data archives have on-line catalogues and indexes,
including ESRC DA (BIRON) and the OTA. On a larger scale, in the US, the
Research Libraries Group's Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN)
holds a database of information on more than 56 million items held in
over 200 member institutions, accessible by a search service called
Eureka.

2.6.4. [CUGAT] Gateways

2.6.4.1. Need
   Gateways are needed to provide simplified access to resources, saving
users a great deal of time and the effort. Busy academics need one stop
shops which will provide access to all the resources they require, using
a single interface or at worst a small number of consistent interfaces.

2.6.4.2. Current Situation
   There is a great deal of activity in this area. One approach has been
to develop a National Entry Point (NEP). This was originally developed
for Gopher-based services, and the UK NEP is based at UKOLN. The TopNode
project of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is based on a
similar concept. Another approach has been to develop interfaces between
gateways of different types. The Common Gateway Interface (CGI), for
example, specifies interfaces between WWW and other services.A number of
issues and projects in this area are described in Dempsey, 1994. Within
the last year the Working Group on Access to Networked Information
Resources recommended to the ISSC that a Network Information Development
Agency should be established to develop a range of National Entry Point
services. On a more modest scale, the Humanities Bulletin Board (HUMBUL)
has been transformed into the HUMBUL Gateway on the World Wide
Web..Something of this type could provide the starting point for a
national Humanities Gateway, but it would be important for this to be
developed within the framework of UK and international developments. Its
Universal Resource Locator (URL) is
http://www.ox.ac.uk/depts/humanities/.

2.6.5. [CUSTB] Service reliability

2.6.5.1. Need
   If networked resources are to be utilized to their full potential, it
is important that they form part of a well-supported service rather than
being just a data set. Further, unless users can rely on the resources to
be available, the services will soon lose their credibility.

2.6.5.2. Current Situation
   A great many of the resources currently available on the Internet
cannot be relied upon. Many exist only on an individual's personal
computer, and are therefore unavailable if that machine is switched off
or if it has a hardware, software or communications fault. Among the
established data archives, the situation is a great deal better, of
course. In many cases the file servers are mirrored, so that a fault with
one does not bring the service down. It is also common to design
communications systems with a degree of redundancy. Another benefit of
redundancy can be performance. The DANTE InfoFlow project is based on a
design of interlinked (national) data servers, with data replicated on
two or more of these, to avoid access bottlenecks as well as to ensure a
stable and reliable service (see Section [ IP ]).

2.6.6. [CUDTS] Documentation, training and support for users 

2.6.6.1. Need
   These are crucial if a service is to be provided rather than just a
data set. Standards are needed to define the form which the
documentation, training and support are to take.

2.6.6.2. Current Situation
   Without exception, the Data Archives we contacted, including the ESRC
DA and the OTA, stressed documentation, training and user support as
being a particularly important aspect of the service they provide.
Publicity material includes leaflets sent to HE institutions or
distributed at conferences. Other documentation may include bulletins and
newsletters, made available on paper and on- line. Training includes self
-help guides and scheduled courses and workshops, offered in-house, and
at conferences and in HE institutions. Other aspects of user support are
typically centred on a help-desk, but increasingly include electronic
activities, such as an email query service, an electronic bulletin board,
and electronic discussion groups open to all registered users.The ESRC DA
is involved in nearly all the support activities identified in this
paragraph. This group of activities is included in FIGIT Programme Area 5
- Training and Awareness.JISC 4/94.

2.6.7. [CUTLS] Resource discovery tools

2.6.7.1. Need
   Standard tools are needed for:
    * resource location: identifying what resources are available and
where;
    * browsing: looking through the resource documentation, or in some
cases the resource itself, in order to decide whether it is of further
interest;
    * retrieval: down-loading the documentation, or part or all of a
resource, for local use;
    * manipulation: in some cases it may be sensible to manipulate the
data in some way before down-loading the result. This might be of
particular importance with very large data sets, or with databases, or
where other specialized manipulation software is available on the host
equipment.


2.6.7.2. Current Situation
   The current work on resource location (URIs) has been discussed
briefly above. Browsing has also been discussed, in relation to Gopher,
WAIS and WWW. The most common means of document retrieval over the
Internet is ftp (file transfer protocol). There is considerable work
being done based on the Search and Retrieve (SR) and Z39.50 protocols.The
SR protocol is ISO 10162/3. For more detailed discussion of access
protocols and related issues, see Dempsey, 1994. This work promises to
provide tools for location and retrieval of complex multimedia documents.
There are also an increasing number of SGML-aware browsers, so that cross
-platform access tools will give access to platform-independent
resources. In the area of databases, work continues on developing tools
based on SQL, including natural language interfaces to SQL. This area of
development is covered within FIGIT Programme Area 6 - Access to Network
Resources.JISC 4/94.

2.6.8. [CUDTR] Documentation and training in resource  discovery

2.6.8.1. Need
   Resource packs are needed which give new users basic guidance on what
tools are available, and how they can be used to explore the world of
electronic resources. On-line documentation also has an important role to
play, to provide help once the user has succeeded in making a connection
to the network.

2.6.8.2. Current Situation
   There are a large number of books about the Internet, how to get
started, and how to navigate around Gopher-space and the World Wide Web.
The AHDS would not need to re-invent this material, but a simple
introduction to electronic resources in the context of the AHDS would be
invaluable in getting busy academics started.

3. [ST] Scope and Structure of the AHDS
   This section discusses the scope of an Arts and Humanities Data
Service, in terms of the disciplines and data types to be supported, and
the community of users served. This is followed by a description of the
proposed constitution and organization of the AHDS, and a detailed
discussion of its functions.

3.1. [SC] Disciplines and data types
   The subject areas constituting the Humanities are potentially very
large and diverse. They include the study of all languages, both
individually and as linguistic systems, from all periods (modern,
medieval and classical); they also include the study of an equally wide
spread of literatures, as well as many other art forms, visual and
plastic, performing and creative. The Historical disciplines are at least
as wide-ranging in their scope as the literary or linguistic ones,
including all forms of historical text, data set, artefact and social
structure. Any workable definition of the Humanities must also include
such topics as theology, philosophy, religious studies, archaeology, art
history, anthropology, social and political studies. Eventually, even
purely scientific data sets become of interest to the historian of
science.
   There are many areas of overlap both within the Humanities, and
between the Humanities and other disciplines, particularly but not
exclusively the Social Sciences. In terms of the kind of services under
discussion therefore, the question of service overlap (and collaboration)
must be addressed, especially with the various services funded by the
ESRC, such as the ESRC Data Archive at Essex, MIDAS at Manchester, and
NOMIS at Durham. The disciplines most involved would include History,
Political Studies, Linguistics, Anthropology, Archaeology, and Geography.
For the last two of these, at least, there will also be overlap with
services funded by bodies such as EPSRC, NERC, RCHME and English
Heritage.
   As well as a richness and variety of disciplines, resources of
interest to the Humanities are characterized by richness and variety of
data types. At least the following may be identified:
    * texts in all languages and orthographies, of all times;
    * still images ( bi-level bitmap, colour bitmap, three- dimensional);
    * sounds (both naturally occurring recorded sound and synthesized
digital information intended to be played as sound);
    * moving images (with or without sound, two or three- dimensional,
colour or monochrome);
    * numerical data, both scalar (e.g. survey results) and vector (e.g.
pictorial);
    * symbolic data, for example describing musical scores;
    * multimedia, which could include all of the above.

   Some disciplines are primarily text-based, and others artefact- image-
, or sound-based; all, however, typically combine resources of all kinds.
The need to share expertise in the management of different data types
across disciplines is correspondingly important.

3.2. [SCCMN] The AHDS Community 
   The primary community served by the AHDS may be defined as comprising
all institutions and individuals engaged in research or teaching in
higher education in the UK, within any of the humanities disciplines as
described above, and producing or using electronic materials of any type
(as described above).
   Although the emphasis must be on creating an infrastructure to serve
the needs of this community, this can be done effectively only by
collaborating actively with projects and institutions in wider Europe,
North America and beyond. At a practical level this will have
implications for the Catalogue and Gateway services of AHDS, and for the
initial Service Providers. The opportunity to pursue formal
organizational relationships and joint projects is of considerable
importance.
   In the same way, it is important to ensure that the community served
by the AHDS can readily be extended to the wider UK community. Contacts
with Local History associations, for example, have been found a
productive source of expertise for the History Data Unit at the Essex
Archive.In Denmark, the Danish Data Archive is co-ordinating a massive
Data Entry Project in which a small army of volunteers is being organized
to encode in electronic form all extent Danish census, parish, land and
military registers, for research use. As free access to networked
resources becomes less and less a prerogative of the academic world, the
AHDS must be ready to provide its services to a wider public. The funding
implications of this potentially enormous explosion in demand have yet to
be thought through but it is clear that the AHDS will have a central role
to play in establishing policy and procedures by which Arts and
Humanities data services may be provided to other education sectors (in
particular secondary education) and to the general public, for example in
public libraries.As an example of what is possible we may cite the
outreach work of the Norwegian Social Sciences Data Archive (NSD). The
NSD co-ordinate mock elections in Norwegian secondary schools before
national elections and referendums, analyzing and publishing the results
nationally. Their NSDStat statistical software package is now used in
over 80 percent of Norwegian schools, and in most entry-level University
social science courses.

3.3. [STORG] Organization of the AHDS
   The proposed Arts and Humanities Data Service comprises a centralized
infrastructure, which acts as a framework within which a number of
Service Providers support a wide range of Services.
   The infrastructure will consist of a Management Committee, an
Executive and a Service Providers Forum. The AHDS Management Committee
will have the overall responsibility for the service. The AHDS Executive
will be responsible for implementing the decisions of the Management
Committee and, together with the Service Providers Forum, for formulating
policy proposals for its consideration.
   It is envisaged that initially the infrastructure will support a small
number of Service Providers, each offering a wide range of services, and
managing a number of data sets. The flexibility of the proposed structure
means that in due course these may be joined by further full Service
Providers and/or more specialized Affiliated Service Providers. The
latter will typically provide services in relation to a single activity
or data set, e.g. a specialist collection. It is anticipated that central
funding will be made available to establish the service initially, but
the proposed structure does not depend on any particular funding model.
   The AHDS infrastructure has both strategic and operational functions,
and the Executive will be responsible to the Management Committee for the
proper performance of both function types. For convenience, the strategic
functions are discussed in section [ STSTRAT ], separately from
operational functions, which are discussed in section [ STOP ].

3.4. [STCON] AHDS Constitution and Procedures 
   This section proposes an outline Constitution and set of Working
Procedures for the AHDS.
   The AHDS will comprise:
    * a Management Committee;
    * an Executive;
    * a number of Service Providers contracted to supply specified
Services;
    * a number of additional Services, each provided by an Affiliated
Service Provider;
    * a Service Providers Forum.

   The AHDS Management Committee will be responsible to the funding
councils (via the JISC) for the creation and operation of AHDS. In
consultation with the Service Providers Forum, the AHDS Executive will
also formulate policy recommendations for the Management Committee. The
AHDS Executive and the Service Providers will be responsible for
implementation of the approved policies.
   The basis of funding proposed for the AHDS is a rolling contract, of
between 3 and 5 years, with a periodic mid-cycle review.

3.4.1. [STMCOM] AHDS Management Committee
   The Management Committee will be nominated (by the JISC or one of its
sub-committees), with one third of the members being nominated by the
British Academy on the advice of its Humanities Research Board (HRB). It
will be responsible to JISC for the AHDS, and will be responsible for
receipt and disbursement of funds, and for ensuring the provision of the
services to the proper standards.
   The Management Committee will decide the policies of the AHDS,
including the component services to be provided.
   The Management Committee will normally meet twice a year, to receive
reports and policy proposals from the AHDS Executive.

