The infrastructure for supplying information resources to higher education and research has gone through dramatic changes the last 15 years. The amount of electronic resources available and library systems that handle them have multiplied leaving libraries in a challenging situation. We are coping with a changing definition of library collections, different business models for owning and accessing materials as well as a shift in the architecture of library systems.
The Library at Chalmers University of Technology spent close to 98% of the media budget in 2010 on electronic resources and has been spending more than 50% of the budget on electronic resources for over 10 years. So far the library has not been able to lower total cost of ownership for library systems or information resources since there has been few changes to existing systems or subscriptions. Instead we have been trying to cope with the development by introducing new systems leaving us with complex workflows and dependencies.
As we look forward to new unified services for libraries where information resources and systems are merged in a ―as a service environment‖ there is a need for libraries to re-evaluate the current situation and what led up to it.
Chalmers university library has initiated a complete system survey with the ambition of reviewing current workflows, quantifying and defining what the crucial elements of the systems are today and what we need in the near future.
This paper summarizes Chalmers evaluation so far, highlight key findings and possible strategies as we move forward.
Daniel Forsman is the Head of Department for Library Information Resources and Discovery at Chalmers University of Technology. The department manages library systems, acquisitions, cataloguing, inter library loan, social media and the library web presence. Previous to Chalmers Daniel worked as a systems librarian at Jonkoping and Orebro University focusing on the development of electronic services for libraries.
Daniel currently serves on the governing board for the Swedish Library Association, a member of Serials Solutions Advisory Board and previously served on the Swedish national catalog – Libris Expert group and presenter at several national and international conferences.
another writing on the wall? RT “@iatul2012: #m443 #iatul2012 print budget is being cut but media budget is going the other way”
— Ivan Chew (@ramblinglib) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 outsourcing their ILS seems to lower operating costs. But issue is risk of vendor dependency
— Ivan Chew (@ramblinglib) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 lib system info silo and latency twitter.com/Yboon1/status/…
— Yboon (@Yboon1) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 Chalmers University of Technology: they see demand shift from print books to digital articles twitter.com/ramblinglib/st…
— Ivan Chew (@ramblinglib) June 7, 2012
@betabib makes v good use of ten years of statistics to tell compelling story about library systems & change #iatul2012 #m443
— Alison Stevenson (@AlisonStevensn) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 Chalmers Uni of Tech: not sustainable to cut staff budget & spend more on (digital) resources
— Ivan Chew (@ramblinglib) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 CollDev by package, instead of by title
— Patrick Pu (@puPatrick) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 print budget is being cut but media budget is going the other way
— IATUL 2012 (@iatul2012) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 how do we validate our services?
— IATUL 2012 (@iatul2012) June 7, 2012
#M443 #iatul2012 slide of Library at Chalmers University of Technology’s review & study questions twitter.com/ramblinglib/st…
— Ivan Chew (@ramblinglib) June 7, 2012
#M443 #iatul2012 Change as a serviceblogs.ntu.edu.sg/iatul2012/arch… @betabib twitter.com/ramblinglib/st…
— Ivan Chew (@ramblinglib) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 Freedom : who’s perspective – vendor, lib manager, librarian? twitter.com/Yboon1/status/…
— Yboon (@Yboon1) June 7, 2012
#m443 #iatul2012 freedom for libraries! twitter.com/iatul2012/stat…
— IATUL 2012 (@iatul2012) June 7, 2012