FROM: Suzanne Calpestri, AnthroSource Steering Committee Chair
DATE: December 2, 2004
SUBJECT: ANTHROSOURCE STEERING COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT

This report highlights major areas of work for the first year of AnthroSource Steering Committee (ASSC), November 2003 to November 2004, and outlines ongoing issues and areas needing attention. This review coincides with initial implementation of Phase 1 production of AnthroSource. ASSC made important progress in developing strategic infrastructure vital to the success of AnthroSource, while also advising (within the parameters of AAA/UC Press contract) on details of implementation and launch.

During this year ASSC met twice in person, (including a 2-day meeting in April) and conducted two telephone conferences. A fuller description of ASSC activities and accomplishments is available in minutes of the meetings.

ASSC members have very complementary skills and knowledge bases as well access to a variety of resources, all of which provided the possibility to move forward simultaneously on a number of fronts while still working as a team. The energy and commitment of ASSC members and AAA staff individually and as a team is extraordinary and very productive.

I. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Significant areas of work and achievement during the past 12 months are enumerated below.

1. Outlining the scope of AnthroSource as a portal
Vision and Mission statement were drafted and ratified (see appendix)
Aside from providing a framework for AnthroSource, the vision and mission aided UC Press in developing AS marketing material.

Schematic Vision --At the April ASSC meeting we began work toward a schematic mapping of the portal, now in the form of a draft prepared by Leslie Chan. ASSC will work to ratify this schematic and use it as a planning and outreach tool.

Functionality -- Following on the April ASSC meeting, Jarvis prepared a draft matrix of functions for consideration as part of the portal. This work provides a frame for ASSC discussions going forward regarding priorities for new features and services.

Content -- A preliminary list of content desiderata has been developed. Next steps involve developing criteria, priorities, and business models for including this content.

2. User testing
ASSC adopted the principle that AnthroSource must be user-centered and based on user needs established using reliable research methods. ASSC members Bonnie Nardi and Norma Mendoza-Denton each conducted ethnographic studies to inform the development of AS. Nardi's study (What Anthropologists Want) has been used in AS outreach presentations and was included as part of the Anthropology testimony presented by Calpestri before the Mellon funded Commission on CyberInfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences (http://www.acls.org/cyberinfrastructure/cyber_meeting_notes_august.htm#calpestri_summary). Nardi's work has been written up and published in First Monday (http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue9_10/nardi/). [note: need to publicize the results of this work to AAA]

Nardi and others provided feedback regarding GUI design. ASSC is currently focused on testing the beta version and reporting problems to UC Press.

Ongoing and regular user testing must be done to ensure user satisfaction. Nardi spearheaded work aimed at developing a plan for ongoing and regular user testing of AnthroSource. ASSC will develop recommendations in this area.

3. Sustainability, Archiving and Preservation planning for AnthroSource
AnthroSource's sustainability is of paramount importance to the ASSC. Under this rubric such issues as institutional pricing, AAA membership benefits , and proprietary/open source software issues have been raised. All of these areas need ongoing vigilance. ASSC is particularly concerned that AnthroSource not get locked into proprietary software thereby limiting the flexibility and expandability of the site.

ASSC member, Pat Galloway has assumed the lead in advising on matters related to archiving and preservation, areas of key importance to Mellon. Of particular note, AAA needs to preserve its own intellectual property in a trustworthy and financially responsible manner and must serve as a trustworthy steward of others' materials. The distinction between hosting (secure maintenance, re-purposing and re-factoring of commercially viable parts) and archiving_(secure maintenance for all materials selected for preservation forever [or 400 years] including methods ranging from migration to emulation. Next steps include assessment of editorial workflow practices for journals included in AnthroSource.

Developing archiving capabilities provides a variety of new opportunities for AAA, including the possibility of becoming a funded part of the proposed NSF Centers network/NDIIP.

4. Communication planning within ASSC and outreach activities for AnthroSource to AAA and other professional organizations
ASSC ListServ, set up by Jarvis, has been running for a year and is very active and invaluable for the work conducted this year. Committee resource documents are also posted to the AAA website for ready reference.

Outreach:
Various committee members have made presentations featuring AnthroSource at professional meetings (SfAA, SAA, American Library Assn., Society for Scholarly Publishing, Charleston Conference, Information Futures Institute)

Liebow has assumed responsibility for ASSC communication to AAA sections and has handled this on a one-to-one basis. By way of addressing the larger membership more generally, ASSC members have written a number of articles in AN and provided input for the AAA about AnthroSource. Much more is needed to target AnthroSource to AAA members.

Leopold drafted PRIVACY STATEMENT for ASSC review and comment. Revised draft was sent to UC Press and AAA for final review and implementation.

5. Collaboration
AAA JSTOR files provided to e-Science project at the University of Kent for purpose of developing middleware as part of the Genealogical Relations of Knowledge (GROK). D. Zeitlyn is PI. Copies of results of this research are to be made available to AAA and available for free licensing.

II. Looking Forward: Ongoing Issues/Areas Needing Attention/Next steps

1. Moving toward a portal
NEXT STEPS:
Revise and ratify schematic map of AS.
Prioritize and recommend new features and functions
Explore relation between AnthroSource and AnthroCommons

2. User Testing
Good user testing is critical for success and yet the breakneck pace established for the launch of AnthroSource and the unforgiving deadline for release, undermined effective testing for functionality. It should be noted that UC Press was most responsive to the particular issues raised in our reviews, but in many cases our access to a test site was so late as to make adjustments difficult or impossible at this stage.
NEXT STEPS:
ASSC will develop recommendations for a process of user testing and feedback to ensure that future AnthroSource development is informed by users' needs.

3. Sustainability, Archiving and Preservation
AS sustainability is rooted in three areas at present: (1) financial (2) archiving (3) flexibility and expandability (open source).
NEXT STEPS:
Review business models being developed for AS
Develop archiving recommendations. Galloway to draft for ASSC review.
Continue to evaluate proprietary (Literatum) software especially it's impact on flexibility and expandability of AS.

4. Outreach
Focus outreach toward AAA membership while continuing outreach to institutional subscribers.

5. Collaboration focused on expanding content
Develop criteria, priorities and strategies and for adding AAA and non AAA-content
Explore funding (IMLS) for additional digitizing of AAA content

6. ASSC Membership
Develop criteria and process for replacing members

Respectfully submitted
Suzanne H. Calpestri, Chair

ASSC Members 2003-2004
Leslie K. W. Chan (2003-2005)
Patricia Kay Galloway (2003-2006)
Hugh Jarvis (2003-2005)
Wade Kotter (2003-2006)
Robert Leopold (2003-2006)
Edward Liebow (2003-2005)
Bonnie A. Nardi (2003-2005)
Norma Mendoza-Denton (2003-2004) CSC
Chair and liaison to ASSC

Ex Officio
Beki Simon, UC Press

AAA Staff
Susan Skomal
Lorie VanOlst
Sandy Berlin