Handbook of Information Management

Alison Scammell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780851424576
• eBook ISBN: 9781135476151
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This is effectively the eighth edition of Aslib's flagship reference work, Handbook of Special Librarianship and Information Work, which has provided the seminal text on modern information theory, practice, and procedure since 1957. Scammell draws on a substantial background of research and best practice to provide a pragmatic approach to information management in the workplace. This volume covers strategic, legal, management, and marketing issues and highlights the importance of new web-based delivery mechanisms. It includes contributions from outside the UK, mirroring the global nature of information management.
Includes:
* essential reference to core theories and principles of information organization, retrieval and dissemination
* a new chapter exploring the legal issues involved with information on the Internet
* new topics including: freedom of information, project management, digital library research, the hybrid library, the effective website and the intranet.

Chapter 1
Digital library services: an overview of the hybrid approach

Elizabeth J.Eastwood and Sara R.Tompson

‘The special librarian is capable of working in the hybrid world of print and electronic media and providing the best mix of information resources in the most appropriate formats for the environment.’ From the background to: Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century (http://www.sla.org/professional/competency.html)

Introduction

The term ‘digital libraries’ has been given many varied definitions. Digital libraries exist along a whole continuum of practices, from totally electronic resources with no particular physical space and no human intermediaries for access, to the simplest electronic representation of access points to information, e.g. an online public access catalogue (OPAC). In this chapter, ‘digital libraries’ and ‘electronic libraries’ are taken to be synonymous terms.

‘Special libraries’ and ‘information centres’ are used to mean information units that are part of parent organisations, and that specialise in certain topics. The Special Libraries Association management text on special libraries notes: ‘The mission of special libraries is to provide focused information to a defined group of users on an ongoing basis to further the mission and goals of their parent organisations’ (Porter, et al., 1997). These specialised information centres are also sometimes known as ‘workplace libraries’ in the UK (see the Library Association Press Release on the Web at: http://www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/press_desk/199926.html).

Approach

In this chapter, the aim is to provide an overview of the current predominant service architecture in special libraries, which falls in the middle of the continuum: the combination of print and electronic resources. This is termed the ‘hybrid’ approach to digital libraries. This chapter is not concerned with the consortia and project initiatives of completely digital information resources. Rather, it deals with the practical situation that special librarians and information professionals are working with day-to-day.

The chapter outlines the history of these digital libraries and demonstrates how hybrid libraries are the current workable solution. The concentration is on the digital library services offered by a hybrid library and how this set-up has affected the overall library services, including challenges of collection development, and how these differences concern management, staff, and users. The issues described by Edward A.Fox, et al. will be touched upon. These authors wrote, that for the information professional, the term digital library:

…calls for carrying out of the functions of libraries in a new way, encompassing new types of information resources; new approaches to acquisition (especially with more sharing and subscription services); new methods of storage and preservation; new approaches to classification and cataloguing, new modes of interaction with and for patrons; more reliance on electronic systems and networks; and dramatic shifts in intellectual, organisational, and economic practices. (Fox et al., 1995).

Digital libraries

It is necessary to first set the context of digital library resources and services, before today’s most common form, the hybrid of print and digital libraries, can be discussed. That is the aim of the definitions, characteristics and history that follow.

Digital library definitions

In general, digital libraries used to be considered,‘…as systems providing a community of users with coherent access to a large, organised repository of information and knowledge’ (Lynch and Garcia-Molina, 1995). Even earlier, Kenneth Dowlin, in 1984, described an electronic library as incorporating:

• ‘management of resources with a computer
• the ability to link the information provider with the information seeker via electronic channels
• the ability for staff to intervene in the electronic transaction when requested by the information seeker
• the ability to store, organise, and transmit information to the information seeker via electronic channels’ (as quoted by Collier).

Cherie Noble’s 1998 statement that, ‘As pervasive and ubiquitous as the term has become, the virtual library is a concept that is still evolving’ (Noble, 1998) is certainly just as true two years later, as can be seen from this sampling of recent definitions from both sides of the Atlantic.

