At the SLA Pacific Northwest Regional Conference on networked electronic access held in Seattle, April 1996, MCI Library director Larry Enoch described five generations of technology used by libraries to deliver information to a client's desktop: (1) paper to desk, (2) email to desk, (3) LAN to desk, (4) Groupware, and (5) Web technology. Noting that most libraries likely employ a mix of these technologies, Enoch strongly advocated the incorporation of "fifth-generation" or web technology. At the time, I submitted a rather pessimistic review in which I stated that, given the existing status of technology at the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia (WCB), I expected it would be quite some time before we would be able to incorporate fifth-generation technology into our library services (Nordstrom 1996). Despite my earlier pessimism, however, the implementation of Web technology at the WCB has occurred much sooner than I had predicted. This report briefly outlines how the corporate intranet, BoardNET, has evolved and discusses the role of the Library in this process.

Origin of BoardNET
In 1996, the WCB had OS/2 LAN servers and Windows 3.1 workstations, generally 386 or 486 machines. Only about 40 percent of the Board's 2400+ employees were actually connected to the corporate-wide network of LANs. Now the WCB has Windows NT 4 LAN servers, Windows NT Pentium workstations, and an intranet with more than 80 percent of the staff connected. How did this come about, considering the enormous investment in hardware and software? Interestingly, the business case for this upgrade in technology was not based on a corporate intranet; instead, it focussed on an electronic claims filing system known locally as E-File. This system expedites the processing of workers' compensation claims, improving service to claimants and increasing the overall efficiency of document handling. E-File is a major project requiring powerful servers with extensive storage capacity, workstations capable of rapidly processing and displaying scanned images (claims forms, correspondence, etc.), and high-speed networks linking regional offices to headquarters. Significantly, the infrastructure created for E-File also provided the conditions necessary for a corporate intranet, including the TCP/IP networking protocol. This opportunity was immediately seized upon by the Information Services Division (ISD) who installed an intranet server, hired an intranet consultant, and started developing a pilot internal website christened "BoardNET" late in 1997. Representatives from several departments, including the Library, participated in these early discussions and eventually an interdepartmental BoardNET Committee was established to formulate policy and design standards, chart the direction of future system development, and promote the use and growth of BoardNET as a communications and applications platform within the WCB. BoardNET was officially unveiled in February, 1998, and is largely a "publishing" medium for departments, with plans to phase in electronic forms and online databases in 1999. Two consulting firms, Openroad and Karo Communications, have recently been contracted to assist the BoardNET Committee in devising a strategy for future BoardNET development.

The Library's Role
The Technology Planning department of ISD was the dominant force in creating the intranet, primarily due to their technical expertise and superior equipment, budget, and access to support services. From the beginning, however, the Library expressed considerable interest in BoardNET and took advantage of any opportunity to become involved in discussing and planning the intranet. The Library is currently represented on the BoardNET Committee, along with half a dozen members from major business units at the WCB including ISD and the corporate Communications department. The Library member takes and distributes the meeting minutes and serves as liaison between the Committee and BoardNET publishers. The original premise of BoardNET was to develop the intranet without hiring extra full-time support staff; thus, administrative functions have been distributed to various existing positions. Hardware maintenance and upgrades are handled by ISD, document preparation and publishing is performed by staff within each department using Microsoft Office 97, and general "webmaster" functions are shared between ISD and the Library. Library staff train department publishers, advise on document format and design, set up folders and directories for publishers on the BoardNET server, assign security permissions for department publishers, administer the "What's New" page and an alphabetical index of documents, monitor the website for adherence to publishing standards and guidelines, publish updated organizational charts for the departments using Visio 5, post documents for smaller departments who can't assume the task for themselves, and maintain the Library's own web page.

Although the Library has created some original documents for posting on BoardNET, much of the Library's present and future content is and will be derived from external sources. This entails negotiations with the copyright holders and pricing varies substantially depending on the source. For example, the regulatory standards from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration are in the public domain and may be posted without any charge, OSH-ROM from SilverPlatter is the same price for WebSPIRS as it is for WinSPIRS and depends on the number of concurrent users, and the web version of Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Legislation PLUS Standards from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety costs approximately five times the Windows networking price. Since BoardNET is currently a document publishing medium, the Library has yet to install any databases. However, plans are in place to implement a WebOPAC for the Library's catalogue, SydneyPLUS, on BoardNET in early 1999, followed soon after by WebSPIRS/OSH-ROM and an index to workers' compensation literature produced by Library staff with ProCite 5 and Reference Web Poster from RIS.

In summary, the integration of fifth-generation technology can take different forms in different organizations. At the WCB, the origin of the intranet occurred as an evolutionary offshoot from a major, unrelated business initiative called E-File. The cost of hardware and software upgrades weren't warranted by development of the intranet solely on its own merits. ISD took the lead in developing the intranet, but the absence of a designated WebMaster given staff recruitment constraints opened an opportunity for the Library to become involved in administering the internal website. It is uncertain how long this situation will remain as the intranet continues evolving; a demonstrated need for a full-time administrator may diminish the Library's role in this capacity in the future. In any case, Library staff are planning ahead to increase the functionality of BoardNET by creating a "Virtual Library" that identifies and evaluates quality information sources on the Internet that are directly related to the business needs of the WCB, such as occupational health and safety statistics, medical web journals subscribed to by the Library, and annual reports, legislation and policy documents from workers' compensation agencies in other jurisdictions. These links to external resources will be maintained by the Library on BoardNET and may be considered an attempt at first-level "web farming" that hopefully will complement the data warehouse of internal information sources currently managed by ISD (Fry 1998; Hackathorn 1997).

Nordstrom, Lance. "Generation Gaps in Special Libraries: A Personal Perspective on the SLA Regional Conference," Chapter Eight, Vol. 9, No. 3, Spring 1996, pp. 11-12.

Fye, Eleanor C. "Old MacDonald Didn't Have IT: Web Farming in the Info Age," Information Outlook, Vol. 2, No. 12, December 1998, pp. 42-43;

Hackathorn, Richard. "Farming the Web," Byte, October 1, 1997 [www.byte.com/art/9710/sec4/art1.htm]