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gils: Announcing the GILS Evaluation Project

gils: Announcing the GILS Evaluation Project

Announcing the GILS Evaluation Project

William E. Moen - GILS Evaluation Project (gilseval@jove.acs.unt.edu)
Sat, 28 Sep 1996 16:08:42 -0500 (CDT) 

Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 16:08:42 -0500 (CDT)
From: "William E. Moen - GILS Evaluation Project" <gilseval@jove.acs.unt.edu>
To: gils@cni.org
Subject: Announcing the GILS Evaluation Project
Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.95.960928160744.12886A-100000@jove.acs.unt.edu>


For Immediate Release							
September 26, 1997

An Evaluation of the Federal Government's Implementation of the 
Government Information Locator Service (GILS)

William E. Moen & Charles R. McClure
Principal Investigators


Project Abstract

The U.S. General Services Administration has awarded the University of 
North Texas a contract to evaluate the Federal government's 
implementations of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS). 
The study is being funded by five Federal agencies:  Department of 
Commerce, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, 
General Services Administration, National Archives and Records 
Administration, with active support from the Office of Management 
and Budget. Principal Investigators William E. Moen (School of Library 
and Information Sciences, University of North Texas) and Charles R. 
McClure, Distinguished Professor (Syracuse University) will conduct the 
seven-month evaluation.

In December 1995, the GILS Board called for an evaluation of GILS.  The 
evaluation by Moen and McClure will examine how GILS is assisting 
Federal agencies to achieve their information dissemination and 
information management responsibilities.  A primary focus of the 
evaluation will be an examination of the extent to which GILS is 
meeting the expectations of users.  In addition, the evaluation will 
examine agency GILS implementation activities and plans for 
incorporating GILS as an information management tool.  The project will 
describe current GILS implementation experiences, identify success 
factors and barriers for agencies implementing GILS, and determine if 
improvements to the GILS policies or technical specifications are 
needed to make GILS a more useful tool for agency 
information dissemination and information resources management. The 
purpose of the evaluation is to provide information and lead to an 
understanding how:

	-- GILS is serving various user groups
	-- GILS is improving public access to government information
	-- Agencies are progressing with their implementations
	-- GILS is working as a tool for information resources management.

The GILS initiative is multi-faceted and the Principal Investigators 
have designed an evaluation framework that informs both data collection 
and data analysis and interpretation activities.  The evaluation 
framework identifies five primary facets of GILS:

 	-- USERS: identification of user groups, their needs, their 
		use, and satisfaction with GILS
	-- CONTENTS: what information resources are described by GILS 
		records and the quality, accuracy, usability,
		etc. of those descriptions
	-- TECHNOLOGY: technical implementation details of GILS
	-- POLICY: policy goals and guidelines at both government-wide 
		and agency levels
	-- STANDARDS AND RULES:  utility of the standards-based 
		approach to GILS.

Given the multi-faceted nature of the GILS initiative, the Principal 
Investigators have positioned the study within a qualitative, 
naturalistic research context.  This evaluation will emphasize process 
over measurement, understanding and learning over hypotheses testing.  
The study's research design is evolutionary and relies on multiple 
methods of data collection and analysis.

The study will result in a number of benefits that include an 
understanding of the extent to which GILS is serving various user 
communities and their satisfaction with GILS as well as the 
identification of success factors in agency GILS implementations to 
refine and improve all GILS applications.  Findings and recommendations 
from the study will be useful to potential GILS implementors in other 
jurisdictions such as state and local governments.  An 
additional benefit of the evaluation will be the promotion and 
awareness of GILS within the Federal government and among public users.

The Principal Investigators will produce a formal report at the end of 
the project.  The report will contain a summary of study activities, 
the study's findings, and recommendations to improve GILS.  The final 
report will be available in Spring 1997.

Moen and McClure have successfully completed previous studies related 
to the current GILS initiative, including _The Government Information 
Locator Service (GILS): Expanding Research and Development on the 
ANSI/NISO Z39.50 Information Retrieval Standard, Final Report_. The 
investigators have conducted or are conducting studies concerning the
evaluation of networked infrastructures, development of performance 
measures for the networked environment, information policy, information 
resources management, and information technology standards development.

The Principal Investigators will provide online information during the 
project through the GILS Evaluation Project web site:

	<URL: http://www-lan.unt.edu/slis/research/gilseval.htm>

For information about the project, visit the web site or contact:

William E. Moen 
School of Library and Information Sciences, University of North Texas
PO Box 13796, Denton, TX  76203
email:  wem0002@jove.acs.unt.edu
voice:  817-565-3563, fax:     817-565-3101

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