Roles, Responsibilities and Incentives for Potential USEIN Partners

The integration of the Internet into many facets of American education requires that any examination of the incentives, roles, and responsibilities for potential USEIN partners reflect the needs of not only traditional education information providers but also those who, in the past, have been consumers but not producers or distributors of education information. This paper explores the incentives required in order for representatives from the full spectrum of the user community for the National Library of Education to assume roles and responsibilities as partners in the United States Education Information Network. Profiles of the education user community are presented that reflect the diversity and decentralization in education that is integral to American tradition. Members of that education community include, but are not limited to: students and their parents, faculty at all levels of education, school library media specialists, educational administrators, curriculum librarians and other academic librarians serving education, researchers, publishers and producers of education information, and local, state, and national education agencies and associations. The incentives, roles, and responsibilities which are appropriate to potential organizational partners that represent each of these client groups are defined. This definition is based upon a review of the work of the United States Agricultural Information Network, discussions and surveys of members of numerous groups, and a review of the literature regarding incentives for collaboration. An appendix contains the results of a questionnaire of education providers. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/SWC)