Some very interesting questions here.

I've just spent the morning extracting usage figures for subscribed
digital collections here at the National Library of Scotland. Apart from
inducing blurred vision, this always makes me wonder about the overlap
between the online resources offered to citizens by different libraries,
and what is the take-up and awareness level of these very high-calibre
(high cost) resources among the public. 

Gillian's information about the Scottish national subscription is an
illuminating contrast with Andy Turner's report of fragmentation between
English authorities offering differing ranges of products. It would be
interesting to compare bangs per bucks by asking which citizens are
paying more per head for access to the OED, for example.

A colleague recently informed me that Manchester libraries are offering
access to their online services to "anyone who resides in the UK"
(http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500134/using_the_library/78/join_the_
library). I've just tried registering with them, and it works. I've no
desire to cause a UK-wide stampede which will overwhelm the good
librarians of Manchester, or indeed cancelled subscriptions up and down
the land and consequent run on the stock markets, but this raises
further interesting questions. Mainly about money.

As far as the under-use of various subscribed online services goes: the
statistic in the Guardian piece about Ancestry.com accounting for 80% of
all digital usage in some boroughs is fascinating: Ancestry is good, but
is it really four times better than the entire reference offering of
OUP, Gale, Lexis etc etc? If people reach for Google as a reflex when
they want information - except when they want genealogical information,
when they remember that David Tennant found some really good stuff about
his grandfather in a Library - is there any way of planting a similar
seed in folks' minds in other reference areas?

Thoughts of a dry brain in a wet season

Paul.
-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gillian Hanlon
Sent: 31 August 2011 12:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: National reference resources and national catalogue

Hi Ken,

In Scotland, the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) manages
a
national subscription to a package of electronic resources, which are
selected through negotiation with local authority partners. The package
includes 6 services at the moment and all but one of the Scottish local
authorities subscribe to one or more of the resources included. Over and
above this, many library services also subscribe to additional
electronic
resources not included in the package.

Although SLIC holds information about which Scottish libraries subscribe
to
which electronic resources, we've never applied this information to
finding
the percentage of the population with access. However, I agree that this
could be a useful promotional stat and would be happy to draw together
the
figures and circulate the info for Scotland.

As regards promotion of electronic resources, I think that this has
always
been an issue for libraries. However, we're finding that the Ask
Scotland
virtual reference service is having the effect of encouraging use by the
librarians themselves - as they seek quick access to quality information
-
as well as offering an opportunity to promote the resources to users -
telling the user here's where I found this and did you know that you can
access this through your library? It's true that many people still don't
realise libraries offer this type of service so I think we have to take
every opportunity to tell them!

Best wishes,

Gillian Hanlon
Senior Information Officer, SLIC
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