The increasing use of EPrint repositories for the dissemination of scholarly information promises to radically change the way that researchers share information. The foremost example is the LANL repository run by Paul Ginsparg at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is viewed by physicists as the primary source for latest results. Federation of these individual repositories will provide the foundation for seamless access to scholarly information across a variety of disciplines. This briefing session will present the results of a workshop held in October from which agreement on federation mechanisms was reached among some of the leaders in the EPrint field. The session will also present important technical and policy issues for institutions wishing to create and manage an EPrint repository and discuss funding opportunities for those institutions.

The recent IFLA/UNESCO report on its Survey on Digitization & Preservation,  noted "the complete lack of consistency" among survey respondents in how they prepared for and undertook digitization of heritage materials. What are the strategies of some of the next generation of guides to good practice that can contribute to a greater degree of interoperability between digital cultural heritage resources? Robin Dale will talk about Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives,  by Anne Kenney and Oya Rieger, soon to be published by RLG. LeeEllen Friedland will present the outline and strategy of the recently funded NINCH project, a "Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials."

CNI is considering the feasibility of developing a distance education professional development program on assessment. The professional development program would build on the work of CNI's Assessing the Academic Networked Environment project, which included the publication of a manual, a set of institutional projects, and a preconference at a recent ACRL meeting. Increasingly, libraries and computer centers are being asked to justify the costs of developing the network infrastructure, providing computer equipment and facilities, and expanding access to networked information resources. This session will begin with an introduction to the proposed project and then solicit opinions from CNI attendees on specific topics such as their perception of the types of assessment needed on their campus, the usefulness of a professional development program on assessment for their staff, and the benefits and concerns about offering a program in a distance education mode.

The Association of College and Research Libraries has a task force working on information literacy competency standards. A draft has been completed and is being shared with as many organizations in higher education as possible to gather reactions and acceptance. This Project Briefing will summarize the current draft of the information literacy competency standards by explaining them, providing background related to their development and project future use in higher education. The briefing will also serve to obtain reactions from the membership of CNI.

This briefing will report on the development and usage of a digital library with over 100,000 titles available.

Standards Committee AT of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has been charged to develop a standard that will support circulation activities among independent library systems. Circulation activities include patron and item inquiry, and update transactions such as hold/reserve, check-out, renew, and check-in. The standard is designed to support direct consortial borrowing, self-service circulation, access to electronic resources, and will provide an interface between circulation and interlibrary loan systems.

The Committee has developed a draft document that describes the principles and guidelines to be used in the development of the standard. This presentation will provide an overview of the principles and guidelines and seek comments and responses from participants.