1 : The library's new role

[the library portal, information ownership, collection development issues, organisational and staff changes]

Collection development

Of particular importance in the UK higher and further education areas is the influence of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the sub committee of the higher education funding bodies that funds, manages and promotes IT and information activity. Much money goes into research and development but also into providing services and to encouraging deals for resources. Services may be free and so available to all, including remote users, or, if charged, utilise authentication that makes them available to authorised users remotely. This national programme has developed a portfolio of resources potentially for all HE and FE organisations. This is in contrast to the USA where negotiations and provision will be on a local or regional basis.

Charged resources are part of the DNER (Distributed National Electronic Resource), negotiated by the JISC, CHEST or, for electronic journals, NESLI, the National Electronic Site Licensing Initiative.

Services can be provided through the JISC Data Centres: BIDS, EDINA, MIMAS.

The free resources within the JISC activities are those Web resources collected in the subject gateways or 'hubs' like EEVL for engineering, computing and maths and SOSIG for social sciences, which comprise the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). These are selected and evaluated resources and so are of value to remote users who may not easily be able to get other guidance on what to use.

ebooks

The book does not consider particular electronic resources, but note should be made of electronic books - ebooks - since they have the potential to give remote users access to resources previously available only in print in a physical library. ebooks may be collections of general reference books like xreferplus, single reference items like those from Wiley, subject collections like Literature Online (LION) or the textbook collections from companies like NetLibrary which can allow users to 'borrow' books. Libraries are not yet particularly interested in services that allow downloading to handheld reader devices. Charging models may be by subscription, pay as you use, or a site licence. Some of the textbook services are intended for students directly, not for libraries. Takeup, is, in general, low in the UK.

eBooks-in-Print gives details of books available from participating publishers worldwide.

A summary of problems relating to ebooks in UK higher and further education is given in: Shaping a strategy for e-books: an issues paper from the JISC E-books Working Group.

Staffing

Staff skills for the electronic library are mentioned but not discussed. Roles that have been suggested for academic librarians are:

• Multi-media user - comfortable with a wide range of formats
• Intermediary - with a good knowledge of sources and user requirements
• Enabler - proactively connecting users with information they require
• Metadata producer - creating records of information sources in a variety of schemas
• Communicator - formally and informally liaising with users
• Team player - working with colleagues in library, IT services and academics
• Trainer / educator - taking on a formal role to teach information skills and information literacy
• Evaluator - sifting free and paid for resources on behalf of users
• Negotiator - dealing with publishers and suppliers
• Project manager - leading on development projects to enhance the service
• Innovator - not just following the routine but also looking at improved ways to deliver the service
• Fund-raiser - working for greater income from the institution and beyond

The associated skills might be:

• Professional skills
• Technical and IT skills
• Flexibility, including adaptation to change
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to learn quickly
• Communication skills
• Negotiating skills
• People skills
• Presentation skills
• Teaching skills
• Team working skills
• Customer service skills
• Analytical and evaluative skills
• Subject skills
• Project management skills
• Vision

Not all of these are new skills, but perhaps all librarians need a wider range than before.

(Drawn from Pinfield, S Managing electronic library services: current issues in UK higher education libraries Ariadne (29) October 2001).

Other aspects of management were dealt with by the HyLiFe hybrid library project which produced its 10 steps covering topics like training and promotion. These are available as part of the HyLife Hybrid Library Toolkit which also covers some of the issues of this book.

Use statistics

For collection development the need for usage statistics for electronic resources is becoming more crucial given the high cost and commitment in terms of deals for 3 years or more. However, not all suppliers provide them yet, nor is there consistency between them to allow comparison of services. Some suppliers try to adhere to the ICOLC Guidelines for Statistical Measures of Usage of Web-Based Information Resources, but these are a little limited. The US Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has its e-metrics programme which has been identifying desirable statistics and performance measures and in the UK the PALS Statistics Group is leading some international developments. Practical outcome from these initiatives should be in place by the end of the year.