


CAMPUS-WIDE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Judy Hallman1
May 19, 1992
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


INTRODUCTION

Campus mainframe computers are the repository for a wealth of 
information, but faculty, staff, and students have not 
traditionally had easy access to this information. Most 
people have not had easy access to the computers; they did 
not know the commands needed to find information, nor did 
they have the security clearance to explore the data in the 
campus computers.
     While the increase in microcomputers on campuses and 
significant improvements in computer networking have 
facilitated access to mainframe computers, mainframe 
operating systems and the need for security for data have not 
changed significantly. What has evolved is a new set of tools 
for providing access to campus information, collectively 
called campus-wide information systems (CWISs).
     A CWIS provides campus information of general interest, 
online, accessible from virtually every workstation on campus 
that has communications capability. The systems are menu 
driven, but provide short cuts for experienced users. A 
typical system contains the campus directory, event 
schedules, guides, policies, and other documents.
     Several issues are emerging, including the following 
ones: 

-- A variety of software is in use. Their screen displays 
and menu presentations vary as do their means for 
navigation. What are the similarities and differences 
between them?

-- How can the displays and access mechanisms be improved 
to help people find the information they need?

-- How do people know that these services exist and what 
information they have access to?

-- The definition of "public information" is being 
questioned; which data can be freely displayed, which 
should have restricted access, and which can and should 
be censored?

-- Text formatted for the printed page usually won't 
display exactly the same on a computer screen. What 
guidelines should be followed to preserve the design of 
the authors and editors?

-- Should data be changed after it enters the CWIS to keep 
it current or should it faithfully represent the source 
document?

-- Who should be responsible for maintaining data in the 
CWIS--the authors and editors or the people running the 
CWIS software? And who should run the systems--computer 
specialists or librarians?

-- How can CWISs be linked together so that people on one 
campus can easily access information on another campus?

These are issues that require the combined skills of 
librarians and computer specialists. 
     CWISs make a significant contribution to the 
availability of information. This paper first examines the 
emergence of CWISs as viable systems of information 
distribution, tracing the contributions of key individuals. 
Next, practical problems facing those starting a CWIS are 
addressed, followed by a discussion of possible future 
directions for CWISs. Appendices describe an electronic 
discussion group, called CWIS-L, which has been invaluable to 
those who provide CWISs, and how to try out some of the CWISs 
available on the Internet.

CURRENT SYSTEMS

What Is a CWIS?

     A CWIS provides campus information of general interest, 
online, accessible from virtually every workstation on campus 
that has communications capability. This definition excludes 
Student Information Systems, which provide students with 
personal information concerning their records. Similarly, it 
excludes visitor information systems that are not available 
on the campus computing network.
     Most CWISs require a userid, and some also require a 
password, but they vary in access control. Some CWISs only 
display information, some allow anonymous user input, some 
provide access to special data (such as medical records) to 
special users, and some provide access to all campus 
computing facilities and services. Most campuses provide a 
userid and password for visitors to look at information in 
the CWIS, but access to services, such as electronic mail, 
are limited to registered users.

What Information Is Provided by a CWIS?

The types of information provided by most CWISs include the 
following:

-- event calendars, including sports, music/film/theater, 
lectures/seminars/workshops, academic calendars

-- promotional/expository information, including books, 
pamphlets, newsletters, directories, primarily describing 
campus functions and services

-- lists, such as job openings, available housing, class 
schedules, buy/sell bulletin boards, rides needed/offered

-- grant and funding opportunities, current research 
activities, faculty publications

-- access to the online library catalog

-- e-mail/forums/discussion groups/digests.

Further, some systems also include community information, an 
inclusion that has been subject to discussion. While some 
campuses feel their time is best used expanding the campus 
database, others see local events and activities as important 
to the campus community. Some campuses include bus/train 
schedules, weather forecasts, fortunes, community guides 
(including movie schedules and restaurant information), 
agricultural extension information, and news feeds.
     One of the most interesting services provided by CWISs 
is psychological counseling. Since 1986, Cornellians have 
been asking Uncle Ezra, an online counselor, for help with 
their problems. Questions are asked anonymously through 
electronic mail. Professional counselors then post both the 
questions and their responses in CUINFO where anyone can look 
at them. This service has been valuable to people with 
problems, and fun and interesting to people who use CUINFO. 
Cornell has even published a book called The Best of Uncle 
Ezra.  Other campuses, such as Appalachian State University, 
have adopted this service.2

What Are the Benefits of CWISs?

     CWISs provide a variety of benefits, including the 
following:

--   All the information is in one place. CWISs provide 
one-stop shopping for quick answers to simple questions, 
like how many students there are on campus or what time 
the basketball game starts. If you are already online, it 
might be faster to look up a phone number in the database 
than to find your printed copy of the phone book.

--   Information is available around the clock.

--   Information may be more current than printed copies. 
Campus directories are a good example. Online versions 
are likely to be updated frequently while the paper 
version may only be printed once a year.

--   Information can be accessed from afar. While CWISs 
service the local campuses, they are especially valuable 
for remote users. Campus directories and course catalogs 
are likely to be used by people off-campus. When you get 
home from a conference and discover you want to discuss 
something with someone you met at the conference, you can 
look up his or her phone number and electronic mail 
address in that campus' phone directory. Similarly, you 
might want to see if a university has a course in a 
particular subject and who teaches it.

--   Information can be accessed by more people. A CWIS 
expands the audience for newsletters, course catalogs, 
and even postings of events. For example, the University 
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) posts the 
publications of the Institute for Academic Technology and 
a list of library-related events of interest to 
librarians worldwide.

--   CWISs have educational benefits. They are a lot like 
cookbooks; you may start off looking up one thing and end 
up reading a lot of unrelated information. It is easy to 
browse a variety of publications on the local campus and 
on other campuses on the Internet.

--   CWISs can provide online archives. At UNC-CH, old 
issues of newsletters are kept in the system.

--   CWISs have the potential for saving paper. It is 
reasonable to think that in the future, campus 
directories, class schedules, and course evaluations, for 
example, might only be available in electronic form.

--   Having facts in a CWIS can reduce phone calls and save 
personnel time.

How Did CWISs Get Started?

     It is difficult to determine exactly when CWISs got 
started or who had the first one. For example, mainframe 
logon messages, sometimes called the "message of the day," 
date back to the early days of mainframe computers and 
provide a crude announcement service. The University of 
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana provided information about their 
campus in the early 70s using PLATO, a system developed on 
that campus to provide self-paced instruction in a variety of 
subjects using touch-screen terminals.3 Stanford had a similar 
system in the 70s using SPIRES, software noted for its 
excellent full-text search capabilities and marketed by 
Stanford.
     In the 70s and 80s several campuses experimented with 
providing documents to users of mainframe computing services. 
However, Rita Saltz of Princeton questions whether anything 
can really count as a real CWIS prior to the micro revolution 
that put electronic access on the desktops of a large part of 
the campus.4
     Certainly Cornell had one of the first CWISs as we know 
them today, championed by Steven L. Worona. According to 
Worona,5 CUINFO at Cornell began to take shape in Spring 
1982. Two commands were made available on their IBM computer 
system: ROSTER to display the University's course roster and 
EXAM to display the final examination schedule. Worona notes 
that these schedules "were invariably obsolete even before 
they reached students' hands. Since both of these documents 
were prepared for publication on the central computer system 
and regularly updated (although not reprinted), the 
possibility for electronic access to current information was 
tantalizing." The CUINFO command (installed in October 1982) 
was created as a generalization of EXAM and ROSTER.
     As Worona points out,6 at the time these CWISs began, 
campus computers were used for number crunching and data 
analysis and the users were technically oriented. CWISs 
expanded the audience to all members of the university 
community, including many who never had reason to use a 
computer before. Several CWISs came into being during 1986-
87.

