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Outsourcing Library Systems Digital Libraries à la Carte 2009 Tilburg University July 28, 2009 Annu Jauhiainen The National Library of Finland annu.jauhiainen@helsinki. fi

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Page 1: Outsourcing ILS

Outsourcing Library Systems

Digital Libraries à la Carte 2009Tilburg University

July 28, 2009Annu Jauhiainen

The National Library of [email protected]

Page 2: Outsourcing ILS

Contents• The Library Network of Finland; The role of the National

Library• Outsourcing

– Process – Reasons– Risks

• Finnish Experiences of Outsourcing– Hardware– ILS system administration– Plans for ILL

• To Outsource or Not to Outsource?

Page 3: Outsourcing ILS

The Library Network in Finland

• The network consists of 4 library sectors– Universities, polytechnic colleges, public libraries, special

libraries

• Each sector has organized its own activities– Council + working committee structure– Chair person and secretary– Sector chairs have meetings together

• 3 library consortia in the country– Linnea2 – library system for universities– FinELib – national licensing and national IR portal– AMKIT – polytechnic libraries consortium: library system

issues, FinELib issues, etc.– Joint ILS consortium of university and polytechnic libraries

(= Linnea2 + AMKIT) to start in 2010

Page 4: Outsourcing ILS

The National Library of Finland

• The National Library functions as a service and development centre for Finnish libraries with a duty to promote both national and international co-operation.

Services for the libraries

• It is also responsible for acquiring and preserving the national heritage in form of publications as well as maintaining its collections of research material and for providing access to them.

Services for the nation

• The dual role of the National Library: serving Helsinki University and serving four library sectors

=> Services for Helsinki University

Page 5: Outsourcing ILS

Services for the Libraries

• Access to high quality information– National licensing – FinELib– National databases – National Bibliography, Union Catalogue, etc.

• Development of the digital working environment– Library system – Voyager, Aleph– Portal – MetaLib, SFX, MetaIndex– Digital Object management system – DSpace, DigiTool

• Impact assessment– Quantitative – library statistics for universities and polytechnics– Qualitative – surveys for both libraries as users, and for end-users

at libraries– Development of indicators

Page 6: Outsourcing ILS

Administrative structure of the Finnish library network

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATIONMinister of Culture and Sport Minister of Education and Science

Public libraries Universities and polytechnics & their libraries, National Library, National Repository Library

Municipalities

Page 7: Outsourcing ILS

Planning Process of the National Library

• 3-year planning period – framework for activities; to be changed to a 4 year period

• Decision makers – the Ministry; the University; the Library

• The process– National Library negotiates with the Ministry of

Education – preliminary negotiations concerning national tasks (80% of the funding)

• Library sectors present at negotiations

– Helsinki University runs the budget negotiations– The library negotiates with the University – special

services for the university ( 20%)

Page 8: Outsourcing ILS

Labor Division at National Level

• CSC - IT Centre for Science– FUNET – Finnish Academic network– User authentication (Shibboleth)– Servers, supercomputing

• National Library– Services for the libraries (infrastructure)

• Library system, portal, repositories, statistics db etc.

– Services for the nation• Long term preservation• Access to cultural heritage

• Helsinki City Library– Services for the public libraries and their users (“Ask the librarian”)

Page 9: Outsourcing ILS

Future

• Major structural changes taking place in the network of universities and polytechnics, research institutes as well as in the public library sector

• New technologies emerging • Budgets diminishing

=> Need to rethink the division of labor, including outsourcing

What is the core task of the library?How should the tight budget be spent to get the most

benefit?

Page 10: Outsourcing ILS

Current Working Environment(to be revised completely 2008-2012)

PORTALfor Information Retrieval

LIBRARYIntegrated System

DOMSDigital object mgmt

Page 11: Outsourcing ILS

User

inte

rface

Present state and

challenges

Digi-arkistot (julkaisu-arkistot, Digitalia)

MetaLib

Meta

search

SFXlinking resolve

r

(journal articles and

ebooks)

Back e

nd

Owned resources Licensed e-resourcesLicensed e-resources

Other systems

i.e. Learning environ-ments

Museums and

Archives

Digital Archives

and Instit.

