c/o Katina Strauch 209 Richardson Avenue MSC 98, The Citadel Charleston, SC 29409 CHARLESTON CONFERENCE issue TM
volume 27, number 5 NOVEMBER 2015
ISSN: 1043-2094 “Linking Publishers, Vendors and Librarians” STL and Emerging eBook Business Models by Rebecca Seger (Senior Director, Institutional Sales, Oxford University Press)
ate last year, when Katina approached STL and other new models are disrupters, don’t want is to simply carry on with print us about the possibility of editing an and we, together, both publisher and librarian, models in digital as if they are one and the Lissued of ATG dedicated to STL, our need to be prepared for and to accept this as an same. We have just begun to scratch the surface first thought was “What will there be left to ongoing feature of our landscape. And, equally of what is possible in a digital environment talk about by November of 2015? Won’t we important, to consider the impact on the authors for all forms of scholarly communication, all have moved on by then?” Well, the short and faculty we both serve. and certainly new models and new modes of answer is “no.” We haven’t entirely moved We believe that we will continue to see new accessibility will come along that we have not on, and the sea of scholarly communications, models come and go and that this iterative cycle even thought of yet. the one in which we all swim, continues to be of acceptance and rejection is something we In addition to publisher views on demand- roiled by Short-Term Loans (STL) and other need to learn to live with. Perhaps journals, driven acquisition models like STL and its impact evolving and emerging business models for so much farther ahead than eBooks in staking on the current scholarly publishing business digital monographs, not to mention all the other out the digital territory, offer an analogy for us model, we have the consortia perspective formats that are equally important but outside to consider. The big deal was considered by provided by Kathi Fountain, Collection of our immediate scope here. almost all, and for some time, to Services Program Manager of the Orbis We are all of us living through actually be a good deal as well un- Cascade Alliance. The Alliance was an early an era in which the advent of digital til, for some institutions, it wasn’t, adopter of STL as a model at the consortial level, everything is producing enormous as the journal-publishing world and Kathi explains more about their original disruption in many areas. The taxi contracted and the size of the deals implementation as well as how they adapted to drivers protesting Uber are today’s swelled. And, in this case, it was continued on page 8 Luddites, smashing the equipment the market that decided it simply not because they are inherently an- wasn’t sustainable. ti-technology but because they are, We need to be realistic about What To Look For In This Issue: as the Luddites were before them, what is possible, and we need to Multi-Client Studies...... 68 afraid of losing their livelihoods. keep an open mind. What we Rethinking Monograph Acquisitions in a Large Academic Library...... 72 If Rumors Were Horses Gifted and Talented Education Resources...... 80 FIRST UP! VERY IMPORTANT! Regis- out roads. And this past Saturday when we Digitizing the Humanities: A How-To tration for the 2015 Charleston Conference thought it was all over, Leah and family had Guide for the Savvy Librarian...... 90 WILL BE in the Francis Marion hotel NOT another 4 inches of rain! Toni Nix and her Interviews the Gaillard Center!!! You must stop by the husband Dean, who live on the Edisto River Kari Paulson...... 32 Francis Marion to get your registration ma- near Cottageville, SC, had to move all their terial. Red shuttle buses can take vehicles, tractors, 4-wheelers, race trucks, Joyce Ogburn...... 36 you from the Francis Marion to lawnmowers, shed belongings, Pinar Erzin...... 42 the Gaillard Center, about 4 etc., out of the flooding waters. Alicia Wise...... 46 blocks. Thanks!! They even turned the Coast Guard Profiles Encouraged To begin, I want to helicopters away! What pioneers thank my great teams they are! At last count, water had Appalachian State University...... 40 here in South Carolina risen 15.75 feet and was finally Accucoms International BV...... 50 who, despite all the tor- dropping. We are praying there is no Plus more...... See inside rential rain and flooding more rain! Sharna Williams lives in have carried on so that the 2015 Charleston the Ravenel area and had to drive her van Conference will still go on! Leah Hinds through unbelievably deep water to get to the and her family who live in Gilbert, SC, near Conference office at the Citadel. At times, Columbia had to navigate several flooded continued on page 6 1043-2094(201511)27:5;1-X
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Against The Grain Against the Grain (USPS 012-618) (ISSN 1043-2094) is TABLE OF CONTENTS published six times a year in February, April, June, Sep- tember, November, and December/January by Against the v.27 #5 November 2015 © Katina Strauch Grain, LLC, 209 Richardson Ave., MSC 98, The Citadel, Charleston, SC 29409. Subscription price per year is $50 ISSUES, NEWS, & GOINGS ON U.S. ($60 Canada, $85 foreign, payable in U.S. dollars). Periodicals postage paid at Charleston, SC. Postmaster: Rumors...... 1 Letters to the Editor...... 6 Send change of address to Against the Grain, LLC, 209 Rich- ardson Ave., MSC 98, The Citadel, Charleston, SC 29409. From Your Editor...... 6 Deadlines...... 6 Editor: Katina Strauch (College of Charleston) FEATURES Associate Editors: Rosann Bazirjian (UNC-Greensboro) STL and Emerging eBook Business Models Cris Ferguson (Murray State) Guest Editors, Rebecca Seger and Lenny Allen Tom Gilson (College of Charleston) John Riley (Consultant) STL and Emerging eBook Business DDA In Context...... 20 Research Editors: Models...... 1 Defining a Comprehensive eBook Acquisition Judy Luther (Informed Strategies) by Rebecca Seger and Lenny Allen — We Strategy in an Access-driven World by Jason Assistants to the Editor: haven’t entirely moved on, and the sea of Price and Maria Savova — If libraries ensure Ileana Strauch scholarly communications, the one in which we that any money saved via DDA and STL in a Toni Nix (Just Right Group, LLC) all swim, continues to be roiled by Short-Term given year is immediately reinvested in books, Editor At Large: that would go a long way toward supporting the Dennis Brunning (Arizona State University) Loans (STL) and other evolving and emerging business models. path to ongoing book publishing sustainability. Contributing Editors: Rick Anderson (University of Utah) The Evolving DDA Project at the Orbis Reflections on the 2011 PDA issue.... 26 Sever Bordeianu (U. of New Mexico) Cascade Alliance...... 10 by Xan Arch — Xan was curious what the Todd Carpenter (NISO) authors from the 2011 ATG issue on PDA Bryan Carson (Western Kentucky University) by Kathleen Carlisle Fountain — DDA let thought about their articles now and how PDA Eleanor Cook (East Carolina University) us collectively own and share a variety of has changed since then. Anne Doherty (Choice) eBooks that had demonstrated value to the Anthony Ferguson Ruth Fischer (SCS / OCLC) membership. STL: A Publisher’s Perspective...... 28 Michelle Flinchbaugh (U. of MD Baltimore County) Academic Libraries and the Scholarly by Rebecca Seger and Lenny Allen — Pub- Joyce Dixon-Fyle (DePauw University) lishers, by and large, have made a commitment Laura Gasaway (UNC, Chapel Hill) Book Marketplace: Death by 1,000 to supporting libraries in their desire not to pay Chuck Hamaker (UNC, Charlotte) [Paper]Cuts?...... 14 William M. Hannay (Schiff, Hardin & Waite) for content until there is use. Mark Herring (Winthrop University) by Michael Zeoli — It is what has happened An Interview with Kari Paulson...... 32 Donna Jacobs (MUSC) since 2011-2012, and particularly over the past Lindsay Johnston (IGI Global) two years, that has caused high anxiety among VP, Market Development, ProQuest Books Myer Kutz (Myer Kutz Associates, Inc.) publishers and is causing many to reconsider by Rebecca Seger and Lenny Allen — It’s Tom Leonhardt just easier to dip into something you can cut Rick Lugg (SCS / OCLC) the models in which they had agreed to partic- ipate. This will have consequences for library incrementally (books) vs. something you cut off Jack Montgomery (Western Kentucky University) totally, like a journals collection. Bob Nardini (Coutts Information Services) content access and acquisition. Ann Okerson (Center for Research Libraries) Op Ed — I, Library...... 34 Rita Ricketts (Blackwell’s) Evidence-Based Selection at the Peter Shepherd (Project COUNTER) University of Denver...... 18 by Lura D. Sanborn — Will Watson predict Greg Tananbaum (Consultant) our information needs, answering them before Jared Seay (College of Charleston) by Michael Levine-Clark — As with any DDA we even know we have them? Deborah Vaughn program, it requires the library and vendor to work together to identify the right mix of Back Talk — I’m a Publisher Too!.... 94 Graphics: Bowles & Carver, Old English Cuts & Illustrations. titles to make available to users relative to the by Ann Okerson — There exists an immense Grafton, More Silhouettes. Ehmcke, Graphic Trade amount of money committed. number of kinds and types and shapes and Symbols By German Designers. Grafton, Ready-to-Use business models of publishing activity. Old-Fashioned Illustrations. The Chap Book Style. Production & Ad Sales: ATG INTERVIEWS Toni Nix, Just Right Group, LLC., P.O. Box 412, Cottageville, SC 29435, phone: 843-835-8604 Joyce Ogburn...... 36 Pinar Erzin...... 42 fax: 843-835-5892
Against the Grain / November 2015
elcome everyone to the 35th Charles- on PDA), and Rebecca Seger and Lenny Allen Cases of Note and Lolly Gasaway answers ton Conference issue of ATG and to (STL: A Publisher’s Perspective). Lenny and more and more copyright questions (in fact, WCharleston’s Gaillard Center! As Rebecca conclude their series of articles I just recommended her book to an untutored always we hope for no rain. And our fin- with an interview of Keri Paulson. Ad- copyright media librarian and he was reading gers are crossed that there are no glitches! ditional interviews are with Pinar Erzin, and underlining judiciously). Thank you for being here! Joyce Ogburn, and Alicia Wise. Our Op Myer Kutz continues to let us into his This issue is guest edited by Rebecca Ed “I, Library” is by Lura D. Sanborn scholarly publishing multi-client studies, Bob Seger and Lenny Allen and is on Short- and our Back Talk by Ann Okerson Holley talks retirement, Ramune Kubilius Term Loans (STLs) and the Emerging talks about publishing. (BTW, did y’all continues reports from the 34th Charleston eBook Business Models. This is an area notice the book review of Pagans: The Conference, Stacey Marien and Alayne of intense discussion between librarians, End of Traditional Religion... by Jim Mundt talk about shared collecting projects publishers, and aggregators. Articles are O’Donnell, another Back Talk editor and and there is much, much more. Keep reading! by Kathleen Carlisle Fountain (Orbis Cas- Charleston keynoter, in the September issue?) Meanwhile, I am sorry to say that daylight cade Evolving DDA Project), Michael Zeoli We have book reviews from Regina Gong savings time will end November 1 just before (Academic Libraries and the Scholarly Book and Tom Gilson and a Website review from the Conference! Boo hiss! If I ever ran for Marketplace), Michael Levine-Clark (Evi- Burton Callicott. Donna Jacobs has a per- political office (no!), it would be on the no dence-Based Selection), Jason Price and Ma- sonal memoir of the Emanuel AME Church daylight savings ticket! ria Savova (DDA in a Access-Driven World), shooting, Tom Izbicki explains collecting See y’all soon! Happy and safe travels! Xan Arch (Reflections on the 2011ATG issue for the Renaissance, Bruce Strauch gives a Love, Yr. Ed.
Letters to the Editor Rumors from page 1 Send letters to
6 Against the Grain / November 2015
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rate changes and how metrics are changing the nature of librarianship in the digital era. ke a closer look at.... Michael Zeoli, Vice President, Content Ta Development and Partner Relations at YBP, shares his view, backed by compelling data, of how DDA and STL are impacting the scholarly ecosystem. Michael Levine-Clark, Professor/ Associate Dean for Scholarly Communications The CHARLESTON REPORT and Collections Services, University of Denver Libraries, takes us forward to Evidence-based Business Insights into the Library Market Acquisitions, how this newer model works and, more specifically, how the University of Denver is implementing this model. You Need The Charleston Report... Jason Price, Director Licensing Operations if you are a publisher, vendor, product developer, merchandiser, at SCELC Library Consortium, and Maria consultant or wholesaler who is interested in improving Savova, Director of Information Resources and Systems at Claremont Colleges Library, have and/or expanding your position in the U.S. library market. graciously agreed to cover one of the high-level topics we feel is critical to an understanding of 00 STL and other non-standard PA models, Access Subscribe today at our discounted rate of only $75. vs. Ownership. And we’re especially grateful to Kari Paul- son for agreeing to be interviewed on STL and The Charleston Company how she sees this model, and other emerging 6180 East Warren Avenue, Denver, CO 80222 eBook models, within the framework of current library budgets and the ever increasing demand Phone: 303-282-9706 • Fax: 303-282-9743 for data as an acquisitions driver.
Bet You Missed It Press Clippings — In the News — Carefully Selected by Your Crack Staff of News Sleuths Column Editor: Bruce Strauch (The Citadel)
Editor’s Note: Hey, are y’all reading this? If you know of an article that should be called to Against the Grain’s attention ... send an email to
TOO DIFFICULT FOR ADULTS COLD WAR SPIES by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel) by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel) Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time has sold 14 million copies (1) Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel, Bombshell (1997) (Los and has been adapted for TV and an opera. Everyone always assumed Alamos atomic spy revealed by KGB files); (2)Paul Broda, Scientist the evil planet Camazotz — where everyone is regimented to be the Spies (2011) (Alan Nunn May, Canadian atomic traitor); (3) Christo- same — to be the Soviet Union. Now granddaughter Charlotte Voiklis pher Andrew, Defend the Realm (2009) (MI5 v. MI6); (4) Chapman has discovered three pages cut by the publisher that has the L’Engle Pincher, Treachery (2009) (MI5 head Roger Hollis as double agent); world all abuzz. (5) Kim Philby, My Silent War (1968) (Cambridge Five traitors). In them lies a warning that even a See — Frank Close, “Five Best,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. democracy can become too fixated on 31-Feb.1, 2015, p.C10. security and loose freedom. Woo. Can we say NSA? National Surveillance State? L’Engle had a hard time finding a LET’S READ ABOUT RISK publisher until she met John Farrar by Bruce Strauch (The Citadel) of Farrar, Straus and Co. Even he (1) Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World, (1910 warned it would not sell. It was too British Antarctic Expedition) (1922); (2) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, difficult for children. Flight to Arras (1942); (3) Herbert O. Yardley, The Education of a L’Engle replied, “The problem Poker Player (1957); (4) Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (story of the wasn’t that it was too difficult for children. It was too difficult for first Mrs. Rochester fromJane Eyre) (1966); (5) Alice Munro, Runaway adults.” (sinister men and depressed women) (2004). See — Jennifer Maloney, “A New Wrinkle in Time,” The Wall See — Al Alvarez, “Five Best,” The Wall Street Journal, July 25-26, Street Journal, April 16, 2015. 2015, p.C10. (Alvarez is the author of Pondlife: A Swimmer’s Journal.)
8 Against the Grain / November 2015
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Background we’re looking at overall trends as well. The Unfortunately, we did not accurately predict lthough the decision by the Orbis most important data points over time have been the budget impact of these changes. We real- Cascade Alliance to incorporate the usage data by publisher, the usage data by ized later that we should have, in fact, pulled Short-Term Loan into our consortial library, and the amount of the budget used for more titles. This past April, we had to suspend A STLs and purchases over time. We’ve tracked purchasing in order to stay within budget and acquisitions model predated me, I have been closely involved for the past two years, have the data on owned and unowned use and have keep the titles available. Given our negotiated a good understanding of that decision-making seen our overall cost per use decline as more purchasing multiplier, the cost of purchase was process, and I was most recently in charge titles are owned by the consortium. too high to maintain for the last few months of the fiscal year. of adapting our project when the STL rates Budgets & Budgeting changed in summer of 2014. The way we responded to the STL rates We have an annual, central budget for our in summer 2014 established a new practice The original decision to incorporate STL project, which is funded by the member librar- was driven by a desire to use a model that for our project. Now, in August, we remove ies. Our budget has changed over time with the oldest year of unpurchased titles to make clearly demonstrated value to the Alliance our initial pilot’s budget of $500K, which then membership before committing to purchase. room for the new additions. This year, we also rose to $750K, and then finally rose to $1M decided to reduce our price cap in order to We decided to work with EBL, as they really where it has been holding steady. Although pioneered the STL model and they worked with remove additional titles. Our goal is to make we added an eBook subscription database to it through the year within budget without any our preferred book vendor, YBP. STL was, at our portfolio, the vast majority of that budget the time, viewed as the most obvious means of additional crisis measures. is spent on DDA. There is always the question Budget and budget management are truly recording and understanding patron demand. of whether we need to ask for an increase, Budget was certainly one major consideration, core to our concerns and for me, as a manager but there is very little appetite for that at the of this project, I bear that responsibility, and and one of the great benefits that we saw in moment within the membership. EBL’s STL model was the flexibility to vary I’m watching it very closely. Our key bench- the purchase trigger over time, in order to ac- Unlike libraries, which can move funds marks are current year vs. last year spending commodate our existing fixed budget. from one part of their materials budget to an- and the average weekly spending. I track that other, our budget is finite and fixed. At the end as the year goes on, and then work with our There was also a desire to have both an of fiscal year 2014, we ended up in the black access and an ownership component to our group to determine how to manage the situation because we kept our purchase trigger high for if spending is off target. project, and STL provided that as well. Initial- the year, which left us with a budget surplus. ly, the members wanted a way to share eBooks Then, we took the available pool, looked very Evolving Models, Sustainability, and across the consortium like they’d been doing closely at overall usage, and found the titles How Libraries Can Manage Change for years with print. DDA let us collectively that had the most usage by the most members. So when you think about the consortium, own and share a variety of eBooks that had We made the decision to purchase those titles anything we do and any adjustments made to demonstrated value to the membership. directly using our available budget. the existing models impact 37 members, and Implementation & Initial The lack of predictability with DDA since whatever they do locally is shaped around what Results Achieved June 2014, however, means that we’ve been we do consortially. We don’t slice and dice managing our project in crisis-management content, as that isn’t really conducive to how We manage our project with the help of mode frequently during the last year to stay we manage the project. three key vendors: YBP, EBL, and OCLC. within budget. If we had a publisher, for example, that YBP maintains our profile, and they feed said it would withhold STL access for front the list of titles for activation to EBL. EBL STL Rate Increases & Response list content going back eighteen months, that activates the new titles and sends a record When the first wave of increased STL rates really complicates our task. Right now we’re set to OCLC. OCLC adds our holdings were announced in May 2014, we knew the able to say across the board what the price cap, and makes catalog records available to our increases would have a substantial impact on multiplier, publishers, and publication dates libraries initially and, now, centrally to our the project. We first analyzed the budget im- are. How do we then go about managing titles shared ILS. pact, and we looked carefully at what we had joining the pool 18 months later? How do we The project launched in July 2011 with a spent with each participating publisher in the communicate to libraries what is and is not small, six-month pilot. It turned into an ongo- prior year and what that spending would have included? Would libraries buy the titles before ing program at the end of Year One, so we’ve been had the new rates been in place for that they join our DDA pool 18 months later? The been managing it for four years now. At this same period. In many cases, our costs would introduction of front list embargoes reduces point, our budget and our project oversight have been significantly higher. Charges for the simplicity of our project. are in a fairly steady state. We’ve collectively the period of July 2013 through April 2014, Our present solution has been to remove purchased 2,300 titles from 22 imprints. Our for example, would have been an additional the content from publishers that have STL em- patrons used our titles 454,118 times, and just $443,000. bargoes. We are not able to justify purchasing over half of those uses were for owned content Those were costs that our budget could multiple copies of a title based on the first STL in the last year. not have absorbed with the project as it was, within the consortium, so we are leaving our Although we see our DDA program as so, working with EBL, we decided to pull libraries to decide if they will add the publish- stable, we recognize that publishers still con- approximately 5,000 unpurchased titles as a ers to their own local profiles. sider DDA a pilot and there is volatility in the cost containment measure. From August 1st of What does the potential embargo of addi- model and the marketplace. So every change 2014, titles that were above $250 or had a pub- tional content mean for us as DDA and STL is discussed, digested, and then we determine lication date of 2011 or earlier were removed. evolve? It has already altered the composition a plan of action to take things forward. We then sent the removed title lists to our of our title list. It’s changed how we view the We look closely at data every year and libraries, along with their relevant usage data. stability of our DDA project. This will be the receive reports from ProQuest monthly, so The libraries could then evaluate that use, and topic of the coming year. we’re able to track usage and purchasing, but those that had loans could be purchased locally. continued on page 12
10 Against the Grain / November 2015
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There were many meetings in October. The Ninth Outsell Sig- nature event was held in Pinehurst, NC. Success in the Digital Machine Age included over 140 information industry CEOs, COOs, and presidents from the U.S. and beyond. In the evening keynote, Subscription Management Subscription management L. David Marquet whose best-selling book Turn the Ship Around described how a submarine of followers became leaders. Other speak- Solutions for Libraries & E-procurement integration ers included Anthea Stratigos, co-founder and CEO of Outsell who Corporate Procurement E-journal set up and activation outlined trends that will matter in the future, Chris Giles, economics editor of the Financial Times, Wilma Jordan, founder and CEO of Prenax Inc. provides subscription E-journal URL maintenance the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), John Ross, President of management solutions for procurement Click-through access to e-content Analytics at Inmar and many others completed the speakers. There professionals and libraries. As a partner, were many unique networking opportunities and it’s truly impossible we provide a single point of contact for Cost center accounting to do justice to all the unique approaches provided by the attendees, managing electronic and paper Automatic claiming an amazing group of optimistic, energetic, creative, and innovative subscriptions, professional memberships entrepreneurs. and books. We offer a true one-stop shop Custom and branded e-portals for all business, scientific, technical, At the Signature event, I had the good fortune to sit next to Thane License negotiation and management medical, research publications and Kerner, CEO of Silverchair Information Systems, who has spoken electronic content. We save you time Flexible management reporting at the Charleston Conference several times. Will we see him this and money and eliminate the hassle of year? Meanwhile, heard from Oxford University Press’ Global Built in approval process working with multiple content suppliers. Academic Division that they have entered into an agreement with Express payments to publishers Silverchair to migrate their extensive portfolio of journals and many Prenax offers the flexibility of two online products to a new publishing platform powered by Silverchair’s platforms, one for servicing libraries and Check in option for print titles one suited for serving corporate SCM technology. Partnerships that provide usage customers. https://global.oup.com/academic/news/silverchair-announcement?c- statistics, rights management, discovery tools and single sign on. c=us&lang=en& Dick Gottlieb of Greyhouse Publishing was also at the Signa- ture event! It’s hard to keep up with all the distribution arrangement
Basch Subscriptions, Inc. acquisitions that Dick is making these days — Bowker, Salem Press, Prenax Inc. H.W. Wilson, etc., etc. Dick says he will be in Charleston for sure! 10 Ferry Street, Suite 429, Concord, NH 03301 Greyhouse.com/ (P) 603-229-0662 (F) 603-226-9443 continued on page 71 www.basch.com www.prenax.com
And this lack of a standard data set is an issue and will continue to The Evolving DDA Project ... be so. I don’t think there are workable models right now that serve the from page 10 needs of librarians — that demonstrate to us how to analyze the data, what it means, and how to then act on it — and that’s really the crucial What Can We Do As A Consortium element. Librarians need to know, for example, what happens when STL There remain many big questions about long-term sustainability on rates increase. What impact would removing embargoed titles by one the consortium side. We need to be able to model out what has come publisher have on costs? What happens when two years of titles from a before in order to have a sense of what we are able to do in the future. new publisher are added to a DDA profile? Where is the best use, and how I think that raises a major concern when we look at the evolution of can we design around that? Without a standard approach for analyzing libraries, electronic content, and librarians’ skill sets. ROI, we may defer to those producing the data to model the impact of I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think that my experience is marketplace changes or we may just make some educated guesses. The uncommon: I was not trained to purchase books after examining various libraries’ users are best served when we have a shrewd understanding of sets of metrics. I bought books in anticipation of local needs that were the value of the products we buy and make our decisions accordingly, based on plans, institutional research focus, the curriculum, and faculty and good data is the foundation. requests. Those are two completely different skill sets, and I have learned As publishers, aggregators, and librarians all continue to work on the job how to run analyses and use their results to make data-informed together to figure out what the best, most mutually sustainable models decisions. We as librarians need to continue to develop these skills that are for eBooks, let’s also collaborate to determine the right metrics and allow us to independently assess our success and adjust accordingly. the right analytic models. Such shared transparency may help build It’s much more natural for publishers or aggregators to serve this trust across partners while also providing librarians with confidence role because they’ve been running their businesses and understand how in their data and decisions. In the end, it will provide the widest range to assess ROI using very specific metrics. The volatility in the eBook of content at the best possible price to the libraries’ users, now and marketplace is driven in large part by what their data tell them about how in the future. new models impact their sales. While COUNTER book reports provide some useful information, li- Future Dates for Charleston Conferences brarians also rely on the more granular Preconferences and data their vendor partners provide. The Vendor Showcase Main Conference proprietary data collection methods used by vendors generate a variety of 2016 Conference 2 November 3-5 November useful but non-standard data points. 2017 Conference 8 November 9-11 November This puts librarians at a disadvantage 2018 Conference 7 November 8-10 November for understanding the comparative ROI 2019 Conference 6 November 7-9 November across various eBook platforms.