What Software Is Currently in Use?

     CWISs run on a wide range of computers (often hardware 
already on campus) and the software is still evolving. Like 
the evolution of word processing software, the process will 
probably result in some outstanding systems that will 
dominate, establishing consistency in menus and ways of 
moving around. Right now there is no clear standard. Current 
systems present similar menus, but vary in navigational 
methods, resources they access, and the difficulty in 
installing data.
     The basic concepts of these systems are essentially the 
same. The user is presented with a menu and chooses an item 
by entering its number or part of its name. Some choices lead 
to other menus. Eventually the user reaches text that is 
displayed one screen (or page) at a time. Users can move 
forward or back, one page at a time, they can return to the 
last menu displayed, or they can return to the initial (main) 
menu. Short cuts are provided for moving directly to 
information of interest, and indexes or maps tell users the 
keywords to use in the short cut method. How menu choices are 
made, the commands and key sequences for paging through text, 
and the short cut methods vary.
     The following describes systems currently in use with 
the design goals of some of their developers. Three samples 
of opening menus are included to show different menu 
presentations. See APPENDIX B for information on how to 
obtain a file that tells how to connect to CWISs on the 
Internet, what the systems contain, who to contact for more 
information, and for an easy way to browse through some of 
the services.

CUINFO:  According to Steve Worona of Cornell, CUINFO 
(written in IBM system 370 assembler language) was originally 
developed for use under the VM operating system that runs on 
IBM mainframes. While CUINFO could not be easily transported 
to other operating systems, "a complete re-implementation 
would not be a formidable task."7 Yale also runs CUINFO.8
     Here is Cornell's opening screen (February 1992):


         C U I N F O - Cornell University's Electronic Information Source

                                     MAIN MENU
Select...    For items such as...

        NEWS         Weather, Announce, Grad. Bulletin, Safety Reports, Updates
        EVENTS       Calendars, Athletics, Colloquia, Theatre, Music, Movies
        DIALOGS      Drug IQ Network, Mr. Chips, Uncle Ezra, Auntie Em, Suggest
        SERVICES     Computing, Support, Housing, Transport, Food, Careers,
                     Jobs, OEO, Directories, Volunteer, Library

Or select a more general category like...

        ACADEM       Information about Cornell instruction and research
        ADMIN        Items from and about Cornell administrative offices
        ITHACA       General information for and about the Ithaca area

Or type the name of any specific CUINFO entry such as WEATHER, DIRECT, or EZRA.
(Type INDEX for a list of available items, or DETAILS for descriptions.)

          Please select a topic or type HELP for hints.  (Blank to exit.)
-->



     Worona describes the CUINFO user interface as follows: 

The CUINFO interface is based on activities with which 
everyone is familiar -- selecting from a list and 
flipping through pages -- and we have yet to encounter 
a person who doesn't immediately understand the 
system. What we find more and more surprising is the 
wide variety of information that can be distributed 
effectively by this mechanism. The key is taking the 
trouble to organize the data before putting it online.

The approach of many information retrieval systems is 
to provide the user with powerful searching tools, 
utilizing keywords, free text, boolean logic, and 
anything else the designer can throw in. These tools 
are then applied by the user to a data base whose 
internal organization is unknown or invisible. In this 
context, powerful tools are almost a necessity. But 
the rules for using powerful tools tend to be 
difficult to learn and easy to forget. The standard 
solution for this problem -- online "HELP" -- is not 
so much a solution as proof that the problem exists.

CUINFO takes the opposite approach. The searching 
tools are extremely simple, but therefore usable by 
anyone. The burden is on the information providers and 
system administrators to structure their data in such 
a way that it can be readily processed by these simple 
tools.9

VTX: VTX is a product of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). 
It runs on DEC VAX computers and is available in the 
Education Software Package. Campuses using this software 
include Appalachian State University, Clemson University, New 
Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, 
Pima County Community College, University of New Hampshire, 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of 
North Carolina at Greensboro, University of North Carolina at 
Wilmington, and Western Carolina University.10
     One special feature of VTX is the ability to link 
services together using DECNet . The University of North 
Carolina uses DECNet to link together the services at 
Appalachian State University, North Carolina State 
University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 
the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the 
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Western 
Carolina University.11 VTX also supports voice output using 
DECTalk.12
     Navigation in VTX relies on use of function keys and 
some key sequences. New Mexico State University modified the 
user interface allowing users to type commands (like Q for 
quit). Several of the campuses that use VTX have applied the 
modifications from New Mexico, but these modifications are 
not supported by DEC. Further, they only work for VT100 
terminal emulation, not for users emulating IBM 3270 
terminals. DEC is addressing these problems in a new version 
of VTX, version 5.0.

PNN: Howard Strauss is responsible for the development of 
Princeton News Network (PNN). Princeton runs it under VM/CMS, 
UNIX,13 and Hypercard (on Macintoshes). All versions are 
available to universities at no cost. Several campuses use 
this software, including: Arizona State University's PEGASUS 
and ASEDD (under VM/CMS), Northwestern University, Notre Dame 
(under VM), San Diego State University (on a Sun SPACstation 
1 running SunOS), and University of Colorado at Boulder 
(running on both VMS and UNIX).14
     Strauss says that the major design goal for PNN was to 
provide an intuitive, user-friendly interface for a variety 
of platforms. For example, to scroll forward to the next 
page, F8 works (for the CMS users), PgDn works (for the PC 
users), abbreviations of FORWARD work, tabbing to the word 
FORWARD displayed on the command line and then pressing 
return works, and entering the number 22 to scroll ahead 22 
lines works. Macintosh users can use scroll bars and they can 
use the mouse to point to commands.15

Indiana's AIE:  Unlike CUINFO, VTX, and PNN, Indiana 
University's Academic Information Environment (AIE) provides 
access to computing resources.16 Indiana wrote their own 
software (in Pascal) to run under VMS. They paid particular 
attention to the user interface; the screens were designed by 
a standards team consisting of a graphic artist, an editor, a 
programmer, and a CAI consultant.17
     Here is the AIE menu (March 1992):


Keyword:TOP                                                   Wed, Mar 4, 1992
                        IU Academic Information Environment
                                IU Scholars' Network

        [1] News & General Information         [9] Library Services
        [2] How to Use the AIE                [10] Administrative Services
        [3] Computing Info & Help             [11] Academic Support Services
        [4] Where to Compute                  [12] University Life
        [5] VAX Files & Utilities             [13] Instructional Computing
        [6] VAX Applications Software         [14] Network Information & Services
        [7] Microcomputing Services           [15] Miscellaneous Services
        [8] Mail & Message Services

            [M] Mail       [H] Help       [C] Comments   [$] VMS Command
            [A] Addresses  [K] Keywords   [B] Back       [V] Exit to VMS
            [I] IU Events  [O] AIE On/Off [N] Next       [Q] Quit/Logout

              >> News has been updated.  To read it, type AIENEWS. <<
         To enable/disable the AIE at login, select the [O] On/Off option.