Archives

Local Library

Systems

Library Portal

Page 12: Outsourcing ILS

Solution: New System Architecture

• Separating user interface from back end systems• Hiding back end systems from users

• Public interface will replace current user interfaces (library systems, portals, institutional archives, DPS…)

• Public interface: one installation, many institutions

Page 13: Outsourcing ILS

Libraries Archives MuseumsThe FinnishFilm Archive

The National Digital Library

Back End Systems

Memory institutions Public Interface Front end

Long Term Preservation System

Page 14: Outsourcing ILS

Indexes

Fro

nt

en

d u

ser

serv

ices

Local customizable user interfaces

Archives MetaLib

Metasearch

SFXlinking resolver

(journal articles

and ebooks)B

ack E

nd

M

an

ag

em

en

t S

yste

ms

Owned resources Licensed e-resourcesLicensed e-resources

Other systems i.e.

Learning environ-ments

MuseumsLocal

LibrarySystems

Page 15: Outsourcing ILS

Current Working Environment(to be revised completely 2008-2012)

PORTALfor Information Retrieval

LIBRARYIntegrated System

DOMSDigital object mgmt

Page 16: Outsourcing ILS

What is Outsourcing?

• Subcontracting a process to a third-party company• Involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-

day execution of a function to an external service provider

• Contractual agreement to define the service• Involves a fee

Page 17: Outsourcing ILS

Process

• Strategic level decision: to outsource a function or to perform it in-house– Identifying and defining the activity

• Choosing an outsourcing partner => (EU) procurement process– Request for Proposal (RFP) – invitation to tender and

selection criteria/requirements– RFP dictates the structure and format of the supplier’s

response• “Best and final offer” (BAFO) vs. EU regulations of

sticking to the first offer

Page 18: Outsourcing ILS

EU Procurement Process

• Type of process– Open – Restricted– Accelerated restricted– Negotiated

• Award criteria– Lowest price– The most economically advantageous tender in terms

of…

Page 19: Outsourcing ILS

Contract Negotiations

• Contractual agreement to define how the client and the supplier will work together – The scope of the service: what is included and what is

not – Service level agreement (SLA)– The duties and responsibilities of each party– The (annual?) fee and extra services with their costs– The term of the contract; termination or renewal– Etc….

• Signing of the contract + proxies when necessary• Service commencement

Page 20: Outsourcing ILS

Reasons

• Cost savings• Focus on core business• Operational expertise / best practices• Access to talent• Improve quality• Catalyst for change• Enhance capacity for innovation

Page 21: Outsourcing ILS

Risks

• Misaligned goals between buyer and supplier• High supplier switching cost• Poor communication between buyer and supplier• Lack of supplier capabilities or resources or capacity• Poorly defined SLA• No single view of quality among stakeholders• Unclear definition of duties of each party

Page 22: Outsourcing ILS

Finnish Experiences of Outsourcing

Page 23: Outsourcing ILS

LINNEALibrary INformation NEtwork for

Academic libraries• The first joint integrated library system was purchased

and funded by the Ministry of Education in 1988 – 20 universities (including the National Library)– National Repository Library– Library of Parliament

• All university libraries of the country formed an informal network, using the same software, but each having a separate database and a separate server

• The Automation Unit of Finnish Research Libraries (created in the Ministry of Education in 1974, moved to the National Library in 1993) coordinated the network

Page 24: Outsourcing ILS

Linnea2 Consortium (2000 -)

• Motivation for cooperation: will to work together, share resources, improve services, join forces, save money

• openness to new technical and organizational solutions, looked at from a new perspective

• Signed a contract with Endeavor Information Systems Inc (EISI) (February 2000)

• Bought a SUN E10000 server (June 2000)• Outsourced its maintenance to CSC – IT Center for

Science (June 2000)• In 2007 Sun E10000 server modernized into Sun

M9000– Sun M9000 hosts 50+ Voyager databases, Aleph

Union catalogue, Nelli portal (MetaLib/SFX) for 60+ libraries

Page 25: Outsourcing ILS

Case 1: Outsourcing the Server Maintenance

• Decision to centralize: 17 servers -> one server• Centralization depends on

– available data transmission network– capabilities of the software– the state of the computer technology

• Hosting the server?

