Library in Transition

"Oxford Scholarship Online is a vast and rapidly expanding cross-searchable library which now offers quick and easy access to the full text of 2,557 Oxford books. In addition to Economics and Finance, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion, Oxford Scholarship Online now provides access to new Oxford books in Biology, Business and Management, Classical Studies, History, Law, Linguistics, Literature, Mathematics, Music, Physics, and Psychology and Social Work."

Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information, today announced the availability of more than 4,000 eBooks on ScienceDirect. eBooks on ScienceDirect comprise high-quality selected titles published from 1995 to the present. These include scientific and technical books spanning 18 subject areas, as well as books from renowned imprints including Pergamon and Academic Press. The launch is a major expansion to the reference works, handbooks and book series already available on ScienceDirect.

Rich presentations on ebooks and library collections. User studies, preservation, rights, future role of library, etc.

"E-books could transform teaching and study. Collections are growing steadily but no in-depth user studies have yet been carried out. Chris Armstrong, Ray Lonsdale and Dave Nicholas introduce the SuperBook Project that aims to put that right."

"Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services (MINES) is an online, transaction-based survey that collects data on the purpose of use of electronic resources and the demographics of users. As libraries implement access to electronic resources through portals, collaborations, and consortial arrangements, the MINES for Libraries™ protocol offers a convenient way to collect information from users in an environment where they no longer need to physically enter the library in order to access resources."

stats on usage of eresources

Springer's digital STM collection: "* More than 3,500 New eBooks and eReference Works Every Year * Ownership Business Model * Unlimited Simultaneous Use * Over 27,000 eBooks Available " Claims to provide full integration into catalog and usage stats

Standards for stats evaluating eresource usage. "The use of online information resources is growing rapidly. It is widely agreed by producers and purchasers of information that the use of these resources should be measured in a more consistent way. Librarians want to understand better how the information they buy from a variety of sources is being used; publishers want to know how the information products they disseminate are being accessed. An essential requirement to meet these objectives is an agreed international set of standards and protocols governing the recording and exchange of online usage data. The COUNTER Codes of Practice provide these standards and protocols and are published in full on this website."

Essay derived from 2006 conference on future of academic libraries. Examines challenges and opportunities in transition from print to digital.

2006 article on Google Books from library perspective. Asks "How will the librarians at participating Google Book Search libraries use their copies of the digitized books, commonly referred to as the library digital copy, the copy that Google gave to them in return for their participation in the Book Search project?"

Head of NY PL explains value of libraries in future: "brilliant research collections such as ours will always be relevant to students, writers, and scholars who need to exploit all of our unique collections - manuscripts, archives, and so on - that will not be on the World Wide Web."

Includes chapter on value of libraries

Abstract of 1999 study on hybrid library: "The hybrid library is a term that has entered the parlance of the library and information profession in the past three years. It is viewed as a halfway step towards the fully digital library. In this paper, the history of the concept is outlined, together with the important influence the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) has had in funding hybrid library projects. A proposed model of the hybrid library was developed and was shown to the eLib hybrid library projects. Reactions to the model were obtained. In addition, the paper reports the results of in-depth discussions with the project staff regarding how the hybrid library will evolve. It is clear that the development of the hybrid library depends more upon cultural shift than technological development. There are differences in view of what can be achieved in the short term and how to go about achieving the aims. There is a clear consensus that the library in a location will remain. The hybrid library is a useful model for how the library will evolve. Although currently confined to higher education, the principles are likely to spread to other types of library and information service."

Brantley on rationale for libraries in digital age. Key question: "What issues would cause this institution - the Library - to be created today?" Innovative thinkers weigh in. Role of IT, avoiding replication.

1996 book about technology in library

Reports on pilot to use ebooks (Sony Readers) at Northwest Missouri State U. Students found it frustrating that they couldn't "highlight passages, cut and paste text, or participate in interactive quizzes."

"Project objectives:\n\nThe project's major objective is enriching the toolkit used for the assessment of the impact of scholarly communication items, and hence of scholars, with metrics that derive from usage data. The project has created a semantic model of the scholarly communication process, and an associated large-scale semantic store that relates a range of bibliographic, citation and usage data obtained from a variety of sources. After mapping the structure of the scholarly community on the basis of the established reference data set, MESUR will conduct an investigation into the definition and validation of a range of usage-based metrics. The defined metrics will be cross-validated, resulting in the formulation of guidelines and recommendations." Van De Sompel, et al