Investment in Information and Knowledge Infrastructure:
A Strategic Framework for Australia's Research Enterprise
Compiled and published by Neil McLean on behalf of participants at a Project Workshop entitled: Australia's Information Future: Innovation and Knowledge Management for the 21st Century, held at Australian National University, Canberra on 3-4 March 1999.
April 1999
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Preface
This consultative paper has resulted from a growing concern within the Australian research community over the nation's capacity to sustain cost effective and timely access to the global network of information and knowledge.
This concern was articulated clearly at a Project Workshop entitled: Australia's Information Future: Innovation and Knowledge Management for the 21st Century, which was held at the Australian National University, Canberra on 3-4 March 1999.
The principal outcome of the Workshop was a unanimous resolution that a strategic framework was necessary for creating a competitive and sustainable research information infrastructure in Australia.
It was agreed, also, that successful strategies for dealing with such a complex and diverse range of issues would require a sense of ownership by the university community, government research organisations, information providers and government funding agencies.
On behalf of the Workshop participants, I have prepared this consultative paper as a means of soliciting input from all interested parties, prior to the confirmation of appropriate strategic objectives and the development of a national plan of action.
Neil McLean
University Librarian
Macquarie University, Sydney
Part 1 - Research, Information and Knowledge: Australia's Quest for Sustainability
Introduction
There is now national and international acceptance of the importance of research and innovation in building a successful information or knowledge economy. The rapid production, distribution and use of information and knowledge are now integral to every aspect of this knowledge economy. The research enterprise is a critical component in this highly competitive global knowledge environment, both as a creator and consumer of information and knowledge.
This consultative document marks a formal acknowledgement in Australia of the strategic links between access to global information and knowledge resources and research productivity. In so doing, the term 'knowledge economy' is used in preference to 'information economy', because it signals an emerging international consensus that knowledge management and knowledge skills are of critical importance in a global environment where there is increasing knowledge intensification at all levels of economic activity and an emergence of trade in knowledge in its own right.
It is intended that the primary strategic directions, as outlined in the document, should complement the Commonwealth Government's vision for Australia in the information age -A Strategic Framework for the Information Economy -Identifying Priorities for Action (Dec. 1998). There is also an intention to build on various policy statements and IT related strategies, already adopted by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC).
Of critical importance to the productivity of the research community is timely, cost effective access to global information and knowledge. Such access can only be achieved by seeking commitment to, and ownership of, common strategic goals by a broad array of stakeholders who are involved in, or are associated with, the research enterprise.
The purpose of the document is to facilitate agreement on firm national directions for investment in information and knowledge infrastructure, thereby, strengthening the capacity of Australia's research enterprise in its quest to be globally competitive. It articulates the issues and challenges to be addressed in linking people and information resources in the research environment, presents a vision for the future and identifies a number of strategic priorities to bring about that vision.
It is intended that this strategic framework should provide clear directions to researchers, university managers, librarians, information providers, the AVCC, government departments and other funding agencies for developing appropriate programs of action. Such programs will be, of necessity, developed and implemented at many levels within the national research enterprise. However, the common goal is to achieve a highly innovative and coordinated approach to investment in knowledge and information infrastructure.
Investment in Information and Knowledge - Context
Research as a Change agent
It is now widely recognised in developed countries that a successful knowledge economy is dependent, upon, amongst other things, the ability to find new ways of transforming the creation, production and distribution of goods and services through research and innovation.
Research therefore, is a key change agent in developing Australia's capacity to compete in a global information and knowledge economy, in promoting Australia's research output internationally and in offering opportunities for Australia to collaborate in international programs of research excellence.
In order to achieve these aims, the research enterprise is heavily reliant on the ability to communicate rapidly through global electronic networks for both the creation and consumption of information and knowledge.
A dynamic national research enterprise has at its heart a series of partnerships and strategic alliances between researchers, librarians, private sector information providers, information technology experts, university managers and government agencies, at both the national and international level.
