That’s My Bailiwick 1

That’s 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, it’s 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. library’s 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 Arcade’s 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 Iowa’s 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 8–11, 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 Scholar’s 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 Iowa’s 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 held—some 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 Arcade’s 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 student’s 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 That’s 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: Women’s 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.” The site explores the ply a collection of narrowly focused pages of links to notion of “border crossings” from a number of differ- resources on a given topic; ent perspectives and has received numerous citations in • offer an electronic publishing medium for de- the mainstream press, including a sidebar in the Chronicle livery of specialized bibliographies or digital reproduc- of Higher Education, inclusion in Britannica Online’s cata- tions of rare documents log of recommended sites, and a feature article in Search, There are currently 11 bailiwicks in production, with a monthly newsletter for advanced graduate students another eight more being developed. The authors of published out of Northeastern University in Boston. bailiwicks represent 13 different academic departments, including Communication Studies, Political Science, Ath- The Multimedia Essay letics Administration, and Theatre Arts, and they range The most popular use for Bailiwick thus far has been from teaching and research assistants to full professors. for publishing multimedia essays. The Information Ar- cade itself has been a proponent of the multimedia es- Sample Bailiwicks say since it first opened in 1992, and most semester- In general, the bailiwicks developed to date fall into one long courses now held in the Information Arcade’s elec- of four categories: (1) a collection of Internet links on tronic classroom incorporate some sort of multimedia a specialized topic of study, which could range from a term paper as part of the course requirements. The In- small set of links on a particular page to an annotated formation Arcade is one of the leaders on campus in Internet bibliography of thousands of links; (2) a the adoption of electronic theses and dissertations, work- hypertextual or multimedia essay or thesis that necessi- ing closely with the Graduate College and academic com- tates publishing in this medium; (3) a scholarly research puting on a pilot project this semester. It is not surpris- project that is dynamic or updated with such frequency ing, then, that faculty and graduate students are turning that print publishing would be ineffective, including, for to Bailiwick as a medium for publishing these sorts of example, ongoing findings from a research study; or (4) materials. a collaborative project that makes use of a shared elec- Michael Calvin McGee, Professor of Communica- tronically accessible work space. tion Studies, has published his essay, “Suffix it to Say that Reality is at Issue,” as a bailiwick. Jennifer Lawrence- The Internet Bibliography Gentry, a Ph.D. candidate also in Communication Stud- Karla Tonella, a graduate student in Mass Communica- ies, created a comprehensive site on the work of Mikhail

April 8–11, 1999, Detroit, Michigan 4 Carol Ann Hughes and Paul Soderdahl

Bakhtin which is now seen as one of the most complete tribute to the development of a site. Barbara Bianchi, a online resources on Bakhtin. Patrick Muller, a teaching graduate student in Counselor Education and an art assistant in Preventive and Community Dentistry, de- therapist, has established a bailiwick for Global Con- veloped a bailiwick essay entitled, “Complexity Studies: nections, a set of online art and notes from travel jour- The Fluid Multifaceted Nature of Knowledge.” The nals. One component of the Global Connections site, sites are all very different in design, target audience, and called “Russia Revisited,” includes materials from a num- perhaps even scholarly value. Nonetheless, Bailiwick ber of contributing artists and students in Russia, who provides an ideal way for the University of Iowa to sup- are jointly working together to create a collaborative ar- port this sort of experimental multimedia publishing tistic travel journal. outside the rubric of a class assignment for a multime- dia term paper or a more traditional electronic scholarly Policies Regarding Bailiwick Sites publishing environment. Bailiwick sites run the gamut in subject area, nature, and scope. No attempt is made to centrally control the con- The Scholarly Research Project tent of someone’s site. After all, it is their bailiwick and Aside from the hypertextual and multimedia aspects of they have complete editorial freedom. On the other hand, publishing on the web, the most unique advantage to there are certain guidelines in place for establishing a the web for publishing scholarly research is the ability to bailiwick in order to maintain the focus as an innovative maintain currency on a published project. The most well research web server. developed example of this is a bailiwick on Gender Eq- First, the site is not intended to be a space for stu- uity in Sports, sponsored by the Women’s Intercollegiate dent class assignments. Short-term projects intended to Athletics department. The site monitors the current state meet course requirements can already be accommodated of affairs of gender equity in intercollegiate and inter- on one of the University’s centrally administered course scholastic sport, and tracks Title IX compliance and web servers. In addition, the site is not meant to be a pending Title IX litigation at colleges and universities. place for a personal home page, or even a student’s port- This resource has received significant national attention folio. This type of activity can be better accommodated and acts as a research tool in and of itself that is pub- on a student’s personal account through academic com- lished out of the University of Iowa Libraries and now puting or through a commercial Internet Service Pro- available for students and scholars across the country. vider. Sites that are commercial in nature are refused, as Another example is the Dogon bailiwick, published are sites that are completely divorced from the by Chris Culy, Associate Professor of Linguistics. This University’s mission. dictionary of the Dogon language was compiled by Content providers need to abide by the University’s Marcel Kervran, a member of the Pères Blancs, who Acceptable Use Policy which identifies inappropriate uses lived in the town of Bandiagara, Mali for about 30 years. of information technology resources on campus, such The dictionary has over 7,000 head words. A second as hacking, forgery, inserting viruses, violating intellec- expanded edition was published in 1993. Partially repre- tual property rights and software licenses, interfering with senting the varieties of Donno SO spoken in and around others’ access to information technology resources, or Bandiagara, the dictionary is being expanded from its personal campaigning, lobbying, or commercial activi- earlier HyperCard format, and it may soon be ported ties. into an SGML environment. It is an excellent example These modest restrictions notwithstanding, most of an academic tool that would be difficult to create and proposals for bailiwicks have been approved. Inappro- deliver in paper form. priate use of existing bailiwick web space has not yet been an issue. The Collaborative Work Space Finally, the Bailiwick server provides a way for research- Library Resources to Support the Project ers at the University of Iowa to work collaboratively and The hallmark of the Information Arcade is its dual in a public forum with colleagues at other institutions. strength of providing a facility with state-of-the-art high- This collaborative space can be used as a way to gather end computing equipment for electronic publishing and research data, or to allow others to comment on or con- multimedia development combined with a large and di-