12 Against the Grain / November 2015
YBP Library Services delivers books to There are two important roughly 4,000 academic libraries in 55 coun- points: tries. YBP profiles nearly 70,000 English-lan- 1. Exponentially more book guage scholarly titles by hand every year from content is being distributed about 1,400 publishers, and handles many to academic libraries than more through library orders. eBooks, in all ever before (DDA Records their varieties and models, are integrated with are not just metadata, but print book supply and delivered both as part of provide immediate access library profiles and in collections and packages. to the full text). Currently, 23 eBook supplier platforms are 2. The size of the revenue supported. YBP occupies a unique position pie has shrunk significantly. in the supply of scholarly books to academic libraries, which affords us a broad perspective Jane Schmidt, Manager over rapidly shifting trends. of the Collection Services Team at Ryerson University, Over the past four years, YBP has distribut- has written an excellent article ed $1,000,000,000 in Demand-Driven Acquisi- defining the value of DDA in tions (DDA) Records to libraries. To provide conjunction with (and in the a context for this number, the pie chart below face of) other means of making shows the distribution (units) of full-text book monograph content available. content to academic libraries for the 12-month She notes that: period ending in June 2015: If DDA is a disruptive tech- nology for the collections librarian, it Academic libraries do not as a rule dupli- has the potential to be fundamentally cate titles, so the sheer magnitude of DDA altering for publishers […]1 Records (immediate full-text access) being While we have taken this quotation out of delivered to libraries cannot help but have context (the reference was specifically to pub- played a significant role in eroding publisher lisher packages), it also supports the broader sales.2 The average conversion rate of DDA point that new technology and models are Records into purchases has been extremely “fundamentally altering for publishers” (which low, as anyone following DDA/STL studies include small university presses, the largest and discussions is aware. Some publishers commercial publishers, and mostly that sea of have begun to refer to DDA Records as “free publishers that fall in between). books,” owing to the very low “trigger” or Over the past four years, on average, pub- purchase rates. DDA “Records” provide lishers have seen declines in excess of 20% access to the entire text and are not a simple in unit sales and 10% in revenue. Print sales MARC record as the name might suggest. have diminished by over 25%, while digital Digital pricing and sales models continue has increased by more than 100%. Though to be based on old print models, which are print losses far outweigh digital gains, the no longer adequate to the changing collec- equation might be seen as sustainable if the tion paradigms for monographs. Benefits pattern were moving ultimately towards a accruing to one part of the ecosystem are not For perspective on how book distribution replacement of print revenue with digital, sustainable to others under current business has changed over the past four years, the chart and if library budgets were viewed as stable. models. below shows the results for the same 12-month The transformation of content distribution, It is only since 2011-2012 that DDA/STL period four years ago: combined with trends in institutional change, have gained a significant foothold in the broad strongly suggest that neither of these academic library landscape and so begun to are likely. Over the past year, most demonstrate effects across the spectrum of publishers have seen slowing growth monograph collecting and use. Most studies in most digital sales categories and, are either too old to be very useful, or they for the first time, declines in some rely on studies and data that are simply too types of digital sales. Looking at the old. It is what has happened since 2011-2012, simple four-year growth of digital and particularly over the past two years, that sales in isolation and without more has caused high anxiety among publishers and granularity does not accurately capture is causing many to reconsider the models in the developing trends. which they had agreed to participate. This will For the 12-month period ending have consequences for library content access in June 2015, the charts above show and acquisition. that, while print remains the primary category for book acquisitions, the While most publishers are still doing what impact of DDA Records is significant. they’ve always done, libraries are changing DDA Records have become a primary means of rapidly. Ironically, some of the biggest advo- delivering content to libraries for potential dis- cates of DDA still spend 60% or more of their covery, while Short-Term Loan (STL) becomes a monograph budget on print books, while some primary means by which that content is accessed. continued on page 16 14 Against the Grain / November 2015
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A20982_AD_Springer_ATG_Print_Advertisement_NEW.indd 1 8/27/2015 1:10:25 PM and who pay attention to how Academic Libraries ... that environment is changing. from page 14 There will be some institutions that decide that they don’t need of the largest research libraries are pushing libraries or librarians. The IT monograph acquisitions to the extreme mar- department is going to take gins in favor of DDA Records and publisher those [functions, but] they’re collections. going to be hiring people To what degree does digital content avail- who have library expertise ability shape library collection management? [and] backgrounds to do those About 50% of English-language scholarly things... It’s a matter of break- books (YBP’s universe) are available simul- ing free of the library being taneously in print and digital formats (so some irrelevant, old-fashioned conversely, half the universe is unavailable thing that used to be important in digital format); however, it is a mistake but isn’t anymore.5 to assume that 50% is then available through How does a library remain apprised of this How are new technologies and publishing a preferred source in a preferred format or information? Is it changing so rapidly as to models affecting institutional dynamics? As means of access. require a system rather than specific informa- the trend of consolidation continues among tion?3 It is a puzzle that publishers, among vendors and aggregators, draws us in and becomes and even among libraries (consortial shar- complex quickly. Can we ing of resources from technical services to address this challenge? content), how will relationships be both But do we agree that it redefined and reshaped? is a challenge? One very While Demand-Driven Acquisitions and important issue is that Short-Term Loan are having a significant im- parochial perspectives are pact currently, they ultimately play ‘bit parts’ shifting within their own on a grander stage. The organizations that orbits. How is institution- manage these tools will continue to evolve al pressure influencing in ways that challenge us. As publishers these decisions? How respond to changes in library behavior in do use patterns and de- regard to monographs, libraries and the in- mand affect “collection” stitutions of which they are part will continue strategy or is collecting to change their approaches. Ours is a living, a valid goal in a digitally breathing ecosystem, not static, not linear, networked age? and certainly not stable for the foreseeable Considering the im- future. It will be, as it always has been, a Some of the digital content is only available pact of new technology to the library “canon process rather than an arrival. in publisher collections. No eBook aggregator interrupted” (to borrow from Jane Schmidt), can meet the 50% availability level. Multiple what is the role and function of an academic aggregator-publisher relationships are required library within an institution? Within a con- sortium? Within a broader community? In a to increase digital content accessibility, as the Endnotes chart below shows. recent article in Inside Higher Ed, Dane Ward, Dean of Libraries at Illinois 1. Demand-Driven Acquisitions: The Hege- State University, writes: mony of the Canon Interrupted, http://www. ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/con- It will take a university tent/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2015/ community to shape a fu- Schmidt.pdf. ture library that meets the 2. To be clear, there are multiple causes for specific needs of learning publisher sales decline, but abundant studies and research at that insti- and presentations, some here in Against the tution. This transition is Grain, have confirmed “big savings” earned not just about libraries. It from DDA and STL. is about how colleges and 3. Wasn’t this already an issue long before universities come together eBooks came along? It has long been vir- to solve a collective chal- tually impossible for a library to adequately manage the sea of new content being pub- lenge. Libraries cannot lished. Book profiling was just one system puzzle out their future developed to assist libraries in identifying 4 alone. new content — and like everything else, it Carl Straumsheim wrote is continuing to develop apace with the ex- a very interesting article based plosive effects of technology and new factors in library decision-making processes (why on interviews with a number some view it as a static artifact is surprising of deans who have had direct at just the time when more tools are needed). experience with the changing missions of Publishers vary widely in their relation- 4. Dane Ward, Inside Higher Ed, April ships with aggregators. Not only may they academic libraries. Patricia Tully, formerly 21, 2015. choose to work with just one or two aggrega- the Dean of Libraries at Wesleyan University is quoted: 5. Carl Straumsheim, “Clash in the tors, but they are increasingly selective about Stacks.” Inside Higher Ed, 12/14. the particular license models in which they It becomes more of a necessity [for a will participate. library] to have people who are experts
16 Against the Grain / November 2015
Evidence-Based Selection at the University of Denver by Michael Levine-Clark (Professor/Associate Dean for Scholarly Communications and Collections Services, University of Denver Libraries)
t the University of Denver, our first term loans and auto purchases, EBS does not from that library for the year. With this mix introduction to evidence-based selec- require anything further than the ability to sell of risks and rewards in mind, the library and Ation (EBS), also called evidence-based eBooks on a title-by-title basis so a wider range publisher should be able to come up with a rea- acquisition (EBA), came about 4-5 years ago of vendors can use it. sonable commitment for the year. Recognizing when we were approached by a large STM pub- In establishing an EBS program, the library that libraries generally have flat or declining lisher with the earliest version of this model. and eBook provider need to agree to terms up book budgets, but that EBS allows a library to Though the details are a bit fuzzy at this point, front, including how much money should be get access to more books than under traditional this publisher offered us something like the committed, how many eBooks to make avail- models, an analysis of recent spending by the most recent two years of eBooks (but not the able, how long to run the program, whether new library on the publisher’s books seems like a current year) on their platform, at a total price releases will be added as they are published, reasonable starting point. Recognizing the significantly higher than what we were then and whether to include rules that trigger a risks that each side takes on, it makes sense to paying annually for their books through other purchase or allow that decision to be left en- establish some higher and lower spending and sources, with the option to look at usage data at tirely to the library. Each of these decisions usage thresholds that mitigate that risk for each. the end of the year and select eBooks to acquire represents a tradeoff of risks and rewards for Figure 1 shows how this model might be ap- for our collection permanently. We looked at library and publisher. plied if a library and publisher agreed to a base our circulation data for this publisher’s print The first decision to make is how much commitment but promised that if certain usage books, saw that the rate of usage was relatively money should be committed. This is also the thresholds were hit the library would pay up low, and said, “No thanks.” riskiest decision for either partner. For the to a certain percentage more, and if usage was This first encounter with EBS turned us off library, over committing could lead to even- below a certain amount the library would pay of the model for a while. We were ramping up tual purchase of unused titles. For example, up to that percentage less. [See Figure 1 below.] our demand-driven acquisition (DDA) program if a library commits with EBL at that point,1 and EBS seemed like $50,000 for the year, a comparatively bad deal. DDA allowed us to but only $35,000 worth pay only for the amount of use, did not require of titles is used, that us to pay for anything more than the titles library would still be with use, and did not tie us to any particular obligated to identify publisher. EBS, on the other hand, required us and purchase an addi- to deposit a set amount of money with a single tional $15,000 worth of publisher, and obligated us to select books for titles. For the publisher, perpetual access whether they were used or not. a small commitment of DDA seemed like a better investment for us. money with high usage We remained interested in EBS, howev- of titles might mean that er, because it had some intriguing benefits many highly used titles not available in an aggregator-based model. go un-purchased. In Most significantly, because some publishers this scenario, with that have held titles out of DDA programs, pub- same $50,000 commit- lisher-based EBS would allow us to acquire ment, but with usage of titles that were not otherwise available to us $65,000 worth of titles, on demand, and because these titles were on the library would only be obligated to purchase After determining how much money to the publisher’s platform, they would generally $50,000 worth of books. The relative risk commit and which titles will be available in have less restrictive digital rights management changes if there are minimum thresholds of use the pool, the next step is considering how (DRM). In addition, as we were hearing from that trigger a purchase (for instance, all books titles will eventually be selected for purchase. publishers that declining sales were making it with two or more uses must be purchased) or if It can be as simple as just agreeing to spend difficult for them to continue publishing some the only obligation is for the library to purchase the committed sum at the end of the year, with types titles, we felt that this would be a way to titles up to the committed amount. all choice on titles up to the library, in which guarantee some publishers consistent revenue. The next decision is how many eBooks case the publisher will provide the library with In January 2013 we began an EBS program to include in the agreement. From a library usage data and the library will select titles with Palgrave as a way of exploring how this perspective, having the broadest range of titles based on whatever criteria it wishes. In this model might work at the University of Denver. available as possible would likely be most ap- case, a library might opt to choose the most As a publisher for which we had high circula- pealing, but could potentially lead to a greater highly used titles or might opt to buy some tion rates, Palgrave seemed like a good choice commitment of money. From a publisher per- lower used titles for some reason. But these for expanding access through EBS. spective, the larger the set of titles, the greater decisions can be more complex, and some of the risk of providing access to material that that complexity could benefit the library. For How EBS Works might be used without payment. This pool of instance, a library might negotiate to allow both EBS is a fairly simple model, which allows titles could be selected title-by-title, by subject, package and title-by-title selection within the an eBook vendor to provide a library with by publication year, or could include all titles program, and could negotiate for a discounted access to a collection of titles for some pre-de- available on the platform, including new titles price when selecting a subject package. Or termined time (generally a year) in exchange added as they are published. a library could negotiate to pay list price for for a deposit of money and an agreement to With these decisions and risks in mind, the titles with a minimum threshold of use but a select titles valued at that deposit amount at library and publisher can tailor an EBS plan to discount on unused or low-use titles that it opts the close of the agreement.2 In practice, any their specific needs. Balanced against the risks, to purchase. Another scenario might involve eBook provider could offer EBS, but it has there are rewards for a library — a wider range usage thresholds that require a purchase, with so far been offered on publisher platforms. of titles available to its users than would be all books used three or more times, for instance, Unlike DDA, which requires a sophisticated possible with speculative purchasing — and for requiring a purchase. technical infrastructure to allow a mix of short- the publisher — a guaranteed stream of revenue continued on page 20
18 Against the Grain / November 2015
Evidence-Based Selection ... from page 18
While most EBS programs are established on an annual basis, it makes sense to think of them as ongoing projects that would be used to build collections over time. In this case, it is important to look at usage over multiple years, both of purchased and un-purchased titles. A title used once in each of the first two years of a program might make a good candidate for purchase in the third. And patterns of usage used so far in 2015 have been used two or more more titles than it could afford to purchase for titles already purchased might be useful for times. See Table 1 for details about usage and speculatively. All of the titles purchased have assessing future purchases. purchasing. [See Table 1 above.] been used at least once, and usage has increased every year. EBS at the University of Denver Our selection criteria in both years were straightforward. We If implemented correctly, EBS After a modest start, the Palgrave EBS purchased all of the titles in 2013 can benefit both the library and program has evolved into a success. In Janu- that had multiple uses and chose the publisher. Palgrave has seen ary 2013, we made 11,871 titles available and single-use titles on political science increased spending at the Uni- deposited $33,500, which was a little more than and international relations, subjects versity of Denver at a time when we had spent annually on print titles on average that typically get used heavily at monograph spending in general has over the previous two years. This increased to the University of Denver. In 2014 gone down. The university has been 13,461 titles in 2014 with a deposit of $36,850. we used the same criteria, and also able to provide its users with more By the middle of 2015, we had 14,742 titles looked at usage of titles in 2013, titles than it was able to in the past, available for potential purchase with a deposit when possible selecting titles with a while purchasing only titles with of $40,535. single use in year one and a second single use demonstrated demand. We did not have any set expectations for in year two. The dramatic increase in usage usage, but did hope to avoid purchasing titles in the first seven months of 2015 indicates that with no demonstrated usage, and ideally hoped in the third year of the program we will end up Endnotes to purchase only titles with multiple uses. In selecting only titles with multiple uses. 1. Levine-Clark, Michael, “Developing each of the first two years we have ended up a Multi-Format Demand-Driven Acquisi- purchasing some single-use titles. In 2013, Conclusions tion Model,” Collection Management 35, we had 795 uses spread across 466 titles, with Evidence-based selection is a model nos. 3-4 (2010): 201-207; Levine-Clark, Michael, “Building a Demand-Driven only 163 of these used two or more times. We that allows an eBook vendor to develop a Collection: The University of Denver Expe- ended up purchasing 357 titles. In 2014, we demand-driven acquisition program without rience,” in David Swords, ed. Patron-Driven had 1,483 uses spread across 914 titles, with having the complex technical infrastructure Acquisitions: the Revolution, the Evolution, 279 of those used two or more times. 71 of required for automatic DDA. As with any and the Future. Invited chapter. (Munich: these titles, with 172 uses, were titles we had DDA program, it requires the library and K.G. Saur, 2011): 45-60. already purchased in 2013. We ended up vendor to work together to identify the right 2. NISO DDA Working Group, De- buying an additional 373 titles in 2014. Of mix of titles to make available to users rel- mand-Driven Acquisition of Monographs: the 71 titles purchased in year one and used ative to the amount of money committed. A Recommended Practice of the National again in year two, 36 had had just a single use Information Standards Organization. (Bal- In the University of Denver’s experience timore: National Information Standards in 2013. From January through July 2015, with Palgrave, those decisions seem to have Organization, 2014), http://www.niso.org/ usage has increased dramatically. In the first worked. In the first two-and-a-half years of apps/group_public/download.php/13373/ seven months of the year, 841 titles have been the program, the library has spent a little more rp-20-2014_DDA.pdf. Accessed 22 Au- used 2,050 times (as opposed to 914 titles used money than it was spending on print Palgrave gust, 2015. 1,483 times in all of 2014). 438 of the titles titles in the past, but has gained access to far
DDA In Context: Defining a Comprehensive eBook Acquisition Strategy in an Access-driven World by Jason Price, PhD (Director of Licensing Operations, SCELC Library Consortium)
n a sense, book acquisition strategy has and age of their home institution’s library users’ universe of immediate book access to a always been driven by access. Before and the skill of the librarians who built their global scale. They easily discover and expect IeBooks, the only way to provide library collections. Speculative purchasing of books access to the broadest possible range of books, users with immediate access to a large that would serve users well in the short and regardless of local ownership. Their concern collection of books was to anticipate which long run was a fundamental library function. has shifted from “Does the library have this?” ones they would want and purchase them title The advent of Internet search and e-com- to “How long will it take to get it?” Our users by title: whether by catalog, slip notification, merce, massive book digitization projects, now live with the growing expectation (and or customized purchasing profile. The universe two-day print book delivery, and instantaneous under-recognized luxury) of instant delivery of books that a student or faculty member had eBook “delivery” brought about by the likes in our brave new access-driven world. These immediate access to was defined by the size of Google and Amazon has multiplied our continued on page 22
20 Against the Grain / November 2015
For 100 years, OSA’s content has fueled discoveries and shaped real-world applications. OSA offers flexible subscription options for accessing this valuable content.
https://www.osapublishing.org (3) Short-Term Loan (STL) — a special case of pay-per-view — is DDA In Context: Defining a Comprehensive … another way to provide discounted access to eBook content. While the from page 20 discount for STL access (currently ranging from 40-85% off purchase list price depending on publisher and duration) is significantly lower changes demand that library content and services quicken and expand, than the discount for subscription access, and STL access is far more lest they become irrelevant. ephemeral than subscription or purchase package access, this mode is On the print side, most libraries have responded in kind, reducing far more flexible, in that title-by-title choice is driven directly by the user book interlibrary loan waiting periods from a couple of weeks to a couple and unused titles are not paid for. Even though titles that are “triggered” of days through union catalogs and coordinated courier service. Some for purchase via DDA after one or more STLs ultimately end up costing have even adjusted their print book acquisitions to ensure rapid access more than list price, the STL/DDA combination allows libraries to offer to a broader range of titles, establishing demand-driven print programs immediate access to a larger number of titles with no upfront charge. Since and/or cross-library cooperative collection development. libraries tend to allocate as much to these programs as they can afford or It is within the rapidly evolving world of eBooks, however, that the far consider appropriate, this approach has the effect of “stretching the dollar” greater opportunity to expand book access lies. Internet-based technology by redistributing the same total expenditure to a larger number of titles. has birthed a variety of eBook acquisition modes that differ by orders of (4) Demand-driven Acquisition (DDA) programs typically trigger magnitude in number of accessible titles per acquisition dollar. As each title-by-title purchase after a usage-based threshold is met. They require of these modes emerged, library collection developers made bottom-up or sophisticated real-time usage tracking at the title level in order to apply top-down decisions about how much of their library’s budget to dedicate the trigger appropriately, which is available heretofore only on aggrega- to each mode. These decisions were constrained by historical practice tor platforms. Although titles purchased by DDA are rarely available and made without foresight into the nature of future eBook acquisition at a significant discount, one recent model offers DDA of a large col- modes or the (varied) discount levels that would be associated with them. lection of slightly older eBooks (i.e., with a date profile matching that Some libraries responded quickly, adding subscription and purchase of subscription collections) at a discount as high as 45% off list price. packages — new acquisition modes that significantly expanded access While short-term loan is not required for a viable DDA program, the over the title-by-title pre-purchasing approach of the print-based world. most successful examples employ either affordable STL or a liberal free Others were (and many still are) much more conservative, avoiding access policy to ensure that eBooks that are purchased are truly needed subscription because of its ongoing expense and impermanence, and/or by the library’s users. For example, JSTOR’s current model allows for avoiding packages because of the lack of choice that results from their six free chapter views or four free chapter downloads before purchase intrinsic inclusion of the unwanted along with the desireable. These is initiated. Similarly, Rittenhouse offers three free downloads before aversions are understandable, given unpleasant experiences with ejournal the library is required to make a purchase decision. package subscriptions that insidiously command more and more than their (5) Evidence-based Selection — Another way of vetting content be- share of the budget whilst adding more and more mostly unwanted content. fore paying full price for ownership is the evidence-based mode. It opens Then came patron-driven acquisition. After some initial missteps up a large pool of titles for unlimited user access, deferring purchasing by NetLibrary and a (resulting?) period of significant resistance in the decisions to a later date. This allows selection to be based on local usage library community, aggregator-based demand-driven acquisition has been data, among other considerations. As with classic DDA, this mode allows widely adopted. It has been popular enough to spur publishers to offer the library to leverage “ownership” dollars to expand current access with- their own low-tech version, known as evidence-based selection. These out requiring sophisticated (yet inflexible) thresholds to make the final two acquisition modes offer the best balance of the access and ownership purchase “decisions.” Although this mode requires a minimum spend worlds — a likely driver of their burgeoning popularity. Both modes commitment and generally does not include a discount, it is commonly offer temporary access to a large customizable set of eBooks at no charge, used for providing access to a publisher’s most recent titles, making it a with payment due upon significant use or through purchase at the end of good complement to discounted publisher backfile collections. a semester or year-long period of unfettered access. Furthermore, they (6) Title-by-title Purchasing — this acquisition mode was the offer libraries a much greater level of choice than any fixed package can. only option in the print world and is still preferred by many libraries Although usage-driven acquisition modes have hit a sweet spot on for eBooks. Although it may include reviewing general lists of newly the access versus ownership spectrum, they have a number of draw- published eBooks, it is often dominated by profile-based purchasing backs, not the least of which are reduced predictability, sustainability, which is either automatic or notification-based, and usually includes a and value (i.e., higher cost per accessable title). Given the inherent mixture of both. Although print books profiled or ordered through a tradeoffs built into each of these new acquisition modes, libraries have bookseller like YBP can be discounted as much as 15 to 20%, title-by- the opportunity — or perhaps the obligation — to define and implement title purchasing of eBooks is rarely discounted more than 5%. a comprehensive eBook acquisition strategy that uses a combination of acquisition modes to maximize access while ensuring that their users Caveat Emptor — Let the Buyer Beware are served as effectively as possible over time. Although the optimal ratio of expenditure across these eBook acqui- sition modes will vary across libraries, we believe that every library’s eBook Acquisition Modes currently in optimal strategy will incorporate most of them. Too often we have Use in Academic Libraries heard librarians express a principle-based judgement against a particular (1) Aggregator Subscription Packages cover a wide variety of con- acquisition mode. “My library doesn’t subscribe to eBooks…” “We tent in multiple subject areas, from multiple publishers and publication only buy eBooks title by title…” “We won’t buy eBooks with DRM years. These collections provide unlimited simultaneous access to tens or simultaneous user restrictions...” Each of these all-or-nothing posi- of thousands of eBooks at an annual subscription price that is 99% less tions is based on a rational objection to the shortcomings of a particular than the cost of ownership of the included titles. They do not include acquisition mode. Each also belies, however, the rational cost-benefit the most recently published titles, which are embargoed for 6-18 months. evaluation that is necessary to maximize access via a well-reasoned comprehensive acquisition strategy. (2) Publisher-direct Subject-specific Package Purchases tend to be discounted by 30-90% depending on the publisher and the age of the The optimal mix of acquisition modes will vary depending on the content. In addition to this low per-title cost of perpetual ownership, relative value each library places on key factors that differ among them, these packages proffer unlimited, simultaneous, DRM-free use. Fur- including: thermore, in an open Web search, their contents are much more easily • Choice of content / Collection quality discovered than are their siloed, aggregator-hosted cousins. • Discount — the cost per accessible title relative to list price It is worth emphasizing here that maximizing access per acquisitions • Ease of use — (Simultaneous, Downloadable, Discoverable) dollar does not always require “just-in-time” acquisition of content. • Permanence — mandate for current versus future access to Deep discounts on subscription and publisher packages make these “just- the scholarly record in-case” approaches very attractive as a foundation for the usage-driven • Predictability of cost — relative predictability or risk “just-in-time” approaches that follow. continued on page 24 22 Against the Grain / November 2015
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CC Charleston Ad 8.5"x11".indd 1 07/09/2015 13:25 completely disqualified their most recent titles from STL availability, DDA In Context: Defining a Comprehensive … presumably to compensate for the lower number of books being pur- from page 22 chased as DDA has been more widely adopted. Libraries that have not adjusted their profiles to compensate are exhausting their annual Development of a truly optimized strategy should be based on a DDA budgets on STLs well before the fiscal year is out. Others have thorough evaluation and prioritization of all of these factors as aspects of downsized their programs to cover fewer titles, thereby decreasing the each library’s institutional value system. Although the recommendations value of STL/DDA programs to libraries and their users. If this trend below reflect the authors’ emphasis on maximizing access by minimiz- culminates in short-term loan becoming a thing of the past, it is likely ing the cost per available title, we encourage libraries to formalize and to lead to much more focused DDA profiles, designed to keep the end nurture a broader perspective. user engaged in the process, rather than to expand the local library’s Three Recommended Tactics that Complement breadth of access. In the face of these changes, publishers, aggregators, and libraries continue to struggle together to develop a better solution Demand-driven Acquisition aimed at expanding access in a sustainable way. (1) Subscribe to both Major eBook Aggregator Subscription (3) Minimize eBook Pre-purchase Plans — In most cases, the range Packages — Some libraries continue to hold the line against subscription of new eBook acquisition modes (1-5) should allow libraries to minimize eBooks, which is understandable given the ballooning portion of the speculative “just-in-case” purchasing of individual eBook titles at full average library budget that is dedicated to subscription-based products. price. In the context of demand-driven acquisition, eBook pre-purchase The difference between the annual percentage price increase of sub- plans (more commonly — and colloquially — known as “eBook approval scriptions and a library’s annual budget increase percentage creates an plans”) require careful scrutiny. Why would a library buy its eBooks “inflation gap.” Left unchecked, it reduces the discretionary proportion speculatively when it can make those eBooks (and more!) available for of the library budget, typically used for book purchases. In fact, in no additional charge, and avoid purchase until the point of significant librarians’ minds, “more subscriptions” often equals “fewer books.” use? In a world uncomplicated by short-term loans which significantly The logical result is a regular cancellation program and a growing inflate the ultimate cost of purchase, the answer is clear — no library aversion to new subscriptions. Thus it is not without a great deal of would! Instead, eBook “approval” plans should profile a larger set of respect that we disagree with libraries that adhere to a “no subscription” the best eBooks that the library would purchase — if it could afford them eBooks policy. eBook access must not fall victim to the tyranny of all. These profiles then establish the eBooks that will be available for the inflation gap just because eBook packages are the new kids on the DDA, counting on a predictably-sized subset of them being triggered for subscription block. Instead, their value should be assessed relative to purchase, and allowing users to select the most useful from among a set other subscription-based resources and eBook acquisition modes. In of the best possible. As such, eBook pre-purchase plans make little sense our opinion, their value proposition is simply too great to be refused. when they can be replaced by well-crafted DDA profiles. At a 99+% discount off purchase prices for one year of access, it In the presence of increasingly costly short-term loans, however, would take between 100 and 300 years of subscription expenditure minimizing eBook pre-purchase plans is a bit more complicated. To to gain ownership of the same collection of eBooks. This makes the the extent that a library can be certain that an eBook will be triggered, relative value of these subscriptions 10-30 times greater than a primary it makes sense to pre-purchase it to avoid having to pay for short-term source database subscription (given that the standard primary source loans and full purchase price for the same eBook — for example, course purchase cost is ten times the cost of subscription). adopted eBooks. If publishers were to extend the same discounts to Subscription collections include unlimited simultaneous user access: “approval” eBooks as they do for print, they would give libraries an full price purchase of those same eBooks on the same platform are additional incentive to pre-purchase speculatively. In a way, e-approval subject to simultaneous or maximum use restrictions. plans “pre-package” content by certain criteria, determined by the profile, Like DDA, subscription collections expand access, allowing usage sta- most commonly LC class, similarly to the way publishers pre-package tistics to be used to identify titles for perpetual access purchase (as desired), subject content, and thus it makes sense for them to be discounted more. and they allow for this at a tiny fraction of the cost of short-term loan. Where Will We Go From Here? The value of these collections increases in the context of a de- This article has provided a snapshot of currently available eBook mand-driven program because they provide a critical mass of potentially acquisition modes and recommended a few tactics for employing them relevant eBooks whose cost is NOT based on usage. Given roughly as part of a much-needed library-specific overall eBook acquisition 170,000 unique titles available to a library that subscribes to both strategy. The cauldron and crucible of current conditions jointly tended EBSCO’s eBook Academic and ebrary’s Academic Complete, and by aggregator, publisher, and library alike will undoubtedly “bubble a non-overlapping 42,500 eBook demand-driven acquisition profile up” more options and (hopefully) will consume some of the dross. As (for example), unlimited usage of an average of four out of every five we proceed in search of a sustainable future for eBook publishing in eBooks or these aggregator platforms is covered at no additional charge the electronic world, key questions arise: what portion of each library’s to the library. budget should be spent on books, and to what extent is it the library’s It is perhaps the case that a majority of libraries do subscribe to one responsibility to maintain it? of these two collections. To our knowledge, however, it is relatively rare Booksellers, publishers, and aggregators have observed a significant for libraries to maintain subscriptions to both. Some cite the significant decrease in book sales to academic libraries over the past few years. 30% overlap between the packages as a deterrent. Yet the annual cost Have libraries greatly reduced their book spending as they have imple- of the collections is low enough, relative to the cost of purchasing even mented STL and DDA? Or has that spending just shifted away from a small subset of the unique eBooks in the second collection via (STL ownership and toward access? It seems likely that both have occurred. &) DDA, to effectively justify subscription to both despite this overlap. To the extent that libraries have reduced book spending via im- (2) Use DDA to Fill in the Gaps between Discounted Acquisition plementation of demand-driven acquisition, they have reduced the Options — We recommend targeted purchase of discounted publisher perceived sustainability of academic book publishing. It also seems packages in subject areas of interest for eBooks that are not available clear, however, that as libraries shift book spending toward access and via subscription — like front list titles for example — or eBooks that away from 100% ownership, the payoff from publication will shift from are considered of “ownership value” for long-term preservation. Along a typical three-year profit and loss calculation to one where income with subscription, these should comprise the foundation of every aca- from book access (and purchase!) continues on a longer time horizon. demic library’s eBook “collection.” DDA programs with STL are most If libraries ensure that any money that is saved via DDA and STL in a effective at filling in the gaps and providing access to additional titles given year is immediately reinvested in books (rather than other content that libraries might not want to retain in perpetuity. At the same time, types), that will go a long way toward supporting the path to ongoing the built-in purchase trigger ensures that well used content will not book publishing sustainability that libraries, publishers, and aggregators disappear from the collection. are seeking together. In order to do so, libraries will need to actively Over the past year-and-a-half, however, many publishers have defend their book budgets against the ongoing impact of the subscrip- more than doubled their short-term loan prices, and some have even tion-based inflation gap.
