eConf: The SLAC Electronic Conference Proceedings Archive

Citation

McKiernan, G. (2001), "eConf: The SLAC Electronic Conference Proceedings Archive", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918eaf.005

eConf: The SLAC Electronic Conference Proceedings Archive

E-profileeConf: The SLAC Electronic Conference Proceedings Archive

Gerry McKiernan

SLAC: The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is a national research laboratory operated by Stanford University under contract with the US Department of Energy (DOE). Personnel affiliated with SLAC are involved with experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics using electron beams. They also pursue research in atomic and solid state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine, using synchrotron radiation. The two-mile linear accelerator at SLAC ­ the longest in the world ­ is located on a 426-acre campus in Menlo Park, California, three miles west of the main Stanford University facilities. Astrophysical research at SLAC is focused on space-based measurement of phenomena that originate in regions of very-high field relativistic gravity and on the physics of matter under ultra-extreme temperature, pressure, and density. SLAC has a combined staff of approximately 1,300 (FTE). In addition, every year 800 scientists from universities and laboratories from around the world participate in the SLAC high-energy physics program and an equal number are involved in its synchrotron radiation program. SLAC is also actively involved in the development of accelerators, detectors, and instrumentation to support high-energy and synchrotron radiation programs worldwide (About SLAC, 1998).

The SLAC Library

The mission of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Library (SLAC Library) is to provide essential information services to support SLAC research programs in high-energy and particle physics, particle accelerator theory, design and construction, and synchrotron radiation-based accelerator theory, design and instrumentation. The SLAC Library also provides a variety of onsite and offsite resources that support the information needs of SLAC staff in the fields of science education, applied mathematics, engineering, computer science, condensed matter physics, structural molecular biology, and areas of environmental health and safety, law, business information, and other subjects that complement the laboratory's primary scientific and technical mission (Welcome to the SLAC Library, 2001). The SLAC Library is a unit of the Technical Information Services (TIS) department. Among the other units and functions coordinated by this department are the Archives and History Office, management of the SPIRES-HEP database, and the printing and distribution of the SLAC technical publications. The department itself is a group within the Research Division of SLAC. (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/grp/rd/rd.html).

Many of the databases and documents offered by the SLAC Library are maintained within SPIRES, the Stanford University-developed database management system used by universities, colleges and research institutions throughout the world for a variety of academic, administrative and scientific applications. A current Unix-based implementation of SPIRES includes a Web-based interface and provides faster distributed computing and significant improvements in interoperability, flexibility and speed.

Among the library databases and documents accessible from the SLAC-SPIRES information retrieval system are an online catalog of books held by the library, a list of serials holdings, a list of electronic journals, the SPIRES-HEP (high-energy physics) database, e-prints from the Los Alamos National Laboratory server (arXiv.org) and the SLAC collection, and a database of conferences, meetings and workshops, related to particle physics and the general interests of the high-energy research community (SLAC Library mission statement, 2000).

SLAC Library Book Catalog and Serial Holdings Lists

Books held at the SLAC Library may be searched by author, title, key words, or browsed by assigned subject heading in a SPIRES-based online catalog (http://www-spires.slac.stanford.edu/find/books). The book collection is housed on open shelves and classified using a modified version of the Library of Congress classification scheme (SLAC Library mission statement, 2000). The journals and other serial publications held by the SLAC Library are made available as a Serial Holdings List (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/library/serialhold.html). A separate list of online serial publications is also maintained (http://www.slac.stanford. edu/library/ejournals.html).

SPIRES-HEP

In addition to managing and providing bibliographic access to traditional library materials, the SLAC Library maintains the SPIRES-HEP catalog, an online database of preprints, journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, theses and dissertations, and other materials of potential value to the worldwide high-energy physics community. The catalog provides timely, accurate and comprehensive bibliographic coverage of the world's high-energy physics preprints and is currently a joint collaboration between the SLAC Library and the libraries of several other major high-energy research libraries. Among the libraries cooperating with the SLAC Library are those associated with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Fermi National Accelerator National Laboratory (Fermilab), Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY); the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan (KEK); and the Yukawa Institute of Kyoto University (KYOTO), among others (About SPIRES-HEP, 1999).