Type 1-15, option, or keyword >


MUSIC/SP: Some campuses, including McGill, Lafayette, and 
Lehigh, are using software called MUSIC (Multi-User System 
for Interactive Computing/System Product) for their CWISs. 
MUSIC was developed at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, 
and is distributed by IBM.18 According to Roy Miller, one of 
its developers, MUSIC  "includes a full-function CWIS system 
that supports menus, full-text keyword searching, direct 
updating of sections by the data providers, electronic 
feedback from viewers to data providers, and access to 
external systems through TCP/IP."19

TechInfo: MIT developed TechInfo which runs on a MacPlus 
with one megabyte or more of memory, System 6.0.3 or better, 
and licensed MacTCP drivers. Source code is available free. 
Campuses running this software include Mississippi State 
University and the University of Pennsylvania.20
     Tim McGovern says that one of the design goals of 
TechInfo was to distribute the responsibility for content to 
the information providers. Thus, MIT designed tools that 
information providers could use over the network to enter new 
information and to maintain information.21

Other systems:  There are several new systems under 
development that utilize client/server architecture to 
present information so that users can navigate through it 
using the tools they have on their workstations. Each 
database is presented by a server, and the user's interface 
to the databases is controlled by client software run on the 
user's workstation. Thus the user interface is different for 
each type of client and is natural to the user.

Linking Information Systems

     There are at least three implementations of software 
that facilitates logging onto remote services: LIBTEL (a UNIX 
script), LIBS (an implementation that runs under VMS and 
UNIX), and Hytelnet (a hypertext system for UNIX and VMS). 
These products provide menu access to libraries, CWISs, and 
other information systems worldwide. You simply select the 
service you would like to connect to and the software makes 
the connection for you. You do not need to know the Internet 
address for the service or the appropriate terminal emulation 
(VT100 or TN3270). With current implementations, once you 
connect to a service, the way you navigate is determined by 
the service you are using. Perhaps before long, there will be 
a single user interface to similar services, so that online 
catalog searches, for example, are done using one command 
language, regardless of the software used by libraries being 
searched. APPENDIX B describes how to use the LIBTEL software 
at UNC-CH. 
     The Internet Gopher developed at the University of 
Minnesota uses client/server architecture. Gopher is 
described by Mark McCahill, of the University of Minnesota, 
as a distributed document delivery service that allows access 
to documents residing on multiple hosts. Users can look at 
documents from menus or prepare queries and receive a list of 
documents that match the search criteria. You can access the 
gopher system as a VT100 client via Telnet.22
     Another approach to linking campus systems is the 
Campus-Wide Information Systems Protocol (CWISP), described 
by Strauss as a protocol (based on Z39.50 standards) that 
will allow users of a CWIS to access data of other CWISs 
while preserving the user interface of the local CWIS.23 
However, Strauss says that deciding to use the Z39.50 
protocol added complexity to CWISP and it was taking a long 
time to implement . Meanwhile Gopher appeared on the scene 
and has become the defacto CWISP. He says that work on CWISP 
is on hold.24
     WAIS (Wide-Area Information Server) is a protocol, 
evangelized by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp., 
that allows users to perform searches of multiple databases 
at remote sites worldwide. Queries are simple English 
sentences or phrases. Matches are assigned usefulness values 
(based on criteria such as the number of matches in the 
selection) and listed at your workstation by value. Once a 
good document is found, you can use relevance feedback to 
find more documents like it, and you can then easily retrieve 
items of interest on your workstation. Currently, text and 
graphics can be retrieved; inclusion of sound and full-motion 
video is anticipated in the near future.25
     WAIS also utilizes client/server software. Unlike current 
implementations of Gopher, WAIS uses the Z39.50 
communications protocol. Perhaps one solution to the CWISP 
problem would be to implement Gopher in WAIS.
     Another approach to presenting information is the wide-
area hypermedia initiative called World Wide Web (WWW or W3). 
Initiated at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory 
in Geneva, Switzerland, W3 displays vary depending upon the 
type of workstation you are using. While for a VT100 it 
displays text with imbedded numbers and if you enter one of 
the numbers you get more information, for more sophisticated 
workstations it displays multifont text; linked text is 
underlined or boxed as a button and you can point-and-click 
to follow the link. Another function of W3 is an index 
search. According to Tim Berners-Lee of CERN, "Some documents 
are tagged as 'index cover pages'. When you get one of those, 
you can do a search by typing in keywords (like WAIS)."26 
Further according to Berners-Lee, other systems, like WAIS 
and Gopher, "can be represented as a combination of hypertext 
links and searchable indexes."27
     Here is the WWW opening screen (April 1992) as displayed 
for a VT100 terminal:28



                                      The World Wide Web project (23/50)
                                  WORLD WIDE WEB

     The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area hypermedia[1] information retrieval
     initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents.

General Project Information

     See also: an executive summary[2] of the project, Mailing lists[3] you can
     join, Policy[4] , latest W3  news[5] .

  Project Status[6]       A list of project components and their current state.
                           (e.g. Line Mode[7] ,X11 Viola[8] , X11 Erwise[9] ,
                           NeXTStep[10] , Daemon[11] )

  People[12]              A list of some people involved in the project.

  History[13]             A summary of the history of the project.

  How can I help[14]?    If you would like to support the web..

Technical details

1-26, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:


     Regardless of the particular software used, we can 
expect to see more information accessed directly on the 
computer on which the data is maintained; there will be less 
copying of information to change its location or format. 


OPERATIONAL ASPECTS

Who Initiates the CWIS?

     Early systems were defined by imaginative programmers 
(like Steve Worona of Cornell and Howard Strauss of 
Princeton) who observed the difficulty of getting information 
to the people who need it, when they need it. They were 
encouraged and supported by the people responsible for the 
information. Those who came later liked what they saw and 
wanted to provide similar services on their own campuses.
     On some campuses (North Carolina State University, UNC-
CH, Northwestern University, for example), implementation of 
the campus information system was initiated by a high-level 
university administrator.  On many campuses, implementation 
of the service was driven by information providers wishing to 
get specific information, such as calendars of events and 
class rosters, to students, faculty, and staff in a timely 
manner.

Getting Support for the CWIS

     In an interesting discussion on CWIS-L about the driving 
force behind the implementation of a CWIS, Strauss said that 
"developing a system is often the easy part. Getting anyone to 
use it or support it can be orders of magnitude more 
difficult." He started a list of criteria for a CWIS,29 which 
was enhanced by contributions from Worona30 and Terry Mathias 
of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.31 They made the 
following points:

-- Try out a few CWISs before developing a new one.