24 Against the Grain / November 2015
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our years ago, I edited a PDA issue for Against the Grain. buy. If we had functionally unlimited Patron-driven acquisition was a hot topic then, and conference resources, I’d be in favor of erring on Fprograms were full of sessions on library experiences with this the side of inclusiveness — buying as purchasing method. I was curious what the authors from the 2011 issue much high-quality and high-relevance scholarship as we can and thought about their articles now and how PDA has changed since then. making all of it available to our students and scholars. But that’s Bob Johnson’s article started off the 2011 issue by outlining the not the world we live in, sadly. We live in a world of strictly, basics of PDA. He had implemented a PDA program at UCI in 2010 even drastically limited resources, and I have no choice but to and was ready to discuss the main issues a library should consider be- deliberately exclude large swathes of the scholarly record from fore starting one of their own. Now, Bob no longer works in collection my library’s collection. And of all the criteria available for me development, but his colleague Keith Powell provided an update on to use in deciding what small subset of the scholarly record to UCI’s program. include, I still can’t think of a better and more responsible one Here at the UCI Libraries we have had considerable success than genuine, demonstrated local need. with an e-preferred DDA program over the last several years. In 2011, Michael Levine-Clark focused his contribution on how Our first pilot begun in late 2010 withCoutts/MyiLibrary was to maintain a PDA program over time. He comments that many of the very informative and allowed us to launch a second pilot with issues that he discussed in 2011 are still concerns today. YBP/EBL in January 2012. This second pilot had the necessary Four years ago, I wrote about what I thought it might take to linking infrastructure we desired with our print approval programs make DDA the primary means of building collections in academic and now has been fully operationalized as a standard purchasing libraries. At the time I recognized that most libraries would not program. We have loaded over 25,000 records — over $2,000,000 want to go this route, but believed (as I still do) that for many worth of content, while our actual DDA short-term loan (STL) libraries a large DDA consideration pool would provide their and purchase costs of that content have been substantially under users with the broadest and deepest collection possible. I saw $150,000 to date. Having a DDA program has allowed us to several barriers to this expansive vision of DDA, two of which continue to provide a large amount of relevant content to our are worth noting. 1) I observed that DDA would not work on users while minimizing costs during a time of serious budgetary a broad scale unless more titles were available through DDA constraint. models. While there was definite progress in this regard after At UCI, we use an STL model where we purchase on the third 2011, publishers have recently begun pulling back from DDA use. This creates an additional premium for the materials we with increased STL costs and limitations on front-list titles, and purchase, but the overall savings combined with our access to some have probably quietly stopped placing titles into DDA much greater content far outweighs that premium on cost. The pools at all. 2) I stated that for DDA to be anything more than a rising cost of STLs is creating pressure to reevaluate our current complement to traditional collection development, we needed a model, and we are monitoring this. Additionally, we have seen way to ensure long-term preservation of those titles in our con- general usage in terms of STLs and purchases increasing as we sideration pools that we had not yet purchased. This preservation load more content and as eBooks become more acceptable to need is something that the NISO Demand-Driven Acquisition of users in various disciplines. Our costs this next year alone may Monographs Working Group, which I co-chaired, articulated in match our entire costs to date over the past three years. Even its recommended practice document published in June 2014. It then the savings will continue to be significant. is still something that is vitally important, but as yet there is no DDA has been a success for UCI, yet increasing costs and usage preservation solution for not-yet-owned content. may create a less favorable return. Nevertheless, UCI’s success Jason Price wrote in 2011 about the effect of Digital Rights Man- with e-preferred DDA has allowed us to investigate now the agement (DRM) on patron-driven acquisition. possibility of a print DDA pilot. So, as we all know, change is Four years later...and libraries and their users are still frustrated constant and adaptability necessary. by simultaneous user restrictions and digital rights management Sandy Thatcher and Rick Anderson love a good debate, and that’s (DRM) of books they own on aggregator platforms. Although exactly what they contributed in 2011. They debated the effect of PDA there have been a couple of noteworthy improvements in on scholarly publishing. Sandy has since retired but is still thinking these areas of friction, the dual access that would allow the about library issues. He says: ideal marriage of sophisticated demand-driven purchasing and My view of PDA has become somewhat more nuanced since the DRM-free use remains elusive and exclusive to the few savvy article appeared. I now tend to think of it as a mixed blessing. libraries that have managed to negotiate it. At least one major On the one hand, it may actually help counter any bias that exists aggregator (ebrary) now provides an option to automatically and about purchasing revised dissertations (a subject about which seamlessly upgrade a single-user book to multi-user based on Rick and I have sparred over the years). On the other hand, demand for the individual book. Additionally, many publishers it potentially has a negative influence on cash flow as it likely are experimenting with evidence-based selection (EBS) models results in delayed ordering of monographs that under approval in lieu of the sophisticated triggering systems that are still unique plans would have been ordered at the time of first publication, to aggregators. The impending demise of the short-term loan and it poses a threat to the income stream from course adoption component of demand-driven acquisition may reduce the need of paperback editions (and for that reason some presses have kept for sophisticated triggers, but the appeal of a “one stop shop” and some books out of PDA systems and also the eBook aggregations desire for flexible, responsive allocation of book funds across like the ones that JSTOR and Project MUSE run). publishers suggest that publisher-by-publisher EBS is only a partial solution, at best. Rick agrees: In 2011, we heard from Emily McElroy and Susan Hinken about That PDA is a mixed blessing, as all collection development the Orbis Cascade Alliance DDA program. This program was only in strategies and tools are. I have never claimed (and would never the design stage at that point, but now is up and running. The current claim) that PDA is a perfect solution to the problems of library chair of the Alliance eBook team, Serin Anderson, comments on the collection-building. Unfortunately, perfect solutions aren’t 2011 article. available to us; we’re stuck with a situation in which genuine needs (not just wants) greatly outstrip the resources available, It’s fascinating to reflect on an article that, while written a short which means we have no choice but to make difficult and some- time ago, outlines a program that has seen so much change. times wrenching decisions about what to buy and what not to continued on page 28 26 Against the Grain / November 2015
STL: A Publisher’s Perspective by Rebecca Seger (Senior Director, Institutional Sales, Oxford University Press)
“I saw the crescent, but you saw the whole of the moon.” — The Water Boys ensure that those in the discipline are made aware of new titles of relevance to them. And this is far more important than ever before; if he introduction of Short-Term Loan profile of the author, permissions, number of we are to be reliant on demand from users to (STL) into the current range of models images, etc., but for the purposes of illustrating drive purchasing, we have to make sure they available for the access of electronic the business model, let’s continue with this T know it’s available, and what it’s about. We content has been the cause of much discussion particular specification. during the past couple of years and, dare we work very closely with the author of every These costs are made up primarily of single book, which at OUP must be approved say it, some contention in what is otherwise a expenses for copyediting, page composition, generally cordial area of mutual mission-based by the Delegates to the press, senior scholars proofreading, and the author’s advance against around the world who are tasked with the endeavor. A full year following the introduc- royalties. This may surprise many readers, tion of changes to the rate structure of STL, simple mission of ensuring OUP is publish- but these costs do not go away in the digital ing scholarship of the highest quality. And there remain questions about the model and, world. The actual “PPB” — paper, printing, based on direct conversation with numerous royalties management — while royalties on and binding — only make up one-third of the 500 copy sales may not make a significant dif- librarians across the country, a lack of com- costs. And you can imagine the buying pow- plete clarity as to how and why this model ference in the life of an academic, it does have er that OUP has compared to many smaller to be managed and we have a responsibility to has impacted the publishing of the scholarly presses — even a 10% increase on those costs monograph. the author to continue to manage that payment can be significant. as long as a work continues to sell, and there This presents us with an excellent oppor- On top of that are indirect costs that you is a cost in stewarding that. And when you tunity, as publishers, to peel back the curtain, may not even think about, warehousing for one, produce a few thousand titles a year, or even as it were, and look at the current monograph in both physical and digital formats. There is a few hundred, that number rapidly increases. publishing model, how it developed, and how a cost associated with warehousing a digital And let’s be very clear: not a single one of new and evolving models not limited to STL object for eternity, and in fact, with the variety are impacting it. Certainly much has been these publishing functions has or is likely to of different platforms, publishers actually have disappear in the digital era. written about the current state of academic to produce multiple forms of digital objects. At So what does the profile of a typical ac- publishing, and the pages of ATG alone carry Oxford we are producing XML for our own ademic monograph look like? Though the many such articles. And while there are many platform, UPDF for the institutional eBook number has been slowly declining for years — areas of academic publishing, as the scope of aggregators, and epub3 for the consumer again, see any one of numerous recent articles both for- and not-for-profit presses is vast, we eBooks sellers. All of this requires resources in these very pages — the lifetime sales of a are here limiting ourselves to discussion of the in order to have the processes, the people, and monograph range from roughly 350 to 700 scholarly monograph alone. the third-party vendors needed to create all units on the very high and, we might add, rare The scholarly monograph, in its current these formats. format, has existed for hundreds of years. As end. A full 75-80% of those sales occur in the We also need metadata warehousing and first year. These are not considered profitable the peer-reviewed output of an academic press, distribution. If we wish to remain viable, we many of the costs associated with producing it, titles. For that, university presses rely on the are all now required to send our metadata to course adopted titles or the ones that end up whether in print or as an eBook, have been in discoverability services, and to the eBook place for nearly as long. getting a healthy “trade/consumer” profile. aggregators and suppliers. On the sales side We need those to support the otherwise low What do those costs look like and what we have to manage the relationships with the margin monographs. do they cover? Well, for an resellers and work closely In the past, we’ve had the predictability of average monograph of 336 with the library community approval plans to help guide our decisions. We pages, with a trim size of to ensure our business mod- knew we had a high percentage of those few 6-1/8 x 9-1/4, the average els and our content and our hundred sales that would go through approval up-front cost to a publisher is services are meeting the needs plans, and we could predict it by discipline. It approximately $10,000. There of libraries and their patrons. helped to remove the risk of book publishing, are relatively wide variations, Our marketing team has to of course, depending on the which is very different than journal publishing, work closely with authors and in that we are laying our investment out on the book with no guarantee of sales. Approval plans, while in no way guaranteeing the sale of any given title, certainly helped to make the sale actions such as increased STL fees and of monographs more consistent and predictable. Reflections on the 2011 PDA issue front list embargoes, have increased the In the old world, our profile for an indi- from page 26 financial pressure on the current model. vidual title would include, on the profit and It’s difficult to know exactly how current loss statement, many of the costs noted above. Subscription eBooks, initially removed partnerships will adjust or what new Hopefully, if we’ve done everything right, from consideration in the pilot, have partners may be on the horizon, but I we earn back the majority of those upfront become a popular addition to the Alli- certainly expect the Alliance’s eBook costs. If not, we take a hit on the bottom line ance service. The DDA — which still service will continue to transform, much for money we’ve invested that hasn’t been comprises the majority of the budget and as it has over the last three to four years. returned — because anything invested that service — is now centrally managed by The responses to the 2011 articles show hasn’t been earned back immediately is a loss Alliance staff with minimal work on the that many of the same hopes for PDA remain on our profitability and our bottom line, until it part of individual institutions. The part- valid, as do many of the same concerns. earns itself back. “Unearned royalties,” where nerships, which were so key to getting However, new worries about STL pricing lead we haven’t yet sold enough books to cover the the DDA started, are still highly valued our authors to wonder about the future of this advance that we have paid our authors, are a today. Yet, changes driven by publisher purchasing model. continued on page 30
28 Against the Grain / November 2015
finding the book you want in the first place and real use of scholarly content. Given the fixed STL: A Publisher’s Perspective then having the ability to access it in whatever nature of costs for this type of publishing, this from page 28 format you choose. is not sustainable and has potential to impact scholarly publishing more broadly. very significant negative against our annual Now that we’ve walked through the eco- To reiterate a very basic fact, albeit one that performance. In the DDA world, there is zero nomics of monograph publishing and the issues is often overlooked in discussion of this issue, predictability, and we have no sense of how surrounding usage, let’s look more closely at many publishers are still not charging anything long it’s going to take us to recoup our costs. the impact of DDA and STL. for what is not used, which is the core premise And while we are completely understanding So what does DDA look like at OUP right of this model. But actual purchasing has been of the reasons for this business model, it does now? DDA and STL currently represent 24% impacted, and the resulting drop in sales is introduce risk beyond anything we’ve seen of our eBook sales, which are about 20% of precipitous for many presses. before. In short, with the old business model our total book sales, with a full 80% remaining we had a high degree of predictability in costs in print. eBook sales, of course, continue to So why were STL rates adjusted? There and sales, and now, with newly developed and grow as print sales continue to decline — this was enough clear data about purchasing to see evolving models, the only predictable thing is expected — and OUP has held up fairly that real demonstrated usage selling at 10% of remaining is our costs. well with print, managing only a decline in the list price was not sustainable and was, in fact, having a significant impact on many presses. We have, by and large as a community, single digits. As a direct result of DDA imple- At a now-annual Charleston gathering of pub- understood the need for libraries to focus mentation as a model, OUP has provided to lishers and libraries to talk about this issue, spending on what gets used in libraries, versus libraries via the aggregators over $15M worth some university presses noted sales declines the old world of speculative buying that was of content in the form of DDA records into of several hundred thousand dollars. That rep- designed to ease the burden of acquisition for library catalogs, allowing this content to appear resents real jobs, real losses, and poses a very libraries in selecting books from thousands as owned without requiring any purchase or real threat to sustainability — and that’s for of publishers. We all know that a print investment from the library. content that is actually getting used. As major monograph is not the heaviest used item in And yet we, and numerous other publishers, stakeholders in the scholarly ecosystem, we the library. Why is that? Why do 30-40% supported this model. We heard the rallying would be irresponsible not to work on adjusting of newly acquired monographs not circulate cry and the sensible approach of not paying for the model in a way that improves the long-term in libraries, according to numerous studies content until it demonstrates use, use now being sustainability of scholarly publishing. This is we have all seen? One key factor is that this the ultimate indicator of value. We have con- not a question of whether or not these books content has been locked away in a container tinued to experiment with DDA, and it is now should be published — these are books that on the shelves of libraries, the vast information fully embedded in our approach to the market. are getting used. contained within discoverable only by a few Short-Term Loan first presented itself as mechanisms — the limited amount of metadata Industry media were swift to pick up on a further evolution of DDA, an option for the accusations of “price increases and price in your online catalogs (MARC record, author, other content — for example, high-priced items publication year, LC classes, and so on), the gouging.” The reality is that most publishers, beyond the scope of an approval plan, or, even including OUP, simply shifted their discounts. recommendation of faculty or librarians, book more usefully, as a replacement for ILL — a reviews, citations, reading lists, or serendipity For Oxford specifically, from 90% to a 75% faster, cheaper, more effective replacement. discount and, again, this is for books that are while browsing where it sits on the shelves of And again, publishers were willing to experi- the library. How could potential readers ever actually getting used. Our eBook prices are ment. We were willing to pilot this to see how exactly the same right now. We have stayed know, for example, that that monograph on it would work, to analyze the sales data as it farming in the 20th century had important in- with the model. Yes, some publishers pulled became available, and then make a determina- out entirely rather than change their discount formation about the Irish famine in a particular tion if this was feasible, if the rates were right chapter? They simply couldn’t — and thus percentages, but that is also a completely un- and sustainable. That worked fine in the very derstandable response when your sustainability its utility was limited. But that doesn’t mean early days of the model. that it couldn’t have been more useful. It was as a business is at risk. just tucked away where the reader couldn’t be What happened within a relatively short Publishers, by and large, have made a expected to find it. period of time, however, is that STL became commitment to supporting libraries in their much more the initial means of acquisition Enter the digital era, and we’re presented desire not to pay for content until there is use. and, in some cases, served as the replacement Receiving 10% of the cost of a book when it is with vast new opportunities to discover pre- for both the approval and the regular DDA cisely relevant content. We are bullish about used , and then having to share that 10% with programs. Publishers did not anticipate this both the aggregator and the author, simply the opportunities presented to actually help nor did our aggregator partners. long-form scholarship survive and indeed cannot make financial sense to anyone. thrive in a world where we can far better expose And this form of adoption of this particular We need to find a way forward that works users to what’s in the pages of books they never model is really what has led to the changes for all the parties involve: library, publisher, would have found before. That is the primary we’ve seen in rates and the more cautious author, and end user. The primary concept of reason OUP invested in the XML platform for approach in general on the part of publishers. not paying for content until it is used remains University Press Scholarship Online and why With DDA, we understood and accepted the an agreed principle and may eventually mean we have taken that investment and shared it idea that libraries do not want to pay for content less is published in certain disciplines, but with the wider university press community, until it is used. With the integration of STL in that makes sense. Allow that this has been an taking our role as the largest university press many DDA programs, that message evolved experiment on all sides and that sometimes seriously, and understanding that smaller uni- into something closer to “We only want to pay adjustments are necessary, as libraries have versity presses don’t have the resources to do a small fraction of the DLP for each use.” So made adjustments to their programs, including this on their own. One of the key components if use is truly the ultimate indicator of value to what actually triggers purchasing. of the platform is having authors write abstracts the library, the content itself has been devalued. We, as publishers, are still in this with li- for every single chapter, and creating keywords As a publisher who now sees real and strong braries and librarians, and we want to continue for each chapter that are connected across the demonstrated usage of electronic content — to work with you. We’ll continue to engage in whole database so users can see what these and has made great investments in driving that and to encourage experimentation and collabo- authors feel are the core ideas of their writing. usage via discoverability and other means — ration, and we’ll find something that works for The fact that these are done by the authors we are not seeing that usage translate into full everyone. There might be even better solutions themselves, and not simply generated by a title purchasing for the vast majority of STLs. for all of us, and we’re committed to working software program, is so incredibly valuable to This represents a seismic shift from existing together to discover just what those might be long-form scholarship. This issue isn’t getting business models and is not only unpredictable going forward. the book you want electronically, it’s about but results in further shrinking the revenue for
30 Against the Grain / November 2015
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Journal_Librarian_AD_Update.indd 1 9/25/15 1:33 PM An Interview with Kari Paulson Vice President, Market Development, ProQuest Books by Rebecca Seger (Senior Director, Institutional Sales, Oxford University Press)
LA/RS: So would you say we’re going to deliver and demonstrate value and usage through, how shall we say it, a more “ro- is an important component of that. How do bust” period of experimentation with STL those resources that get selected lead to the and other eBook models at this particular right outcomes? How does what we’re pro- point in time? viding actually correlate to the success of our KP: Libraries have been “experiment- students? This is new turf for a lot of libraries ing” with eBook models for some time but, who didn’t have to show that correlation yes, I do think there’s a growing amount previously, and that’s putting librarians in a of experimentation in North America. Ap- challenging position. proval plans dominated book buying for a Did an item get used? What’s the Cost Per long time, but The North American market Use? It’s hard for libraries to put in perspec- is increasingly moving away from approval tive or quantify value precisely. Just because plans and workflows as the primary acquisi- the CPU is low doesn’t mean it has more value tion model and experimenting with alterna- or correlates to a better outcome. Did the one tive acquisition models for books. There’s person who used it go on to write the paper more experimenting with demand-driven that moved the discipline forward? Possibly. acquisition models, publisher direct models So cheap isn’t necessarily better, and we need such as Evidence-Based Acquisition, with does the role of the library change in this to remember that. What is truly valuable is Print-on-Demand, or in combination with “discovery environment?” connecting users to the information they need subscription. This experimentation is driven If you want to talk about experimenting, — whether it’s one user or thousands. by a number of factors — greater pressure on you have to ask what are we trying to solve for. LA/RS: Does it seem more straightfor- budgets (needing to do more with less) and Keeping the library relevant, making users ward to you that DDA and STL are answer- increased focus on outcomes but also because aware of content that is available, connecting ing a specific market need then — as models libraries have more data readily available. users to the best sources of information and that are able to expose a broader range of Libraries are experimenting with models to the right resources, and making it easy for content? deliver better value for their institutions and users to get to; exposure, discovery, and quick for their patrons. Some of this, of course, delivery are critical, and models like DDA can KP: Whether DDA or STL is the answer depends on the individual library and budget. help with that. or where it fits along the acquisition model “spectrum” is an open question; what’s Experimentation is often incremental. Digital LA/RS: Some of us feel that there is a important for publishers and libraries alike is delivery of books offers an opportunity to do continuing desire to try to mimic in digital that we keep user engagement high. things differently. If we’re not willing to ex- what we used to do — and what we know periment we miss the opportunity to get more worked — in print. In more philosophical If we expose only a limited set of content out of digital delivery of content. terms, I suppose you might say we continue then we inhibit user discovery and user de- LA/RS: And how would you describe to use print as a paradigm. Do you see that mand — and, I think, outcomes — and that the cycle of experimentation, within a given as well? makes the library, or books in particular, more vulnerable to budget cuts. How do we build model? KP: I do, and that’s natural. It’s what we the right defences around the book budget so know. We default to what is familiar. But KP: You start here, with an earmarked it’s not the one that gets cut in favor of other there are limitations to continuing to use print budget and timeframe. You review results, resources? That’s the real question. tweak along the way, analyze the data and then as a model for digital delivery. What digital you start the next phase, review and analyze has done for data shouldn’t be overlooked. LA/RS: Where do you see DDA and STL and keep experimenting. Maybe a new round There is more and more pressure and emphasis going in the near term? of funding offers another opportunity to try on “outcomes”; a demand for justification KP: As we talk with libraries, we hear again and maybe revise the model based on of expenditure and results. “The way things from them that budgets remain flat or have the prior year result. As a rule, libraries are were” is often viewed as kind of a perfect gone up a little/down a little. But we fre- constrained by their annual budget for a year world, but clearly there was need to improve quently hear that more of the budget is going so we tend to see changes on a yearly cycle, on that — there’s always room to improve. If to journals — often taking money away and that’s an important point to remember we don’t change, that’s gonna kick us in the from books. It’s just easier to dip into some- as we move forward with continuing exper- heels, especially if libraries aren’t buying or thing you can cut incrementally (books) vs. imentation. providing access to the right things. something you cut off totally, like a journals In the print world, the library was often LA/RS: Are you saying, then, that dig- collection. And this is where experimentation the place you went to access greatest breadth ital’s offer of endless data (and that’s my comes in, what DDA and STL are valuable, of content. Today, the whole world of what’s own emphasis) and focus on usage is a great and why we should continue to work to find available is at our fingertips, easily discover- boon to how we publish or how we acquire? models that deliver the best value for book able (but not necessarily easily accessible), Some might argue that all of the data we now budgets and make them more defensible and the library’s “collection” is often inferior have the privilege of accessing is perhaps a against competing resources. to what one can find on Amazon or Google. bit too much. There is often a disparity for the end user in KP: Usage isn’t the only measure of value terms of what’s available via the library and or outcome, but when we see 40% or more of what’s discoverable on the Web. So how do purchased books going unused, book budgets we keep the library relevant and viable? How are in a vulnerable place. We need to change
32 Against the Grain / November 2015
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OPEN ACCESS 34 Against theGrain /November2015 Op Ed — Opinions and Editorials C say let’s Or, fireworks.” of chemistry the cluded onemightask,“Explain tome the documents relatedtothisman.” With then, “Pleaseshowmeanyimages or grandfather onmymother’s side?” And ask, “Who was my great-great-great Ancestry, and the DPLA, one might Web. IfWatson’s library databases, alongside the free service that has ingested high-quality lars come in) as a nationally available (and hereiswherethegovernmentdol- in advance?” documents andinoculationwillIneed about, “IamtravelingtoChile. What sites, and Disease Control site,traveladvisory you suggest?”OrwiththeCenter for amine lotionoraloevera? What would of poisonivy. ShouldIbeapplying cal- Watson, “I’vejustrunthroughapatch was apersonalservice,onecouldask million articlesinPubMed.IfWatson was this service that most quickly struck me an intelligentreply. The exampleof relevant patternsinthedataandoffers typed) natural-languagequery, locates information, andupona (spokenor service thatingestsmassesofdataand further engineeredasacloud-based pion, newest workwithitsJeopardycham- punctured fantasy? library of digital information is not a ( cy ofdemocracy,” tion isthecurren- claimed, “Informa its foundingfathers tion, inwhichoneof ingly democratic na- Surely in a defin Hoopla, fered byOverdrive, cluding thoseof- media productsin- as librarypopular ProQuest, as well ence Library, SpringerLink, products as national sitelicensestosuchlibrary access toqualityinformation,including that offered allofitsdemocraticcitizens funded, digitallibrary. A digitallibrary if wehadanational,U.S.government along about how wonderful it would be Phone: 603-229-5677 by LuraD.Sanborn Op Ed—I,Library Thomas Jefferson)suchauniversal I can’t help but imagine Watson I wasreadingrecentlyaboutIBM’s GVRL andsciencedatabasesin - Watson includes Google Booksor Watson’s earlyingestionofthe23 Watson. Watson isnowbeing na-type rosy lens, in which I hum included afantastical,Pollyan- ertain conversations ofmine have Freegal. PubMed all ingested, how Britannica Gale VirtualRefer Nature Publishing, databankincluded - - (ResearchandInstructionLibrarian,St.Paul’s School,Concord,NH03301; )
least, their machinelearningalgorithmsleast, can readthethoughtsofhumans? Orat even closer to achieving robots that the thoughts of God. Are we perhaps science wasclosetobeingable to read Colbert show explain to sold outinlessthanaminute. June 2015, in late Japanese customers to companion robots,offered exclusively 1,000 of run a offering, first Pepper’s this? want people Do librarians? and tabases, whereforethephysicallibrary and scrumptious high-quality library da robot hastohandletheentireInternet, industry, perhaps? If my household 2015). Ahem. Suchastheknowledge plicable to specific industries.” (Dignan, with and could make the robot more ap- Pepper alarger knowledgebasetowork robot, “Pepper inside its little social, human-companion has said it will employ Watson customer queries. The same company able myriadofdatatoaddresspossible languageandanunfathom- the Japanese the company’s call center, ingesting both answer thephone?Watson willbecome customer callsSoftbank,guesswhowill implementation ofWatson. When a munications company, announcedits Softbank, amajorJapanesetelecom- in thissamevideo). this information (“the cloud” we are told Unmentioned iswhereEchoextracts 29,020 feet, 8,848meters,” Everest?” “MountEverest’s heightis asking ofEcho, “How tall is Mount ity, withthefamilyinEchoadvert of thenextgame,followedbyoffering curately, andoffered thetimeandplace before. SIRIrespondedbeautifully, ac- won thePatriotsgame(late)night day my first-grader asked times s/hecomesthrough. The other joke onlatenightcomedyshows,some- communicating withSIRIismadeintoa of difficulty the While direction. that son, “ReadmeOliverTwist.” Overdrive, wecouldthenaskofWat I oncewatchedaphysiciston the Japan believes.InFebruary2015, I’ve seensomefootprintsheadingin a list of the players on the roster for this upcoming game. My little one was game. Mylittleonewas .” …“give will This gest asimilarcapabil- delighted, not only to know whowonthe game butalsothe cylinder, voice-recognition for be ofinterest. Ads SIRI thought might related contentthat Amazon’s new SIRI whohad replies. replies. Echo Steven that Echo, sug- internally - -
ATG Interviews Joyce Ogburn Dean of Libraries and Carol G. Belk Distinguished Professor of Library and Information Studies by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain)
ATG: Joyce, you took over the leadership reading. The convoluted ways users are con- of the Appalachian State University library fronted with access to eBooks can discourage in August of 2013 after serving as University widespread acceptance and use. Sometimes Librarian at the University of Utah. What new the conversion of print to a digital form is challenges attracted you to Appalachian State? important to someone’s work, and at Utah JO: Appalachian State is well known for we joined HathiTrust as soon as it was open its emphasis on sustainability, social justice, beyond founding members. Like others, we global citizenship, and student satisfaction. It reformatted and digitized our collections and has a strong international presence; in fact, encouraged multiple uses. Library primary following China’s Open Door Policy of the source materials are being used in interesting late 1970s, Appalachian was the first univer- ways for creativity and research. For example, sity in the United States to develop a bilateral at Appalachian we began collaborating with relationship with a Chinese university that was a faculty member in art to encourage her print not initiated at a government level. The library making class to design and produce our holiday has agreements with several universities in cards. Their inspirations drew upon special China. This unique portfolio of strengths was collections we pulled — wallpaper books, book appealing to me. The university is starting to covers, design books, and illustrated texts. The place more emphasis on research, offering op- reasons for this project included: the library portunities to engage with new initiatives such need for a card; the desire to introduce students as research computing, data management, and to primary sources; the interest in partnering technology transfer. Teaching with technology with faculty with hands on, active learning is getting renewed emphasis as well, which for students; and alerting donors to the uses of requires a partnership and joint investment special collections by talented students. So, in of IT, the library, and others such as distance answer to your question about other services, learning and the office of general education. I would say that opportunities to advance the Being part of the UNC system lets me work work of others abound and that many faculty with other great librarians across the state to are receptive to ideas of this kind; our collec- address problems important to all of us. as text and data mining, visualization, data tions were essential to this project. ATG: While at the University of Utah, you analytics, etc.) and pairing these experts with ATG: In some quarters, the overall rele- also served as special assistant to the Senior humanists who needed their “know how” to re- vance of the library to the academic enterprise Vice President for Academic Affairs. What conceive the conduct and presentation of their is being questioned. Are there strategies that did you learn from that experience about research. An effective pairing is not very easy libraries can employ to reinforce their rele- how other university administrators view the to accomplish, though, because interests have vance? What are you doing at Appalachian library? Have those perceptions aided you to be mutual and often require grant funding. State to ensure the library’s viability as a in navigating the administrative landscape Through this work I gained time with campus resource? at Appalachian State? If so, how have they administrators talking about something sep- JO: Libraries have changed so much that guided your actions? arate from the library, and in a context that others can’t keep up — refer to what I said JO: The intent of one project was to deter- highlighted the priorities and challenges facing earlier. Both ARL and ACRL have grappled mine the needs of faculty who sought to engage faculty in their research. On my other project, with the value question and finding indicators in digital humanities. Library services were not retroReveal.org, I spent considerable time with that demonstrate impact. I think of the academ- the focus, though the library had already built a my partners in Cardiothoracic Surgery and the ic library as an organization that can generate digital scholarship lab and services. The library office for technology transfer. I gained more scale, efficiencies, savings, and opportunities role came up naturally in the conversation. experience with the different funding models through its networks and connections, as well The faculty and administrators understood the and approaches in the health sciences, and as its close proximity to users. These can be archiving function rather well; they were less how they parlayed into inventions, patents, documented and shared as part of the value aware of the other parts of scholarship that and more. I now have a keen knowledge of proposition. Librarians also initiate and guide libraries delve into. For example, the act of tech transfer, adding to my existing knowledge programs that are attuned to user needs, often providing tools to make new scholarship was of intellectual property. This experience has in partnership with others on campus. One of still pretty new territory for them to consider, allowed me to work with Appalachian’s new the important things to do is get to the table as was how new forms of scholarship fit within office of research to develop a framework for and influence directions and decisions — what- evolving definitions of scholarship and scholar- a proposed tech transfer program. ever table that might be. When opportunities ly communications. Librarians see these new ATG: Where do library collections fit into emerge, we need to speak to the good of the in- forms as relevant to our mission to collect and these perceptions? Is the print collection still stitution and students, not just what the library preserve knowledge. More, administrators seen as a useful resource? How do other can do or its role. Our librarians are faculty and don’t always realize the extent of deployment college officials view the importance of library are on committees, task forces, commissions, of IT in the library, as well as the capabilities collections in general? Are other library ser- and the like all over campus. I have found that that these technologies offer. The library also vices seen as equally, or even more valuable? when people in the library speak up and present was becoming more of a “concierge” service If so, which ones? their unique knowledge and perspective on an that could match up faculty with similar or JO: The collections remain very import- issue, people pay attention and are appreciative complementary interests. Most often that took ant, whether analog or digital. Some library of the contributions. It helps to be attentive the form of knowing what someone was doing users will browse the electronic version of a to the multiple dimensions of being a student with digital technologies on campus (such book and then check out the print version for continued on page 38
36 Against the Grain / November 2015
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Powered by photonics Visit www.SDLinfo.org for information on subscribing Interview — Joyce Ogburn from page 36 against thepeople grain profile and to remember that students spend most of their academic lives outside of the classroom. Being present, influential, and leading speaks Dean of Libraries and Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished to the value of library professionals and the Professor for Library and Information Studies profession. Library faculty at Appalachian Appalachian State University invited others to collaborate on a research 218 College Street, Boone, NC 28608 project about transfer student success. We Phone: (828) 262-6725 •