As of April 2001, the SPIRES-HEP (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/hep/) database provides access to more than 415,000 high-energy related publications received by the SLAC and the DESY libraries. The SPIRES-HEP catalog may be searched in a command mode using a variety of SPIRES search options (SPIRES Help, undated) (see Figure 1) or searched by individual record fields (e.g. author, title, report number, keywords, e-print sub-collection, selected journal titles, date, etc.) or field combinations (see Figure 2). In addition, the catalog can be browsed from several key fields (e.g. author, title-word, experiment, journal or coden, report number, etc.).

Figure 1. First Page of SPIRES-HEP Search Screen

Figure 2. Second Page of SPIRES-HEP Search Screen

e-Prints

The SLAC Library also provides access to e-prints in relevant categories that are made available daily on the arXiv.org server. Astrophysics, general relativity, high-energy theory, general physics, and quantum physics are among the linked arXiv.org e-print sub-collections (McKiernan, 2000). The library's gateway also allows users to browse the brief records of relevant e-prints that have been added to a separate SLAC-SPIRES e-print database. Users may browse this SLAC-SPIRES database for records added within a current two-week period or search the entire database by e-print number, abstract text, author or title. In most cases, the full-text of the e-print is made available as a link to arXiv.org or other e-print servers. Records retrieved from a SPIRES command or field search may be displayed in an array of styles (e.g. HTML, BibTeX, LaTeX, etc.), or formats (e.g. bibliographic citation, citation summary, citation indexed, etc.), and may be sorted by date, first author, title or first author/ title.

SPIRES Conferences

For researchers in physics and other fields, conference proceedings and papers are as significant as print and electronic journals and articles. Recognizing the importance of the conference literature to its staff and associates, SLAC, in association with its sister research institutions, maintains a conference database that provides information about relevant past and forthcoming conferences, meetings and workshops, in particle physics and other areas of potential interest to the high-energy research community (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/library/pdg/conferences.html). A significant number of records in this database ­ but not all ­ include a link to the full-text of select conference papers from the SPIRS-HEP database. The database covers conferences from the early 1970s, although selected meetings and conferences from the 1960s are also included. If available, a link is provided from a SPIRES Conferences record to the conference Web page. As of April 2001, there were records for 10,000 conferences in the SPIRES Conferences database[1]. The conferences database can be searched by keyword title, conference acronym or conference location, and limited by date. Users may also search the database using SPIRES commands (SPIRES command searching, 2000). Search results for either search type may be sorted in chronological or reverse chronological order. A "Quick Searches" option allows users access to display of conferences added to the database within the current week or the current month, as well as those scheduled to be held in 2001 and 2002. Users may nominate new conferences for inclusion in the database by using a standard Web form (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/ spires/conferences/add_conference.html).

eConf: SLAC Electronic Conference Proceedings Archive

To promote the publication and expedite the availability of conference proceedings, an experimental archive titled eConf (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/) has been established under the auspices of the SLAC Technical Information Services department (eConf: Committee, 2000) (see Figure 3). At this time, the eConf archive is limited to proceedings in high-energy physics and related fields. The archive presently contains the conference papers of two proceedings: the 19th International Symposium on Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies (LP 99) and 20th International Linac Conference (Linac 2000) (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/conf/www?kw=econf) (see Figure 4).

Figure 3. eConf Main Page

Figure 4. SPIRES Conference Database Entries for eConf Proceedings

Searching

Within the eConf Web page, users may search the eConf proceedings collection ("Search all eConf Content"), search the SPIRES Conferences database for an eConf proceedings ("Search SPIRES-CONF for Conferences"), or search the SPIRES-HEP database for individual papers in eConf. The eConf content search utilizes the Inktomi® search software to search for the occurrence of a term, acronym or phrase in proceedings citations and abstracts and all eConf Web pages; the direct full-text searching of conference proceedings is not presently available in the current eConf content search configuration (see Figure 5). The SPIRES-CONF search option allows users to search the eConf collection by conference title, conference acronym (e.g. "LP 99"), conference title keyword or phrase (e.g. "Lepton and Photon Interactions"), or location (e.g. "Stanford"), or combination of title word, phrase or acronym and location (see Figure 6). However, unlike the search options available in the main SPIRES-Conferences search page, the eConf search interface does not permit users to specify a date range, display style, format, nor pre-sort the results in chronological or reverse chronological order.