Creating Information and Knowledge Infrastructure
The creation of a vibrant and responsive information and knowledge infrastructure is a long term investment which requires a strong flexible strategic framework and a firm economic commitment from the public and private sectors, together with clear knowledge strategies within the institutions sponsoring research.The success of the investment in the national information and knowledge infrastructure will be judged by its ability to identify, locate, distribute and archive the required information and knowledge in an efficient, timely and cost effective manner.
It is imperative that a national consensus is reached on the level of public and private economic investment required to maintain Australia's access to this global network of information and knowledge.
Economic investment, however, will not be sufficient in itself to ensure success. Constructive solutions are required which leverage off existing infrastructure developments, which tap the innovative capacity of Australia's research enterprise, and which optimise resources and expertise through international collaboration.
Market Risk Assessment
Over the past couple of years, there has been a great deal of attention paid in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK and Europe,and in parts of Asia, to the challenges inherent in developing and sustaining a healthy information and knowledge infrastructure.
In the Australian context, there is a growing perception that the national information future is being placed in jeopardy because of adverse impacts associated with the increasing globalisation of the information and knowledge services market.
The sense of risk is heightened by the stark reality of having to compete in a world where information and knowledge are regarded as highly tradeable commodities.
There is a growing realisation that the information and knowledge services market defies traditional economic rules of behaviour, in that it appears to be an imperfect market, where strategies normally associated with consumption and investment do not seem to apply. The research enterprise and government agencies both realise the need for a fundamental reassessment of the relationship between public and private investment in infrastructure. Such an assessment requires a firm sense of strategic direction in order to formulate realistic responses.
The ultimate risk is that, through inaction, Australia may become marginalised in terms of access to global information and knowledge resources, with a consequent decline in research productivity.
Competitive Strengths
The primary strength of Australia's research enterprise and its related information and knowledge infrastructure is the willingness to learn from international experience and to adapt to changing circumstances. By international comparison, Australia's research output is small in relation to financial and human inputs, however, it has an excellent record in terms of productivity.
Because of its geographical isolation and dispersed population centres, Australia has realised the importance of establishing distributed information and knowledge service environments and is likely, therefore, to optimise capital investments made by both the public and private sectors.
Australia's reputation as an innovative and bold early adopter of new technologies and networked information services is of great interest to the major overseas information providers, who see Australia as an ideal testing ground for their global market strategies.
Towards a Vision
Over the next five years it is envisaged that sustained strategic investment in information and knowledge infrastructure will ensure a robust national research enterprise where:
- the enterprise itself is transformed by embracing the principles and practices of the emerging knowledge economy
- innovation will flourish through having top class access to the global network of information and knowledge
- the research enterprise will become an exemplary model in leading Australia towards a so-called 'learning' economy
- Australia's capacity and confidence to participate and collaborate in global research ventures will be strengthened
- the people of Australia will feel confident that they are getting value for money through investing in the research enterprise
- the distinctive cultural and knowledge assets of Australia will be expanded, sustained and promoted in the global arena
- economic investment in research by the private sector will grow, knowing that the enterprise itself is fit to compete.
Strategic Priorities
The identified strategic priorities are aimed at enhancing Australia's fitness to compete in the global research arena. Concerted action will be required between researchers, librarians, private sector information providers, information technology experts, university managers and government funding agencies in addressing these priority areas for action.
In general terms, the strategic priorities fall into three different categories, which can be characterised in the following manner:
- strategies designed to transform, or significantly change, existing service paradigms and institutional processes associated with the creation and consumption of information and knowledge
- strategies for improved service within existing ways of doing business
- strategies for applying evolving technologies to the information and knowledge infrastructure
Six priority areas for action have been identified and they are grouped according to the above categories:
Innovation and Transformation- Transform the way universities and other research agencies access and consume information and knowledge.
