Readers using (and getting used to) shared archiving: experiences from the Swiss cooperative storage library

Transcription

1 Readers using (and getting used to) shared archiving: experiences from the Swiss cooperative storage library 6th Kuopio Conference Basle, March 15, 2018 Christian Oesterheld

2 The initial conceptual framework of CSLS Remedy lack of physical storage space in main academic libraries situated in urban centers of Switzerland by uniting forces towards a shared off-site storage facility Implementation of high density item storage using largely automated facilities and optimizing preservational conditions Not «another library» open to the public, but in first instance a service provider for libraries without direct user interaction Realizing economies of scale by building a shared collection and applying deduplication: an important political argument!... the archiving perspective and the need to meet the economic challenge prevailed during the initial conceptual framing of the CSLS. Still, user services were drafted within the project layout...

3 Basic user services as part of the CSLS operational concept: our expectations Usage of print collections will continously diminish as the availability of e-collections grows and researchers focus on immediate access to informational ressources by online services. Users will be able to benefit from CSLS operations through being offered smart and convenient remote services when they need access to print holdings. Integrating services with the CSLS which are well established in the Swiss academic libraries portfolio should guarantee acceptance of off-site storage among users.

4 Basic user services (1): Document delivery Deduplication of holdings being applied to the shared collection and local libraries being free to get away with duplicate holdings, the item in CSLS will be the «last copy» among partners. Ownership of items in the shared collection was transferred to the CSLS association consisting of all member libraries. CSLS shared journals collection should not be lendable for reasons of safety and permanent availability. Scan operation center for document delivery services was conceived as part of project design. A common scan & delivery workflow infrastructure implemented in CSLS and all participating libraries. Pricing for end-users applies a moderate common tariff now extended also to document delivery service of most local libraries in Swiss library network IDS. Fulfillment without end-user billing was considered, but judged inappropriate.

5 Basic user services (1): Document delivery Document delivery scan room at the CSLS

6 Transactions 2017: document delivery (orders)

7 Basic user services (2): Courier shipping CSLS welcomes also individual holdings (not only journals as in the shared collection, but any kind of storable material) For libraries, storing individual items in CSLS is equivalent to having them stored in any off-site deposit with the benefit of resorting to an external service provider for archiving and supplying. With the well-established IDS delivery service being connected to the CSLS, a shipping solution was at hand that already had proven its usefulness among library customers and is well known with them. Re-organization of IDS courier service: CSLS by its central geographical position serves as logistics hub offering overnight transshipment. Architectural provisions in CSLS for 24/7 access. Delivery pick-up locations and lending conditions are ruled by owner library. Readers order items directly from the discovery of the library.

8 Basic user services (2): Courier shipping Delivery area of the CSLS (access for courier and postal services via the stairs on the left)

9 Basic user services (2): Courier shipping Delivery area inside the CSLS with 24/7 access for courier and postal services

10 Basic user services (2): Courier shipping Delivery area, courier boxes ready for collection by courier driver

11 Transactions 2017: retrieval of items from CSLS

12 Basic user services (3): CSLS Reading Room For some scenarios of use, on-site consultation of items presents decisive advantages for readers. Thus, including a reading room was defined as part of the architectural project.

13 Basic user services (3): CSLS Reading Room Delivery area inside the CSLS with 24/7 access for courier and postal services

14 Basic user services (3): CSLS Reading Room For some scenarios of use, on-site consultation of items presents decisive advantages for readers. Thus, including a reading room was defined as part of the architectural project. For verifying bibliographic notices or scattered footnotes, ordering an article via document delivery is not the appropriate means. Bibliographic references are often vague as for older journal articles, so ordering successfully your article online may turn out difficult. In order to follow the development of a historiographical concept or a much debated topic through the publication stream of one or several journals, readers whish to browse a whole journal series. How it works: plan the visit with your home library and tell your reference librarian what you whish to see, he will notify the CSLS user service who in turn will prepare the requested items for your visit.

15 Critical voices Nota bene: Experience of change for readers varied according to individual storage policies of their libraries from moderate to disruptive (whole collections being transferred off-site vs. selected holdings according to subject matter and/or frequency of usage etc) Some readers tell us that they were used to scroll through complete journal series and by this way made important discoveries, which is now impossible. Often no ToCs of older journals available online. Some readers claim that the «serendipity experience», which browsing the shelves offered them, has been removed with the withdrawal of the volumes (particularly for collections formerly shelved on open stacks). According to some members of faculty, literary criticism approaches (important in academic training) as well as research on history of ideas or scientific concepts are hindered by off-site storage esp. of journals.

16 Critical voices: assessment In proportion to the total number of readers, the explicitly critical or negative voices represent a limited share. But criticism is expressed particularly by users who rely heavily upon the library s holdings for their academic work they are an important target group if not as to their absolute number, yet as to their closeness to the library s core mission, i.e. making accessible its collections! We do not know the extent of «silent disapproval»... Literary criticism approach defends its value in the humanities where research always hermeneutically reflects on its antecedents (whereas in science, this approach has nowadays become marginal and limited to few specialists). Transformation of journals into e-publications is far from complete esp. in the humanities. Back file archives not always available.