Figure 5. Sample "Search All eConf Content" Search Results

Figure 6. eConf SPIRES-CONF Search Results

The "Search SPIRES-HEP" option within the eConf search page allows users to search for individual papers by author or title keyword, or limit the search by the arXiv.org sub-collection, in which a given eConf paper has been archived (e.g. "astro-ph", "hep-ex", "physics", etc.) In addition, users may search all eConf conference proceedings concurrently or limit the search to a specific proceedings. However, unlike the features in the main SPIRES-HEP database, users cannot specify the citation, title, keyword, journal, or other specific fields, nor limit by date or specify the display style and format. While the e-Conf search interface does not offer extensive search, display or sort options, it does permit a user to display the records for all the conferences in the eConf collection and to link to the complete contents of a selected proceedings (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Web Page for a Full-Text Proceedings in eConf

Record Format

Records retrieved from a search of the entire eConf content are listed in order by relevance percentage, with those receiving the highest relevance rating listed before those with lower ratings. Entries are brief and contain the Web page title or the Web address as the main entry, followed by the first 30-odd characters of the Web page or document text. The Web address and file size for the source item are listed beneath this string of characters (see Figure 5). Results from a SPIRES-CONF search within eConf provides a detailed record that includes the conference name, date, location, contact information, conference and proceedings Web address, and a SPIRES conference number. The record also includes a link to a listing of papers and their associated records cataloged and indexed in the SPIRES-HEP database (see Figure 6).

Records retrieved from an eConf page SPIRES-HEP search will include a standardized citation; a hotlink to a paper's references; relevant notes, including conference publication information and an arXiv.org e-print identifier for the paper; links to bibliographic citation for the paper in LaTeX (USA), LaTeX (EU), and BibTeX formats; a hotlink to the keywords assigned to the paper; and a hotlink to the papers that are recorded as citing the paper. This record also includes a link to an abstract for the paper, a link to a PostScript version of the full text of the paper, links to several mirror sites from which a user may obtain the paper in other document formats (e.g. PDF), the Web address for the proceedings in which the paper was published, and the conference Web address. In addition, selected SPIRES-HEP records include a link to the catalog record for the paper on the CERN Document Server, the SLAC Document Server, and other servers from which the full-text of a paper has been archived. For papers that discuss a particular experiment in particle physics, a link is also provided to the relevant record in the SLAC-SPIRES Experiments database of current experiments in particle physics (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/experiments/online_exp.html).

Viewing or Printing

eConf proceedings can be viewed or printed in one of two formats: full-text proceedings or e-print proceedings. The option to print in the full-text format provides a link to the complete text of the proceedings as well as links to the PostScript and PDF versions of individual papers; the option to print using the e-print option requires that the user identify each conference paper from the conference proceedings Web page and retrieve each individually from the arXiv.org server, if available.

There are two methods by which users can print the full-text proceedings. In either case, the copy is consecutively paginated. To retrieve the entire contents of a proceedings in one operation, users select the "Complete Proceedings" link from the proceedings Web page (e.g. http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C990809/proceedings.html) (see Figure 7). Selection of the link will present the user with the option of downloading the proceedings text in the compressed PostScript format (.tar). To view or print the proceedings, the file must be uncompressed using an appropriate utility and viewer (e.g. Ghostview). Users also have the option of printing the proceedings by section: the front matter (title page, table of contents, program, attendees, etc.), the body of the proceedings, and the back matter (appendices, author and subject indexes). Using this approach, users must retrieve and print each paper as well as the front matter and back matter separately. For each paper listed on the conference page, a hotlink to the SPIRES-HEP record is provided, allowing the user to view the bibliographic data for the paper in one of three bibliographic formats (i.e. LaTeX (USA), LaTeX (EU), or BibTeX). A direct link to cataloging data in the LaTeX (USA) format is also provided ("Citation") (see bottom of Figure 7).

To print the entire proceedings using the e-print option, the front matter (e.g. title page, table of contents, committee members, attendees, acknowledgements, etc.) and the back matter (e.g. appendices, indexes) are printed from the conference proceeding site as with the full-text option. To print all the papers from a given conference, users are required to systematically select either the associated arXiv.org link for each paper ("LANL") in the Linac 2000 proceedings (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C000821/proceedings.html) or select the SPIRES-HEP entry ("SPIRES Entry") for each listed paper in the Lepton-Photon 99 proceedings (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/ C990809/proceedings.html). The user is then required to retrieve the arXiv.org record for each from the main arXiv.org site ("aps") or one of the international mirrors, if available (see Figure 7). From within the arXiv.org record, the user may then print a paper in one of the available text formats (e.g. PostScript, PDF, DVI). Conference papers must be printed individually and collated to create the proceedings volume.