- Seek innovative means of changing the present processes associated with creating, publishing, disseminating and archiving research information and knowledge.
- Reform intellectual property rights management practices relating to the exchange of research information and knowledge.
- Develop collaborative tactical responses for negotiating access within the existing global information and knowledge marketplace.
- Maximise the opportunities for increased efficiency within, and between, libraries and information networks.
- Ensure that Australia's evolving technological infrastructure is leading edge in supporting the digital distribution and management of information and knowledge.
Part 2 - Strategic Priorities
Transform the way universities and other research agencies access and consume information and knowledge
Context
The main impetus for developing a strategic framework for investment in the information and knowledge infrastructure has arisen out of a perception that Australian research may be at risk in a competitive global environment , because of market forces associated with the globalisation of information and knowledge resources and because access to those resources may become increasingly constrained.
This feeling of unease has been heightened by the difficulties of coming to terms with operating in an increasingly electronic environment where new skills and new methods are required, not only to access information and knowledge but to apply it to the research environment.
Long held views about national self-sufficiency, in terms of access to relevant information and knowledge resources, have been relentlessly challenged as the ability to purchase the required resources has diminished. The tangible national information and knowledge assets appear to be in decline and the concept of ownership in the electronic networked environment has become increasingly complex.
Given these factors, there is a tendency for all stakeholders in the value-adding information chain, including researchers, publishers, distributors and libraries to blame each other for the apparent inability to sustain a stable information and knowledge environment.
At the broadest level, a potentially dangerous mismatch of expectations has emerged where all parties, including funding agencies, feel disappointed and frustrated with the seemingly intractable problems associated with sustaining access to appropriate information and knowledge resources.
There is a need to resolve this mismatch of expectations through a much more concerted sharing of information and perceptions, through a bold exploration of new service paradigms and through an institutional determination to realign resources, to adopt new work practices and to train researchers in knowledge management skills.
Objectives
The objectives are to achieve:
- A greater awareness amongst all players and stakeholders of the nature of the problems associated with creating a sustainable national information and knowledge environment for research.
- The mapping of the information and knowledge architectures required to support the various discipline areas within the research community.
- An audit of the size and nature of the present economic investment in research information and knowledge infrastructure.
- An assessment of the skills and training required to successfully exploit global networked information and knowledge.
- The development of new service paradigms that optimise the matching of researchers and information and knowledge resources.
- The formulation of institutional knowledge management strategies for sustaining the research community.
Seek innovative means of changing the present processes associated with creating, publishing, disseminating and archiving research information and knowledge
Context
The information and knowledge services market is undergoing profound change. This can be best illustrated by way of reference to the science and technology journal market, which is the 'life-blood' of a very significant portion of the global research activity.
In the print era, this market was dominated by high fixed costs and relatively low marginal costs. It is a market which is increasingly being dominated by a few large commercial players, who have a virtual monopoly over the production and distribution of much of the world's most important science and technology research literature output. The research community finds it ironic, and increasingly unacceptable, that they are buying back at a premium, information and knowledge which they created in the first place.
As many informed observers have pointed out, this is an imperfect market where price is not the major determinant in establishing the market, where value is apparently the key differentiator and where the actual volume of information and knowledge production appears to bear little relationship to the purchasing capacity of the market, in particular the purchasing power of libraries.
Being an industry caught in the throes of restructuring, there is parallel production, distribution and consumption of print and electronic versions of the same product and, as a result, the research community finds itself having to pay more, not less, for access to information and knowledge.
With the advent of an electronic service environment, effective performance in the research community is now determined by the power of the distribution system as well as the actual creation of knowledge. In other words, the system's capability to ensure timely and cost effective access to the global stock of information and knowledge has become a critical success factor. Given the power of electronic creation and distribution systems and the inextricable links between researchers, as both creators and consumers of information and knowledge, there is an emerging line of thought that challenges the tenets governing existing publishing and distribution service paradigms. The potential to create new service paradigms, embracing all parts of the existing value adding chain, requires careful and sustained analysis, together with the development of a capacity to carry out innovative experimentation in both the creation and distribution of research information and knowledge.
