elctronic liberaries
Talk the electronic services (From librarians point of view)
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Managing the development and delivery of electronic library services is one of the major current challenges for university library and information services. This article provides a brief overview of some of the key issues facing information professionals working in higher education institutions (HEIs). In doing so, it also picks up some of the real-world lessons which have emerged from the eLib (Electronic Libraries) programme now that it has come to a close. These lessons have been highlighted in a number of recent reports coming out of eLib, including the formal eLib programme evaluation (1).
The issues discussed here are grouped under the following headings:
Electronic library economics
Systems and technical issues
Collection development
New initiatives in scholarly communication
User issues
Organisational issues
Staff and skills
This is a practical view of e-library issues. The term ‘electronic library’ is being used here in broad terms to mean a collection of networked digital information resources and associated technical and managerial infrastructure. The electronic library is assumed to include data and metadata in various formats which are created or assembled in order to provide a service to end users. The terms ‘electronic library’, ‘e-library’, and ‘digital library’ are used as synonyms(2).
Electronic library economics
Pricing models
The e-library market is an immature one and pricing models have not yet stabilised. Take e-journals for example. There is enormous variation in how e-journals are priced – individually, in subject clusters, in ‘take-or-leave-it’ packages. Pricing levels are often determined by complex formulae which are in many cases based on print subscriptions. The complexity associated with e-journal pricing is not unique. The criteria on which pricing models should be based for all electronic products is still very unclear. Should price be based on use? If so, how is use determined? Should it be based on size of user community? If so, how is size calculated?
The library and information community should perhaps be more proactive in developing clearer ideas of what it would regard as acceptable pricing models for e-resources. Projects such as PELICAN can certainly help with this(3), but there should be a much wider debate on this issue. We should not just leave this to the national agencies. All too often information professionals react negatively to publishers’ deals without being able to suggest clear alternatives to replace them.
The e-library is expensive
One thing is clear – developing the electronic library is currently not an easy way to save money. It can often be forgotten that the Follett report (the publication of which in 1993 gave rise to eLib) was written in a context of rising student numbers and full library buildings. It identified the e-library as a possible way of saving money and space, and eLib was set up partly to address these issues. And yet eight years down the line, “one of the lessons of eLib as a whole…. is that electronic media do not save money or library space and are not likely to in the near future.”(4) As far as prices are concerned, a few examples illustrate the point. E-journal deals often cost seven or eight per cent on top of existing paper subscriptions, and often prevent cancellation of the paper. Digitised texts for electronic short loan, such as those provided by the HERON service, are clearly too expensive and involve too much of an administrative burden for HEIs to be easily scaled-up(5). Emerging e-book services, such as NetLibrary, are quoting prices far in excess of paper prices(6). There is also the added problem of VAT which is chargeable for electronic resources whereas printed publications are exempt (at least for the moment).
Institutional funding
This situation needs to be emphasised to senior managers in HEIs who still often have a naïve view that increases in electronic resources should lead to immediate and clear reductions in expenditure. The electronic library may create new and improved services for users but it is not cheap. In fact investment in e-library facilities may for the foreseeable future require additional money. This is especially true when libraries are often expected to maintain print-based services in parallel with the electronic.
All users in the institution can usefully be kept informed about pricing issues in order to gain their support for investment in resources. Sometimes there is a surprising level of ignorance amongst users about how electronic resources are paid for (or even that they are paid for at all). In a recent University of Nottingham library user group meeting, a postgraduate student asked the question, ‘what has Science Direct got to do with the library? It’s on the Internet!’ This statement carries with it a raft of common misunderstandings. First of all that the library and the Internet work in different domains. Secondly, that the Internet always delivers information which is free. Because the content is free at the point of use and easily accessible to users on campus, they often forget it comes at a price (in the case of Science Direct, a very large price). More should perhaps be done to get this message across to help ensure the library is provided with funds to enhance resources.
But it is not just the level of funding but also the structure of the funding which is important. Many libraries in HEIs allocate funds to different budget heads based on a formula, taking into account factors such as student numbers, staff numbers, and average book prices. These formulae often divide up the available funds in an inflexible subject-based way. Strict subject specificity is however often inappropriate in the electronic environment. Many products come as cross-disciplinary packages of material and working out which subject pays (or part pays) for a particular resource can be unnecessarily complex. Library funding allocation models need to be constructed to ensure that libraries have the flexibility to respond to the available deals on behalf of all of their users.
Priorities
Libraries may need to reappraise their overall budgeting priorities and expectations in the context of the e-library. As we moved from the ‘traditional library’ model to the ‘automated library’ model (where traditional library processes, such as cataloguing and circulation, were automated), librarians became used to spending large amounts of money on library management systems (LMSs) and on the staff to maintain them. It has been commented, however, that in the new ‘electronic library’ (which provides access to extensive data and full text online) we are expecting to provide access on the cheap. A new generation of e-library systems (such as cross-searching services) are currently being launched which complement the LMS but are often far more complex than an LMS module, and yet we expect them to be much cheaper.
