Description of the Project

Latin American studies encompasses scholarly, strategic, instructional, commercial, cultural, and civic dimensions, each of which requires a solid information base to support research. Though traditional collections of Latin American trade books are by now quite strong, libraries have had only mixed success in capturing materials not controlled by commercial publishers. Students and scholars increasingly seek new kinds of resources, just as production of available materials from Latin America.s informal organizations, often operating outside of established commercial channels, have mushroomed. New formats for information, most notably electronic publications, significantly complicate the tasks of identifying, providing access to, and preserving information resources.

This project is aimed at addressing the need for improved control of and access to Latin America's "grey literature," the publications, working documents, and other materials produced by research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and peripheral agencies produced in print and electronic formats, but which are not controlled by commercial publishers. These publications are difficult to identify and acquire, are often only available in limited printings, and may appear in low quality photocopies. Even when these materials are digitized and mounted on the Web, they remain hidden away for unpredictable lengths of time on often-fragile institutional websites. The project will identify appropriate organizations in Latin America, focusing on groups that produce research materials in the social sciences, digitize the publications produced by them, and apply the "Open Archives Initiative Metadata Harvesting Protocol" to these documents to ensure systematic and enhanced Web access to distributed resources. The Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) will develop an Open Archives Metadata Harvesting Protocol portal service for harvesting the metadata from participating repositories. To support these activities, LANIC will develop a training program to train staff at the Latin American partner sites in file conversion and application of the open archives metadata harvesting protocol. LANIC also will serve as a mirror site for the new electronic resources and host digital files for Latin American institutions whose server capacities are limited. Further, the project will conduct research on the economics of information delivery and develop a plan to address the financial implications of cost recovery for the project's services within a context of equitable, sustainable, open access among an international membership of institutions with widely varying financial resources.

The University of California, Los Angeles submitted the application on behalf of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP), a consortium of forty-seven North American libraries with major Latin American collections, and five Latin American partner libraries, under the joint sponsorship of the Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries. The LARRP Web site is developed and maintained by LANIC. The project will form a new partnership with the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales-Chile (FLACSO-Chile) and expand its collaboration with the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (CIRMA) in Guatemala, both highly respected, important research institutes that produce social science research materials. Both institutes are well positioned to assist the project in forming partnerships with additional organizations in the region. By the conclusion of the three-year collaborative effort, the project expects to significantly expand access to important, but elusive, "grey literature" research materials, and to put in place the infrastructure for a Latin American Open Archives scholars portal at LANIC that will provide ever-expanding and sustainable Web access to Latin American resources.

Authorized Activities

The project will digitize grey literature in accordance with current technical standards and "best practices" concerning file formats, resolution, and compression schemes, and apply the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to the digitized material. The OAI has taken a lead role in ensuring that digital data content providers utilize consistent metadata, descriptive elements, and searching protocols. By applying established norms for the creation of standardized metadata appropriate to the special characteristics of electronic products, sophisticated searches of the "Deep Web" are possible beyond what is supported by commercial browsers and search engines. This capability facilitates increased access to and allows the harvesting of digital resources in many different locations. LANIC will serve as a mirror site for the digital resources and host digital files of Latin American organizations that lack strong Internet capabilities. LANIC will create a bilingual OAI-PMH portal service to guide access to the related archives, explain search parameters, and facilitate file download. The project will promote national and international collaborations with FLACSO-Chile, CIRMA, and with other Latin American organizations to identify, describe, and provide Web access to bibliographic description and full-text grey literature. The information will be organized and accessible through a new OAI-PMH portal service at the most important Latin American regional portal. The project's partnerships in Chile and in Guatemala, particularly CIRMA with its research interests in linguistic studies, will enable us to incorporate materials produced in association with each country's large and active indigenous communities. Though materials from Latin America, including those in the region's indigenous tongues, are represented in Roman script, many are in autochthonous dialects. Internet access to Latin America's grey literature will ensure that these materials will be easily accessible to students, teachers, and scholars. Materials on tribal identities, indigenous rights, or the hole in the ozone layer, as examples, suitable for classroom units will be readily accessible where they presently are difficult or impossible to consult. LANIC is a well-known portal for higher education as well as K-12, ensuring that the new targeted resources will be easy to locate. Finally, this project is founded upon collaboration among U.S. libraries, LANIC, and leading research libraries in Latin America. This proposal will add the dimension of collaboration with Latin American organizations that publish research information, the data content providers themselves. The training component ensures continuity and growth of the program in the region. The technological approach of introducing the use of OIA and the creation of an OAI-PMH portal service will promote further collaboration in the region to bring new foreign language resources in Latin American area studies and in international comparative studies to a worldwide audience.

Selection Criteria

To improve access to the literature of non-governmental organizations was one of the primary goals in the establishment of LARRP in the mid-1990's. Early efforts to address the need fell short of expectations. Yet the need for grey literature which tends to convey viewpoints and analyses that fall outside the political and intellectual mainstream, or that represent the most current research on emerging topics, grows. Increasing demands for new resources from a rapidly expanding constituency of users studying Latin America and seeking Spanish-language materials on current topics from this dynamic and strategic region intensify the importance of addressing the gaps of this type of material in library collections. The proposed project is significant in developing a strategy to capture and provide enhanced access to elusive, but important, research materials in the social sciences through innovative use of technology. By establishing collaborative partnerships with data content-producing research institutions, the project will introduce state-of-the-art technology and "best practices" to the region to take advantage of the sophisticated features of OAI-PMH. The development of an open archives OAI-PMH portal service at LANIC will add a new dimension to the premiere scholars portal on the Latin American region.

The project design is based on three interrelated initiatives: to develop partnerships with Latin American institutions and organizations that produce grey literature; to develop the OAI-PMH infrastructure at LANIC; and to research the economics of information delivery in order to form a model for sustainable cost recovery of Internet-based services. The design, work plan, and services emphasize technological innovation; the assignment of expert personnel; the collaboration of key groups and organizations; training to produce quality results and to ensure continuity and sustainability of the endeavor; the development of infrastructure capable of delivering the new services; and reasonable, achievable time frames in which to produce results. Ongoing review and evaluation of progress, adequate oversight by LARRP's Advisory Committee, and use of well-established organizational structures for communicating and achieving collaborative results are key features of the management and evaluation plans.

In summary, this project extends the knowledge, experience, and commitment of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project to new areas of collaboration with Latin American institutions and with LANIC to achieve a long-held goal of improving access to elusive grey literature. The use of the Open Archive Initiative Metadata Harvesting Protocol and the development of an open archive OAI-PMH portal service open new avenues to scholars and other users to achieve enhanced access to Latin American research materials.

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