Managing Digital Resources in Libraries

Citation

Glosiene, A. (2005), "Managing Digital Resources in Libraries", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 61 No. 6, pp. 815-818. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410510632167

Managing Digital Resources in Libraries is an anthology of shared experiences in the acquisition, licensing, cataloguing, and integration of digital resources into a library collections and services. This fine collection of papers is written mostly by working librarians and managers of different divisions in academic, special and public libraries of the USA, Canada, Italy and Sweden, as the book, first of all, is designed to be “a practical guide to managing library materials in digital formats”. In addition to the practical approaches and case studies, the reader will be pleased to find both more theoretical insights into the changing landscape of library and information work and paradigmatic considerations upon the information profession in the digital environment. As the Editor of the book Audrey Ferney puts it, “the concept of a library ‘collection’ is being redefined. Leased electronic resources are made available to patrons without being acquired for the library. Intangible resources, such as the full text of articles, are provided through ‘pay per view’ arrangements, and are used or taken away by patrons without ever being added to the library's permanent collection. It is becoming common for librarians to consider freely available Web resources as components of a collection, whether these resources are catalogued […], or are accessible through links on a library Web page. […] A ‘collection’ commonly extends beyond resources the library owns to include all the resources to which it can provide access” (p. 1).

The articles are arranged into four chapters (“Licensing”, “Opinions, research, and analysis”, “Systems and software”, “Special projects and histories”) that cover legal, technological and managerial aspects of digital resources' management in libraries.

Min Chou (reference librarian) and Oliver Zhou (attorney) examine the impact of licensing on library collections. The authors are looking at the underlying reasons for the challenges libraries are facing in achieving their major mission – preservation and dissemination of information – in the digital environment. In their opinion, the reasons “are dichotomous: the restrictions imposed by electronic information licensing agreements and unreliability of digital content”. Transition to the digital library has not erased traditional libraries; both electronic and print resources are acquired and managed simultaneously, and this “dual format mode” puts more pressure on libraries' budgets. In addition to the financial pressures, “this new digital era is characterized by clashes between libraries and digital content providers, due to significant difference in fundamental values between these two social institutions” (p. 15). Chou and Zhou claim that the library's collection consists of “owned” and “leased” parts. The licensing terms usually restrict libraries in delivering effective and efficient virtual services to users, and the authors' assertion is that “this new intellectual legal framework rewards those who make information inaccessible”. The suggestion for the way out of this situation is to transform the digital content license from lease to sale.

The second article in the chapter on licensing is Timothy Shipe's fable with a long and smart title “Travels into several remote corners of the information universe: a voyage to the department of the Houyhnhnmists, or, licensing issues and the integrated collection”. It is a fictitious but very convincing and realistic story about the barriers an academic library encounters during the process of mediating access to electronic database products for the small community of scholars from “Houyhnhnm Studies, a venerable though underfunded discipline within the Humanities”.

The “Opinions, research, and analysis” chapter contains three interesting reflections on radical changes in scholarly communication paradigm (Eugenio Pelizzari's “Harvesting for disseminating: open archives and the role of academic libraries”), on reconfiguration of librarians' positions and responsibilities within the management of digital resources field (Emerita M. Cuesta, “The electronic librarian: inching towards the revolution”), and on the validity of Charles Cutter's “library mission statement” in the electronic environment: whether the various cataloguing and access‐provision techniques, commonly used in libraries, do ensure comprehensive and easy access to scholarly journals and individual journal articles (Donna Skekel's “The method behind the madness: acquiring online journals and a solution to provide access”).

The topic of electronic journals is continued and more deeply explored in the third chapter where, as its title suggests, technical and technological aspects are made central. Cecilia Leathem analyses choices the catalogers face today cataloging electronic journals. Should they be included into OPAC? Presented as a list of links on a library web page? If bibliographic records are provided in the OPAC for electronic journals, should single record option or separate record option be the right one in terms of time, staff, financial and other resources as well as of the convenience for the user? Of course, “each library must decide how best to deploy scarce resources” (p. 82), and Leathem's lessons presented in the book can be used as a guidelines for such decision making.