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T: 650.493.4400/800.523.8635 (us/can) Interview — Joyce Ogburn from page 38 against thelibrary grain profile JO: I do not currently research anthropol- ogy, but I keep up in my own way, following the history of anthropology to a degree and Appalachian State University how anthropology/ethnography is being used in library settings and other academic envi- University Libraries ronments. I maintain a lengthy bibliography of sources of relevance to librarians and infor- Belk Library and Information Commons mation specialists that includes sections such 218 College Street, Boone, NC 28608 as anthropological methods. At the moment I am completing a piece on the development and application of principles in scholarly Annual expenditures: $9M communication. Total permanent staff: 90 positions, including 38 faculty members. We also employ ATG: You were an early associate editor 140 students and are the largest employer of work study students. of ATG. What advice would you give to us We are in a small town in the mountains, have 18,000 students, and still experience greater editors about maintaining and growing our than 1.24M visits each year. readership? types of materials you buy: We have a very healthy mix of print and eBooks and e-journals, JO: ATG has always had a nice mix of plus numerous databases. We acquire everything on Appalachia that we can find. We have a scholarly and breezy approaches to draw in small, focused rare books collection. readers of several types. I remember years ago we discussed whether to keep “If Rumors use of mobile technology: Students are using lots of mobile technology. We circulate Were Horses” on the front page because it technology for anyone on campus to use, and last year we checked out approximately 100,000 was not scholarly; however, in the process technology items (iPads, laptops, cameras, etc.) of surveying readers, they said that was their what do you think your library WILL be like in five years?: We have a new favorite starting point. We kept it on the front master space plan that calls for more student study and group work space, a larger maker page. Maybe the readership has changed. I lab, a larger writing center, more technology enhanced spaces, an experimental classroom, don’t really know. The articles are still relevant visualization lab, and digital scholarship lab. We will likely come up with even more changes as and timely. these spaces are developed. ATG: Two years ago, you were honored by Tell us about your job: I am the dean and have a distinguished professor position. I University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provide leadership for the university libraries that consist of the Belk Library and Information as Distinguished Alumna. How did that come Commons, the Erneston Music Library, the W. L. Eury Special Collections, and the University about? What did it feel like to be chosen for Archives and Records (including electronic records). such an honor? JO: I was so overcome I had to imme- How many divisions are there in your department?: The library has two associate diately sit down, and my jaw was hanging dean positions and nine teams. open. As you know, the UNC SILS program How many people work in your department?: Technically, everyone! has always been one of the most revered in What is your materials budget?: Our expenditures vary every year, but roughly the country, so I felt especially honored and $3,000,000. moved, particularly when I looked at the list of previous honorees. I gave the commencement address to the December graduating class about “An Unexpected Journey,” in which I talked about what my education had done for me and its okay to screw up — admit it, learn from it, up here because of the need for lumber for how the SILS program still influences my life and move on. As the saying goes, “Win some, furniture making. The mountains offer lots from time to time. For example, when giving lose some.” I have met so many talented and of hiking, biking, and skiing opportunities. a presentation in Denmark a few years back, enthusiastic young librarians busting their butts Also, just driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway my research partner’s computer died. One of to improve the world who have the capability to and passing towns, fields, valleys, forests, the UNC professors was in attendance, and all become effective, passionate, and compassion- and rivers is good for the soul. I particularly I had to say was, “You don’t know me, but I ate administrators with encouragement. And like the sudden shifts from fields of crops, am a SILS alum and I need your help.” And administrators should never forget to champion horses or cows to spectacular overlooks. help I got in the form of a loan of her laptop. the staff — they really run the library and have The Rocky Mountains are big and imposing, I am now a member of the Board of Visitors such influence on the execution and perception whereas the Appalachian Mountains are for SILS. I like giving back to an institution of our services. Take good care of them. inviting, comforting, and seem to roll on that gave me a firm foundation to sustain me ATG: On a more personal level, if we were forever. The rhododendrons are incredible over many years. headed up to the North Carolina mountains when blooming, and the leaves are gorgeous ATG: You have had a distinguished ca- for a visit, what favorite recreational activi- in the fall. We are just a five-hour drive from reer path along with a wealth of experience. ties would you recommend for the first time Charleston, so y’all come on your way to or What advice do you have for young library vacationer? Are there any particular places from the conference in November! administrators eager to have an impact on that should be on our itinerary? ATG: Joyce, thank you so much for the profession? JO: My small town, Blowing Rock, is sharing your thoughts with us and with JO: You can really boil most of it down the highest incorporated town east of the our readers. to this: never miss an opportunity to say thank Rockies. It has a very deep history in tourism JO: Thanks for asking. It’s a pleasure to you and do everything with class. That said, and is an escape from heat and rush of cities. answer your questions. new administrators need to discover their A lot of homes in the community are second talents and strengths. Identify what they are, homes. There is a lot to explore nearby. We develop the best, learn to respond differently in have Tweetsie Railroad park (I can hear the differing situations, keep your cool, and listen whistle as I write) that has its roots in the a lot. We all fail at these from time to time, so railroad industry that at one time thrived
40 Against the Grain / November 2015
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■ Search the MLA International Bibliography for your works, including those published under variant names Modern Language Association 85 Broad St., suite 500 ■ Add them to your ORCID profile with one click New York, NY 10004-2434 ■ Remove works from your profile at any time 646 576-5155 fax 646 576-5160 ORCID’s privacy controls allow you to determine who can see www.mla.org works on your profile. E-mail [email protected] for more information. biblink.mla.org ATG Interviews Pinar Erzin Founder and President, Accucoms by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain)
ATG: Pinar, your parent company Swets How we made the deal happen? That’s a was declared bankrupt in September 2014 and difficult question. Let me see. I explained along with it Accucoms. Did you have any the situation and possibilities to staff and cus- indication that Swets, and hence Accucoms, tomers. We evaluated all external acquisition were in such serious trouble? approaches. We made millions of calculations. PE: Absolutely not! We were working We did a lot of soul searching about full, shared hard to finalize the sale of former Swets or non-ownership. Additional to this, we knew Information Services (SIS), including all everything about the company, so it was very its subsidiaries. As the deal we thought clear that we could make the best offer to buy was almost signed fell apart, we heard the the company. We decided that independence news. Accucoms had actually no financial would be the best choice for customers, team, trouble, however since SIS acquired 100% of and ourselves and went for it. I should add Accucoms’ shares in August 2011, we were “luck” as an element too. I felt very lucky automatically pushed towards bankruptcy. with everyone’s trust, dedication, and support When your parent company dies, it pulls you during this highly challenging and educational along, unfortunately. Or maybe I should say process. fortunately… ATG: What specific representation, tele- ATG: There was a period for about two marketing, and business intelligence services months after the bankruptcy where things do you provide to publishers? Has anything were fairly uncertain for Accucoms. What changed now that you are a stand-alone was that time like for you and your staff? company? What were your biggest fears and challenges? to cancel our annual customer day ACCUfest PE: After the crisis and rebirth, we decided How did you overcome them? 2014, but decided to go to Frankfurt Book to focus on continuation of core services to PE: From the moment that I received the Fair and bring the beer for the traditional build a stronger base for our renewed existence. internal email on 22 September 2014 until the BEERfest with our own resources. It was All our services help publishers maintain, grow rebirth of Accucoms on 6 November 2014, I the smartest decision ever! The moment I their current business and discover new reve- found myself in the biggest fight of my business stepped on the fairground, I knew we were nue lines, while building an understanding of life. We were in boot camp. Multiple things going to make it! We met publishers, li- different markets. These are: global telesales/ happened during those weeks: Accucoms brarians, consortia leaders, competitors, and telemarketing services, full representation in was also declared bankrupt, our employment several companies. All conversations were multiple territories including sales, marketing, agreements were terminated, obviously and positive. I knew that one way or the other and customer services. We have always been rightfully my team was very concerned about my company would survive this crisis. If not, a hands-on organization with ability to take their future. I have always tried communicat- it would be my failure with so much support decisions quickly. So if anything changed, it ing progress with staff as openly as possible. we received from everyone. You see, most is the speed by which we grow, now that we We had regular calls so they knew what was of our customers saw me setup this business are independent. going on. I told them to seek and find jobs, that from scratch. They were part of our history ATG: Are there new market realities that I would personally contact their future employ- and they wouldn’t want us to disappear. The have required adjustment? If so, what strate- ers and help find good spots for each of them. message I received was clear: “We don’t care gies are you using to make those adjustments? They are all very well trained and skilled pro- about the name of the company or the color PE: There are new market realities which fessionals with excellent multilingual capacity of the brand. We are with you as long as you we are working on currently. We are looking as well as fantastic personalities/attitude. This have your team and the quality you provided into partnerships in some territories, while we was my number one priority: Help team move us with until now.” See, the keyword here is look to build a bigger telesales organization further in life with minimum damage. At the “the team!” Without them there is nothing: to run a specific territory. We also look into same time, I was in talks with the Trustee, as no customers, no business, nothing. developing new business lines. I am not able well as many respected companies, competi- ATG: Fortunately, you and the other to go into much detail, as this is part of our tors, and investors about a potential acquisition stakeholders were able to buy back and restart growth strategy for 2016 and beyond. of Accucoms. What really happened is this: Accucoms. Can you tell us about that? How ATG: Why should prospective clients have We didn’t sleep, didn’t go out or socialize... We did you make that deal happen? Who are confidence in the new Accucoms? What do calculated, talked, forecasted, thought “yes” the major stakeholders of the newly formed you tell them about the future of Accucoms? and then thought “no,” negotiated, made a company? decision, and acted on it. PE: I guess we can now say we are a PE: At the very beginning of the crisis, I mature company, after 11 years, since its ATG: How did your customers react? involved my Management Team (MT) in the incorporation. We have been a proud trend- How did you allay their fears and concerns? conversations and the “making of” the acqui- setter in establishing a new way to service PE: Just like with my team, I remained sition. During the three years when we were and represent publishers. The three years very transparent about the situation and what under the SIS flag, if I did one thing really well, under SIS flagship were highly beneficial. It we were trying to achieve with our customers. it was investing in a strong MT which consists allowed me to delegate all of the administrative I received nothing but support! I can fully of three highly successful professionals in our management side of the business and focus confirm that honesty and transparency always industry: Egon Menardi, Simon Boisseau, on growth. The bankruptcy was a crisis with pays back, often in multitudes. What we went and Rakesh Malik. The MT, along with the a great opportunity. We were able to become through is the proof of this. Since we no lon- rest of our team, is the core of our business. independent again to grow faster, to focus ger had any company money to spend, we had http://www.accucoms.com/staff/ continued on page 44
42 Against the Grain / November 2015
Interview — Pinar Erzin from page 42 against thepeople grain profile on the areas we believe we can be useful for our customers, and move away from what we think is no longer important for them. We are Founder and President a debt-free company, which makes profit and Accucoms International BV and Accucoms (US), Inc. reinvests even after such a crisis, thanks to our Nieuwe Energie, 3e Binnenvestgracht, 23R 2312 NR Leiden, The Netherlands team and customers. We are careful in promis- Phone: +31-88-4100-400 • Fax: +31-88-4100-401 ing something to a publisher and dedicated to
44 Against the Grain / November 2015
For more information about The ASME Digital Collection, Visit asmedigitalcollection.asme.org
To Subscribe, contact Warren Adams Phone: 973-244-2223 Fax: 973-882-8113 Email: [email protected]
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) ATG Interviews Alicia Wise Director of Access and Policy, Elsevier by Matthew Ismail (Director of Collection Development, Central Michigan University)
ATG: When you look around at the world as we know them still viable? If so, why? of scholarly publishing do you see anything AW: We don’t publish monographs, but challenging the journal article and the mono- from where we sit these models look to be in graph as the primary vehicles of expression their infancy. It seems unlikely that the OA for researchers? We’ve heard about hybrid models that work for journals will work for formats and liquid books and whatnot, but it monographs. Where the gold model is used, seems that, though the technology allows it, Article Publishing Charges (APCs) of more than there has not been much real change and that $10,000 are not uncommon. Where the green both readers and publishers still prefer PDF model is used, book chapters are expected to and paper. What’s your impression? be made available within 12 months when it is AW: PDFs still remain important to many highly unlikely they will have recovered much researchers — a colleague of mine refers to of their costs so quickly. It all seems rather them as “chicken soup for the academic soul” unsustainable — for all stakeholders. This does — but they are not exclusively important, not mean that monographs are not suited to and we see a widening range of formats and different publishing models, but rather that it is communication modes. Elsevier articles are important to really get the models right. Many available in XML and HTML as well as PDF, authors still see the monograph as the pinnacle have rich links with datasets, and can be shared of their career in research, and a summary of across an array of platforms and services. Our to make up for this shortfall in the future? their life’s work. authors are interested in metrics about how How about in places like China and India? ATG: Speaking of monographs, one of the their articles are used — not only citations, but Or directly to specific professional groups things that electronic formats allow is free- also the numbers of social media connections like physicians? dom from print era restrictions on the length. made, the number of shares on Mendeley and AW: Librarians are at the heart of their In fact, we at ATG are planning to publish a similar platforms, etc. universities. They manage the information series of 12,000 to 20,000 word monographs ATG: Here’s a scenario: Half-a-dozen process in organizations that are all about — 25 to 50 pages, basically — called Against consortia of large research universities in the just that — sharing information. They bring the Grain Executive Summaries. Do you see U.S. and EU create non-profit, OA mega-jour- a growing, and increasingly global, world of Elsevier getting into this business of short nals that quickly gain in stature and competi- research outputs to their university, thereby monographs at all? tiveness in STEM areas and in the humanities speeding up research and innovation. Some AW: Again, we don’t publish monographs. and social sciences. These mega-journals are are able to grow their budgets and services. Instead, our focus is on reference works and accepted by ATP panels around the world, and Unfortunately, the intangible but very high book series. they publish thousands of articles a year. How value of library services can sometimes also ATG: We see an increasing number of would Elsevier maintain its competitive edge be underappreciated, resulting in budgets university presses and libraries combining in such an environment? that do not grow at the same pace as the rest forces because, it seems to us, both libraries AW: If only publishing journals that of the organisation even if they continue to and presses are looking for new roles and “quickly gain in stature and competitiveness” rise in absolute terms. We know that many support within the university. Can you see were so simple and easy! The world would be librarians have found ways to deal with this any role for Elsevier in creating public/pri- a much different place for us all. In practice, it challenge by reshaping their organizations vate sector partnerships with libraries and takes time and skill and patience to grow suc- and thereby becoming much more efficient university presses in the future? cessful journals; think of the many OA mega and able to deliver the same level of services at a lower cost. AW: We usually have an array of exciting journals out there, and the time it has taken projects and initiatives on the go. Some of them all (even PLOS One) to grow in volume In this environment, we might predict more these have been longstanding — for example, and stature. In short, the market is large and consolidation of publishers, content aggrega- Research4Life and CLOCKSS are two partner- growing enough to make room for a variety of tors, and other service providers. Springer ship initiatives in which we work closely and competitors, but no one will find it quick and Nature is a recent example that comes to mind. well with libraries. We have projects underway easy. The challenge of maintaining quality and Apart from all this, yes, Elsevier is a global now with institutional repositories — perhaps scale over time isn’t simple either: the world company and we work in the full spectrum of best known is our pilot with the University of of research continues to grow, and the needs markets. We also offer an array of innovative Florida — and with research groups interested of researchers continue to change. This will products for a variety of information profes- in data and text mining, for example. I love the keep us all on our toes, which is a good thing! sionals (clinicians, educators, etc.). We do this University of Purdue’s Human and Animal ATG: How much of what you publish do because research is an interconnected global Bond Research Initiative, and we provide some you estimate is affected by U.S. government endeavor, and because we are able to help re- content for it. We are always up for creative open access mandates? searchers and research institutions worldwide collaboration — happy to talk! AW: About 10%. enhance their productivity — not because we ATG: A number of organizations recently ATG: Library budgets are declining as a feel we have to meet a shortfall somewhere signed a statement claiming that Elsevier’s new proportion of university budgets. Presumably, else in our business. sharing and hosting policy for journal articles this budgetary deficit will have an increasing ATG: What are the greatest challenges for creates unnecessary barriers and impedes open impact on libraries’ buying power. Does Else- publishing open access monographs? And in access and sharing. How do you respond? a broader context are scholarly monographs vier have plans to expand into other markets continued on page 47 46 Against the Grain / November 2015
Alicia Wise Right now I am binging on the Deed of Paksenarion trilogy by 12 and 24 months, with some longer or shorter favorite books: exceptions. We are hearing that it is the length Elizabeth Moon. of our embargo periods that is of concern rather pet peeves: Anti-publisher sentiment from librarians, or anti-librarian sentiment from than the fact of their existence. Generally publishers. Grrrrrrrr! embargos should be set on a title-by-title basis Philosophy: I’m not so fancy as to have a philosophy, but try very hard to listen well, by publishers; however we recognize that be pragmatic, and work hard and in collaboration with others. other stakeholders seek influence over embargo most memorable career achievement: Hopefully still to come in information lengths too, and this is reasonable. We had provision. In archaeology it was perhaps discovering the northernmost amphitheatre in already been planning a review of our embargo the Roman Empire. periods in 2015. While I cannot pre-judge the outcome of this review, we are very conscious goal I hope to achieve five years from now: It would be terrific to help create of the many new funding body policies that a world in which any blind or dyslexic person could confidently walk into any bookshop have emerged in the last year with 12-month or library (or access those services online), in confidence that they will find any book they embargo periods, all of which we will factor in. want in a format entirely accessible to them. More recently, we’ve begun to hear (from how/where do I see the industry in five years: Still changing very rapidly, some, certainly not all) librarians that their con- driven by technological changes, and much more collaborative and social and open. cerns stem from a belief that scholars should be
Against the Grain / November 2015
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CHARLESTON 2015 www.amdigital.co.uk VISIT US AT TABLE #51 [email protected] Interview — Alicia Wise from page 47 againstpublisher the grain profile AW: Oh, I love this program — thanks for asking about it! There are now over 130 titles in our Production & Hosting publishing Accucoms International BV program (http://www.elsevierpublishingsolu- tions.com/production_hosting.asp), and more Nieuwe Energie, 3e Binnenvestgracht, 23R 2312 NR Leiden, The Netherlands information is available on the Website. In a nutshell, we partner with universities, societies, Phone: +31-88-4100-400 • Fax: +31-88-4100-401 and governments who publish impactful jour- http://www.accucoms.com/ nals in their regions with the aim of helping them grow their quality and readership to wield greater international influence. It’s a great way Affiliated companies: Accucoms (US), Inc. to leverage our digital publishing expertise Officers: Pinar Erzin, Founder and President. and resources. Publishing costs are typically Association memberships: ALPSP, UKSG, and SSP. covered by a sponsoring government agency or the journal owner, so the articles can be made Key products and services: Sales, marketing, and customers services. available open access immediately upon pub- Core markets/clientele: STM Publishers in Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle lication. This model holds appeal worldwide East and North Africa, Turkey, India, South East Asia, South Korea. but is currently most actively used in Brazil, Number of employees: 60 China, and in the Middle East. History and brief description of your company: Incorporated in June 2004 offering ATG: You also mentioned that it was telemarketing services for STM publishers. Quickly grown to offer dedicated/outsourced field very clear to you how CHORUS and SHARE (the publisher and library led approaches to sales and marketing services helping publishers maintain and grow their businesses in different addressing U.S. funder mandates) can work markets around the world. Owned by Swets Information Services between August 2011 and together. Can you elaborate? How do you September 2014. Fully independent and owned by its management since November 2014. see CHORUS/SHARE cooperation evolving? AW: While both CHORUS and SHARE were stimulated by the policy environment of articles and the dissemination of research ATG: Alicia, we know how busy you are that led to the creation of public access pol- data. And indeed they are working together and want to thank you for taking this time icies by U.S. federal funding agencies, both and with shared partners — for example CHO- to talk to us. We’re also looking forward have continued to develop and evolve. CHO- RUS metadata will be helpful in the SHARE to seeing you at the Charleston Conference RUS leverages existing infrastructure and notification service and will complement where we hope to get another opportunity to investments to identify and facilitate public SHARE by providing public access to full- get together and chat, perhaps for one of our access to articles, ensure digital preservation, text. It might be quite fun to interview the Penthouse Suite Interviews. enhance discovery, and report on compliance. Executive Directors of both initiatives about AW: Looking forward to it. Thanks for SHARE has developed its Notify service to this synergy. From where I sit, it is terrific the chat! inform interested stakeholders when research that they are using similar standards – e.g., release events occur, including the publication DOI, FundRef, Orcid. A Website Review — Cabell’s International: A Welcome Tool in a World of Predatory Journals by Burton Callicott (College of Charleston)
espite a wordy alert about the use The database is geared for three main geared to of cookies that distracts the eye, the user groups: scholars looking to identify a appeal to Dnew Cabell’s International database suitable journal for their work, librarians administrators — Deans, Department Heads, interface is spacious and bright — you can involved in collection development, and and even Provosts and Presidents — or scholars easily click the cookie message away. Website tenure committees looking for additional contemplating a move to another institution. Al- designers at Cabell’s have done their home- measures upon which to judge the value of a though I am not in a position where institutional work and utilize color, shades, intuitive tabs, candidate’s work. Scholars may initially be level information would be useful, this search and dropdowns to save space and keep things excited to see a special search tab entitled tab too has limited use in my opinion. If one is clean. At my institution, the site defaults to a “Calls for Papers,” but after getting little or able to filter for a discipline and topic area that basic “Journal” search. Words keyed in here no results here, they may abandon this tab. is relevant, you only get a list of institutions result in a keyword search. Because there is Searches for “algebra,” “sustainability,” and broken down into three somewhat elusive cat- little description beyond the journal supplied “ocean” resulted in zero hits. Or rather, the egories reminiscent of cup sizes at Starbucks: “Aims and Scope” or any meta-data other than searches resulted in an ominous field of white Premier, Significant, and High Influence. There the assigned discipline and topic categories, where presumably there would be a list of is also another category “Accredited” where users not looking for a specific journal need results — it would be nice to at least get an “those institutions whose faculty members to search using broad terms in order to get indication that there were zero results and, publish in journals without citation counts but results. Clicking on the advanced search op- even better, to get a suggestion for a different are accredited by national accreditation asso- tion greatly expands your options and allows but related term that might bring up some ciations.” Although it is possible to filter here for customized filtering: by discipline (and hits. A search for “marketing” did bring up for Humanities, you get no results. It is unclear then by topic within discipline), difficulty of two journal titles. why this is even an option since there are no acceptance, peer review type, acceptance rate, A third search tab, Institutional Publishing, humanities journals in the database. The list time to review, and more. or IPA (Institutional Publishing Activity), is continued on page 51 50 Against the Grain / November 2015
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PBS2_ATG_7_15.indd 1 7/8/15 11:20 AM of three stopping points: “high,” “significant,” Other features include a dropdown for A Website Review — Cabell’s ... and “premier.” Given that the scale is not more “Journal History” and “Personal Profile.” The from page 50 nuanced (able to register points between high benefit for the Journal History was elusive — and significant), it may have been more honest most of the journals I sampled apparently had of journals included is limited to a somewhat to display this information the way they do the no history, and the few that did only had the random collection of disciplines including: Difficulty of Acceptance with a simple “Rigor- CCI information, which can also be found in business, education, psychology & psychiatry, ous,” “Significantly difficult,” and “Difficult” the details. There is also a compare journals mathematics & science, computer science, and designation. The method used for calculating tool that generates a spreadsheet that could be health & nursing. Fortunately access to these the difficulty of acceptance struck me as con- handy for someone trying to make a decision disciplines can be purchased á la carte and the fusing, if not a little biased: “To generate the about what journal would hit the sweet spot costs are clearly stated on the site. At the time DA, we calculate the average number of times in terms of rigor and likelihood of acceptance of this review, the database includes records on an article from a top performing institution among those in the database, although this nearly 11,000 journal titles. publishes in each journal, then analyze them feature is somewhat compromised by the lack The main thing that Cabell’s does, it does across a z-score transformed distribution for of data provided for most journals. Users can well. To my knowledge (as well as Cabell’s), each discipline.” The information that I would create a “Personal Profile” that will enable no other company provides the kind of journal imagine most scholars would most like to them to “create custom lists of journals in publisher assessment that can be found here. have is the actual acceptance rate. Under the which they are interested and allow users to In addition to information that can be found in category of “Submission Process and Experi- rate their experiences with individual jour- other places such as impact factor, type of peer ence” in the “Journal Details” section that can nals.” This may have value to some highly review (blind, double blind, etc.), and audience, be accessed using a dropdown, there is a slot productive scholars, but I would doubt that it Cabell’s provides its own unique Contextual for this information as well as a host of other gets much use. As I understand it, the plan is Influence Report (CCI), which “calculates the types of information that would be valuable that this option will eventually become public average citations per article for each journal such as “Time to Review,” “Turnaround Time,” and enable more crowd sourced information from the preceding three-year period... This and “Plagiarism Screen.” Unfortunately, other such as personalized journal recommendations, yields, for each discipline and topic that any than the Plagiarism Screen, this information custom call for paper alerts, user forums, and journal publishes in, an individual ranking was missing from every journal that I sampled ORCID integration. If enough users buy in, environment that consists only of the titles that (actually the acceptance rate provided was 0%). this would be extremely helpful. publish therein… Journals with insufficient One would hope that over time this informa- In short, with the disturbing rise of pred- citation activity to be included in the citation tion would be filled in. Those who manage atory journals, any tool that allows librarians database are marked as either ‘Qualified’ or institutional repositories as well as scholars and scholars to distinguish between quality ‘Novice,’ depending on how long they have who care about open access will be happy to and sham journal titles is welcome and neces- been publishing.” A given journal’s CCI is dis- find a color-coded, easy-to-read designation sary. Outside of Beale’s List, there are little played using a sliding scale. This can be a bit for titles that are, “Open Access,” “Hybrid,” to no objective methods for cross checking deceptive as the bar seems to slide to only one or “Traditional.” continued on page 53
Against the Grain / November 2015
Column Editor’s Note: In this issue, you will see my first book raphy, many will probably read review for ATG. I just can’t pass this book Leading Libraries: How this book from cover to cover. to Create a Service Culture since leadership has been on my mind The book is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter discusses various these days. I’ve just participated in the 2015 ALA Leadership In- issues that leaders face or need to seriously think about in their leadership stitute last August, and to say that it was an amazing experience is journey. The authors’ introduction sets the stage for what the book is an understatement. I came out of that four-day Institute inspired by about and explains in detail the authors’ view of service culture and what the amazing librarians and library leaders I was fortunate enough to it means to lead not just from a position of authority but the act and behav- meet and collaborate with. The authors of Leading Libraries urge iors of leading in whatever capacity a person is in. Succeeding chapters us to focus on cultivating a culture of service since libraries are, after in the book delve into issues such as leadership versus management all, a service organization. In Letting Go of Legacy Services, we paradigm; leadership theories; practicing conscientiousness; building see case studies and interviews of different libraries that are dealing rapport with colleagues and co-workers; balancing encouragement and with difficult situations. There’s a lot of “to-do” in our list, projects accountability; getting buy-in in the midst of change; creating a culture to manage, and initiatives to implement, but we sometimes hesitate to of innovation; sustaining service as a value; strategic planning; and let go of services that don’t work anymore or are no longer relevant. strategic thinking. There are a lot of theoretical discussions on various Meanwhile, The Library Innovation Toolkit: Ideas, Strategies, and management concepts and practices that the authors take from a number Programs gives us plenty of ideas for new programs and services we of seminal and classic works by Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey, and can implement in our libraries. Here we find innovative outreach Warren Bennis, to name a few. VanDuinkerken and Arant Kaspar services, technologies, and programs that we can adopt in our work- try to maintain a balance between the theoretical discussions and prac- place. Speaking of innovation, the Personal Librarian: Enhancing tical applications through the reflective exercises and tools they present the Student Experience is one example of a new way to approach the in every chapter. It also has sections in every chapter called “Service embedded librarian concept. It discusses how liaison programs, infor- Leadership in Practice” that are essentially case studies illustrating each mation literacy instruction, and embedded librarianship can intersect topic. While the characters in these case studies are fictitious, it still hits home, and the reader can identify with some of them since it is based so we can offer a “personal” librarian service to our students. The on real-life work situations. The reflections at the end of the chapters book Managing with Data: Using ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics fo- spur the readers to think deeply on how they might apply the qualities cuses on library data and how to use it to generate meaningful metrics of leadership in their work and personal lives. Finally, the notes in each and reports to prove our value and assess our services. In Preserving chapter serve as additional resources for those who might want to read Complex Digital Objects, we see how experts from various fields such further and explore the topics in detail. as information technology, digital humanities, digital curation, and game design came together to share their perspectives on preserving This is probably one of the best books on leadership in libraries that has come out so far. It is a great resource not only for librarians who software art, gaming environments, virtual worlds, and simulation. are already in leadership positions but for those who wish to lead who Pretty interesting if I may say so myself. And finally, Usability and may not be quite ready to do so. the Mobile Web: A LITA Guide gives readers practical advice on how to implement a mobile interface that is both usable and user-centered. With the ubiquity of smartphones and mobile devices, this is important Evangeliste, Mary and Katherine Furlong, (Eds.). Letting Go to keep in mind. of Legacy Services. Chicago: American Library Association, As always, I hope you enjoy reading the book reviews in this issue 2014. 978-0-8389-1220-1. 159 pages. $57.00 and will be compelled enough to read some of them if it piques your interest. Please send me an email if you want to be a book reviewer Reviewed by Anne Driscoll (Education Librarian, at
VanDuinkerken, Wyoma and Wendi Arant Kaspar. Leading Increasingly libraries are reviewing the relevance of traditional Libraries: How to Create a Service Culture. Chicago, IL: ALA services and seeking new ways to serve faculty and students, making Editions, 2015. 9780838913123. 167 pages. $65.00. hard decisions about cutting costs in the face of budget reductions, balancing print versus electronic materials, and trying to provide access Reviewed by Regina Gong (Head of Technical Services & Sys- to resources in the face of the cuts. The problem is compounded by the tems, Lansing Community College Library)
4) changes to delivery of traditional reference services; 5) unfilled positions in conjunction with their ultimate removal www.thieme-connect.com of the line item, and staff and user resistance to change; 6) how budget cuts, natural disasters, and horrific staff reductions, while devasting, can lead to tremendous positive changes; 7) how changes in library leadership and shifts to the university’s strategic plan are opportunities to solidify the library’s impact and relevance; 8) how to align divergent department cultures to facilitate Thieme Clinical Suites change; and finally 9) the need to create new spaces which can facilitate sharing Educational and reference and creation of knowledge. Each of the libraries facing these issues find their own unique resources in clinical medicine solutions to address their problems. The results are cost savings which prevent other resources from being cut, streamlining and movement of many services to the Internet, patron self-service, movement away from job silos to shared workloads, and focused training. The libraries learn the importance of utilizing data to make a point about service reductions and partnering with patrons to get buy-in to change. Another outcome is that library systems are now more flexible with constant evaluation being done for their usefulness and viability. In the process, patrons actually gain access to resources which they could not easily access before. One lesson that the book discusses is the importance of adequate staff training. Libraries find that collaborations, broader skill sets, gaining library staff, and student buy-in are invaluable. Broader skill sets benefit libraries and add marketable skills to their employees. Many library personnel now find themselves with time freed up for less mundane tasks. Library staff can work in a smaller space, which then frees up a larger space that can be used by faculty and students to learn from each other and to create new knowledge in an informal setting. Letting Go of Legacy Services is an excellent book that addresses problems and possible solutions that can be used by any library. While the case studies primarily discuss the experiences of academic libraries, the problems are faced and shared by libraries of all types.
Molaro, Anthony and Leah L. White, (Eds.). The Library Innovation Toolkit: Ideas, Strategies, and Programs. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2015. 978-0-8389-1274-4. 216 pages. $55.00.
Reviewed by Amanda Vocks (Technical Services Specialist, Olin Library, Rollins College)
There is one common theme that the book The Library Innovation Meet us at our Product Showcase Toolkit: Ideas, Strategies, and Programs conveys: innovation takes at the Charleston Conference! collaboration with colleagues. Being innovative means understanding innovation and encouraging everyone to be a part of it. Moreover, the continued on page 54
A Website Review — Cabell’s International ... from page 51 Thieme Connect The online platform for medical & chemistry knowledge the validity of an ever growing number of scholarly publications. E-Books · E-Journals · E-Learning · Clinical Suite · Reference Works For the price, I would think that Cabell’s would be worth it for most institutions that have even a modest publication record. We can only hope that Cabell’s will continue to expand the number of disciplines it covers and the number of journals it includes as well as the infor- mation provided about those journals. In an email exchange with a representative of Cabell’s I was assured that: “Cabell’s is always looking to expand its coverage according to the needs of the academic community. We recently added over 4,000 titles from the fields of mathematics and science. Our next focused collection effort, too, will be geared toward satisfying the desires of current and future users.”
