Dia 1

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ICT in Finnish University LibrariesArja-Riitta
Haarala
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User Problems in Remote Countries

• Problems to overcome in the field of scientific
  and technical
• information are
• Limited national research and development
  efforts, which dictate a great reliance on
  services from abroad
• Insufficient staff resources and print
  collections of scientific and technical
  information
• A small clientele for scientific and
  technological information, which makes domestic
  information systems costly
• Great distances to international data systems and
  large libraries abroad
• Great distances within the country between users
  and suppliers of information
• and last, but not least , language barriers.

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A Parasite Theory by prof. Elin Törnudd

• Finland is not an information parasite, but
  living symbiotically with Europe. The remote
  country is living on others, using their systems
  and services, but pays for them with an economic
  contribution.
• Prof. Elin Törnudd, Benefits from Network
  Parasitology, Unesco Bull. Libr. 30 (1976) 4,
  206-209

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Trends in the Academic Environment

• The number of students and staff is growing, but
  in the future declining
• The costs of libraries and IT services are
  increasing more rapidly than those of other goods
  and services
• Performance-based funding
• Emphasising the importance of quality and
  assessment
• Virtual university and extensive use of ICT
• Libraries are becoming a more integral part of
  the educational process
• Structural development in the university sector

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The Promise of New Technology

• In the 1970s
• Enthusiastic developers
• Online databases and searching
• Unit costs were calculated, for instance a cost
  of an online search
• Economic aspects were not seen as important but
  use, usability and automation were the major
  concern
• Achievements
• HTKK-INIS online system 1973, FINP 1975
• Online searching from USA Systems 1974 and ESA
  1976
• The association for Information services,
  Computer working group was launced
• Adoption of standards, ISO 2709 into SFS
  3494-1976
• Cooperative cataloguing schemes
• Electronic news journal Extemplo

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The Implementation of ICT

• In the 1980s
• The implementation of library systems was the
  object of the change
• Technical services the main target
• Automation was the major concern
• A lot of enthusiasm, and money could be obtained
  fairly easily by cancelling the subscriptions of
  seldom used journals
• Achievements
• Datapak for online searching
• Funet (Finnish University and Research Network)
• VTLS project
• Local databases for research
• CD-ROM

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The Emergence of e-Resources in the 90s

• e-journals, service models development
• Local trials e-resources and e-publishing
• Small-scale local consortia
• Regional consortia, like FinELib, emerge
• Libraries ready and willing to participate
• Cancellation of print resources
• Relatively low-priced deals
• The awareness of costs become important

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The Deep Economic Recession in the 1990s

• Survival methods
• New methods for budgeting
• Savings in staff
• Savings in information resources
• Savings in space
• Lessons to be learned
• Better cost accounting should be developed
• Quality aspects should also be considered
• Reliable and more useful statistics should be
  available
• Relevant surveys and studies should be carried
  out.

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The Transition from Print Services to e-Services
- Evaluations and Studies at TUT

• Compass benchmarking of IT services which
  produced a number of proposals for improvement as
  well as a useful set of numerical data on library
  activities. As a result we reviewed our
  acquisition process for PCs, outsourced student
  printing, and revised quality and good practices
  standards for IT labs and helpdesks.
• In the CRE Review of 1998 it was suggested that a
  more appropriate level of resources for the
  Library should be allocated. Budgets had not
  risen after the recession favourably in our case.
• However, evaluations and studies do not produce
  money but more concrete steps should be taken
  because the growth of e-services seemed to be
  evident. A systematic look at our processes and
  cost structure was absolutely essential. It was
  decided to carry out a comprehensive
  activity-based costing study.

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Relative Costs Articles PrintedSource FinELib
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Relative Costs Articles PrintedSource FinELib

• And then we
• Evaluated licences we had
• Started a costing project to get a better view
  and more specific and detailed information on
  library activities
• Tried to tell other universities that it is
  unfare to have this kind of licence fees
• FinELib created a new local pricing structure

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The Distribution of Main Resourcesat TUT
Library, 2002 and 2005
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Some Observations

• It seems that there is a lot of overcapacity in
  print services thus seldom used books could be
  sent to the National Repository Library.
• Overcapacity can be found in e-services, too.
  About 80 of e-journals are seldom used (used 0-2
  times) mainly due to the "Big Deal" licensing
  agreements. What economic and business models
  will emerge for networked information and
  e-services? There should be different models of
  licensing available to meet the needs in
  libraries.
• It was laborious to get statistics on
  e-resources, and if they are available they
  appear very slowly. Gradually statistics from
  e-resources became available and meet better our
  needs.
• Only a slight annual transition of resources from
  one service area to another is possible but at
  least our experience shows that it is possible.

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Transition Phase from Print to Electronic in the
21st century

• Subscription agents and major publishers have
  been active
• Transition happened very quickly
• Vast amounts of e-journals and e-reference books
• Portals become essential to handle resources
• Large consortia profitable and useful
• Usage statistics of major concern
• Big deals dominating
• Interest in costs and quality

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The Evaluation of Information systems at
University Libraries, 2008 (1)

• Importance of information systems Voyager, OPAC,
  Nelli, SFX, Bookwhere
• Other database systems TRIP, Basis plus
• Agencies used for purchasing
• Own systems for library affairs
• Own systems for personnel management and
  financial management

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The Evaluation of Information systems at
University Libraries, 2008 (2)

• CRITERIA
• Strategic importance
• Criticalness
• Life cycle
• Integration capability
• Service ability from the point of view of
  librariea
• Usability
• Operating expenses
• Information security

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The Importance of Information Systems
1 (bad) 5 (good)