Objectives
The objectives are:
- The removal of the threat of a monopoly market for research information and knowledge.
- Formal analysis of existing and alternative business models for creating and distributing research output.
- The conduct of small scale pilot projects designed to test alternative means of production and distribution.
- The development of strategic alliances with appropriate publishers and distributors to engage in the mutual development of new valuable services.
- Participation in international collaborative ventures such as the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in the US.
Reform intellectual property rights management practices relating to the exchange of research information and knowledge
Context
Present policies relating to the management of intellectual property rights in universities and government sponsored research agencies, such as CSIRO, are deeply embedded in the long tradition of exchanging print-based information and knowledge. The legal and regulatory framework, as exemplified in copyright law, assumes that trade in a piece of intellectual property in the form of an article or a book is capable of being identified and controlled.
In the digital environment, both the authentication of works and the control of distribution are much more difficult to manage, hence the present world-wide impasse in terms of reforming legal and regulatory frameworks.
The situation is exacerbated in terms of scholarly research output because the researchers, as the creators, hand over copyright to the publishers and then purchase back their own material.
All these factors indicate a need to rethink the way the research enterprise does business in the digital environment. In order to do so, the three categories of intellectual property namely, gift exchange, copyright and contract have to be reexamined with a view to developing a more realistic global legal and regulatory framework.
In addition, the vexed question of linking academic promotion to research publications in universities requires a reassessment because of the present needs to 'publish-or-perish' and to seek publication in prestigious costly journals, which both add to the distortions in an already imperfect market.
Objectives
The objectives are to:
- Reassess institutional intellectual property rights management policies with a view to retaining copyright.
- Influence current national debates on the reform of copyright law relating to 'fair dealing'.
- Seek international agreement on the principles for trading digital research information and knowledge.
- Develop and install better technical systems for intellectual property rights management.
- Adopt alternative strategies for breaking down the strong link between academic promotion and publication output.
Develop collaborative responses for negotiating cost effective access within the existing global information and knowledge marketplace
Context
Whilst there is considerable emphasis within this strategic framework on reforming and changing the production and distribution processes associated with research information and knowledge, there is a strong strategic imperative to remain competitive within the global market place, as currently manifested. The market place offers a plethora of products and services, all with different pricing structures and all with different licensing arrangements for conditions of use.
The monopolistic trends in terms of science and technology journal publishing and some related citation and abstracting services, present serious challenges to research institutions in Australia. Many of these institutions feel particularly defenceless, being small consumers by world standards and, therefore, less valued as customers.
There has been a rapid evolution of consortial arrangements in the UK and in the US as a means of exerting influence in the market place. These consortia are able to employ skilled negotiators, develop firm principles for licensing deals and negotiate cost-effective access, based on large-scale volume of subscriptions and/or transactional business.
Australian universities and CSIRO have had some success in this regard through the CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee (CEIRC), but it remains under-resourced as a negotiating body and often ill-informed through lack of adequate support to test products and services. The present consortial deals are also rather blunt instruments in that they are, by nature, aiming at the lowest common service denominator in order to accommodate the largest possible number of institutions. As research institutions seek to customise their respective access management requirements in a cost-effective manner, it will be necessary to develop much more refined and flexible consortial agreements at the national level.
Objectives
The objectives are to:
- Increase the power of research enterprises, as consumers, through more organised and cooperative purchases.
- Provide research institutions with a more informed choice of products and services, together with information on the associated cost benefits.
- Enhance management mechanisms to provide a basis for strong collective negotiation.
- Develop appropriate licensing arrangements, based on international best practice, to ensure desired levels of access.
- Engage in international collaboration through the International Library Consortia (ICOLC).
