Hanging TogetherHanging TogetherLibraries & Publishers in a Libraries & Publishers in a

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Roy TennantCalifornia Digital Library

Publishers: How do users get to your content?

Librarians: How do users get to the content you license

from publishers?

The Age of Ubiquitous Discovery

Discovering scholarly content no longer requires a licensed databaseAnyone on the Internet can now virtually stumble over what was before behind a pay wallDiscovery is not at the publisher level, but the individual book or article level

Lessons of Ubiquitous Discovery: Publishers

If all you provide is discovery services (not content) you are so toastMost users of your content will never see yourhome pageMost users of your content will not want to learn how to use your site, nor do they need toBrand identity will only be useful at the article and book or book chapter levelIf your content is not discoverable through these methods, you are increasingly invisible

Lessons of Ubiquitous Discovery: Libraries

Most users of the content you license will never see your home pageMost users of the content you license will not want to learn how to use your site, nor do they need toBrand identity will only useful at the article and book or book chapter levelGetting users to the content you license means working with new partners (Google, Microsoft) and new technologies (OpenURL, COinS, etc.)

The Scholarly Publishing Pivot Point

Much of what we’ve taken for granted in the past no longer appliesMajor market shift afoot:

From selling an expensive product to a few loyal consumers (i.e., libraries)…To a commodity market where an inexpensive product is sold to a large number of fickle consumers

The financial equation of scholarly publishing is being forever altered, but how?

The Long Tail

Chris Anderson in an article in Wired in 2004 described the long tail effect on content where the distribution channel is large enough (e.g., the InternetBasic point: when large amounts of content are available to large numbers of people, content that previously had little market can collectively rival or exceed the few bestsellers

The Long TailExploiting the “long tail” becomes a viable economic model in an online world with ubiquitous and easy discovery and accessThe good news:

Content you thought was long since dead can be revivedContent that drops below economic viability in the old model can be relegated to an infinite lifetime in a print-on-demand world of the long tail

The bad news: current “by the drink” pricing will never work — think iTunesIt’s all about eyeballs — so how do you maximize exposure?

Enable Ubiquitous Discovery

Create crawl-able pages for individual books and articlesSupport the ability to link directly to an article or book chapterSupport distributed searching:

Offer an API (i.e., SRU or MXG, OpenSearch)Allow others to index your full-textComply with the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)

Open up all books for free access, with the option to buy print

Build a Flexible Infrastructure

Example: Calif. Digital Library & UC PressBepress Platform (eScholarship Repository):

Simple web upload processNative Word file automatically transformed to PDFFull-featured online peer review system (or not)

Extensible Text Framework (eScholarship Editions):Powerful and flexible XML searching and displayFor book publishing, no online peer reviewBest for long-term storage and migration

Do Linking Right

Support OpenURLsSupport COinS (OpenURLs transparentlyplaced on web pages)Commit to persistent links

Determine a Reasonable Cost Model

Think iTunes! $1-$2 per article — not $30-$40!Don’t over-estimate the value of your content to your potential audienceUnderstand that libraries will still license by aggregations, not by article (we need cost predictability and stability)There must be an easy payment process in place (again, think iTunes)

Find Efficiencies

Determine where you are unwilling to compromise quality (what truly matters?)Be ruthless with everything else — you are presently doing a number of things you should no longer doOnly by no longer doing some things will you have the time to do what you must now do

Raise the Curtain on the Peer Review Process

What happened to this article? Vetted in a double-blind process?Remember that users will be landing directly on an article page, NOT on your home page

Exploit the Fact that Format Matters

People are even willing to pay for the same content multiple times if it comes in a desirable format and is reasonably priced (convenience matters)Talk to your present and potential clientele to find out what matters to them and then offer it

Play to Your Strengths

What do you do well?What is unique about your organization?What does your brand mean?Partner with others who share your goals but complement your strengths