Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 Office of Public Information (212) 854-5573
Columbia University's Center for Research on Information Access will develop new, imaginative ways to deliver digital information that will ultimately aid the average computer user. The new Center will guide multi-disciplinary research on digital libraries, with a specific focus on incorporating new technologies into existing architectures.
Initially funded through the Provost's Investment Fund and the Strategic Initiative Fund, the Center was announced by Elaine Sloan, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian and Vice Provost Michael Crow. Judith Klavans, a researcher in computer science and linguistics, is its first director.
"The Internet and digital technology have dramatically expanded the nature and amount of information available to scholars and the public, but the development of creative tools for reaching the information has not kept pace," said Dr. Sloan. "CRIA will serve as both a research arm of the University and a mechanism to ensure that Columbia's library system retains its world-class position as it incorporates new information technologies."
Dr. Crow, who played a key role in conceptualizing the Center, said: "Multidisciplinary projects, especially ones that focus on emerging technologies, will figure significantly not only in the future of the University, but in the University of the future. Digital technology has revolutionized the way we see, think and interact with information. The new center will establish Columbia as a leader in the digital information movement."
The Center will build on the foundation established by Project Janus, Columbia's prototype digital library. Developed at the University's Law Library over four years ago, Janus will be enhanced to handle many different types of data including text, images, audio, video and quantitative data. Research associated with the center will focus on creating applications that accommodate existing server architecture and developing new presentation software -- literally what the computer system shows to the user. CRIA will work with departments and schools planning major projects using digital data; it will aim to develop systems that are fully modular and have many applications.
The Center already plans to undertake several projects to make information more widely available to users. Researchers will collaborate with a medical informatics project at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center to allow patients to gather and understand information about their ailments. They also hope to digitally preserve 7,500 hours of oral history tapes made of Yiddish speakers in the 1940s. These projects demonstrate the need to create tools that allow ordinary users access to new information technologies.
"Integration and cooperation between researchers is essential to the success of the cyber-library of the future. By drawing on the exceptionally strong faculty at Columbia, teams can be formed to push forward and develop advanced technologies," said Dr. Klavans. "The ultimate goal of our research is to make information widely available at low cost to all people, making use of advanced, efficient and accessible systems."
The Center will devote much of its research to the development of digital libraries. "The library of the future," said Klavans, "must serve the entire spectrum of library users, from elementary and secondary students to university scholars, from the general reading public with limited technical expertise to the technical specialist, providing seamless access to all fields of knowledge," said Dr. Klavans. "It must provide users with easy electronic access to the complete range of books, articles, films, sound recordings and other media currently housed in physical library settings. And it must give users the ability to access vast amounts of information in a cohesive and comprehensive form."
In addition to directing the new center, Klavans is a senior research scientist in Columbia's Department of Computer Science. She came to Columbia two years ago, after nearly 10 years at IBM's Watson Research Center and three years conducting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Klavans received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1968. In 1972 she was granted the M.Ed. from Boston University and in 1980 received the Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of London. In her research at M.I.T., she used a computational model to test the theoretical hypotheses proposed in her dissertation, which has recently been published in the Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics Book Series. Klavans has authored one book, with another in progress, and approximately 30 scholarly articles. She has lectured nationally and internationally on theoretical and computational linguistics.
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