IRiD: Information resources for Physicists in Russia Lev N. Shchur Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics Chernogolovka, Russia

Special credits To Peter Rastl (Vienna University), who present the extremely deep analysis of NREN developments and problems at the NATO Advanced Networking Workshop at Issyk-Kul at September 2001 and whose ideas are extensevily used in our presentation.

Introduction March, October United Physical Society of Russian Federation organized individual members - physicists and astronomists member institutions - Institutes of Academy of Sciences, Departments of Universities, … 47 regional branches - very preliminary

Some prehistory: October 99 - CRISP-II Workshop in Oldenburg September proposal on IRiD sent to RFBR (Russian Foundation for Basic Research) January mirror starts at April IRiD proposal accepted by RFBR October project starts December SINN01, its time for thoughts

Some introductory questions: What is an National Society Information System (NSIS) for physicists? Who gives funding to NSIS? What are the «services» of the NSIS? (if any) Who are its users? How to organize the feedback with the users?

Some general aspects of NSIS: organizational models? {development project, cooperation of member organizations, etc.} funding models? {project sponsor(s), cost recovery, market?} technical models? {single-sided, distributed, server networks}

Possible services of NSIS (I): service to member institutions nationally coordinated services {archives, mirrors, search engines, caches, web portals, content generation} end-user (=individual members?) services

Possible services of NSIS (II): conference information & navigation desk user support {help desk, consultancy services} training and education piloting new technologies IS research and development

Possible services of NSIS (II): conference information & navigation desk user support {help desk, consultancy services} training and education piloting new technologies IS research and development

Different categories of users: R&E institutions (member institutions) and their respective IS departments, libraries, councils of Scientific secretaries, … Individual users (members); representatives of user communities Schools: teachers, pupils, parents The general public

Why should you listen to your users? After all, it`s users to whom you provide IS It is the users who ultimately fund your NSIS Make sure you understand your members` needs Make sure that your priorities match your users` expectations Different users may have different requirements Keep your users informed Make your users to understand your problems

How to stimulate user involvement: Technical workshops, policy meetings User conferences, training seminars NSIS web site, Annual report, Electronic journal Contact persons, Help desk(s) Special services

Some final questions: Do you use the same services you provide to your users also for yourself, without any privileges? Do your users understand that your services are worth real money? Do your users have any alternative to your ‘‘monopoly’’ services and could they benefit from such an alternative?

… in the middle of the road...