=> EU procurement process

Page 26: Outsourcing ILS

EU Procurement Process

• Available service providers– CSC – a non-profit organization owned by the Ministry

of Education – University IT Centers– IT companies: IBM, Fujitsu, etc.

• Restricted EU Procedure with RFP

=> CSC made the best offer, the most economically advantageous tender (also the cheapest one!), and was chosen

Page 27: Outsourcing ILS

Benefits of Outsourcing to CSC

• Major savings in workload & staff costs (centralization vs. decentralization)

• Improved maintenance coverage– 7 x 24 (also during holidays and sick leaves!)

• CSC staff have excellent UNIX and networking skills• Certain software tasks have been centralized to CSC, in

addition to the server maintenance

Page 28: Outsourcing ILS

Tasks and Division of labour

Hardwaremaintenance

providerCSC

Customer organizations -

libraries

National Library of Finland

(service unit)

•Development of sw •Maintenance of sw

Third party systems vendors

Software vendor Ex Libris

•Coordination of system administration

•Coordination of cooperation

•Communication with Ex Libris

•Developing services•Integration of infrastructures

•APIs•Cooperation with NLF •Cooperation with libraries

•System administration•Tailoring services to their users

•Maintenance of hardware•Certain software tasks•Cooperation with hw vendor

•Cooperation with NLF•Cooperation with libraries

Page 29: Outsourcing ILS

Case 2: Libraries Outsourcing ILS Systems Administration to the National Library

• Structural changes taking place in the network of universities and polytechnics require rethinking of labor division

• Lack of skilled system administrators: in some libraries the expertise may be held by just one person (or by no one!)

• Financial pressure – need to save money

=> A demand from the libraries to the National Library to offer the service

Page 30: Outsourcing ILS

System Administration Service

• Wide interest among libraries• Three customers at the moment• Service tailored according to customer needs• One basic contract, with tailored appendices (esp. the

list of services included)• Fee based on the service level and (estimated) staff

working time– Additional services can be negotiated separately with

an additional fee

Page 31: Outsourcing ILS

Service Description

• The system administration team at the NL replaces the system administrator at the library– No one at the library has access to the system

level/server– System level operation and contacts/communication

to CSC is NL’s responsibility • A contact person at the library: all communication to and

from the NL is to go via the contact person • Communication with the library’s customers is the

library’s responsibility

Page 32: Outsourcing ILS

Case 3: ILL Hardware Outsourced to Relais International

• The Linnea libraries made a decision to buy Relais Enterprise ILL system from Relais International

• The hosted solution was chosen• The hardware side will be outsourced to Relais

International in Canada (“offshoring”)– Outsourcing is a part of the software contract

• Contract negotiation in progress

Page 33: Outsourcing ILS

To Outsource or Not to Outsource?

Page 34: Outsourcing ILS

Questions to Be Asked

• What is our core task? • What do we want to do ourselves?• What is our expertise?• Can someone else do some of the work better and

cheaper?

=> identifying the function to be outsourced

• Can we join forces together with others: centralize and outsource?

Page 35: Outsourcing ILS

Starting the Process

• Do we need to follow the EU regulations?– Yes: structured process, easy to follow– No: you can follow the EU guidelines anyway!

• Harvesting possible suppliers • RFP: very important!

– The selection must be based on the requirements and criteria listed

• Objectivity!

Page 36: Outsourcing ILS

Costs

• What is the cost of the function outsourced vs. performed in-house?

• Fixed costs or more variable pricing options?– What is included?

Page 37: Outsourcing ILS

Contract

• The scope of the service: what is included and what is not

• Service level agreement (SLA)• The duties and responsibilities of each party• The (annual?) fee and extra services with their costs• The term of the contract; termination or renewal• Etc….

Page 38: Outsourcing ILS

Thank you!

[email protected]