Dear all,

(Apologies for cross-posting)

I have collected the results of the survey about library services for
enterprise organized by Loughborough University Library. The questionnaire
received answers from 9 institutions, 4 of which are currently offering
this kind of services and 1 is planning to. The results are as follows:

Motivation to provide such service:

   - “Institution led commitment to a business enterprise centre.”
   (University of Chichester)
   - “Desire by the University to foster good relations with the local
   business community. Hopefully leads to co-operation and partnership with
   research, student placements etc.” (University of Stirling)
   - “UQL has service agreements with 4 hospitals to provide library
   services - this has been a long term arrangement.” (The University of
   Queensland Library)
   - “The organisation is dealing much more with business, with on-site
   tenants, and this is part of our remit now. 'Enterprise' is now part of our
   library audience. Also, especially on one of our sites, our staff numbers
   have reduced, and we need more non-staff customers to justify the library's
   existence.” (Science and Technology Facilities Council)
   - “Historically we have before I arrived in 2000” (University of Reading)

Type of served enterprise:

   - Business incubator: 4 (Chichester, Stirling, STFC, Reading)
   - University spin-outs: 1 (Stirling)
   - Other university-related companies: 1 (Stirling)
   - External companies: 3 (Stirling, STFC, Reading)
   - Hospitals: 1 (UQL)

Services offered:

   - Loans: 4 (Chichester, UQL, STFC, Reading)
   - Print/copying: 2 (Chichester, STFC)
   - Access to the building: 1 (STFC)
   - Reference: 3 (Chichester, UQL, STFC)
   - Expertise librarian: 2 (Chichester, UQL)
   - Literature searches: 1 (UQL)
   - Document delivery: 1 (UQL)
   - Inter-library loans: 2 (UQL, STFC)
   - Information skills training: 1 (UQL)
   - External borrower membership: 1 (Reading)
   - Corporate membership: 1 (Stirling)
   - Enterprise Zone: 1 (Stirling)

Potential users:

   - Not yet begun (Chichester)
   - About 100 on site A; about 150 on site B (STFC)
   - 7000 (UQL)

Actual users:

   - c.5 individuals (Reading)
   - About 30 registered on site A; about 10 registered on site B (STFC)
   - 4587 (UQL)

Issues:

   - “Making terms and conditions fit with other services e.g. IT”
   (Chichester)
   -  “Mostly internal administration. Reaching the right companies through
   publicity hasn't been easy.” (Stirling)
   - "Staff from other Hospitals (not the ones we have agreements with) and
   the Health Department come wanting our services. We do not provide this
   service automatically each year - we have budgets which we present to the 4
   Hospitals each year and they have to agree to them in order to access our
   services." (UQL)
   - "Some information needs from Enterprise are very scientific/technical
   and we don't have the subject expertise to help at that level, although we
   can put people in contact with internal staff who work in those areas. We
   cannot offer access to online resources as our existing licenses are for
   staff only and tied down to academic use." (STFC)

Managing non-educational access to e-resources:

   - Not offering: 5 (Chichester, Stirling, UQL, STFC, Reading)

Costs:

   - “Part of their agreement/fee to the University” (Chichester)
   - “Enterprise Zone is free to use for companies working with the
   university. Otherwise commercial rates are charged. Companies do not have
   to be based at the University innovation park.” (Stirling)
   - “We do not charge anything extra for library services - we deem it
   part of the package of locating on our sites. The usage is low, and much of
   the use is of physical stock or staff expertise that is already there - we
   don't 'buy-in' anything extra. The enterprises we serve are very small and
   we do not want to put barriers in place by charging. Also the
   administration overhead of invoicing etc. can be more expensive than the
   services we are charging for." (STFC)
   - “All part of the agreement with the University as they pay rents for
   office space” (Reading)

Additional comments:

   - “I think this is a really bad idea. Commercializing library service is
   always is.” (Anonymous)
   - "It’s a good idea for fostering link, support and respect as
   institutions in the public domain but in all these cases the core customers
   need to be considered. For example here we have a lot antagonism between
   the resident scholarly community of scholars, students and staff versus
   conferences and events. The symbiosis doesn't always work. Whilst income
   generating this can be at the expense of our core constituents and their
   needs.  IT staff catering staff and library staff can be diverted to the
   fulfilling short term immediate expediences at the expense of short medium
   and long term goals of their respective departments" (Floersheimer Library,
   Wolfson College Oxford)
   - “One major difficulty is in the Branches that provide the services -
   we have 2 networks: a hospital network and a UQ network. This means our
   hospital clients have to negotiate both - which is never easy for those who
   are not very computer literate - yes - there still are folk who experience
   difficulties.” (UQL)
   - “I believe strongly in supporting businesses in their information
   needs, and when an organisation (eg universities or research councils) have
   a remit to collaborate and support business and enterprise, then proving
   access to information services should be part of that remit.” (STFC)

Thank you very much to those who participated and also who forwarded and
publicized the survey! Your collaboration has been very helpful.

Best wishes,

Irene Aguayo
Student of International Master in Digital Library Learning
http://dill.hioa.no/