An Entrepreneur ahead of his Time: A Look at Best Practices
by Ulla De Stricker
The story of the Sport Information Resource Centre's evolution from humble documentation centre beginnings to a world class database and innovative web based services is the stuff special librarians' dreams are made of: entrepreneurship and tenacity at its finest, vision and determination brought to fruition over the span of one outstanding information professional's career.
Gilles Chiasson was a pioneer in the computer database arena. I use every chance I get to point to him as an example of the perfect special librarian—seeing a need, spotting an opportunity, and going for it! It was my privilege to get to know Chiasson in the early 1980s and later to join SIRC's Board. On the occasion of his retirement, I approached Information Outlook's editor and requested the opportunity to contribute a profile to illustrate that "nothing stands in the way of a determined special librarian."
Through the 1960s, Sport Canada (a federal agency supporting the sport community in Canada) had housed small and little-known collections of sport materials at several sites. In the early 1970s several individuals at the Coaching Association of Canada, appreciating that information resources were important, appointed Martha Stone, then Head Librarian at Health Canada, to undertake a study of the CAC's need for a documentation center. Martha Stone's key recommendation was to establish "an Information Resource Centre … to respond to the information needs of the CAC and to the needs of outside agencies and organizations requiring information on the art and science of coaching." Thus were the foundations for SIRC laid, and an ad was put out in 1973 for the position of Library Manager, Coaching Association of Canada.
Gilles Chiasson, then head cataloguer at Canada's Department of Industry Trade and Commerce, spotted that ad. Thorough librarian that he always was, he checked various transportation related information sources but could find no mention of the CAC … to this day, Chiasson openly admits his surprise at realizing the CAC had to do with sports, not buses!
Chiasson's professional career has been driven by his vision of an information centre as a three-tiered pyramid: (1) A comprehensive library collection at the foundation provides the raw material for a number of activities—but access to materials is limited by the card catalogue model. (2) A Documentation Centre actively indexes the library's content in depth, making the electronic index records available for searching and for publishing bibliographic access tools. (3) An Information Analysis Centre enables the development of specialized tools and services geared to specific client groups.
Armed with this vision upon his arrival as Library Manager at the CAC, Chiasson found the uneven, and in some cases moldy, remains of the Sport Canada collections. Undeterred, he traveled to Europe to inspect the national sport collections of eight countries. Although the computerized database developed for demonstration at the Munich Olympics by Germany's Federal Institute for Sport Science was a noteworthy discovery, its German-language and scientific emphasis did not suit the needs of the Canadian sport community.
Chiasson faced two important challenges when returning from Europe. One, convincing CAC's Board to expand the scope of the documentation centre to include all of sport, not just coaching. "The argument that sold the cake," says Chiasson, "was that to be a good coach, one has to know all of sport. In the end they couldn't argue with that." Two, convincing the Board to authorize a feasibility study concerning a computerized database and retrieval system. Such a tool was definitely on the bleeding edge in 1973! "It wasn't easy, but the Board eventually bought my reasoning … or maybe they just got tired of me!"
By 1974, SIRC began using (on a remote computer) a software package a few Canadian government departments had adopted at the time to generate databases—and never looked back. Record by record, Chiasson's database grew, hitting the 100,000 record mark in 1982. By then, it was already available for searching through SDC; in 1985 Canada's national science library added the database to its online service; BRS and DIALOG followed. When CD-ROMs gained wide acceptance, SportDiscus from SilverPlatter became a reality. OVID has been added to the distributor roster, and it would be surprising if others weren't in the pipeline. Sport professionals all over the world have access in a number of ways to a unique, comprehensive, thoroughly indexed database of sport literature, supported by a comprehensive thesaurus of sports terminology in English and French.
Pioneering the use of a computer system in the early seventies was a feat in itself. But Chiasson deserves special recognition for his accomplishments in developing the international relationships that make possible the worldwide scope of the content.
When in 1975 Chiasson attended the annual meeting of the International Association for Sport Information, association leaders expected never to see him again—as had been the case with previous Canadian attendees. But Chiasson kept coming back … and was elected IASI's Vice President for North America in 1981 and IASI President in 1989. Holding that post until 1997, Chiasson had a strong hand in rewriting IASI's constitution, improving its finances, and raising its profile internationally. During his tenure, membership in IASI grew from sixty-four members in thirty countries to 190 members in seventy-four countries, and he was able to get the International Olympic Committee to accept IASI as a "recognized sport organization." Chiasson comments that the now excellent relationship between the IOC and IASI bodes well for international sport information in the future.
In light of a recommendation in Unesco's 1978 international charter of physical education and sport, an International Consultation of Experts on Research in Physical Education and Sport in 1979 specifically urged the creation of a central data bank for sport science and physical education to include scientific as well as nonscientific information. In 1983, IASI's Executive Committee designated SIRC as "the core in the beginning stages of building this international database system."
Through his persistence and patience, Chiasson had built relationships with sports officials from all over the world and had familiarized them with SIRC's activities. With the IASI designation, SIRC now had official international blessing to invite every country to contribute its own indexed records for sport publications appearing in that country. Such contribution arrangements are not always easy to administer, but they are worth the effort in order to increase international coverage. SIRC now receives indexing records from Australia, China, the U.S., Finland, Norway, Spain, and France, to name a few.
Chiasson notes one very telling detail: "When I began working with IASI, its leadership consisted entirely of sports people, and during our meetings we would visit arenas and gymnasiums rather than libraries. Over the years I was able to convince the leaders that the crucial success factor is information expertise. Nowadays, IASI representatives are mostly information people."
By the time the web rolled along, Chiasson could easily have rested on the considerable respect he enjoyed in Canada's sport circles and in the IASI community as the international database's creator … but that wouldn't be like him. On the contrary, he engaged the views of leading information technology strategists to help extend SIRC's leadership into the web environment. It was obvious to him that the web offered huge new opportunities to derive added value from the database and to develop new services for groups of users who in the past could not easily get access to the information it contained—for example, volunteer coaches. Once again, he convinced the Board that investing in new technology was wise … and any visitor to SIRC's web site can see the result. Each month, visitors generating close to half a million page views do the same.
A few years ago, Chiasson decided to focus on his love of database technology and concentrated on SIRC's technical infrastructure, handing the presidency to his successor, Debra Gassewitz. In December of 1999, he reluctantly retired altogether (although rumor has it that his expertise in the Cuadra/STAR publishing system can be had for a suitable fee!).
Chiasson turned a room full of dusty boxes into a world-class database operation. And in so doing, he did something else too. Originally, SIRC's budget was entirely provided by taxpayers through Sport Canada. As the database's revenue grew over the years, SIRC was increasingly able to self-fund development activities. By now, Sport Canada's contribution represents a small portion of the annual budget in return for specified services. Chiasson not only realized his goal of creating the world's sport database, he also turned it into a commercial success, demonstrating that information—when done right—indeed has real value. Canadian taxpayers may not realize the relief they are enjoying because of Chiasson!
Oh, one more thing. Quite a few of SIRC's twenty-odd employees have been working at SIRC for more than fifteen years. That wouldn't be a reflection of Chiasson's inspiring ways, now, would it?
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