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Re: Annual Report on the EPC for the IUCr

IUCr 1997 Report - Sub-committee on Electronic Publishing, Dissemination
and Storage of Information.

<P>
The committee has expended considerable effort during 1997 on the
implementation and deployment of a web pan-crystallography information
system which may be viewed at the URL:
<I>http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/index.html</I> and its mirror sites. The
distributed sources of information for this system come from IUCr
commissions and committees, IUCr conference organizers, IUCr in-house
secretarial and journal editors, and the Sincris and CWW news resources.
The web pages are given a unified appearance. Further contributions from
sources of information of concern to the IUCr and of interest to
crystallographers are always most welcome. Information can be obtained
from the chairman of this committee. During its meeting in Lisbon in
August 1997 the IUCr executive committee delegated editorial powers for
IUCr web services to this committee.


<P>
To assure a ready access world-wide to the pan-crystallography service,
the committee has elaborated a strategy of IUCr-accredited mirror sites.
This policy was approved by the IUCr executive committee in its meeting
in Lisbon in August 1997. The deployment of the mirror-site system
depends on the good will and involvement of the IUCr members
(<I>i.e.</I> the National Committees for Crystallography) in providing
equipment with network connectivity to act as mirror sites for their
country or region. Some regions of the world are inadequately covered at
the moment depriving crystallographers of a very important resource.
Administrative and technical information on forming and running an
IUCr-accredited mirror site is available from the IUCr Executive
Secretary. As part of this strategy for mirror sites, the IUCr has
acquired the Internet second-level domain name <I>iucr.org</I>
permitting a unified naming of Chester and the mirror sites. <I>e.g.</I>
the web sites have the Internet names: <I>www.iucr.org</I> (IUCr
offices, Chester, UK), <I>www.fr.iucr.org</I> (France),
<I>www.se.iucr.org</I> (Sweden), <I>www.us.iucr.org</I> (USA),
<I>www.za.iucr.org</I> (South Africa) and <I>www.ch.iucr.org</I>
(Switzerland).


<P>
The committee identified a need within the community for discussion
forums operated by means of an e-mail list server. To this end the IUCr
R&amp;D group has sought out, implemented and tested software to meet
this demand. The system offers web interfaces for dealing with
administrative affairs and for viewing each list's archive. A policy
document for on-line discussion groups has been formulated and submitted
to the IUCr executive committee for approval. Full details may be
obtained from URL: <I>http://www.iucr.org/iucr-top/lists/</I> for those
wishing to avail themselves of this service.


<P>
The electronic online distribution of the IUCr's six journals will
require an infrastructure that the Chester office is probably not in a
position to provide itself, indeed in the same way that the printing,
mailing and subscription administration for the printed journals is
sub-contracted. It may be that there is a distinct advantage in being
associated with an electronic distribution service giving access to
other related scientific journals. The committee is active in surveying
the market of service providers in this field. Work is continuing at the
Managing Editor's office to develop the editorial processes involved in
full-text SGML markup of the IUCr journals and other publications. This
is an essential prerequisite for the supply of content to electronic
online distribution processes. It is also a key to the database-driven
integration of manuscript handling and refereeing. The committee advises
on and monitors this strategy.


<P>
The tenth edition of the World Directory of Crystallographers (WDC) has
been published and is available in printed form. Individuals can
purchase the directory from Kluwer Academic Publishers (price DFl50);
group purchases are also possible by contacting the IUCr Promotions
Representative (as@iucr.org). For the online version of WDC, tests have
been undertaken using LDAP servers in order to benefit from the LDAP
functionality now available in the most popular internet communication
systems or web browsers. The committee is currently involved in the
elaboration of policy and technical documentation for the future
development of WDC to cover needs that have been identified.

<P>
A project has begun for the production of CD-ROMs containing
crystallographic information. This support is primarily intended for
those scientists lacking suitable internet connection to avail
themselves of the on-line services.

<P>
The chairman of the committee visited the IUCr Chester offices in
November 1997.


H. D. Flack (Chairman) on behalf of the Committee

Version 4th June 1998

-- 
Howard Flack        http://www.unige.ch/crystal/ahdf/Howard.Flack.html
Laboratoire de Cristallographie               Phone: 41 (22) 702 62 49
24 quai Ernest-Ansermet             mailto:Howard.Flack@cryst.unige.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland                   Fax: 41 (22) 781 21 92

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