Maximise the opportunities for increased efficiency within, and between, libraries and information networks
Context
Libraries remain the principal providers of print-based information and knowledge resources and, in most cases, the main provider of digital networked products and services. They face a complex array of problems, which are increasingly difficult to solve without help from the research community itself.
Libraries have a long and proud record of cooperative resource sharing, principally through interlending activity. The diminishing resource base of most research libraries, combined with the necessity to provide both print-based and electronic information services, has seriously eroded the capacity of libraries to sustain their traditional cooperative activity. At a much more general level, the will to collaborate has been challenged and, in many cases, undermined by the understandable political and economic imperatives to compete in the quest for research excellence and market share.
There is an obligation, however, for libraries to maximise the opportunities for increased efficiency within and between libraries and information networks.
There are a number of areas where research libraries can leverage off existing strengths including, developing new-style agreements on collaborative collection building, negotiating inter-institutional service level agreements, establishing appropriate benchmarking standards for process improvement and collaborating on the development and delivery of training in skills relating to information and knowledge access management.
None of these measures in isolation will solve the present perceived shortcomings in terms of information and knowledge provision. However, irrespective of how the digital information and knowledge environment evolves, research libraries will remain crucial repositories of large tracts of existing knowledge, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Imaginative collaborative ventures are required with appropriate investment strategies to both preserve and provide access to this wealth of cultural knowledge.
Objectives
The objectives are to increase efficiency through:- Leveraging off existing collection strengths within the national network of research libraries.
- Building collaborative mechanisms that will sustain inter-library service level agreements.
- Attaining higher levels of process improvement through the adoption of appropriate national and international benchmarking models.
- Developing comprehensive preservation and archiving policies and programs.
Ensure that Australia's technological infrastructure is leading edge in supporting the digital distribution of information and knowledge
Context
It is widely accepted at the international level that there are inextricable links between information and knowledge infrastructure and technological infrastructure. This has led to the tentative use of the term 'infostructure' to embrace both concepts, although it is not entirely satisfactory because both components require different, but complementary, strategies for achieving success.
The relationship between both types of infrastructure need, therefore, careful definition and consequent synchronisation of development strategies. When analysing policy development at the international level, there are many signs of dysfunctional strategies either because of undue concentration on the importance of technological infrastructure or, conversely, an unfounded optimism by information and knowledge policy makers that the technological infrastructure will be automatically in place to fulfil service requirements. It is critical, therefore, that technical requirements for supporting a highly distributed information and services environment be clearly specified, both in functional and technical terms.
The further development of AARNet, as the carrier of these distributed information services, will be of critical importance in achieving successful outcomes.
The pursuit of these complex goals will require extensive national and international collaboration to ensure interoperability and to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
Objectives
The objectives are to:
- Map the functional requirements necessary to support a distributed information and knowledge services environment.
- Specify in consistent architectural terms the technical requirements including the use of navigation tools, directory services for authentication and authorisation, user interfaces, metadata schema and e-commerce links.
- Seek to form strategic clusters of public and private sector partners with relevant technical expertise to produce appropriate integrated solutions.
- Seek 'buy-in' from research institutions in terms of adopting and installing the nationally agreed technical solutions.
- Collaborate with commercial and not-for-profit information service providers to ensure technical compatibility and interoperability between the production and distribution systems.
Part 3 - Conclusion
This document outlines a strategic framework for investing in information and knowledge infrastructure to ensure that Australia's research community can develop innovative and competitive research outcomes, which are of international excellence.
It is not intended to be prescriptive in terms of recommending specific actions or solutions. Rather the aim is to provide a high level strategic direction which can be embraced by all concerned in developing and sustaining research in Australia. For it to become successful as a strategic framework, comment, advice and commitment is required from all interested parties to ensure that the strategies and objectives can act as a catalyst for a series of actions designed to fulfil an agreed vision for Australia's research information and knowledge future.