That's My Bailiwick
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Thats My Bailiwick 1 Thats My Bailiwick Carol Ann Hughes and Paul Soderdahl The University of Iowa Libraries provides a unique new project to be published on the web. Instead, faculty scholarly publishing outlet for its faculty and graduate and students needed to bury these somewhere on a per- students. With the prevalence of personal faculty home sonal home page, often with a commercial Internet Ser- pages and course web sites in just about every depart- vice Provider at their own expense. Rising to address ment on campus, its not very hard for faculty to find a this need, the University Libraries sought to provide a web server somewhere for storing an HTML file. And, well-respected, institutionally supported web server for with some work, faculty can often find some techie to just this sort of electronic publishing endeavor. What help convert a document to HTML or to save a list of originally started as simply a projects directory on the links. librarys general web server has now grown into the Bai- What is rare, however, is a space on the web where liwick project. faculty from all disciplines can find a home for their Officially launched in March of 1998, Bailiwick pro- scholarly research interests, coupled with a computing vide a space on the web where academic passions can be environment and a knowledgeable staff to help them realized as highly specialized and creative web sites. It is follow their bliss in digital form. The Information not simply a place for personal home pages, nor is it Arcades new Bailiwick project does just that. intended for course web sites or academic departmental information. It is not meant to serve as the new model The Need for Something New for scholarly publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Rather, For a number of years, academic departments in the Bailiwick is designed to provide faculty, staff, and gradu- humanities and social sciences have been able to mount ate students with web space where they can focus on a departmental information on the University of Iowas particular area of scholarly interest. central web server maintained by academic computing. Most electronic publishing initiatives arise from an More recently, two centrally administered course web attempt to transfer existing models of print publishing servers have been made available to any faculty member to the digital environment. A small number of electronic or teaching assistant offering a credit course. Based on scholarly journals are currently published on the Uni- feedback from faculty and graduate students, however, versity of Iowa campus. The University Libraries already the University Libraries learned that there was no place provides a number of ways to support this medium, from for a research idea or other academically oriented pet archiving to cataloging to hosting journal sites, all as one Carol Ann Hughes is head, Information, Research, and Instructional Services, and Paul Soderdahl is team leader, Librar- ies-Wide Info System and Multimedia, University of Iowa. 1 April 811, 1999, Detroit, Michigan 2 Carol Ann Hughes and Paul Soderdahl element of the University Libraries new Scholarly Digi- gramming interface. Known collectively as The tal Resources Center. Mediatrix, this educational MOO currently houses two Bailiwick, instead, provides a web space that allows distinct academic projects. The Scholars Web Project, authors to harness and exploit this new electronic me- devoted to the possibilities of digital communication in dium, permitting new models of publishing with multi- graduate education, makes its MOO home in The media, hypertext, and the ability to incorporate anything Cave. The MOOniversity Project, which strives to pro- in digital form. It is not intended to substitute or even vide a virtual learning environment that encourages col- compete with traditional scholarly publishing or elec- laboration across campuses and disciplines, is located in tronic journal publishing. Rather, it provides an oppor- The MOOniversity. Co-administered by D. Diane tunity to engage in an entirely new medium for scholarly Davis, assistant professor of rhetoric in the Rhetoric communication. Department and Michael Calvin McGee, a professor of rhetoric in the Communications Studies Department, A History of Innovation The Mediatrix is available to any faculty member wish- The heart of the Bailiwick Project within the library ing to make use of it for teaching and research. environment is the Information Arcade, an award-win- The Streaming Video Project. With text-based ning facility located in the University of Iowas Main virtual reality at one end of the spectrum, the Informa- Library. Opened in 1992, the Information Arcade is a tion Arcade simultaneously launched a new streaming place that provides access to published electronic infor- video server, to meet the high-end multimedia needs for mation resources coupled with state-of-the-art multime- delivering real-time motion video and audio over the dia development workstations that allow faculty and stu- Internet. With a 50-user license to Real Networks Real dents to digitize and manipulate source materials that Server, the Information Arcade now provides students are not already in electronic form. The facility also houses and faculty with the ability to serve digital movie files to a fully networked electronic classroom, with 24 student several locations simultaneously. Because of the stream- workstations, where classes from throughout the Uni- ing quality of the video files, users do not need to wait versity are heldsome for the whole term and others for an entire file to download before playing it. Already for one or two class sessions. used by Bob Boynton, Professor of Political Science, In support of its unique service mission to facili- for his Multimedia Politics class, the streaming video tate the integration of new technologies into teaching, server provides a delivery mechanism for the digital vid- learning, and research, the Information Arcade is well eos created by students and faculty at the Information regarded as a place for innovation and risk-taking on Arcades multimedia development stations. the University of Iowa campus. It is a place where ideas The Bailiwick Project. Linking these two new can be fleshed out, a place that can respond to the real modes of communication, and providing an outlet for technology needs that faculty and students present. When any number of other scholarly publishing projects, the the Information Arcade first opened, it was the only Bailiwick server becomes a publishing medium for re- fully wired electronic classroom on campus, with a work- search projects that complements the University Librar- station at every students desk. It was the only publicly ies TWIST (Teaching With Innovative Style and Tech- accessible facility on campus where any faculty member nology) course web server. Space is available on this re- or student could create digital video on a drop-in basis. search web server to any University of Iowa faculty, staff, It was the only computer facility on campus where any- or graduate student publishing a scholarly academic web one could anonymously access the Internet for free. All site that might be experimental in nature, or consist of a of these innovations are now mainstays on campus. comprehensive examination of scholarly resources in In 1998, the Information Arcade expanded its of- some subject area, or perhaps explore a narrow, highly ferings with three new innovative web-based services: specialized topic. The MOO Project. This text-based virtual real- Open by simple proposal, Bailiwick runs on a dedi- ity campus for the University of Iowa community is made cated web server within the library and is supported by possible through the magic of MOO, a piece of soft- the University Libraries web server infrastructure. Con- ware that creates a networked environment on the In- tent providers retain editorial control and freedom, and ternet that is part e-mail, part chat-room, and part pro- have the ability to define their topic of interest, identify ACRL Ninth National Conference Thats My Bailiwick 3 the target audience, and design a customized web site. tion, has authored three different bailiwick sites that Each bailiwick is initially limited to 5MB of space, with loosely fall into the category of Internet bibliography. the ability to petition for more based on specific needs As a former graduate assistant on the Information Ar- for a given project. In addition to disk space, authors cade staff, Tonella was the one who first identified the can turn to library staff at the Information Arcade for need for this sort of publishing medium on campus and consultation on site design, graphics and layout, techni- articulated the concept of the Bailiwick project. She was cal support, and training. very much instrumental in bringing the server to frui- An individual bailiwick might: tion and quickly adopted it as a home for two compre- serve as a home page for artistic expression and hensive and award-winning sites of Internet resources collaboration between artists working in Iowa and other in her areas of expertise: Womens Studies Online and countries; Journalism and Mass Media. Both of these sites have be a showcase for digitally produced art that been given widespread praise in those subject areas and incorporates interactivity meant to be viewed on a com- have helped bring attention to the Bailiwick project, both puter screen; on campus and around the country. provide a natural home for hypertext experi- Her Border Crossings site also relies on Internet ments that explore new forms of multilinear argument links as its core content, but it is experimental in its de- or open-system documents that welcome, even depend sign and published in a way that is intended to encour- on, links to other web sites to expand or counter those age the browsing reader to consider the areas of their arguments; postmodern world where traditional boundaries are be- host a site not full of bells and whistles but sim- ing renegotiated and blurred.