On Monday 17th August 1998 MCB University Press and Library Link hosted the above titled workshop at the IFLA '98 Conference in Amsterdam. Below follows the details of the discussions surrounding the workshop, with access to the pre-conference discussions, the introduction to the workshop itself, slides from the workshop presentations, the issues raised in the workshop as well opportunity to continue the discussion along any of the three main points. You can follow this page through from beginning to end or just follow the links below to the areas that interest you. Following the post-conference discussions an academic paper will be written and published in one of the journals that supports Library Link.

Pre-Conference Discussions - see postings dated 24/07/98 to 17/08/98
List of Workshop Attendees
Slides from the Workshop
Workshop Introduction
Discussion Group 1 - Value Added Role for Future Librarians and Information Professionals
Discussion Group 2 - Information Technology in Developing Countries
Discussion Group 3 - The Future of Electronic Journals
Summary: How Publishers Can Help Librarians
Responding to the Discussion
Post-Conference Discussions - see postings after 07/09/98
Future MCB University Press & Library Link Workshops

The workshop was held 12.45 - 3.00 pm on Monday 17th August. A total of 64 people attended - which demonstrated that electronic publishing generates a high level of interest within the information services community.

Prior to the workshop a pre-conference was held in order that information professionals whom could not attend the workshop could still be involved in discussions and air their views. The pre-conference generated numerous comments from the information services community worldwide.

The workshop itself was opened with a brief introduction to MCB University Press by Eileen Breen, Managing Editor of Library Link and serials in the field of Librarianship and Information Services. Gillian Crawford, Vice President of Library Link and Anbar Electronic Intelligence presented an overview of what MCB University Press saw as the challenges facing publishers and librarians in the future. This was followed by a summary of the web-based discussions that formed the basis for three break-out groups in which the issues raised were discussed in further detail.

Following are slides concerning librarian and publisher future challenges that were presented at the workshop:

Slide 1:

Slide 2:

Slide 3:

Slide 4:

Slide 5:

Slides:

Following on from the above slides and presentation the issues raised in this discussion group were:

Authenticator of information quality
This is a role which librarians already perform in their collection building and management decision making. It was felt that this will continue to have a place in the new technological age due to the increasingly unstructured and uncontrolled nature of the Web and what is published on it.

Counsellor/coach
It was felt that the virtual library is a myth, and that what will be a reality is the "hybrid" library. Librarians will have a role in providing a guidance system for patrons to the integrated physical and virtual resources of libraries, e.g. OPACs and MALIBU. Telecommunications connection time costs money. It was also felt that librarians have a role to play in coaching/counselling library users in cost-effective on-line searching.

Providers of services to remote users
It was felt that freelance teleworkers are a new market for library services - those who are not formally part of an academic network. Ditto lifelong learners, who see their employment path as independent from any one employer or employment sector. It was felt that public libraries have an emerging role here.

How Publishers Can Help
Publishers, in particular MCB-UP, could help librarians to meet the challenge of these future roles by:

• providing them with the tools to teach and motivate patrons in the effective use of their electronic products and services
• making their products and services less biased in favour of the academic library and its users. Consider new models for teleworkers, public libraries, and open learning institutions
• providing use statistics for electronic resources,e.g. number of accesses, average time spent, etc., so librarians can provide justification to library administrators of the value of electronic resources to the service their libraries provide.

DISCUSS

If you would like to discuss the issues raised by above then please access the Library Link Discussion Forum. You will see a discussion thread entitled '1. Value Added Role for Librarians & Info Profs' - please access that message, read the summary and click the 'Respond to This Post' button at the foot of the message.

Slide:

Following on from the above slide and presentation the issues raised in this discussion group were:

The point was forcefully made in this group that use of publishers' electronic products and services in developing countries and areas is limited by a combination of the following factors:

• the absence of even basic electricity supplies in some countries/areas
• poor telecommunications infrastructure
• the cost of hardware and keeping up to date with hardware
• the cost of publishers' products
• the high per-use cost of telephone lines.

There is therefore still a very strong need for print and print-only options from publishers, and a move away from the one-size-fits-all model.