Anzeige_ClinicalSuites_89x254mm_OK.indd 1 24.09.2015 12:18:25 librarianship, and liaison librarianship dovetail with such programs. Book Reviews Two thought-provoking chapters consider what personal librarians from page 53 can learn from other academic departments and businesses outside of academia, a helpful reminder that libraries have been taking cues from focus of innovation should be on the needs of our users. other institutions for years. The Personal Librarian concludes with Edited by Anthony Molaro and Leah L. White, the book is di- data from a faculty survey at Johnson & Wales, a checklist of best vided into six parts. Each part addresses an area of innovation such as practices, and some thoughts for the future. innovative culture; innovative staff; innovative outreach; innovative There are certainly some interesting ideas here for getting students technology; innovative spaces; and innovative programs. It is re- engaged with the library, and specifically with a librarian. One theme freshing to read a book about innovation that stresses the importance of that stands out is marketing, and the emphasis is well-placed. Students diversity and team work. The authors discuss creating an environment will come to the library for help if they know and trust a librarian, and that fosters innovation where everyone feels they can contribute and building that kind of relationship requires serious librarian outreach. A have value. This book will get you thinking about your entire library PL program is one way to frame library services to make students feel team as potential innovators. more at ease when seeking assistance, but while The Personal Librarian I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with many of the chapters. The may be a helpful discussion on library marketing, it never succeeds in themes of diversity, where anyone can be an innovator, and user-focused making its case that there is inherent value in a PL program. thinking is reinforced throughout the chapters. The Library Innovation One mystery readers are certain to find frustrating is that nowhere Toolkit is not only a great resource for librarians but it also shows how does a definition of “personal librarian” appear. This absence opens the staff and administration can be part of the innovation and overall suc- door for conflicting ideas and recommendations among authors. Cob- cess of the library. One section of high interest to me was Part Three. bling together a definition from the discussions in this book, one might It highlights innovative outreach that urges staff to reach out and find arrive at something along the lines of “a personal librarian program is partners and advocates. The authors in this section tell us about outreach what libraries have been doing for years but with a different marketing programs that take place out in their community where library users and strategy.” For many libraries, this is not going to be an especially con- potential users actually are. We also hear about a book club and a trivia vincing argument for implementing such a program. night held in an innovative setting. This is one of the most fun sections The weakest point in The Personal Librarian is the data from a fac- to read. I love the innovation of Audrey Barbakoff’s Ferry Tales ulty survey at Johnson & Wales. The case study is ostensibly meant to program, a wonderful idea based on her observations of the community demonstrate the success of their PL program in terms of faculty opinion, she lives in and serves. Barbakoff stresses the importance of building but the data is not at all convincing. Surveys were conducted for only something new and asking the community members what they think of two semesters, with only ten faculty responses recorded and no clear the potential programs. This shows that the best way to be innovative is majority expressing either positive or negative opinions. Comparing to listen to your community’s needs. Forest Park Public Library is another the data to the author’s statement that the program brought “clear and great example of taking library programming straight to the community. obvious benefits to faculty and students,” one cannot help but feel that Library programs should fulfill the needs of the community, and this these conclusions are erroneous at best. That’s not to say the program section inspires readers with fun ideas from these two public libraries. was ineffective, but there is not enough data to support either conclusion, As a former public library staff who has now transitioned to an aca- and nowhere is this limitation acknowledged. demic library position, it is pleasantly surprising to read that the editors The Personal Librarian can be a thought-provoking read, provid- examine and represent both the academic and public library perspec- ing insights into how libraries can best market their services and what tives in the book. At first I wonder if this book would be helpful for they can learn from other institutions. However, anyone expecting a academic libraries, but as I keep on reading, I see that it is wonderfully handbook on how or why to develop a PL program will be disappointed. balanced. The editors do a great job of pairing the academic and public perspectives and showing how they can learn from each other. This is of particular interest to me because one of the librarians I work with is Peter Hernon, Robert E. Dugan, and Joseph R. Matthews. trying to implement something similar to this at our institution. Newer Managing with Data: Using ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics. librarians often feel a heavy pressure with the instructional responsi- Chicago, IL: ALA Editions. 2015. bilities they have on their plates, and a program like LIT from Virginia ISBN: 978-0-8389-1243-0. 232 pages. $85.00 Tech Library could be encouraging, supportive, and profoundly helpful to us new librarians. The LIT program can be beneficial to any library, Reviewed by Dao Rong Gong (Systems Librarian, public or academic, that offers instruction sessions to its patrons or users. Michigan State University Libraries)
54 Against the Grain / November 2015
Collecting to the Core — The Renaissance: Secular and Sacred by Dr. Thomas M. Izbicki (Associate University Librarian, Research and Instructional Services, Rutgers University; Renaissance Studies Editor, Resources for College Libraries)
Column Editor’s Note: The “Collecting ated monuments of literature in the vernacular. losophy of Man, which provides primary his- to the Core” column highlights monographic Petrarch, attempting to recover the heritage torical writings by leading thinkers of the time, works that are essential to the academic li- of classical antiquity, created a periodization including Petrarch.3 These humanists, most brary within a particular discipline, inspired dismissive of the intervening Middle or “Dark” of them professional men of letters, played a by the Resources for College Libraries bib- Ages that still persists. Interpretation of the key role in the development and interpretation liography (online at http://www.rclweb.net). Renaissance, especially in its Italian cradle, of Renaissance thought. Kristeller provides In each essay, subject specialists introduce was largely formed by Jacob Burckhardt’s a comprehensive scholarly introduction to the and explain the classic titles and topics that 1860 work The Civilization of the Renaissance philosophical, literary, theological, and scien- 1 continue to remain relevant to the undergrad- in Italy. Burckhardt eschewed a traditional tific themes that flourished in the Renaissance 4 uate curriculum and library collection. Dis- political approach for the study of Renaissance in his Renaissance Thought and Its Sources. ciplinary trends may shift, but some classics culture, especially art, as well as secular aspects Consisting of fourteen essays based on original never go out of style. — AD of social institutions. This foundational work lectures, this work outlines the development serves as an early example of cultural history of humanist, Aristotelian, and Platonist ideas. and created a popular image of the Renaissance In addition to these secular explorations, sa- he Renaissance is not a tidy topic. While which has endured. The historical philosopher cred interpretations of the Italian Renaissance often reduced to a trope in popular dis- Ernst Cassirer placed the Renaissance at the have also emerged, proceeding along two dif- Tcourse, the Renaissance is a complex and origins of modern thought in his tome The Indi- ferent tracks: one emphasizes the continuity of rich scholarly subject that crosses disciplines vidual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philos- medieval religious traditions; the other focuses and contributes to the understanding of Western ophy, first published in 1927 and translated into on the absorption of earlier Christian sources civilization. The cultural phenomena associ- English in 1963.2 Cassirer, together with Paul and the emergence of a new humanist theology. ated with it emerged in Italy, beginning in the Oskar Kristeller and John Herman Randall, A starting point for the study of traditional reli- early fourteenth century. Dante Alighieri cre- Jr., translated and edited The Renaissance Phi- continued on page 58 56 Against the Grain / November 2015
Community college libraries new to Choice and CRO — take 25% o subscription for the fi rst year! O er code CC15.
New community college tools coming in November: • All titles appropriate for community college libraries will be marked with an easily identifi able icon: cc • Each month, the best titles will be listed in a special multipage section at the front of the magazine and on Choice Reviews Online. • A dedicated editorial addressing topics especially relevant to community colleges will be featured in selected issues.
Visit www.choice360.org for the latest on everything Choice has to o er. Ambrogio Traversari (1386-1439) and Chris- Collecting to the Core tian Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance.14 The Endnotes from page 56 Roman adaptation of humanism was tied more 1. Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of directly to the papacy, as Stinger documents in the Renaissance in Italy. New York: Random gion in Renaissance Italy is the early fourteenth The Renaissance in Rome.15 Literary creations House, 2002.* century, at the close of the late Middle Ages and in the Roman tradition included orations and 2. Cassirer, Ernst. The Individual and the during the time of Dante. George W. Damer- Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Dover sermons delivered before the popes using a Publications, 2000.* on provides a partial overview of this period in proper Latin style. John O’Malley offers the Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante.5 3. Cassirer, Ernst, Paul Oskar Kristeller, classic study of this oratory style and its influ- and John Herman Randall, Jr. The Renais- Women’s religious roles are examined in a ence in Praise and Blame in Renaissance Rome: sance Philosophy of Man: Petrarca, Valla, longer temporal context in Women and Religion Rhetoric, Doctrine, and Reform in the Sacred Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Vives. Chicago: in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, edited by Orators of the Papal Court, c. 1450-1521.16 University of Chicago Press, 1956.* Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi.6 By The best summary of humanistic theology is 4. Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance the fifteenth century, movements for reform Charles Edward Trinkaus’s In Our Image Thought and Its Sources. Edited by Michael and humanistic approaches to theology were and Likeness: Humanity and Divinity in Italian Mooney. New York: Columbia UP, 1979.* very much alive, as Denys Hay outlines in Humanist Thought.17 5. Dameron, George W. Florence and Its The Church in Italy in the Fifteenth Century.7 Church in the Age of Dante. Philadelphia: Although the Renaissance flowered in Italy, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.* During the Renaissance, two historical it spread far beyond the borders and confines of 6. Bornstein, Daniel, and Roberto Rus- religious figures stand out:Catherine of Siena that nation-state — geographically, politically, coni, eds. Women and Religion in Medieval (1347-80) and Bernardino of Siena (1380- and theologically — into Northern Europe. The and Renaissance Italy. Translated by Mar- 1444). Both were influential theological figures transmission of humanist thought and method- gery J. Schneider. Chicago: University of during their lifetimes and are now canonized ologies outside Italy meant entering a different Chicago Press, 1996.* saints. Catherine, a Dominican tertiary, was intellectual and religious milieu. The religious 7. Hay, Denys. The Church in Italy in the a mystic whom Pope Paul VI later declared a Fifteenth Century. Cambridge: University scene in the North was dominated by devotional of Cambridge Press, 2002.* Doctor of the Church for her significant writings. currents like the Devotio Moderna, which called 8. Catherine of Siena, Saint. The Dia- Catherine left more than 300 letters and 26 for religious reform by emphasizing humility logue. Translated and with an introduction prayers that serve as primary historical, reli- and piety. Insights into this movement are by Suzanne Noffke. New York: Paulist gious, and literary texts. Her Dialogue, translat- found through translations of primary sources Press, 1980. ed by Suzanne Noffke, is a discussion between in Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings, edited 9. Origo, Iris. The World of San Bernardino. a soul “rising up” and God.8 Bernardino was a by John H. Van Engen.18 The humanists also New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962.* priest and Franciscan who traveled throughout applied their methods of study to translating and 10. Mormando, Franco. The Preacher’s Italy preaching directly to the public, drawing analyzing biblical manuscripts. In Humanists Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social huge crowds of people that enthusiastically and Holy Writ: New Testament Scholarship in Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy. Chi- received his sermons and often recorded his cago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.* the Renaissance, Jerry H. Bentley tracks how 11. Petrarch, Francesco. On Religious words. Iris Origo’s The World of San Bernardi- the humanists’ interpretations of the original Leisure. Edited and translated by Susan S. no illustrates how deeply engaged Bernardino Greek scriptural text undermined the authority Schearer with an introduction by Ronald was in society and contemporary efforts to of the Latin Vulgate Bible and anticipated later G. Witt. New York: Italica Press, 2002.* restore the role of the Catholic Church.9 His biblical studies.19 Lewis W. Spitz follows the 12. Petrarch, Francesco. The Secret. Edited fiery preaching targeted moral degradation and analogous work by German scholars in The Re- and with an introduction by Carol E. Quillen. groups he regarded as dangerous, including ligious Renaissance of the German Humanists.20 Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2003.* Jews, witches, heretics, and sodomites, as Finally, it should not be forgotten that this time 13. Witt, Ronald G. Hercules at the Cross- Franco Mormando shows in The Preacher’s period also featured Christopher Columbus’s roads: The Life, Works, Thought of Coluccio Salutati. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1983.* Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social transatlantic expedition. The impact of discov- Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy.10 14. Stinger, Charles L. Humanism and eries in the New World on Europe’s intellectual the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari While Catherine of Siena’s mysticism and presuppositions are featured in Anthony Graf- (1386-1439) and Christian Antiquity in the Bernardino’s evangelicalism serve as exem- ton’s New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Italian Renaissance. Albany: State Univer- plars of traditional religious practice during Tradition and the Shock of Discovery.21 sity of New York Press, 1977.* this time, the emergent Latin humanism also In the course of the sixteenth century, the 15. Stinger, Charles L. The Renaissance in included devotional aspects. Petrarch, well religious issues of the Italian and northern Rome. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 1985.* known for his Italian poetry, was also engaged in Renaissance were submerged in larger develop- 16. O’Malley, John W. Praise and Blame in Renaissance Rome: Rhetoric, Doctrine, Latin scholarship and is largely attributed for his ments. Among these were the Reformation and and Reform in the Sacred Orators of the significant role in developing humanist thought Counter-Reformation, followed in subsequent Papal Court, c. 1450-1521. Durham, N.C.: and promoting secular work in tandem with centuries by the Enlightenment and the Scien- Duke UP, 1979.* religious practice. He wrote De otio religioso tific Revolution. Italy suffered from ongoing 17. Trinkhaus, Charles E. In Our Image or On Religious Leisure and The Secret, both wars between the French and Spanish crown, and Likeness: Humanity and Divinity in Ital- of which approached Christianity from a very losing its economic and cultural preeminence. ian Humanist Thought. Chicago: University personal and literary slant.11-12 Petrarch’s con- The influence of the Renaissance’s humanistic of Chicago Press, 1970.* templative work was not always well received theology was largely subsumed in responses to 18. Devotio Moderna: Basic Writings. Trans- by the established public and political leaders. these challenges, though its legacy persists in lated and with an introduction by John H. In response to his writing, Coluccio Salutati, Van Engen. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.* the methods of humanistic study that remain 19. Bentley, Jerry H. Humanists and the chancellor of Florence, defended the use of active today. The secular interpretations of Holy Writ: New Testament Scholarship in classical texts, as Ronald G. Witt documents Burckhardt and Cassirer have been modi- the Renaissance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton in Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works, fied but not entirely displaced. The work of UP, 1983.* Thought of Coluccio Salutati.13 Employing liter- more recent scholars, especially Trinkaus and 20. Spitz, Lewis W. The Religious Renais- ary scholarship for Christian purposes, including O’Malley, adds depth and nuance to the larger sance of the German Humanists. Cambridge the creation of texts couched in elegant Latin, picture and illuminates the sacred aspect of MA: Harvard UP, 1963.* can be seen in both Florentine and Roman con- humanists’ work. Scholarly interpretations of 21. Grafton, Anthony. New Worlds, An- texts. In Florence, the most important figure for the Renaissance — even considering ongoing cient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the recovery and translation of Patristic texts was the Shock of Discovery. Cambridge MA: debates regarding geography, periodization, and Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1992.* the Camaldolese monk Ambrogio Traversari. the concept of the Renaissance as a true period *Editor’s note: An asterisk (*) denotes a title Charles L. Stinger explores Traversari’s of “rebirth” — remain guided by classic works selected for Resources for College Libraries. impact in Humanism and the Church Fathers: such as those discussed here.
58 Against the Grain / November 2015
From the Reference Desk by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain, and Head of Reference Emeritus, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29401)
ucking current trends, a new start-up single-volume reference that will be welcomed information contained in these two volumes re- reference publisher is debuting in the by students of leadership studies. Editor Tyson quired a deep scholarly commitment. Not only Bmarketplace. Based in Santa Barbara, D. Kling-Meadows has assembled well written does Mr. Grossman cover those who served in CA, Mission Bell Media intends to publish and solidly researched articles on relevant top- these formative Congresses, he also includes both print and digital media with a focus on ics, and the publisher has made the significant those who were selected but did not serve. By the themes of leadership and innovation. In addition of the Leadership Glossary to enhance quoting numerous primary sources, he offers fact, they have just released a series of sin- the usefulness of the volume. The arrangement not only firsthand accounts but is able to provide gle-volume reference works, the first of which and layout make the contents accessible and the the perspectives of both Colonial and British is entitled African-American Leadership: book easy to use. It is one of those titles that observers and participants. And by including A Concise Reference Guide (2015, 978- should have appeal to both public and academic the comments of numerous historians, Mr. 0990730033, $135). libraries and deserves consideration for both Grossman intersperses immediate scholarly A look at the Reader’s Guide of this title reference and circulating collections depending analysis. The Encyclopedia of the Continental shows not only the broad categories that are on need. This title as well as others in this Congresses is a unique resource that serves both covered but it also points to the framework series are available electronically via Credo as central repository of detailed biographies within which editor Tyson D. Kling-Mead- Reference at http://corp.credoreference.com/. and as a rich source of references for the avid ows has chosen to present his study of Afri- researcher. As such, it is a natural addition to can-American leadership. In this reference, academic library collections that support the leadership is presented and defined by how it Grey House Publishing has just released serious study of this formative time in U.S. is exemplified in specific areas of endeavor. a two-volume set entitled the Encyclopedia history. (Buyers of the print edition get free As such, articles focus on African-American of the Continental Congresses (2015, 978- online access at http://gold.greyhouse.com.) leadership as demonstrated in fields ranging 1619251755, $245). Authored by Mark from academics to business to art, as well as in Grossman, this specialized reference attempts politics, science, and within faith communities. to provide comprehensive coverage of “the Grey House has also published the 4th Given this arrangement, individual entries Continental Congresses and the persons, edition of Salem Press’ Cyclopedia of Literary are free to focus on a range of specific topics places, and events that had an impact on these Characters (2015, 978-1619254978, $399). including affirmative action: the Freedom formative bodies.” In an effort to fulfill this First published in 1963 as a two-volume com- Rides; the Harlem Renaissance; the Nation goal, the set contains some 509 entries in a plement to the first edition of the Masterplots of Islam, gender and leadership; the Black straightforward A-Z arrangement with refer- series, the Cyclopedia of Literary Characters Business Network; historically black colleges ences to numerous primary sources. has grown apace as Masterplots has expanded. and universities; and inventions and patents. As you might expect, the vast majority of Initially offering profiles of 16,000 characters There are also essays that cover leadership as the entries are biographies of members of the presented in 1,300 classic works of literature, it seen in specific organizations like theNAACP , First and Second Continental Congresses as now covers some 3,500 titles published through the Black Theatre Network, and the National well as other relevant players who had an im- 2013 with profiles of 29,000 characters. It has Black Chamber of Commerce. Each article pact on the formation and work of those bodies. also expanded to become a five-volume set. is fact laden providing historical context both Additional entries focus on relevant issues, As with all earlier editions, the new collec- past and present while containing specific ex- events, places, battles, laws, and treaties. As tion is organized alphabetically by the title of amples of leadership with numerous references such there are discussions of topics ranging the literary work. Each entry provides the title, to specific individuals. Value-added features from the Coercive Acts to the Declaration of (foreign title if the original language was not include the above mentioned Reader’s Guide, Independence; from Loyalists to the Commit- English), author, date, genre (novel, play, short a general index, a chronology, “see also” refer- tees of Correspondence and from Espionage story, etc.), locale, time of action, and the plot ences, and brief bibliographies after each entry. Tactics to the Diplomacy employed by the type (satire, social realism, historical, fantasy, However, the most impressive value-added Continental Congresses. Each article is factual etc.). This basic information is followed by feature is the 200-page Leadership Glossary and thoroughly researched with liberal use of the character profiles, which are arranged by edited by Dr. Jeni McRay. It contains over quotes from primary sources and including order of importance. While not all characters 750 terms relevant to leadership including cited analysis from a variety of historians. At are discussed for each work, both major and definitions of concepts and theories as well as first this can be a tad disconcerting given the selected minor characters are covered. The brief discussions of specific organizations, in- length of a number of the quotes but the overall profiles themselves generally range in length fluential publications, and actual leaders. This effect is to offer a scholarly and comprehen- from 100 to 150 words, but many will exceed volume has also been published separately by sive discussion of each topic covered, not to 200 words in length when warranted. Each Mission Bell Media under the title Leadership mention a sense of what contemporaries were offers a descriptive assessment with some Glossary: Essential Terms for the 21st Century thinking and feeling at the time. Each entry brief critical analysis for the character being (2015, 978-0-9907300-0-2, $29.95). reinforces this impression with an impressive discussed. Given the numerous entries in African-American Leadership: a Concise work cited list that serious researchers will these five volumes, finding aids are essential, Reference Guide is appreciate. Value-added features include and the Cyclopedia of Literary Characters a well-designed an historic timeline, numerous primary doc- provides highly useful ones. Each volume uments, an exhaustive bibliography and a contains a list of the entire contents of all five general index. There is also a very useful volumes, while comprehensive title, character, index of the delegates by state contained in the and author indexes take up a major portion of appendix as well as lists of the signers of the the last volume of the set. Declaration of Independence and the Articles The Cyclopedia of Literary Characters of Confederation by occupation, the Presidents will prove a highly useful resource for both of the Continental Congresses, and the location literature students seeking added insights for and dates of the various sessions. a research paper and lay readers interested in a The Encyclopedia of the Continental better understand of a work and its characters. Congresses is an obvious labor of love. The This is especially true when used in tandem time and effort needed to gather and distill the continued on page 61 60 Against the Grain / November 2015
Against the Grain / November 2015
he summer of 2015 forever changed the back to Poland, Ukranian, German occu- of paper came into his community of Charleston, SC. White pation during WWII and currently a part of hands, he would com- Tsupremacy raised its ugly head and the Ukraine. Jews settled in the area during pose his thoughts and jot down their essence in removed nine souls from this community. the early 16th century. Buczacz suffered the extremely concise language. Out of fondness The humidity in our summer air could well effects of these various footprints on its soil for Magen Avraham, Rabbi Shmaria took be the product of tears. So many eloquent but the Jewish community paid the ultimate upon himself to construe, interpret, and explain words have been written and spoken about price of lives during all the occupations. All it for every student to learn and understand. I this horrific event. And this will probably these elements as well as details from his own don’t know for how many years Rabbi Magen continue for a while as processing all of this life as an Eastern European Jew who lived in Avraham was occupied with his work. As will take a very long minute. Each of the many Germany and immigrated to Israel are captured for Rabbi Shmaria, I heard that it took him articles, editorials, commentaries, and speeches in Agnon’s writings. twelve years to define, elucidate, and construe I have read and heard have left an impression, A Book That Was Lost and other Stories is each and every expression. He left no difficult caused me pause or pushed me to contemplate a posthumous publication of Agnon’s short passage uninterpreted. At the end of twelve uncomfortable realities. However, the piece stories. The front sleeve of the cover describes years he checked and found nothing further to entitled Kaddish for the Emanuel Nine written Agnon as “the towering genius of modern He- add or to detract.” by Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute brew literature.” The Nobel committee honored “I can’t tell whether poems of Zion and of Riverdale, Bronx, NY published in The Post him “for his profoundly characteristic narrative Jerusalem brought me to Jerusalem or whether and Courier on Tuesday, July 7, 2015 struck a art with motifs from the life of the Jewish it was my longing for Zion and Jerusalem that different cord. My current literary choice from people.” Each section of stories is introduced, brought me to compose poems about them. my Nobel laureate list was a Jew. Weiss wrote: reviewed, analyzed, and dissected by the edi- Either way, it was my good fortune to go and “My father died a few weeks ago. The hardest tors Alan Mintz and Anne Golomb Hoffman. settle in the Land of Israel.” part of the shiva (mourning period) was when it In addition, they punctuated the collections “So the years passed. The librarian went the ended. Friends and family were, by and large, with notes and a glossary. Their affection way of all flesh and the librarian who succeeded no longer visiting. I was alone in pain and for Agnon is witnessed by their own crafting him has also passed on, but the book was found. agony. I thought of this reality during my visit of words: “Many storytellers have arisen to What a pity the book was lost.” to the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston tell the story of East European Jewry, but the merely two weeks after the racially-motivated On One Stone: “As though in a vision I achievement of S.Y. Agnon remains singular. saw the rock and the writing inside it. I could massacre killed nine people.” He continues His canvas is wider, his erudition vaster, his with a description of his participation in the discern every letter and word, every line, every humor wrier, his irony subtler. Above all, like page of writing, every leaf. Had these writings Bible Study after the massacre in the very any great writer, his art transcends the limits space where it had occurred. It is a lot to take belonged to the root of my own soul, I would of its ostensible subject. To be sure, Agnon’s have read them, and out of them I would have in. After the study it was time for the kaddish, writing is inseparably entwined with the very the memorial prayer, for his father. He acquired fashioned worlds. But I don’t deserve to read particular culture of Polish Jewry and its them; I could only sit and look. My eyes would his prayer quorum and gathered at Folly Beach: continuation in the Land of Israel.” A variety “As I recited the kaddish for my father I wanted surround them like metal settings in which of translators participated in this project and precious stones are placed but which never to also say it in the memory of the nine Emanu- their names are placed at the end of each story. el martyrs. I wondered if my father would take combine with the stones themselves.” I will leave you with a sampling of Agnon’s The Sense of Smell: “I was worried that exception.” In the end: I heard him whisper, wordcraft taken from four stories in the book. “well done, my son, well done. The love that perhaps I had strayed from proper usage and Knots upon Knots is an expression from the done harm to the beauty of the language. I defies the rule will be victorious over the hate older Agnon and deals with books, writing, that defies the rule.” went and looked in reference books but found book binding and the community of word no support for my usage. Most of the books For no good reason, I decided to start at the craftsmen; A Book That Was Lost where Ag- either tell you what you already know or else alphabetic beginning of the authors who had non uses the metaphor of a lost book to depict tell you nothing at all. I went to the scholars won the Nobel Prize in Literature and planned the journey from Buczacz to Jerusalem; On of our time, and they did not know what to a visit to the Charleston County Library. One Stone set in eastern Europe and again de- answer me. Scholars know everything except The book I intended to check out during that scribing a relationship with writing; The Sense that particular thing you are looking for.” visit was S.Y. Agnon’s A Book That Was Lost of Smell deals with the influence of mystical and other Stories. My planned visit was the traditions in writing on Agnon. Thursday after the tragedy. It was a few days Knots upon Knots: “One who is not bur- Postscript: Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, before I went. The main branch of the library dened with things is free to do whatever his Ethel Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, is just a short distance from the Emanuel heart desires. I stood among my things and Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Dan- A.M.E. church on Calhoun Street. When I thought to myself, When did I ever have need iel L. Simmons Sr., Sharonda Singleton, and felt it was appropriate to go, I spent some time of you and when will I ever need you? And at the growing memorial before entering the there they lay, casting a shadow upon them- Myra Thompson are the names of the nine library. It is a powerful physical representation selves, a thick and thickening shadow. And if souls who paid with their lives demonstrat- of grace, forgiveness and unity in the face of there is no substance in a shadow, substance ing openness in the sanctity of their church an unthinkable act. Now it is time to read, there is in those who cast shadows.” while contemplating God’s word. Grace, ponder and process. A Book That Was Lost: “Of course, most forgiveness and unity are what their families Shmuel Yosef Agnon, born Shmuel Yosef of Magen Avraham’s commentary is obscure demonstrated to the community while griev- Halvei Czaczkes, shared the 1966 Nobel and enigmatic due to over abbreviation. For ing. May we pay attention and learn. And Prize in Literature with the German poet, though a man of great learning, he was poor, may eloquent words continue to be crafted in Nelly Sachs. His hometown of Buczacz has without the means to buy paper on which to their memory. a lineage that defines the politics and wars of write, and used to write his novellae on the face the region: originally Polish, then Austrian, of the table and on the wall, and when a piece
62 Against the Grain / November 2015
hey called it the Great War, at least until ternational community so fed-up with Germany the early 1990s. By the outbreak of the Second World War, that it was deemed a suitable solution in the the end of that period, Tafter which it came to be called the Treaty of Versailles to compel upon that state we had gone to the First World War. Its causes were complex, near-total disarmament, (a pact characterized Moon, heard a young multi-threaded, and spread out over time. Fre- in Wikipedia as “neither lenient enough to ap- Bill Gates’s vision for “a quently-cited were the partially overlapping, pease Germany, nor harsh enough to prevent it computer on every desk and in every home,” sometimes colliding web of treaties and alli- from becoming the dominant continental power and seen Tim Berners Lee propose an infor- ances that led to disaster, creating apparently again”). The unintended consequences this led mation management system to the European unstoppable chains of cascading events. Once to were founded in the bitter resentment that Organization for Nuclear Research (better begun, the only “way out” was “through.” bred among the people of that country, offering known as CERN) based upon links embedded The result was “…a clash of 20th-century fertile ground for the twisted diagnoses and in readable text. “Imagine,” wrote Berners technology and 19th-century tactics, with the remedies offered up a couple of decades later Lee, “…the references in this document all inevitably large ensuing casualties,” a char- by Hitler. being associated with the network address of acterization found in the surprisingly good The Second World War brought even more the thing to which they referred, so that while (and ever-improving) Wikipedia main article, radical developments in the technologies to reading this document you could skip to them “World War I.” The technology had advanced support and advance warfare: aircraft (long- with a click of the mouse.” (See Wikipedia’s faster than the tactics, or for that matter, the range strategic bombing, jets, high explo- main article “History of the World Wide Web.”) ability to cope with the casualties. Among the sives, nuclear weapons), naval (submarines, Through the benefits of hindsight, it’s new technologies on the battlefield were the battleships, aircraft carriers), and of course, possible to see clear threads running from the telephone, wireless communications, armored cryptography (Enigma, for one) and the aftermath of the First World War directly into cars, tanks, and combat aircraft. There were information technology to counter it (Ultra, the Second World War. Similarly, it’s possible new and newly lethal weapons deployed as Colossus, ENIAC), leading to advances in all to find clear traces running from the aftermath well, heavy artillery, rapid-repeating guns, and other technologies. of the Second World War into the Cold War and most despicable, chemical weapons. Out of the Second World War we came into its political and technological “areas of concen- The aftermath of the First World War in- the Cold War, carrying us, depending upon tration.” It wouldn’t be surprising, therefore, to cluded a completely redrawn map, and an in- the dates we apply, from the late 1940s into continued on page 64
Against the Grain / November 2015
64 Against the Grain / November 2015
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Little Red Herrings — Fitbit, Libbit, Throwafit by Mark Y. Herring (Dean of Library Services, Dacus Library, Winthrop University)
y wife Carol and I are notorious for into your account — can see all the things you my older brother’s fiftieth wedding anniversary never winning anything. You could do, or don’t do, right. It has these bright lights recently, she astonished me. Mplace us in a room full of frequent that tell you when you reached your goals: one It was about 10:30 at night, and I was getting multimillion-dollar lottery winners, and I for you-lazy-good-for-nothing-slouch to five for ready for bed. I had gone to brush my teeth. swear all of them would lose from then on. kiss-my-Fitbit-Tony-Horton. When I walked back into the hotel room … she It’s contagious, really. And though we’ve tried Now my wife has never been — how to put was gone. No note, no sign of her, vanished. on numerous occasions to improve our odds, this delicately — an aficionado of exercise. My first thought was that after 42 years she had stack the deck, all-but-cheat, the end result is All of our early married life, she could eat five had enough. Surely no one could blame her. the same: we simply do not win. Get every bowls of ice cream and still remain her petit I’m nothing if not difficult but honestly in a very red light, pick the wrong grocery line, pick size four. She might begin an exercise regime winsome sort of way. Frankly, I had been the the wrong queue at the ATM. You think I’m only to stick to it like Jell-O on the wall, which picture of dutiful devotion that day so it was kidding, but I’m not. Black cats run from us! is to say, for a few days and then fall off. It a bit surprising that her walkout would come For example, every year for the past five years, was maddening, really. I would walk by the then. About ten minutes later she walked in. the school where my wife works has a drawing refrigerator and gain weight; consequently, “I had three lights and so I walked around for prizes. It’s a way to kick off the school year I began running in my twenties and have the perimeter of the hotel to get in my steps. in good form. Now these are not your fake-ap- continued into my sixties. She, on the other See,” she beamed. “All five.” ple-for-the-teacher prizes but honest-to-goodness hand, never really gave it a thought until two Now I know you must be wondering where danegeld that anyone would want. children and the doleful years of living with all this is going, but that’s when it struck me So, imagine my surprise and my wife’s utter me later began to catch up. A few years ago, that we need to devise something like this for amazement when this year she won the first prize she began a daily regime. libraries, something like a Libbit. Just think given away, a Fitbit. For those of you living in When she won the Fitbit, that sleek, hot of it. It could measure everything from dwin- some subterranean ecroulement, a Fitbit is one pink wrist device, I thought she might wear it a dling budgets, to shrinking space, to vanishing of the newest devices that tracks your sleep, your day or two. But, much to my surprise, she real- staffs, to overworked staff to, well, just about calories, your blood sugar, your daily steps, your ly took to it and devoted herself to checking ev- everything you can think of that’s causing IQ — you name, it records erything: her biorhythms, libraries to slowly vanish like so much frost it. You can track this on her sleep patterns, her daily on a warming windshield. your laptop by syncing it steps, and so on. So much The lights could glow and bells go off, more with the Fitbit and you — did this become important like a siren, when a library closes. They could and whoever has hacked to her that when we went to continued on page 66 Against the Grain / November 2015
Section Editors: Bruce Strauch (The Citadel)
STEPHANIE LENZ V. UNIVERSAL notice to YouTube. This included a “good faith In 1998, the DMCA added some stuff MUSIC CORP; UNIVERSAL MUSIC belief” statement as per 17 U.S.C. § 512(3)(A) among which is Title II — Online Copyright PUBLISHING INC.; UNIVERSAL MUSIC (v) which notes a good faith belief that the use is Infringement Liability Limitation Act — 17 PUBLISHING GROUP INC. UNITED not authorized by copyright owner, agent or law. U.S.C. § 512. STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE YouTube yanked the video and notified Under 512(c), service providers like NINTH CIRCUIT 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS Lenz. Uh-oh. YouTube and Google may escape copyright 16308 (2015). Our furious mother seems to have read up infringement liability if they “expeditiously” Stephanie Lenz uploaded onto YouTube on the law and fired off a counter-notification remove stuff upon receiving notice of infringe- a 29-second video of her two very young kids to Universal under § 512(g)(2)(B). Universal ment. And there are elements as stated above. dancing to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy. And she riposted that she had neglected to swear she And the service provider has to tell the user. gave it a name. “Let’s Go Crazy.” Original. wasn’t perjuring herself as per § 512(g)(3)(C). The restoration by counter-notification is She asks the 13 month-old what he thinks of Is that a pretty good guide to managing the automatic and must be done within ten days. the music, and he responds by bobbing while legal end of your YouTube cat videos? And then the copyright owner and cat video holding a push toy. producer slug it out with YouTube stepping Well, by gosh, Lenz corrected her count- Yes, right up there with cat videos. What back out of the way. er-notice, and YouTube caved and restored it. did we do before YouTube? And there’s punishment for abusing the But not content with her victory, Lenz sued in DMCA. Universal was the publishing administrator 2007 with some procedural floundering around in charge of guarding Prince’s copyright. And until, in 2008, she went forward with only one Must Consider Fair Use trained lawyers sat monitoring YouTube daily. claim for misrepresentation under § 512(f). And now we get to the big point. 17 U.S.C. With their legal skills and ear for music, And then we got a partial motion for sum- § 107 “empowers” and “formally approves” they dismissed one line/half a line of a song mary judgment, an interlocutory appeal and fair use. “[A]nyone who … makes a fair use or ones in raucous bars with music in the blah blah, and we’re before the 9th Circuit. of the work is not an infringer of the copyright background. Their guidelines did not include with respect to such use.” Sony Corp. of Am. any consideration of fair use. The Appeal v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, As Lenz asked her toddler his opinion of the Yes, it’s the “evidence viewed in a light 433 (1984). music, they determined the Prince composition most favorable to the non-moving party pres- Fair use is not merely an affirmative de- “was very much the focus of the video.” And ents issues of material fact.” Warren v. City fense, but a right granted by the Copyright Act jumping all over this, they sent a take-down of Carlsbad, 58 F.3d 439, 441 (9th Cir. 1995). of 1976. Bateman v. Mnemonics, Inc., 79 F.3d 1532, 1542 n.22 (11th Cir. 1996). So. Did Universal misrepresent its good Libbits could become the latest craze. Ev- faith belief that the dancing baby was not Little Red Herrings eryone would want one and would check to see subject to fair use? A copyright holder is not from page 65 how many glowing lights showed goals being liable for a simple blunder. There must be “a reached. Granted, it might take a few years for demonstration of some actual knowledge of flash when another budget is cut, or when some even one library to have all five lights shining misrepresentation on the part of the copyright administrator says, “But it’s all on the Internet,” at once. But think of how it might work: owner.” Rossi v. Motion Picture Ass’n of Am. or when some legislator claims that higher people would not go to bed before checking Inc., 391 F.3d 1000, 1004-05 (9th Cir. 2004). education gets way too much money. Wait. on their favorite library and would not go to Universal is only liable if it knowingly Scratch that last one. If we alarm on that one sleep until they had helped that library reach its misrepresented its good faith belief in viola- none of us will get any sleep. Better to have goals. They would climb out of bed and write tion. But it must consider fair use!! Which it glow gold when a legislator says something another check before firing off another email they didn’t do. intelligent about libraries. to some legislator. Although the consideration doesn’t have to We could even place giant-sized Libbits in OK, OK. I get it. It’s a pipedream that even be “searching or intensive.” That monitoring town squares in case everyone thought they Apple wouldn’t fall for. So what do we do in attorney can make a pretty snap decision while were too square and wouldn’t wear them. the meantime? wading through the “crush of voluminous” These life-sized Libbits would gong merci- We fall back on that timeworn but as yet un- mess on the Web. Computer algorithms will lessly when books were removed to make way successful other fit, the throwafit. We throwafit do. Human review is not required. for computers, or when deans or directors were and continue making our case, as often as we And what does our outraged mother win? reminded that they didn’t generate enough can, as much as we can, and with as much Well, she gets to go to a jury to seek nominal revenue or were simply financial black holes. devotion as we always have. damages a mere eight years after she began.
