American Library Association Conference June 2010: recurring conversation topics

With libraries undergoing an almost universal experience—migrating from print to electronic collections, while experiencing budget constraints— talk at this summer’s annual American Library Association (ALA) conference orbited around several common topics and one primary question:

How do we meet the library patron/customer/user where they are?

In conversations with librarians, publishers, technologists, and e-book aggregators, the iFactory team was impressed by the shared goal to provide content and research tools that are topically relevant, oriented to the user experience, and make research more efficient.   From these conversations, the iFactory team picked up on some obvious trends that are relevant to the PubFactory platform and our publishing partners.

• Mixed content – Most library users don’t know or care about the difference between reference works, monographs, and journals. They simply want to search and find the content they need to address their research questions. Publishers and librarians are actively considering the reality of integrating journal and reference content on common platforms. This benefits users by limiting access control hurdles, making reference content more discoverable, and providing contextually relevant article-to-article links that allow users to continue their research. As librarian Sue Polanka recorded in her summary from ALA, linking journal and reference content provides some measure of solution to the number one publishing challenge—discoverability.
• Platform interlinking – Just like the mixed content platforms, users want content to be linked between platforms so the can simply jump from resource to resource in pursuit of their relevant topics. Credo Reference and ebrary created some ripples at ALA with the announcement that Credo’s Topic Pages will include ebrary content.
• Free content – More than ever, online publishers are discussing free content strategies as a way to drive discoverability of library resources. With most library users beginning their research with a Google search, having free content that links authenticated users straight into subscription resources is an important strategy for publishers. The release of the Oxford Dictionaries Online free site is an example of how PubFactory supports this strategy for Oxford University Press.
• Mobile devices – The consensus is that the ubiquity of mobile devices on campus will influence scholarly research and reference, but how? Check out this presentation on mobile trends by digital publishing consultant Alix Vance from earlier in June.
• PDA is hot* – Patron Driven Access is the rage among the e-book aggregators. While EBL has pioneered this model, ebrary and Netlibrary have recently expanded their offerings to include demand driven accounts. With patron driven access, users and their research needs drive library collection development. As Cindi Trainor of Eastern Kentucky University said about PDA, “You ask for it, we get it for you.” For an interesting case study, check out this University of Texas, Austin review of their pilot PDA program that opened the entire EBL’s catalogue to the library.

*NOT this kind of PDA!

Implications and questions for PubFactory and our publishing partners

A few weeks following ALA, the iFactory team is asking how these trends impact PubFactory. What do we need to be working on to address the needs of our publishing partners and their end users?

The iFactory team built PubFactory to provide an out-of-the-box platform solution for publishers that can integrate mixed content in a seamless user experience. With libraries and users demanding integrated content, the next step for PubFactory is to continue to work with publishing partners to link relevant article level content together. The goal, here, is to answer the user question: Where do I go next after reading this article?

Following this same user question, what can PubFactory do to facilitate authenticated linking between our various publishing partner’s products? How can PubFactory support linking to eBook aggregator and other non-PubFactory platforms?

The importance of a free content strategy will further the role of PubFactory as platform that supports institutional access while simultaneous allowing a flexible firewall and search engine optimization that helps to ensure publisher resources will be discoverable for library users.

How will publisher platforms influence the way students and scholars conduct research on their mobile devices? How does a library patron’s mobile experience sync with a Web-based resource experience?

With the eBook aggregators forging a PDA business model, will publishers be offering demand driven access to their entire digital catalogue?

Following this summer’s ALA, the PubFactory team and our publishing partners will be spending more time putting ourselves in the shoes of the end user.