3.4.2. [STEXEC] AHDS Executive 
   The Executive will consist of a full-time AHDS Director and a small
number of full- or part-time support staff covering both the central
technical and administrative aspects of the Executive's work. The exact
composition and structure of the Executive should be the subject of
bidding, but a number of important functions are identified below.
   For practical reasons, the Executive should be established within some
suitable host institution. The relationship of the Executive to its host
institution will need to be specified, but the host would be expected to
provide considerable institutional support.
   The functions of the Executive will be:
    * to service the AHDS Management Committee by preparing the papers
for its meetings, communicating its decisions, and dealing with its other
formal correspondence;
    * to administer the service contracts entered into between the
Management Committee and the Service Providers;
    * to maintain close contact with the Service Providers, to provide
technical support where possible, and to act as a focal point for
information gathering and exchange within the component services of AHDS;
    * to convene and service the meetings of the AHDS Service Providers
Forum;
    * to maintain contact with international institutions, in particular
those in the European Union and in North America, who are engaged in
activities relevant to the AHDS;
    * to carry out the day-to-day operational functions of the AHDS,
including:
    - preparation and distribution of AHDS publications;
    - arranging workshops and conferences and other events to provide
information and training within the AHDS community;
    - operation of a help desk, to provide technical and operational
advice to Service Providers in relation to AHDS policies, and to provide
general information to the AHDS community.



3.4.3. [STSP] Service Providers
   Each Service Provider will be established on the basis of a contract
from the AHDS Management Committee to supply one or more services to
specified levels. Each Service Provider will have a Director or Manager
who will be responsible to the Management Committee for the delivery of
the contracted services.
   We distinguish between full service providers and specialist service
providers: the former will generally provide the full range of AHDS-
standard services; the latter may provide only one such service. The
services which may be provided are discussed more fully in section [ STSE
].
   As part of its contract each Service Provider will be required to
establish a Specialist Advisory Committee to provide independent guidance
and advice. This Committee would normally contain representatives from
the relevant academic, library and computing fields.

3.4.4. [STFORUM] AHDS Service Providers Forum 
   The Service Providers Forum (SPF) will consist of one representative
from each Service Provider. The Forum may co-opt additional members as
considered appropriate. Meetings of the Forum will be convened and
serviced by the AHDS Executive.
   The primary function of the SPF will be to provide a regular context
in which Service Providers can meet to discuss matters of common concern,
and to collaborate with the AHDS Executive in the formulation of AHDS
policy.
   To this end the SPF may commission reports, discussion papers and
proposals from among its members, or from sub-committees or working
parties.
   The SPF will normally meet no more than twice a year.

3.4.5. [STAM] Additional Resources 
   There are likely to be some non-affiliated institutions wishing to
make resources available to the AHDS Community, but unable to meet any
level of the standards required of AHDS Service Providers. Where such
resources are considered sufficiently valuable to the AHDS community,
they may still be included in AHDS with a minimal level of support.
Typically this will mean inclusion in the AHDS Catalogue with associated
documentation which shows clearly the respects in which the resources
fail to meet the normal AHDS standards. Where such resources are
particularly valuable, it is likely that high priority would be given to
requests for assistance in bringing them up to the appropriate level.

3.5. [STSTRAT] Strategic Functions of the Infrastructure 
   The strategic functions of the AHDS will be carried out by the
Executive, at the direction of the Management Committee. However, it will
be important for the Executive to consult closely with the Service
Providers Forum, and for the latter to play a significant role in the
development of policy.
   One of the primary functions will be to formulate long-term strategic
policy with respect to the following fundamental requirements:
    * initiation and reception of proposals for service provision;
    * maintenance of appropriate consultation and debate with the AHDS
community;
    * methods of making and implementing policy decisions (for example,
on the kinds of service to be supported);
    * methods of making funding or other recommendations to external
funding bodies;
    * policies on service charges and cost recovery;
    * policies on raising revenue from external sources, public and
commercial.

   An essential component of the strategic role will be the development
of a framework within which standardized codes of practice may be
developed and articulated. Such codes of practice are needed in all the
following areas:
    * data creation, preparation and encoding;
    * data documentation and description;
    * creation of catalogue entries;
    * data preservation;These will include not only standards on the
number of security copies, frequency of update, and the location and
security of the vaults in which they are held, but also the technical
aspects relating to media type.
    * delivery of services;
    * access and discovery tools;
    * service level agreements, including suitable performance
indicators;
    * extension of standards.

   At this strategic level the concern will be with the developments of
guidelines within which specific standards will be adopted or implemented
at the operational level, as further discussed in section [ SD ]. These
guidelines should incorporate a considerable degree of flexibility to
allow for different types of data or service, and differing local
institutional structures. A layered approach to the issue of conformance
will be taken, for at least the short term, in which suppliers can elect
to conform at a specific level. Again, the definition of the exact nature
of conformance at a specific level is an operational matter; the
principle of layered conformance, and the extent to which it will be
supported, is a strategic one.
    For the benefit of funding bodies and others, the AHDS will be
required to establish evaluation criteria and procedural mechanisms to
set in place both initial and continuation funding of Service Providers.
It will also need to establish credible performance evaluation and review
procedures.
   AHDS policy will be to attempt to establish a framework within which
appropriate academic credit can be given for the creation of data sets,
both for teaching and research, which conform to AHDS-specified
standards, and which will place appropriate emphasis on their
documentation, accessibility, and re-usability. Peer review procedures,
perhaps external to the AHDS, will be required to assure the academic
quality of the data sets. Creating this framework will involve both a
close monitoring of the usage of AHDS data services, (inter alia, to
ensure proper citation) and promoting greater awareness of the use and
potential of electronic resources within the Higher Education community,
in co-operation with the BA and its Humanities Research Board, and the
CTI, TLTP and related initiatives.
   In the development of its strategic policy the AHDS will need to work
closely with relevant national initiatives and institutions. For example
all of the programme areas of the Follett Implementation Group on
Information Technology (FIGIT) will be relevant to the AHDS. Liaison with
the JISC's Data Sets Implementation Group will be needed in the
development of data acquisition strategies. The British Library has a
number of current and planned projects which are pertinent to an
AHDS,David White, A list of Information Technology projects within the
British Library and T H Cannon, IT research supported by the British
Library R \\char038 D Department, both in Libraries and IT. and it will
continue to be major partner in the development of networked information
resources and services in the UK.
   The European and international dimensions will also be important in
strategy development. In Europe, one particularly relevant project is
InfoServices, a joint initiative in the Netherlands between the National
Research Network Service and the National Library to develop a national
information service. This project will be addressing many of the same
strategic issues, in relation to documentation, standards and resource
discovery which are being addressed by FIGIT, and within that framework,
by the AHDS.
   From the USA, the progress of the Humanities and Arts on the
Information Highways: A National InitiativeThis initiative is sponsored
by the Getty Art History Information Program, the Coalition for Networked
Information, and the American Council of Learned Societies. is likely to
have a significant impact on the way humanities resources can be
interchanged between European and North American institutions.

3.6. [STOP] Operational Functions of the Infrastructure 
   The operational functions of the AHDS infrastructure will normally be
carried out through the agency of the Executive. However in appropriate
cases, some of these functions may be delegated by the Executive to an
appropriate sub-committee or contracted out to a Service Provider.
   All aspects of AHDS's operational role are covered either specifically
or tangentially within FIGIT programme areas, or by other national
projects or institutions. Once again, close liaison will be of vital
importance if the AHDS is to contribute to and benefit from the ongoing
development of a coherent national information structure.
   We list below a number of key operational functions for the AHDS
infrastructure.
    * Monitoring of services provided:
    - assess proposals for new services (ensure appropriate specialist
input or peer review);
    - allocate and review contracts for centrally-funded services
(monitor conformance to standards, and quality of service delivery);
    - agree and review status of locally-funded services;
    - ensure that unnecessary or inappropriate duplication of services is
avoided.

    * Monitoring of standards applied:
    - monitor development of international standards in relevant fields;
    - obtain and disseminate information about relevant standards to
potential service providers or data suppliers;
    - maintain the AHDS Standards Reference Guide (see section [ SD ]).

    * Liaison with funding bodies.
    * Collaboration with other data services, Humanities and non-
Humanities, in the UK, Europe, N.America, world-wide.
    * Liaison with network providers (e.g. JNT and IETF), and with
network service providers, both academic (e.g. BUBL and NISS) and
commercial (such as, for example, Bunyip Information SystemsCurrent and
planned Bunyip services are described in Dempsey, 1994, pp 16-17).
    * Negotiation of agreements on Intellectual Property Rights on behalf
of the AHDS Community:
    - Collect and maintain information on current law and practice on
copyrights and IPR;
    - Liaison with relevant bodies - e.g. CLA, Patents Office;
    - Liaison with other interested HE agencies, in order to develop
common approaches, and share community resources;
    - Liaison with publishers;
    - Where relevant, undertaking negotiations with providers of
copyright materials;
    - Provision of information and advice about IPR to resource creators.

    * Negotiation of central licensing and charging policies on behalf of
the AHDS Community, within the national HE framework:
    - Creation and maintenance of template licence agreements covering
institutional and third party copyrights, and IPR of data set creators;
    - Liaison with other interested HE agencies, including European and
N.American bodies;
    - Liaison with publishers and other commercial distributors;
    - Where relevant, undertaking negotiations with commercial
distributors.

    * Acquisition of core data sets:
    - negotiation, purchase or licensing;
    - inviting tenders for inclusion in existing service or creation of a
new one;

    * Data set adoption agency:
    - identify homeless data sets worthy of preservation;
    - invite tenders/award contract for inclusion in existing service or
creation of a new one;

    * Support of AHDS service providers (current and potential):
    - preparation and maintenance of on-line documentation on the
strategic framework and the operational rules and guidelines of AHDS;
    - preparation and maintenance of on-line training materials where
appropriate, for example in such areas as codes of practice, copyright,
IPR, licensing;
    - provision of mechanisms, including on-line services, for responding
to questions, dealing with problems, addressing issues.

    * Promotion of AHDS services:
    - preparation of publicity material about the AHDS;
    - arranging workshops and seminars to promote awareness and use of
electronic resources by humanities scholars and students.

    * Monitoring of AHDS usage:
    - Collection and maintenance of information on AHDS usage;
    - Collection and maintenance of information on AHDS users.



3.7. [STCP] Centrally provided services 
   Certain services are strategically important to the AHDS as a whole,
and should be centrally managed. Chief among these are the Catalogue and
the Gateway. There might also be benefit in having a single central Data
Vault for the long-term preservation of resources.

3.7.1. [STCPC] AHDS Catalogue
   A major AHDS priority should be the creation of a comprehensive on-
line catalogue of electronic resources in the Arts and Humanities -- an
Arts and Humanities Electronic Resource Catalogue, with extensive and
consistent indexes. Careful research is needed to identify the most
appropriate mechanisms for gathering the information -- a non-trivial
task, and for maintaining it and making it available -- a little less
problematic perhaps once the AHDS is established. Some of the information
required for this has been acquired, e.g. in recent surveys carried out
by the British Academy and the Office for Humanities Communication.
However, a great deal of systematic development work will be required.
   It is likely that the central catalogue would replicate the catalogues
at Service Provider or local institutional level, or would be regularly
updated from these sources. However, it would be important to have a
single agency within the AHDS charged with the responsibility of
maintaining this co-ordinated service.
   The Catalogue service provider would naturally have the role of
liaison with the library and networking bodies involved in developing
standards for resource identification and resource description, and of co
-ordinating the AHDS approach to this.

3.7.2. [STCPG] AHDS Gateway 
   The functions of the Gateway would be to provide a convenient point of
access to registered AHDS resources, and also to international and non-
humanities resources. In relation to the first of these functions, it
would make a lot of sense for the Gateway to be linked to the Catalogue,
and there would be strong arguments for the development of the two as a
single integrated service.
   Going outwards, the primary links from the Gateway would be to other
gateway services. In this context the Gateway service provider would have
the role of liaison with other gateway providers in the UK, Europe, and
elsewhere, and of monitoring developments in this rapidly developing
field.
   The Gateway service provider should also be very involved in the
national and international work to develop resource discovery tools and
common user interfaces, and should co-ordinate AHDS activity in this
area.
   An AHDS Gateway could also, if so desired, be used as a means to
control access to AHDS resources, and could even provide a basis for
central access charges.

3.7.3. [STCPV] AHDS Data Vault
   Consideration should be given to the question of whether it would be
more beneficial to have a single Arts and Humanities Data Vault, rather
than distributed preservation activities, carried out by each of the
Service Providers.
   It may be that the expertise required in the area of long-term
archiving of data has more to do with technical and preservation issues
than with data type or discipline, and that there would be significant
economies of scale in establishing a single archival operation for the
purposes of the long-term preservation of data sets. The project which
ESRC DA has with the University of London Computing Centre is of
interest, with ESRC DA piping data to ULCC's Mass Storage system. The
RLG's Archival Server Project is also of interest.In February 1994, RLG
announced a project to specify the requirements for an Archival Server --
a repository of digital images and full-text files -- and to demonstrate
the validity of the concept with a prototype implementation. The
announcement is contained in a paper -- Preliminary Thoughts on an
Archival Server, 18 February 1994. The paper was included in a pack of
RLG information sent to authors by John Haeger of RLG.

