Building and managing digital collections in libraries: advice from the trenches
Dorette SnymanDorette SnymanCollection Developer: Electronic ResourcesCollection Developer: Electronic Resources
Unisa LibraryUnisa [email protected]
NLSA, 19 March 2015NLSA, 19 March 2015
E-Books, SA publishers and academic libraries
Academic library environment• University (institution)
– Serve the needs of the university: study, teaching and research– Report institutionally– statistics, user behaviour and ROI
• Content– Growth in depth and breadth of content collections - permanent– Content should be accessible to all staff & students (authorised users)
• Legislative– Procurement framework– Licenced vs open access– Protection of user privacy (POPI Act)
• Technical– Integration with campus learning management systems– Academic library systems – integrated, industry standards
• Cooperative environment– SA National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC)
Collection development
• Academic libraries collect in all formats – print and/or e• Digital format is convenient for distribution – remove distance• Academic libraries build collections for:
– Short term – prescribed & recommended materials– Long term – scholarly collections
• Collecting SA and African content is a requirement• (Digital) Content collected:
– Scholarly books & journals – current and back files (legacy collections)– Reference works – Newspapers (current and historical)– Technical, trade, conference proceedings, music, video, images– Fiction or literature– General interest material, magazines
E-book purchasing models
• Purchase model dictated by availability of funds• Title by title selection – publishers, mainly aggregators• Subject collections from publishers• “Cherry pick” – or customized collections• Packages defined by publishers – by year (front lists)• Complete collections • Back files – historical collections• Subscriptions – aggregators• Open access collections – Knowledge Unlatched (
http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/)
What academic libraries require• Business
• Multiple user access, academic pricing, permanent (ownership), none or little DRM
• Technical (platform) standards• Networked access by IP authentication – library authentication system, • Responsive design – device agnostic• Linking standards – persistent linking (DOI) on granular level• Compatibility with assistive technologies
• Discoverability • Resource discovery tools (metadata), MARC / RDA records
• Statistics for analytics & analytical tools• Usage statistics in COUNTER format (www.projectcounter.org)
• Integration with academic systems• Learning management systems, library systems, citation and
referencing tools
What is not acceptable
• Individual e-book titles in HTML or pdf
• Individual username & password access
• Downloading to individual workstations
• Restrictive pricing: price per individual user
• Unstable content (technical standards, platform migrations)
Relationship with academic libraries
• Libraries is a valuable market
• Libraries have own unique requirements
• Libraries build long term relationships
• Visit libraries or library related events and learn more:– LIASA, SA Online Users Group, SANLiC Conferences