66 Against the Grain / November 2015
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Questions & Answers — Copyright Column Column Editor: Laura N. Gasaway (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Law, Chapel Hill, NC 27599; Phone: 919-962-2295; Fax: 919-962-1193)
QUESTION: A number of librarians have recommendations, but an additional potentially predictable as to outcome and not providing asked about the Register of Copyrights’ new cumbersome requirement would be placed an exception to the remedies for copyright report on orphan works. Are the recommen- on libraries wishing to digitize or otherwise owners. dations good or not? reproduce an orphan work. The additional For mass digitization projects, the report ANSWER: The Register of Copyrights requirement is to provide notice of the intent suggests an extended collective licensing Report on Orphan Works and Mass Digiti- to make use of the orphan work. program which would permit libraries and zation (http://copyright.gov/orphan/reports/ Think about digitizing a collection of old other institutions to proceed with these orphan-works2015.pdf) was issued in June unpublished letters which have not yet entered projects. The report recommends a pilot 2015. It follows an earlier report on orphan the public domain. Conducting a search for the program of such licensing and the Copyright works published in 2006. It is difficult to owner of the copyright in each letter will be Office is seeking comments on extend- characterize the entire report as a good or extremely cumbersome, much less having to ed collective licensing for mass digitiza- bad idea because it is long and complex and provide a notice of intent to use for each piece of tion. See https://www.federalregister.gov/ contains a number of recommendations. It is correspondence in the collection by registering articles/2015/06/09/2015-14116/mass-digiti- safe to say that the recommendations appear each intent with the Copyright Office. So, zation-pilot-program-request-for-comments. A to make it more difficult for libraries to repro- many librarians are very disappointed in the pilot project is not necessarily a bad idea, but duce and use orphan works than the earlier Register’s recommendations because it places there are concerns about it and how it would report’s recommendations would have done. additional burdens on them rather than free work despite the fact that some other countries Librarians had high hopes that there would orphan works for use. are adopting this approach. be an easy procedure for conducting a good Another objection to the report is that it It is unclear whether Congress will adopt faith search for the copyright owner and then, disparages the potential of using fair use to the proposed legislation that is included in the after such a search, provide that no damages deal with the orphan works problem. Many report. The question for librarians is whether would be awarded against the library for use librarians may well decide to reject the notice to oppose the recommendations in the report of the orphan work before a copyright owner of intent to use procedure and rely on fair use and rely on fair use or to seek amendments to comes forward. Indeed, this is still a part of the despite its limitations such as not being very continued on page 68
Against the Grain / November 2015
The Scholarly Publishing Scene — Multi-Client Studies Column Editor: Myer Kutz (President, Myer Kutz Associates, Inc.)
ack in the early nineties, after the ini- two multi-client studies were The Changing at 15 grand each. They were Barnes & Noble, tial assignment rush that attended the Landscape for College Publishing, which RR Donnelly, IBM, Kinko’s, The Maple Bfounding of my publishing consulting addressed forces buffeting the college textbook Press, Xerox, and seven publishers, including practice began to wane and I needed to goose publishing business and The Developing WC Brown, WH Freeman, Houghton Miff- revenues, I took a leaf out the playbook of Worlds of Personalized Information, which lin, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, Thomson, and much larger consulting companies and con- dealt with the future of professional and schol- Times Mirror. Most of these names will be ducted two major multi-client studies. Such arly publishing. familiar to readers of this column, others not studies involve getting multiple organizations The next step is to define the methodology. so much perhaps. interested in a particular issue to support re- Both studies would use the same one, basically. We did a bit better with the professional search culminating in a report that describes the Research would be carried out through a com- and scholarly publishing study, again at 15 research, tabulates results, and summarizes and bination of in-depth face-to-face and telephone grand per sponsor. Besides RR Donnelly and interprets them. The value for the supporting interviews and written questionnaires. Next Lotus Development, we had 13 publishers organizations is that the deliverable is worth determine how the qualitative and quantitative and information services organizations, in- more than the amount of money each puts data and conclusions and recommendations cluding Butterworth Heinemann, Elsevier, into the study. The benefit to the organization would be presented in a final report. Engineering Information, Harcourt Brace, carrying out the study is that the total amount Then we had to find potential sponsors and McGraw-Hill, Mead Data Central, RS of money collected subsidizes a major research sell them on their need for the study. Fortunate- Means, The New England Journal of Medi- effort and provides a reasonable profit. ly, my partner, Carol Gold, whom I brought in cine, OCLC, Scientific American, Thomson, The first step, of course, is to pick a topic of for her unmatched market research expertise in Times Mirror, and Williams & Wilkins. It sufficient interest to stakeholders in a changing, the publishing area, and I had enough industry was great, but not totally great. Carol and I or better yet collapsing market or a burgeoning connections we knew well enough so that we had both had lengthy stints at Wiley, but we customer demand. Then give the research could get an audience without having to make couldn’t get Will Pesce and his crew to back project a sexy name that will encourage them cold calls. We sounded believable enough to either study. to listen to a proposal. The names for my get 13 sponsors for the college publishing study continued on page 69
68 Against the Grain / November 2015
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sponses. Faculty members and students helped 16%, 100-400; 9%, 500-999; 24%, over 1,000; The Scholarly Publishing Scene us hand out and collect a third questionnaire for and 9% didn’t answer that question. All in all, from page 68 students; we received 320 responses. we reached a diverse collection of respondents. For the professional and scholarly publishing Developing and selling a multi-client study, The in-person interviews were conducted research project, we mailed 7,522 questionnaires doing interviews, and writing a multi-client in numerous locations around the country in to users and buyers of professional and research study report involves some expenditure of respondents’ offices; they lasted an hour on information. Lists of names were provided by funds, but mainly time and sweat. Printing average. For the college publishing study, I the study’s sponsors. To obtain an adequate and mailing questionnaires costs some money. conducted all of these interviews myself (it was response, we offered the incentives of making A major expense accrues from the services of back to my old acquisition editor days, when a contribution on the respondents’ behalf to the a company that not only tabulates answers to I used to roam college campuses looking for March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation multiple-choice questions but also cross-tabu- potential book authors.) For the professional and of sending a summary of survey findings lates them (e.g., of those who have electronic and scholarly publishing study, I teamed with to requesting respondents. A month or so later databases available to them at work, how many four outside interviewers to conduct over 150 we sent out a second questionnaire mailing use them and how many use them often?). in-person interviews, 90 with users and buyers to non-respondents. This time we included a The final expenses involve printing the of information and 60 with representatives crisp one-dollar bill and a small note requesting report, hiring a hall, and feeding the sponsors from organizations involved in the information a speedy response. The dollar dramatically at a conference where the report is presented, distribution chain. For the telephone inter- increased response rates across all sponsor and sponsors get to ask questions and provide views in both projects, Carol and I used an lists. “It’s amazing,” our report noted, “how feedback. The Changing Landscape for interview guide as a checklist and selectively well this techniques worked with profession- College Publishing came out in June 1992. recorded interviews (the tape recorder picked als!” All told, of the 7,252 questionnaires that It contained six cartoons penned by Mort not only the sound of our voices, but also my were delivered successfully, 1.986 responses Gerberg, who drew cartoons for The New fountain pen scratches as we took notes.) were received — a 27.4% response rate, which Yorker and Publishers Weekly. The Devel- The written questionnaires involved larger among professionals is considered very healthy. oping Worlds of Personalized Information numbers of respondents. In the case of the Disciplines represented among respondents came out in September 1993. It contained college publishing study, different sets of included architecture and construction, business humorous stock photos. Both reports were written questionnaires were distributed to and finance, computer science and engineering. perfect bound, in 8-1/2 by 11 trim size. They different groups. We mailed one questionnaire education, and medicine and health care. We were printed-on-demand on Xerox DocuTech to the 829 members of the Textbook Authors also heard from librarians and industry players. machines. It was the early days of on-demand Association and received 350 responses (pretty A little over a third of respondents were in the printing, so printing lead time was a couple of good.) With the help of Barnes & Noble and 25-39 age range, a little less than half were 40- days at most. I was able to tell sponsors that the National Association of College Stores, 59, and 10% were over 60. Eighteen percent of reports would be available at 11:59 pm on the we emailed another questionnaire to college respondents worked in companies with fewer last day of the month that we promised they bookstore managers and received 1,033 re- than 10 employees; 24%, 10-99 employees; would be ready.
Against the Grain / November 2015
ow easy is it to continue publishing health or the need to act as a caregiver can For many retired librarians, the lack of scholarly articles after retiring? I eliminate this advantage. institutional support may be the biggest Hofficially retired less than three weeks Worrying about controversial content hindrance to continued professional writing. ago when I completed my last official duties shouldn’t have affected me in my late career This factor would especially apply to admin- for Wayne State University by submitting since I was a full-professor with tenure and had istrators who were most likely able to be more the final grades for my two courses. I intend no desire to move to another position, but it still prolific because of the help they received from to remain professionally active in retirement, did. I’ve been mulling over some writings that professional and secretarial staff for research, including publishing. If anything, I hope to very much go against current proofreading, endnote creation, and publica- publish more than I’ve done in the past for library orthodoxy or deal tion submission. Even those lower in the the reasons that you’ll see below. At the with controversial aspects hierarchy might have has a modicum very minimum, I have the obligation to write of first amendment rights. of support in their efforts to publish. this column on collection development for As a retired professor, my This factor won’t have a great effect Against the Grain and one on education and views will become less for me. When I became a professor, management issues for The Journal of Library associated with the Wayne I no longer had a dedicated person Administration. State University School whose goal was to make me more I took two steps to gather information on of Library & Information productive in all areas including this question. As a member of the recently Science, since only the publishing. Even with some student formed ALA Retired Members Round Table title “emeritus” ties me support, I most often found it easier (RMRT), I posted a question on its discussion to the institution. I don’t to fax or copy documents myself list to ask about professional activities since have to worry that the rather than write out the task for a retiring. In all, I received eighteen responses, “radical” Dr. Holley will student worker, submit it, wait for some of which talked about continuing to be scare students away or that my topics will draw its return, and then sometimes discover that professionally active but not necessarily writ- the attention of administrators for espousing it wasn’t done correctly for various reasons ing for publication. My other strategy was to unpopular positions. Even if administrators including my lack of clear instructions. search the keyword “Retiring” and the subject don’t like what I have to say, they won’t Access to library resources and email are heading “Retirement” in Library Literature have any direct or indirect effect upon my also important. I get both as a professor emer- Online back to about 2000. Many of the arti- professional or personal life. itus, but I doubt that this is true for all retired cles were retirement announcements, but a few I’ll be able to send out a standard library-re- librarians. While multiple private options are included useful information about what librar- lated survey without asking permission. In my available for email, keeping an institutional ians were doing professionally in retirement. institution, as I believe is true in most, before account is valuable since important emails As a library science faculty member, I also retiring I would have needed to get any survey about publishing opportunities may continue searched for items on faculty retirement but approved by the research office because it deals to be sent there. At a minimum, the institu- found nothing useful. I will add that this was with human subjects even if I had not received tional account should provide a redirect to the an exploratory search not at the level required any government funding. Federal compliance personal account. for a serious scholarly article. oversight occurs at the institution level. (http:// The retiree will also lose any funding op- The rest of the column will give my initial www.hhs.gov/ohrp/compliance/index.html) portunities for travel provided by the employer views on the advantages and disadvantages that Since I’ve severed my formal ties by retiring, and, along with them, the publishing options that retirement brings for those who wish to con- my institution’s research office would not often come with presenting a paper at a confer- tinue scholarly publishing after retiring from seem to have any way to require a review or ence. This also can reduce the possibilities for a librarian or library science faculty position. to enforce standards. networking. I once gave a paper in Paris from a The main advantage that I’m looking Overall, I believe, however, that retirement chance encounter with a colleague at a library re- forward to is having more time to publish. I brings more disadvantages for those who wish ception. While less likely except for IT focused liked the conceptual part of teaching students. to continue publishing. library science faculty, the retiree will most likely no longer have access to special laboratory I liked interacting with my colleagues both in In our practical field, many library publica- resources for testing hypotheses in areas such a my school and in the library. I hated the clerical tions describe library projects or present case human-computer interaction. This factor would tasks associated with teaching online and espe- studies based upon work experiences. Most appear to guarantee that faculty in the laboratory cially the complicated and often contradictory retired librarians will no longer be involved sciences end their research careers once they no rules required to manipulate Blackboard as my in these activities. One exception might be longer have access to research teams. course management software. I tolerated the those who volunteer. One retired librarian committee and other administrative tasks asked recounted having published several papers While it isn’t impossible for an indepen- of faculty, but they were overall manageable. on the projects that she continued to oversee dent scholar to get outside funding, most Retiring will not only give me extra time as a volunteer in retirement. On the other government and foundation agencies require for the actual writing but will also allow me hand, volunteers are usually given non-critical the grantee to be part of an institution. Even to read more widely in the official and unof- tasks, since many are unwilling to commit when possible, applying for grants would be ficial (blogs, discussion lists, columns, etc.) to a rigid schedule that eliminates one of the much more difficult without the institutional literature, make extra efforts to broaden and chief benefits of retirement — the flexibility support discussed in the preceding sections. deepen my research on my topics, consult to do what you want. In my own case, I’ll Having reduced opportunities for collab- with colleagues instead of rushing to meet no longer learn about current collection de- oration is very important for me because I’ve submission deadlines, and potentially accept velopment activities from my students who worked with students to get their papers pub- more speaking engagements. I’m aware of work in libraries. Many times, these students lished in return for being the second author, a potential disadvantage that too much time can would ask their librarian colleagues about the win-win situation for both of us and in keeping sometimes lead to less productivity because week’s topics and report back on how their with my university’s desire for faculty/graduate tomorrow is always there and that the best way library did things. I found these reports to student collaborations. While collaborators are to get something done is to ask a busy person. be an invaluable resource for keeping up with often other librarians in the same institution, One retired librarian also pointed out that poor recent developments. continued on page 71 70 Against the Grain / November 2015
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retiring does not happen all that frequently. Random Ramblings In addition to the librarian who writes about Rumors from page 70 the projects that she supervises as a volunteer, from page 12 one person wrote a chapter in a book about this is not always the case so that authors with retirement, and several continued to produce Speaking of which, we are lucky that so good networks may still be able to identify book reviews, one at the rate of 50 per year many of you attend Charleston, Frankfurt, others who would like to work with them on for children’s books. I’m also pleased that the and other meetings in October! Anthony scholarly publications. In fact, if one collabo- retirement model matches well my publication Watkinson who is in Frankfurt has promised rator is still employed, the retired author may habits. Beyond my columns that are mostly a report for ATG soon! benefit from the support services available to opinion pieces, my more scholarly publications this co-author. Was thrilling to meet Gregory Mc- normally don’t require expensive equipment Caffery, CEO and President of Bloombery I’ve often had to pay for my professional and can be done from my home office. I also BNA. Gregory told me he has several li- prefer writing as a single author. I already have travel once I exhausted my employee travel brarians working for him and that he doesn’t allocation. At least I was able to take these several serious projects in mind that I should want that to change since librarians are so expenses, which could be as high as $5,000 an- be able to complete quite handily on my own. valuable and know so much. He did say that nually if I attended an international conference, The big issue may be finding a way to make as a tax deduction. Doing so will be much more my professional travel tax deductible. they were rethinking the name “librarian” and are leaning toward “taxonomist” instead. I difficult now that I’m retired. When I asked My final observation is that I publish not this question on the RMRT discussion list, sev- remember way back when Lucretia McClure for external but for intrinsic rewards so that (who BTW just received the 2014 Robert eral librarians replied that their accountants told retiring won’t change my motivation. While I F. Metzdorf Award from the University of them that they had to provide justification for won’t say that I enjoy every moment spent in Rochester Friends of the Library) advocat- attending beyond professional development, preparing the manuscripts, I get great satisfac- which the IRS accepts as a way to keep your tion when my works appear in print and even ed keeping the name librarian and I agreed job and make more money to be paid back more when someone cites them or tells me with her. Have professionals like doctors in increased taxes. If I can find publishing that they found them useful. I know of other or lawyers or dentists changed their names? opportunities that include royalties, I might professors like me. One of Wayne State’s Why should we? still be able to justify conference attendance most renowned English literature scholars http://www.library.rochester.edu/news/ as a business expense. Otherwise, I’ll need continues to commute to campus each day to metzdorf-award-2014 to be creative since I’ve taken on committee continue his research. While I hate driving too http://www.bna.com/?PROMOCODE=G- responsibilities within ALA for the next four much to follow this model, I intend to spend PSLEGAL&utm_source=google&utm_me- years and certainly don’t want to miss the at least a portion of each day writing or, at a dium=cpc&utm_campaign=bbna_home&g- Charleston Conference. minimum, gathering the information needed to clid=CJ27ofi1u8gCFYcYHwodJkMI3Q My investigations as described above write intelligently. Only time will tell if my support my hypothesis that publication after initial expectations are accurate. continued on page 85
Against the Grain / November 2015
Column Editor’s Note: I am writing my an enrollment of almost 40,000 students and to implement PDA as a first draw on all titles column notes on my fourth day at the Univer- a staff of approximately 5200. UAL is com- profiled by Coutts, with the expectation that a sity of Alabama. I am happy to be settling into prised of six subject libraries (Humanities/ majority of titles would therefore be directed the new position, and I am already finding that Social sciences, Science/Technology, Health along this route. An exception was made when discussions here turn to PDA I find myself Sciences, Education, Business, and Law) on the for those titles produced by publishers from in familiar territory. That is because, just as main campus and two cross-disciplinary librar- which we purchase front-lists directly, which I did at the University of Central Florida, I ies on distance campuses, one of which collects were excluded from our PDA and approval find the issues surrounding the use of PDA, materials almost exclusively in French. plans. For many years, we had been decisions about print vs. online monographs UAL is a member of the Association purchasing eBook front-lists directly or ownership vs. access, result in routine of Research Libraries, and for from such large interdisciplinary discussions with colleagues from many institu- many years attempted to build publishers as Springer and Wiley, tions. These issues require ample attention as collections that were as com- as well as smaller discipline- the industry and libraries struggle to find the prehensive as possible. We specific publishers. This right mix between immediate access and the are extremely fortunate continued according to the need to build strong collections that support compared to many Ameri- new model, and accounts the teaching mission today and the research can libraries in that recent for a significant portion mission long into the future. I have long been cuts to the collections bud- of our yearly monograph concerned that the move from just-in-case to get have been small, and we still maintain a expenditure and automatic purchase of the just-in-time acquisitions would erode one of monograph budget of 3.2 million CAD, which majority of the eBooks we buy. the key objectives of research libraries — that at the current exchange rate of 0.77 equates to Approval plans were devised for each library being the development of research level collec- approximately 2.5 million USD. in the UAL system, with parameters set to match tions. However, having managed the materials Our reason for implementing change, there- curricular and research needs at a suitable level budget for a decade, I am also aware that even fore, was influenced more by a lack of staff for the clientele served in each unit. If titles if that is the objective few institutions have the resources than a direct effort to reduce collection matched our profiles and were eligible for PDA, monograph funding necessary to collect at that development costs, since a voluntary severance they were diverted along that route, and tem- level. In this column I am happy to feature the program in 2013 had significantly reduced our porary records were loaded into our catalogue great Trish Chatterley so ATG readers can staff complement. There was a need to reduce and made viewable in our discovery layer. We get a glimpse into how a large (well-funded) the amount of librarian time spent on selection received MARC records weekly. We were research library is also struggling with and so that innovative services related to research invoiced for titles as purchases were triggered trying to manage all of the variables related data management, measurement of scholarly im- according to EBSCO and MyiLibrary’s trigger to monograph purchasing in the 21st-Century pact, and other areas could be explored. As part settings, and a PDA fund code was established Library. Here Trish discusses major changes of the old model, we had only limited approval to track expenditures. If matched titles were to monograph selection at the University of plans in place, so subject librarians regularly available as eBooks but from publishers that Alberta and provides details about the impact received significant numbers of electronic slips, did not allow their material to be incorporated these changes (including a rather dynamic selected resources title by title, and ordered titles into PDA plans, the eBook would be purchased move to PDA) had on overall spending. More themselves either within the Coutts OASIS or on approval. Since our new plan was to be importantly, she covers the legitimate concerns YBP GOBI systems. This responsibility was e-preferred, if only print copies were available expressed by those who still prefer print and the removed from their performance expectations in at the time of profiling they would be diverted overall concern that these changes may nega- early 2014 when Coutts Information Services to a holding shelf for an eight-week period in tively impact the ability to build and maintain was awarded a contract as UAL’s preferred En- the hopes that an electronic version would be research level collections. — MA glish-language monograph vendor at the same released during that time. If the eight weeks time that a new electronic-preferred policy was lapsed and no eBook had become available, very day seems to bring word of yet an- implemented within the system. The time was the print copy would be shipped. Because of other academic library that must cancel right to explore workflow efficiencies on a large the new e-preferred policy and our previous Esubscriptions in the face of either static or scale, and a significant electronic Patron-Driven experience with a print PDA pilot program, a dwindling budgets. Many libraries have been Acquisition plan was implemented in conjunc- print PDA plan was not considered. User feed- reducing their monograph expenditures in an tion with new, comprehensive approval plans. back had indicated that the turnaround time for effort to maintain licenses to heavily used serial Slip notifications were eliminated. receiving the print volumes was too great, and resources. These factors lead to exploration of If the recent ALCTS e-forum on Patron- the need for the items had often passed by the innovative, more cost-effective methods for Driven Acquisition (PDA) is any indication, time they were received. developing and managing collections. The librarians each have a different view about As part of the new contract, Coutts began University of Alberta Libraries (hereafter how PDA should be implemented and the supplying shelf-ready print books. Since subject referred to as UAL) recently implemented a new extent of its role in an overarching approach librarians were no longer receiving slips, firm model of monograph acquisitions that resulted in to collection development. Many libraries still orders were only placed upon specific request a shift from title-by-title selection by individual employ thorough approval plans with PDA as from faculty members or students. Whereas liaison librarians to almost exclusive reliance on a small supplement based on titles that would librarians could previously purchase books di- Patron-Driven Acquisition and approval plans. have been forwarded to librarians as slips, while rectly themselves, in the new model, an online The University of Alberta in Edmonton, others rely on comprehensive PDA plans for the monograph request form was established and Alberta, Canada is a public institution with bulk of their eBook purchasing. UAL elected continued on page 73
72 Against the Grain / November 2015
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users prefer print books whenever possible. our approval plan were routed to PDA instead Being Earnest with Collections Results from the Ithaka S+R survey, distributed of being purchased outright, considerable sav- from page 72 to UAL Faculty in January 2015, certainly re- ings resulted. Had the untriggered titles been vealed that many faculty find eBooks frustrating purchased at the average cost per PDA title of a centralized, two-person monograph ordering to use. They cited concern over the multitude about $135, an additional 1.4M+ dollars would team became responsible for placing the orders. of interfaces, poor functionality, restrictions on have been expended. As it stood, 1.2M dollars This workflow allowed for greater regulation of printing, and limitations of online reading which remained in our monograph budget at fiscal ordering practices as well as the removal of unit inhibit deep connection with and comprehension yearend. This was fortunate timing for us, as level credit cards, thereby reducing the amount of the content. Other faculty indicated an appre- the money offset the higher serials expenditures of time spent on invoice reconciliation. ciation for eBooks because they can be shared encountered as a result of the plummeting value As you might imagine, there was concern among a greater number of students. There was of the Canadian dollar. among subject librarians about the impacts this also a fear that with an e-preferred policy, only While we are still purchasing large numbers change would have on them, the collection, and eBooks would now be supplied. Given the of books, this significant drop in spending may the university’s user community. A traditional current limitations on what is made available in lead to gaps in the collection, especially if the role that had been part of their work expectations eBook format, this fear was unfounded. pattern of decreased spending continues. We ex- for a very long time was now being removed, and Out of the ~19,000 books acquired from pect spending on the approval plans to increase especially in some disciplines, great effort had Coutts in our last fiscal year according to the in our second year, however, as we have made been invested in building strong, well-rounded new model, less than 15% were purchased in many changes to LC classes, and to non-subject collections. While we cannot foresee what the eBook format. The number of print books parameters like maximum price and formats, so long-term impact a PDA-preferred model will shipped would have been even higher if some that more desirable material ships automatically. have on the collection as a whole in terms of unit libraries had not implemented exclusively PDA purchases will also increase as the volume its depth and breadth, at least in the short-term, eBook-only approval plans. A great many of records grows in the catalogue. We will rely the results have been primarily positive and a more eBooks were made accessible to our on our user community to submit requests for wide range of titles purchased. The PDA plan users than were purchased. In our first year of any titles they might need, which will help to places more focus on purchasing materials that implementation, close to 12,000 PDA records fill possible gaps. With increasing numbers faculty and students are choosing to read, while were loaded, while only about 1,200 purchases of eBooks and print-on-demand options, it is the eBook packages and approval plans still were triggered. This equates to a proportion of becoming much easier to purchase older titles supply a large core of materials that anticipate approximately 10%, though that proportion con- than ever before. future needs. What may be lacking are unique tinues to climb as we carry into the second year Consistent communication about the new title purchases from small publishers that are not of the new model and has now reached 13.3% as model and how it has been functioning has been profiled by our chosen book distributor. of the end of July 2015. We expect this growth an important component in its success. I was One of the greatest concerns raised related to continue, and anticipate that the proportion of seconded part-time to conduct assessment of the to UAL’s new e-preferred policy. The general titles purchased will plateau at about 20%. Since new monograph acquisitions model. This has impression in some disciplines was that our so many titles that matched the parameters of continued on page 74 Against the Grain / November 2015
Column Editor’s Note: Thank you to all of the Charleston Confer- handout is posted in the conference site): publisher anniversaries, big ence attendees who agreed to write short reports that highlight sessions data, open access initiatives, new publications. they attended at the 2014 conference. All attempts were made to pro- Bahnsen described the R2 PDA model and shared highlights from vide a broad coverage of sessions, and notes are included in the reports a customer survey (May 2013). Of R2 eBook purchases, about 65% to reflect known changes in the session titles or presenters, highlighting were firm purchases and 35% came through the PDA process. Library those that were not printed in the conference’s final program (though customers selected from 2 to 4,500 titles for the program but more often, some may have been reflected in the online program). Please visit about 400, or 10% are selected from PDA. Overall, 27% of the titles the Conference Website, http://www.charlestonlibraryconference. migrated to the shopping cart were purchased. Jiang shared insights com, for the online conference schedule from which there are links to about three eBook PDA/DDA (patron-driven or demand-driven acqui- many presentations’ PowerPoint slides and handouts, plenary session sition) programs: MyiLibrary (2012); R2 (2013); EBSCO (2014, three videos, and conference reports by the 2014 Charleston Conference months before the conference). The library’s goals in trialing: increase blogger, Donald T. Hawkins. Visit the conference blog at: http://www. access to eBooks, build up subject collections outside core collection against_the_grain.com/category/chsconfblog/. The 2014 Charleston areas, and experiment with “just in time” acquisitions. Availability of Conference Proceedings will be published in partnership with Purdue books in Doody Core Titles is an appreciated feature. Desires for PDA: University Press in 2015 (http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/charleston/). set up a library profile; devise workflows; investigate consortia deals; In this issue of ATG you will find the fifth installment of 2014 devise assessment metrics; make weeding decisions. It’s not easy to conference reports. The first four installments can be found inATG balance three different providers’ PDA programs at the same time. v.27#1, February 2015, v.27#2, April 2015, v.27#3, June 2015, and v.27#4, September 2015. We will continue to publish all of the re- O’Hagan shared experience with journal articles “on demand” and ports received in upcoming print issues throughout the year. — RKK “pay per view” at two institutions. The Get It Now delivery service returns articles in under two hours. Her current institution caps the number of requests per day and encourages “thoughtful use.” One FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2014 problem: multiple individuals needing the same article for a class. She LIVELY LUNCH DISCUSSIONS also described other experiments with ReadCube’s institutional model and Reprints as a complement. Collecting and Acquiring in Earnest (The 14th Annual Health Twiss-Brooks moderated varied audience queries about: promo- Sciences Lively Lunch) — Presented by Andrea Twiss-Brooks, tion (PDA and article-on-demand), availability of turnaway statistics Moderator (University of Chicago); Nicole Gallo (Rittenhouse); from providers, requests through mediated services of articles already Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University); Emma O’Ha- available in library-licensed journals, usability, browsing, downloading gan (Western Michigan University School of Medicine); Yumin availability, assessment, usage studies, and surveys. Jiang, (University of Colorado Health Sciences Library) Discovery on Trial! — Presented by Christopher C. Brown NOTE: Wendy Bahnsen served as host and presented (University of Denver); Bob Boissy (Springer Science+Business in place of Nicole Gallo. Media); John McCullough, (OCLC); Lettie Conrad (SAGE)
Reported by: Ramune K. Kubilius (Northwestern University, Reported by: Christine Fischer (UNC Greensboro, University Galter Health Sciences Library)
Host Bahnsen greeted close to fifty attendees, and moderatorTwiss- Assessment results shared by Boissy (Account Development Manager) Brooks introduced the session. Kubilius did the traditional “year in for referring sources from the University of Denver to SpringerLink review” synopsis of developments since the last conference. (The continued on page 75
ensure that requested changes to the approval plans are implemented and Being Earnest with Collections any issues resolved. from page 73 While there were many challenges in setting up the new model and many unforeseen glitches had to be worked through, the new model is involved regular meetings with subject librarians and unit library collec- now working smoothly, and many initial concerns have been allayed. tions managers, working with them to review the titles that have come on Continued evaluation is needed, as the focus so far has been on ensuring approval and the titles that were excluded based on the parameters of the we obtain the titles librarians think we should be receiving. We have not plans, in order to tweak the plans to make them more efficient at pulling in yet assessed use of the titles acquired on PDA or of titles purchased on material we want and excluding material we don’t. Titles that have been approval as it was still too early for such analysis, but comparisons are of firm ordered from Coutts over the past year have also been reviewed, interest. A major benefit of the new model has been the significant savings, and additional changes to the plans have been made as a result. Regular but future assessment will have to be conducted to ensure the savings are contact with the Coutts collections consultants has been maintained to not prioritized over the development of a robust research collection.
