Providing information resources equitably to all citizens is an ongoing challenge to public sector institutions. This challenge is now taking new form with the widespread creation and maintenance of information resources in electronic form. Issues which may formerly have been framed in terms of fundamental literacy must now be reframed in terms of competencies within a digital data network environment. Questions which in the past may have focused on the costs of distributing printed texts now must include the costs of equipment, access lines and user fees which have become standard in the distribution of information resources.
As a librarian I am professionally committed to preserving the general public's effective access to a broad range of information resources. The uncertainties which face libraries in the form of scare financial support and rapidly changing technical demands have made coherent planning for systemwide sharing and services difficult. Current statewide network and service planning in Maine, described below, has pointed out many gaps in service, access, and in coherent collection of data about information resources. GIS is a tool which can be put to work on the state information policy and resource planning level.
Librarians have traditionally served as a primary interface between the general public and providers of information resources in both the public and private sectors. Librarians in public library and school settings have also had primary responsibility for helping younger users in acquiring appropriate information skills, including skill in critical evaluation of information resources.
Changes in the nature of information resources, particularly with respect to economic constraints and technological demands, have created a crisis as well as an outstanding opportunity for public libraries and the communities they serve. Geographic information systems are an outstanding example of the data resources which challenge the capacity of today's public libraries. At the same time, the tools of GIS might be put to work directly in planning the development of services which will most appropriately meet public needs.
The convergence of several factors has led to initiatives in Maine which have the potential for addressing both the crisis and the opportunities in library services. Maine is characterized by a geographically dispersed population of low density and per- capita incomes below the national norm. Maine's predominantly rural population has traditionally paid the high intrastate rates for telephone service. Maine's libraries receive only minimal state funding. Nearly one-fourth of public libraries in this state are without telephone service. The "information superhighway" is a myth in the many Maine communities which lack local dialup access to an Internet provider.
The distribution of these services may be most vivid when mapped and visually displayed, immediately highlighting communities where services are absent. Concern that the public libraries of Maine, and many Maine communities, would be permanently left behind in an increasingly competitive and privatized information marketplace led to library intervention in telephone utility rate and regulation cases over the past two years. Grassroots advocacy from across the state has resulted in the imminent deployment of a ubiquitous school and library data network to be funded over the next seven years through reallocation of a portion of utility overearnings to school and library services.
A proposal to map Maine's information infrastructure using the tools of GIS is a counterpart to this network deployment. This information resource would focus on monitoring the development of community wide area networks, data network connections, and changes in the availability of Internet access to Maine's communities. The need for such a resource was noted in "Maine Logs On," the final report of the Maine Telecommunications and Information Technologies Planning Project. Its implementation would involve coordination of data-gathering based on GIS already underway in the state's Department of Education, Office of Geographic Information Services, and Public Utilities Commission, and Office of the Public Advocate.
Within the state's library community, the project would be closely related to a cooperative resource development project. This initiative would explore most appropriate development of interlibrary loan and document delivery, reference services and inservice training for librarians within the networked environment. Charting services and community uses through GIS will aid this effort.
Parallel with the use of GIS for monitoring and planning services is an effort to bring Maine state GIS data into wider public accessibility. The Maine Office of Geographic Information Services and the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of Maine have initiated BASIN (browsable hyper-archive of spatial information on the net). In its initial phase, state geographic data will be provided to the University for research purposes. After the school and library data network is in place, the resources of BASIN are intended to be made available for public library and school use statewide.
All of the developments outlined above are in the earliest stages of development. Because their potential could be realized through coordination of resources already being developed by separate agencies, there is the possibility of creating a unique public resource without allocation of significant special funding.
My presentation would describe these initiatives, their
background and their implications for public access and public
information policy in this state. Comments on the suitability of
this approach in other settings would be invited and welcome from
conference participants. In terms of the conceptual issues
outlined in the call for papers, this presentation would be tied
most closely to issues 2-4, relation of these resources to
marginalized social groups, GIS-based decision-making process,
and participatory tool.