PARTICIPANTS:
Vendors:
Blackwell Periodicals, Sharon Cline McKay, Technical Sales Manager
IEE, Inspec and other full text products, Jeff Pasch
Publishers:
American Astronomical Society, Chris Biemesderfer
American Mathematical Society, Don Babbitt
American Physical Society, Mina Chung
Elsevier, Roland Dietz, Senior Vice President
TOPICS: Hot topics in PAM libraries:
Those identified as of concern:
1. electronic tools
2. paper tools
3. both
INTENT:
DESIRE:
Specific questions:
1. Given rising costs (due to growth in publications, overhead costs, etc.), and limited or no new funds from libraries, where can costs be cut [from current operations] to provide equal [or enhanced] services at no additional cost?
2. Please describe steps your organization is taking to provide seamless access to full text journal and other information databases. (e.g. validation, SICI/PII, cross-journal links).
3. Describe the steps your organization is taking to provide access to archival collections of full text journals and other information databases... please include a discussion of policies and procedures for access to previous years of materials by organizations that have canceled current subscriptions.
4. Please describe your estimations of [and actions toward providing] the future added-value enhancements provided through online information services (e.g. integrated media, hyperlinks, embedded commenting, etc.).
5. How do you plan to market your once simple [paper only] product in the newly emerging complex niche environments with a variety of desired and possible purchase options? (unlimited access, numbers of prepaid accesses to a predetermined set of titles, pay-per-view, etc.).
6. How do consortia figure into your present and future operations?
In general, there was a healthy amount of information sharing and the beginning of collaborative alternatives discussions. Continued future discussions, in both group and individual settings, would be helpful for all concerned.
Return to Contents page
Created by: Laurel Kristick, August 1, 1997
archiving
seamless access
passwords vs. IP validation (or and IP for sabbatical users)
SICI data for article level access
cross-journal access (from-to references by other vendors)
charging plans (across the board, surcharge for e-users, other)
ownership/leasing(access)/ownership of access over time
enhancements through dynamic capabilities (hyperlinks, integrated media)
reserve use charges (local subfiles)
minimum equipment requirements
supplemental data sets (cd-rom, video tape, etc.).
expected growth
expected inflation rates
areas for cutting production costs
subsidies for non-publication activities (Society publishers)
consortial discounts
flexible packaging of titles
To determine patterns and trends, not to become lost in the specific details of any one service/product.
A healthy sharing of ideas leading to
(1) learning for all participants and attendees, and
(2) future discussions and collaborations.
Re-engineering, due to either new technologies and new procedures, appears to provide some areas for future savings. Specific examples included authoring tools and reducing copy editing costs.
Other suggestions included collaborative, rather than duplicate and/or more expensive proprietary, Research and Development efforts between and among publishers, gateways, and users; and the reallocation of certain costs back to the endusers through higher membership dues, page charges, etc. Various economic factors were discussed at this point.
The responses appeared to come from two different perspectives: (1) the producers' production view, and (2) the user behavior view.
The producers' view concentrated on better Open Standards and authoring tools to allow for the creation of easier built-in linkage technologies.
The user viewpoint identified two types of access: browsing and known info searching; each type of approach requires different techniques and support mechanisms.
Many publishers appear to be offering free access to bibliographic and abstract information, with IP address validation required at the point of full-text delivery (for the moment via PDF, HTML, ASCII, bitmapped and/or TIFF images). This is creating interesting linkages between both bibliographic database and full-text publisher information and related [linkable] bibliographic and abstract materials.
A problem still to be addressed is how to deal with the incomplete references that are often found at the end of many full-text articles. (On-the-fly searching of bibliographic indexes and/or ISSN-based approaches were presented as possibilities).
A variety of possibilities were discussed: archiving by individual publishers, the creation of archiving clearinghouses (e.g. OCLC, NCSA, JSTOR), local mounting of collections either individually (Naval Research Lab) or in consortial approaches (e.g. Center for Research Libraries, OhioLink), local delivery of electronic files (via tape or CD-ROM).
The ability to access previous years after cancellation was seen as a future consideration, depending upon the "lease versus ownership" contract negotiations that develop. The issue changes from the traditional "ownership or access" to "ownership of access". One solution that was proposed for accessing previously paid for material after cancellation was an overhead charge for resources used during the access process. Tracking and permissions software will need to be developed for these [and other
standard access] types of transactions.
The ADS system was used as an example of an integrated system that linked bibliographic and non-bibliographic databases (star catalogs and properties data) and citation data. Other advantages discussed included the personalized "push" services that are being provided by some producers (CoDAS virtual file cabinets, comments, and SDI), and possibly shared commenting and errata. The integration of media types (e.g. simulation software, movies, animation, sound) were also mentioned.
There was a desire for flexible and customizable pricing packages. The desire for accountability data through statistical usage reports was also expressed. There was little desire for CD-ROMs as a useful and long-term archival product/solution for most individual libraries. It was recognized that these packages must take into consideration the quite different needs and abilities that the various library organizations represent (size, coverage, depth, technology, etc.).
One possible approach that was mentioned was a three-tiered approach: (1) subscriptions for unlimited access to a selection of often-used journal titles, (2) flat-fee purchasing of a preselected number of articles from a selected list of less frequently used journal titles, and (3) transactional (commercial document delivery) for infrequently used journals.
This approach provides some degree of security for publishers of high quality material, provides accountability for purchasing [and supporting] only the best of lesser used materials, and provides little subsidizing of [locally] unnecessary or lower quality information.
This approach could also be used by consortia of both users (i.e. subject-based collectors) and producers (i.e. subject clusters of primary material publishers) for coordinated purchasing packages.
NOT SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSED DUE TO TIME LIMITS.
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, August 6, 1997