The Corporate Librarian

Sophia Guevara and Qin Zhu presented this session. As Jane Dysart had announced before the keynote, WiFi was available in every room except the San Carlos Ballroom (where the keynote was). So back to liveblogging.

There are many definitions of digital libraries, so they suggested starting with an understanding of a given library’s users, an understanding of what the goals are of the organization and of the users and how the library could align its services with those goals, and an understanding of digital content and the digital collection.

Physical and space constraints, changing user information needs and changing information behavior may all drive digital libraries. Digital content may include e-journals, e-books, e-reference, image collections, digital audio and video and electronic databases.

The lifecycle of digital content, as expressed in a 2005 article written by Tamar Sadeh and Mark Ellingsen (available as a PDF):

• Discovery
• Trial
• Selection
• Acquisition
• Access
• Renewal or cancellation

Questions to ask include bibliographic details, terms of access and pricing. Analysis of content - granularity, dates of coverage, subject focus and overlap with existing sources.

Content analysis resources:

• Content provider sites
• Electronic Resource Management systems
• ILS
• Comparison tools, either existing (CUFTS, databases, Excel) or home-built

Assuming everything checks out, user feedback is positive and a vendor is found that can provide an option for filling a given information need, some questions to consider:

• Can content be purchased a la carte or only as part of a package?
• Can a better deal be negotiated by agreeing to a multi-year purchase?
• What kind of access is available (per-seat, per-site, etc.)?
• Try to negotiate out auto-renewal clauses

Licensing 101:

• Contract template available at Yale’s LibLicense site
• Connect with procurement and legal departments and agree on what will and will not be acceptable
• Understand access and pricing options
• Be flexible

Resources:

• LibLicense site
• two other things I didn’t catch because the presenters went too fast

How will you provide access to users? Be prepared to complete routine maintenance and encourage feedback from users.

There are different methods for content authentication - IP authentication, URL referral, username and password. There may be a single-sign on for your institution, the Athens access management system or a proxy server.

You might want to provide several different information access points - A to Z lists, pathfinders, subject guides, journal/e-journal lists, your library catalog, RSS feeds, etc..

Is content searchable at the top level and as full-text? Is it findable at the publication level? How will you integrate it and aggregate it with content from different providers? Journal lists? Library catalogs? Federated search or alerts? RSS feeds?

Electronic Resource Management Systems, SUSHI or COUNTER can help collect usage statistics. Measurements include site visits, page visits, time spent on site, downloads, etc.. Study your log files, understand user behavior and how they access content.

Criteria for deciding whether or not you will renew a resource:

• High cost per use ratio? If so, does another vendor offer the resource at a better cost/use ratio?
• What value is coming from price increases?
• How frequently do users have problems with the product and how does the vendor respond to problems?

Questions:

• At what point do you decide keeping print resources is a better deal than trying to choose between different electronic resources with multiple interfaces?
• What do you do if you don’t have the final say on purchase decisions in your organization?

Apologies if I missed anything, the speakers went very fast. Hopefully at least some of the missing content will be available whenever the slides are posted.

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