3.8. [STSE] Distributed Data Services 
   In this section, we discuss in more detail the functions common to
AHDS Service Providers. As noted above, not all service providers will
necessarily perform all of these data services directly. They will
however be expected to demonstrate an ability to support the majority of
these functions, either directly or by subcontract, as a pre-requisite
when bidding for a service provision contract. (See further section [
ISCO ].)

3.8.1. Accession of data sets 
   Under this heading we group such functions as the creation of new data
sets and the acquisition of existing but unsupported data sets. In each
case this may involve negotiation with IPR holders and other contractual
arrangements with data depositors, which should be carried out according
to norms defined by current AHDS policies. Where unsupported data sets,
possibly of unknown provenance, are acquired, care should be taken that
rights are not unwittingly infringed.
   Where new data sets are being created, the principles on which they
are selected and processed should be specified, and some indication given
of the methods of quality assurance to be applied. In particular,
individual Service Providers will seek to liaise closely with resource
creators to ensure that relevant AHDS standards are applied ab initio. It
may also be desirable to provide some degree of AHDS funding for such
purposes, and for the AHDS to act pro-actively in facilitating the
creation of specific resources where a clear demand has been identified.
   Once acquired, data sets must be catalogued locally, and then
incorporated within the central catalogue. Again, this should be carried
out according to AHDS-defined norms. Cataloguing is a highly specialized
(and expensive) task, and it would therefore be reasonable for individual
service providers to seek the advice and support of subject specialists,
provided that these are aware of AHDS standards. Some aspects of
cataloguing require detailed subject expertise which may be more readily
available locally. A staged approach may also be appropriate, in which a
minimal level of cataloguing detail is provided for use by the central
cataloguers, with more detailed information being added later from the
local store.

3.8.2. Maintenance and development of data sets 
   Under this heading we class a number of functions applicable to
electronic resources in general, but of particular importance to shared
data sets:
    * maintenance and error correction;
    * long term security and integrity;
    * enhancement and conversion;
    * validation.
    These functions apply equally to data resources and their
documentation. Service providers will need to specify the level at which
the resources provided will conform to AHDS standards and policies with
respect to archival storage (for example, how many copies will be kept,
the mode of storage, etc.) as well as to the correction of notified
errors, the degree of encoding applied, the checking applied to ensure
conformance to specific standards, and so forth.
   As with cataloguing, long-term storage may be regarded as a
specialized task contracted out to specialist agencies. All service
providers must however take full responsibility for ensuring that the
relevant standards are implemented to AHDS norms.

3.8.3. Data access facilities 
   Service providers may elect to provide one or more of a range of
access facilities, ranging from simple file transfer only to fully
interactive on-line browsing and manipulation. In the latter case,
adequate documentation and support facilities (discussed in the next
section) are particularly important. AHDS standards relating to look and
feel of service provision should be applied, where these are defined.
   Monitoring and control of access is also essential, for contractual
and performance reasons alike. Service providers will be required to
produce regular statistics on the use made of their facilities which will
feed into the AHDS's own reports, and should form a part of any case made
for continued support.

3.8.4. Support facilities 
   Under this heading, Service Providers will be expected to specify the
degree of user training and support provided. This is likely to range
widely for different kinds of data and different user communities.
Telephone or email queries should be promptly and helpfully answered
within defined norms. Introductory guides and tutorials, and specialist
workshops or conferences as appropriate, should be organized. In each
case, minimal service level agreements must be observed, and quality
assurance measures enforced. Evaluation of take-up of the services
offered is also a necessary part of service provision.
   Because of the variation in user communities, and the corresponding
importance of subject-specific knowledge, it is probable that these
facilities will be best organized in close collaboration with specialist
subject centres such as those offered by existing CTI and TLTP projects.
Affiliation with such centres is not, however, a prerequisite for service
providers.

3.9. [ISCO] Service Provision Contracts 
   Service provision should be defined by contracts between the AHDS
Executive acting on behalf of its Management Committee, and individual
Service Providers. We anticipate only a small number (three or four) of
such contracts in the short to medium term, but propose that a mechanism
should be defined now to enable a graceful scaling-up of the operation.
   In the long term, we suggest that there should be calls for proposals
for service provision in specified subject areas, to enable the service
to respond easily to changes within the field. These calls should invite
bids which will be assessed by peer review, paying particular attention
to the following criteria:
    * existing or demonstrable demand for the resource being offered;
    * existing expertise and experience or the capacity to develop and
manage it;
    * significant institutional commitment and support;
    * demonstrable ability to support the full range of data service
functions defined in section [ STSE ].

   Bids may request funding for additional equipment or support staff
required to provide access to the service from outside the host
institution; in principle the host institution will be expected to bear
all costs of providing internal access. Funding may also be requested for
additional work needed to bring an existing service into line with
specified AHDS standards.
   Because it is assumed that infrastructure costs will be largely borne
by the host institution, bids should also demonstrate that an appropriate
level of computing, library, and other relevant support will be available
from their host institutions.
   We propose that contracts should be awarded for a minimum period of
not less than three years, but should be subject to regular review. Full
details of the funding model are, however, beyond the scope of the
present report.

4. [SD] Standardization 
   We identify the following crucial areas for standardization: data
format, data documentation, data provision, and data preservation.
   data format * concerns all aspects of physical storage, transmission
and representation of information in electronic form. Examples include
SGML for textual data, SPSS export or save sets for numerical data sets,
CGM for graphical data, etc. We also include under this heading standards
specific to data transmission (such as TCP/IP), user interfaces, etc.;
   data documentation * concerns all aspects of the provision of resource
-discovery tools, cataloguing information, etc. Examples include the ISBD
for bibliographic data, the Standard Study Description for social science
data, the TEI Header, IAFA templates etc.;
   data provision * concerns aspects of service provision such as codes
of practice with respect to copyright issues, availability and other
licensing issues, fitness for use, level of advisory support and teaching
provided, etc.;
   data preservation * concerns all aspects of the specific services and
functions needed to ensure the preservation of resources without loss or
degradation in their function or usability, effectively for ever.

   In each case, a balance must be found between the need to ensure that
resources remain usable over long periods of time and in many different
contexts, and the need to adapt rapidly to changing technology (and
fashions) in a rapidly developing field. Fortunately, this is a problem
by no means unique to arts and humanities data users or providers.

4.1. [SDRG] Standards Reference Guide
   The AHDS will need to identify and specify the standards considered
relevant in each of the above mentioned areas. We propose that an early
work item should be the production of a technical report, which will form
the basis of a Standards Reference Guide (SRG) defining levels of
standardization mandatory on all AHDS-affiliated data services and data
sets. Important input to this process will be the FIGIT Framework Program
for Standards activities. The SRG will of necessity be an extensible and
changing document, but its core provisions should be relatively easy to
define.
   Some basic principles underlining the SRG can be stated at the outset:
    * proprietary standards are in general to be avoided;
    * unenforceable or unachievable standards are in general to be
avoided;
    * standards based on existing practice are to be preferred, where
this does not conflict with other goals;
    * defined levels of conformance to particular standards are useful;
    * different standards may obtain for data formats in different
subject specialisations;
    * uniform standards for data provision and data description should be
definable across different subject specializations.

   The existence of the SRG will help individual resource providers
position their services with respect to overall AHDS policies, and hence
to define meaningful service level agreements. It will also provide
agencies concerned with the funding of such services with a set of
appropriate performance metrics. Its definition is one of the most
important of the AHDS strategic functions. Its continued maintenance will
also be an essential task, requiring non-trivial effort for the
foreseeable future.

4.2. [ISEG] Standards for Data Formats 
   Standardization is currently well advanced in this domain, with many
competing or overlapping standards in a number of areas. Fortunately,
considerable expertise exists within the academic and industrial data
processing communities with respect to data conversion and inter-
operability of systems. Service providers and other appropriate groups of
experts will be asked to provide short lists of recommendations, perhaps
with differing emphases in different subject areas, as to the commonly
observed standards for data format.

4.2.1. Textual data
   For the AHDS purposes, the most appropriate standard is likely to be
that provided by the Text Encoding Initiative's Guidelines (TEI P3,
1994). This provides an internationally-accepted set of recommendations
for the standardized encoding of a very wide range of textual and other
data formats, based on SGML which is itself a widely implemented ISO
standard (ISO 8879), of increasing importance in both commercial and
academic publishing worlds. We know of no other equally relevant standard
for the widest variety of arts and humanities data. The TEI
Recommendations have the unusual virtue of combining in one integrated
framework a set of recommendations for data representation, data
interpretation or analysis and data documentation, which is designed to
be independent of any particular application area, software environment
or hardware platform.
   Although under development since 1989, the TEI Guidelines were
published only in May 1994. Expertise and software capable of exploiting
them is rapidly becoming available, in part because of an increased
awareness of SGML itself within the academic community, but is by no
means widespread. It is therefore important to ensure that large existing
collections of data do not remain inaccessible to the AHDS community
until they can be converted to use it.
   We anticipate that there will be a considerable start-up cost
associated with conversion of legacy data, but that this cost will
rapidly decrease.

4.2.2. Tabular data 
   For rectangular data sets such as those typifying much research in the
social and historical sciences, data in delimited or fixed format columns
is widely accepted. Where information has been stored in databases based
on the relational model, the export and transfer of data is also
generally easy, although the transfer of associated descriptive meta-
information may be more difficult. For data sets stored in databases
using other models, for example with multi-valued fields, data export and
transfer generally pose serious problems, because each such database
system will have its own proprietary internal format, and there may be no
conversion or import/export facility.

4.2.3. Graphical data 
   Many different proprietary formats are used, each of which has its
advocates. There is considerable inter-operability, because of a number
of proprietary converters and because it is common for software vendors
to support more than one format. This is, however, a rapidly changing and
developing field.

4.2.4. Audio and other time-based data
   Time-based data sets, both in the form of compressed audio or video
and in symbolic form (such as an encoded representation of a musical
score) will be of increasing importance as equipment capable of managing
them becomes more readily available. At present, handling such data sets
appears to be a highly specialized activity, although audio and video
clips are becoming a normal part of the material presented in on-line
services such as the World Wide Web, and have obvious academic uses.
   The AHDS will need to consult with appropriate specialist groups, at
the British Library National Sound Archive, the Center for Computer-
Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH) at Menlo Park, California,
and elsewhere, to identify de facto standards in this area and integrate
them into its framework. At the time of writing, for example, the CCARH
is about to commence distribution on a non- commercial basis of large
music data sets comprising a significant proportion of the works of
classical composers such as Bach, Handel, Mozart and others derived from
out-of-copyright scholarly editions. However, the music will be issued in
a proprietary binary format (MuseData) together with software tools for
data-retrieval and processing. Selfridge-Field & Hewlett, 1993-4
   The commercial protocol MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is
a very widely-used binary system for control of musical devices, which
has an associated Standard MIDI File format (SMF). While this is a de
facto standard for musical performance, it has well-recognized drawbacks
for the symbolic representation of scores.Reference to follow.
   SGML-based initiatives may be of more significance in this connection,
in particular those based on HyTime, which is a draft ISO standard for
the encoding of time-based data, specifically for multimedia
purposesNewcomb, 199X. The Standard Music Description Language (SMDL) is
a specialised subset of HyTime concerned with the encoding of symbolic
representations of music.Selfridge- Field & Hewlett, 1992.
   Standards for data compression such as JPEG are relevant both to image
and time-based data; again, the AHDS will have little choice but to
follow industry trends.

