By Andrew K. PaceAmerican Libraries Columnist
By Andrew K. Pace
American Libraries Columnist
Head of information technology,
North Carolina State University Libraries,
Raleigh
andrew_pace@ncsu.edu
March 2007
Deep Throat was right. Or at least Hal Holbrook (who portrayed him in All the President’s Men) was when he told Robert Redford (as Bob Woodward) to “Follow the money.” Well, money was talking, as they say, at ALA Midwinter in Seattle, where over 12,000 librarians, library workers, and exhibitors gathered in January. Those are pretty good numbers for a Midwinter turnout, and “pretty good numbers” seems to be what just about everyone out there is looking for these days.
In most library circles, money has not been the topic of polite conversation. We have our standard beefs, of course—serial-price inflation, the rising costs of technology amortization, and the constant need to fill funding gaps with robust development efforts. But it seems to me that not only are libraries through being polite, but that the vendors themselves have instituted a new frankness in their business dealings.
In the past 18 months, there has been a shrinking of names in the integrated library system space that started with OCLC’s acquisition of Sisis and Fretwell-Downing, made Follett a giant with the acquisition of Sagebrush, and culminated with new investors for a merged Ex Libris and Endeavor Information Systems and for SirsiDynix. Ex Libris heard from its customers that frankness is much preferred to the coyness couched in the term “synergistic opportunities,” and quickly announced its future plans for the end-of-life and continued development of its entire product suite. Kudos for candor.
Some vendors have begun drawing lines in the sand between founder-owned and capitalized companies, and librarians are starting to ask more pointed questions about a firm’s ownership structure. Innovation and older ownership models are hardly mutually exclusive; nevertheless, libraries are desperate for the former, even from founder-owned companies. Large infusions of new cash and management can (but won’t necessarily) save the day. Less clear—but with much more cash at stake—are outcomes for the mergers of CSA with ProQuest and Wiley with Blackwell. The latter merger is currently being challenged by the Information Access Alliance, which includes many ALA players.
Many libraries face tough financial times and even tougher financial decisions. New second-tier companies are surfacing on the vendor floor with software tools built to help libraries with their financial woes. Six months ago, I was griping about the term “third parties” as used to describe companies offering add-on services to libraries though other vendors. I have decided, with some thanks to Ringgold’s Ralph Shoffner, to start using “second tier” to describe many of these new offerings. Ringgold should know: The company has made great headway by intervening in the costly RFP process to make life easier for libraries shopping for library technology.
After the RFP is long over, libraries spend more time gathering data than analyzing and making sense of it (let alone making data-based decisions). ScholarlyStats is now providing an online portal for library usage statistics; the service aggregates statistics from a library’s subscriptions in order to provide COUNTER-compliant data and nicely formatted statistical reports. Serials Solutions offers a similar product called COUNTERCounter. It’s worth mentioning that these products are filling yet another gap left by primary service providers, much the same way Serials Solutions initially offered an A–Z list of titles that should have been provided by database and content providers themselves. Nevertheless, using statistics is a much better use of a library’s time than gathering, collating, and formatting them.
Another new popular product has to do with collection analysis. OCLC is a natural for this since, generally speaking, they have all the data. But other second-tier companies are entering the fray. One such company with an impressive array of tools in its application is Library Dynamics. Though it seems impossible, one mark of a good analysis tool is that it can generate meaningful reports for front-line staff as well as decision-makers and boardrooms. Library Dynamics includes many collection analysis tools from weeding reports to deep collection assessment.
Another area where the second tier is entering the fray involves publishing platforms. I have long been a detractor of intense platform and interface development by content providers. While the native interface for searching publisher content has a long life ahead of it (well, maybe), I believe it is in libraries’ best interest to rely on publishers for rich content and (sometimes) metadata development, not necessarily high-end technology.
Platforms like MetaPress and Highwire Press have emerged to host content and have done so quite successfully. Other companies like Atypon Systems, which has been around since 1996, are now more visible in the library technology space. Atypon made a deal in January to codevelop a new delivery platform for JSTOR. Described as an end-to-end solution, the Atypon platform also inserts technology throughout the publisher workflow process, handling such tasks as getting content indexed by major search engines and submitting metadata to CrossRef, PubMed, and others.
HarperCollins has joined forces with LibreDigital to create, market, and operate digital services for the publishing giant. Publishers can now choose a combination of HarperCollins electronic typesetting and LibreDigital’s digital distribution. Publishers are waking up to the possibilities, not only for leveraging better technology, but also for the chance to concentrate on their primary business.
For decades, the ILS has been the primary computerized management tool for libraries. For inventory control, it still works pretty darn well. On the resource-discovery front, talk of “next generation catalogs” has led to several discussions of what exactly a catalog should be, as well as new and exciting vendor developments like Ex Libris’ Primo, Innovative Interface’s Encore, and rapidly increasing sales of Medialab’s AquaBrowser. Encore and Primo will be attractive newcomers to this sphere. Local and open source development also continues—the Florida Center for Library Automation and Phoenix Public Library have launched their own Endeca-powered catalog interfaces, and IndexData displayed an impressive metasearch engine with faceted navigation at Midwinter.
Regardless of these innovations, “ILS” has been a nice wrapper for describing much of the automation work that has gone on in libraries over the years, but with the changing tide, new monikers are needed. One suggestion that has come from Serials Solutions’ attempts to encompass the growing electronic resource management (ERM) arena—more than an A–Z list, and too difficult to describe as a collection management module for e-resources.
With a focus on electronic serials and databases, Serials Solutions has proposed E-resource Access and Management Services (ERAMS)—collect, correct, connect, control. At the center is the knowledgebase (collect), which changes much more frequently (correct) than the print collections in our history. The focus is getting the right materials to users (connect) with efficient workflow, reduced overhead, and lower costs (control).
Interestingly, the name is similar to the umbrella that EBSCO is attempting—Electronic Resource and Management. ILS vendors and those without an ILS share this space, but Serials Solutions’ stance seems somewhat altruistic in its attempt not to brand a new product but to create a meaningful category for the discussion about managing electronic resources. Finally, when it comes to money, it’s good to see that ALA is doing what it can through the Allied Professional Association to address salary issues for the profession. Maybe with all these tools that make managing the library more streamlined, collecting resources more efficient, and finding resources for patrons easier, taxpayers will free up the funds to pay wages for librarians that match their dedication to the profession.
LibLime has launched the Koha with Class Initiative, offering free hosted Koha systems to library schools. Koha is a completely open source integrated library system that is used by a growing handful of libraries that have opted for ILS services over the cost of an entire system. LibLime hopes to expose the open source solution to as many students as possible, since proprietary library systems rarely offer interested students a look under the hood.
Through a partnership with WebFeat, VTLS will offer WebFeat Express and Custom federated search solutions to new and existing customers. If integrated with the Virtua ILS, all advanced features such as authentication and ILL are preserved in the new interface.