An active drive is being taken by TKU to join National Library Service System which, translated into literal terms, means that thru the mechanism of NL, the TKU international scholarly journals will be henceforth digitalized, and additionally, an on-line service on scanning the whole text of the journal will also be made available to website readers.

The NL has rounded up the editors of TKU scholarly journals and has held Digital Preservation briefings for them. As Tamkang Times learned, Mr. Sung Chien-cheng, Deputy Librarian of NL, has not only explained in general The Distance Library Service System, but also in particular the parts relating to "ROC Scholarly Journal's Index Image System" and those in connection with "Scholarly Magazine's On-line Royalty Authorization Cooperation", etc.

After the briefing, Pres. Chang Horng-jinh said that from the perspective of academic proliferation, he is in full support of such a program. As everybody knows, he further pointed out, the expense one puts in the scholarly journal is often in disproportion to the revenues one receives from the subscription fees. By joining NL's digital plan, a lot of human and material resources might be saved on digital preservation. He has already instructed Chueh Sheng Memorial Library to conduct an opinion pool on all TKU academic journals and to draft an authorization agreement, if possible.

As the briefing report pointed out, the major duties of NL will offer specific host computers and networks' broad band to produce the catalogue index as required by the authorized journals, the image (whole text) data tank and OCR words recognition service which, accompanied with the limited IP operation, can alternately check and confer information.

If, after the briefing, all the editors have reached a common understanding on the cooperation, users of this system can obtain academic information thru the networks of Chueh Sheng Memorial Library. Meanwhile, a great deal of savings on producing website pages will be saved. So, it seems the advantages are numerous.

Prof. Huang Hung-chu, Chief Librarian of Chueh Sheng Memorial Library, said that the first and foremost thing is the royalty acquisition which the Library will seek authorization from the authors in order to preclude the violation of Civil Law.

The other feasible advantages are, according to Dr. Huang, the exposure potential of TKU academic journals; because thru the medium of national networks and nationwide cooperation, our scholarly effort is increasingly acknowledged. Also, the statistics can show how often a TKU journal has been approached and consulted and used.

But somewhere along the line there came a dissenting voice. It came from Prof. Huang Shih-hsiung, Dean, College of Liberal Arts. He said that the subscription rate of TKU academic journeys might be drastically reduced once this proposal is materialized. So, let's be careful before attempting anything that innovative.