4.3. [ISDD] Standards for Data Documentation 
   We use this term to refer to the general topic of standards and codes
of practice relating to meta-information, that is (in the most mature
case) bibliographic standardization such as that embodied by the
International Standard Bibliographic Description, well known in library
circles, or the Standard Study Description, equally well known in social
science. We also include under this heading consideration of the indexing
techniques used to facilitate access to image and sound data.
   Conventions for the documentation of networked electronic resources
are still in a state of ferment, despite a number of years of discussion
both within the library and information science community and outside it.
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that at present the quality of
information available in gopher space is indirectly proportional to its
quantity: never before have so many known so little about so much.
   The most promising basis for an improvement in this situation will be
a careful examination of existing standards for bibliographic
description, and their relevance to the description of non-book
materials. Relevant standards include AACR2 (1988), and ISO 690 (1987).
Monitoring of the development of more electronically- relevant standards
such as MARC will be of great importance, and is likely to have
considerable impact within the library community. The recommendations of
the TEI for formal documentation of electronic texts are also of great
relevance here, since these are explicitly modelled on the ISBD.
   The identification and approval of any pre-existing descriptive
thesauri appropriate within given subject areas will be of considerable
assistance to subject-specific resource providers. The high cost of
building and maintaining indexes based on such thesauri should be set
against the enormous increase in data accessibility which they typically
facilitate.
   This is particularly true for the description of visual images in
verbal or encoded form, without which large scale image databases are
likely to be entirely unmanageable. Natural language descriptive thesauri
(similar to those used for other data sets) are widely used, for example
by the Getty Foundation's projects. For representational art in the
Western European tradition there also exist abstract descriptive schemes
such as Iconclass.
   Wide consultation involving creators, users and subject specialists
will be necessary to ensure that data documentation supports both
informed and responsible data usage. The AHDS will need to formulate
clear guidelines as to the level and scope of data documentation which is
essential, desirable, or useful, for each of a variety of resources. It
should also provide helpful guidelines for those seeking to create
documentation tools, such as database proformas, or could initiate and
manage projects to develop such tools.

4.4. Standards for Data Provision 
   There are few pre-existing formal standards of relevance in this area.
We expect therefore that the AHDS will begin by tabulating and codifying
existing codes of practice with a view to agreeing levels of conformity
amongst all AHDS service providers. We propose that an effective way of
carrying this out might be to set up small task groups to report on
specific areas in which individual practice tends to diverge. These task
groups should be composed of a small number (five or less) of experts,
not necessarily involved with the AHDS, who might be required to report
back with detailed proposals for standardization within a reasonable time
scale (say nine months).
   Most of the areas of concern common to all AHDS service providers were
discussed above in section [ CU ]. Specific topics on which we anticipate
that such reports would be particularly useful are:
    * Charging and licensing policies;
    * IPR Policies;
    * Service level agreements;
    * Maintenance and error correction.
    Each of these is discussed in more detail below; others may be added
as the need emerges.

4.4.1. Charging and licensing 
   There is a widely-held view amongst information consumers that all
services should be free, just as there is an equally widely-held
expectation (often located in the same individuals) that information
provision should be remunerated in some way. A variety of mechanisms have
been developed to resolve this contradiction, of which the three most
popular appear to be: top-slicing -- where access to a resource is
centrally-funded once for all, but appears to be free to the individual;
differential charging -- where free access to a resource by one group
(academics) is effectively subsidized by the high charges made for access
to the same resource by another group (commercial users); and
subscription -- where payment of a single fee provides unlimited access
to members only. In the network environment other modes of charging have
also been proposed, such as the notion of pay by use -- where an
automatic charge is levied for each access to a given network resource or
group of resources.
   It would be premature for the AHDS to begin by proposing any
particular charging policy. It must remain capable of responding flexibly
to changes in public attitude, or even legislation, which are the
ultimate determiners of such matters. That said, it is clearly in the
interests of the AHDS community that as few barriers as possible be
introduced between users and providers of data resources.
   Service providers may in any case need to adopt different cost-
recovery procedures. Some may need to recover only media costs; others
may need to recover a proportion of the cost of creating and maintaining
the resources within a defined period. In some cases, costs may be beyond
the control of service providers, being determined by external agencies
who make resources available to service providers on certain terms only.
   In the case of commercially-funded resource provision, the existing
expertise of bodies such as CHEST should be employed to negotiate
satisfactory contracts for the AHDS community as a whole, rather than
solely for the benefit of the richer members of that community.
   Where resources are prepared specifically for the AHDS, clear policies
regarding their possible commercial exploitation need to be set in place.
There is growing evidence, for example in the TLTP programme, of the
commercial viability of certain kinds of Arts and Humanities Data
Resources: the expertise of bodies such as the Association for Learning
Technology (ALT), of commercial publishers, and of academic industrial
liaison officers should be sought to ensure that appropriate royalties
are derived from such resources.
   Where charges are made, for whatever reason, it is likely that
differential rates may be applied to different users. One common model is
to provide commercial access at a premium rate, royalties from which can
then be used to subsidize academic access. It is not always easy to
distinguish academic and commercial institutions or usage however.
Equally, if institutions not funded by HEFCE wish to access the service,
it is likely that differential charging rates would be applicable.
   Cost recovery for the service as a whole is greatly complicated by the
fact that very large economies of scale may be obtained by localization
of some key strategic functions such as data preservation and data
description.
   We recommend that, as a first step, existing charging policies of all
AHDS service providers be collated, and if possible made consistent.
Where no financial charge is made, but certain conditions are imposed
(for example, as with the GNU public licence), the AHDS should attempt to
define a legally acceptable formulation of the conditions. Where charging
at some level is essential to the provision of a resource, guidelines for
an acceptable level of charging, and mechanisms for its recovery from the
community or elsewhere need to be defined. At this stage, it is probably
only possible to identify commonly occurring practices and highlight the
strengths or weaknesses of each. The proposed structure allows for cost-
recovery and administration at data set, service provider or AHDS level.

4.4.2. [ISIPR] Intellectual Property Rights 
   IPR considerations have always been closely associated with charging
issues: ownership of an intellectual property right is one way of
justifying making a charge for it. However, the AHDS has a wider role to
play in defining acceptable agreements with IPR holders than simply
setting a fair price. It is widely accepted that current legislation in
this area is both confused and confusing, with entirely different
principles applying to information in different formats, or distributed
to different countries. As with pricing, the best that we can recommend
at this stage is to keep a close watch on developments in European
legislation.
   It is clearly essential that the AHDS be seen to be behaving in a
responsible way with respect to the rights of IPR holders. This implies,
for example, that service providers should be required to maintain
records of all those with IPR in their holdings, and that appropriate
legal instruments be drawn up defining the nature of those rights and the
licence under which the holdings are being made available. Definition and
provision of such legal instruments should be charged to a small task
group of appropriate experts.

4.4.3. [ISADV] User Support and Consultancy  
   It is anticipated that the level of advisory support available for
different data sets may vary considerably. At one extreme, it may be
impossible to do more than supply documented data resources on a caveat
emptor basis; others may readily provide detailed instruction in their
use, complete with tutorials, self-help systems or casebook studies,
perhaps even without actually supplying the data resources themselves.
Most will fall between these two extremes. In line with other AHDS
policies, Service Providers will be required to define the level of
service which they can provide, enhancing it to minimal levels defined by
the SRG where possible.
   From the end-user's point of view, what is important is a clear
statement of the level of service a given provider can reasonably be
expected to provide. This might include simple performance indicators
such as time taken to turn round a request for a resource, or to answer a
query, or more imponderable qualitative matters such as the extent to
which the service offered actually improved the effectiveness of a
researcher's work or a teacher's productivity. In attempting to provide
such information, the AHDS will simply be fitting in with the general
pattern of performance monitoring now being required throughout academia.

4.4.4. [ISQA] Maintenance, Error Correction, Quality  Assessment 
   Electronic data sets are not necessarily static objects. A few data
sets are highly dynamic, changing from day to day, but even those which
are supposedly authoritative may need maintenance or error correction. In
the software context, users are accustomed to the notion of regular
updates -- whereby manufacturers bring out new versions in which existing
errors are removed (and replaced by new ones). Similar considerations
apply to data sets.
   It is the users of data sets who are most likely to identify
discrepancies or inconsistencies and they should be encouraged to report
these for the benefit of all. Different service providers may have
different policies as to whose responsibility it should be to act on such
error reports, but we recommend that redistribution of such information
should be a pre-requisite for AHDS service providers. Electronic
discussion groups and mailing lists provide a natural and effective
mechanism for this.
   Thought should be given to ways of providing qualitative information
about data resources (that is, some indication of the accuracy or
reliability of particular resources) in ways compatible with the general
principles of detailed data description discussed in section [ ISDD ].
The definition of acceptable levels of accuracy is an important area for
AHDS service providers, given both the very variable quality of many
present-day networked resources and also the desirability of allocating
academic credit for the creation of such resources.

4.5. Standards for Data Preservation 
   All AHDS service providers will need to arrange for the long term
preservation and storage of their resources, either locally, or by
delegating this function to some other service provider, within the AHDS
or elsewhere. In either case, it is clearly essential that this archival
function itself be responsibly and adequately carried out. The objective
is to ensure that resources can be recovered, without loss of
functionality, and made available on computing or other information
processing equipment at any time in the foreseeable future.
   In general the term archive implies for ever; all archivists know,
however, that policies allowing for some culling (or removal) of unused
or duplicated resources at some time are necessary. There is no reason to
believe that electronic archives will be any different from others in
this respect, except perhaps quantitatively. To some extent, the
existence of properly defined and agreed quality assurance procedures for
the accession of AHDS resources may reduce the urgency of the need to
define such policies, but their definition, and a clear statement of the
criteria underlying them, will still be necessary at some point. In this
respect, the AHDS will naturally look to the wider library and academic
communities for guidance.
   Unlike the archiving of documents or other artefacts, the archiving of
electronically held information resources requires a separation between
the medium and its content which may not always be easy to carry out.
Hardware changes probably make impossible the indefinite preservation of
software. However, there is ample evidence that data sets can be
preserved for almost indefinite lengths of time simply by establishing
routines for the migration of the data from one carrier medium to
another, without loss of information.
   Because this task of archival storage is likely to be delegated in
many cases to specialist agencies, it is correspondingly important for
the AHDS to specify minimal operational requirements for such agencies.
The nature of these specifications will also need constant review as
technology changes -- a standard based on the use of magnetic tape might
no longer be appropriate in five years time.
   Some aspects are unlikely to change however: these include
considerations such as the number of copies held, their locations, the
nature and degree of integrity checking carried out both across the
resources synchronically and periodically, to check for degradation.
   In general, economies of scale argue strongly for provision of
archival facilities as a strategic AHDS service, which may be contracted
out to specialist agencies offering a guaranteed level of service.
Individual AHDS service providers may also be able to offer equivalent
facilities to others less well endowed. The cost-sharing implications of
this are considerable.

5. [IS] Implementation Strategy    
   This section provides a strategic overview of the way forward, on the
assumption that the case for something like the model outlined in section
[ ST ] has been accepted.
   It assumes that an Executive has been appointed, and a small nucleus
of Service Providers has been selected, whether by open tender, by
nomination, or by some other means.
   The first step for this nucleus will be to review the constitutional
and procedural issues discussed in section [ STCON ] and to agree on any
necessary revisions or modifications to them with the Executive.
   The next step will be to set in motion the process of defining the
standards and procedures which will constitute a functioning Service.
Since the success of the AHDS will be largely contingent on close
attention to appropriate international and de facto standards, we discuss
this process in some detail in section [ SD ] above.
   In addition to defining standards for data format, data description,
data preservation and data provision, the AHDS Executive has to set in
motion the creation of a unified Catalogue. One simple way of beginning
this process might be to create a World Wide Web server linking
information provided by each of the pilot service providers. However, in
the long run the AHDS catalogue can only be provided using the expertise
of the library community. Pilot projects such as CATRIONA and other
relevant initiatives will be consulted for assistance in defining a
development path for this purpose.

5.1. Pilot Data Service Providers 
   As noted in section [ SC ], the Arts and Humanities Data Service will
address a very large and eclectic community, with very widely varying
interests. It is correspondingly difficult to identify the minimum set of
services which the AHDS should aim to provide, or to define a critical
mass of resources and services which the initial implementation might aim
to achieve within two years of start-up.
   Identifying a core collection of data sets is a worse problem than the
task of selecting a core collection for a new library, since its scope is
not one but many institutions with varying policies for teaching and
research. The present report therefore makes no attempt to identify core
resources by discipline. Instead, we propose that the initial nucleus of
service providers should be chosen in such a way as to maximize the
spread of data types supported and disciplines covered.
   At least the following subject areas and data types should be
supported in the initial nucleus:
    * historical documents and derived data sets;
    * literary and linguistic textual materials
    * art-historical and archaeological images and artefacts;
    * music, film, and other time-based materials.

   In selecting service providers capable of setting up this nucleus, we
expect that the AHDS Management Committee and funding bodies will choose
to build on existing centres of expertise. However, such decisions form
no part of the remit of the present report.