74 Against the Grain / November 2015
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crowd. Co-moderators Rosen and Monger tapped into their extensive And They Were There experience with acquisitions to present a series of thought-provoking from page 74 questions pertaining to collection development for electronic resources and the roles played by library liaisons and faculty in building those demonstrated that the top three access points in order of frequency collections. The energized participants provided theoretical solutions were direct traffic, Web-scale discovery sources, and Google sources. to the broad questions posed by the presenters, but also asked their own He described activities used to assess and improve discovery, such as questions that were batted around the room as attendees offered ideas monitoring usage problems to identify downturns and chronic under based upon their own unique backgrounds. Topics included budget use. Brown (Reference Technology Integration Librarian) commented allocations, demand-driven acquisitions, faculty expectations, the future that a primary impediment to students discovering book resources is the of print reference, and ways to build stronger library liaison programs. surrogate record, i.e., the catalog record metadata, which has a very small As the session concluded, it became clear that no two libraries are using proportion of searchable terms in comparison to the full text of a book. the same strategy for tackling these highly relevant topics. However, Discovery tools must achieve a reasonable balance between relevance it was encouraging to know that each library was navigating a similar through metadata and discovery via the full text. For McCullough, the path laden with obstacles, delays, and occasionally conflicting opinions value of discovery goes beyond simply locating information on a topic to or expectations amongst librarians or faculty. Attendees departed with increasing fulfillment and offering users access to collections. Challenges new ideas and the consolation that their circumstances were not unique. to effective discovery include disparate users and content types. Conrad (Online Product Manager) maintained that publishers are increasingly interested in discovery services, and they see a need for their resources to The Big Squeeze: State of Book Publishing and Academic be accessible everywhere. She briefly noted the work of theNISO Open Libraries — Presented by Michael Zeoli (YBP Library Services); Discovery Initiative, with its goal of developing standards and recom- Corey Seeman (University of Michigan); Mary Beth Barilla mended practices for next generation discovery services. Discussion was (Emerald Group Publishing, Inc.) robust, and a number of attendees tweeted during the session. Reported by: Oriana Bedolla (Student, University of South Carolina-Columbia)
use that common ground to work toward a solution to the “big squeeze” Reported by Chris Vidas (Ball State University) issues of diminishing space and diminishing budgets. Discussions fo-
Against the Grain / November 2015
76 Against the Grain / November 2015
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Feather (Senior Licensing Program Account Manager, LYRASIS) And They Were There began her talk by backing up a bit to discuss the issue of Lyrasis work- from page 76 ing with ARL libraries to essentially establish what academic libraries need from eBooks. Once an RFP with specifications was created, it braries created a Budget Information page (http://library.uncg.edu/info/ was meant to be a set of specifications to say, if you wantARL’s busi- budget/) as a central reference to projected budget reduction information. ness, follow these terms. Project Muse was the first “out of the door” To maintain goodwill in an uncertain and often touchy subject, the libraries and other publishers followed suit. Palazzolo (Head of Collection emphasized their efforts to communicate with faculty by encouraging input Management and Social Sciences Librarian, Emory University) said and participation in identifying critical items to keep. The University his library initially purchased the whole 2012/2013 Project Muse col- of Nevada Reno Libraries planned a 3 phase strategy to span the 2014- lection, and moved to an ala carte model after that and they made use 2015 yearly budget cycle while concentrating on grouped areas. They of the Ex Libris Primo discovery system for their records. They also outlined a strategy that begins in June of 2014 with a comprehensive found the use of the Counter BR4 turnaway reports to be of great use review, followed by a journal package review, encompassed by a review and discovered the use of eBooks at Emory was across the academic of databases spanning the entire academic calendar. The approach for spectrum. Palazzolo was not able to say if users at Emory preferred e the University of North Carolina Greensboro Libraries was to create to print. They are hoping that their move to Shibboleth would allow for a Collection Management Team representing invested areas. The team more granularity in assessing the use in the future. Tedesco (Assessment could divide and conquer by forming subgroups to analyze data for a Librarian, Yale) mentioned that the library already owned 70% of the quick turn-around. Using a data-driven process adjustments covered the Project Muse titles in print. 34% of those titles had already circulated course of about nine months anticipating the upcoming budget changes at least once. Yale had a lot of demographic data for their print use but for 2014-2015. Forecasting for uncertain future cuts both schools have less granular information for their use of electronic material, but already decided to expand and tune the processes presented. They’ve found them 24% of the Project Muse electronic material had been used. What flexible, transparent, and participatory for all vested parties involved when Tedesco seemed to be implying though, is that for some titles (44 to be faced with future budget challenges. exact), the use is through the roof. In one semester those 44 titles had been accessed 16,000 times. Yale currently uses the Orbis system, and that is not an ideal way to discover the electronic titles. There is now a Scholarly eBooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences: switch to Summon underway, and they are hoping this will improve the Longitudinal Assessment of Project Muse/UPCC eBooks user experience, and they also hope to further study the use of the ma- at Emory, Harvard, and Yale — Presented by Christopher terials. Leach (Librarian for Western Languages Collections, Harvard Palazzolo (Emory University); Celeste Feather (LYRASIS); University) explained that there would generally only be one format, Katherine Leach (Harvard University); Sarah Tudesco print or electronic, and that makes it a bit difficult to assess preference. (Yale University) In 2013 they made the Project Muse eBook purchase, and they did attempt to assess only those titles held in both print and electronic for Reported by: Amy Lewontin (Northeastern University, the purposes of this study. Katherine emphasized some of the important Boston, MA)
Against the Grain / November 2015
n the world of sales, it is often said that By using the company’s internal CRM, appointment to visit the library for “it’s easier to close the initial sale than in the salesperson knows well in advance when another meeting in 90 days which Iactuality, keeping it closed.” What that the current subscription(s) are up for renewal, will be on October 1, 2015. means is that salespeople all over the world current price of those subscriptions in relation ü October 1, 2015 – Pete, in prepara- are tasked with the job of selling a product or to last year’s price, how many times the cus- tion for this meeting has noticed that service to a defined market. In many cases, tomer has been contacted, if there were any the database is getting heavy use by once the sale is made, the salesperson goes on unresolved problems associated with the cus- ten of the libraries. In looking at the to selling the same product to a new group of tomer, etc. In short, the good, the bad, and the map, he realizes that those libraries prospects. It’s the old, “one ugly about all aspects of the customer are located near bodies of water and done” mentality for those appears on the screen. which would explain the usage. salespeople. That’s good for The reality, however is that the Pete is concerned that the other ten people who sell products/ser- CRM can only guide because ul- libraries are showing minimal use. vices that don’t have to renew. timately, the salesperson and the He needs to come to the meeting In selling products/services librarian must interact with one an- with a plan to get more usage out to the library market however, other to achieve their mutual goals. of the other ten or possibly risk a these sales reps are selling So, once the sale is made, all efforts cancellation when this comes up for their wares in an annuity busi- on the part of the sales rep will be to renewal in nine months. In advance ness. That means that if Pete, the regional prepare for the renewal discussion, while at of this meeting, Pete will contact the salesperson for an aggregator sells Database the same time figuring out new products that librarian to ascertain if there are any “A” to the library in June of 2015, he will would fit for the customer’s portfolio. Because other issues that need to be discussed most assuredly be back to renew that product both the company and a smart sales rep keenly at their October 1st meeting. in early 2016. “One and done” doesn’t work understand that “No customer is a customer Similarly, the information pro- in our business. until they renew.” fessional needs to prepare for the Companies that provide database services So, once the paperwork for a new business meeting with Pete. Now that the to libraries in the information industry place sale has been approved by both sides, and a “Trout Fishing” database has been in significant emphasis on their salespeople to be date for the subscription to begin has been the library for three months, how’s it renewing products sold in the previous years. determined, what happens next? Here’s what doing? Here are some questions for That’s because the revenue derived from those it should look like for the mutual success of the info pro to ponder: renewals is a crucial part of the company’s both parties as they pursue a path leading up Ø Is the information contained on financial health. Therefore, much attention to the next year’s renewal: the database as advertised? Is it is paid to making sure that salespeople sell ü July 1, 2015 – New database sub- really complete and up-to-date? a healthy mix of new and at the same, make scription for the Seymour J. Monk- Ø Is training for library staffs still sure that the majority of the renewals in their fish Memorial Public Library begins. needed and if so, can Pete set that respective territories are secured. The aggregator is supplying the up? Given this fact, information providers library with their latest database Ø How’s it being used? We know invest huge sums of money in CRMs for their on Trout Fishing to be accessed by the people who like to fish for customer-facing staff. This is the acronym for 20 libraries throughout the state. trout are the target audience, but “Customer Relationship Management.” It rep- Pete the salesperson who sold the could there be others who do not resents an approach to managing a company’s database will either call or appear fish for trout that may have use interaction with current and future customers. at the library to personally thank for the database and why? It often involves using technology to organize, the information professional for the Ø What do the usage statistics tell automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, order. He will make sure the cus- us? customer service, and technical support. tomer is satisfied and then, make an Ø Have there been any technology issues? Ø What have the users been saying about it to the library staff? Do important, and I would expect these speakers to they like it or not? And They Were There be back with more granular data next year. from page 77 Pete meets with the librarian on Octo- ber 1st, they have a productive session such as the fact that Project Muse is a stable That’s all the reports we have room for and both have agreed to follow-up on platform where titles do not change in this issue. Watch for the final their “to do” items as a result of this and also that the books are DRM reports from the 2014 Charleston meeting. They plan to email each free. Katherine also emphasized Conference in the Dec15-Jan16 other with the answers to the issues something about the bibliographic issue of Against the Grain. Presen- presented and both expect resolution record she felt was important for tation material (PowerPoint slides, within 30 days. Pete dutifully makes the user, and that is to have one handouts) and taped session links an appointment to get together again in 90 days. Since 90 days represents record for print and electronic. It from many of the 2014 sessions are New Year’s Day and neither Pete nor was a packed room and the speakers available online. Visit the Confer- had to move on quickly, because of the info pro expects to be working that ence Website at www.charlestonli- day, they settle on the next meeting to the limited time, but it was a great braryconference.com. — KS opening to a discussion that is very be on January 3, 2016. continued on page 79 78 Against the Grain / November 2015
ü January 3, 2016 – For the last 90 days, Pete has closely monitored usage. Arranged and presented by the company’s training department, they have conducted a WEBEX in support of the database for all the libraries. They decide to call the WEBEX “Best Tips for Trout Fish- ing & Easy Recipes to Prepare after the Fish Are Caught.” As a result of this WEBEX, usage has gone up considerably and the ten libraries that were previously showing no activity are now showing some. Furthermore, Pete has sent all the libraries some visual aids describing the contents of the database along with five easy-to-prepare recipes for preparing freshly caught fish. And all the “to do” items from the last meeting have been resolved. The next meeting is set for March 1st. ü March 1, 2016 – Two events will occur on this day. Pete will show up at the Monkfish Library and the librarian will receive the renewal notice of this database by email since most companies in the information business send renewals out at least 90 days or more prior to lapse of the subscription. Pete’s goal for this meeting is to ascertain whether the library is happy with the current service, if all previous issues have been resolved and what the status is for the renewal that is due by June 30th. The goal of the information profes- sional is to alert Pete to any new issues, confirm that all previous issues have been resolved, whether there are any new issues to deal with, and inform him of the intent of the library to either renew the service or not. ü July 1, 2016 – If all goes well, the renewed subscription for “Trout Fishing” will enter its’ second year as a resource at the library. And the cycle repeats itself to ensure that the library is getting the appropriate in- formation, the company has secured the renewal revenue and both Pete and the librarian have properly done determines whether or not to renew. I can think industry. His firm is devoted to provide clients their jobs. of no better song title to reference when the with sales staff analysis, market research, In summary, satisfaction can only be renewal is secured than “I Thank You” written executive coaching, trade show preparedness, achieved when both the sales rep and the in- by David Porter and Isaac Hayes originally product placement and best practices advice formation professional are in communication. recorded by Sam & Dave. Conversely, if the for improving negotiation skills for librarians That communication will be a result of sched- subscription is cancelled, then, the title of the and salespeople. His book, “Buying and uled visits, phone calls, and emails between Hall & Oates song, “She’s Gone” written by Selling Information: A Guide for Informa- the two. All of which makes the post-sale Daryl Hall & John Oates truly describes the tion Professionals and Salespeople to Build relationship between the two parties just as feeling of the lost renewal. important, if not more so, than the relationship Mutual Success” is available on Amazon, that led to the initial sale. Information Today in print and eBook, Ama- Two songs, neither of which have any Mike is currently the President of Gru- zon Kindle, B&N Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks, connection to renewing database subscriptions, enberg Consulting, LLC, a firm he founded OverDrive, 3M Cloud Library, Gale (GVRL), occurred to me that describe the feelings of the in January 2012 after a successful career as MyiLibrary, ebrary, EBSCO, Blio, and Chegg. salesperson as the information professional a senior sales executive in the information www.gruenbergconsulting.com
Against the Grain / November 2015
Column Editor’s Note: Gifted and Talented Education is an area frequently updated list of states’ educational legislation, selected rules of intense research interest among educators and scholars. The field and regulations, and executive orders with significant changes. changes, often dramatically, as new studies — and popular opinion — Mensa for Gifted Youth — www.us.mensa.org/learn/gifted-youth/ exert influence on the best methods to nurture, teach, and support gifted and Mensa for Kids — www.mensaforkids.org/ — Mensa for Gifted and talented children and young adults. For this column, we selected Youth provides resources for gifted youth, parents, and educators short articles, university-affiliated research institutes, professional orga- (regardless of Mensa membership); as well as contests, scholarships, nizations, and popular sites that provide many lists of links for parents, and an Honor Society for Young Mensans (Mensa members under 18). teachers, and students. Some of the items listed include companies National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) — www.nagc. that develop and administer curricula for advanced blended, online, org/ — Includes National Standards for Gifted and Talented Education and multimedia learning. These are not listed as endorsements, but (www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/national-standards-gift- are included for informational purposes. These primarily U.S.-based ed-and-talented-education), and an overview of Gifted Education in the Websites are intended to give librarians and patrons a starting point for U.S. (www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources/gifted-education-us the vast number of resources on gifted and talented education — many and by state: www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-state). of which, inevitably, have overlapping or state-specific resources. —JM National Society for the Gifted and Talented (NSGT) — www.nsgt. org — NSGT is an advocacy and support group for gifted and talented e begin with a few online articles on Gifted and Talented defini- youth in the United States. They also sponsor the Summer Institute for the Wtions, characteristics, and issues, which we hope will be useful to Gifted (SIG), a program to provide students with engaging programming interested librarians, parents, and educators. outside of school (www.giftedstudy.org). Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented — txgifted.org/ Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) — sengifted. — Offers definitions and characteristics of gifted and talented children org/ — Gifted and talented children and adults often grapple with (txgifted.org/what-giftedness/), among other state-specific resources. emotional intelligence issues and experience anxiety and depression from an early age. SENG is an important resource, fostering caring, Time Online: In “Gifted and Talented Programs Dumb Down understanding, and acceptance of the diversity and challenges of gifted Our Students” — time.com/3698686/gifted-and-talented/ — Matthew and talented children and adults. Mugo Fields, founder of GiftedandTalented.com argues for focusing on the greater potential of all students to develop their abilities, and urges World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC) — parents and educators to refute the idea of intelligence as “a fixed trait.” www.world-gifted.org/ — The World Council for Gifted and Talented An earlier piece by Andrew J. Rotherham, “The Illusion of the ‘Gifted’ Children is an international organization known for its biennial confer- Child: Why Our Policies for Good Students Really Aren’t that Smart” ence, which brings together scholars, leaders, parents, and educators (ideas.time.com/2013/04/25/the-illusion-of-the-gifted-child/), looks at who support and advocate for gifted and talented children. International the limitations of standardized testing in predicting intelligence and offers resources can be found here: www.world-gifted.org/Resources. suggestions to school administrators and policymakers for positive change. University-Related Centers and Institutes Thomas B. Fordham Institute — Within the debates, pro and Acceleration Institute, Belin-Blank Center, College of Education, con, about the Common Core State Standards, Jonathan A. Plucker’s University of Iowa — www.accelerationinstitute.org — Collects, synthe- brief, “Common Core and America’s High-Achieving Students” (bit. sizes, and reports on curricular acceleration, the “cognitive and affective ly/1Mg9QWU), addresses issues on high-ability students. characteristics that moderate students’ success with different forms of Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development — academic acceleration” with value for parents, educators, policymakers, www.gifted.uconn.edu/ — For an overview of developments in the and researchers. field, see the issues noted in “Major Turning Points in Gifted Education Center for Youth Enrichment and Talented and Gifted Education in the 20th Century” (www.gifted.uconn.edu/general/faculty/reis/Ma- (YE/TAG), University of Oregon — uoyetag.uoregon.edu/ — YE/TAG jor_Turning_Points.html), by Sally M. Reis, Neag School of Education, is an outreach program through the University of Oregon’s College of University of Connecticut. Education which provides support and resources for high ability children Professional Organizations and youth while offering practicum experiences for undergraduate and California Gifted Network — www.cagiftednetwork.com/ — While graduate students specializing in gifted education. focused specifically on gifted and twice-exceptional students in Califor- Duke Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) — tip.duke.edu/ — nia, several of the resources available are not region-specific, including Duke TIP provides services to meet the individual needs of gifted children, online learning, books, and postsecondary educational opportunities for focusing on exceptional students who are more likely to go unrecognized, gifted individuals. including minority students and those from low-income families. Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) — www.cec.sped.org/ — Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth — cty.jhu. Advocacy and resources for exceptional/gifted and talented education edu/ — A 2007 research overview, “What We Know about Academ- throughout the United States. List of resources for Gifted and Talented ically Talented Students” (cty.jhu.edu/research/docs/pub/What%20 here: www.cec.sped.org/Special-Ed-Topics/Specialty-Areas/Gifted/ We%20Know.pdf), provides annotated citations on ability grouping CEC-Resources. and acceleration; social, emotional, and personality considerations; and Education Commission of the States — www.ecs.org/ — A non-par- self-perception, motivation, and metacognition, along with related topics. tisan organization that “tracks state policy trends, translates academic National Center for Research on Gifted Education, University of research, provides unbiased advice and creates opportunities for state Connecticut — ncrge.uconn.edu/ — Through research partnerships, the leaders to learn from one another.” The ECS State Policy Database NCRGE studies gaps in gifted and talented programs and advocates for Special Populations — Gifted and Talented (bit.ly/1EjUXfH) is a continued on page 81 80 Against the Grain / November 2015
Column Editor’s Note: My November dispute about “logging” that Ronald Reagan, Although he never uses the word, Nadal 2014 column, “What Exactly Are We Retain- when a candidate for the governorhip of Cali- is talking about something colloquially called ing When We Retain That Book?,” asked, not fornia, participated in and during which he is “weeding” — but you don’t weed a forest: at all rhetorically, questions that arise in the famously paraphrased as having said, “When the scale of shared print management is so planning for shared print agreements because you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them large (regional, national, continental) that the of the physicality of books. When libraries all.” He in fact said something less vivid but garden metaphor seems less fitting. Forestry and their readers consider the consequences more arboreally encompassing, “…you know, offers a more capacious way of thinking about of joining a shared print agreement, partic- a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to the process. “Done properly, our shared print ularly the potential such an agreement holds look at?”2 Arborist Stauffer begs to remind programs will clear away the cruft,” he con- for reducing the number of copies held by us how different those trees can be and how cludes, removing the overstock of unnecessary the parties to it, people wonder about access important those differences are for the forest. redundancy in the North American libraries’ to retained copies, the reliability of the part- collective collection of perhaps a billion books Andy is a colleague on the multi-orga- (71). Good forestry involves cutting down nership, the integrity of the copies designated nizational Future of the Print Record task for retention, and the role that variation or some trees, he reminds us, just as withdrawing force (https://printrecord.commons.mla.org/), books has always been part of librarianship. artifactual value among the copies in the and I am grateful to him for continuing this collective might play in retention decisions. Now, his logic runs, we have the data and the important thread in the discussion of print tools to do it better. The metaphor strains here When it comes to the book as a physical entity, collection management and the roles of print a bit, since the reason you cut down trees is librarians and readers ask when a given vol- books in scholarship. Follow the URLs to a mostly to make room for new ones, whereas ume is a copy of another, that is, what do we description of the grant and to vivid exam- the draw-down of print is now general and mean by copy, when can a given volume stand ples of the volumes that he is concerned be ongoing: the overall library acreage devoted in for other examples of that book, and what retained. This discussion will continue in an to books is declining with some speed. With- are the ways in which and purposes for which upcoming double column by Mike Garabedi- drawals will make room for some new books a volume is not just another instantiation of an, Whittier College, in which Mike makes a coming in, but the systemic reduction of print the same text. Catalogers have developed case for shared print agreements’ considering collections is primarily to allow for other kinds answers to these questions, of course, but “condition,” understood as proximity of a of new growth: digital resources, common the answers can be more complex than the given copy to its as-published state, in deter- study areas, and other non-bookish aspects of reasons for matching a volume to a WorldCat mining which and how many copies to retain; the twenty-first century library.5 Nevertheless, record make them out to be, and decisions in making the case, he will report on a survey Nadal’s “silvaculture” metaphor reminds us based on those answers can be important for of condition he performed as part of SCELC’s of the need to preserve the richness of our several kinds of scholarship. planning for a shared print agreement. — BK old-growth collections, and to be responsible “Curating Collective Collections” followed stewards of that inheritance. up that article with “Silvaculture in the Stacks; The forestry metaphor comes readily to or, Lessons from Another Conservation Move- In a recent Against the Grain essay, “Sil- hand, of course, since most of those billion li- ment” by Jacob Nadal, Executive Director of vaculture in the Stacks,” Jacob Nadal draws brary books are literally made from trees: “tree ReCAP, in which he uses a forest conservation upon a forestry metaphor to discuss library flakes encased in dead cow,” as William J. metaphor to help librarians frame the issues print collections management.3 Warning Mitchell memorably describes printed books.6 these questions raise as they design collective against a rush to “clear-cut logging” (i.e., the “I don’t read dead tree books anymore,” a print management programs. In this column, rash withdrawal of books) to save space and friend recently told me, in praising the virtues Andrew Stauffer responds to Jake’s article money, Nadal makes the case for the mea- of the Kindle. Behind this rhetoric is a salient from the point of view of a historian of books sured, collective management of collections, fact of book history: the transition from lin- and the cultures of reading. Andy has been recommending statistical models to identify en-rag to wood-pulp paper in the middle-nine- developing this argument for some years now preservation and withdrawal candidates teenth century, amidst the industrialization of in such venues as his Book Traces project across the library system (70). He argues that the press and the massive expansion of book (http://www.booktraces.org/), sessions at we need to develop an overall collaborative publishing that, in the event, would produce holdings level for titles and then work within the Modern Language Association annual much of our non-rare legacy print collections. those guidelines, thinning and felling only Books became cheaper and more plentiful in convention in January 2012 and 2013, the according to broader knowledge of the forest. an age of pulp. In other words, trees enabled Print Archive Network Forum and RBMS In this essay and elsewhere, Nadal draws on the library conditions that Nadal means to Preconference at ALA Annual in June 2014, the mathematical framework for biodiversity address via his silvaculture metaphor: we have and a grant to the University of Virginia’s developed by Martin Weitzman, suggesting to manage the forest of books that trees fed. libraries under CLIR’ Hidden Collections 1 that we think of North American libraries as Moreover, the chemical composition of much program. He pursues here the questions of a total ecosystem, one in which we want to of that wood-pulp paper means that many of the copy variation and uniqueness, understood optimize holdings strategies to preserve as older books are now tanned and brittle, preser- both as physical attributes of volumes and, much variety as we can afford even as we vation candidates that complicate the retention most important for him in his grant-funded draw down the print collections.4 This aspect agreement process. In some ways then, trees work, as evidence readers have left of their of librarianship is essentially about statistics are the basis of our general collections and interactions with the text and the volume itself. and risk management: how many copies do we are at the root (sorry) of the challenges facing As he points out, not every volume that meets need, where do they need to be stored and how library collections management today. the bibliographic qualifications for entry of a accessed, to ensure the greatest chance that the Insofar as the “collective collections” holdings symbol on a given WorldCat record is information will remain available in, say, one movement grows out of the bibliographic con- the same book. Andy thus follows Jake into the hundred years? continued on page 83
82 Against the Grain / November 2015
n 2014, American University, in con- shared offsite storage center have added some work with other schools and WRLC Central junction with the other eight WRLC unique challenges to implementing the goals of to communicate information about moving I(Washington Research Library Consor- the retention project. In order to identify the retention commitments from one school to tium) schools, entered into a memorandum different types of markers needed for achieving another. There has also been confusion on of understanding to commit to coordinating, the goals of the project, it was decided that where to send questions now that the task retaining, and sharing collections, preserving using location codes in the shared catalog force has completed their work. Stacey and rarely held items, and make better use of would be the easiest means of identifying and I plan to address these issues in more detail library resources and spaces. As part of this managing the various commitments. These in future columns. project WRLC contracted the services of location codes are: The batch location code changes were Sustainable Collections Services to conduct an XXXPERM: for items identified as performed over the course of one or two analysis of the nine WRLC libraries’ shared being “cultural heritage” (i.e., having months across the consortia’s shared catalog collections. This analysis was done in order ten or fewer holdings within the U.S.) at the end of 2014. They were based on the to identify rarely held materials at each of the XXXRET: for items we are committing analysis performed by Sustainable Col- libraries, provide insight that would allow for to retain up to two copies of within the lections Services in April 2014. However, strategic management of the library collections, consortia as we all know, library catalogs are living, and ensure retention of materials across the non-static entities, and unfortunately, a consortium and across the library communi- XXXDUP: for items identified as already having two duplicates already good deal of information had changed in the ty. An additional goal of the project was to months between the analysis and the batch ensure that the WRLC’s Shared Collections within the shared storage facility XXXDIS: for items that have been location changes. This is compounded by Facility (SCF) is being used appropriately as the fact that we were still in the process of a repository of library assets while preventing discarded in favor of a shared retention copy for the consortia. moving 100,000 items to storage, which we unnecessary duplication within the SCF. outlined in a previous column. Additionally, These types of shared retention projects are It was decided that location codes would there were problems identified with the proj- becoming increasingly common as libraries be a better marker of these different commit- ect’s dataset when the location changes were and consortia reduce their print collections in ments instead of a note in an item or holding made. Some of the problems that occurred favor of increasing electronic collections and record for several reasons. Using a location were professor-owned copies of books from using library space for collaboration and other code instead of a note would ease running Reserves being accidentally included as re- activities. The goals of reducing collections reports or searching for different statuses. It tention copies when they shouldn’t have been. responsibly include aiming would make identification by circulation We also discovered our Visual Arts Collection to retain unique and little staff and WRLC processing staff much of nearly 30,000 titles was accidentally left held titles and also to prevent easier. Location codes would also out of the analysis. Any item that had gone duplication and redundancy. ease performing batch processing through a location change since the initial These retention projects can of records, and would lower the analysis, such as items moving to the stacks analyze where collections impact on system performance from Reference, had an erroneous location are strong and are getting by allowing batch processing code applied. Many of these errors were able the most use so that library using Voyager’s pick-and- to be corrected using the log files from the resources can be allocated scan function, which is a fac- pick-and-scan process, and the analysis was where they are most needed. tor when considering making re-run to include our Visual Arts Collection significant changes to a da- With these goals in mind, and exclude items on Reserves. There was tabase containing roughly also a rerun of the analysis and reallocation WRLC and its member li- 11 million records. Pick-and-scan braries entered into an agreement with of retention commitments when one school in uses barcodes and works easily with location the consortia was unable to participate in the Sustainable Collections Services (SCS) to code changes, while Voyager’s Global Data conduct an analysis of our shared collection. project. Additionally, the new location codes Change module relies on bibliographic and were not initially included in the limits in our Several task forces and pre-existing WRLC holdings i.d. numbers to make changes to committees were involved in getting the proj- discovery layer, Summon. Although these records and places greater stress on overall issues were fixed relatively easily, if technical ect off the ground. These groups set up local systems performance when making batch policies, drafted the scope of the retention services staff had been included in some of changes on a large scale. Thus, for every the initial planning, some of the issues would commitments, and addressed other goals such location code that originally existed at each as reducing redundancy at our shared storage have not occurred in the first place, and pro- WRLC school and the shared storage facility, visions could likely have been put in place facility. Perhaps because this project was so four new location codes were created with the closely related to the collections side of librar- to minimize some of the errors that resulted above additions, adding more than 600 new when the location changes were made. ianship, technical services librarians were not location codes into our shared catalog, and at involved in many of the initial policymaking least 33 so far for our university alone. This Although the projects and associated and workflow discussions and decisions. We has had a significant impact on several local processes with it have been confusing for felt this was a mistake, as many errors in workflows and has generated a great deal of staff and have complicated certain workflows the implementation process could have been confusion and uncertainty amongst staff in to the point of bringing work to a standstill avoided with more input from the technical Cataloging and Acquisitions as well as at all while we resolve questions, there have been services staff. of the participating WRLC schools. Some some ancillary benefits on the technical ser- Although our consortia is not the first to issues that have arisen concern how to handle vices side. As a part of the analysis done by participate in one of these retention projects, replacements when books are lost or dam- Sustainable Collections Services, we were the configuration of our shared catalog and our aged, how to correct errors, as well as how to continued on page 85