There is an argument that priorities in staff time should also be re-examined. Managers often expect staff to manage access to e-journal collections or catalogue web resources in their ‘spare’ time. John MacColl argues that this has got to change. “If we are to be persuasive in the world of digital information in which we now present our services as ‘hybrid libraries’….we have to be much quicker.” He goes on to say that “the cataloguing of ‘toll-gated’ electronic information – e-journals and e-books – should now be the highest priority for our cataloguing departments (or metadata units).”(
The issues discussed here are grouped under the following headings:
Electronic library economics
Systems and technical issues
Collection development
New initiatives in scholarly communication
User issues
Organisational issues
Staff and skills
This is a practical view of e-library issues. The term ‘electronic library’ is being used here in broad terms to mean a collection of networked digital information resources and associated technical and managerial infrastructure. The electronic library is assumed to include data and metadata in various formats which are created or assembled in order to provide a service to end users. The terms ‘electronic library’, ‘e-library’, and ‘digital library’ are used as synonyms(2).
Electronic library economics
Pricing models
The e-library market is an immature one and pricing models have not yet stabilised. Take e-journals for example. There is enormous variation in how e-journals are priced – individually, in subject clusters, in ‘take-or-leave-it’ packages. Pricing levels are often determined by complex formulae which are in many cases based on print subscriptions. The complexity associated with e-journal pricing is not unique. The criteria on which pricing models should be based for all electronic products is still very unclear. Should price be based on use? If so, how is use determined? Should it be based on size of user community? If so, how is size calculated?
The library and information community should perhaps be more proactive in developing clearer ideas of what it would regard as acceptable pricing models for e-resources. Projects such as PELICAN can certainly help with this(3), but there should be a much wider debate on this issue. We should not just leave this to the national agencies. All too often information professionals react negatively to publishers’ deals without being able to suggest clear alternatives to replace them.
The e-library is expensive
One thing is clear – developing the electronic library is currently not an easy way to save money. It can often be forgotten that the Follett report (the publication of which in 1993 gave rise to eLib) was written in a context of rising student numbers and full library buildings. It identified the e-library as a possible way of saving money and space, and eLib was set up partly to address these issues. And yet eight years down the line, “one of the lessons of eLib as a whole…. is that electronic media do not save money or library space and are not likely to in the near future.”(4) As far as prices are concerned, a few examples illustrate the point. E-journal deals often cost seven or eight per cent on top of existing paper subscriptions, and often prevent cancellation of the paper. Digitised texts for electronic short loan, such as those provided by the HERON service, are clearly too expensive and involve too much of an administrative burden for HEIs to be easily scaled-up(5). Emerging e-book services, such as NetLibrary, are quoting prices far in excess of paper prices(6). There is also the added problem of VAT which is chargeable for electronic resources whereas printed publications are exempt (at least for the moment).
Institutional funding
This situation needs to be emphasised to senior managers in HEIs who still often have a naïve view that increases in electronic resources should lead to immediate and clear reductions in expenditure. The electronic library may create new and improved services for users but it is not cheap. In fact investment in e-library facilities may for the foreseeable future require additional money. This is especially true when libraries are often expected to maintain print-based services in parallel with the electronic.
All users in the institution can usefully be kept informed about pricing issues in order to gain their support for investment in resources. Sometimes there is a surprising level of ignorance amongst users about how electronic resources are paid for (or even that they are paid for at all). In a recent University of Nottingham library user group meeting, a postgraduate student asked the question, ‘what has Science Direct got to do with the library? It’s on the Internet!’ This statement carries with it a raft of common misunderstandings. First of all that the library and the Internet work in different domains. Secondly, that the Internet always delivers information which is free. Because the content is free at the point of use and easily accessible to users on campus, they often forget it comes at a price (in the case of Science Direct, a very large price). More should perhaps be done to get this message across to help ensure the library is provided with funds to enhance resources.
But it is not just the level of funding but also the structure of the funding which is important. Many libraries in HEIs allocate funds to different budget heads based on a formula, taking into account factors such as student numbers, staff numbers, and average book prices. These formulae often divide up the available funds in an inflexible subject-based way. Strict subject specificity is however often inappropriate in the electronic environment. Many products come as cross-disciplinary packages of material and working out which subject pays (or part pays) for a particular resource can be unnecessarily complex. Library funding allocation models need to be constructed to ensure that libraries have the flexibility to respond to the available deals on behalf of all of their users.
Priorities
Libraries may need to reappraise their overall budgeting priorities and expectations in the context of the e-library. As we moved from the ‘traditional library’ model to the ‘automated library’ model (where traditional library processes, such as cataloguing and circulation, were automated), librarians became used to spending large amounts of money on library management systems (LMSs) and on the staff to maintain them. It has been commented, however, that in the new ‘electronic library’ (which provides access to extensive data and full text online) we are expecting to provide access on the cheap. A new generation of e-library systems (such as cross-searching services) are currently being launched which complement the LMS but are often far more complex than an LMS module, and yet we expect them to be much cheaper.
There is an argument that priorities in staff time should also be re-examined. Managers often expect staff to manage access to e-journal collections or catalogue web resources in their ‘spare’ time. John MacColl argues that this has got to change. “If we are to be persuasive in the world of digital information in which we now present our services as ‘hybrid libraries’….we have to be much quicker.” He goes on to say that “the cataloguing of ‘toll-gated’ electronic information – e-journals and e-books – should now be the highest priority for our cataloguing departments (or metadata units).”(