6. [FI] Financial and Costing Considerations
   To be supplied

7. [AP] Appendixes

7.1. [APFW] Feasibility Study Proposal and Initial  Workshop

7.1.1. [APFWPRO] Proposal
   The text of Feasibility study into establishing an Arts and Humanities
Datacentre: a proposal to the Joint Information Systems Committee is
available by anonymous ftp from the Oxford Text Archive. Its Universal
Resource Locator (URL) is
ftp://ota.ox.ac.uk/pub/ota/AHD/original.proposal.

7.1.2. [APWK] British Academy Workshop
   The Feasibility Study was initiated with a workshop, held at the
British Academy on 29-30 March 1994. It was attended by 28 people with
expert interests in the subject, drawn from a wide variety of academic
and professional backgrounds. Over 50 invitations were issued, so that
just over half of those invited were able to attend.
   The text of the Workshop report, Towards an Arts and Humanities Data
Service: Report of a Workshop held at the British Academy on 29 and 30
March 1994 is available by anonymous ftp from the Oxford Text Archive.
Its Universal Resource Locator (URL) is
ftp://ota.ox.ac.uk/pub/ota/AHD/workshop.report.
   The Workshop participants were:
   Mr Michael Breaks * Library, Heriot-Watt University;
   Mr Lou Burnard * Oxford Text Archive;
   Prof Averil Cameron * Director, Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's
College, London;
   Mr Terry Cannon * British Library, Research and Development Dept;
   Dr Thomas Corns * Dept of English and Linguistics, University of
Wales;
   Ms Shirleen Craig * ISSC Co-ordinator, c/o Heriot-Watt University
Library;
   Dr Marilyn Deegan * Office for Humanities Communication, Oxford
University Computing Services;
   Prof Roderick Floud * Provost, London Guildhall University;
   Mr Marc Fresko * Management Consultant;
   Miss Catherine Harbor * Computer Centre, Royal Holloway, University of
London;
   Dr Richard Heseltine (Chairman) * Librarian, University of Hull;
   Dr Eddy Higgs * Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University
of Oxford;
   Prof Barry Ife * Cervantes Professor of Spanish, King's College
London;
   Prof Howard Jackson * School of English, University of Central
England;
   Dr Donna Kurtz * Beazley Archive, Ashmolean Museum, University of
Oxford;
   Prof John Laver * Chairman, Humanities Research Board, University of
Edinburgh;
   Prof Denise Lievesley * Director, ESRC Data Archive, University of
Essex;
   Dr Cliff McKnight * HUSAT Research Institute, Loughborough University
of Technology;
   Dr George Munroe * Computing Centre, The Queen's University of
Belfast;
   Dr Andrew Prescott * Manuscript Collections, British Library;
   Dr Sebastian Rahtz * Archaeo Informatica;
   Dr Dominic Rathbone * Dept of Classics, King's College London;
   Mr Hugh Robertson * Department of Humanities, University of
Huddersfield;
   Dr Seamus Ross * British Academy;
   Dr Kevin Schurer * ESRC Data Archive, University of Essex;
   Mr Harold Short * Computing Centre, King's College London;
   Prof Kathryn Sutherland * Professor of English Literature, University
of Nottingham;
   Mr Andrew Wright * University of North London.


7.2. [APCO] Consultation Exercise 
   The Consultation phase of the Feasibility Study was initiated by
publishing an announcement, on paper to a large but selected audience,
and electronically as widely as possible. The announcement contained
information about the Feasibility Study and invited responses from anyone
who wished to comment.

7.2.1. [APCOAN] Announcement of Feasibility Study 

7.2.1.1. [APCOPA] Paper Distribution
   Over 500 copies of the announcement and the Workshop report were sent
on paper to:
    * all University Librarians;
    * selected Fellows of the British Academy;
    * the Chairmen of the British Academy Research Projects;
    * all those who attended the Feasibility Study Workshop plus those
who had been invited but had been unable to attend;
    * all those who attended the Elvetham Hall Conference (13-16 April
1994), both UK and Overseas delegates;
    * all those who attended the Conference on Telecommunications and the
Visual Arts in Ravello on the 16-17 of April (55 humanists and policy
makers from Europe, the US and UK);
    * all those who attended the summer 1993 conference at the British
Academy on Electronic Information Resources and Historians;
    * all those who attended the British Academy seminar in June 1994 on
The Problems and Potentials of Electronic Information for Archaeology;
    * all those who requested copies of the British Academy/British
Library report Information Technology in Humanities Scholarship;
    * all the projects which contributed information to the above report.


7.2.1.2. [APCOEL] Electronic Distribution
   Electronic versions of the announcement, the Workshop report and the
original Feasibility Study proposal were made available for access by
anonymous ftp from the Oxford Text Archive.
   The announcement and the text of the Workshop report were sent to the
following electronic bulletins boards:
    * BUBL;
    * HUMBUL;
    * NISS.

   The announcement was sent to the following electronic discussion
groups, along with information on how to obtain copies of the Workshop
report and the original proposal:
    * Humanist;
    * Lis-Link;
    * Unite;
    * Etextctr;
    * DBFT;
    * IR-L;
    * PACS-L.


7.2.2. [APCORE] Responses 
   The following is a list of those who responded by sending comments and
information (in Institution order):
   Donna Kurtz and Thaddeus Lipinski * Beazley Archive, Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford;
   Alison Northover * Reader Services, Bodleian Library;
   Peter Allan * British Atmospheric Data Centre;
   Alice Prochaska * Director of Special Collections, The British
Library;
   Dennis Nicholson * BUBL;
   Patricia Crosett * Dartmouth College;
   Brian Allison * Allison Research Index of Art and Design (ARIAD), De
Montfort University;
   Jeremy Fox * School of Modern Languages and European Studies,
University of East Anglia;
   Nigel Birch * Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council;
   T. Sorrell * Dept of Philosophy, University of Essex;
   Paul Ellison * The SGML Project, University of Exeter;
   Donald Spaeth * CTI Centre for History with Archaeology and Art
History, University of Glasgow;
   Rick Trainor * CTI Centre for History with Archaeology and Art
History, University of Glasgow;
   Gillian Barnes * Humanities Division, Computing Centre, King's College
London;
   Roy Wisbey * School of Humanities, King's College London;
   Barry Ife * School of Humanities, King's College London;
   Martin Frost * Department of Geography, King's College London;
   John Lindsay * School of Information Systems, Kingston University;
   Michael Cook * Archival Description Project, University of Liverpool;
   Stuart Lee * CTI Centre for Textual Studies, Oxford University;
   Jeremy Black * Oxford University;
   Toby Bainton * Library, Reading University;
   Alasdair Paterson * University of Sheffield;
   Frank Colson * University of Southampton;
   T.M. Devine * Department of History, University of Strathclyde;
   Ian Budden * Information Services, University of Sussex;
   Lorcan Dempsey * UKOLN, University of Bath;
   Robin Alston * University College London;
   J.B. Trapp * Warburg Institute.


7.3. [APFF] Fact Finding
   A number of institutions and individuals were approached by the
authors during the course of the Feasibility Study, in some cases in
person and in others by electronic mail. In nearly all cases a
questionnaire was used as the basis for information gathering. In a few
cases the questionnaire was not considered appropriate, but useful
information about the institution or service was sent to the authors.
There was also a range of additonal material which the authors acquired
along the way and found useful.

7.3.1. [APFFVIS] Visits
   The following institutions and individuals (shown in Institution
order) were kind enough to receive visits by one or both the authors.
   Susan Hockey * Centre for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH),
Princeton and Rutgers Universities;
   Per Nielson * Dansk Data Arkiv (Danish Data Archives);
   Hans Joergen Marker * History Archive, Dansk Data Arkiv (Danish Data
Archive);
   Prof Denise Lievesley * History Data Unit, ESRC Data Archive,
University of Essex;
   Michael Neuman * Centre for Text Technology, Georgetown University,
Washington DC;Dr Neuman agreed to be interviewed during a visit to the
UK.
   Peter Doorn * Netherlands Historical Data Archive, Leiden;
   Arne Svindland * Norwegian Centre for Computing in the Humanities
(NCCH);Special thanks are due to Espen Ore of NCCH for acting as host
during the visit to Bergen.
   Bjorn Henrichson * Norwegian Social Sciences Data Archive (NSD);
   Vigdis Kvalheim * Norwegian Social Sciences Data Archive (NSD);
   David Seaman * Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia;This
visit was carried out on the authors' behalf by Alan Morrison, Oxford
Text Archive.
   Claus Huitfield * Wittgenstein Archives, Bergen, Norway.


7.3.2. [APFFQUE] Questionnaires
   Completed questionnaires were received from the following individuals
and institutions:
   Donna Kurtz * Beazley Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford;
   Donald Spaeth * CTI Centre for History with Archaeology and Art
History, University of Glasgow;
   Sarah Davnall * Manchester Information Data Sets and Associated
Services (MIDAS), University of Manchester;
   Stuart Lee * CTI Centre for Textual Studies, University of Oxford.


7.3.3. [APFFDOC] Documentation
   Extensive documentation was received from the following individuals
and institutions:
   Patricia Young * Canadian Heritage Information Network;
   Josefien Bersee * DANTE;
   Susan Siegfried * Getty Art History Information Project;
   John Haeger * Research Libraries Group.


7.3.4. [APFFADM] Additional Material
   Additional material was received from or in relation to the following:
    * SURFnet, The Netherlands;
    * Ashmole Archive, King's College London (from Hafed Walda);
    * Association of Digital Publishers, Dayton, Ohio;
    * Abstracts for First International Conference, ELVIRA (Electronic
Library and Visual Information Research);
    * The GENIE project, Loughborough;
    * GIS Digital Data Directory, Oxford Brookes University (from Paul
O'Carroll);
    * Special Collections, University of London Library (from Julia
Walworth);
    * INFOLINGUA, University of Montreal;
    * Consortium for Lexical Research, Computing Research Library, New
Mexico State University;
    * Norwegian Documentation Project, The Faculty of Arts, University of
Oslo, Norway (from Christian-Emil Ore, via Espen Ore);
    * Corpus of Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts, Purdue
University (from Tom Ohlgren);
    * WATCH project, Library, University of Reading (see the [ IP ]
appendix);
    * NetEc (Networking Interaction in Academic Economics), University of
Surrey;
    * Electronic Antiquity, University of Tasmania.


7.3.5. [APQ] Consultation Document
   The following set of questions was used as a basis for enquiry during
interviews with particular projects and was also circulated
electronically for comment.
   1. Mission * What is your centre's mission?
   Does it support teaching, research or both?
   In what respects do you think it excels?
   With what other centres would you compare it?
   What does it do which a conventional library does not?

   2. Staffing and Establishment * How many staff are employed at your
centre (full/part time)?
   What functions do the staff perform?
   Is there a clear career pattern for the staff?
   What is the relationship between the centre and its host institution
(if any)?
   To whom is the centre accountable?
   Where, in broad terms, does funding for the centre come from?
   What are the chief areas of expenditure?

   3. Holdings * What kinds of material do you hold?
   What is your acquisitions policy?
   Do you ever refuse material?
   Do you purchase material?
   Do you generate materials?
   How are accessioning decisions made?
   Who is responsible for documenting the materials you acquire?
   Who is responsible for cataloguing the materials you acquire?
   Who is responsible for archival storage of the materials you acquire?

   4. Services * What kind of user services do you currently provide or
plan to provide?
   What charges (if any) are attached to your services?
   Who uses your services ?
   Do you collaborate with other centres or projects?

   5. Planning * What major problem areas do you foresee over the next
five years?
   What major opportunities do you foresee?



7.3.6. Conferences
   Project team members were also able to make informal contact with
several relevant individuals and projects by attending some key
conferences and symposia which took place during the early part of the
Feasibility Study. Several of the ideas in the present report were first
discussed, both formally and informally, with delegates at the following
events:
    * Second Elvetham Hall Conference on Scholarship and Technology in
the Humanities: Networking and the European Cultural Heritage, Elvetham
Hall, Hampshire, April 1994;
    * Consensus ex Machina: the annual joint conference of ALLC/ACH,
Paris, April 1994;
    * SGML Europe, Montreux, April 1994;
    * World Wide Web, Geneva, May 1994;
    * CETH Workshop, Rutgers University, May 1994;
    * SIGIR 94, Dublin City University, June 1994;
    * Association for History and Computing International Conference,
University of Nijmegen, August 1994.


