I don't think anyone (hopefully this includes the purse-string holders) can
seriously doubt the value for money obtained from some online subscriptions
if you compare them to some of the more obscure printed reference works.
According to our cost-per-use analysis, every time one of our borrowers
uses Ancestry, it costs us less than thirty pence.
Oliver Davy
Senior ICT Library Assistant
Central Library
Northumberland Square
North Shields
NE30 1QU
( Tel: (0191) 200 6294
+ Courier Code D1
8 Email: [log in to unmask]
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Council.
|---------+-------------------------------->
| | Steven Heywood |
| | <Steven.Heywood@ROCHD|
| | ALE.GOV.UK> |
| | Sent by: |
| | "lis-pub-libs: UK |
| | Public Libraries" |
| | <LIS-PUB-LIBS@JISCMAI|
| | L.AC.UK> |
| | |
| | |
| | 21/09/2007 13:23 |
| | Please respond to |
| | Steven Heywood |
| | |
|---------+-------------------------------->
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: [log in to unmask] |
| cc: (bcc: Oliver Davy/ECS/ntc) |
| Subject: Re: Online resources - KnowUK, OUP etc |
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Not too pedantic at all Michael. It's a major pain in the butt setting up a
range of resources which each require the same thing a different way before
they may (or may not in the case of British Standards. Grr!!!) be made
available to our customers.
There are ways of having automatically mediated access to these resources
which could conceivably be developed into something along the lines you
suggest but as things stand it would require each library authority to
invent the wheel for itself, resources permitting. (The last two words
being the killer bringing us back to Helen's original problem, sigh...).
Steven
Steven Heywood
Systems Manager
Rochdale Library Service
Wheatsheaf Library
Baillie Street
Rochdale OL16 1JZ
Tel: (01706) 924967
[log in to unmask]
http://www.rochdale.gov.uk
http://libraries.rochdale.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Stead, Michael [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 21 September 2007 12:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Online resources - KnowUK, OUP etc
The big issue for me is that, as a user, I have to go to each of these
accredited sources individually. Google goes to zillions of sources at
the same time.
It's just not worth the effort to log into multiple password-controlled
sources. The Google approach might be a bit hit-and-miss in terms of
quality, but at least it's easy enough to use. Even with IP-based
access in the library, it's still a pain to go through this process.
I think we'd get more value from a system that provided a single,
customisable frontend to these resources, providing an aggregated search
to cover all of them. Search once, read results from many sources.
I'd like to see MLA advocating for (and maybe providing?) a much more
joined-up way of using these resources. I'd also like to see them
imposing standardised reporting requirements on the vendors of these
systems, especially considering the advent of more meaningful
measurement of virtual library visits.
Each resource - the OUP bundle, British Standards, NewsUK etc. -
provides its own statistics and has its own reporting standards.
Wouldn't it be easier to compare usage (and value) if they all reported
in the same way, via the same single access point? Or am I too
pedantic?
Publicity materials are definitely necessary, but the products need to
meet librarians' *and* users' expectations of quality *and*
functionality.
Michael (who is apparently rather cranky today - sorry!)
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