Submissions

Editors who wish to publish relevant proceedings in the eConf collection may submit content as full-text proceedings or as e-print proceedings. To submit full-text proceedings, editors are requested to provide PostScript or PDF files containing the various chapters of the proceedings, a set of files from which the entire book may be assembled, and an HTML file that provides the title page and table of contents page for the proceedings. Templates with instructions are available to facilitate the submission of the full-text (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/editors/fulltext-template/instructions.html): (see Figures 8 and 9). Presently, only templates using LaTeX, the document preparation system for scientific and technical publications, are available. For submission of e-print proceedings, individual conference papers are submitted as e-prints to the arXiv.org e-print service. As with the full-text proceedings, the conference editor is required to submit an HTML file that provides the title page and table of contents page for the proceedings. Templates are available for the submission of papers and for the preparation of the title page and table of contents (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/editors/eprint-template/instructions.html). After a proceedings has been assembled, it is submitted using a Web submission form (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/editors/submit.html).

Figure 8. First Page Instructions for Preparation of Full-Text Proceedings

Figure 9. First Page of Template for Full-Text eConf Proceedings Page

eConf Proceedings Citation and Metadata

Instructions for citing eConf proceedings and eConf papers is available (eConf: How to cite, 2000), as is cataloging metadata for one of the two conferences (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/librarians.html).

Implications

In recent years, an increasing number of conference proceedings have become available free-of-charge (e.g. USENIX Proceedings (http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/) or made available by subscription or pay-per-view in digital libraries (e.g. ACM Digital Library (http://www.acm.org/dl/) or IEEE Xplore™ (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/). While a significant number of physics conferences have been published in scholarly journals (Allen, 2000), many are not widely available due to limited publication and distribution. In addition, the increasing cost of proceedings may discourage libraries from acquiring them.

The eConf service provides a mechanism by which conference organizers and proceedings editors can publish proceedings at low cost and with limited delay. Links to existing databases and directories within the SLAC-SPIRES information system and arXiv.org and other e-print servers can facilitate the identification and availability of high-energy conference proceedings and papers (see Figures 10 and 11). By providing appropriate templates, the overall electronic publication process is expedited. The eConf archive is a service that enables conference organizers to publish and distribute conference proceedings more efficiently than by conventional means and offers access to time-sensitive scholarship at no direct cost to the reader. Although originally developed for the field of high-energy physics, eConf can also serve as a model for conference publication and distribution in non-scientific and other scientific disciplines.

Figure 10. Schematic of Full-Text Edition Features and Relationships to SPIRES and arXiv.org Electronic Databases

Figure 11. Schematic of E-print Edition Features and Relationships to SPIRES and arXiv-org Electronic Databases

Note

1. E-mail correspondence with Heath O'Connell, April 1, 2001.

• •

  eConf by Pat Kreitz, Director of Technical Information Services and Chief Librarian at SLAC, November 2000. [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/pr/pkeconfkymgrs.html].

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  eConf: An Archive for Conference Proceedings in High-Energy Physics ­ www.slac.stanford.edu/econf by M.E. Peskin, theoretical high-energy physicist at SLAC and member of the SLAC eConf Committee, October 2000. [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/committee.html].

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  eConf: Electronic Conference Proceedings ­ www.slac.stanford.edu/ econf by Heath O'Connell. February 2000 [i.e. 2001] [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~hoc/eConf.ppt].

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  LINAC2000 and eConf by Heath O'Connell, March 2001. [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~hoc/Jacow/jacow.pt].

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Pat Kreitz, Director of Technical Information Services department and Chief Librarian at SLAC, and Dr Heath O'Connell, SPIRES Database Manager, for their assistance in preparing this review. He is particularly grateful to Pat Kreitz for permission to use the eConf screen images used in this review and to Heath O'Connell for his prompt response to his various technical queries. He also wishes to thank Professor Michael E. Peskin, theoretical high-energy physicist at SLAC, for his permission to reproduce schematics of the eConf system.

Disclaimer

The screen images and associated text are published by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a national research laboratory operated by Stanford University for the US Department of Energy. All rights are reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of US copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the http://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/ is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

Gerry McKiernan (gerrymck@iastate.edu)is Science and Technology Librarian and Bibliographer, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.