8. [IP] Institutions and Projects 
   This section describes several institutions and projects around the
world which provide services or which hold digital resources which are
relevant to the AHDS.

8.1. [IPINTRO] Example data services 
   We list below a number of existing Institutions which already offer
facilities similar to those proposed for AHDS Service Providers, to a
greater or lesser extent. This list is intended for illustrative purposes
only, and is not intended to be comprehensive. It includes a variety of
services, not all exclusively concerned with Humanities resources,
ranging from major well-established Services to embryonic pilots.
Information here was provided by the Services concerned before or during
the feasibility study, and has not been checked in detail.

8.1.1. [IPUK] UK Services 

8.1.1.1. BADC  

8.1.1.1.1. Overview 
   The British Atmospheric Data Centre provides data on the atmosphere
and its boundaries to researchers working in the area of atmospheric
sciences, global climate change and earth observation.
   This centre is similar to others which hold data on other physical
sciences (e.g. oceanography, solar-terrestrial physics, etc.). These
sciences differ from humanities disciplines (in this context) because the
experiments providing the data, such as experiments on satellites, can
generate enormous data sets very quickly and frequently.
   The emphasis is entirely on research rather than teaching.

8.1.1.1.2. Key services:

    * collect data, convert as necessary;
    * catalogue data;
    * archive data;
    * answer queries about the data and about software used to process
it;
    * access to the computer holding the data via JANET.

8.1.1.1.3. Extent
   Data relevant to atmospheric science in its widest sense.

8.1.1.1.4. Source of funding
   Funding is provided by the National Environment Research Council.

8.1.1.2. [IPCTI] CTI Centres

8.1.1.2.1. [IPCTI] Overview
   There are 20 CTI (Computers in Teaching Initiative) Centres in the UK,
of which six are immediately relevant to the Humanities disciplines. The
Centres, which are based in universities, promote and support the use of
computers in the teaching of higher education subjects.
   In some ways the CTI structure may be seen as a model for the proposed
AHDS structure, with a number of autonomous discipline- related Centres,
and a central support organisation -- the Computers in Teaching
Initiative Support Service (CTISS), based at Oxford.

8.1.1.2.2. Key services:

    * production of resource guides (both in print and using network
formats), newsletters etc.;
    * workshops, seminars;
    * visits to universities, demonstrations of software;
    * provision of high level advisory services (e.g. on matters of
policy);
    * holding software and data set resources;
    * contributing to standards;
    * providing an information network.

8.1.1.2.3. Extent
   Each centre typically consists of two or three persons; their holdings
of software and data sets can amount to some hundreds of items. The
humanities-related centres cover the following subjects:
    * History, Archaeology and Art History (Glasgow);
    * Library and Information Studies (Loughborough);
    * Modern languages (Hull);
    * Music (Lancaster);
    * Textual Studies(Oxford);The Oxford CTI Centre also covers the
humanities disciplines not covered by any other centres, e.g. Philosophy
and Theology.
    * Geography (Leicester).


8.1.1.2.4. Source of funding
   Higher Education Funding Councils.

8.1.1.3. [EDA] ESRC Data Archive 

8.1.1.3.1. [EDA] Overview
   The Archive's primary mission is to promote wider and more informed
use of data for teaching and research. As well as encouraging current
use, there is a strong emphasis on long-term preservation. Since January
1993 the Archive has had a History Data Unit, funded by the ESRC with a
pump-priming grant which is due to expire in December 1994.
   A particular feature is the BIRON catalogue. This catalogue covers
most of the Archive's holdings, and has been built up over a number of
years by trained librarians using a controlled vocabulary. The Archive
has relationships with several other institutions, such as:
    * MIDAS (see [ MIDAS ]) for distribution of census data;
    * Edinburgh Data Library for the distribution of certain data sets;
    * Northern Ireland Regional Research Library for distribution and
training, and for information on new data sets to be acquired;
    * NOMIS (Durham University) for local authority data sets, and more
recently in a joint European Resource Centre.

   Currently, data documentation is entirely paper based, but work is
under way to introduce electronic formats.
   The Archive is due to become a European specialist centre for data
archiving methodology, under the CESSDA umbrella.

8.1.1.3.2. Key services

    * Archiving and provision of access to data sets;
    * cataloguing and documenting data;
    * user support;
    * training.

8.1.1.3.3. Extent
   Disciplines include social sciences, economics, history, geography,
and law.
   The Archive has over 7,000 data sets, of which nearly 4,000 are fully
catalogued and the rest are opinion polls.

8.1.1.3.4. Source of funding:
   ESRC, Essex University, JISC.

8.1.1.4. GENIE 

8.1.1.4.1. Overview
   GENIE, the UK Global Environmental Change Data Network Facility, is a
project initiated by the ESRC, which is funding and managing the facility
on behalf of the Inter-Agency Committee on Global Environment Change
(IACGEC). It is a consortium consisting of the University of
Loughborough, University of Nottingham and Genasys II Ltd; it started
work in April 1992. It consists of a centralised facility and a
decentralised network. Of particular interest in this project is the use
of knowledge engineering approaches to provide intelligent concept-based
searches of materials held at all the participating institutions.
   The primary tasks of the project are:
    * the creation of a master directory and knowledge base serving
enquiries from the natural and social sciences wishing to access UK- held
data sets pertaining to global environmental change;
    * the development and establishment, through bi-lateral collaboration
and agreement, of a federal network which links existing HE institutions
holding global environmental change data and provides a mechanism for
researchers to locate data.


8.1.1.4.2. Key services:

    * generate metadata at central level;
    * allow advanced forms of access to data held throughout network.

8.1.1.4.3. Extent
   The project is still in its initial pilot phase. The aim is to cover
all the relevant materials held at all the participating institutions.

8.1.1.4.4. Source of funding
   Inter-Agency Committee on Global Environment Change and ESRC.

8.1.1.5. [MIDAS] MIDAS 

8.1.1.5.1. [MIDAS] Overview
   The Manchester Information Datasets and Associated Services
organisation exists for the installation and management of strategic
research and teaching data sets for access and analysis by the UK
academic community, and the provision of the services required to
facilitate and support this.
   MIDAS specialises in the provision of on-line access to large- scale
data sets and the software needed to process them for research and
teaching purposes. Principal examples of the data are the 1981 and 1991
census data, and government survey data sets.
   Data sets are currently stored in SIR, Ingres, BRS/Search and the
Census-specific software, SASPAC.
   Access is available without charge to all bona fide requesters,
subject to the copyright restrictions imposed by the depositors.

8.1.1.5.2. Key services:

    * provision of data sets and software;
    * advisory services and consultancy;
    * training courses.

8.1.1.5.3. Extent
   A large number of the data sets managed by MIDAS are obtained via the
ESRC Data Archive (see [ EDA ]), and support services relating to them
are run in conjunction with the Data Archive.
   The data sets are relevant to the social sciences and some humanities
disciplines.
   There are currently some 800 users, largely staff and postgraduates,
from about 100 sites. However, MIDAS is a new service, and the number of
registrations increases daily. For its predecessor, there were several
thousand users registered, from over 150 sites.

8.1.1.5.4. Source of funding 
   JISC.

8.1.1.6. [NETEC] NetEc (BibEc,  WoPEc, and CodEc).

8.1.1.6.1. [NETEC] Overview
   NetEc is a term that unites a number of projects for networking
interaction in academic Economics. At the time of writing, there are
three projects, called BibEc, WoPEc and CodEc. They aim to improve the
communication of new research results in Economics via electronic media.
Traditionally, new research results have been published in paper
documents called working papers or discussion papers. The aim of BibEc is
to enhance the awareness of these papers in the academic community by
establishing means to announce the publication of new papers via
electronic media. The aim of WoPEc is to build a collection of electronic
working papers in postscript format, for free retrieval by anybody with
Internet access. CodEc, which opened in June 1994, aims to build a
collection of software routines which are useful in the study of
Economics.
   The effort is multinational in scope, with involved people in six
countries, but no formal management structure. The project uses an
internal bibliographic format referred to as BibEc format. Papers are
stored as PostScript files, usually compressed.

8.1.1.6.2. Key services:

    * bibliography;
    * storage of documents,
    * storage of software routines.

8.1.1.6.3. Extent
   Over 20,000 bibliographic references (late 1993), growing rapidly;
small number of papers.
   Covers academic economics only.

8.1.1.6.4. Source of funding
   Managed on a voluntary basis.

8.1.1.7. Office for Humanities Communication

8.1.1.7.1. Overview
   This small organisation aims to influence, and to provide a centre of
expertise on, academics' use of computers in all aspects of their work
(cf. the CTI Centres, [ IPCTI ]).

8.1.1.7.2. Key services:

    * provision of consultancy and advisory services;
    * research, publication of reports;
    * maintenance of a humanities resource guide and gateway on World
Wide Web;
    * workshops, seminars, conferences;
    * conducting surveys.

8.1.1.7.3. Extent
   The office, which consists of three people, covers all the Humanities
disciplines in Britain.

8.1.1.7.4. Source of funding
   British Library Research and Development Department.

8.1.1.8. Oxford Text Archive 

8.1.1.8.1. Overview
   The Oxford Text Archive exists to serve the interests of the academic
community by providing archival and dissemination facilities for
electronic texts at low cost.
   It offers scholars long term storage and maintenance of their
electronic texts free of charge. It manages non-commercial distribution
of electronic texts and information about them on behalf of its
depositors.
   The texts vary in format, quality and degree of mark-up. There is a
gradual process of converting to standard formats.
   The texts are available for research and teaching, subject to the
copyright limitations imposed by their depositors.

8.1.1.8.2. Key services:

    * archiving and making available electronic texts;
    * re-formatting texts (with TEI conformant tagging).

8.1.1.8.3. Extent
   More than 1,300 texts, mainly in the domains of literature and
linguistics, in many languages.

8.1.1.8.4. Source of funding
   Funded by Oxford University Computing Services and a grant from the
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). It also makes a small charge to cover
media services when copies are sent other than by Internet.

8.1.1.9. The UK Office for Library and Information  Networking (UKOLN)

8.1.1.9.1. Overview 
   UKOLN provides services to the library and information community. It
conducts, manages and publishes research, and also maintains a number of
information resources (on networking issues, the Internet, bulletin
boards, discussion groups, gopher- space, the World Wide Web, WAIS, etc).
   UKOLN plans to set up a digital archive of library literature in the
near future.

8.1.1.9.2. Key services:

    * conduct and management of research on networked information;
    * dissemination of research findings and other information;
    * raising awareness of relevant issues, both for those in the
community of interest and within funding bodies;
    * maintaining the UK National Entry Point gopher and the Bulletin
Board for Libraries (BUBL).

8.1.1.9.3. Extent 
   Consists of seven FTE staff; areas of interest are:
    * the use of networks by the library and information community;
    * the management of bibliographic data.


8.1.1.9.4. Source of Funding 
   British Library Research and Development Department and JISC.

8.1.2. [IPNONUK] Comparable services based outside the UK

8.1.2.1. Biblioth\\`{e}que Nationale de France 

8.1.2.1.1. Overview 
   The Biblioth\\`{e}que Nationale de France is currently building a data
service which will be one of the largest, if not the largest, in Europe.
It will consist of a public library, which will succeed the
Biblioth\\`{e}que Nationale as France's major repository of printed
books. However, it will also include a vast collection of books, images,
sound and motion pictures in digital form. The digital resources will
include Frantext and several other substantial collections. It is due to
open in 1997.

8.1.2.1.2. Key services 
   The library will provide facilities at its site for members of the
public and accredited researchers to refer to digital documents. Large
numbers of workstations, some specially developed, will be available for
consultation of these resources. The number of workstations envisaged by
the year 2000 is:
    * 254 audio-visual workstations (some of these may be analogue rather
than digital);
    * 8 CD-ROM playback workstations;
    * 12 multimedia workstations;
    * 86 academic research workstations.These figures are from February
1993.

   The academic research workstations are particularly interesting. Named
CARE, the Computer-Aided Reading Environment (in French: PLAO, Poste de
Lecture Assist\\'{e}e par Ordinateur), they will offer sophisticated
facilities for accredited researchers to use text and image documents.
The facilities will include features such as navigation, temporary
annotation, linking, searching, printing, extracting and temporary
saving.
   The library has negotiated with French publishers agreements to permit
electronic storage and use of works still in copyright, thought the
initial agreements are for a limited period. Perhaps for this reason,
there are no plans to allow remote access to the digital collection; all
access will be from the main site in Paris.