17 What is a journal? In cataloguing, wavering borderline between journals, serials and multivolume works. In consequence, there was (and partly still is) a heterogenous practice in libraries as to cataloguing such material. In consequence, material of monographic or encyclopedic caracter, if published in numbered serial publications, has often been catalogued as journal issue in the past. Journals supplement series as well as publications of learned societies are regularly among these. Often, no individual record of the individual title was created or, if it was, it is not always linked to the main journal record due to defective retrospective conversion. Result: when drawing up the items lists for storage in the CSLS, monographic material was unintentionally included among journal holdings as part of the shared collection. Limited access rules now apply. Scan orders for complete works denied due to copyright limitations.

18 Choosing a pragmatic approach to usage conditions of the shared collection After discussions, CSLS partners agreed to define more flexible rules to enable accessing non-miscellaneous material in a user-friendly manner. How it works: If users identify some item in the shared collection which, by its content form, does not meet the criteria of a true journal issue, they request it at their service desk for transfer to the local library s reading room. Reference librarians switch the lending status of the item. Items are shipped by courier service from the CSLS and made accessible in-house under secure conditions for a short-time period. Is such softening of circulation restrictions equivalent to watering down the principles of the shared journal archive? May be, but we decided to put users needs first. Reasonable compromise between safe archive, guaranteed availability of items and low threshold to access content.

19 CSLS order picking area (storage and retrieval) Delivery area inside the CSLS with 24/7 access for courier and postal services

20 CSLS order picking area (storage and retrieval)

21 Solutions: identifying e-availability before selecting print journals for off-site storage? Due to lack of unified metadata sources and to incomplete coverage of e- journals in online catalogs, match print/online is difficult to achieve. Intellectual processing is prevented by the need of mass storage decisions (in our project, up to journal titles had to be covered). Journals with a long-lasting publication history are generally split between an earlier period without online availability and a more recent period with e-issues available. Automated selection still more complex. Borderline print/online is a moving target as publishers and libraries continously add titles and volumes to digital repositories. Same problem with flipped OA journals. Genuine OA journals often have not been catalogued and thus are absent from libraries backbone ILS.

22 Solutions: enrichment of online catalogs with journal tables of contents? Enrichment project was deliberated by CSLS partners. Centralized journal archive and provided scan facilities in CSLS would be in favour. But: Would require massive ressources in terms of supply cost, storage (repository infrastructure) and indexing. Identifiying the journals whose ToCs are not available on the web or by licensing is a task difficult to fulfill by automated workflows due to lack of unified metadata sources (again...) Accessibility of online ToCs provided by publishers or third parties may depend on licenses held by local libraries. Finally: Do ToCs really help? Sometimes yes (for identifying articles), but main concern of readers is access to full-text!

23 Solutions: massive full-text digitization of the CSLS shared journal collection? If splitting between print/online and digitization of ToCs do not really solve the problem or are subject to serious problems in practice, should we perhaps proceed to a massive digitization endeavour? This certainly would solve readers concerns... But again: would require still more resources who will pay for this initiative? copyright issues must be solved; restricting digitization to copyright-free material entails copyright clearance in every single instance need to avoid carefully any double conversion of material already available elsewhere not a trivial task! Preferable: join forces and seek funding to include important copyrightfree journals in existing digitization initiatives like JSTOR, and fill gaps in publishers licensable online journal back files where possible.

24 Lessons learned during two years of operation: How to serve users in shared archiving Shift to e-availability in the journals ecosphere is not yet as complete as we expected, esp. with regard to the humanities, where small publishers and specialized journals continue to play an important role. Yet, the shift is taking place... Users expectations are evolving concomitantly with the on-going transformation of research practice in the digital context, but with different pace according to academic disciplines. Consistent and rich metadata is (and will remain) of crucial importance if we want to offer «seamless» services. It s not just a question of storage and logistics! A pragmatic and flexible approach to user requirements need not contradict the basic principles of shared archiving. Instead, it leverages acceptance und helps us creating more adaptive services.

25 Venturing a look into a visionary future: scaling up CSLS to the level of a national service provider With the development of the Swiss Library Service Platform (in operation as from 2021), the CSLS should move into the position of a national service provider for archiving and supply services: With new partners from the Swiss academic libraries not yet members of CSLS, the shared collection can become a true national archive of academic print journals from Swiss libraries. Thus cost-saving effects of deduplication and pooling resources will unfold on a still broader basis. The CSLS is able to provide the logistics hub for the national delivery service scheduled by SLSP, favoured by its central location. With the unified ILS for SLSP libraries (ExLibris Alma), plugging new libraries to CSLS automated storage/retrieval system will be smooth. The shared collection could be extended to a Swiss monograph reserve.

26 Thank you for your attention. Photographs reproduced by kind permission of Ueli Niederer.

27 And what s going on? Follow the CSLS on Twitter!