"Beyond the Book: Exploring the Digital Horizon" Workshop

On October 27 I attended "Beyond the Book: Exploring the Digital Horizon," a workshop sponsored by the Alabama Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. The workshop was held at EBSCO headquarters just outside Birmingham.

The first half of the workshop was presented by Heidi Leachman, a representative of NetLibrary, Inc. I found her presentation to be especially interesting, since Auburn has recently begun a subscription to NetLibrary (a database of electronic books). NetLibrary is the major vendor of electronic books and currently has a total of 27,000 titles available for subscription. The company employs over 450 people and they work with over 370 publishers. Auburn currently subscribes to NetLibrary via the SOLINET network with over 10,000 titles available to library patrons.

Leachman explained that NetLibrary's objectives are to increase library usage by promoting virtual and global access to a shared resource (electronic books). Advantages of e-books include no shipping costs, no physical storage, no need to purchase replacement copies, and the possibility of controlling circulation. NetLibrary has secured copyrights, so there is "anytime and anywhere" access to electronic books. Obviously, e-books are a great resource for distance education students and remote library patrons. Another major benefit is the possibility for searching for terms across an entire book or even the entire NetLibrary collection of books. Leachman pointed out that typically a physical book will cost approximately seven times its purchase price over time (costs include cataloging, repair, shipping, etc.). E-books don't have such costs.

NetLibrary can be set up for the convenience of subscribing libraries (circulation options, etc.). Interestingly, it is possible to download an e-book to a laptop computer or even a Palm Pilot. The circulation problem is solved by the fact that there is an automatic disabling device that shuts the downloaded e-book down at the end of the circulation period.

NetLibrary has the capacity to digitize 200 books a day; typically they produce about half that number a day. They are also signing up between one and three new publishers a week. They are upgrading the format from HTML to XML and whatever comes next. It takes anywhere from three weeks to eight months to get a new book through the entire process (securing copyright access to digitizing to marketing, etc.) before it is ready. Future directions for NetLibrary include print-on-demand. Currently, printing is restricted. It is not (legally) possible to print an entire book off NetLibrary.

The next speaker was Lori Martin who presented "Libraries in Transition: Designing a New Library in the Midst of Evolving Technologies." Martin is the director of the library at Bradley, Arant, Rose, and White, a major law firm in Montgomery. Her library is the largest private law library in the state and, like many other libraries, it is undergoing significant changes. In her case, the changes are being driven both by technology and by peculiarities of the law firm.

The firm and the library were established in 1904 but it wasn'ttil the 1960's that a real librarian was hired. In 1992 the facilities were enlarged to 6000 square feet and in 1995 the lawyers at BARW began using desktop computers which meant that patterns of library use began changing dramatically. The transition to electronic resources was supposed to reduce the number of staff employed in the library. It turns out that the staff has been neither increasednor decreased in number. Costs have gone up instead of down because staff need higher technological skills than previously and to attract skilled staff, the law firm has to pay higher salaries than before.

Similarly, part of the motivation for going electronic was to lower costs by cancelling print subscriptions. The lawyers were again surprised to discover that databases cost more. The remaining print subscriptions have continued to rise too. Martin said that she does not see the "paperless" library as a realistic option even with the rapid conversion to electronic sources. For one thing, only about 15% of the information needed by lawyers is actually available online. A major reason for this is that it is not cost-effective for database companies to digitize older materials that are needed by lawyers but only on an irregular basis.

A major change coming up in 2002 is when BARW moves to a new building. Even though demand for library services is very heavy, the physical space allocated to the law library will shrink from 6000 to 3000 square feet. Already, Martin reports, her library has discarded about 13,000 print volumes in an attempt to make space available. The physical collection was 45,000 volumes; it is now down to 32,000 volumes and plans are to discard even more. Much of the patron demand consists of lawyers who require training in using electronic resources. Thus, Martin's job has become a lot more technological than it used to be. 

Martin reports that at first, the plan for the new library was to be 13 tiny branch libraries on different floors of the new building! There are 13 separate practice groups the law firm. With a staff of four, maintaining 13 mini-libraries would be an impossibility. Martin thinks she has convinced the law firm managers of the impossibility of maintaining library services under such a plan but more changes and challenges await the librarians and staff of Bradley, Arant, Rose, and White.

Submitted by Tim Dodge.