8.1.2.1.3. Extent 
   The digital collection is due to include books, journals, and
secondary literature, extending to:
    * 100,000 books (average 250 pages each) stored in image form;
    * 10,000 books stored in text form, possibly with some form of mark-
up;
    * 60,000 photographs;
    * sound, motion picture and multimedia documents.1993 figures.

   The intention is to build a strong corpus of French literature and
reference texts. The main domains identified for digital holdings are
French literature, anthropology, philosophy, history, ethnology,
economics, law and the history of science. The corpus is expected to
contain both original texts and modern editions which include commentary
on the originals.

8.1.2.1.4. Source of funding 
   French Government.

8.1.2.2. Center for Electronic Texts in the  Humanities (CETH)

8.1.2.2.1. Overview
   Set up at Rutgers University two years ago, CETH aims to become, in
the words of its director, the natural forum for documentation and
development of electronic text usage within academic research.

8.1.2.2.2. Key services:

    * archiving and making available electronic texts;
    * development of training materials;
    * training courses.

8.1.2.2.3. Extent
   Holds, and is building, a large bibliographic database of electronic
texts; also a collection of texts.

8.1.2.2.4. Source of funding
   US National Endowment for the Humanities, and the two host
institutions, Rutgers and Princeton Universities. There are plans to
start a subscription-paying consortium of librarians and faculty members
from 1995.

8.1.2.3. Canadian Heritage Information Network  (CHIN)

8.1.2.3.1. Overview
   CHIN has 21 years of experience acting as an information service for
the museums and heritage communities both in Canada and elsewhere.
   It creates national collection databases for humanities, natural
sciences and for archaeological sites from data contributed by museums
and heritage agencies across Canada. Beside these national databases,
CHIN hosts more specialised databases related to the heritage community.
   Holdings include bibliographic databases, directories, controlled
vocabularies (for example the Getty Art History Information Program's Art
and Architecture Thesaurus), indexes to artists, etc. These databases are
created by other organisations and distributed and managed by CHIN.

8.1.2.3.2. Key services:

    * provision of on-line databases;
    * a communications network;
    * consulting services in information management.

8.1.2.3.3. Extent
   The range of materials covered includes heritage information,
archaeology, humanities, and the natural sciences.

8.1.2.3.4. Source of funding
   Communications Canada, an agency of the Canadian Government.

8.1.2.4. DDA (Dansk Data Arkiv) 

8.1.2.4.1. Overview
   The Danish Data Archive preserves and disseminates data sets in the
domains of social sciences, history and medical research, almost
exclusively from questionnaire-based surveys. Early holdings were in
social sciences, the other domains having been added since 1985. On an
exceptional basis, the archive may accept electronic texts outside the
domain of history.
   It supports both research and teaching functions.
   The current level of use is rising rapidly, but is currently
approximately 250 requests, representing 750 data sets, per year.
   The data is obtained from the following sources:
    * private polling organisations;
    * university researchers;
    * government research agencies.

   Note that deposit of data with the DDA is often a condition of grant
from Danish research councils.

8.1.2.4.2. Key services:

    * archiving of electronic data;
    * provision of data sets for research and teaching;
    * processing incoming information to transform it into one of the
standard formats such as SPSS, SAS, comma- or tab-separated text;
    * preserving data beyond the lifetime of its original storage medium;
    * generating new materials (to a limited extent);
    * providing advice to researchers on which holdings might be relevant
to particular research. This is the most resource- intensive service, but
is regarded as one of the most valuable;
    * data analysis (fee-based);
    * data documentation;
    * training courses.

8.1.2.4.3. Extent
   Archives data from the following disciplines:
    * social sciences;
    * history;
    * medical research.

   About 1,000 data sets are held with complete documentation.

8.1.2.4.4. Source of funding
   Danish Ministry of Culture.

8.1.2.5. DANTE InfoFLOW 

8.1.2.5.1. Overview
   DANTE was set up in 1993 by several European research networks. Its
purpose is to provide advanced international computer network services
for the European research community. One of its major activities is the
management of EuropaNET. It is today a small organisation employing some
ten people (but it is actively recruiting more).
   In June 1994, DANTE prepared a proposal to set up an information
server called InfoFLOW for the European research community, the main
purpose of which would be to assist people to locate valid information
sets. It is now recognised that further work is required before such a
proposal can be taken forward. Work on the proposal is expected to
continue, though there is no firm timetable for it.
   If InfoFLOW goes ahead in the shape currently envisaged, it would
have, potentially at least, a large area of overlap with AHDS.
Specifically, the AHDS and InfoFLOW would each wish to hold metadata
about the same data sets.

8.1.2.5.2. Key services
   InfoFLOW would hold metadata in a series of servers in different
countries, with the actual data sets being held mainly by the data
provider (i.e. on systems not under the control of DANTE). The proposal
describes indexing by subject and location.

8.1.2.5.3. Extent
   The proposal envisages a service to serve all disciplines (not just
Arts and Humanities). Users would refer to the metadata by WWW and
Gopher, unless and until other approaches displace these as de facto
standards.
   It is suggested that accession decisions will be taken by external
subject experts contracted for this purpose.

8.1.2.5.4. Source of funding
   Not determined yet; likely to be drawn from:
    * Information providers;
    * European Commission;
    * national networks.


8.1.2.6. Netherlands Historical Data Archive

8.1.2.6.1. Overview
   This institution, which is located at the University of Leiden,
provides services and resources for research and (to a lesser extent) for
education. Its central aim is to collect, document, store and disseminate
research files created by historians working within academic and official
institutions.
   It is also a centre of excellence for scanning and OCR of difficult
materials (such as carbon copies); and it administers part of a
postgraduate programme at the university.

8.1.2.6.2. Key services:

    * holding and making data sets available;
    * scanning and data conversion;
    * documenting and cataloguing data sets;
    * providing advice and chargeable consultancy.
   Holds about 100 data sets, mainly structured social and economic
history files.

8.1.2.6.3. Source of funding
   Approximately 50 per cent from projects of the Ministry of Education
or National Science Association; the balance from other external
projects.

8.1.2.7. Getty Art History Information Program  (AHIP)

8.1.2.7.1. Overview
   AHIP is one of seven operating programs of the J. Paul Getty Trust,
based in Santa Monica, California. Its purpose is to make computer-based
art-historical information accessible to scholars. It collaborates with a
number of U.S. and international organisations in a wide range of
research and development projects.
   Among AHIP's priorities are the development of standards relevant to
art historians -- e.g. of terminology, the extension of bibliographic
resources, and the development of tools to aid art historical research --
such as The Authority Reference Tool.

8.1.2.7.2. Key services
   AHIP initiates and supports programs in four major areas:
    * Standards and Resources;
    * Collaborative Projects;
    * Bibliographic and Data Collection Projects;
    * Technical Development and Research.


8.1.2.7.3. Extent
   A number of major research resources have been developed by AHIP or
with its support, including:
    * The Union List of Artist Names;
    * The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT);
    * Guide for the Description of Architectural Drawings and Archives;
    * Anthology of Museum Automation;
    * Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA);
    * The Provenance Index;
    * The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals;
    * Witt Computer Index;
    * Census of Antique Art and Architecture Known to the Renaissance;


8.1.2.7.4. Source of funding
   The J. Paul Getty Trust.

8.1.2.8. Norwegian Computing Centre for the  Humanities (NCCH)

8.1.2.8.1. Overview
   The NCCH exists to provide information and consultancy services for
any research projects involving the use of computers in the humanities.
NCCH is also involved in research activities; it is particularly known
for its expertise in corpus building.
   Most work at present is in support of research; but it is felt that
support for teaching activities will grow.
   In the furtherance of its research activities, it has assembled a
collection of digital resources. However, the Centre does not get
involved with the commercial aspects of marketing and distribution.

8.1.2.8.2. Key services:

    * consultancy on humanistic research projects;
    * consultancy to museums;
    * secretariat to the International Computer Archive of Modern English
(ICAME);
    * work on CBL projects.

8.1.2.8.3. Extent
   All holdings and activities relate to the humanities.

8.1.2.8.4. Source of funding
   Until 1992, the NCCH was funded directly by the Research Council of
Norway. In 1992, it became a part of the University of Bergen, and is now
jointly funded 50 per cent by the Research Council and 50 per cent by the
University. Funding is guaranteed for the next five years.

8.1.2.9. Norwegian Social Sciences Data Archive  (NSD) 

8.1.2.9.1. Overview
   NSD is the primary archive service in Norway for the preservation of
electronic research data. It started as an archive for social sciences,
but is now active in other fields.
   It supports both research and teaching functions.
   Some data sets receive a high level of use; up to 400 accesses per
month in one case.

8.1.2.9.2. Key services:

    * archiving of electronic data;
    * provision of data sets for research and teaching;
    * services to university research community and to the research
councils;
    * acting in the role of broker between the scholarly community and
the Data Protection Board in Oslo;
    * documenting ongoing research and maintaining a database of
Norwegian research projects;
    * producing teaching materials, including software;
    * pro-actively seeking data (based in part on monitoring the progress
of research projects where deposit is a condition of grant);
    * training courses, seminars and workshops; teaching methodology
classes in universities;
    * development of documentation standards.

8.1.2.9.3. Extent
   Archives data from the following disciplines:
    * social sciences;
    * medicine;
    * history;
    * the humanities;
    * psychology.


8.1.2.9.4. Source of funding
   60 per cent from the Research Council of Norway, balance from special
projects and the provision of services.

8.1.2.10. Research Libraries Group (RLG)

8.1.2.10.1. Overview
   RLG was founded in 1974, and is a non-profit alliance of HE
institutions, devoted to improving access to information that supports
research and learning. It sees its major role as supporting and co-
ordinating the development of co-operative solutions to the problems
associated with the acquisition, delivery and preservation of research
information.
   The structure of RLG is relevant to the proposed AHDS structure, in
that has a co-ordination and support role among its constituent
organisations, and centrally manages certain key services. One of its new
projects is also significant -- the Archival Server Project, which seeks
to address most of the issues of resource management, preservation and
access which will be fundamental to AHDS.

8.1.2.10.2. Key services:

    * RLIN, the Research Libraries Information Network, an
internationally available information management and retrieval system
which is a focal point for the sharing of information resources between
member institutions;
    * a focus for more specific collaborative projects between member
institutions -- e.g. the shared resources program ShaRes for inter-
library loans;
    * information delivery -- e.g. CitaDel, a service offering access to
citation data, and Ariel, software for image transmission;
    * information management tools for archives and museums -- e.g. AMIS
(Archives and Museum Information System);
    * access tools -- e.g. Eureka, RLG's patron-oriented search service.

8.1.2.10.3. Extent
   RLG has more than 120 member institutions, including universities,
archives, historical societies and museums.
   The RLIN database holds more than 56 million items drawn from over 200
institutions.

8.1.2.10.4. Source of funding
   RLG's revenue comes primarily from three sources:
    * service fees for use of RLIN (68-74 per cent);
    * membership dues and fees for collaborative activities (12- 16 per
cent);
    * grants and development contracts (12-16 per cent).


8.1.2.11. University of Virginia Electronic Text  Center 

8.1.2.11.1. Overview
   The Electronic Text Center was founded in 1992 in the University of
Virginia. It exists to create and support a new broadly based user
community within the humanities at the University, and to establish the
use of electronic texts as a mainstream resource for pedagogy and
research in the University.
   It has a diverse collection of humanities data sets (see below). Most
are in text form, with a few in image form. The texts are encoded with
TEI-conformant SGML. A key feature of the Center is that the same access
software can be used across the collection, even though some of the
documents come from CD-ROMs which included proprietary software.
   Because of contractual obligations with the vendors who supply the
texts and the search software, access to the on-line text service is
restricted to University of Virginia students and staff.

8.1.2.11.2. Key services:

    * development of common access methods and interfaces;
    * access to a collection of humanities data sets;
    * training.

8.1.2.11.3. Extent
   Originally the Center started up with commonly available humanities
resources in English and Latin, such as the Oxford English Dictionary,
the Patrologia Latina and texts from the Oxford Text Archive. This corpus
has since been added to by data sets generated by the University's staff
and students, and it is expected to grow continually in this way. English
is the main language, but there are also texts in many other languages
including French, German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

8.1.2.11.4. Source of funding
   University of Virginia Library.

8.2. [IPDATA] Other institutions and projects 
   In this section we list a number of projects in the Arts and
Humanities which are concerned with the creation or dissemination of
resources of potential relevance to the AHDS community. No attempt has
been made here to undertake a systematic overview; instead we have tried
only to indicate the range and variety of data sets currently or
potentially available. The entries are grouped by broad project type.