Lund University Libraries in Sweden are well known (also internationally) for their innovative practices in many fields of library and information services and management solutions. Anna Alwerud and Lotte Jorgensen present a service for administration of e‐journals – ELIN@ (Electronic Library Information Navigator). The service has been developed by Lund University Head Office and is used by ten Swedish academic libraries. ELIN@ was developed to avoid “the publisher trap”, i.e. the presentation of e‐journals in separate publisher databases that can be confusing for the end‐users and “restricts their overview of the library's total collection of e‐media” (p. 88). Instead, this management system offers a “one stop shop” enabling e‐journals to be searchable on an article level in one single and simple interface together with other material, for example, e‐print archives. ELIN@ allows easy ordering and personalization for the users and provides statistics for the administrators. The system supports e‐mail alert options for both the selective dissemination of information and the tables of contents. For me it was very interesting to read that ELIN@ was designed and is used for library branding. Indeed, the user of the electronic resources and services of a library today is not fully – or even at all – aware of the role and work “the invisible librarian” does to provide easy access to quality information resources. ELIN@ has a clear and attractive “library (inter)face” with a “quality stamp on material that users and funding agencies need” (p. 85).

Randle Gedeon and George Boston of Western Michigan University Waldo Library write about strengths and weaknesses of the e‐serials management software Electronic Journal Finder – a TDNet installation that provides access to approximately 13,700 electronic journals. A very interesting case of integration of both electronic and print resources at Joyner Library, East Carolina University, is described by Clark Nall and Janice Steed Lewis. An interactive subject guide database is called “Pirate source”. It includes resources in all formats offering users flexible search possibilities, seamless access to “print, microform, subscription databases, CD‐ROMs and high‐quality, carefully selected free Web sites” (p. 109), and encouraging use of the neglected resources. Sue Anderson (“Electronic journals in aggregated collections: providing access through the catalog and a Cold Fusion database”) provides an account of Eastern Washington University Library's solution for digital materials to be searched in the OPAC and also in a Cold Fusion database from the library's website.

Although Managing Digital Resources in Libraries is clearly focusing on e‐journals, a new, postage stamp sized information resource that is called “just another format for the users of personal digital assistants (PDAs)” is convincingly presented in the article by Denise Koufogiannakis, Pam Ryan, and Susan Dahl. Resources for PDAs are certainly one of the newest formats librarians are trying to integrate into library collections. Experiences of the University of Alberta, libraries in selection, acquisition, cataloging, storing and using PDA‐accessible resources are truly innovative and inspiring. These experiences disclose several interesting points about the PDA book market that “has not yet fully been opened to the world of libraries” as they “generally follow the one‐PDA‐one‐download model” (p. 137), about the need for librarians to be very familiar with PDA technology as well as with the licensing and cataloging of PDA resources, about the modification of web content and other electronic resources for use on PDA, and about the challenge of packing and shelving resource of unusual size. The article is interesting to read not only for its novel topic but also for the enthusiastic style: when almost everyone nowadays mentions shrinking budgets and the need to cope, University of Alberta information specialists are optimistic: “Accommodating the needs of your library's PDA users does not require an overwhelming commitment of time or money. Start simple, evaluate users' needs, and expand services as required in order to extend improved collections access to users” (p. 143). Harvey Brenneise, Library Director of Michigan Community Health Electronic Library, tells another inspiring case of developing an all‐digital public health library, and Judith Hiott and Carla Beasley present an article entitled “Electronic collection management: completing the cycle‐experiences at two libraries” in which the practices and approaches towards electronic collection management at Houston public library and Forysth County Public library are compared.

The book covers the whole range of solutions for managing digital resources in various types of libraries in different countries. It is a useful information and inspiration source for both practitioners and LIS educators.