-- Start by defining the services your users want and then 
finding the tools to provide those services.

-- Make sure that the CWIS contains the information people 
want to see and that it is presented clearly.

-- Make the system entertaining and have things that people 
want to know so that they will use the system. If people 
use the system, it can also inform and educate them. A 
daily police blotter, for example, is compelling, 
informative, and educational.

-- Don't overlook useful information outside the 
university. CWIS users have lives that extend outside 
their offices and classrooms.

-- The CWIS must be easy to access, for example, from 
public terminals in a variety of locations around the 
campus.

-- A CWIS needs an assertive, resourceful person who can 
tap a variety of campus information structures.

Who Maintains the CWIS?

     Most CWISs are operated by the campus computer centers. 
Northwestern University is an exception; there the library is 
responsible for the CWIS.  According to Brian Nielsen, 
Assistant University Librarian, "The Library more or less 
allied with administrative computing, arguing that current 
surplus capacity on an IBM mainframe should be utilized to 
build a more centralized utility; the Library argued that 
some 'editorial responsibility' was required to make a CWIS 
that was easy to use by any student/faculty member/staff, and 
agreed to take on such responsibility itself."32
     The work associated with maintaining the database is 
distributed between the information providers and the 
organization responsible for the CWIS itself. On some 
campuses the information providers install the data 
themselves; on others, the organization responsible for the 
CWIS installs the data.

Advisory Committees

     Many campuses have established committees to assist in 
establishing policies. At UNC-CH, the original steering 
committee consisted of a student, a computer science faculty 
member involved in text research, a journalism faculty member 
with experience with videotex systems, three 
librarian/programmers (one of whom had experience with a 
CWIS), and the three people from the computing center 
responsible for developing the system. The steering committee 
met several times during the planning stages of the service, 
helping to determine policies and define the menu structure.
     Some of the outcomes were:

--   The committee reviewed menu proposals, tested the 
prototype, and recommended significant changes.

--   The committee recommended a topic orientation instead 
of an object orientation; subjects from books were used 
as menu items rather than having the books themselves as 
menu items.

--   The committee helped establish the CWIS management 
position as publishers, not writers or editors.

Policies

     Timothy J. Foley (Lehigh) has described the need for a 
clear computing and information policy that addresses 
possible legal liabilities, censorship, resource management, 
information ownership, and user responsibilities.33 Policies 
need to be established for determining what campus 
information is considered to be public information. Some 
campuses are having difficulty obtaining permission to 
install in the CWIS some information that appears in print on 
campus: campus directories, for example. Advisory committees 
can be extremely helpful in this area.
     Policies also need to be established for how the 
information will be organized and how the work of installing 
information is divided between the information providers and 
the organization responsible for the system.34 Some campuses 
have documents describing policies and procedures for 
entering data into the CWIS.35

Cost

     Computer hardware and software costs vary widely. Many 
campuses run their services on hardware that was already on 
campus; some have acquired new, relatively inexpensive 
workstations. Some campuses use free software, others use 
proprietary software, and some develop their own software.
     The majority of the cost of a CWIS is personnel time to 
monitor the database; add, delete, and change information in 
the database; train information providers; acquire and add 
new sections to the database; and to keep university faculty, 
staff, and students informed about what is in the database 
and how to use it.

Putting Information into the System

     The following aspects of entering text into the database 
are addressed by the information providers and/or the service 
providers:

-- Converting the information from its current form to a 
file on the CWIS machine

The majority of the information in a CWIS comes from a 
computer file, but the difficulty in moving it from one 
system to another will vary depending on the software and 
hardware used on each end. Computer programs may be 
needed to convert the formatting codes used by the 
originating word processor to something useful on the 
CWIS machine. Note that this step could be eliminated in 
the future by CWIS software capable of accessing 
information directly on the machine where it is 
maintained.

Some information, such as announcements for special 
events, may come to the service providers as phone calls 
or printed announcements and need to be keyed into the 
system.


-- Preparing the file for display on a computer screen

Files prepared for the printed page usually need 
reformatting for a computer screen. The first steps are 
to change the font and character size so the characters 
are monospaced (all the same width) and the size they 
will be on a computer screen, for example, Courier font 
at 12 points, and to change the line length to something 
like 65 (screen displays are usually a maximum of 80 
characters).

The next step is to create an ASCII file; that is, one 
with no special characters in it. There usually is an 
option in the word processing software to do this, but 
some do a better job than others. (You may have seen e-
mail messages that have a capital R instead of an open 
quotation mark and a capital S instead of the close 
quotation mark.) Regardless of how it is done, bullets, 
em dashes, en dashes, true (curled) quotation marks, and 
accent marks should be changed to standard keyboard 
characters. 

Tabs can present a problem, depending upon the word 
processing software used. When saving an ASCII file, some 
software inserts blanks to preserve spacing, but some 
leave the tab character. When displayed on the user's 
terminal, tabs at best will not provide the spacing the 
editor intended.

Tables may be too long for the computer screen and need 
to be split. Pie charts and bar charts need to be retyped 
as tables. Sometimes tables or forms are omitted from the 
CWIS and readers are referred to printed copy.

Footnotes often need to be relocated within the text.

-- Changing menus

Menu structures need to be evaluated and changes made, as 
appropriate.

-- Adding highlighting

Some CWIS software provides highlighting features, such 
as bold, flashing bold, and inverse video. While it can 
be useful to highlight headings and footers, highlighting 
has its hazards; how it looks on a particular screen 
depends on the terminal and the terminal emulation 
software. For example, at UNC-CH, inverse video is used 
to display the title and date of the source document in 
the bottom line of the screen. However, many terminals on 
campus do not have inverse video capabilities, and the 
source identification in the footer is often difficult to 
distinguish from the text itself. 

-- Installing the data and checking it

Procedures are followed to install the data in the 
database and check each screen.

     At UNC-CH, a lot of time is spent converting files from 
their original form to the format for the database, adding 
highlighting and the commands to actually install the data, 
and checking it after it is entered. There was a time when 
the time-consuming nature of this activity at UNC-CH was 
questioned. Then in an e-mail message to CWIS-L, David 
Millman (Columbia) expressed curiosity as to how Howard 
Strauss and Rita Saltz handled the day-to-day maintenance of 
their CWIS,36 and Rita Saltz (Princeton) responded with her 
famous "groan" message, describing how her staff takes 
information in whatever form they can get it in and installs 
it in their database.37
     In an interesting discussion of ways to put weather 
reports in CWISs, several campuses admitted to calling 
weather stations, taking notes, and typing in the reports. 
But Gary Anderson (Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 
College of William and Mary) described automatic procedures 
for obtaining weather and updating their CWIS several times a 
day. He noted that "The 4am posting has been especially 
helpful to those about to put out to sea for a day of 
fieldwork!"38
     In fact, most campuses have developed some programs and 
scripts to aid in installing data. Strauss strongly 
encouraged CWIS managers to work on the maintenance problems, 
saying that the problems of maintaining a CWIS can be solved, 
and that "Arizona State University is running a version of 
PNN and has highly automated the update procedures."39