8.2.1. Network and metadata projects 

8.2.1.1. CPET 
   The CPET (Catalogue of Projects in Electronic Text project is taking
place at the Georgetown University Center for Text and Technology. From
1989 to 1992, the project compiled a catalogue of projects that create
and analyse electronic text in the humanities. The result is a powerful
database which includes information on electronic text projects
throughout the world; though it is not wholly up to date. It includes a
variety of information on many collections of literary works, historical
documents, and linguistic data which are available from commercial
vendors and scholarly sources.

8.2.1.2. Norwegian Documentation Project
   This project at the University of Oslo started in 1991, and is due to
last six years. Its objective is the conversion of paper based archives
of the so-called collection departments at universities in Norway ranging
from the Viking ship museum to the lexicographic departments.
   The final product of the project is to be a networked national
information system for the humanities, called The Norwegian universities'
databases for language and culture, which will integrate these diverse
resources to allow (inter alia) multi- disciplinary research. It will
also allow for improved public access.

8.2.1.3. WATCH 
   WATCH (Writers And Their Copyright Holders) is a collaborative venture
between the University of Reading library and the Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center at theUniversity of Texas, Austin. It started in April
1994.
   The project aims to build a database of copyright holders, initially
for literary works in the English language whose papers are housed in
archives and manuscript repositories. The database is intended to be
freely accessible via the Internet.
   Early work suggests that 8,000 authors should be included in the first
phase, and that this may be achieved by 1995.

8.2.1.4. InfoServices
   This a co-operative project in the Netherlands between the National
Research Network (SURFnet) and the Netherlands Royal Library. Its purpose
is to manage a national information server, and in so doing to establish
standards for good practice. It aims to develop organised access to
Internet resources, taking over the Dutch National Entry Point, and
experimenting with a subject-based approach to search hierarchies. It has
links with the SURFDOC project, which will make technical and other
literature available in a consistent way over linked servers.This
information is taken from Dempsey (1994), Sidebar 6. A more detailed
account will be contained in T. Van der Werf, InfoServices: co-operation
between the National Research Network Service and the National Library in
the Netherlands. Journal of Information Networking, 2(1), 1994
(forthcoming).

8.2.1.5. The Nordic WAIS/World Wide Web Project
   This project was funded by NordInfo and involved the Danish Technical
Library and the Lund University Library. Its primary goals are to develop
tools for automated processing of WAIS source files to produce classified
indexes available over World Wide Web, and to develop better gateways
between WAIS and World Wide Web.This information is taken from Dempsey
(1994), Sidebar 5.

8.2.1.6. The Allison Research Index of Art and  Design 
   ARIAD is a comprehensive bibliographic database covering all aspects
of research in art and design. It is based at De Montfort University, and
its early development was funded by a grant from the DTI. Currently the
database is available electronically on discs in MS DOS and Macintosh
formats. However there is great interest in making it available over the
networks.

8.2.2. Art and Art History projects
   This group is represented because of the increasing importance, to art
historians and other scholars, of networked information, including high
quality images.

8.2.2.1. Remote Access to Museums and Archives
   The RAMA project is an experimental project which demonstrates network
links between participating museums in six European countries. It allows
images and text (primarily) stored in these museums to be found and
viewed from terminals in the other locations. One of the museums also
contributes video clips with sounds. At present, the project is at
demonstration stage. It is hoped that permanent connections will be
established at a later stage. It is funded by the European Union under
its Esprit III initiative.

8.2.2.2. Beazley Archive 
   The Beazley Archive is a collection of photographs, notes and drawings
on ancient Greek art located in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
   Currently based on text, the 50,000-record database is being enhanced
to include images and video clips. Additionally, work is in progress to
allow remote access to these enhancements. The text portion is already
available to over 25 remote sites around the world via the Internet.

8.2.2.3. Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture 
   This is a project at the British Academy to create a complete record
of the surviving heritage of sculpture produced in Britain and Ireland
between c.1066 and 1200, by means of scanned monochrome photographs, and
textual descriptions.
   It is intended to make available the images to visitors to the
Academy. Wider distribution may also be considered.

8.2.2.4. Database of Ancient Greek Sculpture 
   This project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, is based at the Ashmole
Archive, King's College London. Its purpose is to research and process
the complete evidence for all known ancient Greek sculptors, including
ancient texts, epigraphy, sculptures, coins, etc and to link this mass of
data together in a systematic way in order to create a major new research
resource. It will include a large number of images, based largely on the
photographs of the Ashmole Archive, but including also material obtained
from a number of museums and other institutions.

8.2.2.5. Witt Computer Index
   This is a major art history project funded by the Getty Art History
Information Program and the Courtauld Institute of Art. It is based on
the holdings of the Courtauld's Witt Library -- photographs and
illustrations of American and 18th century British paintings and
drawings. It is creating a comprehensive database of information about
these works, using the standard ICONCLASS system to classify and describe
each work. This makes it possible for information about the works to be
accessed under a wide range of headings -- by artist, date, and subject,
and in ways not previously possible. Currently the database consists
entirely textual, and no images of the works are included.

8.2.3. Text and image projects
   This group is represented because of the increasing number of projects
which are text-based but where the inclusion of images, in particular of
manuscripts, significantly enhances the usefulness of the resource as a
research tool.

8.2.3.1. ADMYTE
   Project ADMYTE (Archivo Digital de Manuscritos y Textos Espanoles) at
the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid has the objective of capturing in digital
form a large collection of manuscripts and incunabula. The result will
include monochrome and colour images, and a modern interpreted version of
the documents in full text, tagged with SGML. The project is running in
parallel with the development of a dictionary of 15th century Spanish.

8.2.3.2. Canterbury Tales Project 
   This is a project to digitise in text and image form all 83
manuscripts and four pre-1500 printed editions of Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales, together with some analyses. The project is in its early stages.
   The project is taking place at Oxford University.

8.2.3.3. Electronic Peirce Consortium
   This is a project to scan and transcribe the manuscript works of
Charles Saunders Peirce, the 19th century American philosopher. The
project may grow to include up to 100,000 pages (depending on funding),
though only 500 pages are available initially. The project is based at a
number of institutions in the U.S., including Georgetown University,
Brown and Texas Tech.

8.2.3.4. Wittgenstein Archive
   This project is based at the University of Bergen, Norway. It is
preparing all Wittgenstein's unpublished manuscripts (over 20,000 pages)
in machine-readable and facsimile form.

8.2.3.5. Hartlib Papers
   The Hartlib Papers project is based at Sheffield University. It is
preparing a text and page-image database of the manuscripts of Samuel
Hartlib, who lived in the 17th century. The database will include some
20,000 leaves of manuscript, plus printed material in four languages.
   Hartlib had the self-appointed task of collecting and disseminating
knowledge; his surviving papers cover every aspect of 17th century
intellectual life, including education, language and literature,
philosophy, science, religion, politics and agriculture. The database
will include hypertextual links between the page images and text
transcriptions.

8.2.4. Language corpus projects 

8.2.4.1. International Computer Archive of Modern  English (ICAME)
   ICAME is an international organization of linguists and scientists
working with English machine-readable texts. Its aims are to collect and
distribute information on English language material available for
computer and on linguistic research, to compile an archive of English
text corpora in machine- readable form, and to make material available to
research institutions. The Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities
acts as a distribution centre for ICAME materials.

8.2.4.2. British National Corpus
   The BNC is a collaborative project jointly funded by the DTI and SERC.
It has created a 100 million word representative corpus of modern English
of all kinds, spoken as well as written, tagged in SGML with word-class
annotations.

8.2.4.3. Corpus of Contemporary Spanish
   The Corpus of Contemporary Spanish project is based at King's College
London. It aims to create a corpus of 5 million words drawn from a wide
range of sources and subject areas, and covering both Iberian peninsula
and Latin-American Spanish. The first phase of the project -- 1 million
words of Iberian Spanish is nearing completion. It is intended that the
corpus will be published on CD- ROM and over the networks.

8.2.5. Specialist interest projects
   This group is represented because the AHDS would help to ensure the
wide availability of such resources to their specialist audience, both
nationally and internationally.

8.2.5.1. Syriac Computing Institute 
   The Syriac Computing Institute at Cambridge University holds a number
of texts about, and in, Syriac.
   Holdings consist of a database for linguistic computing in Syriac
(SEDRA, a Syriac Electronic Data Retrieval Archive) and four New
Testaments in Syriac (versions according to the Siniaticus and
Curetonianus manuscripts, and Peshitta and Harklean versions). These
texts are available for research.

8.2.5.2. Thesaurum Musicarum Latinarum 
   The Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (TML) is an evolving database that
will eventually contain the entire corpus of Latin music theory written
during the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. The TML is the project
of a consortium of universities; the Project Office is centred at Indiana
University, Bloomington. Special provision is made in the database for
musical notation, both by encoding in a standard manner and by the
inclusion of scanned images compressed in GIF format. The database is
freely accessible via the Internet.

9. [BI] Select Bibliography

    * British Library Research and Development Department and the British
Academy: Information Technology in Humanities Scholarship, British
Library R \\& D Report 6097, London, 1993
    * David Brown: Electronic publishing in the UK publishing industry in
Libraries and IT
    * L. Burnard and H. Short: Feasibility study into establishing an
Arts and Humanities Datacentre: a proposal to the Joint Information
Systems Committee, 1994 (Available at URL
ftp://ota.ox.ac.uk/pub/ota/AHD/proposal.text).
    * [L. Burnard and H. Short]: Towards an Arts and Humanities Data
Service: Report of a Workshop held at the British Academy on 29 - 30
March 1994 (Available at URL
ftp://ota.ox.ac.uk/ota/pub/AHD/wkshop.report).
    * Special Issue on Intelligent Agents, Communications of the ACM, Vol
37 No 7, July 1994.
    * T H Cannon: IT research supported by the British Library R \\& D
Department in Libraries and IT.
    * Special Issue on Information Retrieval, The Computer Journal, Vol
35 No 3, June 1992.
    * L. Dempsey Network Resource Discovery: a European library
perspective, in N. Smith, Editor, Libraries, networks and Europe: A
European Networking Study, London, 1994.
    * J. Foster (ed): A status report on networked information retrieval:
tools and groups, work in progress, available at URL
ftp://nic.nordu.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-nir- status-report-03.txt.
    * Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review Group: Report, HEFCE, 1993
(Follett, 1993).
    * L. Hughes and S. Lee, (eds): CTI Centre for Textual Studies:
Resources Guide 1994, Oxford, 1994 (ISBN 0 9523301 0 5)
    * Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology: Framework
for Progressing the Initiative (JISC Circular 4/94), Joint Information
Systems Committee, 1994.
    * D. Jonassen (ed): Instructional Design for Microcomputer
Courseware, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988.
    * S. Kenna and S. Ross, (eds): Networking in the Humanities:
Proceedings of the Second Conference on Scholarship and Technology in the
Humanities held at Elvetham Hall, Hampshire, UK, 13-16 April, 1994,
London: Bowker Saur, 1994. ISBN: 1 85739 064 4.
    * I. Lancashire (ed): The Humanities Computing Yearbook 1989-90: a
comprehensive guide to software and other Resources, Oxford University
Press, 1991
    * D. Law: The development of a national policy for dataset provision
in the UK: a historical perspective in Journal of Information Networking,
1(2), 1994.
    * MIDI ref to follow, publisher, 199x.
    * S. Newcomb: title to follow, publisher, 199x.
    * E. Selfridge-Field and D. Hewlett: title to follow, publisher,
1992.
    * E. Selfridge-Field and D. Hewlett: title to follow, publisher,
1993.
    * C.M. Sperberg-McQueen and Lou Burnard, (eds): Guidelines for
Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange (TEI P3), Chicago and Oxford,
1994.
    * Libraries and IT: Working papers of the Information Technology Sub-
committee of the HEFCs' Libraries Review, UKOLN, 1993.
    * T. van der Werf: InfoServices: cooperation between the National
Research Network Service and the National Library in the Netherlands in
Journal of Information Networking, 2(1), 1994 (forthcoming).
    * David White: A list of Information Technology projects within the
British Library in Libraries and IT.

10. [GT] Glossary of Terms
