From: Coalition for Networked Information
Information Policies:  A Compilation of Position Statements, Principles,
Statutes, and Other Pertinent Statements



Coalition for Networked Information

21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Washington, DC  20036
   202-296-5098


Source:

Program Strategy, Association of Research Libraries, 
Washington, DC, September 8, 1990, pages 1-2.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Coalition for Networked Information is to promote the creation of and access to information resources in networked environments in order to enrich scholarship and to enhance intellectual productivity.

The Coalition pursues its mission by seeking to realize the information distribution and access potential of existing and proposed high performance computers and networks that support the research and educational activities of a wide variety of institutions and organizations.

The Coalition accomplishes this realization by undertaking activities, on its own and in partnership with others, that formulate, promulgate, evaluate, and promote policies and protocols that enable powerful, flexible, and universal access to networked information resources.

The Coalition directs the combined intellectual, technological, professional, and financial resources of its members to a shared vision of how the nature of information management is changing and will continue to change through the end of the 20th Century and into the beginning of the 21st.

Goals and Objectives

To inspire, by promulgating vision statements that (a) project the future characteristics and capabilities of high performance computers and advanced networks, and (b) analyze those characteristics and capabilities in terms of their likely impacts, both positive and negative, on research and educational communication.

To inform, by identifying, endorsing, supporting, and coordinating projects that (a) are collaborative, (b) seek to advance the understanding of or the state-of-the-art relative to the vision statements, (c) recognize the need for open architectures and standards, and (d) fully disclose their objectives, methods, and findings.

To influence, by advocating principles, guidelines, and positions that address the behavioral, social, cultural, and economic processes and structures that both enable and constrain the use of high performance computers and advanced networks as infrastructures for research and educational communication.

To synergize, by providing opportunities for senior administrators of libraries and senior administrators of information technologies in higher education institutions to work with comparable administrators from other institutions and organizations in a common enterprise to shape a shared future.

Organizational Strategy

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and EDUCOM comprise the Coalition which functions as an activity of ARL that takes direction from CAUSE and EDUCOM through their chief executives.

The Coalition carries out its work through a Task Force of institutions and organizations that pay its assessed dues, actively engage in its program of work, and are governed by its leadership.

The Coalition Task Force is composed of the senior administrator of libraries and the senior administrator of information technologies of higher education member institutions and comparable leaders and officers from other member institutions and organizations.

The positions assumed and activities undertaken by the Coalition and its Task Force are coordinated by a nine person Steering Committee appointed by the chief executives of ARL, CAUSE, and EDUCOM with each executive naming three members.

The Steering Committee charges and forms Working Groups to focus the attention of the Task Force in general areas or on specific tasks in which collaborative thought, planning, and action are necessary to pursue the mission of the Coalition or to achieve one or more of its goals and objectives.

The Task Force meets for two days and an evening each March in order to establish the general terms of reference for its program and budget and for two days and an evening each November to advance progress on specific tasks and to update information on specific projects.

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