CWIS Managers as Publishers

     Most who provide CWISs think that their task is to 
gather existing, edited and reviewed publications and present 
the information in a useful fashion. One question that arises 
regards how much fixing should be done before information is 
put in the CWIS. Should spelling and punctuation errors be 
corrected?  Should printed publications be changed to keep 
them current?
     When a publication is put in the CWIS at UNC-CH, the 
name and date of the publication is provided in a footer that 
appears on each screen. At the beginning of a document, a 
note is usually included containing at least the department 
and a phone number of the department responsible for the 
document. As a matter of policy, the documents in the 
database contain exactly  the same information as the printed 
documents. If a document is changed, permission is sought 
from the editor of the document and/or a note is included 
explaining what was changed and why. 
     UNC-CH has a rather unique problem of multiple sources 
for information because publications are divided and the 
information is organized by subject. For example, there is 
overlap between The Undergraduate Bulletin and the student 
handbook, called The Source. The information providers for 
both documents agreed that information in The Undergraduate 
Bulletin takes precedence over that from The Source. Thus, if 
you look at the section on "Grades" under "Academics," you 
see the section from The Undergraduate Bulletin.

Taking Information Out of the System

Most campuses have addressed the need to remove information 
when it is out of date; old information looks bad and takes 
disk space. In many cases, the software allows specification 
of an expiration date that is carried with the text but 
hidden from the viewers, and the text is automatically 
deleted after the specified date. But there are some 
interesting issues associated with removing information, 
particularly events, from the system. 
     It is not always clear how much text should be 
associated with the expiration date; for example, should a 
sports schedule (such as a football schedule) be treated as 
one text that is removed at the end of the season or should 
each event be removed the day after it happens? If an event 
spans several days, do you take it out after the first day or 
the last? Exhibits that span several days should be kept in 
the system through the last day, but information about 
workshops is not valuable through the last day because people 
who missed the first day probably cannot participate.
     For seasonal events, should the entry remain on the menu 
after the last event of the season, before the next schedule 
is available, or should the menu be changed to remove the 
selection? If the menu selection is left in the system, what 
message should the user see when there are no more events in 
the season?
     At UNC-CH, events are removed the day after they happen, 
menu choices are left for schedules even if no events are 
listed, and the message "There are no events to post at this 
time." is inserted by the software that removes events when 
it takes out the last in the schedule.

Designing the Menus

     Like many campuses, UNC-CH began designing its system by 
planning the menus. Existing systems were examined, items 
that might go into the database were identified, and a 
prototype containing just the menus (no data) was built .
     The advisory committee tested the prototype. The main 
menu contained too much text; there were fourteen items on 
it, each with a long description of what was in that area. It 
did not invite people to use the system.
     UNC-CH initiated its service with a menu that had jobs 
and grant/funding information under "News" and academics, 
student life, and services and facilities under "Ask INFO 
about..." Before long, categories much like those in the 
prototype were moved back to the main menu, because they most 
clearly represented the information in the database; however 
the items were shortened and presented in two columns.
     The main menu for a CWIS presents political, practical, 
and design challenges, as many people want their information 
presented on the main menu. It is very handy to have an 
advisory committee to share in the decision-making process 
when questions arise about design, particularly the main 
menu.
     Issues of breadth versus depth also challenge designers 
of CWIS menus. In the early days of its service, UNC-CH 
worked toward a set of menus designed to include all 
information on campus that might become available, but items 
were added to the menus only when the information became 
available in the database. Thus, users would sometimes have 
to move through menus of only one or two items each to get to 
the information they wanted. Even after a couple of years of 
development, there wasn't enough information available in the 
database to warrant the number of levels of menus, and users 
didn't seem to know what information was available to them in 
the database. After about three years of operation and 
continued development, UNC-CH redesigned its menus building 
them for the data already in the system or clearly on its 
way. The depth of menus was reduced, often by putting a large 
number of items in one menu.
     When developing a new service, some campuses present 
full menus before all of the information is available. If a 
user selects an item that is not in the system, they get an 
appropriate message. Some campuses highlight information that 
is available. For example, both Appalachian State University 
and Western Carolina University use inverse video to 
highlight the item numbers of items in the system.
     Another consideration associated with designing menus 
for a CWIS is how to construct menus for a large publication. 
Is it better to show the full Table of Contents, with the 
subheadings in a long menu that may exceed one screen, 
providing menu choices at logical points (more like 
hypertext), or should the menus be hierarchical, one menu of 
the major headings, and then several menus of subheadings? If 
menus are subject-oriented (as they are at UNC-CH), how do 
you combine those from several publications into a meaningful 
menu? 
     One last note on menus: If newsletter articles are 
presented as a menu, the newsletter editors should re-
evaluate titles of regular monthly articles, such as "Recent 
and Relevant" and "Feature of the Month," to provide more 
informative titles. 

How Much User Documentation Does a CWIS Require?

     A CWIS should require minimal documentation. Users need 
to know how to connect to it, how to move around, and what 
information is available in the database. Indiana University 
has paid particular attention to documentation needs. 
According to Marsha Snyder Waren,40 Indiana's initial Academic 
Information Environment (AIE) came with easy-to-use menus, 
online help, and 115 pages of paper documentation 
(describing, for example, how to search the online card 
catalog and how to use Dow Jones News/Retrieval). AIE's 
documentation was then reduced to a handful of how-to sheets. 
Waren continues to evaluate CWIS documentation needs. In 
October 1991, she asked CWIS-L, "Do you encourage your users 
to survive on electrons alone? Or do you provide something on 
paper to get them started more comfortably?"41 
     Responses indicated that several campuses provide 
indexes or maps as part of the service itself, and some have 
an area in the CWIS describing new additions to the service. 
Some campuses also provide starter and overview information 
on paper. 

Feedback: How Useful Is It?

     Most systems provide mechanisms for recording frequency 
of access to specific pages. Some CWISs (for example, Lehigh) 
provide usage statistics as part of the database.
     But how are usage statistics used? If segments of the 
database are not used, does that mean the information is not 
useful or that people don't know the information is in the 
database or that people can't find it?
     In these years when CWISs are still new, should CWIS 
managers take out information just because it isn't being 
used? There are still many people on campuses with CWISs that 
don't know the CWIS exists. As these services become more 
common and more useful, more people will learn about them.  
When a person looks for information in a campus database, 
they should find it, even if it is information that is not 
accessed very often. On the other hand, statistics do 
indicate what information is not being accessed so its 
placement in menus can be checked and advertising provided 
for it, if appropriate.
     One way CWIS managers find out what the users want is 
from phone calls and e-mail messages. At UNC-CH, if jobs are 
not posted on time, users call and complain. People call when 
something is wrong, and they often send e-mail describing 
what they would like added or changed.


FUTURE DIRECTIONS

     The future for CWISs promises to be exciting. 
Sophisticated ways are being developed to link information 
systems; services are being expanded off campus to the 
community; and the idea of the library as the focal point for 
computer-based information systems is gaining force.

