WORKSHOP #2

With the amazing developments of the past ten years or so, particularly with respect to the Internet, many of those working as library and information professionals (LIPs) are involved in organising services which provide access to a wide range of materials for their users. In the past these services have evolved around the collections that have been physically housed in the library or information centre i.e. books, journals, maps, local history collections, reprint collections and so on. Items that were needed by users that were not held within the library would be acquired from a local, national or international interlending system. The management structure of staff in the library often mirrored the various functions. For users in this environment the main ways of finding out about relevant materials in answer to a query would be to use the catalogue ( often computer-based as an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC))) or to use abstract and indexing publications and then to use interlibrary loans facilities to acquire the full text of items not held within the library.
 All that has, and is, changing. In a paper, entitled “Towards the hybrid library”  published in 1998 Chris Rusbridge who was the Programme Director of the UK’s Electronic Libraries (eLib)  Programme outlined the problems librarians face in trying to create usable and useful systems and services for their institutions and users (1). He noted that  librarians have often “bolted new technology, programs and services on to existing library functions.” The result is that for users who wish to look for information they may have to search a range of electronic information resources such as the local OPAC, a regional or national library OPAC, stand-alone (or networked)  CD-ROM databases, remote databases, subject gateways( or portals) on the Web, general web search engines, electronic journals, local or remote electronic books as well as other sources such as books, printed journals, maps, slides, sound recordings  and so on. Thus for the user there may be many problems of knowing which resource to use, having the necessary passwords etc. to access it, knowing how to search/browse the resource, and deciding how to use the information ( read on screen/print out/ “cut and paste”/ link to other resources etc.). 

The topic of this workshop was originally suggested by Lex Sijtsma of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Netherlands who noted that: “When offering your services on the Internet, it is important that you offer the end-user a unified interface to all the services. An end-user should be able to search all the holdings of the library, perform a loan-request or document-delivery all from within the same interface. This means that different systems in the library have to be synchronised. The next step, is to also offer access to publications that are not available in the library itself. For instance, you can offer search facilities and instant access to electronic magazine-articles that are stored somewhere else. This means integration with services from other suppliers (publishers, libraries etc).”

In the annual overview of the automated system marketplace Barry (2) outlines some developments in this area including: 

• Endeavor ( developers of the Voyager system) being acquired by Elsevier
• Sirsi ( developers of the Unicorn system) providing, through iBistro, enhanced content catalogue displays which include reviews, tables of contents and images of book covers.
• Ex Libris ( developers of ALEPH) offering the DigiTool Library product for building digital library collections.

 Many of the “hybrid library” projects that were undertaken within the UK’s eLib Programme covered aspects related to organising the integration of services.  Examples include AGORA, BUILDER, HEADLINE, HyLIFE and MALIBU – further details can be gathered via links on the eLib website (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/elib) and are described in articles such as those by Wynne et al. (3) and  by Palmer and Robinson (4). 

All these developments impact on the role and functions of libraries and have a major impact on staff. In the workshop we will spend some time discussing this impact and the future role of staff. Biddiscombe (5) describes the situation at Birmingham University Library and an idea of the staff structure there can be seen from the web page at: http://www.is.bham.ac.uk/aboutis/index.htm

 During the workshop we will discuss some of these developments using experiences gained from our own libraries and those that are known to us. 

References

1. Chris Rusbridge, Towards the hybrid library. Dlib Magazine, July/August 1998. Available at: http://mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/lis-journals/dlib/dlib/dlib/july98/rusbridge/07rusbridge.html
2. Jeff Barry, Automated system marketplace 2001: mergers and acquisitions continue: OPACs take a cue from Amazon.com. Library Journal, vol.126, no.6, April 2001. Available online at: http://www.libraryjournal.com/automated-marketplace/2001/ASM2001main.asp
3. Peter Wynne, Catherine Edwards and Maureen Jackson, Hylife: ten steps to success. Ariadne 27. March 2001.  Available at: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/hylife/
4. David Palmer and Bridget Robinson, Agora: the hybrid library from a user’s perspective. Ariadne, 26, January 2001. Available at: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/case-studies/
5. Richard Biddiscombe. The development of information professionals’ needs for Internet and IT skills: experiences at the University of Birmingham. Program, vol. 35, no.2, April 2001, pp 157 – 166.