• In his staff’s 1999 how-to text, Creating a Virtual Library, editor Frederick Stielow defines, simply, the totally electronic library: The term virtual library simply means that all services are provided through the Internet, rather then in a building’ (Stielow, 1999).
• The editors of one of the reports of the ongoing joint US and European Union Research Agenda for Digital Libraries represent those information professionals who see digital libraries as global enterprises: ‘Digital libraries represent a new infrastructure and environment that has been created by the integration and use of computing, communications, and digital content on a global scale’ (Schäuble and Smeaton, 1998).
• A technical definition can be found in a recent N.R.Adam, et al. article in Communications of the ACM: ‘Digital libraries can be viewed as infrastructures for supporting the creation of information sources, facilitating the movement of information across global networks, and allowing the effective and efficient interaction among knowledge producers, librarians, and information and knowledge seekers’ (Adam et al, 2000).
• Gary Cleveland, writing for the Universal D T section of IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, emphasises the library aspect of the phrase ‘digital library’: ‘As a starting point, we should assume that digital libraries are libraries with the same purposes, functions, and goals as traditional libraries—collection development and management, subject analysis, index creation, provision of access, reference work, and preservation’ (Cleveland, 1998).
• Donald J.Waters, in writing about the US Digital Library Federation project, quotes the Federation’s working definition: ‘Digital libraries are organisations that provide the resources, including the specialised staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities’ (Waters, 1998).

These definitions focus on electronic resources, but it has come to the attention of many that although the reality of digital libraries is strengthening, a library’s collection will have to provide both print and electronic materials still for some time and the most important goal is to have seamless access to all formats which will ‘…provide a coherent view of a very large collection of information’ (Lynch and Garcia-Molina, 1995). As these authors describe it, ‘…the digital library system needs to extend smoothly from personal information resources, workgroup and organisational systems, and out to personal views of the content of more public digital libraries’ (Lynch and Garcia-Molina, 1995). Special librarians and information professionals will still need to be able to manage and successfully work with hybrid library collections for a substantial amount of time.

Digital libraries: a brief history

As noted by Stephen Harter (1997), digital libraries can be said to have physically existed in some form since the days of punch card circulation systems. As a concept, digital libraries have existed in science fiction for several centuries, but the idea was seriously launched by Vannevar Bush’s 1945 concept of the Memex Machine (Nyce and Kahn, 1991). Digital libraries may be more commonly thought of as beginning with the advent of digitised access tools, that is, online public access catalogues or OPACs, computer databases that replaced traditional card catalogues and augmented them with links between records (e.g. a record for one book on a particular subject could be relationally linked to a list of records for books on that subject). Most OPACs are based on the Machine Readable Cataloguing (MARC) standard and formats, developed in the mid-1960s by the US Library of Congress and other organisations, and currently in use in a variety of flavours: USMARC, LCMARC, UKMARC, UNIMARC, etc. (Furrie, 1998).

During the 1970s and 1980s what can be called ‘the information chain’ was highly structured. As author Roxanne Missingham notes:

Search specialists and libraries were central to all components of the information chain. Full-text information was accessible only in the published format, predominantly in libraries. Tools for finding a path to the relevant information were through references from colleagues, or print and electronic indexes… In the 1990s the creation of electronic information, development of networked access and delivery of new library services has seen a radical transformation in the information chain… (Missingham, 1999).

While F.W.Lancaster’s famous prediction of the ‘paperless library’ in his seminal 1978 text (Lancaster, 1978) has not yet come about, nor is it expected to any time soon, since the days of early OPACs, libraries have continued to move toward more electronic resources. As Noble says, ‘With the development of new and emerging networking systems, however, it is likely that the virtual library will become the gateway that integrates access to most, if not all, of the library’s resources and services, both traditional and virtual’ (Noble, 1998).

Characteristics for consideration of digital library services

Digital in its most basic sense as applied to libraries means electronic format rather than paper. Providing and maintaining documents and resources in electronic format requires an infrastructure or architecture of hardware, software and networks. This chapter will simply touch on some key areas of consideration for the information professional.

Practically, special libraries often combine Internet and intranet resources and access. A 1999 survey of special librarians in Illinois, USA, found Internet/intranet combined access to be a key emerging trend (Tompson, 1999). A special library’s user population can drive the architecture of digital library resources. For instance, accessibility within and beyond the parent organisation may necessitate some resources being intranet-only accessible, in a protected subdirectory behind a firewall.

Mel Collier (1997) has listed the main characteristics of a digital library, and they can be used to help describe the digital library services that are part of a hybrid library collection. According to Collier:

1. ‘Access to the digital library is not bounded in space or time. It can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
2. Content in electronic form will steadily increase and content in printed form will decrease.
3. Content is in textual, image, and sound form.
4. Usage of electronic information as a proportion of total usage will steadily increase, and usage of printed material as a proportion of total usage will decrease.
5. Expenditure on electronic material will steadily increase and, relatively, expenditure on printed material will decrease.
6. Expenditure on information will shift from ownership to subscription and licensing.
7. Expenditure on equipment and infrastructure will increase’.