Linking Information Systems

     While text-searching capabilities across databases 
worldwide, as provided by WAIS, present attractive 
alternatives to menu-driven information systems, they do not 
exclude the desirability of menu-driven systems. Some people 
will want to explore menu-driven systems, while people who 
know what they are looking for are more likely to want to use 
text-searching facilities. Hopefully, the information in 
CWISs worldwide can be linked together for text-searching 
inquiries as well as being available via traditional menus.  
For example, high school students should be able to search 
university catalogs electronically. They should be encouraged 
to go to their public libraries or computer work rooms in 
their schools to access campus information systems and look 
at eligibility requirements, course offerings, student 
activities, housing, and tuition costs as they begin to 
select the colleges they might want to attend.
     Similarly, it would be nice to be able to move easily 
from menu mode to text-searching mode and back again when 
looking at information. Consider the following scenario: A 
user works through some menu items and finds a section of 
interest on a local information system. The user then issues 
a command that says, "Show me more of these." If, for 
example, continuing education courses in public health are 
being displayed, the system might respond: "Would you like to 
see more continuing education courses in public health?" If 
the user responds "Yes," then text-searching software would 
search directories and present the user with a list of other 
selections.
     As more information systems are linked together, it will 
be increasingly difficult to tell where the information you 
need is physically located, but where it is will become less 
important, as long as you can get to the information 
electronically.
     Unless information providers are careful in how they 
identify information when they put it in databases, users may 
find a piece of text appropriate to their needs, but have 
difficulty identifying the source document. As Daniel 
Updegrove (University of Pennsylvania) pointed out in a 
message to CWIS-L, if everyone is committed to designing 
systems as Internet resources, there is a lot of information 
that could be shared. However, he also noted that content 
might need to be adjusted to provide more complete 
information, for example, adding areas codes to phone 
numbers.42
     Further, information services will become more closely 
linked on the campus level. Some campuses already have one 
main menu for accessing mainframe computing services, the 
campus library, and the CWIS. Hopefully in the near future 
users will be able to make queries that would cross 
boundaries of information systems, such as the library 
holdings and the campus information system. This won't happen 
unless it is planned for and services using standard 
protocols like Z39.50 are developed.

Expanding Toward Community-Wide Information Systems

     Campus-wide information services are expanding into the 
general community in two ways: campuses are encouraging the 
use of their services by alumni and prospective students, and 
campus personnel are helping to establish community 
information systems.
     Parents of currently-enrolled students, alumni, 
prospective faculty and students, and journalists would 
benefit from access to campus information. Electronic mail 
services would be particularly valuable for parents of 
currently-enrolled students. Electronic mail, bulletin 
boards, and news groups can be particularly valuable to 
alumni.
     Some communities have established local public 
information services. These are free services offering 
electronic mail, discussion groups, and ask-an-expert 
services, as well as accessibility to event schedules, 
directories, brochures, and the like. These systems are run 
by the communities themselves, with volunteers doing most of 
the work, but most are affiliated with a local university. 
For example, Cleveland Free-Net is sponsored by Case Western 
University, Cincinnati's TriState Online service is 
affiliated with the University of Cincinnati, Peoria's 
Heartland Free-Net is affiliated with Bradley University, and 
Youngstown Free-Net is affiliated with Youngstown State 
University. These universities provide campus information to 
the community system. Several more communities are in the 
process of establishing similar systems, and some campuses 
are moving toward putting their campus information systems 
into the community systems.
     There are several different models of community 
information systems. The Public Electronic Network (PEN) 
offered to the residents of Santa Monica, California, has 
received much attention. PEN is based on the UNIX operating 
system and software called Caucus. It was introduced to the 
public (local residents only) in February 1989.43
     Several communities are using the Cleveland Free-Net 
model, and Free-Net users have formed National Public 
Telecomputing Network (NPTN), similar to National Public 
Radio. NPTN will assist in the development of community 
information systems and disseminate information features in 
areas such as health, education, government, and law to its 
affiliates.
     According to literature provided by NPTN, Cleveland's 
system began "in the fall of 1984 when Dr. Tom Grunder, then 
of CWRU's Department of Family Medicine, set up a single 
phone line, computerized, 'bulletin board' system called 'St. 
Silicon's Hospital and Information Dispensary' to test the 
effectiveness of telecomputing as a means of delivering 
general health information to the public."44 The Free-Net 
software is written in the C programming language and uses 
the UNIX operating system.45
     Most of the community services are accessible from the 
Internet. APPENDIX B describes how you can explore them.

Roles for Libraries

     Librarians should have central roles in expanding CWISs. 
While on most campuses the CWIS was implemented as a computer 
service, it is becoming increasingly clear that the task of 
overseeing CWISs belongs in the campus libraries. Librarians 
have traditionally gathered information, organized it, 
provided tools for locating it, and helped people find the 
information they need. Many of the issues facing providers of 
campus information have already been addressed by librarians; 
censorship, freedom of information, prohibition of keeping 
records of access by individuals, for example. It makes sense 
for computer centers to do the research and development work, 
to evaluate hardware and software, to develop tools for 
entering text, and to improve computer networking interfaces, 
but computer specialists are not well prepared for 
establishing policies regarding access to information. While 
campus libraries and computing centers have traditionally 
worked well together, there appears to be a need for closer 
interaction between the two.
     Libraries are also in a better position to provide free 
computing for CWISs than most computing centers are. During 
the last few years many libraries have implemented their own 
computing systems and services and now have the resources to 
support the CWISs. Meanwhile computing centers typically 
charge for services and find it increasingly difficult to 
justify providing information services free when at the same 
time charging for other uses. Libraries traditionally provide 
free services.
     Libraries are logical places to provide terminals for 
accessing campus and community information systems; people 
traditionally take their questions to the libraries. To help 
patrons use these services, librarians will need to continue 
to expand their knowledge of electronic information services.
     Librarians are already providing information to their 
users through campus and community information systems. These 
systems provide the mechanism for innovative ways to provide 
library reference services and information about special 
collections.45
     Further, community information systems will need people 
to run them. Most of the community information systems 
currently in place have at least one full-time staff position 
to coordinate the effort. These positions seem well suited to 
the skills of librarians.
     The librarian's Strategic Vision Steering Committee 
could have been thinking about CWISs when they drafted the 
following vision statement:

Strategic Vision for Professional Librarians

Establish the basis for librarianship in the 21st century in:

SERVICE

By selecting and delivering information that users need at 
the point and moment of need

By creating and maintaining systems which provide accurate 
and reliable information

By promoting the design of information systems that require 
little or no learning time for effective use

By correctly analyzing users' questions and providing them 
with the information they need (which may not be reflected 
accurately  in their questions)

By educating users to manage information

By initiating contact with potential information seekers to ensure
a widespread understanding of professional services available 
to them, including assistance for those who do not wish to use the 
library independently

By furthering the development of the "virtual library," a concept 
of information housed electronically and deliverable without 
regard to its location or to time

LEADERSHIP

By taking responsibility for information policy development, 
information technology application, environmental awareness, 
information research, and risk-taking in making strategic 
choices in the information arena

By accepting accountability for the information services we 
provide

By identifying and collaborating with strategic partners and 
allies in  information delivery  .  .  .  47

     These aspirations certainly reflect the requirements for 
making CWISs more valuable services in the future.