ACRL Ninth National Conference That’s My Bailiwick 5 verse public services staff that can work closely with to Bailiwick content providers, who can choose to do faculty and students, often one-on-one, to help them their development work in the Information Arcade or harness the technology and integrate it effectively into at their home or office. their teaching, learning, and research. The facility is Finally, since there is a close relationship between staffed with six half-time graduate assistants selected the Information Arcade and the University Libraries web, from a variety of academic programs in an attempt to system administration and web server support is all achieve a balance of technologists, information special- handled in house as well. Thus, there are few artificial ists, graphics artists, and instructional designers. The barriers imposed by the technology permitting content primary benefit of this unique staffing arrangement is providers to focus on their creative expression and schol- that the Information Arcade is much more than just arly communication. another computer or library lab. It is a place where fac- Therefore, with only minimal reallocation of exist- ulty and students can find qualified consultants trained ing resources, the University of Iowa Libraries has been in a subject specialty with expertise in almost any area able to launch the Bailiwick project and continue to grow related to technology. it at a modest pace. One of the components most es- With this high-tech high-touch model, the Infor- sential for its continued success, however, is the ability mation Arcade is uniquely suited to host a project like to scale up to meet the expected demand over the next Bailiwick. Within the walls of this one facility, the li- several years. Technical infrastructure challenges are not brary provides support for every piece of a bailiwick overwhelming as yet. An analysis still needs to be made development from inception to creation to delivery. With to determine how quickly creators are developing their expert consultation, access to equipment, technical sup- sites, what are the implications for network delivery of port, and web server space, the library becomes a one- these resources, what are reasonable projections for disk stop place for this model of publishing scholarly research. space, and who is using the resources. With respect to staffing, support includes consulta- Perhaps more importantly, though, adequate staff- tion in any aspect of the Bailiwick project, including ing will always remain a concern. Some faculty are desir- design issues, interface development, and training in soft- ous of working more closely with library staff consult- ware. Staff do not provide programming nor do they ants than they can now manage, and the consultants do any of the work in researching or assembling sites. would certainly find it enriching to be more intimately At the point where a faculty member submits an appli- involved with the development of each bailiwick site than cation for a bailiwick, that faculty member is assigned time now permits. Marketing of the Bailiwick project an Information Arcade Consultant as a primary contact has been discrete to say the least because of the limited person for technical support, troubleshooting, basic in- staffing available. However, embedded in the collabora- terface design guidance, and referrals to other staff both tion inherent in bailiwicks is the potential for stronger within and without the Information Arcade. At present, involvement with faculty on obtaining grant funding to the current level of staffing has been sufficient to ac- support the development of specific bailiwick sites. commodate this sort of assistance, which is not unlike This path is being tested in a project with two schol- the assistance provided to any patron who walks in the ars – one from the University of Iowa and one from a door. university in Germany. With grant funding, these schol- As a computing facility, the Information Arcade ars would work with the library to create a new academic provides public access to a host of multimedia develop- resource consisting of a searchable critical edition of an ment workstations for scanning images, slides, and text, author’s corpus coupled with thematic web sites con- and for digitizing video and audio. At these multimedia taining bibliographies, a hypertext archive, and search- stations, a large suite of multimedia integration software able commentaries. This bailiwick would then result in and web publishing software is made available for pub- an unprecedented resource for scholars from many dis- lic use. Staff at the public services desk have a strong ciplines and present a model for the development of background in multimedia development and web design academic web sites that not only reflect serious study and can provide some one-on-one training on a walk-in but actually nurture the creation of new, international basis beyond technical support and troubleshooting. All scholarship. Other site proposals are also candidates for of these hardware and software resources are available outside funding and can follow this lead.

April 8–11, 1999, Detroit, Michigan 6 Carol Ann Hughes and Paul Soderdahl

A Model for Research Libraries Information Arcade and the groundwork laid by the Bailiwick has been a way for the University of Iowa Li- Libraries for the past several years. braries, and specifically the Information Arcade, to fo- With the Information Arcade’s visibility on campus, cus on the integration of technology, multimedia, and and with similar resources and support in the Informa- hypertext, in the context of scholarship and research tion Commons—a sister facility in the health sciences publishing. To date, most of the bailiwick sites repre- library—the University of Iowa Libraries is well regarded sent disciplines in the arts, humanities, and social sci- on campus as a leader in information technology, elec- ences, which not only matches the overall clientele of tronic publishing, and new media. Thus, faculty and stu- the Information Arcade (given its location in the Uni- dents alike are accustomed to turning to the library for versity of Iowa’s Main Library), but also reflects the fact innovation in technology, and the Bailiwick project is a that these disciplines have been traditionally underfunded natural fit. As part of a palette of new technology ser- with respect to technology. Nevertheless, faculty in these vices and resources provided by the library, Bailiwick is disciplines have integrated some of the most creative now integrated as one of the scholarly digital resources applications of the technology in their everyday teach- included in the Libraries’ support of the teaching, learn- ing and research, in part because of the existence of the ing, and research mission of the University of Iowa.

ACRL Ninth National Conference