84 Against the Grain / November 2015
Rumors from page 71
Many of you have searched the online ATG archive at Purdue Uni- versity Press. It’s a fabulous place to start looking for library issues and history. I had forgotten that Lucretia guest edited the 2000 Millennium issue of ATG, for example! Check it out! http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ Speaking of library issues and history — It was great to run into Leigh Watson-Healey at the Outsell Signature Event. Leigh is the lead an- alyst for Outsell and speaks and writes frequently about key trends and issues in the information industry. Me, I remember when Leigh worked for Faxon, Dick Rowe, and Becky Lenzini! And talking about old friends, I was excited to see names of two old ATG friends in the issue — Tom Izbicki (Collecting to the Core – The Renaissance, this issue, p.56 and Xan Arch (Reflections on the 2011 PDA issue, this issue, p.26.) I remember that Thomas used to be at Johns Hopkins and Xan used to be at Stanford. We will see Xan at the Charleston Conference this year. http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3827&context=atg http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2589&context=atg Another old friend, Bob Holley tells us in this issue (p.70) that there is a new ALA Retired Members Roundtable (RMRT) which will keep up with professional activities by members since retirement. Hmmm, there are plenty of active retirees. Look at our mentors at the Charleston Con- ference. And — Derek Law, now retired, is enjoying his grandfatherly duties BUT he will also give the Charleston Conference closing session! OH! This is very relevant to this guest edited issue on STLs and Emerging eBook Business Models! Did y’all see that the incredible Chuck Hamaker of UNC-Charlotte has put together the Charlotte Initiative: Permanent Acquisitions of eBooks for Academic libraries. This spring, the Atkins Library at UNC-C received a grant of $271,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a two-year research and planning grant to produce recommendations for the licensing and continued on page 89
Against the Grain / November 2015
In the Knowledge Factory — My They pointed out, though, that Jeopardy Watson or needed to be at Watson training. I think we Shift at IBM Watson was specifically built for Jeopardy. The huge were curious about just registering with Watson database, sourced with libraries full of refer- and starting to roll out a form of Watson in our Well, to be honest, half a shift. And not so ence works, all Wikipedia, and immense slices workplaces. much a factory floor but four hours of grueling of the factual Web and more, were dumped seat time, display, talking heads, watching At break some of us dissed on a common into memory to compete with two humans Watson triumph over man and men, and other problem with the Watson outlook. There was each with three pounds of brains. The IBM stuff of a tight training day. a little of that engineering hubris that demands folks even sheepishly admitted that Watson It’s been about five years since that eventful a built solution to life’s problems. Then there had trained in over 100 matches with IBM was also what we joked was Watsonhausen day in cold, cold Poughkeepsie, New York, personnel with questions and answers mined when IBM engineers built a makeshift televi- Syndrome by Proxy. Watson’s exaggerated from all episodes of the longest running game claims for recognition as a huge step forward sion studio in an IBM lab. On January 11th, show in American television broadcasting. 2011 Big Blue hosted Merv Griffith’s Jeopardy. for the machine mind when its use would be Questions? Was this, well, sort of a setup? It was not just any taping session; two of the more like teachable full-time assistant. The Jeopardy match? Yes. Would many of us long running game show’s big winners, Ken Although it’s astonishing technology, we have the same resources as Jeopardy Watson? Jennings and Brad Rutter, joined Big Blue’s were less enthusiastic leaving than entering. No. Or maybe. Probably no. heir, Watson, to contest Watson in three televised The knee-jerk response, especially among episodes. Watson, although stumped by the What then, would we have and what would public sector employees, is that we could not non-fiction category and unable to bet well in we get? afford this. Even if we fired everyone, we’d daily doubles, won handily by over $50,000. Our training centered on the real world be a day late and a dollar short. And with ev- Watson was IBM’s self-challenge, to build 2015 business application of Watson. We eryone laid off, how would Watson easily learn a machine that could outthink humans. In 2005 learned of the Watson Knowledgebase which what it needed to learn to replace us? Deep Blue, an early version of Watson, handily included a rich array of business reference We’re rounding the fourth turn at the 2015 check-mated the world chess champion, Garry and data sources. We learned about its natural race and IBM has stepped up marketing for Kasperov. This chess playing mainframe had language processor that would work with lead- what Watson can presumably do. Watson been fed the text data of thousands of chess ing voice recognition systems to parse regular beating the Jeopardy twins was a billion dollar matches and all the documented strategies. Deep queries into terms Watson could recognize and proof of concept exercise, a reverse loss leader Blue was Bobby Fischer without the attitude. manipulate. We learned about Watson’s ability to get the conversation going. The training to emulate decision making, its algorithms that Jeopardy was a no brainer for the ultimate session was just that — to learn to think another emulated the best practices thinking of world brain off between man and machine. For over way, the Watson way. class enterprises. 20 seasons, three contestants had battled each As we shuffled out, our mutual looks spoke other in a fast-paced, quick-witted buzz, bet- All this would not let you take Watson home to a larger realization. Watson represented a your-money TV version of trivial pursuit. Who or even dial it up and play chess or engage truth and reality bright on our human horizons better to prove a point that computers can think in intellectual discussion. What you’d have that signaled the transformative moment of but to challenge the best thinkers in television would be a smart interface between you, your machines off-loading rote decision making and broadcasting game show history? data, and Watson’s analysis of the data. factual drudgery to their CPUs and allowing us But the pounding in Poughkeepsie was Our trainers used a Watson investment firm humans to do something else. We left, equally years ago. Those of us gathered at Phoenix’s application. On our screen was a dashboard. light and heavyhearted. Watson knew us better IBM Training Center early in 2015 were there Imagine your investment adviser, the person in than we knew ourselves. As Jennings’s joked spurred on not only by our own appreciation charge of your retirement. He or she must han- in Final Jeopardy, “I for one welcome our new of Watson’s triumph over us mere humans but dle streams of real time data, a profile of what computer overlords.” also by curiosity: how was Watson at making you want, what you have, and where this puts everyday money? you twenty years out. The investment world has this but as they say living in data silos. What did we learn IBM Watson ROI for Fixing Holes the enterprise? Watson can help organize this for your And it really doesn’t matter if investment adviser, alert when actions need be First our hosts surveyed us about what taken on yours or similar accounts, all the while I’m wrong I’m right motivated our attendance. Why were we suggesting to you, with the help of algorithms Where I belong I’m right there? Over 90 percent of the thirty or so drawn from all the data, new customers whose Where I belong trainees thought and felt that Watson had great money and data could add to the Watson’s relevance to their jobs and companies. Seven See the people standing there knowledge. More the merrier… percent were moderately interested, and a mere Who disagree and never win three percent didn’t know why they were there. Nifty right? We trainees thought so. Re- And wonder why they don’t get in my door Their bosses said go. markably, too, IBM has nicely priced options — even free ones — that help introduce us — Paul McCartney The IBM Watson people were direct and and our organizations to Watson’s advantages. My wife Cathy knows I’ve got an Ama- clear about the Jeopardy challenge. The There are development kits and Websites where zon habit. We buy everything from Amazon challenge was a proof of concept, whether a we can play with running our data against because it is so easy. For my own good and computer could beat humans in the real world. Watson and build our own dashboards. We our retirement money she’s wise to ask about can add Watson to our payroll as any uptick in Amazon boxes piling up daily a librarian/researcher and consul- at our front door. tant/know-it-all. Cathy orders from Amazon too as well as Surprisingly, our exit survey Kohl’s, Etsy, Target — it’s a long list. She’s revealed only about 60% of us retired and home though, and gets her packages are convinced now that we should continued on page 87 86 Against the Grain / November 2015
Against the Grain / November 2015
reetings and salutations, True Believers. Cartozia Tales Is Still for hardcover run, temporary tattoos included For November, we’re checking back Readers of All Ages with each printed book, and a bonus pin-up in with updates on some topics from art section featuring contributions from Towle, G All-ages fantasy comic Cartozia Tales re- previous installments of Decoder Ring to see Chris Schweizer, Isabella Rotman, and many cently made a big push to secure more funding what’s new. more. She even reached the goal of getting a to keep the project alive. After a successful custom sea shanty theme song for the book Kickstarter campaign raised $44,151 to John Allison Returns to Tackleford from Portland nerd rockers PDX Broadsides.12 In April, Decoder Ring profiled British fund its first 10 issues in August of 2013, the creator John Allison and his multiple series set anthology series has continued with output The Comics Grid Special Issue in the fictional Northern town of Tackleford: from a variety of rising creators led by Isaac on Jazz and Comics Cates.7 Issue 7 is just out, with a beautiful cov- Bobbins, Scary Go Round, and Bad Machinery. Open Access journal of comics schol- The writer and illustrator handed off the art er and nine new stories, including those from guest contributors Meredith Gran, creator of arship The Comics Grid continues to offer duties to illustrator Lissa Treiman and colorist academic insight into the world of comics Whitney Cogar for another Tackleford spin- Octopus Pie, and Ben Towle, creator of the Eisner-nominated Oyster War.8 and sequential art. In addition to regular off, Giant Days, which unlike its predecessors posts on topics the peer-reviewed journal 1 was not born digital on scarygoround.com, but With the bills for Issue 8 coming due, how- encourages submissions on for each year, 2 in print from BOOM! Studios. Giant Days ever, Cartozia is finding that the Kickstarter they have announced an upcoming special details the relationships of Scary Go Round was not enough to fund the ambitious collab- issue on Jazz and comics. The call notes: secondary characters Esther, Susan, and Daisy orative venture. Readers will remember that “Over the last forty years, the fields as they go off to university. Other Tackleford Cartozia Tales is written and illustrated by ten of jazz studies and comic studies off-shoots, the Charlotte Grotte-centered Mur- “core collaborators” that work in seven teams, have gained currency within the der She Writes and Shelley Winters mystery trading characters and locations on the Carto- academy and have been THAT, are available in print from TopatoCo.3 zia map for each issue, plus two guest enriched by interdisci- creators from outside the group plinary approaches. The per issue. Paying those artists and New Jazz Studies has writers plus the costs of printing, invigorated the discipline Web hosting, and distribution is beyond its musicologi- no doubt a big challenge. Anyone cal roots, while Comics who’s tried to forecast a series of Studies has thrived in large print runs over time can at- the digital age. This test to the cost of printing, which I collection aims to find suspect is the biggest variable here. meeting points between Cates took to social media to get to get the disciplines. We are encouraged the word out and entice new readers with a big by the fact that distinguished jazz sale. Digital versions, in PDF, of the first issue musicians such as Wayne Shorter, were offered free and the next two for a com- Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, bined $2.50. They also offered discounts on and Vince Guaraldi have each stated both digital and print subscriptions. “Imagine the influence of comic books on their this as a sort of kickstarter, if that helps get you musical development, while artists going: we have until the end of the summer and writers have frequently turned to to raise six or seven thousand dollars. That’s jazz for inspiration (e.g., strips about about a hundred new subscribers.”9 music appreciation by Harvey Pekar New subscribers are what the crew will or Blutch). Jazz musicians have been need to keep this gem of a project going. I was the subjects of comic strips (e.g., a backer of the original project, and I bought a Charlie Parker: Handyman, the BD new digital subscription immediately. Cates Jazz series) and jazz musicians have offers that this is a perfect world for young created comic strips (Wally Fawkes/ readers who thrive when they can connect to Trog).”13 fantasy characters and environments. Librarian Among the topics suggested under this @MalithInStacks responded to Cates’ news on wide umbrella is “Comics and jazz collections Figure 1: Giant Days #5 cover by Lissa Twitter with a call to action and link to the sales in libraries and archives, and what comics Treiman, Image: Allison/Treiman4 announcement on Cartozia’s Tumblr: “Oh, and jazz librarianship and curatorial practice #SaturdayLibrarian peeps, I know you like to might learn from each other.”14 Entries should read. Why not try this super-fun comic I’m a Allison continues to be so prolific that 10 include specific in-text references to comics his output is hard to follow at times. Despite librarian in (&pls RT?).” panels or pages. The deadline for submissions wrapping Bad Machinery earlier this year, he Core Cartozian Lucy Bellwood also recent- to the jazz issue is January 15, 2016, with ac- ended up giving in to fans’ desires with another ly ran a successful Kickstarter campaign of ceptance notices by mid-April and an aim for new story starring the younger generation of her own to launch the indie Baggiewrinkles: final publication in June. What an opportunity Tackleford detectives. “The Case of the Miss- A Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea. Bellwood for interdisciplinary scholarship that ties back ing Piece” began at scarygoround.com in July.5 describes the series as “A fetching, 100-page, to the library! I’d get on that. Giant Days is also being collected into trades full-color collection of the educational-auto- How unexpectedly musical these updates by BOOM! Studios as the singles accrue, with biographical-nautical comic you never knew have been! a collection of issues 1-4 due in late November you needed.”11 Bellwood’s project surpassed and 5-8 in April 2016. A third volume should its funding goal by a wide enough margin to Until next time, break a leg. 6 appear later next year. add several stretch goals, including a small endnotes on page 89
88 Against the Grain / November 2015
Rumors from page 85 Last and far from least – tada! Matthew in too much detail. Volumes already accepted Ismail, Tom Gilson, and I are beginning for the series include such topics as Reading acquisitions of eBooks. There are three core work on a small book series called the “Short in a Digital Age, Entrepreneurial Approaches principles: unlimited simultaneous users, no and Sweet series.” We envision these as to Library Transformation, Marketing and DRM, and irrevocable perpetual access and short monographs 25-50 pages focusing on Consumer Behavior in Libraries, Peer Re- archival rights. Unfortunately, Chuck will not cutting-edge topics of interest to practicing view in a Digital Age, and Entrepreneurship be in Charleston this year, but there are many information professionals, administrators in in the Realm of Libraries and Scholarly key people involved in this initiative. Be sure libraries, CEOs in universities or businesses, Communication. If you would be interested and attend the program at the Charleston Con- consultants, and the like. Short and Sweet in learning more about this series, please con- ference on Friday, November 6, 12:45-2:00 at must be: easy-to-read, understandable, and tact Matthew Ismail at
hen the makings of an enthusiastic the final destination set to be the World Wide a variety of software for creating and managing digital project begin to materialize Web? Considering what modes of access are digital collections available at a multitude of Wand are suddenly dropped into one’s going to be the most prominently used will help skill levels. In the process of selecting what lap, what’s a savvy librarian to do? The cor- ensure that your digital humanities collection program best suits the needs of the project, the nucopia of possibilities involved with making gets the proper level of public and professional desired end results for displaying the collection a unique and notable dynamic display can be detail. The level of expertise required by staff and the level of intricacy of displayed informa- overwhelming. But before discussing the ele- or volunteers also determines how the end result tion should be considered. If the collection’s ments of creating digital content, it is critical to will appear, and may establish the need for the primary focus is a pictorial collection or a first examine the benefits of digitizing and why input of subject experts within the humanities to Website-style presentation, simple software is all libraries should consider contributing to the create a proper level of collection metadata and available that is detailed more toward visual fast-growing world of digital scholarship. An information displayed to the end user. aspects of digital objects. When a rich digital exploration of digital possibilities can be con- Establishing the staff’s skill level alongside exhibit with dynamic or interactive components founding, but the doors that are often opened the desired level of intricacy for the collection is desired with the intention of public display, by collaboration and scholarship will prove assists in determining the requirements for the more complex software designed for the pur- digitizing is a valuable process. Pairing with collection’s metadata, and how this information poses of organizing, managing, and displaying larger institutions can give a smaller institution will be displayed and accessed in terms of copy- collections can be found in many formats. the chance to showcase its assets to a much right restrictions and permissions. Sorting out the Especially worth noting is the abundance of larger audience, drawing attention to smaller parameters of what makes the collection metadata Open Source (OS) software programs that are institutions and the collections they have to offer complete versus incomplete allows librarians to focused toward the creation and management of humanities researchers, scholars, and patrons. focus on what information is needed for the proj- digital content. The strengths of the Open Access Digitizing also offers libraries a chance to ect to be considered complete, and what, if any, movement can be seen clearly in OS software maximize their display space, by giving artifacts training is necessary to finish the project. More programs, which are another demonstration of normally kept in storage due to fragility or lack of detailed collections generally require scrutinized collaborative power in a digital setting. “Open display area a chance to be seen without physical information that is specific to the collection and Source software development provides a model limitations by patrons who might otherwise be describes the collection’s intended scholarly for collaborative scholarly work, as it makes unaware of their existence. Digital scholarship use, particularly when using an established and knowledge production modular and provides allows researchers to utilize fragile materials intricate metadata schema such as Dublin Core. access to a range of expertise,” (Spiro, 2012, p. without excessive handling, and see larger col- While establishing the expectations for the col- 69). OS software can improve the traffic to a dig- lections in their entirety. Social media allows lection’s use, it is also essential to determine the ital collection, as it is often equipped with apps, users to have a deeper relationship with digital ownership of copyrighted material within the plug-ins, or widgets meant for search engine collections, enabling them to tag items, share collection: Are the intellectual rights to the items optimization (maximizing the amount of Web them, and discuss them in new ways; patrons are in the collection owned by the library or institu- traffic that encounters your digital collection by no longer limited by physical access to the collec- tion, or are they in the public domain? If they are making it come up higher in the results retrieved tion, allowing for information to be accessed and not owned, has permission to digitize these items by a search engine, like Google). OS software interpreted in fresh new ways. To ensure that a been secured? If images in the collection are to also has other applications that can enhance a digital humanities collection is seen as valuable to be offered for public use and re-use, it is highly digital collection’s content and message, such scholarship, it should be interesting, unique, and important that concise copyright statements that as interactive mapping and geocoding or geo- relevant within the institution that is housing it. clearly outline the limitations and restrictions caching of items. The ability to customize OS Items within the collection should work together for use of items within the collection be written software collections with plug-ins, templates, to present a collective message that is relatable by project staff. This copyright statement for and apps makes it an excellent option for both to the target audience, and echoes the mission of the collection’s intended use should be included beginners and more advanced content creators, the library. Yet, items should be selected for the in the metadata, along with institutional contact and the Open Access element makes it easy to collection with the purpose in mind of enhancing information to gain further clarification or per- find user assistance through development forums the educational value of the collection as a whole missions if they are needed. and direct contact with the program developers. — libraries should not digitize everything, rather, Take a Walk on the Technical Side OS software is notoriously user-friendly, and its wide range of capabilities makes it easy to create libraries should be selective and think about what The equipment needed to digitize a collec- robust narratives and professional layouts for items are the most representative of what that tion is vital to digital project planning. The digital collections — and perhaps best of all, OS specific library has to offer. requirements for a project are determined by software is generally available for free. Before beginning a digital humanities proj- the objects the library is digitizing. Two-di- ect, evaluate what is needed to complete the mensional and three-dimensional objects require Examples of Open Source software pro- project versus what is already available to the different methods: scanning and photography, grams include, but are not limited to: institution; this especially applies to staff and respectively. Scanning is relatively simple, and 1. Omeka (http://www.omeka.org) equipment, and also to the concepts of display requires that staff have the ability to use the 2. Collective Access (http://www.collec- goals (i.e., what the final result of the digital scanner and corresponding software. Photog- tiveaccess.org) project should look like and how it will function raphy requires slightly more space, as well as 3. Open Exhibits (http://www.openex- at the end-user level) for the digital collection a capable person to use the camera and process hibits.org) and target audience for the collection and the the digital images. Both methods require an library. Considering the level of detail necessary assessment of available equipment and whether 4. SobekCM (http://sobekrepository. for the finished product to be most useful to the updates to hardware and/or software are neces- org) target audience will help determine the size and sary. All digital collections require access to 5. Collection Space (http://www.collec- scope of the project — is this collection meant permanent online storage, as well as software tionspace.org) primarily for in-house employee usage, or is to display and create the collections. There is continued on page 91
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Against the Grain / November 2015
Against the Grain / November 2015
he term “publishing” has been most often We reviewed the literature and pursued What we’ve learned associated in our minds with formal pro- some investigations of our own, all immensely from this study is that Tduction of authors’ scholarly or literary fruitful. In addition, I chaired a paper session the diversity is good works, by specialist organizations ranging all at the recent Cape Town meetings of the Inter- and it is a source for the way from small ones to huge, wealthy, national Federation of Library Associations optimism. There are in fact many possibilities market-dominating commercial enterprises. (IFLA) with five authors from North America, in front of libraries, and many of those possi- There exists an immense number of kinds Europe, and Central Asia — IFLA’s great for bilities will, I am certain, prove to be profitable and types and shapes and business models of bringing people together from many different and useful for us and for our libraries’ users. publishing activity, from university presses to time zones! Those papers all offered snapshots But what also struck us is that the ordinary learned societies to boutique houses supporting of how serious professionals are thinking about discussions of library publishers generally omit 1 poetry in translation or regional belles-lettres or library publishing issues. what seems an absolutely essential function: the kinds of cartoon maps distributed at outlet Clearly, the topic attracts a lot of attention let’s call it marketing. malls with a small note assuring users that “this and energy, as you will also see from our ex- If you write your amazingly compelling map has been deposited with the Library of tensive bibliography. The Library Publishing scholarly work (or even a murder mystery) and Congress.” Coalition came into existence 2-3 years ago self-publish it all by yourself, perhaps even But perhaps even that broad description and has already published two detailed direc- using Amazon’s self-publishing service, you is too narrow these days; maybe everybody’s tories of activity in this sphere, interesting each have in some sense “published” it, yes. But if no a publisher today: go to your BlogSpot site, in its own right, but also fruitful to compare the one notices, then your deathless prose becomes write up what you had for breakfast and who two to see the year-to-year changes. Two bal- the tree that falls noiseless in the forest. What annoyed you on your commute to work, post ancing observations impose themselves when that means is that publishing is not just a matter it, and you’re done. Congratulations! we compare these directories, and these con- of reproducing and making available copies of In other words, it’s a jungle out there. Li- firm themselves when we look more broadly. an article or book. The reason you would want braries in recent years have waded further and First of all, lots and lots of libraries are your great American novel published by a “real further into that jungle, finding new roles and actively publishing. Many dozens of U.S. publisher” has much to do with the ability of the possibilities for themselves. How do we make academic and public libraries report some traditional publisher to make your work known sense of that phenomenon? devotion of staff time to publishing activities. to the audience that might be moved to read it. I’ve gotten to know this landscape better This is true for the rest of the world as well, When we look at the current landscape of in the last months. In July, Alex Holtzman though not as well documented. library publishing, the kind of marketing that (formerly director of Temple University Second, not a lot of clear activity patterns facilitates making an audience for the works Press) and I published a short monograph emerge, though we found that libraries have that get published is much harder to find than with the Council on Library and Informa- long been publishers of materials from or the brute fact of publication itself. I suspect tion Resources called “The Once and Future about their collections. To be sure, today’s that the most important prospects for library Publishing Library,” available at: http://www. leading form of publishing activity is broader publishing will be strongly shaped by the clir.org/pubs/reports/pub166. than that: the creation and management of ability of libraries to find channels for making CLIR has been known for years for its institution-based repositories holding material their work readily known to the audiences they important publications program, led by the produced within the home institution. Even seek to reach. Our advice for libraries think- excellent Kathlin Smith. This particular proj- there, the diversity of what enters into these ing of engaging substantially in this area is to ect was funded by the Goodall Family Foun- repositories is great, the differences of scale remember to focus a significant piece of your dation, whose Steve Goodall is a friend and are huge, and most are still in barely nascent energy on this marketing side of the activity. supporter of the Charleston Conference. He stages. If there is a second most common You don’t want your tree to fall unheard. and Katina Strauch thought it time to explore form of activity, it consists of digitizing analog The discussion about publishing roles a timely library topic. Library publishing was materials held by the library’s collections or for libraries will continue and thrive. At the a natural fit, asATG has already produced two archives for a wider audience — and then the upcoming Charleston Conference, Alex will special issues on this theme (2008 and 2015). diversity of such objects chosen is immense. lead a concurrent session on this topic. The LPC has already announced its 2016 confer- ence for May 2016 at the University of North ADVERTISERS’ INDEX Texas. IFLA’s Acquisition and Collection Development Section has started planning for a 33 aaaS / Science 75 the Charleston Advisor 71 INFORMS one-and-a-half day pre-conference prior to the 81 acLS Humanities E-Book 8 the Charleston Report 11 LM Wolper Information Delivery Columbus, OH-based IFLA Congress. The 95 acS Publications 57 chOICE 96 Midwest Library Service satellite event will be held at the University 48, 49 adam Matthew Digital 19 cold Spring Harbor Lab Press 41 Modern Language Association 51 alexander Street Press 29 copyright Clearance Center 69 Morgan & Claypool Publishing of Michigan campus. I’ll head up the ACD 13 ambassador Education Solutions 73 Data-Planet 21 OSA – The Optical Society side of the process, with enthusiastic and 83 american Pharmacists Association 89 edinburgh University Press 55 RSNA collegial partnership from the UM Library, in 39 annual Reviews 63 emery-Pratt 65 Rittenhouse particular Charles Watkinson and some of 45 aSME 31 endocrine Society 17 Salem Press & HW Wilson his colleagues. This will be an opportunity 5 atg 85 evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. 43 SIAM to hear global perspectives and case studies, 91 the Athenaeum Press at CCU 7 gale Cengage Learning 37 SPIE Digital Library which have been thin on the ground in a so-far 12 basch Subscriptions, Inc. 53 georg Thieme Verlag KG 15 Springer Science & Business Media largely U.S./Anglo-based discourse. But, even 25 bloomsbury Publishing 77 geoScienceWorld 67 taylor & Francis Group if you can’t attend any of the aforementioned 79 cabell’s International 2 grey House Publishing 59 transparent Language meetings, do enrich your own understanding 23 cambridge University Press 9 IGI Global 85 turpin Distribution of library publishing issues and developments 27 casalini Libri 35 IGI Global 3 ybp Library Services by reading the report. And join in this new role For Advertising Information Contact: Toni Nix, Ads Manager, for libraries!
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