[Numbers added by Eastwood and Tompson]

When dealing with a hybrid library collection, compatibility of all resources used by the staff needs to be maintained. The integrated library system, that which houses the circulation and acquisition modules currently used to hold the document location tools to the print collection, will need to be compatible with the digital collection management system. The latter is the system that will have the capacity and technical requirements needed to house the electronic materials of the collection. One illustration is the set up at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: the Library OPAC runs on a DEC Alpha machine (http://fnlib2.fnal.gov/MARION). The Web OPAC includes clickable links to the digitised preprints and technical reports (e.g. http://fnlib2.fnal.gov/MARION/AAG-0426), but those documents are actually housed on and served from a UNIX machine (http://fnalpubs.fnal.gov/archive/2000/). HTML is the common language that links the two systems. In the future, more integrated systems that deal with both print and electronic will appear in libraries. Until that is widespread, the two or more systems need to be compatible. This is a technical challenge that should not be overlooked.

Recently, the concept of a library or information service maintaining a web site has gone some way to linking access to traditional and digital materials. The web site provides access to information about the services offered, including access to the local print material location tools, as well being the portal to many electronic services available through the library, including bibliographic databases, online union catalogues, and full-text links. The library staff also can author their own digital documents. For example, the guide to using the library collection could be available in print in the library, but it could also have been made into a digital document (scanned or web-authored), so that it would be available to all of the potential users of the library, whether they are locally or remotely located. Having digital library services goes some way to constructing a ‘library without walls’, so that the user need not be physically present at the library. (See the discussion of the variety of services offered in a hybrid library later in this chapter.)

Having digital materials has also brought up the question of users having 24/7 service accessibility, at some level. This characteristic of digital libraries is one that must be considered by management in light of who their users are, and what is expected and wanted from the service provided. Technical aspects must also be considered if remote access is to be available even when the library is not open. Such considerations to be dealt with include: technical support for malfunctions; open or controlled access to resources; and questions concerning automated payment.

Many special libraries and information centres have built digital material collections to supplement their physical collections. More documents every day are becoming available digitally, largely through consortia and initiative collections. The availability of materials through these means helps to support the delivery of ‘just-in-time’ materials, which is a relatively recent collection philosophy. This is contrasted with the traditional warehousing of documents ‘just-in-case’ users need them at some point. However, technical considerations exist if services are to be relied upon to be available remotely and electronically, with a quick response time.

Resources in a digital library can be in a variety of formats and encoding languages, including Postscript, PDF (Adobe’s Portal Document Format), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language, still the most common encoding for web browser-readability documents), or one of the newer formats such as XML, eXtensible Markup Language. Choosing the encoding language to use must be based on the document type, as well as what needs to be done with it. For example, scanning documents to create a PDF file maintains the quality standards of the original, but the capability to search text inside the document is lost.

Deciding what digital resources will be available through the library is another major collection management issue. There is the question of what local, as well as remote, material will be available. For example, an engineering library may choose to link to EI Global Village, a commercial product, and to internal project reports, via the same web interface. Selection decisions must be made in accordance with user needs. Preservation issues are a major concern when dealing with digital resources. One of the most important questions brought up by the question of preservation is ‘technical obsolescence’ (Cleveland, 1998). He specifies the three main areas of consideration:

• the preservation of the storage medium
• the preservation of access to content
• the preservation of fixed-media materials through digital technology.

This author also mentions the importance of creating more long-term preservation policies, which are usually best supported and work through consortial arrangements. Being a part of a group—e.g. the CEDARS project in digital archives (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/)—will help with standardisation that will aid sharing of information for a substantial amount of time.

This section of the chapter has largely focused on the technical characteristics and challenges of maintaining digital library services. Howe...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Listing of editions
• Biographical notes
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Digital library services: an overview of the hybrid approach
• Chapter 2 Staffing the special library
• Chapter 3 Organising access to information by subject
• Chapter 4 Information needs assessment
• Chapter 5 Information audits
• Chapter 6 Performance measurement and metrics
• Chapter 7 Knowledge management: working at the speed of ‘e’
• Chapter 8 Records management
• Chapter 9 The enquiry service
• Chapter 10 The use of the Internet in special librarianship
• Chapter 11 Selecting information resources for the special library
• Chapter 12 Acquiring information resources for the special library
• Chapter 13 Current awareness services in an electronic age—the whole picture
• Appendix A: Example of a Request Form for a Current Awareness Service (CAS)
• Appendix B: List of Internet Addresses not Listed in the Text
• Chapter 14 Financial planning
• Chapter 15 Project management
• Chapter 16 Marketing the information service
• Chapter 17 Library management systems
• Chapter 18 Intranets: the bigger picture
• Chapter 19 The effective web site
• Chapter 20 Copyright
• Chapter 21 Data protection
• Chapter 22 Liability for information provision
• Chapter 23 Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Chapter 24 Legal issues of the Internet
• Chapter 25 Digital library research
• Chapter 26 The information ‘player’: a new and timely term for the digital information user