APPENDIX A
CWIS-L LISTSERVER

An electronic discussion group, called CWIS-L, has been 
invaluable to those of us who provide CWISs.  When we have a 
question or a problem or are thinking about trying something 
new, we post a question to the list.  During the next few 
days we receive advice from our colleagues worldwide and can 
adjust our plans based on the experience of others.  The 
questions and responses can uncover aspects and legal 
considerations we hadn't thought about.  Participants have 
been free with advice and take the time to compose messages 
to help others.
     CWIS-L has provided much of the information for this 
paper.  I subscribed to the list in January 1990 and since 
then have logged many of the messages I found particularly 
interesting.  It has been fun to reread them while preparing 
this paper.  Excerpts from several messages are included 
here. Further, members of the list have provided extensive 
help in preparing this paper.
     Steve Middlebrook of Washington University set up the 
electronic discussion group, or "listserver," called CWIS-L 
in January  1990. CWIS-L has been maintained by Timothy 
Bergeron (c09615tb@wuvmd.bitnet) of Washington University 
since October 1990.
     The stated purpose of CWIS-L is as follows:

This list is for discussing the creation and implementation of
campus-wide information systems.  The term CWIS includes systems
which make information and services publicly available on campus
via kiosks, interactive computing systems and/or campus networks.
Services routinely include directory information, calendars,
bulletin boards, databases and library information. 48

     Entering its third year of operation in January 1992, 
there were over 1,000 subscribers. The discussions on this 
listserver are also available in the Usenet news group 
bit.listserv.cwis-l, so there are more uncounted 
participants.
     To subscribe to this list, send to LISTSERV@WUVMD.BITNET 
or LISTSERV@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU, the following message:

   SUBSCRIBE CWIS-L yourfirstname yourlastname

For example, SUBSCRIBE CWIS-L Judy Hallman.
     Messages sent to CWIS-L@WUVMD.BITNET or CWIS-
L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU are sent to everyone signed up to the list.  
If you reply to a message from CWIS-L, be aware that your 
reply will be directed to the entire list, not just to the 
sender of the message.  Messages are archived; see your local 
computer people for information on how to use archives.

APPENDIX B
TRYING OUT SERVICES

Besides providing the conduit for electronic mail, the 
Internet allows us to connect to CWISs worldwide. Campuses 
that have systems up and running provide information on how 
others can access their services via the Internet and try 
them out. For people who are designing new services or 
contemplating major changes, it is really helpful to be able 
to explore someone else's design. For people planning new 
services, it is also valuable to be able to try out the 
underlying software using someone else's implementation and 
see what the capabilities of the software are from the user's 
point of view.
     During the summer of 1990, I started gathering a list of 
services and occasionally posted it to the list.  Art St. 
George (University of New Mexico), co-founder and maintainer 
of the Internet Library Guide, asked me to maintain this 
section for his publication. With the help of others on CWIS-
L, I have done so. The first list was published in the 
Internet Library Guide in Fall 1990. Entries tell how to 
connect to the service, the hardware and software used, a 
contact person, and special items of interest in the system. 
You can pick up this list by anonymous ftp to 
ftp.oit.unc.edu; it is in pub/docs/cwis-l. See your local 
computer people for information on how to use ftp.
     LIBTEL software makes it easy to explore CWISs; it 
displays menus of services and then will connect you to the 
service you chose. You can try LIBTEL at UNC-CH using the 
Extended Bulletin Board Service (EBB).  Telnet to 
ebb.oit.unc.edu, logon as ebb. (Note: You cannot use EBB if 
your terminal is emulating an IBM 3270-type terminal.) You 
will receive some informational messages and be asked for 
your name. From the EBB menu, select item #9 (Libraries and 
information systems). If you then select USA, you will be 
asked to choose the state in which the service you want 
resides. After you select a state, you will get a menu of 
services offered in that state. For example, if you select 
NY, you can select CUINFO at Cornell. The EBB software will 
then make the connection for you, if you so choose; you do 
not need to know the Internet address of the service you want 
to use. Further, EBB provides the proper terminal emulation 
for you (telnet or tn3270).49

NOTES

1. (hallman@unc.bitnet). Note that e-mail addresses can 
change. Those listed in this paper were valid in April 1992.

2. For an extensive list of information provided by CWISs, 
see: Rita Saltz (rita@pucc.bitnet). "Report of CWIS-L 
discussion session at Snowmass," Campus-Wide Information 
Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet 7 Aug, 1991). The message 
contains the working notes from the August 5 workshop 
session, "Operating and Maintaining a Campus-wide Information 
System," at the General Directors' Seminar/22nd Annual 
Seminar on Academic Computing, held at Snowmass Village, 
Colorado.

3. David Lassner (david@hula.oit.hawaii.edu). "RE: Was CUINFO 
the first," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-
l@wuvmd.bitnet, 14 Jan, 1992).

4. Rita Saltz (rita@pucc.bitnet). "Was CUINFO the first," 
Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 13 Jan, 
1992).

5. Steven L.Worona (slw@cornella.bitnet). "An Informal 
Overview of CUINFO (Cornell's Computer-Based Bulletin Board 
System)," (no date).

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. The contact person for CUINFO is Steve Worona 
(slw@cornella.bitnet).

9. Worona.

10. There is a listserver for VTX, VTX-L@NCSUVM.BITNET.

11. Users on one UNC campus simply select another campus from 
a menu, as shown in the following menu from the UNC-CH 
system:


To connect directly (via DECNet) to the information service 
on another
University of North Carolina campus, select one of the 
following services:

1. Appalachian State University, VideoText System
2. North Carolina State University, Happenings!
3. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Minerva
4. University of North Carolina at Wilmington, SeaBoard
5. Western Carolina University Information System

For information on how to connect to information systems 
worldwide,
select the following item:

6. How to connect to information services via the
     UNC-CH campus extended bulletin board



 Commands:  Help  Quit  Main  Backup  Find

      Enter menu choice number or command:


There is no noticeable degradation in response time when 
looking at data on another service regardless of the distance 
between campuses (for example, Appalachian State University 
and UNC-Wilmington are more than 400 miles apart). Eventually 
we hope to have all sixteen of the University of North 
Carolina campuses on this link, making it easy for us to 
share information.

Besides access between UNC campus services at the main menu 
level, DECNet allows connection directly from any menu choice 
or by special "global" keywords. For example, a person on the 
Chapel Hill campus who selects "Publications" from the main 
menu and then selects the electronic publication "Postmodern 
Culture," will view the publication installed in the North 
Carolina State University database in Raleigh. 

12. Appalachian State University is currently using this 
feature which, according to Ernest Jones, "provides voice 
responses to an Alumni job opportunities file." Ernest  Jones 
(jonesel@appstate.bitnet). "RE: CWIS and Voice Service," 
Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 19 Dec, 
1990).

13. UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.

14. The contact person for PNN is Rita Saltz 
(rita@pucc.bitnet). Direct system and development questions 
to Howard Strauss (howard@pucc.bitnet).

15. Howard Strauss (D8897@pucc.bitnet). "User-friendlyness of 
CWIS," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 
18 Oct, 1990).

16. Indiana's AIE is generally only available to registered 
users, but it is possible to obtain special permission to 
look at AIE by contacting Pete Percival 
(percival@iubacs.bitnet).

17. Caroline Beeb.  "Friendly but Streamlined: Implementing 
an Integrated University Computing Environment," Proceedings, 
ACM SIGUCCS User Services Conference XVIII, 1990, pp. 31-34.

18. Direct inquires to Roy Miller (ccrmmus@mcgillm.bitnet).

19. Roy Miller. "Comments on your CWIS paper," E-mail message 
to hallman@unc.bitnet, 13 Mar, 1992

20. The contact person is Tim McGovern (tjm@mit.edu).

21. Tim McGovern (tjm@eagle.mit.edu). "Re: Manpower estimates 
and CWIS data," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-
l@wuvmd.bitnet, 4 Jan, 1991).

22. Mark P. McCahill (mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu). "new 
release of PC gopher client software available," Campus-Wide 
Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 19 Sep, 1991).

23. Howard Strauss (D8897@pucc.bitnet). "CWISP," Campus-Wide 
Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 19 Oct ,1990).

24. Howard Strauss (D8897@pucc.bitnet). "Status of CWISP???," 
e-mail message to hallman@unc.bitnet, 8 Apr, 1992.

25. A WAIS bibliography, prepared by Barbara Lincoln 
(barbara@think.com), is available for anonymous ftp from 
/pub/wais/wais-discussion/bibliography.txt@quake.think.com.  
The bibliography covers WAIS documents, WAIS-related 
articles/publications, and electronic services. Hard copies 
are available from Barbara Lincoln (barbara@think.com), 
Thinking Machines Corp., 1010 E1 Camino Real, Suite 310, 
Menlo Park, Ca, 94025, phone: 415-329-9300, fax: 415-329-
9329.

26. Tim Berners-Lee (timbl@info.cern.ch). "RE: Please check 
info for a paper on CWISs," e-mail message to 
hallman@unc.bitnet, 6 May, 1992.

27. Ibid.

28. The contact person for World Wide Web is Tim Berners-Lee 
(timbl@info.cern.ch). He says, "There's more information in 
the web. You can pick up line mode, NeXT or beta test X 
browsers by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch -- also you could 
pick up a paper from the same node: 
/pub/www/doc/ENRAP_9202.ps for example, or a version of the 
W3 "book" from /pub/www/doc/the_www_book.ps.Z ( or .tex for 
LaTeX version)."

29. Howard Strauss (D8897@pucc.bitnet). "Re: Drive Force 
Behind Implementing a CWIS," Campus-Wide Information Systems 
(cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 28 Sep, 1990).

30. Steven L.Worona (slw@cornella.bitnet). "Re: Drive Force 
Behind Implementing a CWIS," Campus-Wide Information Systems 
(cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 2 Oct, 1990.

31. Terry  Mathias (ge0515@siucvmb.bitnet). "driving forces 
in CWIS creation," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-
l@wuvmd.bitnet, 2 Oct, 1990).

32. Brian Nielsen  (bnielsen@nuacvm.bitnet). "Re: Drive Force 
Behind Implementing a CWIS," Campus-Wide Information Systems 
(cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 27 Sep, 1990).

33. See: Timothy J.Foley (tjf0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu). 
"Developing a Campus Computing and Information Policy: Issue 
and Concerns," CAUSE/EFFECT Vol. 14, no.  4, Winter 1991, pp. 
25-29 and 33. See also "Developing a Computing & Information 
Policy," Proceedings, ACM SIGUCCS User Services Conference 
XVIII, 1990, pp 127-130.

34. As part of her work toward a Masters in Communication and 
Information Studies at Rutgers, Hannah Kaufman, of Princeton, 
has prepared a report "Campus-Wide Information Systems: 
Factors Affecting Willingness to Contribute Information." A 
summary is available from her via e-mail to 
hannahk@pucc.bitnet. She notes, for example, that people seem 
to contribute "to provide information to a different (not 
larger) group" and because of "a belief in online 
information."

35. Kansas State University, for example, has a document 
describing policies and procedures to be used for including 
information in their system, called UNICORN (UNIversity 
Central Online Resource Network). The document includes 
instructions for users to prepare and install their own 
information. For more information, contact Betsy Edwards 
(betsy@ksuvm.bitnet). UNC-Chapel Hill has a similar document; 
contact Judy Hallman (hallman@unc.bitnet).

36. David Millman (dsm@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu). "Forced e-
mail," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 
2 Oct, 1990).

37. Rita  Saltz (rita@pucc.bitnet). "Day-to-day maintenance 
of PNN (groan)," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-
l@wuvmd.bitnet, 3 Oct, 1990).

38. Gary Anderson (gary@ches.cs.vims.edu). "Re: Weather," 
Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 19 Jul, 
1991).

39. Howard Strauss (D8897@pucc.bitnet). "Re: Non-University 
Info," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 
11 Jul, 1991).

40. Marsha Snyder Waren. "How much Paper Do You Need to 
Support an Electronic Information System,?" Proceedings, ACM 
SIGUCCS User Services Conference XVIII, 1990, pp. 355-360.

41. Marsha Snyder Waren.(waren@unixpop.ucs.indiana.edu). 
"Paper maps of CWISs.," Campus-Wide Information Systems 
(cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 24 Oct, 1991).

42. Daniel  Updegrove (updegrove@dccs.upenn.edu). "CWIS as 
Internet resources?," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-
l@wuvmd.bitnet, 13 Apr, 1990).

43. Articles discussing PEN include: Gayle Hanson. "Making 
Waves Via Computer," Insight, 27 Jan, 1992 and Pamela Varley. 
"Electronic Democracy," Technology Review, Edited at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November/December 
1991.

44. From literature from NPTN. For more information about 
NPTN and Free-Net software, contact T. M. Grunder, Ed.D. - 
President, National Public Telecomputing Network, Box 1987, 
Cleveland, Ohio 44106.  Voice: (216) 368-2733. FAX: (216) 
368-5436. Internet: aa001@cleveland.freenet.edu.

45. Ibid.

46. Anne K. Abate and Rosemary Young. "Community Access 
Bulletin Boards: Cincinnati Librarians Become Involved." 
special libraries (spring 1992): 113-117.

47. Sue Martin (skmartin@guvax.bitnet). "Draft Vision 
statement," Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (pacs-
l@uhupvm1.bitnet, 17 Jan 1992).

48. Timothy Bergeron (c09615tb@wuvmd.bitnet). "Re: Info on 
CWIS," Campus-Wide Information Systems (cwis-l@wuvmd.bitnet, 
7 Nov, 1990).

49. The Extended Bulletin Board is a development project of 
the Office of Information Technology, University of North 
Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is experimental. Services are 
often expanded, modified, or dropped as appropriate, and no 
service-level guarantees are made to the users.