Nevertheless, there are some developed pockets, and for them the need is for education in the use of electronics; software standardisation; plus a high level of support from publishers, e.g. helpdesks.

The opportunity to make collaborative arrangements with publishers, e.g.consortia, is not always a real one in the developing world, because of cultural barriers to this form of working. Also, consortial and network licences are often so complex, that a knowledge of the law is necessary to understand them.

DISCUSS

If you would like to discuss the issues raised by above then please access the Library Link Discussion Forum. You will see a discussion thread entitled '2. IT in Developing Countries' - please access that message, read the summary and click the 'respond' button at the foot of the message.

Slides:

Following on from the above slides and presentation the issues raised in this discussion group were:

The market for electronic products
It is not homogeneous. Freelancers and teleworkers are an emerging segment which is a potential market for publishers' offerings. Their existing models, however, do not cater for the needs of this and other groups of potential customers.

Archiving
Concern was expressed about the future of electronic products when the issue of perpetual archives is still not resolved. Librarians are reluctant to abandon print in favour of electronics when there is no guarantee of permanence. A print subscription involves the purchase of a static copy which the organization then owns and archives. With electronics, there is concern that a subscription comprises only access, which is not guaranteed in perpetuity. Also, there is the question of what is archived if an electronic product is not static, e.g. some fluid e-journals - the data, the search facility, or both?

Single article versus e-journal
The group debated whether the single article, rather than the journal, would be the future of e-journals. It was felt that many of the articles already published in journals reflect market, rather than research, values. This situation will be exacerbated if e-journals are superseded by single-article publishing.

Challenges to the traditional players
It was felt that e-journal publishing by commercial publishers has real competition in the form of academic institutions going it alone (see the SPARC programme). At present, there are still some elements of the publisher's traditional role which cannot realistically be carried out by academic institutions themselves, e.g. marketing to guarantee an audience for a work, and the branding provided by an established publisher and journal title.

However, publishers need to meet this challenge by strengthening these elements of their traditional role, and carving out new areas in the electronic environment. Suggestions made were:

• making tailor-made products available, e.g. each subscriber can pick and mix items from a commercial publisher's databases by subject area, for example. This could also help eliminate the bias in favour of established researchers and schools of thought inherent in the journal model
• the development of an electronic peer review system, which could be made available to researchers, librarians and other publishers.
• continued development and enhancement of databases containing many journals. The single journal subscription was not felt to be the way forward in the electronic world.

DISCUSS

If you would like to discuss the issues raised by above then please access the Library Link Discussion Forum. You will see a discussion thread entitled '3. The Future of E-Journals' - please access that message, read the summary and click the 'respond' button at the foot of the message.

• By providing librarians with the tools needed to teach and motivate patrons in the effective use of electronic proiducts and services
• By providing usage statistics for electronic products
• By making their offerings accessible to segments of the market not catered for with one-size-fits-all packages.
• By working with librarians and other publishers to find a solution to the problem of perpetual archives.
• By development of the journal model in the new electronic environment.
• By making electronic ILL permissible for subscribers to single e-journals as well as members of consortia.
• By being flexible, and having a clear and concise licence and pricing policy for electronic products.

If you wish to comment on any of the matters raised in the workshop please visit the Library Link Discussion Area where you can discuss the issues with other like-minded individuals. If you are wishing to discuss one of the three main points outlined above then please click on the relevant point, entitled

'1. Value Added Role for the Librarian & Info Profs'
'2. IT in Developing Countries'
or
'3. The Future of E-Journals'

and select the 'respond to this post' at the foot of the message. This will keep the three threads clearly distinguished. Of course if you feel that there are valuable points that have not already been raised then please feel free to begin a new, clearly-titled, thread.

Due to the immense popularity of the above workshop a second workshop will be held during the ALA Midwinter meeting, Philadelphia, 29th January 1999, 12:30-2:30pm. It will be entitled 'Challenges in the 21st Century: Partnerships in the Electronic Age' and will build on the above themes. Anyone interested in attending should contact Eileen Breen at [email protected]. Click here for further details or to join in the current pre-conference discussion.